As the year and our course comes to an end, I found myself reflecting on how much has changed in social media and digital marketing just in a year. This also led me to do some research prediction for 2015 and here is a summary of predictions from websites such as Mashable, Social Media Today and Offerpop.

1. Google+ Will be Extinct: Personally I was quite surprised by this, probably because I still have hope that google can turn it around. However, since launching in 2011, it still hasn’t quite kicked off especially for brands and at the moment it could go either way for Google but it seems majority of sites predict in the near future no longer exist
2. Mobile Payments becoming mainstream: It is no surprise with developments of the google wallet and features of the iphone 6 that mobile payments are on the rise and will surely increase in 205.
3. 50% of web sales to come from social media: with an increase of people being more inclined to buy from a brand’s Facebook page, it is expected that from 2015 each year will bring approximately $30 billion of social media commerce sales.
4. Video will be number one: it should be obvious by now that unique content is so important for a strong social presence. Video is predicted to be the number one marketing tool that brands will expand to in 2015.
5. Mobile will take over computer internet usage: likely driven by the introduction of the phablet, mobile is predicted to take over which has been said for quite some time, 2015 could see this as a reality.

 

One of my favourite parts of working in a communications agency was when we got to brainstorm new ideas for a new client or new product launches. Once we started to have an increase in new clients and continuous product launches the more and more we met for creativity brainstorms. I often found that it wasn’t a very comfortable environment to express ideas that are outside of the digital ideas that were always in mind. This got me researching and thinking of ways to foster creativity in the workforce which I think is a particularly important part of a workforce when working with online content. Taking these things in mind can sure avoid creative ideas being stale.

1. Brief in Advance: before a group brainstorm, make sure each member has adequate time to think about the brief and come up with ideas as inspiration can come from various things and ideas can spark at the most unexpected time.
2. Reward Creativity: Employees will have little motivation if they feel their ideas will never be used so it is important to reward them so that they can think outside of the box.
3. Allow of Anonymity: Not all people are comfortable with expressing their ideas in front of a group of people and they may the best ideas. Allow for anonymity by perhaps allowing people to submit their ideas in written form into an online file or a suggestions box.
4. Support Creativity: if you are a manager it is important to remember to not shut down any ideas during a brainstorming session. Ideas often bounce off each other and if they are shut down, it can stop most people from contributing in fear of disapproval. Support creativity by allowing for interchange of thoughts and diversity.
5. Colour in the office: Inject the office with colour this can be by paintings, furnishings and lights. Certain colours such as blues and greens are said to be inspiring for creative thoughts so consider adding splashes of these colours around the office.

 

Below is an infographic that further highlights why the above points are important in the workforce.

 

After our crash course in personal branding last week, I reflected on my own branding and how I could improve on it. I remembered a conversation with my old boss on how much they will review a person online before even considering hiring them, she confirmed that it is true, they will check all social media platforms and websites that are related to you before even considering you for an interview. I started to review all my channels and make sure my privacy settings were appropriate, most things were kept private that needed to be and my linked in gave away enough information to be recognised. After this course, there were some key takeaways that I will surely be doing when I start applying for new jobs.

 

 

1. Consistency across your social media channels: Keep things like your profile picture and your interests the same across your social media channels so a potential employer can recognize that it is you and that you truly have a passion and are not just stating it on your LinkedIn profile to get the job you want.
2. Have your own website: Having your own website can really capture what you have accomplished and who you are. It can act as a support to your interests or hobbies although it can also act as an online CV.
3. Define your purpose: Your tagline on LinkedIn, twitter and any other networks or websites you use should clearly define what you are all about and detail your expertise and interests. No one will hire you if you cannot be enthusiastic about your passions online as you would be as an employee.
4. Keep your profiles fresh: don’t let your profiles go stale, it is important to keep relevant by updating your profiles continuously. Keep them fresh by also sharing relevant content and getting in touch with influencers in your desired industry.

In the past few classes, we have really focused on the power of listening when starting out on social media. It is difficult to ever know what your audience wants or will engage with if you begin your social media strategy by just throwing content at your followers. The beauty of HootSuite is that it makes it easy for brands to monitor the conversations that are going on within the brand’s industry. We can track these conversations through location and using certain hashtags or specific searchers. Being able to then understand how others are talking about your brand, industry or products can help you connect to the right people who are most likely to engage.

 

By listening and monitoring particular conversations you can engage with the right people which can ultimately lead to a stronger social media presence. One thing in particular that often stands out for me personally, is when a brand can answer or respond to any comments made on their social pages. For example, A & W do an excellent job of this even when there are negative comments, they still manage to engage with everyone. It makes the experience more personal and can make the person feel less like a statistic. In addition, listening is extremely important for localisation. As more and more brands want to introduce their products into new countries, it is often comment to mirror the same content from their original location. However, this can lead to less engagement as the brand won’t resonate with the people or the culture unless they begin with listening and monitoring conversations.

 

Recently Facebook had announced its new app called Rooms where users do not have to use their real name and form group discussions. The app takes homage to the early days of the internet where we used chat rooms and forums.

Rooms allows users to choose the appearance of the Room and determines who gets to join it. It is a remix of Reddit, Instagram and old school chatrooms with the ability to remain anonymous and being able to share photos and videos. Users can also invite other users to discussion groups by sending them the unique QR code below.

 

What is great about rooms is that the moderator can choose to invite a certain group of people or make it public and they also have the ability to remove people from discussions. The moderator of the group can also add age filters, allow post approval and decide how discoverable the group is.The moderator’s role ultimately determines the privacy of the group however it will be interesting to see how trusted this group is with Facebook’s lack of privacy trust.

 

 

You can download and try the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rooms-create-something-together/id924643029

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/24/facebook-chat-room-rooms-iphone-app 

 

A few weeks back I had a new type of post pop up in my Instagram feed from Instagram themselves. It stated that I can expect to get sponsored posts in the coming weeks and can hide them if they bother me. My initial reaction was a negative one and didn’t want to see sponsored content from anyone I didn’t already follow. Although, when I got my first post, It didn’t bother me at all when in fact, I started to think how this is a great thing for brands.

Instagram sponsored posts  is a great way to get more creative and catch the eye of someone scrolling through the newsfeed.  What Ben & Jerry’s have done is create several aesthetically pleasing and professional looking photos and appears to have targeted different photos to different people. I started looking into what other people are seeing and t was surprised to see that Ben & Jerry’s had created such a variety of sponsored posts and I have only received these two:

 

Both of these posts appeared several days apart and are the only sponsored posts I have seen so far and both times they have caught my eye.  I am looking forward to seeing other brands roll out their sponsored posts.

 

With the ease of social media automation, it is more tempting than ever to auto schedule or automate messages on our social platforms. Many companies do this right and for the right reasons, but there are also many brands who use the automation in a harmful way to their business.  It is important to understand that your followers do not want to be seen as just a number and prefer to have a unique and personal experience with their brand, which is likely why they follow you. When it comes to social media automation there are many guidelines out there on the dos and don’ts of social media.  According to Hootsuite, here are some things to consider:

Do:

• Schedule your posts before you go on vacation
• Use automation tools to find out the best time to post
• Add a personal touch to your scheduled messages

 

Don’t:

• Auto direct messages should not be a part of your social media strategy
• Scheduled messages should not be the same for each social channel
• don’t forget to read the articles you are automating

 

The importance of these dos and don’ts have been further highlighted recently by Social Media Today. They really pinpoint on the importance of personal touch and the use of different messages for different social networks. If we look at Facebook and set up automatic Tweets from Facebook, it can look something like this:

Not only is this extremely annoying, but it doesn’t give me any indication of what the photo is about or why I should click the link.

The main point is to create a different strategy for each channel and to make it personal. Don’t make your followers feel like a number.

 

After our website audit assignment and looking at several different websites in the beer brewing business, there was one thing that I found that was rare among most websites and that was bringing in their brand personality to the website design.  I started doing some research on ways in which businesses can bring their personality on to their web site.  Besides language, images and typography there are some essential elements that are often missing as below and noted here.

Bringing personality to your website allows for the viewer to have an emotional connection with your brand which will entice them and understand the type of experience they will have with your brand. Your website acts as one of your most important online marketing tools and it should be informative but with a unique flare.

What are some ways to bring brand personality to a website?

• A Blog:

o   Start Business blogging, this will help viewers understand you from the language that you choose to use and the news and content you write about. Ensure your blog is linked to your website and on the same platform, so that users are not taken to another page which can cause confusion and distance from the overall brand image.

• Your Social Media Buttons

o   Get creative with your social media buttons, use one’s that can reflect your brands but are still recognizable.

• About Us page

o   Show viewers more about you and who is behind the brand on your about us page. Be sure to include pictures and interests of the people behind the business. Viewers will be able to grasp the personalities of its owners and expect when they are welcomed in store if human contact is a part of their business.

 

• Website Navigation

Create something that makes you stand out but is still intuitive. It is important to not to make the viewer unsure of where to find the appropriate information fast.

 

 

For more details on brand personality and web design:

http://writtent.com/blog/7-ways-to-infuse-your-company-website-with-brand-personality/ 

http://spyrestudios.com/personality-in-web-design/

http://designshack.net/articles/business-articles/how-to-find-or-create-your-brand-personality/ 

I recently read that ESPN is re-launching their website with the mentality of mobile- use in their design. ESPN provide the perfect example of the importance of web design and modification of web design overtime. The full article from Mashable can be read here:

http://mashable.com/2014/09/15/espn-com-is-launching-a-major-redesign-and-heres-an-early-look/

Below are images of what the website looks like now and what it will look like when it officially launches in 2015. It is clear that ESPN have taken into consideration the amount of visitors are on their website using a mobile or tablet platform.

 

 

If we briefly examine the 7cs of design in this sneak peek, we can see what ESPN has considered and executed well in their new design.

1. Context: Referring to the layout and design of the website, the new design has a much sleeker look with easy to read texts, easy navigation and less clutter on the homepage. The background is an off white which makes the content and navigation clearer than ever before. Overall the website has become more aesthetically pleasing and intuitive.
2. Content: The content appears to be very similar and has a great amount of diverse content on both the desktop and mobile versions including, scores, news and videos as well as the ability to watch and listen live.
3. Community: ESPN has always been great at building a relationship with their digital audience with polls, customization and integrated apps. Although these sneak peeks don’t say too much about their community interaction, there is assurance these will remain on the website. I would love to see social media feeds on the desktop version and icon links to their social channels on the mobile version.
4. Customization: Users are able to customize their favourite teams and content around those teams will be delivered on the left column of the desktop version and as well as a stream on the mobile version. The article also mentions that
5. Communication: With the removal of clutter on the desktop and mobile version, the communication from ESPN to audience will improve significantly. Despite having the
6. Connection: Without testing the site, it is difficult to determine if there will be any new links to external websites or applications.  The current webpage does have links to applications, advertisements and a shop which will likely remain.
7. Commerce:  This sneak peek appears to have the shop button removed from the top of the screen so we can only wait to test out if the site will still have the e-commerce store linked to Dick’s Sporting Goods webpage.

 

 

 

I have been working with influential bloggers in the beauty and fashion industry for approximately four years now and it has been very exciting to see the growth and influence that bloggers have today. Not only does this influence effect consumers but it also has had a strong effect on how brands will approach their marketing strategies and advertising spend.

One of the most interesting things I have come across as a marketing strategist is convincing a successful matured brand that digital media and working with bloggers is a better investment over the investment in print media. To me, print is dead.  Next time you are on public transport or even a café, look around and take note of  how many people are looking at a newspaper or magazine, I bet there will be more people looking at their mobile phone or laptop.

Companies can spend up to $15,000 an issue for a one page ad that will eventually end up in the bin. Alternatively, that $15,000 could be distributed across some of the most influential people in the world to post about your brand on their website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest which has longevity and generally a wider reach of trusted and targeted consumers.  From experience, as soon as one of these influential bloggers posts something related to a brand, you will see an increase in following on the brand’s social media channels as well as traffic to their websites which will lead to purchases. It is important to remember at the end of the day, it is not always about growth on social channels and recognition, rather the primary focus for the client is cash flow.

I am really excited about the blogging industry as statistics show that they are a great purchase influence. According to the Technorati June 2013 report, blogs ranked as the third influence to purchases below retail websites and brand websites.