Mediaboss Marketing

Digital trends move quicklythats no surprise to marketers. The fast pace of the social media environment can cause marketers to sit on the sidelines. Or worse, it can lead them to make snap judgments about how to engage, believing that seeing what sticks is a better strategy than being left behind. Making quick decisions in the rapidly-shifting social media landscape doesnt mean they cant be smart and strategic.

Social media isnt alternative media, its mainstream media, as reflected by the increasing spending across multiple platforms. In 2022, advertising spending on TikTok and Instagram will reach $177 billion, according to Zeniths global forecast, overtaking TV for the first time. As a main source of information and entertainment, consumers are much less forgiving than they were in the early days. If brands are going to take advantage of these channels, they need to move quickly and get it right.

Here are three social media-focused insights and tips to consider when looking to accelerate clients social marketing presence by making smart, strategic choices about where and when to play:

The question to ask yourself is: Why do I have the right to be engaging in this conversation? In other words, does your category directly relate to whats happening in the trend? Is this truly relevant to your existing customers and/or target users?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then your brand may get a boost by associationright time, right placebut you wont fully leverage the potential of the effort. Consumers are very tough on brands they deem insincere. The price of aligning your brand with the wrong trend wont be worth it if consumers decide youre inauthentic.

As the fastest-growing social media platform globally, TikTok is a must-have for nearly every company or brands digital marketing strategy. That means understanding how best to use it and its features is imperative.

TikTok is a place where peopleand brandsneed to entertain if they want to capture viewers attention. Creating content on the platform that has tension is critical. What can your brand do thats unexpected?

TikTok offers a place where brands can color outside the lines a bit or let their hair down, compared to other social channels. When brands show up in unexpected but still very authentic ways, consumers will reward them. And variety is key. Once you commit to a content medium like TikTok, you need to show up often or risk getting lost in the more than 1 million videos that are viewed every single day.

Video continues to become increasingly important in the battle for consumer engagement. As social platforms revamp around video, brand marketers wont have the option to keep static as the center of their social content efforts.

Recently, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri revealed that the social media platform is planning to double down on its video features and focus efforts on the recently introduced Reels functionality. This indicates the TikTok-like feature is about to grow even more, and brands need to focus on how best to implement video-focused content quickly and affordably.

Remember, social media moves quickly and you should, toobut not so fast that you put a brands reputation in danger. Be smart, be agile, but most of all, control the urge to post, share, or create content for the sake of being part of a conversation. The repercussions of a bad move made on social media far outweigh 15 minutes of trending success.

Vice President atBlue Sky Agency, overseeing client relations and business development.

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Avoiding knee-jerk marketing decisions in the digital space - Fast Company

FORT COLLINS, Colo., April 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Implementing the right social media management strategy has the potential to increase sales and brand awareness, and most business owners know that being active on social media is a non-negotiable in this day and age.

In this case study, Marketing 360 discusses how one online retailer, with the help of the social media management team at Marketing 360, was able to increase their sales and impressions through their social media management strategy.

In a three month period, this business saw 235,814 impressions and generated 78,043 clicks to their website. This was achieved through posting a variety of educational and engaging content on Facebook and Instagram that asked their audience to answer questions. It might sound counterintuitive, but posting engaging, community-focused content rather than sales-focused content can lead to more sales.

They also used ad budget to boost their posts which allowed them to get in front of more people. This led to an additional 55,268 impressions and to direct conversions.

Social media is truly non-negotiable for business owners, and it provides one of the best avenues to get in front of new and existing customers. The right social media management strategy can help businesses increase their brand recognition and sales.

Through many tools and integrated apps, plus the backing of a fully integrated marketing team, the Marketing 360 platform makes it easy for small businesses to manage their business and marketing, all from one place, while saving time, money, and tons of manual work. Learn more about Marketing 360 at https://www.marketing360.com/.

About Marketing 360Marketing 360 is a technology company that provides business management and marketing software and services for SMBs and franchises. For over a decade, the Marketing 360 platform has given SMBs everything they need to manage and grow their business from a singular platform, including the ability to build a professional website, accept and manage payments, manage leads and customers, book appointments, monitor reviews, manage social media, syndicate business listings, manage content marketing, run multi-channel digital advertising campaigns, and more. Marketing 360 was founded in 2009 with the mission of enriching communities by helping small businesses grow, and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. Learn more about Marketing 360 at https://www.marketing360.com/.

Contact:Farra Lanzer[emailprotected]970-541-3284

SOURCE Marketing 360

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Marketing 360 Social Media Management Strategy Increases Impressions and Sales for Online Retailer - PR Newswire

WASHINGTON(BUSINESS WIRE)Much like Europe after World War II, political instability in war-torn countries, social and economic upheaval, religious constraints, and large refugee populations from Ukraine, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, and Somalia set public health initiatives like family planning significantly back or completely unavailable. Clinics close and doctors move ondespite such challenges, DKT International, one of the worlds largest providers of family planning, HIV/AIDS and safe abortion products and services, steps in to fill a growing unmet need as a critical provider of condoms and other contraception.

Often, in times of conflict, the right or ability to access family planning is one of the first things women lose, says Chris Purdy, CEO of DKT International. Its every womans right to choose when and if to have children, and envision a world where every child is wanted, which speaks directly to the goals of FP2030 to enable women and girls to have access to affordable modern contraceptives.

In addition to access to condoms and other forms of contraception, The World Health Organizations (WHO) new guidelines on abortion care aim at protecting the health of women and girls to help prevent over 25 million unsafe abortions that currently occur each year. Being able to obtain safe abortion is a crucial part of health care, said Craig Lissner, acting Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. Nearly every death and injury that results from unsafe abortion is entirely preventable. Thats why we recommend women and girls can access abortion and family planning services when they need them.

DKT WomanCare, DKT Internationals innovative production and distribution arm of sexual and reproductive health products, continues to ensure top-quality contraceptives and safe abortion products are more available, accessible, and affordable in over 90 countries around the world.

The recent devastation in Ukraine and the inflation of goods and services we are experiencing around the world is extremely disconcerting, as the impact on developing countries is even more severe driving up the prices of necessities. We have already seen the cost of transport and petrol increase and expect this disruption to impact critical access to sexual and reproductive health products around the world, said Jacques-Antoine Martin, Managing Director of DKT WomanCare.

DKT WomanCare will continue to create structural, long-term solutions to systemic challenges, like product financing and donor dependency, by engaging in innovative partnerships and distribution models to put downward pressure on pricing, adds Purdy.

DKT has plans to expand to other markets in the region and is laying the groundwork to respond to a range of challenges facing women of reproductive age in markets like Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. For example, the Jordan office will initially provide IUDs, condoms, and MVA abortion kits.

Supporting women in choosing a better future for themselves, especially in places where there are social and political conflicts, is what drives our mission, adds Purdy. And we will continue to ensure access to family planning triumphs even amidst differences in culture, economics, politics, gender, and religion.

About DKT International:

Since 1989, DKT Internationals core mission has been to provide safe and affordable options for family planning and HIV prevention through social marketing in 90 underserved countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In 2021, DKT generated 54.2 million Couple Years of Protection (CYPs) through the sale of more than 901 million condoms, 111 million cycles of oral contraceptives, 20 million emergency contraceptives, 19 million injectables, 1.9 million implants, 4.7 million IUDs, 5 million medical abortion (MA) combipacks, and 300,000 manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) kits.

Contacts

DKT International

Dara Shlifka

dara@gcomworks.com

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DKT International Helps Maintain Global Access to Family Planning Despite Conflict and Inflation of Goods and Services - - Portada-online.com

How can state and local governments, which are facing a talent crunch due to numerous workplace trends, attract new workers and retain the best of the ones they now have?

When employees leave state and local government jobs, they often cite retirement, advancement at another public employer, and a lack of competitive compensation as the top reasons for leaving, according to their exit interviews.

Likewise, when HR Directors at state and local governments were asked about the competitiveness of their compensation and benefits packages, 92% say that the benefits package is competitive, yet just 60% say that the compensation offering is competitive, according to the same report.

Today, major generational shifts are happening that immediately impact government agencies. With Baby Boomers retiring, there is a major loss of institutional knowledge within many agencies; and Millennials currently make up just 27% of the public workforce. Clearly, public employers need to make investments in talent attraction and retention now.

With the ongoing labor shortage driving up compensation, it is unlikely that public sector employers are going to be able to compete for talent on compensation alone. This means that state and local government employers need to get more creative in order to attract new recruits and retain existing employees. Here are several examples of what the most innovative public employers are doing:

Public employers should outline what they want to be known for in the marketplace. For example, do you want your agency to be known as one that highlights employees work/life balance or focuses on the jobs purpose and impact? Do you want a workplace that can be depended on to promote veterans transitions or the re-entry of mothers? Or, do you want to offer strong career advancement and development and stability and security?

To start the process, the hiring professionals within these agencies should ask their long-time, most productive employees why they stay. Then, analyze the employee experience through the lens of a productive, engaging, and enjoyable work experience. Next, understand the experience your competitors are offering, and engage in a social marketing strategy through story-telling to communicate your agencys unique value proposition. Indeed, public sector candidates interact with prospective employers an average of 7.4 months prior to being hired.

For example, the state of Indiana used social channels on LinkedIn page to triple the level of prospective candidates awareness of available positions, according to LinkedIn.

Remember to highlight purpose and meaning in your social narrative. For a public service job to allow an employee to contribute to something larger than oneself is a big reason why employees choose their jobs and stay with their employer across generations. Because serving the public needs is the mission of the local and state government, highlighting purpose is a logical first action to take to attract and retain employees.

To compete with private sector, government agencies should consider these innovative ways to increase the value of employment:

The use of employee and employer feedback is an often underused tactic to help retain key employees. Some of the ways the public sector employers can retain their most valuable employees by leveraging feedback, include:

Conduct stay interviews In todays competitive labor market, employers more than ever need to keep an eye on how employees, especially high performers, are feeling. Stay interviews, which help managers understand why employees stay and what might cause them to leave, are a mechanism for doing so.

During these less-than-30-minute conversations, managers ask standard, structured questions in a casual manner. Asking certain questions can help employers understand what are the specific aspects of each employees role and workplace that keep them engaged, what are each employees career and life goals, and how the manager can support each person in achieving them. Further, these interview may shed light on what factors might tempt certain employees to leave.

Upskill existing employees by investing in digital professional development One of the top factors of employee retention is the availability of learning opportunities. With many options of online learning platforms available to employers, its relatively easy for employers to invest in upskilling and offer a plethora of options for skills development for their employees. For example, the state of Missouri improved employee satisfaction by 54% by investing in LinkedIn Learning for its employees.

Promote and hire by valuing power skills over technical skills To meet the agility demands of knowledge workers today, power skills, such as self-awareness, and understanding power dynamics, collaboration, leadership, communication, and cultural competency, are often the unspoken requirements for high-performance team culture.

These skills are critically important for todays employees, from Millennials to Gen X to Baby Boomers, and any who rate purpose and meaningful work as top factors when considering a job at a government agency or public sector employer.

Excerpt from:
Innovations for local and state governments to attract and retain workers - Thomson Reuters

Nine in 10 people (91%) across APAC and Japan (JAPAC) believe it is not enough for businesses to say they are prioritising environmental, societal, and governance (ESG) - they need to see it in action and proof. According to the study "No Planet B" by Oracle and Pamela Rucker, CIO advisorfor Harvard Professional Development, even though half of the respondents (50%) believe businesses can make more meaningful changes on sustainability and social factors than individuals or governments alone, 75%are fed up with the lack of progress by businesses to-date.

Close to three in four (74%) respondents wouldbe willing to cancel their relationship with a brand that does not take sustainability and social initiatives seriously, with 72% saying that theywould even leave their current company to work for a brand that places a greater focus on these efforts. On the other hand, 89% said that they would bemore willing to pay a premium for their products and services if organisations canclearly demonstrate the progress they are making on environmental and social issues, along with 87% and 86% who said they would work for and invest in such companies respectively.

Close to nine in 10 respondents (89%) also believe businesses would make more progress towards sustainability and social goals with the help of AI, while 66% believe that "bots will succeed where humans have failed".

Human bias and operational challenges are holding businesses back

Almost 93% of business leaders believe sustainability and ESG programmes are critical to the success of their organisations. Around nine in 10 business leadersbelieve sustainability and societal metrics should be used to inform traditional business metrics, and 92% want to increase their investment in sustainability.

Yet business leaders face major obstacleswhen implementing sustainability and ESG initiatives. Obtaining ESG metrics from partners and third parties (39%), a lack of data (37%) andtime-consuming manual reporting processes (35%) were some of the common barriers cited by business leaders.Nonetheless, business leaders want to step up on their sustainability and social efforts as they help increase productivity (42%), strengthen the brand (40%) and attract new customers (37%).

The study also revealed that business leaders will trust bots over humans alone to drive sustainability and social efforts, with 91% saying organisations that use technology to help drive sustainable business practices will be the ones that succeed in the long run. Almost all of them (97%) also admitted thathuman bias and emotion often distract from the end goal.

About nine in 10 (94%) business leaders would trust a bot over a human when it comes to making sustainability and social decisions.

Some of the most common reasons cited include bots being better atcollecting different types of data without error (48%), makingrational, unbiased decisions (46%) andpredicting future outcomes based on metrics and past performance (45%).

On the flip side, business leaders also said that humans are still essentialto the success of sustainability and social initiatives as people are better at implementing changes based on feedback from stakeholders (51%); educating others on the information needed to make decisions (48%), and making context-informed strategic decisions (45%).

Juergen Lindner, senior vice president and CMO, global marketing SaaS, Oracle said thatit has never been more critical for businesses to invest in sustainability and ESG initiatives as people are looking for decisive action and are demanding more transparency and tangible results.Business leaders understand the importance, yet often have the erroneous assumption that they need to prioritise either profits or sustainability. The truth is this is not a zero-sum game. The technology that can eliminate all the obstacles to ESG efforts is now available, and organisations that get this right can not only support their communities and the environment, but also realize significant revenue gains, cost savings, and other benefits that impact the bottom line," he added.

Theevents of the past two years have put a spotlight on sustainability and social efforts, with 81% of respondents saying thatthe events over the past two years have caused them to change their actions and95% saying thatsustainability and social factors have become more important than ever. Among them, establishinghealthier ways of living (53%), saving the planet for future generations (49%) and helping to create more equality around the world (49%) were among the commonly cited reasons for wanting to makeprogress on sustainability and social factors.

However, 94% of respondents believe society has not made enough progress. Common attributes cited by respondents include increased emphasis onshort-term profits over long-term benefits (43%), people being too busy with other priorities (40%) and people being too lazy or selfish to help save the planet (37%)

The findings for this study were based on a survey conducted between 25 February to 14 March 2022 with 11,005 global respondents, among which 4,000 were from JAPAC.The survey explored attitudes and behaviors of consumers and business leaders towards sustainability and social efforts along with the role and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots in ESG efforts.

Related articles:Mixed progress in SG green transformation, sustainability manager role on the riseStudy: Singapore's SMEs need a lot more help in creating sustainable practicesAPAC firms' sustainability progress 'inconsistent', plans remain performativeWhat works better in advertising: Guilt or hope?

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Study: Will bots succeed where humans have failed in brand sustainable pushes? - Marketing Interactive