Mediaboss Marketing

At Davids Bridal, senior director of global marketing Callie Canfield faced a pressing problem when trying to drive people from the brands social channels to its online store. When the brand would post an imageof new bridesmaid dresses to its Facebook or Instagram, for instance, customers who clicked on it would be dumped into the full online catalog for the bridesmaid dress category. Finding the stylesthey saw in the Facebook photo would require sifting through hundreds of dresses.

We want the customer to click through from Facebook or another social channel to our site, and get to a landing page that shows exactly what they clicked on, said Canfield. But its almost impossible to customize your site that way it would take a major backend overhaul, and were a big, pretty slow-moving company.

To solve this, Davids Bridal has been working with visual commerce platform Curalate in the beta stage of its new Showroom feature, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create pop-up landing pages for brands to link to on social media. The landing pages pull the exact items promoted on social media, as well as a collection of related items that are populated by Curalates algorithms.

Davids Bridal has tested the Curalate Showroom on Facebook and on its online blog, and Canfield said that in the time since, Davids Bridal has seen 13 times more click-throughs across those platforms and a 40 percent decrease in bounce rate. Other brands testing the feature, including Banana Republic, Forever 21 and Guess, saw an average decrease in bounce rate of 53 percent and a 45 percent increase in time spent on site for shoppers enteringthroughsocial media.

For Davids Bridal, Curalates tools also offer an appealing set of independent data that isnt owned by the platforms theyre working with. Canfield said the brand is part of the beta test forInstagrams shopping tags featureand also uses Curalates Like2Buy platform, which is a third-party shoppable feed accessible to followers through the link in bio on branded Instagram accounts.

Curalate knows whats in the pipeline on the platform side, so they change their platform to make it beneficial for brands, said Canfield. For us, its great to have the analytics. When working with Instagram, you dont really have a good idea about whats working, and its in their interest for you to think something is performing well. Its nice to have a set of independent analytics.

As Instagram has made more progress in developing tools that will help brands drive conversions on the platform, companies that have popped up as intermediaries, like Curalate, have been forced to evolve. Showroom stems from the disconnect between products promoted on social and what customers ultimately are linked to.

Canfield pointed out that this problem is especially persistent in its email marketing, which typically focuses on items related to popular weddingtrends. But, there was no way for the team to send customers who clicked through the email to find all the featured items in one place. Canfield said in the future, she plans to use the Showroom tool for email marketing, as well as on paid Facebook posts, where the brand needs to get the most out of the limited resources it can put into social.

For brands, selling on social media has largely resulted inforfeiting controlto the platform. Curalate CEO Apu Gupta said that makes brands nervous.

Brands have come to realize that they are seeding a lot of information to the various networks, and when customers are making transactions through channels, you worry as a brand who owns that customer, said Gupta. If I start seeding a lot of information about my customer to this third party, what can they do with it? Can they redirect my customer to someone else, the next highest bidder? These are real concerns.

When working with a platform like Curalate, brands are still forfeiting some control. Curalate needs full access to a brands inventory in order to use artificial intelligence to place items in a social-driven showroom. But essentially, Curalates data can corroborate the data coming from a social channel like Facebook.

We have partnerships with Facebook and Pinterest, and theyre really helpful at giving us insight. When we talk with them about whats working best, we can see whether or not thats backed up by Curalates analytics, said Canfield. They all play together.

Read the original post:
How brands are using AI to close the social commerce loop - Digiday

Tata Global Beverages has been one of the rare companies which has mastered the art of social marketing by rolling out concepts like Jaago Re, which has played a prominent role in influencing peoples behaviour thus benefiting the individuals and communities for the greater social good. Now the company is going the extra mile by coming up in new avatar aka Jaago Re 2.0, which focuses on pre-activism, an idea which urges consumers to act before a tragedy happens. It may be recalled that Tata Teas decade-old 'Jaago Re' campaign, which struck a chord with the masses and ignited the spirit of activism much before the advent of social media, has now become a hallmark for social media marketing.

Sushant Dash, Regional President, TATA Global Beverages, stated, I believe the kind of results that you get a movement from the lens of a Brand or from the lens of Marketing can give you a lot more success. What we have realized is that most of the activism happens after an incident has happened. But what we believe is if we really want to make an impact, then this activism has to become pre-activism. We need to raise our voice and do things before a disaster happens. Then only a true change can happen. That is the next phase of Jaago Re, which is about pre-activism and creating a new language. Our new campaign says, Alarm Bajne se Pehle Jaago Re.

Differing with his views slightly from Dash, Jeroninio Almeida, Founder, iCongo, Rex & Karmaveer Awards, maintained, Marketers and Business Heads need to make this an important step of their strategies. What you see in this country is that whenever there is a Tsunami or earthquake or something goes wrong, you dont wait for the alarm to wring. I dont think we should pre-empt something which is preventive. That is where the corporates and business leaders play a huge role. There ideal situation would be when the business leaders, army and the government come together and decide how to prevent a certain disaster, whether it a manmade or a social one."

Delineating her thoughts, Lynn de Souza, Founder, Social Access said, As an individual, whether you are in the army, company or in a managerial department of Tata Tea, or an NGO, ultimately all comes down to the individuals. If the country has to progress, the individual has to contribute. You (referring to Sushant Dash) chose to walk the talk. We being in the social space, urge you to Talk the Walk instead of what you are currently doing. There is so much that needs to be done by NGOs, individuals, etc. They want to talk about it now. Thats where the marketing community and corporate sectors can come and spread awareness and help these people Walk the Talk.

Talking about the genesis of social marketing that the company had pioneered, Dash said, A Lot of people talk about social progress and the role that corporates and brands can play in it. We run a very successful Jaago Re campaign which is a cause related marketing for the last 10 years. When we started this campaign in 2008, we were the first one to talk about cause related marketing.

Talking about its Jaago Re campaign, Dash recalled, When we started in 2007, we believed in apathy among the youth. People were not worried about social progress, but were only concerned about individual needs like job, house, etc. That apathy has turned to activism and people are vocal about it. We had a punchline-dont just wake up every morning, be awake. We were the first one to do it from the realm of a brand doing rather than just a CSR initiative. We did it because our brands DNA is cause related marketing. We do it because my companys profitability is linked to cause related marketing i.e. social movement or social progress. The passion with which what we bring to the table is very different from just a CSR activity.

He also stated how an ordinary person can take a cue from Tata Global Beverages by doing something which is in sync with their brand philosophy. As an individual, dont blame others rather than change yourself. So if you and I stop taking a bribe, then there will be no corruption and we will be able to elect the right candidates. Jaago Re is not just about creating awareness but also about helping individuals Walk the Talk.

Original post:
Pre-activism Will Be The Next Phase In Social Marketing: Tata Global Beverages - BW Businessworld

Harris Markowitz was overjoyed when he was nominated for Shorty Award's "Snapchatter of the Year" last year. The award show, which honors the best in social media, pitted the 25-year-old against the likes of DJ Khaled, who would later be crowned.

Markowitz's nomination, however, piqued the interest of some major brands like Zillow and Coca-Cola, which soon commissioned him to create content for their brand's Snapchat accounts.

Fifteen months later, Markowitz's personal Snapchat account is mostly dark, and he isn't working on any brand accounts anymore. "We saw a decline in viewership on Snapchat and an increase on Instagram," Markowitz told CNBC recently.

The shift mirrors the relentless rise of the Facebook-owned Instagram Stories platform since its launch nearly one year ago, costing Snapchat its popularity with a medium it largely pioneered.

"Snapchat should've went back to the drawing board and figured out a new way to compete, instead of being romantic to how [it] has been running for the last couple of years," Markowitz said.

In a statement to CNBC, Ben Schwerin, vice president of partnerships for Snapchat's parent company Snap, said that the company's intent was "to build the best possible storytelling platform for you and your closest friends. Over the past few years, we've been delighted to see that many of the world's most influential people in fashion, sports, music, and entertainment were also using stories to connect with their biggest fans."

Yet Markowitz's outlook is shared by many non-celebrity social media influencers who struggle with posting on both platforms simultaneously.

In a recent study, social media marketing firm Mediakix looked at 12 top influencers who maintain a dual presence on Instagram and Snapchat. The firm found that over a 30-day period, those accounts overwhelmingly preferred Instagram Stories to Snapchat, posting 25 percent more on the former than the latter.

To be certain, Snapchat where boldface names such as DJ Khaled, Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen are prolific users is a slightly different animal than most other social platforms.

Those who post don't 'like' or re-share the disappearing video snippets that helped the platform become wildly popular with Millenials, most of whom use Snapchat to communicate with friends, celebrities and experience events. In that context, high follower counts are less important when the content is ephemeral and can't go viral.

Still, in a space built on an instantly recorded video where two giants are slugging it out for users, is there room for both?

Link:
Instagram encroaches on Snapchat's turf of social media influencers, winning their hearts, minds and posts - CNBC

Influencers with small but loyal followings may market your brand better than the social media giants. Learn why these micro-influencers are game-changers.

Influencer marketing is a strategy in which businesses from all around the internet are competing. Creating a brand campaign around someone with a celebrity-status following has been a great first step in the evolution of influencer marketing in social media.

Micro-influencers, who have smaller audiences, are sliding up the scale. According to Abtin Masseratagah, CEO of Northrn, they are impacting the marketing industry at the highest rate. In today's world of marketing, every brand across the internet has the opportunity to work with someone who has invested time with a target audience the company may not have known it had.

To learn more about how micro-influencers are taking social media by storm and why they will change the way the influencer marketing game is played, read the three points below:

Micro-influencers are effective at marketing strategy because they are more invested in what they are doing on their social media channels of choice.

In fact, Adweek published an article saying these micro-influencers are personally more involved in their channels than mega-influencers. They have everything invested in what they are doing, which brings more personality, style and flair.

Masseratagah mentioned a report from Markerlythat studied Instagram engagement, with surprising findings:

Markerly recommends that brands pursue accounts with 1,000 to 10,000 followers in the micro-influencer category, as they receive more engagement than users with more followers.

Based on this fact alone, we can see the impact micro-influencers have on marketing as a whole. Someone who dedicates their marketing to one social channel and puts everything they've got into this channel will come out with better results than others trying to juggle every social channel.

One of the downsides of an influencer who has millions of followers is the connection theory of being relevant to an individual who has certain wants or needs for their life.

Micro-influencers have built loyal followings because they tap into a smaller, more targeted user base. This way, everything they do or say is relevant and useful to their particular audience.

Take two influencers who are huge in the social space today, the Kardashian sisters, who were given an assignment from a brand. Micro-influencers were given the same assignment. Digidayreported that the micro-influencers received a higher conversion rate.

A survey by Experticity showed 82 percent of customers would rather be sold to by a micro-influencer anyway. That's loyalty.

Micro-influencers are becoming the go-to source of big brands. These small influencers pack a huge wallop because of their connectivity, personality and relativity to their audience.

Don't think about social media in terms of followers. This is just a number and isn't relevant to the power someone can bring to a social marketing campaign. Think about the impact they have with so few followers. This is the key to bringing more advanced social marketing strategies to your business.

One of the reasons so many brands reach out to these micro-influencers is because their followers value their opinion. For some women, it's simply going to Instagram to get ideas about what type of dress they should wear on a night out.

Everyone has a person in some niche where you look forward to reading or watching what they're going to put up next. You keep up with them because they are serving up their own brand of "regular" and connecting with you on this level. Masseratagah said he jumps over to a certain micro-influencer's account whenever he needs some handyman ideas for around the house. Watching or reading about their experiences doing things you want to do builds trust and respect for them.

Authenticity is what users of social media want from every brand. It develops the relationship and creates a more advanced sales process further down the road.

So if you're trying to become an influencer and you thought the only thing preventing this from happening was your number of followers, think again. Maybe you own a company and are thinking about taking the plunge into influencer marketing. If either of these things are true, take a closer look at the micro-influencers in your niche, and you will find that not only is their audience reliable and trustworthy, but their results are real. This is why they are the unsung heroes of so many accomplished brands online.

Nathan Resnick

Read more:
3 Ways Micro-Influencers Are Impacting Social Media Marketing - Business.com

The Herald

Winthrop athletics announces communications/marketing personnel moves The Herald Lane comes from the University of South Carolina where she led the athletic department's digital and social media efforts and held key roles in strategic communication, content planning and marketing. During her seven-year tenure, she led the Gamecocks ... and more »

Originally posted here:
Winthrop athletics announces communications/marketing personnel moves - The Herald