Mediaboss Marketing

Happy new year!

What better way to celebrate than with predictions for the coming year?

Ill start with a prediction you werent thinking about: Ron DeSantis will lose his race for governor of Florida in November.

I see two reasons why DeSantis will lose. First, an awful lot of people have died from COVID-19 in Florida, and thousands more will die in the coming months. Its going to turn out that repeatedly saying stupid things that result in the death of your constituents is not a good political strategy. The friends and families of all those dead people will remember that DeSantis is partly to blame, and theyll hold it against him at the polls.

Couple the COVID-19 problem with DeSantiss likely abortion problem. The Supreme Court will upset the Roe applecart during the first half of this year. DeSantis is pro-life, but Florida generally tilts the other way, and this will pose a problem for DeSantis. Combine a silly response to COVID-19 with a politically untenable response to abortion, and you have the surprise of the season: DeSantis will lose his governors race, and with it any chance to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.

What other predictions do I have up my sleeve?

My second prediction is less surprising than the first: Liz Cheney will lose her seat in the House of Representatives in November.

I have a lot of respect for Liz Cheney, and probably many elected Republicans respect her, too; they just cant say so out loud. Cheney has made her small mark in the history books by daring to suggest that inciting a crowd to attack Congress is somehow wrong.

But earning your place in the history books and earning votes in todays Republican Party are two different things.

In heavily Republican Wyoming, the person who wins the Republican primary will of course win the general election for a seat in the House of Representatives. But Cheney will not win the primary, and shell be out of office come January.

No surprises there.

Prediction number three: Trumps legal woes will catch up with him in 2022.

A lot of people have been trying to get Trump under oath for a long time: The New York attorney general, many plaintiffs in civil cases, and the like.

Its possible to stall the legal system for a while, but its not possible to block it entirely unless youre the president, which Trump no longer is. Trumps federal lawsuit seeking to prohibit the New York attorney general from deposing Trump is doomed to fail, as anyone whos read the Anti-Injunction Act would know. Trump will be forced to appear for his deposition.

But Trump would be a fool to testify to anything substantive. Hell plead the Fifth Amendment, and then hell say that he never did anything criminal. Hell say he had to plead the Fifth to evade a Democratic witch-hunt.

But thats not all!

The plaintiffs in some of the civil cases will also finally get Trump under oath. Plaintiffs counsel in those cases will know the threat that expansive testimony poses to Trump, so those lawyers will of course encourage expansive testimony.

But thats not all!

The assorted prosecutors investigating Trump will also continue to pursue him during the year. My guess is that at least one of those prosecutors will indict him.

I cant foresee the precise result of all that testimony and all those cases, but it wont be good for Trump.

Finally, COVID.

I must say: I see two possibilities for the pandemic. One possibility is that several billion people are infected with the omicron variant in the coming months. That gives the virus billions of opportunities to mutate. Naturally, it does. Something far worse than omicron emerges from these rampant infections, and were back to April 2020 all over again.

The other possibility is that omicron is in fact less severe than the original virus. Omicron infects billions of people with a less dangerous illness, and those people all develop some level of resistance to future infections. (Health care systems around the world may well be challenged while that process runs its course, but Im looking longer term than that.)

In the United States, Democrats electoral success is tied to how well Biden handles the virus. He cant let the virus run wild and so imposes every vaccine requirement that the courts will permit. The vaccination programs, coupled with the natural spread of the disease, puts the country, and the world, in a much better place by the end of the year.

Although you cant always tell from my columns at Above the Law, Im an optimist.

Im going with the second version of my COVID-19 visions, and Im predicting that the country, and the world, will be nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by December 31, 2022.

And if Im wrong?

Ill be so terribly depressed that my regret for one silly prediction will be lost in the sea of melancholy.

So instead lets end on a bright note: I hope your 2022 is a happy and healthy one! Or, as someone recently said, Stay positive. Test negative.

MarkHerrmannspent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeons Guide to Practicing LawandDrug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy(affiliate links). You can reach him by email atinhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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Four Predictions For 2022 - Above the LawAbove the Law - Above the Law

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors;Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.(e) On October 28, 2021, the Board of Directors (the "Board") of CommunityHealthcare Trust Incorporated (the "Company"), at the recommendation of thecompensation committee of the Board (the "Committee"), authorized and approvedthe Sixth Amendment (the "Wallace Sixth Amendment") to the Employment Agreementby and between the Company and Timothy G. Wallace (the "Wallace EmploymentAgreement"), the Third Amendment (the "Dupuy Third Amendment") to the EmploymentAgreement by and between the Company and David H. Dupuy (the "Dupuy EmploymentAgreement"), the Third Amendment (the "Stach Third Amendment") to the Amendedand Restated Employment Agreement by and between the Company and Leigh Ann Stach(the "Stach Employment Agreement"), and the First Amendment (the "Meyer FirstAmendment") to the Employment Agreement by and between the Company and TimothyL. Meyer (the "Meyer Employment Agreement"). These amendments to each respectiveemployment agreements were executed on January 4, 2022 and were effective as ofJanuary 1, 2022.Wallace Employment AgreementThe principal change in the Wallace Employment Agreement resulting from theWallace Sixth Amendment is to increase the base salary paid by the Company toTimothy G. Wallace for his employment as President and Chief Executive Officer("Wallace Base Salary"). In 2021, the Wallace Base Salary was $750,000.00. TheWallace Sixth Amendment increases the Wallace Base Salary to $794,200.00 for2022, which is a $44,200.00 increase from 2021.The foregoing descriptions of the Wallace Sixth Amendment to the WallaceEmployment Agreement are qualified in their entirety by reference to theoriginal Wallace Employment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.6 to theRegistration Statement on Form S-11 of the Company filed with the Securities andExchange Commission (the "SEC") on April 2, 2015, the first amendment to theWallace Employment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.1 to the CurrentReport on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 18, 2017, the second amendmentto the Wallace Employment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.1 to theCurrent Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 2, 2018, the thirdamendment to the Wallace Employment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.1to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 3, 2019, thefourth amendment to the Wallace Employment Agreement, which is included asExhibit 10.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 3,2020, the fifth amendment to the Wallace Employment Agreement, which is includedas Exhibit 10.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January4, 2021, and the Wallace Sixth Amendment, which is included as Exhibit 10.1 tothis Current Report on Form 8-K, and are incorporated by reference into thisItem. The foregoing description of the Wallace Sixth Amendment does not purportto be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to such exhibits.Dupuy Employment AgreementThe principal change in the Dupuy Employment Agreement resulting from the DupuyThird Amendment is to increase the base salary paid by the Company to David H.Dupuy for his employment as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer("Dupuy Base Salary"). In 2021, the Dupuy Base Salary was $460,000.00. The DupuyThird Amendment increases the Dupuy Base Salary to $487,200.00 for 2022, whichis a $27,200.00 increase from 2021.The foregoing descriptions of the Dupuy Third Amendment to the Dupuy EmploymentAgreement are qualified in their entirety by reference to the Dupuy EmploymentAgreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-Kfiled with the SEC on March 11, 2019, the first amendment to the DupuyEmployment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.2 to the Current Report onForm 8-K filed with the SEC on January 3, 2020, the second amendment to theDupuy Employment Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 10.2 to the CurrentReport on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 4, 2021, and the Dupuy ThirdAmendment, which is included as Exhibit 10.2 to this Current Report on Form 8-K,and are incorporated by reference into this Item. The foregoing description ofthe Dupuy Third Amendment does not purport to be complete and is qualified inits entirety by reference to such exhibits.Stach Employment AgreementThe principal change in the Stach Employment Agreement resulting from the StachThird Amendment is to increase the base salary paid by the Company to Leigh AnnStach for her employment as Executive Vice President and Chief AccountingOfficer ("Stach Base Salary"). In 2021, the Stach Base Salary was $387,600.00.The Stach Third Amendment increases the Stach Base Salary to $410,500.00 for2022, which is a $22,900.00 increase from 2021. 2

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Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

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Edgar Online, source Glimpses

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COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE TRUST INC : Change in Directors or Principal Officers, Financial Statements and Exhibits (form 8-K) - marketscreener.com

In all the excitement about the metaverse and its potential for brands, its easy to forget that its actually nothing new. Weve seen new digital frontiers make their debut beforeparticularly Second Life in the early 2000s. It led to a brand rush of heavy hitters including GM, Leo Burnett and others but failed to pave the way for virtual marketing.

The metaverse is certainly more viable now. As with so much of the internet, Moores Lawthat the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit and, hence, their capability, doubles about every two yearsis at play here. The advances of computing power make the creation and usage of 3D spaces easier and more accessible. More people have computers and phones that can access these without jarring rendering. Also, Gen Z and Generation Alpha are growing up in virtual worlds in a way no previous generation haswith Fortnite and Roblox going mainstream and blockchain technologies such as NFTs making waves. Then theres the pandemic, which resulted in more people stuck at home looking for connection.

The metaverse has been set up to scratch the itch of socialization in a way that didnt exist until this moment. Still, that doesnt make it an easy win for brandsthey can still find themselves on the outside looking in if they cant find a way to organically participate in these new virtual communities.

Brands learned these same lessons on the rocky road to understanding how to market on social media. In the early days, social media marketing was seen as risky, with brands participating in ways that ranged from awkward to bizarre. It was only later that they truly began to understand the communities and rules of the new world. To avoid more missteps with the metaverse, brands must apply the lessons of social and take these steps to bring value in these early, formative days:

When it comes to the metaverse, many brands may think its a time to sit back and see what happens. Instead, they should be building connections with the creators and audiences there or risk falling behind. The history of each new social platform, from Facebook to TikTok, is filled with brands that thought they had time to spare, only to end up struggling to gain traction once the platform became oversaturated.

Since the metaverse is probably the biggest change to the internet since the birth of social media, caution seems to make sense. But especially in these early days, the brands that will be successful will be the ones providing tools or entertainment, helping to chart the metaverses landscape or even just learning what makes it tick.

For brands that want to mitigate risk, that may involve creating partnerships with those who have been the initial creators and early adopters, as we did with Netflix to promote the art heist doc-series This is a Robbery or Adidas did in its collaboration with the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

One of many hurdles in successfully building a brand on social media is knowing who you are trying to reach so that you can offer the right content. But this is an especially important step for the metaverse because there is no singular metaverse right nowrather a lot of virtual spaces each with different audiences. Brands need to familiarize themselves with the various key players and look for opportunitiesones that match the people who are participating in those specific spaces with the biggest opportunities for their brands.

Theres no shortcut to getting to know audiences. You have to be a consumer first. It comes across as inauthentic and jarring to those passionate about the space when a brand tries to do something without having first learned what the norms are that govern the communities. From there, brands can start to come up with strategic and creative ideas that are additive to the ecosystem and dont just come across as a brand trying to cash in on the latest trend.

Once an audience is better understood, these spaces also provide a huge opportunity for brands to engage with audiences online and build communities in a new way. We saw this last year with Animal Crossing as brands began building spaces and hosting events within that world. We should expect this to be more constant as both individuals and brands themselves become more immersed within the metaverse.

One of the things thats so exciting about the metaverse is that the rate of change and progress is happening so quickly that nobody really knows where were headed. Its exciting because were at the forefront of a new technology and so many people have the ability to be the catalyst of change. TikTok, Snapchat, and other social platforms followed similar pathswith the unknown giving way to a set of identities, best practices and rules largely defined by the users.

When you start to remove the parameters often in place, it creates opportunities to do something truly unique. As Facebook and likely other social platforms begin to focus within this space, we could see big integrations between their existing platforms and these new digital worlds, creating even more opportunities. Will there be difficult and uncertain times along the way? Almost certainly. But TikToks brand viability was being seriously debated as recently as a year ago. Now its starting to be seen as a staple of social marketing budgets. The metaverse may provide a similar trajectory and level of opportunity. But brands will have to start experimenting to find out.

Original post:
Getting the metaverse rightcan the lessons of social marketing guide brands? - AdAge.com

Panelists included, from left: Matt Pavlick, president at GRO Marketing; Michael Newton, CEO of Swarm; Leslie Cole-Gallant, vice president of strategic initiatives with The Pivotal Cos.; and Alison Slager, national business development executive for LeaseLabs by RealPage.

DALLAS It comes as no surprise that digital marketing and chiefly, marketing via social media is one of the best ways to reach potential new renters in the student housing space. Students spend a massive amount of their downtime scrolling through various social media platforms, from TikTok to Instagram.

And while a focus on digital marketing within the sector has been seen for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic brought an even greater emphasis on the space by eradicating opportunities for traditional marketing methods such as in-person events and tours.

In December, a panel of marketing specialists discussed whats hot and whats not for social media marketing at InterFace Conference Groups third annual LeaseCon/TurnCon conference in Dallas.

According to a 2021 survey noted by panel moderator Alison Slager, national business development executive for LeaseLabs by RealPage, 79 percent of marketers used paid ads across social media platforms. With marketing budgets tightening, its important to know what resonates with todays students to ensure all marketing dollars are well spent.

Instagram

Panelists agreed that the most dominant social media marketing platform is currently Instagram, particularly with its recent addition of Reels, a tool which allows users to post short-form videos.

Instagram is likely going to be the most dominant platform for the foreseeable future, so it is important that owners and operators understand how the platform is evolving while formulating their marketing strategy, said Michael Newton, CEO of Swarm.

Instagram is planning for several changes over the next year, one of which is a transition in how the platform displays content. Theres a huge change coming up where the company is going back to a chronological feed, said Newton. That flips your marketing strategy upside down if youre working with Instagram now, and it will be the biggest change in marketing for the upcoming leasing year.

As it stands currently, the platform utilizes an algorithm that is written to suppress your posts unless youre paying money, according to Newton. With a chronological timeline, the best way to get noticed will be to post as much as possible three to five times a day in order to really create impressions. This reversion back to a chronological feed is going to allow companies to hustle and get their name out there with a huge reach just by putting in the work, he said.

Another recent change is that Instagram will now allow any user to post a link in their story, where in previous years links could only be included if you had over 10,000 followers. Matt Pavlick, president at GRO Marketing, recently utilized this tool while launching the companys new website and was able to garner 380 website hits in a short amount of time.

Its a given that if any of your properties are posting anything, you have to include links, said Pavlick. Instagram has also rolled out a tool where you can collaborate with another account for posts. If your property has 3,000 followers and an influencer has 5,000 followers, the potential reach is 8,000 followers for a collaborative post, so you can more than double your views. Both are free tools that garner exposure.

TikTok

TikTok, a social media platform where viewers can watch short-form personal videos, was noted by the panel as the most up-and-coming marketing platform.

It really has changed the way we consume content, especially for Generation Z, noted Newton. That does not necessarily mean that you need to make TikToks about your property, but quick, short-form videos are how students want to consume your content. Anything that is too long or takes any sort of effort is going to hurt you.

When posting to social media, Leslie Cole-Gallant, vice president of strategic initiatives with The Pivotal Cos., noted that transparency, creating a genuine connection and having a face behind your brand are the most important considerations.

Let residents and potential future residents know that you are their resource and that they can really connect with you when they enter the leasing office, she said. If residents have seen members of your leasing office in funny TikTok videos, theyre going to dart to those people immediately because they know them and have an established connection. Leasing and marketing efforts need to have a bond.

Newton agreed, noting that content personalization makes a huge impact when looking to connect with the current generation of students via social media. There is a strategy that we have rolled out at almost every property weve worked with that was willing to try it and 100 percent of the time it works very well, he said.

If you are doing any sort of organic outbound marketing on social media where you are finding students and sending them direct messages, try having one of your team members who has a happy, outgoing personality send a 10-second video instead mentioning their name, continued Newton.

For example, Hi Ashley, I saw youre a student at UTK. Were having a pool party event. You should swing by. Thats how Gen Z wants to be communicated with. When weve sent out that sort of message, its very rarely seen and ignored. Its often either liked, or sometimes students respond back with a video message, and thats then a very warm, organic contact.

And while conversation regarding marketing often focuses on digital, Pavlick of GRO noted that he anticipates the incorporation of in-person events to be very successful for this upcoming leasing season.

People are absolutely tired of Zoom calls and still appreciate personal touch, he said. I believe in-person events are going to work for this upcoming fall. In a sea of everyone scrapping and clawing to get your attention and buying consideration, reaching out personally, like through a video or through an in-person event, is going to stand out from the pack.

Katie Sloan

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InterFace Panel Names What's Hot for Social Media Marketing in the Student Housing Sector - REBusinessOnline

Unlike other video platforms, which have traditionally emphasized creating for sound off environments in order to maximize your viewing opportunities, TikTok has repeatedly noted that sounds is crucial to the user experience, and that marketers need to consider audio as an equally significant element as the visuals in their clips if not more so in some respects.

Underlining this, TikTok has launched a new insights series that will explore the importance of sound in clips, and provide more context as to how and why brands need to consider sound as a key part of their overall branding effort.

You can read the first post in TikToks Evolution of Sound series here, but in this post, well look at some of the key notes.

First off, TikTok reiterates that 9 out of 10 users view sound as being vital to the TikTok experience. For brands specifically, TikTok says that its research has shown that brand linkage and recall increase by over 8xwhen distinctive brand sounds are leveraged in ads, compared to other elements like slogans and logos.

Thats a hugely significant stat, which clearly underlines why brands need to consider their audio elements, in order to maximize brand awareness and resonance.

TikTok further reiterates this, with internal data showing that sound can boost brand engagement, while music also plays a key role in user response.

Again, if youve been aligning your video creation processes with other platforms, like Facebook, which, in the past, has specifically recommended that brands create for sound off environments, your approach to TikTok needs to be different, as sound is a key element that can significantly boost user response to your content.

Really, youre approach to TikTok should be entirely different, and aligned with the organic content trends in the app. If you want to win on TikTok, the best way to build for the platform is to immerse yourself in the content thats being posted on the platform, so you can get a feel for how people are engaging in the app, specifically, and how your brand messaging will fit.

With this in mind, TikTok poses three key questions for marketers in mapping out an audio-inclusive strategy:

Again, on TikTok, audio should be considered as significant a branding element as your visuals, and TikTok outlines several ways in which you can research and develop your audio branding approach.

Some key considerations for your TikTok branding approach, and with more brands set to add TikTok into their digital marketing mix in 2022, with the app on track to reach 1.5 billion users, its important that if you are looking to stand out to TikTok users, that audio is a top of mind element.

You can read the first post in TikToks Evolution of Sound series here.

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TikTok Shares New Insights into the Importance of Audio in Brand Marketing - Social Media Today