As affirmed by Forbes in their analysis of the top social trends of next year, the “buy button will take over.” Most social media sites, including Twitter, confirmed this year that they were allowing buy buttons to be added to advertising posts. But what does this mean for advertisers and consumers?

The new buy button opens up a new world of possibility. By allowing consumers to tap once to buy and a second time to confirm purchase without ever leaving the app, purchasing is easier and more convenient than ever before. For advertisers, this means that they’ll be able to increase sales and conversions, if they create their campaign right.

But for businesses tackling the new buy now buttons on social media sites, it’s important to remember this quote from Gary Vaynerchuck. Marketers ruin everything.

Soon the buy now button will be just as common as a tweet with a shortened link to a buy now page, and the consumer, who has to navigate the minefield of online advertising will cease to find the buy now button as engaging as before.

Capitalize on this trend now and don’t fall behind—you’ll reap the rewards.

-N

With election now over and Justin Trudeau as our new Prime Minister, it’s interesting to look back on the marketing of his campaign.

More than any other candidate, Trudeau utilized social media to reach out to Canadians. I mean, his party even sold their own selfie sticks.

Outlined by Huffington Post, the 5 ways Justin Trudeau effectively used social media are:

1. Video Marketing

He created fun, short video clips that were easy to share and retweet with his messaging of real change consistent throughout.

2. Connection

He connected with Canadians through hashtags such as #RealChange and #GenerationTrudeau, but also through more emotional tweets and imagery that got his point across.

3. Humour

Trudeau used jokes about his hair to keep the campaign light and relatable, to remind Canadians that he’s a regular person.

4. Family

He also shared many personal posts and pictures of his family, which affirmed to us that he was a loving father and husband.

5. Response

By posting in both French and English, Trudeau’s engaged with Canadians and concentrated on increasing his social media presence when other candidates didn’t. It was worth it though, as Trudeau finished with 66K Instagram followers, Harper with 11K and Mulcair with only 7K.

Through the use of a genuine voice, authentic content and consistent messaging, Trudeau won over Canadians. More than any other candidate, Trudeau saw that reaching out to Canadians over social media was the best way to communicate that he was ambitious, trustworthy and relatable.

And it won him the vote.

– N

For a while now, whenever anyone has asked me what my favourite marketing campaign of all time is, there’s been only one answer: the Coca-Cola Share a Coke campaign.

What is it? Just the simplest, most genius campaign ever created.

Don’t mind if I do, @harrystyles

The campaign made sales rise for the first time in a decade and put Coke above their competitors by allowing customers to pick out their names on bottles.

What made this campaign so great for me though, was the user generated content that was created when it was released. On Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, you couldn’t escape people posting pictures of their coke bottles with funny captions or sentimental notes. Giving someone a Coke bottle with their name on it became seen as an awesome gift.

All that advertising was free to Coca-Cola.

Like we discussed in class, consumers are more interested in hearing the views of their peers, and that can even lead them to buy more. User generated content is great because it builds trust and awareness without just having a brand constantly post boring sales pitches.

It’s hard to get right, but when you do it can produce great results.

– N

All hail Taylor Swift, queen of Instagram. With 50 million followers, Swift just overtook Kim K to take the coveted crown of most followed on Instagram.

It’s no surprise that Taylor is number one. She’s built a devout following and become incredibly influential just by posting fun pictures of her cats, friends, and baked goods, making herself seem like a regular girl. But, we mustn’t forget that there’s clever marketing at play behind every picture.

Taylor Swift, just a regular girl with really cute cats

One of her greatest marketing achievements is her Bad Blood video campaign earlier this year, breaking the Vevo record with 20.4 million views in only 24 hours. The music video, premiering at the Billboard Music Awards, was counted down ahead of the release by branded images of the stars (mostly her friends) in the video, like Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne.

The posts created hype around the release and received hundreds of thousands of likes within hours.

Inc.com explains how to replicate Taylor’s strategy in 4 simple steps:

1. Create suspense

Taylor did it by releasing the images with not much information but still giving some away, making people excited as they didn’t know what was coming next.

2. Establish partnerships

Partnering with 15 celebrities, Taylor broadened her market to untapped areas not in her typical genre, like popular rapper Kendrick Lamar and Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo.

3. Perfect timing and execution

Even though Bad Blood was on Taylor’s album 1989 released in October 2014, she managed to make the single relevant again by showing it from a different, dark angle. Then, she posted the images every day in the 10 days leading up to the video’s release.

4. Don’t oversell

She didn’t overhype the video by not giving away too much, but it’s important not to leave the customer disappointed if you don’t have Taylor’s budget.

And here you have it. A Taylor Swift approved marketing strategy.

No bad blood here.

– N

When social media campaigns are done right, they can be great. When they’re done wrong, they can be horrible (and sometimes hilarious).

This past summer, Airbnb came out with a campaign called “Is Mankind?” featuring a baby walking through a dimly lit house and a voiceover of Angela Bassett asking if mankind is truly kind. She tells us, “Go look through their windows, so you can understand their views. Sleep in their beds, so you may know their dreams.”

It did not go well.

A well-intentioned campaign no doubt, but the underlying creepiness of the video caused the internet to have a bit of a field day.

Thousands of tweets and numerous parodies later, it just goes to show how volatile social media can be.

These days when it’s so easy for a single person to broadcast their opinions to the world on Twitter and have a huge impact, companies need to be making sure that their campaigns portray their brand in the best light and are being screened multiple times.

Social media, it can help and hurt you. It’s important to make sure the content you’re posting is right to avoid the wrong kind of viral fame.

– N

This year has been pretty insane for me, to say the least. I packed up a suitcase and moved halfway across the world to Edinburgh, where there wasn’t a single person who knew my name, to start a semester abroad. 9 months and 17 countries later, I can absolutely say that I have a whole new outlook on life.

Me in Edinburgh!

Before my exchange, I was obsessed with buying the newest things – shoes, clothes and basically every new product I could get my hands on (my credit card bill at the end of every month was not pretty!) Travelling out of a backpack and seeing amazing things made me realize this—while staring at the Eiffel Tour or drinking a bottle of wine on the Spanish Steps, I couldn’t even remember what all that stuff I bought was!

The fact that I was happier travelling through Europe with little to no money than I was constantly shopping made me realize we really don’t need that much stuff. Coming back I knew what I needed to do de-clutter my life – minimize.

Just like the clutter faced in my life, consumers are bombarded with information from every direction. That’s why minimalism is a growing trend in marketing today. Minimalist marketing tries to cut all that noise by being efficient and entertaining. How do they do that? As outlined by Emily Perry for Content Equals Money, it’s important to simply choices, establish trust, tell a story and provide valuable information.

The “modern master” for minimalism is Apple. Sleek, cool and easy-to-understand, Apple’s advertisements are to the point and always behind a neat white background.

The MacBook air advertisement above has no voice over and ends with only four words, but the viewer clearly understands the brand.

And that’s what minimalism is about – simplifying in order to be able to see things clearly.

– N