Forbes has released their updated 2015 Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2015.  The first point discussed is the rise of the new social media platform Ello. It is somewhat considered as the “anti-Facebook” platform containing no advertisements, and is likely to attract some people away from Facebook.

Organic reach in Facebook is falling, and there will likely be an increase in purchases of Facebook advertising. Companies that have accumulated large amounts of likes will want to take advantage of it, and will spend the money required to reach them through Facebook ads.

Instagram is becoming the main platform for image based sharing, and companies have said that they plan to increase their use of the platform. Along with the new Instagram advertising, companies will be able to use it to target users based on many different demographics.

Social media is growing rapidly with new platforms emerging every year that appeal to different audiences. Marketers have to learn how to adapt and use the features in each one in order to reach the largest amount of organic followers.

According to the article Targeting the Ultra Rich Chinese Tourist from Marketing Mag, we see how understanding your target market can help you modify your strategy to fit their needs.

The Chinese account for more than two thirds of luxury goods purchases and most are purchased outside of China. This is a huge segment of the market making these purchases, and it makes sense that the luxury stores worldwide will want to change their approach in order to appeal to these Chinese tourists. Not only are these luxury stores hiring people that speak multiple languages, but allowing them to purchase goods with cards from their country, it creates smoother transactions. The people making the purchases are more likely to buy more goods if it is easier to do so.

It is important to know who your largest consumer segment is, and as a company you want to do whatever you can to appeal to them. In the case of the luxury goods market, Chinese tourists account for such a large segment that it requires these extra steps in order to make sure their shopping experience is satisfactory.

Google has released a new app, Google Primer, currently only available on the iTunes App store. Google is known for their innovation and production of quality products over the years, so there’s a lot of hope for an app such as this. It is explained as a tool that rookie marketers can use to learn the basics of marketing and strategies for startups.

I know many of us are probably working with small businesses and startups for our term assignment in eMarketing, so this could potentially be a useful tool to remind us of the basics of marketing and maybe get some ideas from it. Google isn’t charging anything for this app, so I see no harm in giving it a shot and potentially getting an idea for our campaigns.

I would assume that through this app Google will try to push their existing products on users that might not be aware of them. Google has been struggling with obtaining a large audience on their social media platform, Google+, and it would be interesting if they used this as an opportunity to get small businesses to sign up and promote on it. Along with a basic introduction to Adwords, Google could potentially offset the costs of producing this app and providing it for free. It will be interesting to see what types of users this app gets, and how they plan on converting them to customers.

For more information on the release check out the Techcrunch article.

One of the last products that I thought I’d see being pushed in social media advertising are eggs. Who knew that a staple in almost everybody’s diet nowadays needed its own hashtag along with a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and most recently blog support.

Eggs Farmers of Canada went out and found three different influential bloggers that would promote eggs. They are expected to post at least once a month regarding the topic of eggs, egg recipes, etc. The three bloggers’ varying audiences will ensure that the topic of eggs reaches as many people as possible, and educates them on the benefits of eating eggs.

I never thought a program like this would be necessary, yet here we are, talking about eggs. This just goes to show that almost any product can benefit from the use of multiple social media channels in order to generate buzz and demand for a product-even if it’s something as simple as eggs.

Egg Farmers of Canada took multiple applications from different blog posters and chose from the most influential in order to get their message across. They implemented multiple social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest in order to reach the largest audience and allow connectivity between all of them. By engaging bloggers, they ensure that more people will be redirected to their current social media pages and allow for more conversations.

I read an article on Business Insider earlier today, titled “Here’s The Evidence That Google’s Search Results Are Horribly Biased.” And I immediately thought to myself, “Of course they are, why wouldn’t they be?”

The argument brought up by Yelp and Tripadvisor is that Google is putting their “Google Review” results on top of other sites that have significantly more reviews. This skews the results, as shown in a few screenshots in the article, which makes businesses with Google Reviews appear over others that are not partnered with Google.

Yelp and Tripadvisor believe that this is not fair because users should see the top reviewed businesses, and have an accurate representation of what they are like, instead of being forced to see what Google wants them to see. I personally think that what Google is doing is perfectly fine. They are company, like many others, that wants to make money. And how do they do this? Through ad revenue. The businesses that believe they need reviews to attract new customers, will have to pay Google to display their results on top of other free alternatives.

From a business perspective, this all makes sense. And that’s all Google is – a business. They provide their service for everybody to use-for free-and if they want to push the websites that paid them over websites that haven’t, I say go right ahead.

The popular YouTube channel, Epic Meal Time, has signed a TV deal with FYI for 16 episodes of Epic Meal Empire. I started watching these guys a bit more than a year ago, and I found their YouTube channel hilarious. The excessive amounts of food used in their recipes, along with excessive amounts of Jack Daniels, is what made every episode funnier than the last. Their constant innovation in creating food monstrosities that I couldn’t even dream of, kept me coming back for more.

Although Morenstein, the main character, believes that “moving from YouTube to TV [is] a natural progression,” I hope they don’t lose their original ways, and start creating poor content under the new show. At first glance, the lack of Jack Daniels will definitely take away part of their “brand image,” and I personally don’t see that as a good thing.

Epic Meal Time is a great example of how new media is converging with old media, and it will be interesting to see if it’s able to capture the same audience through both channels. I will most likely give the show a shot because I enjoy their YouTube channel so much, I just hope this doesn’t affect the frequency or quality of their current content.

For more information, check out Marketing Mag’s article on it.

A few days ago I was browsing Reddit, as I usually do in my spare time, and I ran across a hilarious article. A guy decided to start a Facebook advertising campaign, but with a little twist, his target audience consisted of one person; his roommate.

When I read his blog spot, I found it very funny, but it was also genius. He used the functions available in Facebook to be able to target only his friend, but the actual ads he created also took a lot of thought. He didn’t want his friend to know that he was making these, so he made ads that made it seem like the roommate “wouldn’t feel targeted-even though he was being targeted.” He used information about his roommate that was easily found on his social media, as well as minor details that only he knew from being his roommate. In one example, he made an advertisement that mentioned his roommates ability to swallow swords, but not being able to swallow pills.

Although this was merely a prank, it shows how effective advertising can be if you know a lot about your target audience. I personally rarely notice ads, but you can bet that if they were this specific, I would notice them. I love this post because of its simplicity, and the use of humor to illustrate how powerful advertising can be, as well as the tools available to follow through with a plan like this.

If you would like to check out the full post, and how the whole plan was executed, head over to his blog post.