Mediaboss Marketing

After three waves of the coronavirus pandemic, the world is battling a ruined economy and shrinking employment opportunities. Some of the hardest-hit professionals belong to the creative sector, including content writers and photographers. In February, when startup Cast India launched in Pune, the aim was to form a bridge between creative professionals and employers.

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Since then, the startup has registered more than 800 aspirants from Pune and its surroundings as well as 40 companies with vacancies to fill for graphic designers, models and content writers, among others. We are starting to give them resources according to their requirements, says Praddyuman Bapat, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who founded Cast India with Pulkit Jain, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

The startup is targeting an estimated market size of nine million across India, and are focused on film and television, media, advertising, public relations, events and marketing though not limited to these. After the pandemic, we have noticed that employment opportunities have decreased but a lot of independent professionals have started emerging because of the low incomes they are getting through their jobs. Experts in social media, for instance, are in high demand from companies and small startups who do not have the resources for their social media. The latter employ social media experts, such as influencers and designers, on contract, says Bapat.

The expected growth of the advertising industry is 11 per cent, while media, film and television will witness a nine per cent growth, the public relations sector will grow by 10.50 per cent and the events industry will grow by 11 per cent by 2024. This rise will generate opportunities for aspirants in the market, he adds.

The company has identified more than 350 profiles that are required in the market on a daily basis, such as graphic designers, experts in social media posts, brochures and flyers, content writers for blogs and models for shoots. Businesses require these services but do not want to spend a lot of money since the market is still unclear about what is going to happen next, says Bapat.

Cast India is bootstrapped with the founders investing Rs 1 crore, though they have a potential investor on board. At present, the service is free for aspirants and employers but, in a few months, there will be a charge of Re 1 per dayor Rs 365 annuallyfor aspirants and Rs 399 per month for employers looking to recruit talent. A concierge service, where a relationship manager connects aspirants and employers, is to be launched.

We are interested in connecting employers to local professionals. The pandemic era has seen a rise in people who create digital content, some of whom have millions of followers but are not local to where the employer is based. We try to put employers in touch with local talent who understand the market better than others, says Bapat.

The companys strongest region is Pune, but they have begun to get applicants who are voice-over artists and actors, among others, from Jammu and Kashmir Chandigarh and Bihar. Our aim is to reach out to multi-talented professionals over urban and rural geographies through an ideal platform where they can showcase their talents to the world, says Bapat.

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Pune INC: Pune startup helping the job market get 800 aspirants in a month - The Indian Express

Haniel Ukpaukure

The theme for the 2022 edition of the International Womens Day celebration Break the Bias is a fitting description of the tradition at Soulcomms Limited, one of Nigerias leading strategic communications and engagement consultancy companies, where women have consistently risen above their circumstances to attain heights and achieve great successes in a seemingly male-dominated profession. The theme resonates with the women who have not allowed themselves to be discriminated against; who have refused to be stereotyped on account of gender, boldly asserting their relevance and making invaluable contributions to the string of successes the company has recorded in its almost 18-year history.

Mojisola Saka, Chief Operating Officer; Omonigho Agbator-Momodu and Uyiosa Aigbe can aptly be described as The Wise Women of Soulcomms. They are currently flying the flag that indicates the milestones that have been recorded by women across generations at the top-rate company. It is a flag that symbolizes the DNA that runs in the company.

The women have succeeded because the company provides a conducive environment and a level playing field that allows each person to thrive, irrespective of gender. It is an environment that allows women to realize their full potential, which is evident in their ability to effortlessly juggle their roles as professionals and executives at the workplace, as well as wives, mothers, daughters and sisters at home.

Despite the unenviable reality of carrying domestic and official burdens almost on a 24-hour basis, women have been able to make their mark by contributing immensely to the growth of Soulcomms, thanks to their never-say-die spirit. It is proof of their ability to break biases in a society where women have to work extra hard, more than their menfolk, to be recognized and appreciated.

It is a befitting testimony to the resilience and resourcefulness of women at Soulcomm that Mojisola, the only woman to run the company since its establishment in 2004, has held the position longer than her male predecessors, literally responsible for the enviable height the company has attained today. She wears many caps that include team leader, business driver, mentor, entrepreneur, conceiver and administrator.

The propriety of celebrating the women at Soulcomm on this years International Womens Day must be viewed against the background of the general disapproval and outrage that has greeted the failure of lawmakers to pass the four gender equality bills which were expected to be part of the constitution amendment process currently going at the National Assembly. In the view of many Nigerians, especially women organizations, the action of the lawmakers is simply a reflection of the patriarchal nature of Nigeria, where male dominance forms part of the culture.

According to the Human Resource Management International Digest (Volume 27 No.7, pp.9-11), The patriarchal system such as seen in Nigeria remains a strong culture of male dominance and women continue to be subjugated. Thus, in Nigeria, the patriarchal system still forms a barrier to achieving a good work-life balance and advancement for women.

The patriarchal system accounts for why there is lack of access to education for the girl child, especially in some sections of the country where little value is placed on education of female children because of the age-old but erroneous belief that their place is in the kitchen as full time housewives. This belief is fueled by the thinking that she loses the family name the moment she is married off into another family, and is therefore not worth being invested in.

There is also the cultural factor that robs the girl child of opportunity to acquire education because she is given out for marriage even before she attains adolescence, as is the practice in some areas.

It is a system that encourages gender discrimination against women in virtually every segment of society at the work place, in schools, in politics, in social organizations, etc. Succinctly put, Nigeria is a place where gender disparity has virtually reduced women to second class citizens, though the constitution guarantees equal rights and opportunities for all citizens. Even the statutes that set up public institutions discriminate against women, ignoring the same constitution.

Last month, an Abuja Federal High Court upheld the January 22, 2022 dismissal from the Nigeria Police of a female officer, Omotola Olajide, for getting pregnant while unmarried. The court re-affirmed Regulation 127 of the Police, despite the argument of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which instituted the case, that the action is a violation of Olajides rights which are enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, as amended. The NBA pointed out the discrimination in the action of the Police authorities in the face of the well-known fact that unmarried policemen impregnate women and are not dismissed from the service.

In December, 2021, an Army Private, Hannah Akinlabi, was arrested and detained by the authorities for publicly accepting a marriage proposal from a member of the National Youth Service Corps at a passing out parade in Kwara State. The ladys offence was that she violated military rules by publicly displaying emotion while in uniform. Incidentally, it was the time a video of a male soldier doing the same thing to a lady trended on social media, with Army authorities keeping mute on the matter. It took public outcry and appeals for the authorities to release the lady a day before Christmas to enable her to spend the festive season with her family, but not without a stern warning to ensure she did not repeat such an act.

This is the society in which women at Soulcomm find themselves, but have refused to be victims of the many biases that are stacked against the female gender. It is the same society where they are breaking the proverbial glass ceiling. This is a feat that deserves recognition and celebration.

Mojisola, a globally trained and experienced resource manager in Advertising, Experiential/Direct /Social Marketing and Banking, has handled projects within Nigeria and West Africa. An amazon in her own right, she leads the team from a strategic and execution perspective as COO. The numerous successes recorded by Soulcomm on all the projects under her watch have come about as a result of her knowledge and dexterity in Strategic Communications, Engagement and Messaging.

She holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology, a Diploma Certificate in Issues and Crisis Management, London School of Public Relations and an Advanced Certificate in Social Media Management, Chartered Institute of Public Relations, in the United Kingdom. She is also an alumnus of the International School of Communications, London and a member of CIPR, UK and NIPR.

Mojisola is guided by a personal philosophy of Stand and be known for the best, the reason she is seen by many as a torch bearer for the new generation of female professionals in the public relations industry.

Omonigho has competencies in Engagement and Experiential/Direct Marketing (Events/Projects Marketing and Operations Development and Management). Her expertise in operational development and execution strategies has contributed immensely to chain of successes that have attended all the projects she has been part of, right from her days at Neo Media & Marketing.

She is a graduate of Computer Science from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, and also has a certification in Administrative Management from the London Academy Business School. She brought to Soulcomm a diverse yet passionately immeasurable value to strategic thinking and output, and easily taps into her vast knowledge and experience, having successfully executed numerous pan-Nigeria activation campaigns for leading brands and across varied sectors. These sectors include FMCGs, telecoms, government and stakeholder/community relations, as well as financial services.

Uyiosa, with a Bachelors degree in Political Science and a Diploma Certificate in Public Relations, has handled engagements with high profile clients in banking, FMCG, hospitality, government and non-government sectors. She is often described as a motivated and passionate soul who brings unparalleled commitment and dedication to her job, the reason she excels in every task she handles.

Her ability to multi-task is evident in the fact that within and outside the office environment, she creates time to plan and execute projects in diverse areas. In addition to her job at Soulcomm where she helps the company deliver five-star performances in terms of strategic marketing communications on some of the most popular local and international brands across different sectors, Uyiosa is an interior decorator and designer whose works are found in commercial and residential properties.

A co-founder of Scents of Aurora, an aromatherapy and self-care brand, she devotes her private time to mentoring young female teenagers on how to aspire and actualize their dreams for the purpose of contributing to nation building.

As the world celebrates this years edition of the International Womens Day, heres to more great accomplishments to these wise women who have borne and are bearing great talents to the marcomms industry, their clients and community at large.

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Wise Women of Soulcomms Breaking the Glass Ceiling - THISDAY Newspapers

Effective marketing demands the skills to customize, humanize and repurpose content at scale using ... [+] AI.

Today, 82% of marketers actively use content marketing. Why is content king? Because it not only helps build brands and communicate both value propositions and brand values, it cultivates trust and converts interest into sales. High-quality contentand lots of itis not only good for business, its essential.

As content marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck (Gary Vee) predicted, this decade has become a game of volume and targeting. Brands that can generate moreand more strategically targetedcontent will disproportionately pick up market share. Instead of trying to reach 10,000 people on one channel with one piece of content, Vaynerchuck recommends that marketers create 10 different pieces of content for 10 channels, each focused on reaching a specific group of 1,000 people in a way that will actually interest and engage them. The result is both more, and more effective, content.

Brands now need to create content frameworks that differentiate by platform and hone messages according to ideas that may already be resonating for target audiences on those channels. Social media video platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram, compliance with the ADA, voice-search optimization and personalized content experiences are surfacing as key trends.

Happily, marketers can compete in this race for quality and quantity of content without a team of creators and an unlimited budget. The trick is to focus on creating better content and effectively repurposing it.

Optimize SEO and extend reach to new customers on a variety of platforms. Evergreen content can be expanded, updated with new data, upgraded with visuals, and translated into infographics, videos, animation, or e-book offers. Invite audiences to share their own experiences. These are not only SEO wins, they create better engagement.

The bad news is that good writing is scarce. In fact, companies waste $400 billion on bad writing each year in the U.S. alone, from ineffective social marketing and sales copy to poorly written internal communications. As a result, remedial writing training is costing over $3 billion a year.

The good news? Following a few simple rules can quickly improve the quality of written content and A.I. can handle most of the rest, from creating custom feed algorithms, predictive analytics and researching trends to effectively customizing and repurposing content.

In this episode of The Groove podcast, Kate Bradley Chernis, CEO and co-founder of Lately, shares the rules she has followed to nearly double sales conversions in her own company and to build Lately, a technology that uses A.I. to learn brand voices and turn long-form content like blogs, videos, and podcasts into dozens and even hundreds of pre-tested social posts.

A former marketing agency owner, Chernis tells me that the idea for Lately was born out of the strategic thinking (and smart approach to repurposing) that allowed her to produce an avalanche of content and achieve a 130% increase in ROI for the retailers content marketing program, year-over-year for three years.

Other inspiration for founding Lately came from Chernis experience as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. There she learned about the neuroscience of music and how the brain compares new songs to its own playlist. The brain searches for familiar touchpoints it can find in order to index that new song in the library of your brain, and its the same in writing, she explains. It's your job as the author to give your audience the familiar touchpoints that trigger nostalgia, memory, and trust.

Chernis insights into what drives emotional connection, combined with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise, has helped make Lately a game-changer. Gary Vee needs no convincing. He has created an entire Twitter channel fueled 100% by Lately thats yielded a stunning 12,000 % increased engagement.

The starting point for all the content Lately generates is Katelys Writing Rules, which Chernis followed to grow her monthly recurring revenue by 240% in 12 months with no paid ads, and no cold calls or emails. As she explains, through these rules, Lately learns from me first, and then it learns from my brand, our 98% conversion, and then it learns from you and all of our other customers, and your best practices.

First, write like a boss. Avoid using weak words like I think or I feel, or minimizing the impact and authority of messages as just a note, or checking in so as not to impose. What I found, especially in venture capital meetings, is that, the moment I say I think something, I totally kill my authority, because I should know it, she says.

Avoid inviting your audience to check out a site or podcast in favor of a more purposeful CTA. Give the reader a specific reason to read more, watch, listen, or respond.

Read what you write out loud; if it feels awkward saying it, it feels awkward reading itand its a great way to catch mistakes.

Do unto others by always having compassion for your audience. Like us, they are busy, stressed humans; they dont enjoy getting cold emails or reading material that is not useful and to the point.

Listen to the other six of Katelys Writing Rules on the podcast, where we also explore how she puts her experience as a DJ to work by applying the neuroscience of music, and how, by delighting clients who then spread the word, a great product like Lately can serve as its own new marketing.

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Produce More Powerful Content With These 10 Rules And The Power Of AI - Forbes

What are the most popular websites, and how can overall usage trends help inform digital marketing strategies?

Its interesting to consider broader web consumption habits, and the team from SEMRush recently put a listing together on exactly this, showing the most visited websites in December 2021 for US users.

In general, there are no major surprises Google, YouTube, Facebook and Amazon lead the way (though interesting to note desktop versus mobile traffic share), while Wikipedia, Walmart, Instagram and ESPN were also up there.

But take a look at Reddit, which was ahead of most other social platforms in terms of traffic.

An important clarification here is that this is web traffic, not app use - which is why TikTok, for example, is lower than Pinterest. But its interesting to note how people are coming across content via web browsers, and how theyre searching for and accessing information across each site.

That could help you map out a more effective strategy to target these users. Knowing that 85% of YouTube.com traffic comes via desktop, for example, seems like a strong indicator of how users are coming to YouTube videos via Google search, which could help you plan your YouTube ads to align with this experience.

Reddits the same, with a lot of visitors accessing the platform on desktop, as well as Pinterest, which would suggest that theres a lot of desktop search activity for related products leading people to the app.

It requires more specific tailoring of your approach, but it could be another consideration, and its interesting to see how people are connecting to these sites via the web.

You can read the full December web traffic report from SEMRush here.

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A Look at the Most Visited Websites in the US - Social Media Today

Short-form video is the trend of the moment, and with attention spans reducing, and new engagement behaviors taking hold, particularly among younger demographics, it seems like short-form interaction is here to stay, which is why every platform is now following TikToks lead into the next phase of video connection.

But effective monetization of short-form video is hard.

Vine found this out the hard way while Vine was hugely popular at one stage, and kick-started the careers of many now well-known stars, Vines parent company Twitter could never work out how to generate significant revenue from Vine clips, because you cant insert pre or mid-roll ads into such short content. That, eventually, saw its biggest stars moving on to greener pastures, which eventually also forced Vine to shut down.

TikTok is well-aware of this, and its well-aware of the increased direct monetization potential on offer in other apps, which is a big part of why today TikTok has confirmed that all users will soon be able to upload 10 minute long videos in the app, a significant expansion on its current time limits.

As you can see in this alert, posted by social media expert Matt Navarra, many TikTok users are now being notified of an expansion in their upload capacity.

TikTok has since confirmed the full roll-out of the option (to TechCrunch):

Were always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. Last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on TikTok. Today, were excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.

That previous expansion in video length came last August, with users given the option to upload 5 minute long clips.

Originally, TikToks time limit per clip was 15 seconds, before being extended to 60 seconds, then 3 minutes. Now, users will be able to upload much longer clips, which could actually have a big impact on how people consume content in the app, and in many ways, its a risky bet for TikTok, which has built its audience, thus far, on the back of short, pithy memes and responses.

Will users really welcome 10 minute long videos in their For You feed?

TikTok does, of course, also have longer live-streams which are displayed in the main feed, and those havent caused any engagement issues thus far, while some creators have also been able to post longer uploads for some time. So it does have some insight as to the potential impact of longer uploads on audience behaviors, while the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, has enabled 15 minute uploads for all users since 2019.

So its not going in blind here, TikTok does have some understanding of how users are likely to respond, and how to best present longer clips in-stream. But itll be interesting to see whether there is an impact on user behavior and interest, and whether TikTok can successfully extend user engagement in the app, which could lead to a much broader set of content and advertising options.

Which is the real push here. Again, given the challenges in monetizing short-form video content, its seemed inevitable that TikTok would eventually need to lean into longer form uploads in order to provide more direct monetization potential for creators. YouTube, for example, is looking to use its TikTok-like Shorts option as a supplementary content vehicle for its creators, so that they can then drive more interest in their main content feed, where they can make much more money from in-stream ads.

The potential for making real money from your uploads is far greater on YouTube, which brought in $28.8 billion in ad revenue last year, with around half of that going back to creators. TikTok has its $500 million creator fund, as well as tipping and donations, but those options dont come close to facilitating similar earnings capacity in this respect.

And TikToks already feeling the pressure. Last month, well-known video creator Hank Green posted a video in which he outlined how TikToks creator funding models are fundamentally flawed, and how, eventually, thatll likely lead to a creator revolt, as they seek a bigger slice of the revenue pie.

TikTok hasnt provided any public response to this, despite Greens video reaching almost a million views and sparking new questions about its longevity.

Maybe this, then, is TikToks answer, giving creators the capacity to actually generate direct revenue via longer clips, a direct monetization offering more in line with what theyll see on YouTube.

Will that work?

Time will tell, but again, Id have to see it to believe that TikTok users will actively and regularly engage with longer form clips.

Maybe they will, maybe this is the start of the next phase for TikTok, and that will be the thing that propels it to the next stage of growth, and the next billion users. But maybe not. Vine also tried expanding its video length, with no luck, and with TikTok also coming under scrutiny over the spread of misinformation in the app, particularly around the current Ukraine crisis, the expansion could also open up a range of new problems for the platform to deal with, on a scale that its not had to address in the past.

Which is likely why its taking a staged approach to the roll out but longer videos are coming, and youll soon see new trends starting to form around longer clips within the app. Whether you like it or not.

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TikTok Confirms that 10 Minute Video Uploads are Coming to All Users - Social Media Today