Wednesday, January 17, 2018

How Facebook's Changes Impact YOUR Social Media Marketing?


How Facebook's latest changes impact influencers and the future of social media marketing?

Once again, Mark Zuckerberg shook up the world last week when he announced Facebook will change its algorithm to promote more personal content rather than news.



Soon after my inbox was flooded with headlines like:

Facebook Shares Fall”, “Facebook Is Changing”

“Zuckerburg’s Net Worth Has Just Taken A 2.9 Billion Dollar Hit.”

Since obsessing about Zuckerburg’s net worth has never yielded positive results for me, I instead called over our Social Media Strategist, Thomas Drew, to discuss the current social media environment. Our conclusion was this: What’s bad for businesses is good for Influencers. With new regulations on data (see GDPR) and less material from media outlets and businesses organically making Facebook users feeds, the stock of Social influencers will continue to rise. Let’s dive a little deeper to understand how this affects the full ecosystem, whether you’re a business, influencer, or marketer.

The social landscape is a world in which businesses and brands are made ‘cool’ in a much shorter time period than we’re used to with traditional media. With the right strategy, Influencer partnerships, and tactics, you can move the needle for your business on far more than just sales and engagement. Companies like Aesthetic Revolution, GymShark, and Daniel Wellington are multi-million dollar businesses built from leveraging Instagram tactics, Influencer partnerships, and flawless sales funnels. On the other hand, Social is also a place where fake news can get the most shares and engagement, especially on Facebook. In an effort to curb this, Zuckerberg is willing to risk short-term user engagement on his platform for more interactions with friends and family.



Since Instagram’s algorithm is beginning to mirror Facebook’s more and more, expect to see more organic content from people, and less from brands and businesses in 2018.

What must be noted during this change is that Influencers are, and have always been people first, and content marketers second. Every influencer, no matter what the niche, has their own content style that, for whatever reason, resonated with their audience and caused that audience to explode. These influencers and their audiences will garner even more attention with their organic content, while similar, non-paid content from businesses and brands will suffer.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has radically shifted its model. So what does all this mean for Influencers, Business and the Future of Social Media?

I remember when Instagram and Facebook were chronological. You followed people to see their content, and that content was shown to you in the order that it was meant to be seen. Strategies were less complicated, control was with the user, and all was good within the social world. Then BOOM! The infamous ‘algorithm’ of late 2016 hit.



Facebook and Instagram limited your reach to 30% of your total follower count on average, allowed the algorithm to decide what content should be displayed in your feed, and Social Media was forever changed.

Free flowing content turned into regulated content, and the reach of business profiles were reduced, causing them to pay for ads just so their content could be seen.

What’s next? — Even less organic media content, which will hurt the companies that aren't familiar with best practices in Influencer Marketing. Thomas Drew said, “I expect more paid ads, less organic posts from brands, and more Influencer Marketing partnerships with Mega, Micro, and Nano Influencers.”

All facets of the marketing ecosystem will be impacted.



1. Influencers Stock Just Got a Big Boost

If you’re an Influencer, you just leveled up even further. Connecting with Influencers who have a growing audience that they truly understand will be at a premium for most marketers. It will continue to be the most effective way to influence consumer behavior via social media and beyond.

The key is for Influencers to have a deep understanding of their followers and of their brands equity.

The real question is, will Facebook begin to regulate Influencers and treat their organic content the same as businesses? Will they use the algorithm to measure the amount of posts from Influencers that seem to contain brands either in the content or caption and begin to penalize their reach just like the media companies and businesses? After all, Influencers began their accounts as regular people, connecting with friends and family and not partnering with brands. Time will tell.



2. Businesses Must Adjust to a New Marketing Ecosystem

Companies that rely on Facebook and Instagram to build businesses are definitely at a loss with the changes, but there is still hope. For most businesses, it will be as simple as understanding what the ambition of your brand or product is and aligning that with the target consumer that has a similar ambition.

The good thing about social media is that with the right data and proper social listening, you can unearth your target audience and figure out which Influencer speaks to them. Picking an Influencer that has a lot of followers in your niche, telling them to post your brand or product, and tagging your account isn't Influencer Marketing. The best way to utilize an Influencer’s audience is to understand your objective, learn about the factors that influence your target audience, and activate an Influencer that blends your brand or product narrative seamlessly within their own. I call that “equity match making.” That’s when you get comments like, “This is the best ad I’ve ever seen!” or “This should be on TV,” while satisfying your objective and growing your business. That’s the Holy Grail of Influencer Marketing.



3. The Future of Social Media Marketing Depends on How Zuckerberg Chooses to Regulate Influencers

In order to stop the spread of fake content, Facebook has decided to show you less business and media content, and more “people content” — content from the individual users. But if businesses execute even more influencer marketing through these individuals that are Influencers, where will they draw the line? Will they regulate that as well?

These questions will be answered over the next few months, but one thing is for sure: Facebook will find a way to increase shareholder value and it’s going to come at the expense of brands.

Guest Authored By Keenan Beasley. Keenan is the co-founder of BLKBOX, an integrated marketing agency based in New York City. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Follow Keenan on Twitter.





"The main takeaway in all this is that the power is in the hands of the Influencer more than ever before.." -KeenanBeasley


    • Authored by:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

    Tuesday, January 16, 2018

    YOUR Efficient 2018 Influencer Marketing?


    Influencer marketing in 2018: Becoming an efficient marketplace -- Opinion: Social platforms brought the industry to a larger mainstream audience..



    Influencer marketing has expanded exponentially over the past two years.

    We’ve seen the industry go from a rising marketing tactic to an essential part of most marketing budgets.

    Brands and marketers have recently grasped how Influencer marketing is helping their bottom line and continuing to implement additional campaigns.




    Cross-channel social campaigns have also become more common, and brands have begun to expand outside of their own industries for influencers to work with.

    Whether it’s a fashion influencer working with restaurants or a mommy blogger working with a fashion brand, the results are clear that working with influencers outside of one’s core industry can reach new audiences and raise further awareness for a brand.

    As influencer marketing has cemented its place as a major part of marketing campaigns, the Federal Trade Commission also issued more regulations, with warnings to both influencers and major brands throughout the last year around partnership disclosure.

    The market—estimated to be worth $2 billion in 2017 and set to reach $10 billion by 2020 -will continue to see more growth in the industry and become an efficient marketplace.

    Let’s take a look at four changes 2018 will hold for the Influencer marketing industry:



    The Move From Test Budgets To A Permanent Marketing Staple

    Although many marketers have implemented Influencer marketing into their strategies, 41 percent are still spending less than 5 percent of their budgets on Influencer marketing.

    The more traditional advertising and marketing spends such as TV, print and desktop ads are becoming less impactful and, therefore, less effective ways to use ad and marketing dollars. This is particularly true as ad-blockers and paywalls grow in popularity, so marketers must turn additional efforts to social media platforms and influencer campaigns.

    As influencer marketing budgets become more permanent, marketers will need to evolve their strategies in a variety of ways. The changes will come in the form of measures of success, evolving analytics to effectively scale campaigns and changing relationships between brands and influencers.

    Scaling campaigns will become one of the most essential ways to keep up in the quickly changing industry, and those that don’t have access to both the technology and human intervention needed to scale campaigns will likely fall behind the pack.



    Improving From One-Off Tactics To 'Always-On' Relationships

    One of the major ways we’ll see evolution in Influencer marketing campaigns in the next year is through brands’ relationships with influencers. The idea of leveraging influencers for one event, product or post is the way of the past, and we’ve seen increased value from the “always-on” relationships between brands and influencers.

    To find success through this model, brands and marketers must take the time and effort to build these holistic relationships. Not only does this make for a better working relationship, but it also provides a two-way dialog benefiting both parties. Influencers and their audiences can inform brands on growing trends and provide feedback on their products, while brands can source new ideas from their followers, and more.

    We’ve already seen the beginning of this evolution stemming from the introduction of Instagram polls for influencer marketing, and we will only see this trend continue to grow.



    Social Platforms Will Increase Their Involvement In Influencer Marketing Campaigns

    Although Influencer marketing began with blogs, and they are still an important part of any influencers’ repertoire, social platforms are what brought the industry to a larger mainstream audience.

    For the first time this year, we’ve seen Facebook and Instagram offering brands and influencers the tools to identify and measure sponsored posts, while also providing opportunity for amplification.

    This opening in the industry will end up resulting in more opportunities for influencers, as well as more, and better, tools being developed for brands. In the future, we’ll likely see this trend grow, resulting in monetizing content distribution and amplification, as well as advancing technologies for workflow management, leading Influencer marketing into the broader ad spend budget.



    The Evolution To An Efficient Marketplace

    Despite the growth of the industry, this year, as in years past, we’ve seen the majority of collaborations go to the top 1 percent of influencers. The smaller but equally impactful micro-influencers have continued to be overlooked by many major brands. However, micro-influencers’ engagement on social is actually higher than that of celebrity influencers, as their smaller followings bring a more personal touch.

    The introduction of more tech and tools in the industry is creating a shift toward Influencer marketing becoming a true effective marketplace. The demand (which, in this scenario, is the brands, agencies, marketers, etc.) will begin to meet the supply (the hundreds of thousands of influencers creating content every day).

    Guest Authored By Giordano Contestabile. Giordano is CEO at influencer marketing platform Activate by Bloglovin', Mobile Veteran, and Angel Investor. Follow Giordano on Twitter.





    "This marketplace effect will take Influencer marketing down the path needed to increase the budgets for marketers and brands.

    Leading to more campaigns and a healthy ecosystem for the industry in the upcoming years.." -GiordanoContestabile


      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

      Monday, January 15, 2018

      Social Media Marketing Mistakes To Avoid?


      Most companies have social media marketing teams, strategies, and eventual goals. Yet, many don't understand how these best tie in to existing business goals..



      Any company that uses the Internet to drive business will engage in social media marketing. However, many businesses incorporated social media after their businesses reputation and goals were established. This can force a business to reconsider their overall business strategy.

      Avoid this in 2018 by dodging these three basic social media marketing mistakes.

      1. Social Media Should be a Marketing Focus, not an Add-on

      According to eMarketer, almost 90% of U.S. companies are using social media marketing in their business strategies. Despite that, most companies use social media platforms as an add-on to existing marketing strategies. Instead of crafting a strategy for social media marketing in general and for each platform individually, companies often use social media merely as a new medium to spread an existing marketing message.



      Many companies then work in reverse to link relevant social strategies to business strategies. This allows them to prove the ROI of the marketing plan with greater clarity.



      Nevertheless, a CMO survey shows that nearly half of these businesses' marketing teams are incapable of detailing the specific returns of their social media marketing investment.

      Another way marketers lose focus is by getting trapped in the social-media gratification loop. On a given platform, marketers look to gather large numbers of likes, comments, followers, and shares. These numbers look great during presentations, but what do they actually mean?

      If you can't quantify the value of a high number of followers, chances are your social media goals aren't correlating to specific business goals.

      In order to understand the ROI of every social media marketing strategy, you have to be sure to connect overarching business strategies to social media marketing strategies from the very beginning.



      2. Your Business Needs the Right Tools to Manage and Apply Social Media

      Depending on the size and scale of your business, it's important to create a social media presence across the entire company. These days, each department will need to be aware of social media and its ability to expand the scope of any sector. In order to keep standards across departments, you might even need a dedicated social media management team.

      As we've included in pretty much every digital marketing post we've ever made, you must use a robust analytics platform to gauge, study, and improve your marketing strategies. Google Analytics, for example, can give you web traffic numbers broken down by age and geographical demographics, time of day, conversion statistics, bounce rate, and types of devices used to access your page.

      This information gives you the ability to see what's working and what's not. It will tell you what domains and social media platforms are bringing you the most intention a-telltale sign of where you need to invest more time and effort.



      3. Don't Just Focus on the top Social Media Platforms

      Another common mistake social media marketers make is limiting the brand's social media real estate to only the most widely used platforms. While having a presence on many social media platforms increases authority, perception of authority, and overall marketing success, only two-thirds of the top companies are using YouTube. The numbers are even lower for fast-growing platforms like Instagram (under 50%). These numbers are from 2016, but from the chart below you can see that not much has changed since then.



      Failing to represent your company on every available social media platform could potentially cause you to miss out on business opportunities.

      Consider this: if your business wants to increase its marketing reach to the Millennial generation, but it's not using Snapchat, it's missing the mark.

      What social media marketing strategies has your business implemented? Have you ever had to restart a marketing campaign to better understand ROI?

      Guest Authored By William McKinney. William is a Writer for Edgy Labs, an English Teacher, a card carrying Nerd, and he may run for President in 2020. Follow William on Twitter.





      "No matter what industry you belong to, what size your company is, what products or services you sell or how knowledgeable you are with upcoming trends, you always have to put your best foot forward.

      In light of the latest advancements in technology, no one is an exception to the ever-evolving influence of social media any longer.." -NatalieNorcross


        • Authored by:
          Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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        Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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