Mediaboss Marketing

The limbic system | Image Credit: Rewire Me

Change is hard for all of us. Including those working for change.

Recent events in the United States and beyond have forced many of us to take a very careful look at our strategies and tactics when it comes to engaging people at scale. This kind of assessment is essential if we want to be effective. In fact, its key for any kind of meaningful innovation. However, are we going as far as we need to, when it comes to our assumptions about what we call engagement and behavior change? I argue the answer is no and that this is one of the most critical areas in which we must get very clear if we are going to be effective in our world.

Organizations (including agencies) tend to rely on well-worn theories of change, often based on implicit assumptions when it comes to how humans behave. I have come to call this the theory of change muddle. This is where various approaches and strategies from social marketing to values-based messaging to behavioral economics and gamification, or the latest storytelling trend blur into a muddle. This muddle is abundantly evident in the language we use: usually a generalized approach based on levers, drivers and the need to mobilize or get people on board.

However, many of these theories have conflicting underlying assumptions about people. These different approaches also carry implicit attitudes about the people we seek to reach, usually revealed by our language. For example, segmentation terminology such as disconnected or hard to reach offer clues to these attitudes about those who are not yet fully on board with our causes.

This is where the urgent need to engage more with psychology comes in, no matter if you are an agency, a consultant or a Fortune 500 company designing an engagement campaign.

Despite the fact that we now know more than we ever have about the nature of the human psyche and how we cope (often badly) with change, anxiety, uncertainty and ambiguity, many of us still base our work on the notion that people are self-aware, transparent and values-driven.

We continue to assume that if we only focus on positive storytelling and aspiration, we will get the scaled need to actually change our world.

This is simply not the case.

The messier reality quickly revealed when we learn how to really listen is that many people are conflicted, contradictory, unconscious and anxious. Many of us are deeply ambivalent about the increasingly urgent news about declining species, the warming climate, what we eat and how we get around. This is not the same as not caring, or holding different values.

Contrary to the overriding fixation in most sustainability-driven enterprises, this is not only about values. This is about how humans construct a life full of competing needs, desires, aspirations and worries, and how easy it is to allow our limbic system to drive the bus.

We know now about how our brains process challenging, difficult and alarming information. Our prefrontal cortex becomes secondary to the limbic system, which is about survival, fear, us/them, polarization, and the inability to process complex data.

The limbic system is currently on overdrive in our country.

A fear-based mode expresses itself with othering; targeting enemies; denial of real threats; and avoiding at all costs any hint of shame, guilt or blame when it comes to our current predicament. In that scenario, it doesnt matter if people value health, economic viability or nature, because values are higher-functioning entities.

This is why a focus on values alone or on aspiration or even on solutions is not sufficient.

Values and problem-solving belong in the prefrontal cortex, where we can reflect, strategize, imagine and yes, clarify our values. However and this is the key part it involves addressing our fear-based, short-term survival-focused neural networks in the limbic system. Meeting the limbic system with a values-based message is akin to being tone-deaf. Would you ask someone who is fearing for their security if they value something? No. You would ask them what they need, now, to feel safer and more secure, before you can engage in the conversation you really wish to have.

If even a fraction of this were to be taken on board, we would immediately be redesigning our research, strategies and tactics differently. We could be inviting new and different people to the table, new kinds of practitioners who understand cultural change, psychosocial dynamics, and how to translate this into brand strategy beyond polling, surveying and focus group experts.

We would pause to rethink the heavy use of social marketing, such as ambassadors or champions, heavy reliance on celebrity endorsements, and coming up with yet another values-based messaging platform. We would be focused on messaging according to empathy for these Three As Anxiety, Ambivalence and Aspiration.

We would be designing our insights and research methods to capture the deeper layers of anxiety, ambivalence and aspiration, by using more conversation-based methods. We would be funding projects that leverage insights already gained from ethnography, marketing, psychosocial research and innovation sectors. We would not be focusing only on what people view or demand or how to mobilize, but on what people are experiencing where the anxieties, ambivalence and aspiration (The Three As) live. To do this requires rethinking our deeply held, even cherished ways of doing things. It means being open to new and emerging practices, and collaborating with new kinds of practitioners from different disciplines. It also means recognizing that we are all in this together that our lessons learned are what are going to help us protect and preserve the vulnerable humans and nonhumans amongst us, who are depending on us right now to show up and be effective.

Perhaps most importantly, if we take this opportunity to truly do a reset, wed encourage each other in our community to compassionately yet ruthlessly examine our assumptions about people, why we behave as we do, and what we bring to these interactions.

We would be as honest as we can with ourselves about our frustrations, sadness, anger and distress over what appears to be retrograde and harmful trends. We would push ourselves to be ruthlessly open to new ways of thinking and doing things. In so doing, we would be supporting each other to be our best, our most creative, and ultimately our most effective at connecting with those who feel overwhelmed, scared and concerned, and looking to us to be partners in a different future.

A version of this appeared originally on Climatesolutions.org.

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The Opportunity of the Reset: How to Go Beyond Social Marketing to Effect Real Cultural Change - Sustainable Brands

Globally, time spent in apps during Q1 2017 rose 25% YoY to nearly 1.7 billion hours, according to recent data released by App Annie. 'Utility and Tools' was found to be the most-used app category, but this was largely due to many being pre-installed. This is followed by the 'Social Networking, Communication and Social' category which make up the largest in terms of apps used.

New data from Verto Analytics concurs. The survey of 5,000 UK adults revealed that the monthly time spent on apps in the communications and social media category increased by 38% (11.2 billion minutes) in the six months to March, 2017. Not only does that make it the fastest growing app category but it now also accounts for 44% of all mobile app time.

"The continuous growth of messaging and social apps mean that the total app time is becoming dominated by just a few sectors, with the top three categories accounting for 78% of all mobile app time spent," says Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, Verto Analytics' CEO.

"This leaves the rest fighting over the scraps, which is going to get harder as app downloads are plateauing and there's the impending rise of "hub apps," where people do more tasks within one app - be it messaging, shopping or ordering a taxi. For example, while games have performed really well over recent years, it seems even they may be being substituted by new offerings across the entertainment category."

Tags: apps, mobile, social, trends, UK

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UK: Communications and social increasingly dominate app time ... - BizReport

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through our many locations, ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking. To learn more, Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories.

Overview: It starts with you. Our goal is to attract, develop, retain and motivate the most talented people those who care and who work together as partners across business units and functions. We value and promote diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our business and at every level of our organization.

Marketingleads the development of integrated marketing strategies across Wells Fargos 90 plus business lines and national geography. The group is responsible for brand strategy and advertising, database and experiential marketing including the companys 12 history museums, integrated program and product development, market research and related customer analytics, and diverse segments strategy and business development.

Located in Wells Fargos social media command center this role will be responsible for social media performance analysis, developing scorecards, dashboards, reporting and KPIs.

Specific responsibilities to include: Develop and maintain dashboards aligning with social media team KPIs, providing insights and relevant recommendations to drive best-in-class performance. Support analysis and delivery of social media campaign reports, integrating with the key internal stakeholders to set expectations for communication and ensure data elements are properly measured. Work collaboratively across social media team to execute initiatives on the social analytics roadmap and develop new social analytic capabilities. Recognize and identify inconsistencies or inaccuracies in tools, data, measurement frameworks and methods of analysis and be able to take corrective measure to resolve.

Marketing, Digital & Social Capabilities team sets the vision, creates the roadmap, and leads the creation of world-class marketing technologies, social capabilities, and marketing and sales digital customer experiences to create differentiated customer experiences and to enable industry-leading revenue growth, scale and efficiency for Wells Fargo.

Required qualifications: 2 + years of digital marketing experience. 2+ years of experience in one or a combination of the following: marketing, digital marketing, digital platforms or social media.

Desired qualifications: A BS/BA degree or higher in marketing or communications. Ability to think strategically, implement and deliver business objectives. Ability to work effectively in a virtual team environment. Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills. Intermediate Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint) skills. Outstanding problem solving and decision making skills.

Other desired qualifications: 2+ years of experience within an agency or corporate environment focusing on analytics. Experience with the analysis of social media data such as Facebook (Analytics), Twitter (Insights), LinkedIn. Experience with dashboard tools like Origami Logic, DOMO or Tableau. Exposure to social engagement tools like Sprinklr, HearSay, Spredfast. Exposure to social analysis tools such as Brandwatch, NetBase, SocialCode.

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Digital Marketing & Social Media Analyst WELLS FARGO - Charlotte Agenda

Social media is in virtually everyone's hands at this point: With a phone or tablet, you're connected. In fact, there are 2.3 billionactive users on social media presently and thosenumbers are on the rise. This is great news for any business owner who is social media savvy. It means that as the number of people logging into social media increases, so does your potential client base.

Related: 6 Must-Do's for Effective Social Media Marketing

But, there's a problem: How can you convert these social media users to become your clients? The answer is simple: With an effective social media marketing strategy, you can increase your conversions and boost your sales or signups. But, first you must acquaint yourself with the tips, tricks and tactics to make high conversion rates a reality.

Here's how you can get started.

It's called "social media": You're expected to socialize. That's why encouraging engagement is key for an effective marketing campaign. It will help you build the know, like and trust factorsthat will make people convert.

Tech marketer Daniel Wallock, at Wallock Media, captured the true essence of social media in a reference to Snapchat."Using an ephemeral environment as a means to lure people into sharing their most intimate moments, Snapchat brings out what social media is best at," Wallock wrote, going on to say what that is: "getting people to speak their mind through fleeting images before a sea of disparate social connections."

In other words, if your posts, images or videos aren't getting people talking, then you're going to have a hard time getting them to buy.

If,instead, you create engaging posts, you give your target audience the opportunity to interact with you, and of course, get to know you better in the process. In fact, that kind of interaction creates a bond such that the next time you make an offer, your audience will be more prone to going for it.

You should be interacting with your target audience and building relationships with them. The next thing to do is to establish yourself as the go-to person in your niche, the person your audience looks up to for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.

To achieve this, give a lot of value-packed content on social media. By value, I mean useful information that your audience is looking for that will give them results.

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Creativity Game

Whether that means a tip, a hack or a link to one of your tutorials, make sure it's something your audience will learn from. Valuable content gets shared a lot. This will help increase your reach.

Sharing valuable content boosts your conversion rates because the valuable information lets your audience know that you are an expert in your field. This in turn breeds trust and trust and is what will keep them coming back every time.

Ever heard of the saying, "Consistency is key"? Well, when it comes to social media, consistency is absolutely non-negotiable. Your marketing depends on it. In short, you need to be constantly in touch with your target audience. That proximity keeps them in mind of you, your brand and your offering.

However, be subtle about this: If you're going to show up three or more times a day 24/7, you'll definitely burn out at the end. So, rhink about soliciting a bit of help.

Make friends with scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Buffer or MeetEdgar to help you maintain that consistency. You can create your content in batches and schedule it ahead for the week, while you can focus on other marketing efforts and save time.

Another tool to have under your belt is one that will help you track your conversions. The first one on this list is Kissmetrics. This is a robust analytics platform that will help you track who goes to your site and help you determine your conversion rates from each social media platform you use.

While you're at it, make sure to take a look at Cyfe and Click. Cyfe will give you more detailed information on the rate at which your content is being shared on social media. It also has really fantastic social media tracking features that will let you know how much engagement you get on your social media platforms. Click, on the other hand, will help you boost your conversion rates.

Related: 5 Tips for Running Your Best Social Media Campaign Ever

Of course there are a whole lot of other tools out there to help marketers improve their conversion. Don't be afraid to test them out and stick with the ones that give you the best results and help you feel comfortable with.

Toby Nwazor is an consumer-goods entrepreneur andfreelance writer.Get in touch with him for ghost writing, website content creationand otherprofessional writing services.

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3 Social Media Marketing Tactics to Help Improve Your Conversion Rates - Entrepreneur

More small and mid-sized businesses recognize the power of social media.

Research from GetApp revealed 56 percent of small business owners and managers say social media offers the best digital brand-building strategy. They believe its more effective than developing apps or investing in technologies like digital signage.

Although a small or mid-sized business can create social media accounts and post announcements relatively easily, reaching business objectives such as obtaining more customers and increasing sales and revenue is more difficult. Engaging with customers can be time-consuming and confirming the business value of social media efforts can be challenging.

Experts recommend these steps to help small and mid-sized businesses implement effective social media marketing.

Go where your customers are. Only large companies and brands have resources to remain active on most social media networks. Different platforms serve different needs and cater to different demographics. Instead of choosing networks arbitrarily, savvy businesses research platforms to determine where their targeted customers are active.

Provide value. Constantly promoting your business will bore and annoy customers. A mix of helpful advice and promotional news gain a following while publicizing your products. Experts typically recommend a maximum of 20 percent promotional material and 80 percent educational. Its acceptable to sometimes stray off topic to offer customers helpful information.

Always ask yourself: Is this content valuable to my clients or prospects? If the answer is no, dont waste your time or theirs, said Sarah Lane, marketing specialist at Impact Marketing.

Listen to customers. Monitoring social media for your businesses and products allows you to find negative remarks that require responses and resolve customer service issues. Monitoring can also uncover positive comments that businesses can share. Monitoring for industry terms identifies sales leads. As social media listening services become more advanced, theyve become a viable option for all but the smallest businesses.

For instance, law firms can acquire clients through social media listening by monitoring for their specialties, such as auto accident and suggest their services. Customers feel more comfortable with businesses that offer valuable information while avoiding an immediate hard sell.

Take some risks. Share advice in a fun and interesting way with humor and opinion. Share funny stories and quick facts people might find surprising. Education and information provided on social media is much more likely to be understood if its presented in an engaging way. But be careful. Its easy to offend.

Include images. These attract attention and increase engagement. Rather than being satisfied with generic stock images, seek high-quality ones that are relevant to your content or brand. You dont necessarily need a professional photographer if you can produce photos with good contrast, lighting and composition.

Support the community. Support your community by sharing others posts, answering questions and participating in discussions.

Sure your brand and logo are important but what really connects people to you are shared beliefs and ideas, said Ravi Shukle at Post Planner. Talking openly about what youre thinking and where you want to head will help unite your followers and grow a stronger, more passionate community.

Measure results. Its essential to establish goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-based. Changes in web traffic, website conversions and other metrics can reveal the effectiveness of social media marketing and where to make adjustments.

Without the benefit of a marketing team creating a strategy complete with goals and measurement, small businesses have a harder time evaluating marketing efforts, writes Suzanne Delzio, director of Informed Web Content, for Social Media Examiner.

Dedicate adequate resources to the task. If youre not investing, at a minimum, the equivalent of 25 percent of a full-time employee daily to execute your social media marketing strategy, you likely will not get the results you need and expect, stressed John Beveridge, president and founder of Rapidan Inbound. Your social media manager should be measuring, communicating, posting, responding and analyzing your social media marketing every day.

Properly implemented, social media marketing can produce gains in sales, number of customers and lifetime value of customers. Its not easy; it takes effort and commitment. In time, local followers will grow and positive results will accumulate.

One last tip: Promote your social media accounts to your existing customers on cash register receipts, for instance, and in mailings.

William Comcowich is founder and acting CEO of Glean.info, a media monitoring and measurement service for public relations and marketing. Hes speaking at the Public Relation Society of Americas Hampton Roads Chapter lunch meeting May 17.

William Comcowich is founder and acting CEO of Glean.info, a media monitoring and measurement service for public relations and marketing. He's speaking at the Public Relation Society of America's Hampton Roads Chapter lunch meeting May 17.

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Eight vital social media marketing tips for small and mid-sized businesses | Expert column - Virginian-Pilot