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#MarketingTitbits – Tagging On Instagram, Tips From Obama’s Marketing Team & YouTube 8 Years On

Instagram introduces taggingIf you are a Facebook user, you’ll be familiar with tagging. Social media picture sharing app Instagram has now introduced the feature to its platform, which enables users to tag anything or anyone that has an Instagram username, in an image.

This includes people, places, companies and brands.

The new feature potentially opens up the opportunity of free advertising for companies and brands; who will no doubt be keen to tap into this new tool to build awareness and loyalty.

For those of you unfamiliar with Instagram, find out more here. The social media app’s engagement statistic make a compelling argument for taking it seriously – every second over 8,500 photos are liked and over 1,000 comments are posted on Instagram.

 

10 marketing lessons from Barak Obama’s CTO

When Barack Obama secured his 2nd term as US President, many commentators pointed to his team’s mastery of the digital marketing arena, as a key foundation for his success.

At the recent DMA Technology Summit in London, Harper Reed, Chief Technology Officer for Obama’s 2012 campaign, outlined the winning strategy and techniques that helped Obama to extend his presidency into a 2nd term. These have been distilled into 10 key points byMarketing magazine’s Nicola Kemp, including:

1. Building a great team

2. Embracing diversity

3. Focusing on user experience

4. Facilitating community

To find out more about each point and see the full list, click here.

 

YouTube 8 Years on

On April 23rd this year, YouTube turned 8 years old. It is hard to believe even its founders foresaw its impact on society across the globe. The statistics are mind blowing:

  • In excess of  1 billion unique users each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video viewed every month
  • 72 hours of video uploaded every minute
  • YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages

The first, somewhat uninspiring, video uploaded to YouTube was entitled ‘Me at the zoo’ and was posted by YouTube founder Jawed Karim.

The current most viewed video in YouTube history, with an incredible 1.5 billion + views, is South Korean pop sensation Psy’s Gangnam Style video. Who knows how long it will be before Psy is knocked off top spot, what is certain is that it will happen and the video in question will make its owner a very wealthy individual!

 

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#MarketingTitbits – Looking to brush up on your technical skills? Great apps everyone is talking about right now and books on marketing!

Looking to brush up on your Photoshop skills?
If you’d like to develop your creative and technical skills in a cost-effective way, then take a look at this great website with over 1,900 video courses in a range of topics from design and photography to Adobe and Microsoft. They even let you trial it for free for 7 days to see how you get on.

It has some nice features, like unlimited access to all the courses available and the list keeps growing. It accommodates all levels of expertise, from beginner to expert. You can share courses with your friends or colleagues and perhaps most useful of all, you can access the videos on a computer, tablet or mobile device and switch between them for your convenience.

Good luck!

http://www.lynda.com/

 

Apps everyone is talking about right now

It seems there is an app for everything right now and with the app market valued earlier this year by the Wall Street Journal at $25 billion, the rate at which they come into the marketplace is only going to increase.

To help point you in the right direction of the ones worth knowing about, we found this interesting article about 15 apps that everyone is talking about right now. From Park Me, an app that helps users find places to park nearby, to Tempo, a ‘smart calendar’ app that helps you organise your day better and the likes of Candy Crush and Vine in-between.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apps-everyone-is-talking-about-right-now-2013-7

 

Top 10 marketing books of all time

Like the app market, the sales, marketing and business book market is saturated with publications of varying degrees of usefulness. Life is too short to waste it reading poor books, so we always try to pass on recommendations of books worth spending your precious time on.

With this in mind, if you’re looking to read up on your marketing this summer and want some books for light reading on the beach, we’ve found this useful article on the top 10 marketing books of all time. Have a read and let us know what you think!

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/top-10-marketing-books-of-all-time_1.html

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#MarketingTitbits – Facebook campaigns by Ikea, ‘Brick by Brick’ and tips on being social media savvy from Richard Branson.

1. Six awesome examples of Facebook campaigns by Ikea
Ikea is the world’s largest furniture retailer, amassing sales last year of £186 billion, selling ready to assemble furniture in 38 countries around the world. Unsurprisingly, Ikea has managed to attain a pretty impressive social media fan base over the years with millions of Facebook fans and hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, particularly impressive for a furniture retailer!

We found this great article, which showcases six inspirational examples of Facebook campaigns from Ikea. To have a look click here.

 

2. What can your company learn from Lego?

Founded in 1932, Lego is one of the oldest plastic toys in the world. Today, Lego is an iconic brand and one of the most successful and popular toys of all time, with 80 Lego bricks for every one man, woman and child on the plant today!

David Robertson’s new book, Brick by Brick, tells the story of the family owned company from Denmark, about how they grew steadily for years until the 1990s, when they struggled to compete with new technologies. The book follows Lego through the harder times, when in 2003 they nearly went bankrupt, with the company seeing its biggest loss in history. However, Lego managed to save itself and companies of all sizes can learn a lot from David Robertson’s account of the journey.

http://www.robertsoninnovation.com/brick-by-brick/

3. Richard Branson on being social media savvy

Sir Richard Branson is perhaps the most familiar current British entrepreneur on the world stage. He is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group and began his very first business venture at the ripe old age of 16. However, to achieve his success he has had to keep up with the times, something that he has done incredibly successfully.

Despite being 63 years old, there are many things that we can learn about being social media savvy from Richard Branson and he regularly shares his advice and business experience with anyone and everyone who is willing to take it.

We have found this article that highlights Richard Branson’s main points around how to harness social media and we think it is really worth a read. If you would like to read more thenclick here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Stella Artois gifting app, some humorous Twitter accounts and 35 books that everyone should read..

  1. Stella Artois launches social media gifting app

Stella Artois, the Belgium larger company who have been brewing larger since 1926, have been notorious for their advertising for years.  Their distinctive European cinematic style shows that their marketing is well thought out and inspiring, they have even used notable directors for their television campaigns, such as Jonathan Glazer.

This year Stella Artois released a new app which lets users send gifts to their friends. Users can buy a voucher code and send it to their friend who can then use it at participating bars and pubs to buy one pint of Stella Artois.

To read the full article from Marketing Week then click here.

2. 10 branded Twitter accounts that raise a laugh

Twitter is now the second most popular social networking site in the world with 500million users and nearly all of the top brands have a Twitter account. However, some brands that are on Twitter still haven’t mastered the art of engaging with customers in conversation on Twitter! If you’re in need of some inspiration on how to create conversations with your customers on Twitter, then have a look at this article we found from Econsultancy, they’ve highlighted some of the brands on Twitter that have a sense of humour and like a laugh.

3. 35 books everyone should read at least once in their lifetime

Oscar Wilde once said “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” For that reason we thought we’d share with you a list of 35 books that everyone should read in their lifetime – at least once.

From a heart wrenching lecture from a dying American professor to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we think this article is well worth a read, not to mention the books on the list. To have a look click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Hootsuite, shopping and Science World

1. Hootsuite – for begginers
If you haven’t heard of Hootsuite already then it is about time that you did. The social media management site now has 7 million users in over 175 countries around the world. It is basically a website that allows users to integrate all their social media channels and control posts across them; particularly handy for businesses.

This week, we’ve found a great article on Mashable entitled ‘A beginner’s guide to Hootsuite’. If you don’t already have Hootsuite or a struggling with it then we suggest you check it out. To read the article click here.

2. How is shopping changing in the future?

The way that we do our shopping is changing rapidly. More people shop online now than they ever have before, especially the generation of 14-19 year olds. This week we came across a very interesting article in Marketing Week that explores how the face of shopping is changing and how brands can and need to keep up with it. To have a look at the article click here.

3. Wonderfully creative adverts from Science World Vancouver

The Science World Museum in Vancouver is notorious for its slightly controversial exhibits –Body Worlds and The Science of Sexuality exhibitions being just two examples that courted controversy. This risqué and alternative attitude extends into their marketing. They are now known across Vancouver for their innovative and attention grabbing campaigns. They have amassed a vast array of eye-catching and intelligent adverts that have been used around the city to raise awareness. We think they are brilliant, so thought we’d share some with you. To have a look at some of them and get inspired click here.

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What your SME can learn from social media

Last month, we introduced the first instalment of our three part blog, ‘What SMEs can learn from big businesses’. Part 1 highlighted ‘Guerrilla marketing’ and how larger organisations are adopting innovative campaigns in order to raise brand awareness and create that vital social buzz.  This month, part 2 focuses on social media and how more and more companies are including the likes of Facebook and Twitter into their marketing mix to help grow their business and attract potential customers.

Out of the total 7 billion people living on the planet, 1.5 billion use social media. From Twitter and Facebook to Google+ and Pinterest, social media has now become ingrained into our contemporary lifestyles, making it easier to engage and share content with individuals online, no matter what the social and geographical boundaries. But social media is no longer just influencing our personal lives; one in three businesses now use social media, with 58% of consumers ‘liking’ at least one brand on Facebook.

Companies are now harnessing the power of social media to build their brands within the landscape of status updates, pins and tweets. To create successful social media campaigns, an investment of time is essential. However, this alone is not enough. A note of caution – it is easy to rush into tweeting and posting pictures, without really understanding why you are doing it and what you hope to achieve. Like any marketing activity, researching, planning and implementing strategies are critical to turning a great idea into great results.

Here are some good and bad examples how some well known companies have used social media to engage with their audience.

1. In October 2012, Cisco, the multinational networking equipment giant, wanted to make sure that they were listening to their customers and responding to questions and queries in ways that were relevant and accurate. With this in mind, Cisco launched their Social Media Listening Centre. On a daily basis, the centre monitors around 5,000 social mentions across 70 company-related platforms, from Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn and YouTube, to company blogs and forums. According to a recent independent evaluation of these listening activities, Cisco achieved a 281% return on their investment over a 5-month period, amounting to an annual cost benefit of over just over £991 million. This was calculated by comparing what Cisco spent on implementing and training staff to use social marketing tool with the benefits received, the avoidance of marketing and customer service costs to achieve the same results, along with indirect benefits, such as increased staff productivity. The results indicated that the new centre helped Cisco employees deal with more enquiries at a faster rate.

2. To celebrate their 100th anniversary, Oreo posted 100 adverts on their Facebook page over 100 days. During the campaign, Oreo’s Facebook friends went up from 26million to 27million and its Facebook interactions increased by 195%. The posts included relevant topics, quotes about Oreos, humorous cartoons and even Oreo themed recipes. The time invested in developing their Facebook campaign paid off as Oreo won the top Studio Award prize from Facebook.

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3. However, interacting closely with consumers online can backfire if you have not planned your campaign successfully.  Earlier this year, Tesco posted on their Facebook page “Click LIKE if you love getting your groceries delivered.” Alongside people liking the post, there were numerous comments from customers explaining their bad experiences with Tesco’s home delivery service. Tesco did not ignore or delete the comments, instead they responded to every single user, asking for details so they could look into each case and try and solve the problem.

4. Unfortunately, Waitrose’s attempt at #hashtags wasn’t exactly what they had planned either. In 2012, Waitrose invited customers to complete the sentence ‘I shop at Waitrose because… #WaitroseReasons’.  What Waitrose thought was a great way to showcase the affordability of the brand backfired, with Twitter users mocking the brands position within the market and their target audience. For example, ‘I shop at Waitrose because it makes me feel important and I absolutely detest being around poor people #WaitroseReasons. ‘I shop at Waitrose because I was once in the Holloway Rd branch and heard a dad say ‘Put the papaya down, Orlando!’

For a company embarking on using social media as part of their marketing, the seemingly endless choice and possibilities can see daunting. However, adopting the right platforms to represent your brand is important.  Twitter and Facebook are good for creating conversations with customers and responding to queries, complaints or praise. For the brands that are more visual, sites like Pinterest and Instagram provide an array of creative opportunities. The key to successful social media isn’t just about how many fans, followers or mentions you have, instead the secret to building your brand is the interaction between your business and your online community. For your campaigns to run smoothly, creating a social media strategy is essential. It will help your brand stay in the right direction, generate a return on investment, as well as increase your visibility online.

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What SMEs need to know to market effectively in 2014 – seminar summary

Image3-2Last week, TLC Business hosted our annual marketing seminar at Southampton Science Centre. This year we focused on ‘Marketing for SMEs in 2014’. The guests were treated to a working lunch, tackling a range of hot topics on marketing for SMEs. As promised, we have created a blog outlining some of the main themes we explored on the day, so you don’t miss out!
Digital vs. traditional marketing

15 years ago the term ‘digital marketing’ did not even exist showing just how fast technology is moving and how important it is for marketers to keep up. The debate of which type of marketing is more important has been around for just as long and every marketing professional will have their own opinion.

The statistics around digital marketing channels are compelling. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. So if you’re not already blogging, perhaps you should be thinking about it. Regarding social media, 52% of marketers said they have found a customer on Facebook and 43% on LinkedIn.  In terms of influence, surveys have found 63% of readers are more likely to be influenced by blogs over magazines. These are just 3 examples from a plethora of impressive statistics as to the effectiveness of ‘digital marketing’.

However, despite all the focus on digital marketing, in 2013 digital budgets are forecast to account for just 20% of overall marketing spends and TV, press and outdoor advertising was up 3.4% in the third quarter of 2013.

So what did we conclude? Two main points:

1. If you’re not at least planning on how to use ‘digital marketing’ in your business you should be, because your competitors are likely to already be reaping the rewards.

2. We would argue that the term ‘digital marketing’ has become extinct in any case. So intrinsic are digital channels in one’s overall marketing mix that to imply it is somehow distinct from ‘marketing’ in general is outdated. Digital is so important that it cannot be left out!

The rules of SEO

Over the last few years Google have released a number of different algorithms that enable you or I to find what we are searching for on Google. Famously coy about what companies need to do to enhance their search engine rankings, Google has worked hard with its algorithm updates to eradicate the contrived methods of SEO practitioners to artificially inflate a website’s search engine rankings.

First came Panda. Panda dealt with dubious content pages and demoted websites that attempted to dupe Google about the relevance of pages. Next came Penguin. Penguin came down hard on iffy link building, resulting in a number of big names plummeting down the rankings . And now to Hummingbird. Released towards the end of the summer this year, Hummingbird (birds famed for being precise and quick) moved the goal posts (albeit slightly) once again. Hummingbird has responded to the change in the way that Google’s users now search. It seems we are asking questions more rather than searching for terms that might link to information they want to find. Put simply, Hummingbird ‘thinks’ and ‘acts’ more like a human and recognises the intent (semantic meaning) behind the search phrase.

The best way we have heard the subtle shift in intent from Google described is the following; currently we have ‘search’ engines – Google wants to become an ‘Answer ‘engine.

It is helpful to keep this in mind when creating your content. Consider creating tutorials, ‘how-to’ guides, explanations and general content that provides solutions to challenges in your industry or that your target audience might be experiencing.

How to make your marketing work more effectively

The first rule for making your marketing work more effectively is to know your market. Do you know what competitors are out there and what they are doing.

What about your target audience? Have you established they actually want and value what your business provides? Have you reviewed the demographics; where are they located, what segments exist, what type of marketing is most influential to them. For instance, a 20 year old might find social media marketing a lot more influential than a 70 year old.

The future is never clear and forecasts, even from experts, might never come true. Despite this, it is still important to look to the future when thinking about your marketing. What changes are taking place in the marketplace? How are consumer purchasing habits changing? What technology is becoming available to utilise in your business or your marketing? A lot of the time the information you are looking for is already out there, it is just a question of finding it!

Moving with the times

The pace of change in the marketing sector can feel daunting at times, leaving some to cling to old familiar channels and ignore potentially effective ones in the process. Making an effort to ensure you move with the times is very important. It might not always be appropriate for your sector or audience but the very nature of establishing that is a useful process in itself to better understand your audience.

The annual B2B Buyersphere Report was reviewed and illustrated the different types of social media that are being used by B2B buyers currently. Somewhat surprisingly, Google + came out on top, indicating that perhaps Google’s social media offering is beginning to gain traction.

The presentation looked at the rise of ‘Moment Marketing’, where marketers respond to real life events, in real time. Nestle, Nandos and Paddy Power demonstrated great examples of mastering this. Most importantly, SMEs, through leveraging their social media networks, can compete on an equal footing with corporate giants in the ‘Moment Marketing’ arena.

Mobile marketing was a hot topic; with staggering statistics about the adoption of smartphone – by the end of 2013 there will be more smartphones on the planet than people.

The significance of this for marketers is that more and more interactions between companies and their target audience are taking place on mobiles.

The knock on effect of this is that it is imperative that businesses design their website and content (such as emails) to be mobile friendly.

Equally significant is the rise of ‘People Power’. Mirroring the rise of social media, the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter now give the average Joe in the street a platform to reach a global audience. Marketers need to accept and embrace this rather than fear it. Businesses might not be able to exert the same control that they are used to in more traditional marketing channels but they are able to reach a far wider audience and engage in ways previously unheard of. Social media represents a massive opportunity for businesses and can no longer be ignored.

Top tips all SMEs should know

The event was rounded off with a few key tips that all marketers or those running a business should take away with them. These encompassed:

1. Knowing your audience and the market research tools you can use to do this

2. If you read two books, we recommend ‘The Psychology of Persuasion’ and ‘The E Myth Revisited’

3. Embrace email – the stats all show it works

4. Make sure your content is up to scratch

5. Get yourself on social media – whether you’re there or not we guarantee your competitors and customers will or soon will be

6. Go mobile

 

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#MarketingTitbits – Small Biz Saturday, Cow Waterbeds, Stats

SBS-Waterbeds-stats-small1. Small Business Saturday comes to the UK
Small Business Saturday is already a $5.5 billion phenomenon in the United Sates, which began in 2010. Despite this, it has only just made its way over to the UK. It’s UK debut was last Saturday (7thDecember) and it hopes to raise the profile of local UK business, encouraging shoppers to consider local businesses when purchasing.

The idea was launched by American Express who helped to introduce it to the UK. They worked hard with digital marketing alongside local authorities to promote it throughout the UK. James Caan and David Cameron are backing Small Business Saturday and we think it is a great concept! To read more, click here.

2. What you can learn from a cow waterbed company

Dean Throndsen is an American dairy farmer who has dedicated his life to the comfort of cows. Dairy cows lie down for up to 14 hours a day and in the past it has been difficult to find a way to protect them from the weather as well as giving them the ability to lie down, without getting sores on their legs.

Dean then came up with the ingenious idea of cow waterbeds. They are long lasting, practical, comfortable for the cows and hygienic. Now, we’re obviously not suggesting that you start up your own cow waterbed business, although it might not be a bad idea. We found a great article from Entrepreneur about the things that you can learn from DCC Waterbeds, to read more click here.

3. 20 impressive social media statistics

Last week we found a great article from Econsultancy, which highlighted 20 mind blowing social media statistics from 2010 compared to 2013. Did you know in 2010 Twitter had only 75 million users, it now has 883 million. To read the other 19 statistics, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Snapchat, Christmas, trends

snapchat-xmas-trends-smaller1. The brands that are rocking Snapchat
Over the last few years we have seen an increase in the number of video and photo sharing apps and social networking sites. You are probably already familiar with the likes of Instagram and Pinterest but apps such as Vine and Snapchat are being widely used by people all over the world and if you’re not already using them, you should consider it. We found a great article from Mashable to give you some inspiration that showcases 8 brands that are doing Snapchat really well. To have a look, click here.

2. Christmas Marketing: the best of 2013

Each year, for many people, the beginning of the run up to Christmas is marked by the first time they see the Coca-Cola ‘Holidays are coming’ advert on the television. More recently, the release of the John Lewis Christmas Advert seems to have become an integral part of the festive traditions. Whether you love it or hate it, Christmas inspires some creative and inspirational marketing campaigns. Have a look at some of the best Christmas marketing of 2013.

3. The biggest trends of 2013 – as announced by Facebook

Every year Facebook reveal the biggest trends of that year by gathering data, which is measured by the number of posts that mention a topic, including related hashtags. The worldwide top 10 for this year is as follows:

10. Nelson Mandela

9. Tour de France

8. Boston Marathon

7. Miley Cyrus

6. Flood

5. Harlem Shake

4. Typhoon

3. Royal Baby

2. Election

1. Pope Francis

This looks very different to the top trends of 2013 for the UK. In the number one spot came Andy Murray, with the computer game Grand Theft Auto 5 coming in at number 10.

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