Mediaboss Marketing

The metaverse is morethan trending just ask Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Microsoft, Epic Games (owner of Fortnite), and Roblox.

Is the metaverse a buzzword or buzzworthy? The next internet?

Marketers need to be in the know!

Imagine accessing a virtual universe where you can create an entire world, bringing your physical world experiences with you.

It was only thirty years ago that the internet became publicly available, and twenty years ago that many businesses realized that a website was a necessity for marketing.

And lets not even talk about how long it took for social media networks to catch on.

Now, virtual reality experts predict that 58.9 million and 93.3 million people in the United States will use VR and AR respectively at least once a month this year thats 17.7% and 28.1% of the total US population, respectively.

At a conceptual level, the metaverse can be thought of as the successor-state to todays internet just as todays predominantly mobile internet was built on top of fixed broadband internet of the 1990s and early 2000s, according to Matthew Balls Metaverse Fund.

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The convergence of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and edge cloud processing will soon make it easier to deliver more seamless, enjoyable, and cost-effective AR VR experiences across a variety of connected devices.

Just like the internet, industry insiders are predicting the metaverse will become a necessity for all brands.

Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Facebook is turning itself into a metaverse company, for what thats worth. Meanwhile, tech journalist Tara Swisher says the jury is still out and thinks Apple or Google might be better suited to lead the metaverse revolution.

1. Google Trends shows a significant climb in people searching the term metaverse in the last 12 months, hitting the 100 mark in March.

2. Top-tier media are all in. Forbes has a weekly round-up covering all corners of the metaverse news written by tech futurist and metaverse strategist, Cathy Hackl.

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3. Theres a fund. Matthew Ball, a media analyst and co-founder of the metaverse Investment Fund Metaverse ATF (NYSE: META) published The Metaverse Primer, a primer in 9 free essaysthat is a good starting point and someone to follow.

4. Chief Metaverse Officer and other metaverse titles. Search LinkedIn for the keyword metaverse, and you will find about 2700 results of people using metaverse in their profile title, headline, or experience.

5. Google News shows 175,000 search results for the keyword metaverse news.

6. On Twitter, #metaverse gets about 500+/- Tweets an hour depending on the news cycle.

7. Instagram shows more than 43K posts using #metaverse. Once known as a mobile photo-sharing app, Instagram insiders hint at a shift from photos to videos as the charge towards the metaverse marches on.

According to Wikipedia, the metaverse is the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet. Its a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet.

A metaverse is a place where everyone will have an avatar. Its a virtual experience in 3D whether you are playing, creating, gaming, or exploring.

There is a shift in business mindset and adaptation from looking at a virtual reality beyond just gaming to using VR to create, explore, identify, express, collaborate, and socialize.

Thanks to the pandemic push of new technologies and opportunities, VR is quickly moving away from the traditional stigma of being a waste of time to the next technology revolution much like mobile technology has shaped our culture from the first version of the iPhone to now.

Brands such as Gucci, Nike, Disney, Snap, and Facebook are in the midst of creating virtual communities, content, assets, fashion, art, experiences, and worlds.

We can now step out of our real world and into virtual worlds where we will have a new economy, environment, currency, and behaviors.

On todays agenda: Using new technologies wrapping virtual reality around augmented reality, and artificial intelligence as part of the digital marketing strategy.

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Much like the evolution of the Internet and the impact of mobile technology, savvy marketers will educate for change and adapt to new virtual worlds of opportunity.

Hackl points out that:

Brands will need to rethink their narratives in three dimensions and that marketers will need to embrace emerging technology at a faster speed. In the metaverse, everyone is a world builder, including brands.

Matt McGowan, Snap Director and General Manager Canada, says:

For brands and marketers, its important to remember the value of Gen Z and millennials or the Snapchat Generation, as we like to call them.

Consider what happens in a persons life between the ages of 13 and 34. They move out of the house for the first time, get their first apartment, first credit card, first car and they start buying the day-to-day products that they will need at various points throughout the rest of their lives.

The Snapchat Generation has over $4.4 trillion in global spending power, and beyond that carries a massive influence on household purchasing (over 80% of parents of Gen Z report that this generation influences household spend).

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McGowan also noted:

There is deep, long-term value in our audience, which is why its important to reach them where they spend so much of their time on their phones using apps like Snapchat.

Heres a starting point when it comes to SEO, social media, and public relations to get you started.

Just like marketers transitioned into optimizing to get found in search engines like Google, YouTube and Bing, its time to start analyzing how to get found in the metaverse.

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Brands can achieve this by staking their claim in a world, community, or platform that matches your audience.

Will search engines be the gateway to getting found in the metaverse? Having the keyword metaverse in a brand name, product or headline is helpful for getting found in search and social channels by those seeking that type of interaction.

Have a local restaurant, small business, or retail shop? Googles AR/VR technologies create 3D experiences direct from your local listings and more.

According to Google:

Augmented reality overlays digital content and information onto the physical world as if theyre actually there with you,

Using AR for trying on shoes, training someone how to do CPR, or sharing tips for applying cosmetics are all examples of how a brands content strategy can impact search results.

Eric Enge, author of The Art of SEO and co-founder of Pilot Holding, says:

One of the key aspects of the Metaverse is the big role that image processing plays. Virtual reality augmented reality, and visual search all rely on it.

Yet its important to acknowledge that capabilities in this area are still developing and that practical applications remain limited in nature. However, some of these are quite interesting.

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Deep content is at the heart of any SEO Strategy. The more that content serves a users needs, the better in terms of driving SEO rankings and organic search traffic.

Images are a highly effective form of content. As Google gets better and better at understanding the content and quality of images, the bigger a factor this will become.

Take an audit of your current content strategy and see how you can implement AR, VR, and 3D experiences into your marketing plans.

As mentioned earlier, Facebook sees its future self as a metaverse company.

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Equipped with brands such as Oculus (the hardware), the virtual reality platform Facebook Horizon, and a newly formed Facebook Metaverse executive team, the social network seems ready to launch from 2D to 3D.

If you are ready to explore the metaverse through the eyes of Facebook:

No experience is necessary.

Navah Berg, Facebook Horizon Creator and co-founder of Women in Horizon, says:

Connecting 2D newsfeeds to a 3D community in Horizon where world-building with others is truly a community-building experience. Horizon is the heart of the social metaverse.

Once inside Horizon, you can do things like visit different worlds centered around specific interests and topics. Youll find everything from gardening to gaming to meditation, and even community groups tied to Facebook Groups.

Created by early alpha-beta testers Berg and Paige Dansinger to empower women to build in Horizon, Women In VR host monthly meet-ups and hosted Facebook Horizons community leaders Q&A for their first Accelerator program. The group also holds Horizon world-building classes, and in early March had an all-day International Womens Day event with meditation, speakers from Facebook, Futurists, and Social Media experts.

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Facebook allows you to share moments in Horizon through Facebook Groups such as sharing your selfies and worlds from your 3D world to a 2D audience. They are creating a bridge between worlds.

Its possible to create worlds, collaborate with others, host events, have meet-ups, take selfies, and create meaningful relationships, avatar-to-avatar.

McGowan shared how brands can easily get started with AR on Snapchat:

Our free Lens Web Builder tool is a great way to get started with AR on Snapchat. It offers an easy, fast way for anyone to build compelling, professional AR Lenses in minutes either through templates with a pre-selected combination of 3D assets or from scratch.

Released this week, Snapchat Trends is a public, web-based tool for advertisers, partners, and more to learn which words and phrases are trending across Snapchat and whats driving buzz for our community of 500 million monthly active users.

For partners, its a great way to understand and get visibility into the communitys interests in real-time, said McGowan.

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Snap is also snapping into 3D content at a steady pace. With its beta launch of Spectacles: The Next Generation, creators are pushing the boundaries of what our 3D world will look like.

Ready and willing to capture the hearts of 16-25-year-olds, Snap also recently launched new 3D, fashion-forward Bitmojis. You can dress your avatar with your favorite brand and be the best digital version of the real you.

Brands dipping their toes in the metaverse today are making headlines. 60 Minutes recently featured the story on how nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are making it possible for people to buy and sell goods, and use them in the metaverse.

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Its a convergence of the physical world with the digital world.

Creative ways to use AR, VR and dip your PR toes in the metaverse:

It is now possible to create (or hire) a virtual being, the new influencers for your brand can be the perfect spokesperson or ambassador, or concierge. Check out a recent podcast interview between Guy Kawasaki and Kuki, an artificial intelligence chatbot.

Virtual beings are already part of our daily lives just not in 3D.

Think Alexa and Siri.

Looking at the world through AR glasses and leveraging immersive technologies are the waves of the near future.

How are you planning to surf through these new ways of communication and venture out past the shore of today to take a plunge in the waters the metaverse brings for tomorrow?

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The internet might have taken 30 years to get where it is today, but the metaverse is poised for rapid growth with technology primed and humans ready to crossover into new worlds.

In the metaverse, I wear Gucci.

More Resources:

Image Credits

Read more here:
Marketing in the Metaverse: The Future of Search & Social - Search Engine Journal

The FDA gets more than a fair share of jabs on social media, but lately its Twitter account has been showing its own spunk.

Last week, the FDATwitter account posted,You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. The post linked to anarticlediscouraging use of ivermectin, commonly used to treat parasites in animals, to treat COVID-19.

Spurred by serious reports of people hospitalized after self-medicating with the veterinarydrug, the cheeky tweet containeda serious message.

And thats the point, says the FDA.

Historically, weve used our social media platforms to communicate about a lot of important public health issues in fairly straightforward ways, but as the platforms have evolved, weve embarked on an effort to find creative ways to deliver our messages, Brad Kimberly, director of social media in the FDAs Office of External Affairs, said in an email.

These posts are designed to get peoples attention and, most importantly, combat dangerous viral misinformation," he said.

RELATED:FDA reputation takes another hit after scathing aducanumab advisory panel meeting

He added that so far the efforts are very effective, and Im glad people are recognizing this shift.

Effective may be an understatement. The not-a-horse post garnered more than 104,000 likes and 46,500 retweets. For comparison purposes, an FDA Twitter post the week before about the approval of a generic form of amoxicillin for dogs and cats got 70 likes and 28 retweetsand people really love their pets.

The ivermectin tweet in fact rivaled the FDA's Monday announcement that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, had been approved. The FDA breaking news post got 90.000 likes and 55,000 retweets.

Some naysayers didnt appreciate the agency's attempts at witone responder calledthe tone of voice inappropriate and saidit's better suited to Wendys than FDA.

Many others approved, thoughone commenterpromised to stopreferring to the organization as the"Fun Destroying Agency"and those in favor included some marketing experts.

Its actually quite appropriate, Eileen OBrien, Real Chemistrys social media practice leader, said in an email.

FDA social media channels can remain an important voice of authority while also having a personality. Its essential to speak in a way that engages the general public, she said.

Wendy Blackburn, executive VP at Intouch Solutions, called the FDAs new tone uncharacteristic, but she also approves.

Recently we have seen the FDA Twitter handle speak more in social medias native language. Theyre using emojis. They retweeted Ellen DeGeneres. Theyre showing their humanity with a dose of authenticity, and its a welcome change, she said.

RELATED:Pharma's reputation drops again. Could it foreshadow a return to the bottom?

Blackburn added, Its an effective and welcome trend in the way that FDA is battling misinformationas long as they also continue to balance their tone with one of authority and a focus on the science.

The FDA concurs on her science point.

As Kimberly said, We hope that people will come for a little bit of snark, stay for the serious, and in the process learn something new about the FDA and an issue that could save their lives.

See original here:
Show me the funny: FDA social media account gets spunky, adding wit and wordplay to combat misinformation - FiercePharma

As TikTok continues to expand, and become a bigger consideration for marketing teams, the platform is also growing its Marketing Partner Program, which provides access to local expertise and guidance to help brands maximize their in-app presence.

The latest additions on this front come in the South-East Asian region, where TikTok is adding nine new agency partners to provide assistance with TikTok campaigns.

As explained by TikTok:

"We're excited to announce that were expanding the TikTok Marketing Partner network to onboard nine more leading agencies and technology service providers from Southeast Asia (SEA) and Australia. Along with the expansion, we are also badging a set of regional partners that have excelled this part year and showcased exceptional creativity and zest in helping our clients scale new heights with their campaigns."

TikTok's marketing partners can provide professional advice and insights to help businesses optimize their TikTok ad campaigns. This new expansion will facilitate more opportunity for SEA businesses, with a specific focus on Singapore, where TikTok usage is on the rise.

In addition to this, TikTok is also adding a new Agency Services sub-category within its Marketing Partner platform, which will help to connect brands with partners that can optimize their campaigns creative and performance needs.

"In practice, this means advertisers can now select the local market in the main Partner Search dashboard and see corresponding listings. By adding Campaign Management to Media Buying Technologies, we want to give brands more ways to access a complete spectrum expertise for TikTok campaigns."

If you're looking to get into TikTok ads, and you have the resources to utilize a partner agency, TikTok's Marketing Partner Program is a good way to get in touch with approved, trained experts in various aspects of the process.

And as TikTok continues to add more users, and become a real rival for the bigger players, it certainly is becoming a much bigger consideration for a great many brands. The expansion of its partner program will help TikTok capitalize on that potential, and become a bigger player within the digital ads space.

Read more:
TikTok Expands Marketing Partner Program in Southeast Asia - Social Media Today

Social media is a great tool for keeping brands connected to their customers, but it can also be a powerful driver of direct sales activity.

Do you use social media to attract customers and increase sales?

If so, have you made sure that your social media profiles are contributing to your sales funnel, instead of each being a standalone element?

Heres how you can ensure your social media efforts are tied back to driving sales for your business.

When launching your brand, keep in mind that your website is going to be just one of many marketing channels. You're going to need a range of online assets to maximize your visibility, and each of those assets will form another part of your sales funnel.

Given this, consistency is key, and you should look for a brand name that's ideally available across all the major social media platforms as part of this approach.

This way you ensure that:

Namify is a brand name generator tool which checks name availability across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest:

It's a quick way to see how your name is being used, or not, which can help guide your initial branding approach.

Aside from your brand name, your brands visual identity (logo and colors) is another powerful way to build brand recognition, and increase your presence more broadly.

Human beings are extremely visual, and we recall and recognize things through visual associations. This is due to 'pictorial superiority effect'which relates to the brain's ability to retain visual information much easier than text:

Given this, your brands visual identity should be consistent across all your social media profiles, tying into that cognitive response.

Consider visual consistency across:

Visme has a handy feature which stores your brand identity elements, and aenables your team to then apply these visual cues and motifs to every asset that they create. This will save you time by enabling you and your team to apply your branded visual elements to all your creatives with just a few clicks.

Social media marketing is interruptive. People generally come to social platforms to see the latest updates from their friends and family,and your product links and promotions interrupt their activity.

This is where a strong and consistent brand identity can help people more comfortable and confident when finding themselves on your page.

Think about every click that your social media update or ad is going to drive to your site. Why would this social media user want to continue interacting with your page, instead of clicking off to continue browsing their social media feed?

For example, in this Instagram ad, UPRIGHT uses the same visual elements in both the ad creative and the linked landing page:

By maintaining consistency, you're not only reinforcing your branding, but you're also providing more assurance to users that they've clicked through on what exactly they were after, while it also ensures a less disruptive experience.

Content repurposing is one of the most effective ways to create cross-channel brand recognizability, but instead of just re-using the same content across as many channels as you can, consider a more creative approach.

Each platform is different, and the ways in which people engage on each also varies, which means that you need to align with each app's best practices to maximize your content appeal.

For example, you might:

The more assets you create, the more unique updates you'll be able to put together, with each driving more awareness for your brand, and more traffic to your site. And because you've used your original article as the foundation, people clicking your social media links will likely feel more comfortable interacting with your site.

There are multiple tools that can help you build an effective content repackaging strategy, including Canva, Visme and Haikudeck.

If you need help coming up with ideas on how to expand and repurpose your content, you can also run a quick search in Text Optimizer. The tool uses semantic analysis to suggest unique angles for you to use in your content repurposing strategy:

Marketing personalization means providing different user experiences based on each person's previous interactions with your brand.

There are various ways to use personalization for your social media sales funnel. One of the most obvious methods is using the Facebook Pixel, which captures data on people who visit and interact with your website, then enabling you to reach out to them with more personalized promotions based on their specific actions.

Finteza is another marketing personalization tool, which enables you to adjust your calls-to-action based on the traffic source, location, and previous interaction of your users.

Social media platforms can drive brand recognizability, and direct sales -and social media marketing is at full strength when used for both concurrently. Think of each social media function and update in terms of your brands identity: How will it contribute to my overall brand image and how will it help grow my brand awareness?

Considering the bigger picture can have a big impact in boosting your branding and sales efforts.

See the original post:
5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Branding and Sales Efforts - Social Media Today

For the last few years, Facebook and Instagram have dominated advertisers media mix. But recently, media buyers say ad spend on social medias biggest platforms has started to deteriorate.

Its more of a slow leak than a mass exodus, with client ad spend dedicated to Facebook and Instagram recently declining by 5-10% over the last year, according to Hallie Wyckoff, group director of social media at Wunderman Thompson Commerce.

Its happening now because of the pandemic, in all honesty, Wyckoff said. There were so many changes in marketing budgets last year where a lot of brands pulled back for a bit or had to be more lean with what they were willing to spend.

For Wunderman Thompson, with clients including major marketers like Unilever and Coca-Cola, ad dollars that may have gone to Facebook and Instagram have recently shifted to alternative platforms like TikTok or to efforts to improve or build out social commerce opportunities, as well as working with influencers, Wyckoff said.

Given Facebook and Instagrams scale, targeting capabilities and range in ad unit offerings, advertisers and media buyers predict it wont lose its crown any time soon. In fact, the platforms ad business is holding up for now, per previous Digiday reporting. However, the platforms flaws like waning interest from younger audiences, rising cost per impression and mounting data privacy issues are giving way to challengers like TikTok, Snap and even Pinterest.The flaws have gotten worse because the pandemic has made for an uncertain future and constant shifts in peoples shopping habits, which has advertisers looking for alternatives.

When asked for comment, a Facebook spokesperson pointed to the platforms Q2 2021 earnings call, in which Facebook reported strong business growth and noting that total revenue for Q2 was $29.1 billion, which is a 56% year-over-year increase. According to chief financial officer David Wehner, speaking during Facebooks most recent earnings call on July 28, the growth was predominately driven by verticals that performed well over the course of the pandemic, like online commerce and consumer packaged goods.

At least one marketing agency, Tinuiti, which Facebook pointed to as an example of increasing investment on its platforms, hiked its year-over-year spending on Facebook and Instagram alongside increased ad spend for platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Weve seen this increase 37% YoY on Facebook and 75% YoY on IG (24% growth in Q1 and 53% growth in Q1, respectively). And were on pace to spend 61% more on Facebook and Instagram than we did in all of 2019, said Avi Ben-Zvi, vp of paid social at Tinuiti.

But according to Pew Research, Facebook and other major social media platforms growth stalled over the past five years. Facebooks brand reputation suffered last year after advertisers boycotted the platform with the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. And new research from analytics and insight company Skai, shows that social media CPMs have been steadily increasing, up about 12% from 2019. According to Skai, CPMs hovered around $5.71 this time in 2019 and are now at $6.37.

Also buffeting the social giant is the fact that it is facing a serious challenge in Apples data privacy changes, noted Katya Constantine, CEO of performance marketing shop DigiShop Media via email.

The biggest cause has certainly been because iOS14 removed some of the most powerful targeting options, she said. Also, I imagine that some of the usage has also slipped as the world came out of the pandemic and that removed some inventory and drove up CPMs.

Elijah Schneider, CEO of social marketing agency Modifly, backs up Constantines claims.

Advertisers are starting to lose trust that consumers lost a long time ago, Schneider said.

And challenger brands have seen the writing on the wall. Modifly, with a client list that includes startups and direct to consumer brands like Super Coffee drink brand and Beam wellness brand, has seen clients press for serious ad dollar diversification since late last year, said Schneider who added that in 2019 and 2020 at least 80% of Modifly client spend was in Facebook products. At present, that ad spend now sits at 55% on Facebook and 45% on alternative social platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat.(Schneider didnt share what these breakdowns looked like in actual dollar figures.)

For brands that are really focused on Gen Z, Facebook is part of the mix. But theyre not necessarily the dominant part of the mix, said Noah Mallin, chief strategy officer at IMGN Media, where client ad spend on Facebook and Instagram has decreased from 95% of budget in prior years to 75% at present. Theyre much more evenly matched for established big brands where Gen Z is a segment among many, he added.

In a rush to diversify ad spend, advertisers have divided their digital dollars up amongst everything from alternative social media platforms to digital tools to support a brick-and-mortar presence. Theres no clear kingpin coming to dethrone Facebook and Instagram, although many marketers see promise in TikTok given the platforms scale and massive audience.

If nothing else, the decline continues to push along the industry-wide conversation around theneed to diversify media spend, making for healthy competition among the platforms and more viable options for media buyers, Mallin said.

I dont necessarily see [Facebook and Instagram] diminishing to nothing, Mallin said. But if you want to have a smart mix and youve got the budget for it, youd want to have Twitch in there and you want to have TikTok in there too.

Thats not to say Facebook couldnt make a few changes to delay its decline and this could just be the latest interaction of changes in the social media landscape, marketers say. When it comes to digital and social media, that landscape is always changing, meaning advertisers will always need to adapt. This pandemic made flexibility a priority, said Wunderman Thompsons Wyckoff.

If we start to see CPMs or CPCs go down, you might see an influx back to Facebook and Instagram, she said. Its an ever-evolving world and marketers are going to continue to pay attention and see whats best.

‘Advertisers are starting to lose trust’: Why media buyers say Facebook is losing its grip on social ad spend

Excerpt from:
Advertisers are starting to lose trust: Why media buyers say Facebook is losing its grip on social ad spend - Digiday