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ERICA NARDELLO

content strategy with near-perfect grammar and a little bit of glamour

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Creating Brand Relevance and Resonance | 4A's StratFest 2019

BREAKING NEWS: THE WORLD IS CHANGING.

This comes as no surprise to those of us who work in digital – a space in which technological evolutions move almost as quickly as our minds can think them up. At times, the speed of change can be frustrating, astounding, or confusing. But as I learned from Publicis Groupe Chief Growth Officer Rishad Tobaccowala when I attended the 4A’s StratFest on October 16-17, 2019, “Change sucks, but irrelevance is worse.”

It’s true: cultural relevance is currency in today’s world, so the value of adapting, thriving through periods of change far outweighs the discomfort of enduring it. And in fact, a quarter of consumer purchase decisions are based on a brand’s cultural relevance, according to a study quoted by Twitter Head of Global Agency Research Meghann Erlhoul in the Inside the Zeitgeist: Conversations Shaping Culture lunch-and-learn session. We know cultural relevance is important – but how do we, as strategists, help to create relevant brands and campaigns?

STOP THINKING OF PEOPLE AS “CONSUMERS”

People don’t view themselves through the lens of a brand, explained Tobaccowala in his opening session, Welcome to the Era of the Empowered Citizen. Instead, they see themselves through the lens of their experiences, their relationships, their real lives. “…it’s our job to bring truths from the streets to the boardroom,” as McGarrah Jessee Brand Strategy Director Hunter Sunrise said during the workshop they led, Mindsets Over Matter: Evolving Personas for Inclusivity and Reduced Bias in the Brief.

Part of the truth we seek to infuse into a brief comes from the understanding the experience – and our place in a larger journey – is fluid. Whether a person is brand new to a product or a life-long user, he or she can take on the role of any persona at any point in their journey with that product. The path isn’t always linear, which presents a greater opportunity for content strategists to think about how we can help people learn and grow by delivering the content that helps them move through their journey as seamlessly as possible, such as progressive content series, sequential messaging, communities where people can share stories and guide one another. No one stays in one place on the journey just because their demographics align with a particular idea we have of a consumer because...

MEDIA 👏 TARGETS 👏 ARE 👏 NOT 👏 PERSONAS 👏

Amen, Hunter Sunrise! There’s so much more to people than the demographic and interest-based information that a media partner can use to reach them on a digital platform. Our job is to create meaningful stories that connect our brands to the people we ultimately serve, not just people who fit into the gender, age, and interest groups we’ve identified as being relevant to the brand. It’s our job to create relevance for the brand to reach people, not to find the users that we’ve deemed relevant for our brands.

IT’S TIME TO RETHINK THE CLIENT REQUEST

Nearly all of the Jay Chiat Award winners did so. Like that time Monash University in Australia asked their agency for a bar brochure to help protect students from having their drinks spiked. Yes, you read that correctly. 4,500 Australians have their drinks spiked every year, and about 40% of those lead to sexual assault. Naturally, brochures could be deployed to solve this problem, right? Changing the culture to reduce drink-spiking would undoubtedly be more effective than a brochure or any marketing effort, but would obviously take much longer to do. So the agency used BJ Fogg’s behavior method to identify small changes that would help to keep students safer. Unsurprisingly, brochures were not recommended, so the agency and the university went back to the drawing board to figure out what would resonate with students while they’re out drinking. They came up with SipSafe, a revolutionary wristband that would allow a student to put a drop of their drink on a designated area to assess in two minutes whether or not it was safe to drink. Much more effective than a brochure!

Another great example came from the New York Public Library, which wanted to get more Gen Zers' off their phones and into the library. The agency, however, had other ideas. Rather than bringing young people to the library, they’d bring the library to them by creating InstaNovels – Instagram Story versions of works available in the public domain. They charged social designers to recreate book covers and redesign book pages to allow people to read library books right on their phones. According to the team, more than 300,000 InstaNovels were read start-to-finish. tl;dr if you can’t beat ‘em, join ’em.

It was a really informative, eye-opening two days at StratFest. Thanks, Digitas Health, for allowing me to attend, learn, and bring back the new knowledge to share!

tags: 4A's, StratFest
Thursday 10.24.19
Posted by Erica Nardello
Comments: 1
 

Perfectionism and Persistence | Pennsylvania Conference for Women 2019

“We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving… We are the daughters of the feminists who said, ‘You can be anything,’ and we heard, ‘You have to be everything.’”
— Courtney E. Martin

A lot of women I know – and apparently about 10,000 that I didn’t know – can relate to that quote from Courtney E. Martin’s book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. I discovered that on October 2, 2019 when I had the privilege of joining many of my Digitas Health colleagues at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women. After a full day of listening to inspiring, heartfelt talks from intelligent and successful women in the sessions I chose, I came away with two big takeaways.

LESS PERFECTIONISM, MORE PROGRESS

We’ve all heard the statistics. Women only apply for jobs when they meet 100% of the qualifications on a job description, while men do so when they feel they can satisfy 60% of the requirements, according to an often-quoted Hewlett-Packard report. It makes sense in a lot of ways, especially because women are socialized to follow rules and do what’s expected of them. In fact, this is even confirmed in a study that explored the reasons why men and women chose to apply or not apply for jobs. According to a Harvard Business Review summary of the study, “78% of women’s reasons for not applying [to a job]… have to do with believing that the job qualifications are real requirements, and seeing the hiring process as more by-the-book and true to the on paper guidelines than it really is.”

This is only one of many elements that can hold women back at work. For many of us, perfectionism has been a lifelong struggle. As Happier, Inc. Founder and CEO Nataly Kogan explained in her panel session entitled Happier Now: Embracing the Everyday, “women equate perfection with excellence.” In reality, of course, perfection is unattainable, while many women are totally capable of achieving excellence at any stage of their careers. Often, we just need to get more comfortable with the process, rather than achieving a specific result. “Women inflate the consequences of imperfection,” said Girls Who Code Founder Reshma Saujani. “Keep doing things you suck at.”

Doing so can make a big difference. Improving ourselves and achieving our goals does not take a radical, overnight overhaul of our lives, said James Clear as he explained the aggregation of marginal gains in his morning keynote. Just a 1% improvement each day can compound into meaningful change. So rather than torturing ourselves, toiling over everything we want – and expect – ourselves to be, we can choose to make small decisions every day that will get us where we want to be. “True behavior change is actually identity change,” he said. In an article on the same topic, Clear explains that the best way to create and sustain behavior change is through a simple two-step process: first, decide who and what we want to be (our identity), then prove to ourselves that we can become that person through small choices every day. “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become” – even if you suck at those actions at the beginning.

PERSISTENCE AND PRIORITIES

Building on the idea that small steps can make a big difference, according to many of the speakers I saw at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, the real name of the game is persistence. Jesmyn Ward gave a powerful and moving keynote speech about her journey to becoming a celebrated author. Success, she explained, is not the result of one choice; rather, it’s a lifelong undertaking that requires conscious choices, the commitment to taking things step by step, taking risks, adapting to the circumstances, facing rejection, and bouncing back after failure. Inspiring, yes – but it’s important to note that not one speaker said this would be easy. “Bravery is a practice,” said Saujani in her Happier Now session.

Award-winning author Elizabeth Gilbert explained during her keynote speech that throughout history, we have been told a terrible lie: that women can and must care about everything and everyone. This lie is strangling us – individually and as a society – and the only way to combat the lie is by prioritizing what’s most important. “The reality of priorities is that you actually can’t have that many of them,” she countered. We have to decide for ourselves what is sacred – to draw a line around the things that matter most to us (as Joseph Campbell once said) and to say to the things outside of that circle “the three most powerful words in a woman’s arsenal,” according to Gilbert: I don’t care.

If you want to understand why you’re feeling unfulfilled or unhappy, author Mary Laura Philpott gave two surprising, but insightful recommendations to conference attendees in the Happier Now session:

  1. First, “let your [to-do] list be your assistant, not your boss.” As a self-described checkmark junkie, this fully resonated with me. Striving for the elusive completed checklist might make me feel productive, but does it make me happy? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Philpott suggests adding “things that create time and space” to your daily to-do list to avoid burning out and overwhelming yourself.

  2. Second, do the math. Calculate how many of your waking hours are spent doing things that frustrate or upset you, and use that knowledge to make choices to improve your situation.

It was inspiring to be surrounded by other fascinating and engaged women of all generations who were finding ways to stand up, speak up, and move up in their careers. Thanks to Digitas Health for sending me to such a great event, and to the #pennwomen team for assembling such a stellar event!

tags: #pennwomen
Wednesday 10.02.19
Posted by Erica Nardello
Comments: 1
 

Facebook Privacy Changes | Q1 2019

On March 6, 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a lengthy note about the importance of privacy on Facebook’s properties, acknowledging that the social network’s track record on privacy has been less than stellar, and outlining a new “privacy-focused vision” for the future. “…we’ve historically focused on tools for more open sharing,” he explained in the post. “But we’ve repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want, including in private messages and stories.” Facebook intends to create a new privacy-oriented platform based on several principles that the brand will commit to in the coming years. For advertisers, the most important of these are:

  • Private interactions

  • Encryption and safety

  • Reducing permanence

PRIVATE INTERACTIONS

According to data from the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of Facebook users over 18 have adjusted their privacy settings in the last year, triggered by revelations about how Cambridge Analytica was able to collect data without user knowledge or consent. Since then, social engagement has evolved, given that privacy is of paramount importance to users and under the microscope in the media. And Facebook has taken note. Zuckerberg writes in his note:

Today we already see that private messaging, ephemeral stories, and small groups  are by far the fastest growing areas of online communication. And there are a number of reasons for this. Many people prefer the intimacy of communicating one-on-one or with just a few friends. People are more cautious of having a permanent record of what they’ve shared. And we all expect to be able to do things like payments privately and securely.

On Facebook, this will fundamentally change the way in which users interact with one another, providing more ways for users to interact privately or semi-privately in small groups, instead of publicly. Social listening has long been a challenge on Facebook, given users’ ability to establish and customize their privacy settings. With more opportunities for users to communicate privately, brands should expect to have even fewer ways to listen in on what’s being discussed on Facebook and its other properties. On the flip side, if Facebook users will be connecting privately, outside the traditional News Feed, new ad units and placements are sure, according to The Verge’s Casey Newton, to follow to help brands reach users within those private interactions.

ENCRYPTION AND SECURITY

Encryption is the primary focus of Facebook’s commitment to this “privacy-focused vision” for the future. In the same note, Zuckerberg explains:

People expect their private communications to be secure and to only be seen by the people they’ve sent them to… There is growing awareness that the more entities that have access to your data, the more vulnerabilities there are for someone to misuse it…And some people worry that our services could access their messages and use them for advertising or in other ways they don’t expect.

Over time, Facebook intends to implement full end-to-end encryption to limit its own ability (and the ability of others) to access user information in private messaging.

While encryption may be a priority for private communications, it appears that Facebook will be working to combat the “real safety concerns” on its platform, working to detect “patterns of [illegal] activity… even when we can’t see the content” of public posts. Shortly after Zuckerberg’s note was published, Facebook responded to Representative Adam Schiff’s request, committing to stopping the spread of misinformation around vaccines on its platform, reducing the reach of ads and posts that aim to spread “verifiable vaccine hoaxes,” removing the ability to target ads to users with interests in “vaccine controversies” and the like, and finding ways to share educational information on the topic.

Facebook does not have a clear timeline or path to implementing full end-to-end encryption at this stage, but brands can expect that the ability to target users based on their activities and interests will be limited when it fulfills this promise.

REDUCING DATA PERMENANCE

In the next phase of Facebook, its CEO envisions a world in which messages and posts (and their associated metadata) would expire or be archived automatically after a set period of time, as determined by the user, to encourage more (and more authentic) posting. “Stories already expire after 24 hours unless you archive them, and that gives people the comfort to share more naturally,” Zuckerberg explains. “This philosophy could be extended to all private content.” Focusing on ephemeral messaging represents a clear effort to get users to post and engage more often on Facebook properties – and there’s data to back that up. As of January 2019, more than 500 million are using Instagram Stories, which disappear after just 24 hours, every day. The greatest impact will likely be felt by advertisers as users potentially move to more ephemeral messaging. With posts and comments disappearing after a set period, brands may see target audience sizes decrease as interest and behavioral data gets removed or archived over time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

While nothing has changed immediately, brands can anticipate changes coming to Facebook and its properties, including:

  • Even greater social listening challenges, as more private messaging will prevent brands from tracking relevant conversations on Facebook properties

  • Facebook emphasizing new ad units and placements to put branded content in the private messaging spaces where users are predicted to head next

  • Limitations on Facebook’s current robust targeting capabilities

tags: facebook advertising, facebook privacy
categories: Social Media
Thursday 03.14.19
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

The Customer Journey: A Thoughtful Approach to User Experience | Philly Tech Week 2018

Any brand is delighted when new customers discover, engage, and convert, but tracking that customer journey can be challenging for brands and agencies. On May 3, I moderated a panel discussion during Philly Tech Week’s Introduced by Technical.ly on the customer journey and user experience across multiple industries. There, we explored some of the most innovative ways to follow the customer journey and measure brand loyalty with Jen Denis (chief brand officer of honeygrow), Kevin Hanley (vp digital marketing at Hero Digital), Greg Ippolito (president & creative director of IMA), and Matt Pritchard (vp, digital acceleration at Campbell Soup Company). If you missed the event, here are a few of the most-loved learnings from the day!

IMG_3834.JPG

UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY REQUIRES EMPATHY

“A truly relevant customer experience is no longer the holy grail,” said Hero Digital's Kevin Hanley. “It’s table stakes.” But how do we get to that relevant experience? It’s critical for brands – no matter what industry they’re in and no matter what audience they serve – to tap into the mind of the consumer, understand their needs, and where the brand fits in. “Customer experience needs to be timely, relevant, and personalized,” Hanley explained. “The companies that are going to be most successful will either be the first or the fastest with this human-centered approach.”

Greg Ippolito of IMA agreed, citing Starbucks. Despite the company’s recent trouble, Starbucks completely transformed the customer experience by focusing on what customers actually want. And now more than ever, there are so many opportunities to better understand this part of the customer journey. The latest technologies, including machine learning and AI, can help marketers listen more closely, target audiences more narrowly and directly, and even connect with them in unique ways, said Campbell Soup Company’s Matt Pritchard. However, he also noted that while marketers can better understand their customers’ pain points through technology, how we respond to that data still relies upon great storytelling.

THREE THINGS TO CONSIDER IN CUSTOMER JOURNEY STORYTELLING

Once that data is in place, Hanley said, there are three things to consider before sending out any communication.

  1. Does the customer need to hear this?
    What value does it add for the customer to have this information? If the answer is “none” – or if the answer is entirely self-serving for the brand – it’s time to reconsider that message.
     
  2. Do they need to hear it from me?
    Considering which voice(s) might be most credible in delivering the message is crucial to the success of the communication. While the brand may be the most authoritative voice on the subject, it may be more authentic to have fellow customers’ takes on the topic.
     
  3. Is there value in sending this message?
    When crafting any piece of communication, marketers must evaluate the impact of the message. If it won’t result in a meaningful brand action – or won’t engage the audience effectively – it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

BECOME DATA-INFORMED, NOT DATA-DRIVEN

Data is a critical component to any marketer’s understanding of the customer journey, as all of our panelists agreed. However, Ippolito explained that brands should not be data-driven, as so many companies claim to be. Instead, they should be data-informed, breaking the data down into digestible pieces, learning from that information, then thinking beyond the data to create something new. “Don’t wait for data to give you license to try something new,” he advised. “Take a risk, then let the data tell you if you were right or not.”

tags: philly tech week, customer journey
Tuesday 05.08.18
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Shining a Light on Dark Posts | October 2017

MORE TRANSPARENCY IN ADS

A Little Background Information
In the past year, social platforms have come under fire for foreign-backed advertisements used to sway political opinion leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. To many, Facebook was the worst offender for allowing these ads to be run, targeting skeptical voters in swing states with fake news. Since the election, they’ve tackled the “Hard Questions” about Russian ads in a post by Facebook Vice President or Policy and Communications Elliot Schrage. They’ve also made a number of changes to the News Feed, including debuting new ways identify potential fake news, offering educational tools to help users spot fake news, reducing reach of click-bait posts, cracking down on cloaking, blocking ads from pages that share fake news, and testing ways to offer more context to news articles. Still, for many this was not enough. In mid-October, Sens. John McCain, Amy Klobuchar, and Mark Warner introduced the Honest Ads Act, which would require political ads on digital platforms to disclose who paid for the ads. In response to the criticism and the potential legislation, Twitter and Facebook unveiled new changes to make ads on their platforms even more transparent just weeks later.

What’s Changing?
Facebook and Twitter both allow brands and publishers to run “dark posts,” paid advertisements that are not available to users organically in their feeds or on the brand accounts, themselves. These dark posts are often used to test the effectiveness of audience targeting, creative and copy, or distribution channels, but some have also used them to distribute fake or misleading news.

To combat this, Twitter announced that it was launching an Advertising Transparency Center that would allow users to better understand who is advertising and what they’re sharing, and give individual users the opportunity to share feedback on this information. The ad details available in the Transparency Center will include creative and ad flight duration for all ads, included Promoted-Only ads (dark posts). Users will also be able to see the ads that have been targeted to them individually, along with “personalized information on which ads [they] are eligible to receive based on targeting,” wrote Bruce Falck, Twitter’s GM revenue product and engineering.

Days later, Facebook announced on that it would make all ads – including dark posts – available for viewing by all users. Rob Goldman, Facebook’s VP of ads, explained in a blog post: “Starting next month, people will be able to click ‘View Ads’ on a Page and view ads a Page is running on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger – whether or not the person viewing is in the intended target audience for the ad.”

 

IMPLICATIONS FOR BRANDS

The Initial Rollout
All brands will be impacted equally by these changes. On Twitter, the Ads Transparency Center will debut first in the US and then expand globally. On Facebook, on the other hand, this change will roll out in Canada first and then expand to the US in by the summer of 2018 to ensure that these changes are firmly in place before the US midterm elections in November. While only active ads will be shown during the initial Facebook testing period in Canada, by the time this rolls out to the US, Facebook will build an archive of past and present ads tied to federal elections to ensure that users fully understand how brands and publishers are spreading news, whether authentic or fake.

Competitive Research
Because all advertisers will be impacted in the same way, US-based brands will have a new method for gathering information about competitors’ efforts to connect with users through ads on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. This presents a unique opportunity to better understand competitors and their audiences, differentiate brand messaging, and even compete directly. It’s important to note, however, that targeting and budgeting information will not be available when users choose to view a brand’s ads.

If you have questions about these new changes to advertising policies on Twitter and Facebook, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly.

tags: facebook advertising, twitter advertising, instagram advertising, social advertising
categories: Social Media
Thursday 11.02.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Unleash the Hidden Advantages of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter | PPRA 2017

For many people, working with social media can feel like driving a rental car: they understand the basics, but feel mystified about how to take things to the next level. On October 23, I joined a Philadelphia Public Relations Association panel discussion on how to unleash the hidden powers of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. There, we explored the real advantages of social media – including lead generation, strategic recruitment, and content marketing. If you missed the event, here are a few learnings that can apply to any marketer.

THE LINES BETWEEN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL ARE BLURRED

Thanks to the internet, our schedules, communication methods, networking opportunities, and more have transformed in new ways, giving us more flexibility and visibility than ever before. With that comes a conundrum: with nearly everyone being reachable and researchable, how do we find a balance between the personal and the professional online? For many of us, the answer is simply that the lines are irrevocably blurred because our personal and professional worlds are so tightly interconnected. "I hate the phrase 'work-life balance," said Sarah Dudzic, a fellow panelist and head of Cigna's social media center of excellence. "It's just your life!" Sure, perhaps religious and political leanings don't have a place on your LinkedIn profile, but for some, daily social interactions (both online and off) revolve around those controversial topics. There's no reason to not be yourself on social media – especially when privacy settings can take care of some of hard work on those party pictures you forgot to untag in 2009.

STRATEGY DEPENDS ON PLATFORM 

Across social channels, there's truly a place for everyone: gamers tap into Twitch, while news junkies flock to Twitter and planners pin their hearts out on Pinterest. For that reason, all of our panelists (including yours truly) emphasized the importance of having a platform-dependent approach to each facet of a social campaign. One-size-fits-all social is just not a realistic plan for success now. A few platform-specific considerations and opportunities came through loud and clear in our discussion.

Building, Sharing, and Measuring Branded Content on Facebook and Instagram
As brands continue to rely on influencers and partners to break through the noise on social media, new tools for sharing content and evaluating partners have become more critical for marketers. In mid-2016, Facebook unveiled its Branded Content Tool, a publishing tool that allows brands, publishers, and influencers to share content developed in partnership with others. To ensure that Facebook users can clearly identify branded content posts, these posts include tags to their partners and the word "Paid" to reflect "an exchange of value between the publisher and a third party" next to the timestamp of each post, according to a Facebook blog post. Through this tool, partners can also gain valuable insights into the performance of their branded content and the true value of their partnership by sharing access to post-level data for each piece of branded content. This is especially valuable for brands looking to better understand the value of influencer partnerships and determine the types of branded content to deliver in the future.

Capturing the Spirit of Events with Twitter Moments
For hosted events, live-tweeting helps to transport the on-site experience to the screen. But what about what happens after the event is over? Twitter allows brands to capture the excitement and engagement using Moments, a feature that allows a user to curate and aggregate related tweets to recap what happened in a particular time and place. In fact, we use Moments for each and every talk we hold for CreativeMornings Philadelphia, the breakfast lecture series I host for the creative community every month. 

Understanding the Context of Snapchat Geofilters
For Snapchat users, every walk through a brick-and-mortar establishment is a chance to find a new geofilter to play with – and a new opportunity to spread the word about the stores, restaurants, and businesses they love. But while brands see this as a marketing ploy, it's important to bear in mind how, when, where, and why users are sharing Snaps in-store: What kind of experience are they having? Will they be consuming or using your product on-site, or do they have to wait until they get home (far away from the filter you worked so hard on)? What would a user actually want to share with his or her friends? For Snapchat success, being self-aware as a brand is just as important as building brand awareness. 

 

We had a great conversation with the PPRA community. If you want to check out their upcoming events, head to ppra.net!

Wednesday 10.25.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Technology Roundtables: Social Media | Philly HUG 2017

On September 19, I joined the Philadelphia HubSpot User Group for their technology roundtable event, which brought together experts in SEO, social media, email marketing, and coding to answer the HUG community's most pressing content marketing questions. There, I led a discussion about using social media in conjunction with larger marketing efforts to help brands large and small connect and, ultimately, convert online.

If you missed the event, here are a few of my favorite takeaways!

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS FIND CONTENT

Much of what individual users see in their social feeds is curated by an ever-changing algorithm that aims to show the content with which they're most likely to engage. Facebook's algorithm, for example, is comprised of three different components:

  • Affinity: how close a user is to the content creator
  • Weight: the importance of the action taken by the content creator or others that a user is connected to
  • Time Decay: how long it's been since the post went live

USE ANALYTICS TO ENSURE AUDIENCE ALIGNMENT

Every brand has a target market, but not every channel can ensure that marketers are reaching that select group. Diving into Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics can help marketers determine whom they're reaching across channels, how their content resonates with that audience (Facebook's Ad Relevance Score can help here!), and how to better target content going forward. To test content in the short-term, Instagram Stories can help brands create content to engage quickly and drive action. Check out our best practices for creating impactful Instagram Stories here.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF ADVERTISING 

For brands with small budgets and big hesitation about the value of putting advertising dollars behind social posts, there's no reason to shy away from promoted posts. In fact, brands can test the waters for as little as $5 per day on Facebook! Try it out, experiment a little, and see what you can learn about your audience and your content.

The conversation at Philly HUG's technology roundtables was engaging and fun. If you were there, share your favorite learnings with me. If you want to know more, check out their upcoming events!

tags: philly hug, social media
categories: Social Media
Wednesday 09.20.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

5 Tips for Producing Better Instagram Stories | Philly HUG 2017

Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has regularly revealed new features and cutting-edge functionalities to keep users engaged on the visual platform. Seven years and 700 million users later, the challenge for brands lies in understanding and utilizing these nascent features in ways that drive results. This is certainly the case with Instagram Stories, which launched in August 2016 as a competitor to Snapchat’s Stories. “...Instagram’s reputation as the home for your glamour shots has raised the psychological bar for posting a photo there. It’s not unusual for some users to post no more than once a week, or even once a month,” wrote The Verge’s Casey Newton when Instagram Stories debuted. “Meanwhile, Snapchat developed a product that allows users to share frequent, candid snapshots of their days without worrying that they’re spamming friends, or leaving behind a public archive of photos that could come back to haunt them later.” In less than one year, however, Instagram has eclipsed Snapchat’s success with a full one-third more regular Stories users. As of the summer of 2017, Instagram boasts that 250 million people are using Instagram Stories. But how can brands produce engaging pieces of ephemeral content?

KEEP IT SHORT

Whether creating content in advance for posting at a later date or developing a story in real time, it’s important to establish a plan for the content flow, timing, and actionability. Because of the multitude of social platform limitations on character counts, image sizing, and more, marketers jumped at the opportunity to add as much as possible to their brands’ Instagram Stories. For many brands, however, less is often more in many ways. Shorter Stories generally yield higher completion rates – a key metric to help determine the value of brand content, relevance to the audience, and message exposure and penetration.

Even within individual Story components, brevity makes a big impact. Each video component in a Story can be up to 15 seconds in length, but for many users that’s a very long time to watch a single Story component. Just because videos can be that long, it does not mean that they must or should be that long. Longer videos often lead to higher drop-offs between components, leaving brand Stories told incompletely. Keep videos only as long as they must be to deliver the brand message – especially if additional components will be added to the Story.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Beyond this, it’s easy for marketers to fall into the trap of tacking on additional content to the existing Story or changing the plan on the fly. However, in these social stories, regardless of platform, timing is everything. Because Instagram Stories can be posted in real time, it’s important for marketers to bear in mind that they’ll also be viewed in real time – and if Story components are added piecemeal, brands miss out on the opportunity to connect and tell the full brand story. Timing the posting of Story components carefully helps to ensure higher completion rates and cohesiveness of the brand story.

LESS IS MORE

The text tool allows marketers to overlay text and/or emojis on the image, Boomerang, or video being added to the brand story. It’s important for marketers to remember, however, that each image will be shown only for about five seconds in a Story, so components that are overly text-heavy may not make as much of an impact. Research indicates that the average adult reads about 300 words per minute. With this knowledge, marketers might come to the conclusion that no Instagram Story component should include more than 25 words. However, research conducted by Facebook and The Marketing Science and Creative Shop teams revealed that users spend an average of 1.7 seconds on any piece of mobile content. Therefore, ideally, Instagram Story components should contain no more than eight to nine words.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TAP

Regardless of whether static photos, videos, Boomerangs, or some mix of the three will be used to create Stories, utilizing Instagram’s tap forward and tap backward functionality can tap into customers’ natural use of the platform and offer a creative way to tell brand stories. As creative and social strategists plan, create, and assemble Story components, they should look for opportunities to take advantage of the tap functionality, such as tapping to add or remove items in a compilation, showing step-by- step instructions, showing off a collection of products, or even demonstrating powerful before and after images in a Story.

LINK TO DRIVE ACTION

Perhaps the most intriguing functionality is the ability to add swipe-to-view links to Story components. This feature is currently being tested by brands with verified profiles, but expanded to business profiles with more than 10,000 followers in May 2017, according to Social Media Examiner. These links can lead followers to additional content and help brands evaluate the impact their Stories and editorial content are making in terms of customer engagement. In February 2017, Facebook commissioned a Kantar Millward Brown study of monthly Instagram users and magazine subscribers to better understand how consumers are using traditional and social platforms to get informed and inspired. In this study, Facebook “...found that 65% of people who use Instagram on a monthly basis and subscribe to magazines (dual users), choose Instagram over magazines when looking for inspiration. When it comes to looking for detailed information, 57% choose magazines over Instagram.” The difference Instagram’s Stories – especially now with its swipe-to-view links – can make is in bridging the gap between inspiration and trusted expertise that ultimately leads to greater actionability.

One challenge in evaluating this actionability, however, is the fact that Instagram does not allow businesses to track the number of users who swipe up to view the links. This can be especially problematic because platforms like Google Analytics do not have the ability to label traffic coming from Instagram Stories. To combat this issue, marketers can create trackable links – using bit.ly or Google’s link builder, for example – to track traffic and determine how many times users swiped up for more information after viewing a Story. By labeling the source, medium, and campaign identification information in a trackable link, marketers will better understand the content that has made the greatest impact on site traffic, as well as user behaviors that are driving content consumption.

WHAT ARE YOUR BEST PRACTICES?

Next month, the Philadelphia HubSpot User Group will host roundtable discussions on the technologies that impact our work as marketers. Join us, ask your questions about how to make social media work for your business, and share your own best practices with us on September 19, 6-8pm at MakeOffices.

This post originally appeared on the Philadelphia HubSpot Users Group blog. 

Source: http://philly.hubspotusergroups.com/blog/5...
Wednesday 08.16.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

LinkedIn Strategies that Engage the Right Audiences | DVGBC Q3 2017 Event

Chances are that when it comes to LinkedIn, you're doing it wrong. If you're using LinkedIn as a job board an occasional promotional channel, you're not alone, but you're not leveraging the real advantages of this underutilized platform. LinkedIn can be the hardest working (and most cost-effective) social platform for your firm – if you know the right strategies and tactics to better engage. We all know that the name of the game on social channels is engagement, but that doesn’t mean that brands want someone to click the “like” button blindly. Rather, it’s about developing content that drives consistent readership, community building, and authentic advocacy. The best way to do this is to create a strategy specifically for LinkedIn.

DEVELOPING A LINKEDIN STRATEGY

Step 1 is pretty obvious: getting your brand on LinkedIn. Creating a Company Page (not a profile that makes your brand look like a person, as some businesses did in the earlier days of Facebook) helps to establish your brand on the platform and helps users learn more about your company and what you do. Once the Company Page is live, share it with your employees. This is important because employee profiles – those that indicate their role in the organization and link to the Company Page within their profiles – are some of the best opportunities for potential clients and recruits to learn about your business.

If your business already has a Company Page, you can use LinkedIn’s Company Page insights tools to get information about your followers and visitors so that you can determine what kinds of content to share based on their industry, job function, and seniority level to better engage them in the future.

Once you’ve done that, review your existing content, along with your upcoming announcements, any thought leadership opportunities you’re pursuing, and planned marketing activities. Evaluate that content according to the page insights you have to determine if this will be valuable to your audience. If it’s not relevant to them on the surface, is there another way to present that information? Can you reframe it for that particular audience?

CREATING CONTENT THAT RESONATES

One of the biggest questions on any social platform is this: how often should I post? Post too often and it’s overwhelming; post sparingly and you don’t really make an impact. LinkedIn’s best practice, based on the last decade of company content strategies, is to post once per weekday to encourage engagement and foster familiarity among followers. However, this doesn’t mean posting for the sake of posting. If you don’t have compelling content to share, it’s better to post less often than to force content that doesn’t resonate or isn’t relevant to your business.

But what is that relevant, resonant content? Top-performing post types vary from brand to brand, but generally speaking, company news, industry articles (preferably with quotes from your company’s top experts), and thought leadership pieces resonate best. Regardless of the type of content you post, LinkedIn notes that posts with links can see up to 45% higher engagement than those without links – so include links where you can. Links to share may include those that lead to company white papers, e-books, case studies, industry articles, how-to guides, and bright infographics.

Once you know what you want to share, it’s important to know how to make sure it gets noticed and ultimately drives engagement. Keep in mind that while LinkedIn Company Pages are search-friendly – and should feature company descriptions that capture what the business does in the first 155 characters to avoid being cut off in search results, for example – individual posts are more user-friendly. This means that users are looking for eye-catching headlines, thumb-stopping imagery, clear calls-to-action, and introductory post copy that is short and to-the-point.

LinkedIn Company Pages also have the option to add additional pages to show off long-term business initiatives through Showcase Pages. These may be used to show off different product lines (like Microsoft does with Showcase Pages dedicated to Microsoft Office alone) or business units (like those dedicated to a specific service offering or practice). These can help to establish connections with specific audiences and share targeted messages with them.

This is just an introduction to LinkedIn's capability to drive lead generation and engagement organically, of course. Once a clear content strategy is in place on LinkedIn, the sky is the limit for creating better content that resonates and ultimately drives action.

This content was originally shared as an event hosted by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council worth 1.5 GBCI CE hour and 1 AIA LU. 

tags: linkedin, dvgbc, social media best practices
categories: Social Media
Tuesday 07.25.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

When Social Leads an Integrated Campaign | Social Media Day Philadelphia 2017

WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE

Whether you’re on the client side or the agency side, you’ve probably experienced this situation. Your team has a new campaign that everyone’s psyched about – beautiful new creative, catchy tagline, media relations ready to spread the word. But no one thought about social at the beginning, so now there’s no budget or all of the creative hours have been exhausted on other assets. But it’s okay, because we’ll just slap a hashtag on some posts and now we’ve got a social campaign, right?

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So wrong. Unfortunately, this happens all too often and the result of these kinds of efforts is that brands end up looking clueless, out of touch, and lame.

And the worst part is that we know that our best efforts could have been so much better and effective if social hadn’t been an afterthought.

IT'S TIME TO GO SOCIAL FIRST.

Social media is uniquely positioned to lead campaigns because it’s based on relatable, human connections. Because of our ability to engage in two-way dialogue on social channels, we’re tapped into the zeitgeist. We know what makes followers laugh, what makes them roll their eyes (or flip us off), and what makes them want to share.

Ultimately, a hashtag doesn’t make a campaign; brand authenticity does. That kind of real, relatable, honest-even-though-it-might-hurt awareness of who our brand is and who our customers are makes all the difference in the world.

This content was originally shared as a flash talk at Social Media Day Philadelphia 2017.

tags: social media day philadelphia, smdphl, social first
categories: Social Media
Friday 06.30.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Innovating on Instagram | Social Shake Up 2017

Instagram. Maybe you (and 700 million others) have heard of it? Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has debuted new features and functions to keep users engaged and experimenting on the platform. The challenge for brands is often finding out how to put these new features to use in ways that drive results. That's certainly the case with Instagram stories. Fortunately, there are things that social strategists can keep in mind to make their stories successful.

instagram-stories-less-is-more.jpg

Social media platforms have so many limitations – character counts, image sizing, and more. Once Instagram debuted its stories feature, many of us jumped at the opportunity to add more, add more, add more! In my experience, however, less is often more. We've worked on stories comprised of up to 39 (yes, 39) components, but shorter stories have generally yielded better results in terms of story completion rate – a key metric for us in determining the value of the content. 

instagram-stories-timing-is-everything

Because stories are often posted in real time, it's important to bear in mind that they'll also be viewed in real time – and often incompletely. Sure, they've gotten the beginning and maybe the middle, but if you wait too long to post the end, chances are you'll be missing out on the opportunity to finish telling your brand's story. Time the posting of your story components carefully to ensure greater completion rates and cohesiveness of your brand's story.

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Instagram story videos can be up to 15 seconds in length, but for many users that's a very long time to watch a story component. Just because videos can be that long, doesn't mean they must be that long. Longer videos often lead to drop-off between components, leaving your stories told incompletely. Keep videos only as long as they have to be to get your message across – especially if you have additional components within your story.

instagram-stories-track-swipes.jpg

When Instagram rolled out story insights to brands, we expected to see the standard metrics: views, impressions, etc. What's lacking so far for us, however, is link swipes, which is especially problematic because platforms like Google Analytics don't have the ability to label traffic from Instagram stories at this stage. To combat this issue, use trackable links (using Google's link builder or bit.ly) to determine how many times users swiped up for more information after viewing your story. Once you've got the best practices down, you'll be able to better innovate on Instagram and any other social platform you choose.

This was originally shared at The Social Shake Up on May 23, 2017.

tags: social shake up, instagram
Tuesday 05.23.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Need-To-Know Q1 2017 Social Updates

Changes to social media platforms seem constant. Barely a day goes by without an algorithmic tweak, a new ad offering, or a new product to be tested. For most of us involved in digital marketing, the impact of these changes is negligible, affecting only the content creators and community managers working directly on social media. However, there are three big trends and changes that will impact every business owner, regardless of vertical.

LIVE-STREAMING (SOMETIMES IN 360 DEGREES)

For brands looking to connect more in real time – whether for a campaign launch, a product debut, or a thought leadership opportunity – live streaming offers an exciting way to entice and engage viewers. In the last six months, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all debuted live video capabilities within their iOS and Android apps. While the functionalities in these three apps are similar, however, they differ in important ways that will help to determine which platform will drive the best results.

  • If you want to share a live broadcast in 360 degrees, use Facebook or Twitter.
  • If you want to share live content as part of a story, use Instagram.
  • If you want live content to be available after the broadcast, use Facebook or Twitter. While it is possible to save a live Instagram story, it will not be available on Instagram once the broadcast is over.
  • If you want to broadcast via desktop, use Facebook. 

VERTICAL VIDEO

Thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices and the popularity of social story functionality, vertical video is on the rise. In fact, forecasters explain that,

On average, 57% of consumers globally watch videos on a mobile phone every day, while 58% of consumers watch videos on their laptop/desktop every day. With 89% of US and 77% of global consumers saying they can’t live without their smartphone or always have it within arm’s reach, we are very close to the tipping point where mobile will soon be the number one video screen.

Facebook has even optimized its News Feed to share larger previews of vertical videos as users scroll through posts from friends and brands. What does this mean for business owners? It’s time to take a mobile-first approach to video creation and consider optimizing for vertically oriented screens. Even if Snap Ads and Instagram story ads aren’t in your marketing plans, bear in mind that vertical video is only going to get bigger. The time to perfect your mobile-first video strategy is now.

BROADENING THE DEFINITION OF SEARCH

When most people think of search, they think of typing words into a Google search bar and scrolling through a list of associated websites, but that’s about to change. Social media has been quietly transforming search into so much more. It started with Facebook’s 2013 updates to Graph Search, which allowed users to search posts and comments shared with them by their friends.

Now, Pinterest is allowing users to get more personalized results in their feeds through Instant Ideas, denoted by a small circle that appears in the corner of each Pin. When the circle is tapped, Pinterest will share similar Pins inspired by the original. Search also is taking on a more visual quality, thanks to Pinterest’s announcement of its new experimental technology called Pinterest Lens (BETA), which allows users to use the camera in the Pinterest app (or the desktop-based Pinterest browser button in Chrome) to discover ideas inspired by the objects around them. The platform explains: “Just point Lens at a pair of shoes, then tap to see related styles or even ideas for what else to wear with them. Or try it on a table to find similar designs, or even other furniture from the same era.” Capitalizing on these new functionalities – and those yet to come – will require beautiful, high quality creative assets that are optimized for user searches.

This post originally appeared on BrownsteinGroup.com.

Source: http://www.brownsteingroup.com/need-to-kno...
tags: social media strategy, Q1 2017 social updates, social media updates, live streaming, Facebook Live, vertical video, pinterest, Pinterest Lens, Pinterest Instant Ideas
categories: Social Media
Tuesday 04.25.17
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Keeping Momentum Between Events | #ConvenePHL 2016

On June 28, I joined #ConvenePHL to help lead a discussion about leveraging the energy and conversation of an event into ongoing audience engagement. With Technical.ly Philly Lead Reporter Roberto Torres and Buffer Community Champion Arielle Tannenbaum, we chatted at Pipeline Philly about the challenges and best practices in maximizing event potential by creating connection points (online and off) to engage audiences and attendees post-event and in between events. I was proud to be part of the conversation and to represent CreativeMornings Philadelphia, the city's monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types.

If you missed the event, here were a few of our top takeaways!

  • Be Persistent. A lot of event organizers feel like they've already spread the word about their event, so they avoid sharing the details of it again. This is understandable, but your messages can easily get lost in the digital shuffle! It's important to share your event details more than once – even if you feel like you've said the same thing a hundred times – on a variety of platforms to reach different audiences. 
     
  • Mix It Up. If you feel like you've said it all before, try a new approach. Use video, try animated gifs, or something totally different to attract attention and make your message and your event relevant. Try Snapchat – especially its affordable geofilters – to make your event even more engaging. Just remember to get the location right, warned Tonic Design Co.'s Leon Degtar. If the geofence isn't right, it can make it more challenging for users to try out your filter.
     
  • Hashtags Work. When weighing the "should I or shouldn't I?" of hashtags, keep in mind how they're really intended to be used: as groups of like conversations. Keep your hashtags short and sweet, since your audience will need as many characters as possible to share a valuable tweet with their friends. And, as Technical.ly's Catherine Sontag pointed out, it's critical to test them in advance to ensure that your hashtag and the conversation around it can truly be owned by your brand.
     
  • Use Photos. AOI Events & PR regularly uses photos from past events to give audiences a sense of what the event will be like before they RSVP, which is a great way to draw in new attendees.
     
  • Look to Your Network. For CreativeMornings, we monitor our hashtag (#cmphl) to track conversation leading up to, during, and after an event. One of the best things we're able to find from that is user-generated content. We've found blog posts recapping our events, videos and photos of our speakers, and great takeaways from the talks. And with a quick tweet or direct message on Instagram, we can request permission to share the user's content (always with credit, of course) to help spread the word in the future.

We had a great conversation at #ConvenePHL. If you were there, let me know what your favorite learnings were. If you weren't, I'd encourage you to check out their next event in the fall. I'll hope to see you (and the beautiful view from Pipeline Philly) then.

tags: #convenephl, convenephl, event planning, event promotion, event marketing, social media, creativemornings philadelphia
categories: Social Media
Wednesday 06.29.16
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

#PTW15 Recap: Using Social Media to Connect and Convert

phillytechweek.jpg

 

Philly Tech Week's Entrepreneur Boot Camp brought together Philadelphia area experts to help teach early-stage entrepreneurs the basics of starting a business. I was fortunate enough to be chosen as one of those experts in 2015. Things have changed quite a bit in the digital age, so I walked through five best practices to help entrepreneurs connect and convert customers using social media. Check out the recap below and scroll through the slides on SlideShare.

One thing that can quickly threaten to take a business from a startup to a slowdown is conversion – the customer acquisition process. In the digital age, the models have changed a bit. You might have seen acquisition funnels that pull your customer from awareness to action, but in reality, your customers are at every stage of that process at every minute. And in the digital world, they’re expecting you to be right there with them. Fortunately, for brands that deliver on that expectation, the rewards can be great.

On Facebook, the world’s largest social network, followers are 80% more likely to be brand users than non-followers. Similarly, Twitter followers are 64% more likely to buy products from brands they follow, so the chances that your social media content reaches current or potential users is much higher than you might expect. That’s a great sign.

But what do you need to know? Ultimately, you’re not just looking to connect; you want to convert.

Here are the five things entrepreneurs need to know about social media in order to attract attention, and ultimately, convert buyers into advocates.

This Isn’t Highlander. There isn't just one.
First, this isn’t Highlander. Social networks aren’t battling to the death so that you can pick just one channel. These channels are often complementary, providing unique content to specific audiences that may or may not overlap.

Last year, more than half of all internet users in the United States were active on two or more of the five major social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, according to Pew Research. This number is up from 42% the year before, so it’s important to consider the audience and opportunity to connect with that audience on each platform before coming up with a strategy.

Why? Because the right platform and content mix matters. At LevLane, we’re working with the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities on a pedestrian and driver safety campaign, centered around the rallying cry “It’s Road Safety Not Rocket Science.” The campaign is designed to engage pedestrians and drivers who are accidentally (or purposely) disobeying the rules of the road, making it more dangerous for themselves and others. In fact, there were more than 1,800 pedestrian-driver crashes in the City of Philadelphia in 2013, which averages out to about one every 5 hours – almost 5 per day. So to do that, we chose our platforms carefully – the major platforms on which Philadelphians are spending their time, whether they’re on the go or in a chair. We shared compelling content on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram throughout the campaign, and, while our cartoon imagery was fun and eye-catching, we focused our efforts on video.

In August 2014, Facebook actually matched YouTube in terms of videos viewed on desktop, and according to Social Bakers, videos uploaded to Facebook (rather than linked in a Facebook post through YouTube) saw an average of 40% more engagement. That’s a big deal. When we learned that, we sought to share those videos directly on Facebook, which helped us reach nearly 5,000 views since the video was posted earlier this month (compared to about 3,000 views on YouTube). Needless to say, these videos made a big impact for us. By creating content that was fun and entertaining, and by understanding the social landscape, we were able to take a subject as “boring” as pedestrian safety to get attention from local media (including CBS Philly and Philadelphia Magazine) and national and international media (including national ABC News and the UK’s Daily Mail).

Follow the conversation, then join it
The second thing that entrepreneurs need to understand is the importance of following a conversation before joining it. Online conversations about brands, communities, causes, and what everyone ate for lunch is everywhere. And oftentimes, those conversations are happening in places you don’t expect.

In years past, our Massage Envy Spa clients shared with us the most common sites for reviews about their brand – locally and nationally. They’d been focusing primarily on Yelp and Google. In 2014, we discovered that our Massage Envy Spa clients were missing nearly 40% of online reviews because they weren’t monitoring the platforms their customers were actually using to share their feedback. Without tracking conversations, reviews, and tips shared on Yahoo! Local and Foursquare, they were missing the full picture of their brand online and on opportunities to engage.

One of my favorite examples of following a conversation and then joining it is actually from the National Park Service. For those of you who watched NBC’s Parks and Recreation, you’ll know that in the last episodes of the show, Amy Poehler’s character is considering a job with the National Park Service. To capitalize on this great opportunity to turn enthusiastic followers of the show into potential advocates for the country’s real parks, the National Park Service used Promoted Tweets targeted to viewers of the show during the series finale to encourage viewers to get involved with the real National Parks Conservation Association. And what’s great about using Twitter Cards is that all a person had to do was click, so their interest in the cause didn’t take them to a separate experience outside of their Twitter feed; instead, Twitter allowed users to click to provide the email address they already used on Twitter to sign up for emails and get involved.

Think platform first, then strategy and execution
Before you start thinking about what you’re going to do and how exactly you’ll do it, it’s critical that entrepreneurs consider the platform first. In the social world, each channel has different requirements, unique creative parameters, and audiences who engage in unique ways.

Here are a few examples. First up: Ben & Jerry's. This example is an oldie, but a goodie. To promote a cause close to their corporate hearts, Ben and Jerry’s created a social microsite that put Twitter users’ unused characters to good use – helping them to promote World Fair Trade Day. By entering your tweets through their platform, they customized tweets using leftover Twitter characters to support fair trade. They could have decided to do something that was more generic that might work across all of their social platforms, but instead they chose to engage in a unique way on just one platform. Brilliant.

The second example is a local one – Jinxed, three vintage stores in the City of Philadelphia. Chances are if you like vintage finds and home decor in Philadelphia, you’re following Jinxed. If you’re not, I suggest you do. They’ve found a great way to translate their social presence into sales. Jinxed promotes local vintage finds (which are available in their stores) and boosts sales with exclusive call-to-buy calls to action at three locations on Instagram, which still shows users’ posts in reverse chronological order. It becomes competitive, with users regularly checking back to find new deals that they can take advantage of without every having to leave their houses or offices.

Purchases are overrated; advocacy is where it’s at
But even with these great examples of conversions, it’s important to remember that purchases are overrated. Ultimately, you want more than just a one-time buy; you want advocacy that will translate into loyal customers who attract and convert more loyal customers.

At LevLane, we invited Rothman Institute patients to share their own stories with other people just like them. Many of those patients were scared, but we sought to convert their uncertainty into optimism. By sharing real stories on Facebook, Rothman Institute patients inspired more than 100 other patients to share their own stories in the comments of the posts. Of course, it was great to see that people were so enthusiastic about their surgeons and physicians, but what was even more inspiring was the response from people who weren’t patients yet. People who shared the posts with their families and friends, called out their loved ones who were suffering and said things like “See? There is hope.”

Analytics are your friend. Your "gut feeling" probably isn't.
Every client I have tells me something that they believe they know. But oftentimes, their “gut feelings” (sometimes fueled by outdated research) are just plain wrong.

Our Massage Envy Spa clients told us that their customer base was consistently a 50-50 split between men and women, who were mostly white and between ages 35 and 54. On a hunch, we challenged that. It just didn’t match up with what we were seeing online. So we pulled the numbers and in many spas the customers and followers just didn’t match up. In fact, in many markets the customers were a 75-25 split between women and men, who were mostly African-American, and ages 25-54 (but mostly 25-34). It was astounding and it provided us an opportunity to question whether or not to experiment with different creative, messaging, and strategy to more effectively engage the audience.

Knowing is half the battle, so let’s recap. First, there isn’t just one platform or content type that works, so it’s important to do your homework in advance. And speaking of doing your homework, it’s critical to follow the conversation before you join it. Then strategize for each social platform. Aim for advocacy, not just one-time buyers. And finally, use analytics to continually optimize and improve.

Customer Acquisition in the Digital Age: Using Social Media to Connect and Convert from Erica Nardello



Source: https://instagram.com/p/1x9HKFsRft/
tags: #ptw15, philly tech week, philadelphia advertising, social media, social media content strategy, social media best practices, social media customer acquisition, customer acquisition
categories: Social Media
Wednesday 04.22.15
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Pinterest Messaging Makes Social Even More Personal

Earlier this month, Pinterest launched an in-app messaging service to allow its users to engage in private conversations around its content. In the past, when users wanted to share Pinterest content with their friends, they could only send a pin. Any additional engagement forced users to resort to email or other social channels to continue the conversation. Now, however, there’s no need for users to leave the platform in order to start and sustain a conversation on Pinterest. Users can now share individual pins, boards, other users’ profiles, and their own messages in chats with up to 9 other users.

Plan projects, swap ideas, share your best discoveries. http://about.pinterest.com/messages iTunes App Store: http://pin.it/VQ-xmlR Google Play: http://pin.it/bEYNSEA


Of course, social messaging platforms are nothing new. Facebook’s newly-separated Messenger app, WhatsApp, GroupMe, and even LinkedIn allow users to send messages back and forth with one or more users, but Pinterest isn’t necessarily looking to join their ranks. In fact, Pinterest Product Manager Michael Yamartino makes it clear: “We’re not a communications service. We’re not trying to be the place to say ‘What’s up?’ or ‘When are you coming home?’” Instead, Pinterest’s messaging capability is intended to enable focused discussion centered on products and projects showcased on the platform and to encourage collaboration around those products and projects between friends, family members, co-workers, and more.

More than anything, Pinterest is creating better opportunities for sharing. Initially, the platform focused on public boards and profiles, but has shifted over time to also allow for a more personalized experience. Two years ago, Pinterest began allowing users to create secret boards, but users clearly wanted even more ways to share privately. Since then, a lot has changed. This private messaging capability has created an almost Path-like experience with the opportunity to share pins, boards, and messages on a one-to-one or one-to-many (but not one-to-all) basis. It’s demonstrating that private collaboration is just as valuable to a social media platform as the outward-facing content being pinned and shared. In fact, that private collaboration often leads to the creation and sharing of new pins, better content, and more engagement for users and brands. How users take advantage of this capability will determine Pinterest’s next steps, but it’s clear that they’re already heading in the right direction.

This post originally appeared on the Advertising Week Social Club here.

tags: Advertising Week, awsc, marketing on pinterest, messages on pinterest, pinterest, pinterest messaging, social media
categories: AWSC, Social Media
Sunday 08.31.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

3 Steps to Effective Social Media Writing

The sharp and spiraling decline of writing ability has been well-documented, blamed all too frequently on the rise of text messaging, emoji, SnapChat, and spellcheck. In a world in which social media platforms prize updates that are pithy and to-the-point, it’s no wonder we’ve come to communicate in visual, hashtagged, and often grammatically-incorrect ways. Still, the proliferation of social media has also created a new breed of writers. These artists are (at their best) masters of brevity and cultural connoisseurs. But what does it take to really write effectively in social media?

Unsurprisingly, the best social media writers are natural communicators. Embracing Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” is not a prerequisite, but it’s certainly helpful to those looking to learn the tried-and-true tips to writing well. After all, as every English teacher on earth has said, we need to understand the rules before we break them. (#protip: For a more modern and enjoyable take on writing style, skip Strunk and White and pick up Spunk and Bite and maybe listen to Vampire Weekend’s “Oxford Comma.”) But regardless of whether or not great social media writers are fanatical about the grammatical, they’re individuals who embrace three critical elements of effective communication.

  1. Understanding the Platform. It’s no secret: it’s impossible to write well without understanding the channel, its challenges and opportunities, the rules of the road and how they’ve changed. In the era BT (Before Twitter), the # symbol had merely designated numbers. Thanks to social media, that tiny number sign has been completely redefined. Now, this little guy’s corralling conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and more. But it’s not just having a handle on hashtags and how to use them; it’s also understanding the necessities for keeping posts relevant and interesting for users. Context counts, especially when social media streams clutter conversations. Simpler posts that focus on essential information are best for ensuring that content resonates with users – no matter what kind of content surrounds it. Whether it’s Facebook’s EdgeRank (the algorithm that determines what pieces of content a user sees and when), Twitter’s 140-character limit, or reddit’s casual and quirky community-centric style, social platforms parameters require education, experimentation, and enthusiasm for their constant evolution.
  2. Understanding the Audience. What kind of people comprise the audiences for each brand, campaign, channel, and experience? What do they care about, want, and need? Whether they’re male or female, affluent or aspiring, old or young, active or passive, understanding the groups of people who make up the audience for a brand is crucial to writing effectively. But more important than just having demographic and psychographic information is understanding where the sweet spot, in which brand audiences and platform audiences intersect, lies. At PR News’ 2013 Digital PR Summit, reddit’s Marta Gossage (community operations manager) and Victoria Taylor (director of communications) divided social media audiences into two groups: those looking to show off “frontstage behavior” (the way users want to portray themselves to the world, which is possible on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn), and those looking to embrace “backstage behavior” (the way people think and feel when they’re being their true selves, which is more possible on platforms like reddit and Whisper). Which audience is more closely aligned with a particular brand? Keep in mind that understanding that the audiences for a brand and a social media platform do not overlap is as important as identifying the fact that they do.
  3. Understanding the Brand. Corporate and individual social media participants have one thing in common, no matter their follower:following ratio – each is at a unique stage in its lifecycle. Understanding whether a brand is aiming to attract potential clients, convert leads to customers, or build a loyal community of brand advocates is essential to determining brand and platform goals, optimizing content, and (of course) writing well.

There are a lot of naysayers out there, but sometimes it’s important to go the Candy Mountain route circa ‘07 and shun the non-believers, you know? Social media is, in a lot of ways, making us better, more thoughtful writers and more interested, more interesting consumers of content. And in a social landscape that’s constantly being recreated and reevaluated, that’s those are the best things we can be.

Best Practices for Effective Writing for Social Media from Erica Nardello


This post originally appeared on the Advertising Week Social Club here and is based on a guest lecture I gave at the University of the Arts.

tags: Advertising Week, awsc, digital content, digital writing, social media, social media writing
categories: AWSC
Tuesday 07.22.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

Instagram's Algorithm Update Brings a More Personalized Explore Feature

179055691 In an effort to make the Instagram user experience more personalized, the photo-sharing platform has updated the algorithm for its Explore tab. Previously, a quick tap on the Explore tab would summon the platform’s most popular posts (usually the supermodel-esque selfies and adorable cat photos that had racked up the greatest number of likes) for all Instagrammers. As of last week, however, the tables have turned.

The app’s Explore tab now offers personalized recommendations for each user. These recommendations are based on the photos and videos their friends have most recently liked, plus the Instagram community’s most popular photos. While the customization is new, the basics are not – the Explore tab still shows 21 photos and videos from public users only (sorry, private users!) and is updated regularly, based on the trends within the Instagram community. And, of course, users are still able to find for new content and new users to follow by searching by username and hashtag. These changes have only been made to the Explore tab and won’t affect the app’s home feed, which still displays photos and videos from users in the order in which they were posted.

What does this mean for you? Whether you’re an individual Instagrammer or representing a brand on the platform, it seems to be a good thing, at least according to some folks.

The algorithm change could make your content easier to find. If you’re using the app to share personal photos and videos, your friends and their friends could find your content because you fall within their social graph. If you’re more of a photojournalist, this shift could attract new followers by sharing your photos (even those with a smaller number of likes) with users who are interested in your subject matter, based on their social network and interests. And for brands, this is a much improved way to connect and share branded content with followers and extend that reach to their friends.

Plus, with just 20 other photos with which to “compete,” each photo (and user) instantly becomes easier to digest, appreciate, and explore further on Instagram’s Explore tab. It’s unclear how many people are using the tab currently, but this will hopefully make it more user-friendly, whether those users are individuals or brands. What do you think of the algorithm change? Will this make you more or less likely to tap over to the Explore tab in the future?

This post originally appeared on the Advertising Week Social Club here.

tags: Advertising Week, awsc, instagram, instagram algorithm, instagram explore, instagram explore algorithm, social media
categories: AWSC, Social Media
Tuesday 04.29.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
Comments: 1
 

News Feed Update: A New Look and Feel for Facebook's News Feed

As you've probably already noticed, Facebook has updated the News Feed for users. As they announced last week, the changes in the look and feel will help to provide a more consistent experience across desktop and mobile platforms. For the most part, it's just a new look, but here's a run-down of what's new (and what's not).

851582_1392449354359760_1744897451_n.png

What's New:

  • Larger images
  • Fonts
  • Bookmark icons
  • Stories housed within "cards" in the feed
  • Timestamps under the Page or user's name
  • Same sizing for organic stories and ads
  • Multi-photo Page posts (all multi-photo stories will honor the orientation of the first photo in the series and will not be distinguished from the format of a photo album)

What's Not New:

  • General layout
  • Navigation
  • News Feed's algorithm that determines what you see and when
  • Creative specs and image aspect ratios for Facebook Ads or Promoted Posts (including the 20% text rule)

Check out the changes and let me know what you think in the comments.

tags: facebook, facebook for businesses, facebook news feed, social media
categories: Social Media
Tuesday 03.11.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

News Feed Update: Facebook’s Algorithm Pushes Posts Most Relevant to User Interests through Tagging

After Facebook’s latest algorithm change gave preference to personal status updates over brand status updates, the social network is throwing brands a bone: more reach for their most relevant posts. Starting this week, brand posts that tag other brands may be shown to followers of both brand pages. Much like a user’s friends will see that they’ve been tagged in posts by other (non-mutual) friends, Facebook followers of brand pages may see posts that the brand has been tagged in by other brands, including press outlets, sponsors, strategic partners, competitors, and more. For example, Facebook followers of Advertising Week will naturally see the Page’s posts, plus posts from other brands that tag Advertising Week – even if they do not follow the other brand on the platform.

As Facebook Product Manager Andrew Song explained in a Facebook Newsroom post,

“We look at many factors to make sure the most relevant stories appear in News Feed, including which posts are getting the most engagement (such as likes, comments, shares and clicks) across all of Facebook. We also consider which posts are getting the most engagement from people who like both the Page that posted and the Page that was tagged.”

This new algorithmic update comes after users expressed that they liked seeing this kind of relevant content in their News Feeds when Facebook tested the feature for Pages, Song said. It’s an interesting move for Facebook, given that this feature could easily be abused by brands that want a little extra reach by leveraging a big, but irrelevant name. But more than that, it’s a great opportunity for brands to make their posts more relevant to their current and future audiences. Here’s how:

  1. Brands that leverage existing partnerships on local, national, and global levels can connect with the audiences that they most want to reach. This means that brands small and large will more clearly benefit from sponsorship, partnership, and overall collaboration in the social media world.
  2. Brands can create better brand associations based on the relevant interests of their audience. For example, if a brand like Stonyfield Farms posts about its corporate stance on GMO labeling, tagging the Environmental Working Group that created a guide to help shoppers avoid genetically engineered foods will help to create a stronger connection between the two brands and their values.
  3. Brands can demonstrate differences between themselves and their competition by tagging their competitors in posts that compare them. Prego’s latest campaign to differentiate themselves from Ragu through taste testing could easily extend to social channels. By leveraging Facebook tagging to show the results of their taste test to the followers of both brands, they could more clearly show that one brand is superior to the other and even drive conversions of sales.

It will be interesting to see the creative ways that brand strategists and community managers leverage this newest algorithm change to benefit their brands.

Originally posted on the Advertising Week Social Club here.

tags: Advertising Week, awsc, facebook, facebook algorithm, marketing, social media
categories: AWSC, Social Media
Wednesday 02.26.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
 

#SMWNYC Recap: The Future of Social Media and Content Creation

Social Media Week NYC For the second year in a row, I made the trek from the City of Brotherly Love to the Big Apple for Social Media Week NYC. In two days of SMW sessions, expert panelists from socially savvy agencies and brands discussed continuously changing social media platforms, revolutionary content strategies, and evolving analytics. Check out the key takeaways from select sessions below and, if you were in attendance at #SMWNYC, let me know what findings you found most valuable in the comments!

The Language of Social Media is Visual

The internet was built on text. From search engine algorithms and queries to website and application coding, words have defined and shaped the digital experience. But, as JWT Trends Strategist Will Palley pointed out in a session on Thursday called Reading is No Longer Fundamental: The Shift to Visual Vocabulary, “new social platforms force people to learn new languages.” Increasingly, those languages are not always (or only) verbal. With the rise of platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, the language of social media is evolving from words (and even limited characters) to images. DigitasLBi SVP and North American Mobile Practice Lead Chia Chen said in The Changing Face of News Consumption, Hosted by WSJ, “The currency of social media is imagery.” As users increasingly turn to animated stickers and emoji to communicate, brands need to evolve to learn from, understand, and embrace these languages – to “listen visually,” said Palley. But how?

“We need to restore context to content,” said Curalate CEO and Co-Founder Apu Gupta. That context can come from comments, emoji, metadata, and more. While users may be pinning your brand’s products or posting photos of your signage on Instagram, it’s important to understand the users, read their posts, and know that they could be sharing the content because they love it or because they hate it. Brands have the opportunity to create that context by inviting consumers to participate in the content creation process. Rather than simply taking and repurposing user-generated content, Craig Hepburn, global head of digital & social at Nokia, recommends that brands start building relationships with (but not paying for the involvement of) key influencers. Curalate's Gupta cited a really amazing example of work with Urban Outfitters, which leveraged user-generated content to create a digital experience based on the real style of its customers on its homepage. But the best part wasn't the "influence" of the customers featured on UO's website – it was their enthusiasm. "We talk so much about influencer marketing, but that's to the detriment of loyalists," Gupta explained. The success of the efforts to incorporate visual user-generated content depends largely on the type of brand and the type of consumer, but one thing is for sure: the visual language of social media is still in its infancy and it will only continue to grow and change.

The Evolution of Content Creation and Sharing

Propelled by changes in consumption habits and platform preferences, storytelling has changed forever. Still, there are great opportunities and challenges for community managers and content creators of all kinds, but they've evolved with the times and with us. "Most people have thought of stories as having a beginning, middle and end," said Jim Roberts, executive editor and chief content officer of Mashable. "For the consumer who has time to consume it, it's a really rewarding experience, but most people don't have time to do that anymore." Now, brands and media companies are being forced to tailor their content to evolving consumer preferences.

Liz Heron, emerging media editor at The Wall Street Journal, explained that content, especially content targeted to millennials, needs to be characterized by three things: presence and share-ability on social and mobile platforms, rich visuals, and emotional relevance and resonance. And really, in a sea of content that is constantly fighting for our attention and our love, that couldn't be more accurate. Without content that tugs at the heartstrings and engages with imagery on the social and mobile channels at our fingertips, media companies and brands cannot hope to connect with modern consumers. "The pace of change that we experienced... in the '90s was nothing compared to the pace of change in recent years," said Roberts. Clearly social media trends are leading the way forward and show no sign of slowing down.

tags: facebook, marketing, smwJournoFuture, smwJWT, SMWNYC, smwWSJ, social media, Social Media Week, Social Media Week NYC, twitter
categories: Social Media
Monday 02.24.14
Posted by Erica Nardello
 
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