Mediaboss Marketing

As with all relationships, social media relationships must be earned PHOTO: John Loo

When Facebook and Twitter arrived on the scene in the mid-2000s, people soon started using them to share opinions, complaints and ideas sometimes aimed at the companies they did business with.

Brands have been playing catch up ever since.

Some best practices have emerged in the years since to ensure marketers make the most of these direct lines to potential customers, while at the same time listening and supporting their customers.

The first of this four-part series covered the first steps to social media marketing success: listen and plan. In this, we'll dive into the foundational elements of relationship building and trust.

A true relationship has to be earned. It's about respect and trust. And a balanced relationship is reciprocal. You do something for somebody else, and they do something for you. You exchange ideas. You use each other as a sounding board. For a relationship to last, it has to be a two-way street.

Followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook are not equivalent to relationships. Just as in the real world, a true relationship on social media has to go deeper than just a surface connection. Having 5,000 followers or 10,000 friends is meaningless if you don't truly connect.

Not convinced? Go ask one of your Twitter followers for an opinion on that white paper you're writing. If nothing happens, you've got your answer.

One of the keys to nurturing real relationships on social media can be found in the manner of your engagement. People want to be valued. And once they feel you value them, they will most likely feel a connection with you and some degree of loyalty.

They will also expect an ongoing dialogue to reinforce those feelings, so you'd better deliver if you expect the relationship to grow and strengthen over time.

Successful relationships are also about helping to support others. It's not all about you, your company, or your agenda. Social media is a community, and as a member of that community, you should not only contribute to it in various ways, but you also should recognize the contributions of others. For example, promoting other people's accomplishments by "liking" their videos, retweeting their tweets or sharing their latest blog posts will go a long way toward building connections and real relationships.

And don't let those relationships stop at the keyboard. Get to know your social media connections in the real world whenever possible.

The success of virtually every brand relies largely on the bond of trust generated between customer and company. That same bond can obviously be created between individuals as well. But as is the case when building relationships, trust also has to be earned.

To begin with, your social media messaging must be authentic. Whether you're speaking for your organization or yourself, always be you plain old honest you. Pretending to be someone you're not is a shortcut to a credibility gap, and that spells trouble in the trust-building business.

Being the real you and growing the trust factor needs to come with a good dose of personality as well. However, don't exhibit the steamroller mentality: a pushy, get out of the way, I'm on a mission-type attitude. On social media, it's too easy to distance yourself from people like that just by unfollowing or unfriending them. So instead, strive to be known as a thoughtful, considerate, supportive member of the social media community.

Exhibiting an inquisitive nature and a funny bone can keep you in good standing, too. A great sense of humor is always an effective ice breaker and door opener.

In addition, strive to be as transparent as is reasonable. The more open and honest you're willing to be and the more information you're willing to share the more credible you'll appear. And always do what you say you're going to do. Nothing will impact trust in a positive way more than living up to your commitments.

As a marketer, you must realize that responsiveness also plays a major role in building trust. Especially when you're dealing with a complaint or other negative issue, be prepared to address it head-on, and do so quickly.

Check back next week as we continue this series with a look at the impact leadership and community building has on social media marketing success.

Kent Huffman is a fractional/on-demand CMO at DigiMark Partners, which offers strategic and tactical marketing services to CEOs and owners of small and mid-sized businesses. He is a growth-oriented B2B and B2C marketing and branding executive, C-suite advisor, change agent, and published author with expertise in virtually all aspects of the marketing discipline.

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The Rules of Social Marketing Success: Relationships and Trust - CMSWire

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