Archive for the ‘Social Marketing’ Category

Twitter and Facebook Announce Over 6000 Account Removals Related to Political Manipulation – Social Media Today

As we head into the holiday break, both Twitter and Facebook have announced a raft of new profile and Page removals as part of each platform's ongoing investigations into co-ordinated manipulation of their networks for political influence campaigns.

And the scope of these latest removals is significant - the largest action of its type yet reported by Twitter:

Of specific interest in this case is that, as reported by The New York Times, Facebook found that the latter instance - a network linked to Epoch Media Group - the Pages and profiles utilized "fake profile photos which had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence."

That's a particularly concerning development, which could point to the next phase of digital manipulation campaigns.

Twitter's investigation focused on a Saudi marketing company called Smaat, which runs both political and commercial operations. Twitter says that while Smaat looks like astandard social media management agency on the surface, the company has links to the Saudi royal family, and recruited two Twitter employees "who searched internal databases for information about critics of the Saudi government".

Smaat-operated profiles have sent over 32 million tweets, and gained millions of followers - and while many of the tweets from these profiles appear innocent, there are propaganda messages mixed in.

These profiles also regularly asked users to "retweet"or "follow", which lead to the creation of smaller sub-groups growing within the networks. Twitter also notes that there was "a substantial amount of automated fluff to make it hard to figure out what the accounts were focused on".

The level of detail here is interesting, and provides some insights into the evolving tactics of such operations. Facebook has also provided specific examples of posts shared by the profiles it's removed for coordinated inauthentic behavior.

These new account removals add to the thousands of documented account/profile deletions for coordinated manipulation across the two social platforms this year.

Here's a reminder of the scope of those activities - all from 2019:

With the 2020 US Presidential election looming, you can bet that this will remain a key area of focus for both platforms, while, at some stage, there may also be a push for Facebook, in particular, to take stronger action against Pages which share false and misleading content.

At present, Facebook says that:

"Pages that repeatedly publish or share misinformation will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertise removed."

The removal of monetization is significant, but at some stage, Facebook might also need to consider removing these Pages altogether, as a means to further reinforce the need for admins to better vet the content they share and/or create, in order to stop the spread of false reports. If there's a risk of losing your Page entirely - as opposed to facing a temporary sanction - that could put more onus on Page managers to be more diligent, and not simply post whatever comes across their path, and aligns with their cognitive bias.

Of course, any measure of this type is more complex in practice, and Facebook doesn't want to get into overt censorship. But if misinformation is once again a key driver of voter behavior in 2020, you can bet the calls for more action on such will only get louder. And Facebook, in particular, is at the core of such distribution.

Follow this link:
Twitter and Facebook Announce Over 6000 Account Removals Related to Political Manipulation - Social Media Today

Falcon.io Releases 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, Exploring Trends That Will Shape the Future of Digital and Social Media – Promotion World

CHICAGO, Dec. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Falcon.io, a Cision company, has released the latest edition of its annual Digital Marketing Trends Handbook. This is the fourth edition of the handbook, which lists the 15 trends most likely to affect marketers in 2020.The trends are based on industry research, Falcon.io's expertise, as well as input from customers, partners and influencers.

While the trends vary, they all represent both the challenges and opportunities for digital marketers in 2020 and beyond. Some of the topics explored include:

"The sheer volume of digital and social media formats now available can be overwhelming, and digital marketers are working in an industry that's changing every day," explained Rachel Kador, Content Marketing Specialist at Falcon.io. "Added to which, marketers have to also contend with how quickly customer behavior is changing."

"To succeed in today's landscape, it's crucial that marketers stay knowledgeable about not only current trends, but what to prepare for in the future."

Falcon.io will host a webinar addressing the social media trends covered in the 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook on January 23rd. The webinar will be co-hosted by social media consultant and influencer Matt Navarra. Registration for the webinar can be found here.

In addition, the handbook will form the basis of a Roadshow to take place in selected cities around the world, beginning in January 2020. Each session will cover the key trends with ample room for discussion and knowledge-sharing.

"The Roadshow will provide us with the opportunity to connect even more closely with our peers, and discuss how marketers all over the world are approaching similar challenges," said Kador.

Roadshow locations and agenda to be announced soon on http://www.Falcon.io.

To download and read the full 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, click here.

About Falcon.ioFalcon.iooffers an integrated SaaS platform for social media listening, engaging, publishing, advertising, analytics and benchmarking. The company enables its clients to explore the full potential of digital marketing by managing multiple customer touchpoints from one platform. Its client portfolio includes Carlsberg, Toyota, William Grant & Sons, momondo, Panasonic and Coca-Cola.

About CisionCision Ltd (NYSE: CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 4,800 employees with offices in 22 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about its award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud, visitwww.cision.comand follow Cision on Twitter @Cision.

Media Contact:Rebecca DershPR Manager, Cisioncisionpr@cision.com

SOURCE Falcon.io; Cision

Read the original:
Falcon.io Releases 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, Exploring Trends That Will Shape the Future of Digital and Social Media - Promotion World

Using social media marketing to extend music beyond the concert hall – CMO

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra is investing in social media and digital marketing to make music more accessible to all Australians.

Through digital marketing, Alpha Digital and Queensland Symphony Orchestra hope to overcome the financial, social, physical and geographic hurdles that can limit peoples access to both music and community.

The work commenced earlier this year when Alpha Digital helped Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) promote its first broadcast of an entire concert live to Facebook.The livestream was played across the state, including in Wesley Mission communities. The pair are now driving Christmas appeal donations through Facebook advertising to give children in regional Queensland the opportunity to learn directly from the Orchestras musicians.

Dynamic creative has also been used across campaigns. Using Facebooks artificial intelligence (AI), QSO can dynamically deliver high-performing and highly relevant combinations of its creative assets to each individual Facebook use,director of sales and marketing at Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Matthew Hodge, said.

In the case of QSO's livestream, the team created a dedicated event page and event-responses advertising campaign to create a direct communication channel with audiences in the lead-up to the concert and drive additional ticket sales.

Facebooks advanced AI and targeting capabilities are also being used to connect audiences and build communities. For example, Alpha Digital is using Facebooks look-a-like audiences to find new listeners with a similar digital footprint to the Orchestras existing audience. This has been layered with orchestral and show-specific interest targeting.

2019 marked our first year of broadcasting an entire concert live to Facebook. It reached over 50,000 people and we know that a good part of that reach was due to the excitement generated in the lead-up to the stream, Hodge said. It was our previous conductors initiative that we should live streaming concerts, so the reason for Facebook was to a chance for people to see what we're about. It has a reach to help showcase us to the world.

This wider QSO mission is to become the orchestra for everyone. Getting there means breaking down perceptions about orchestral music and changing up the way the brand markets its offering.

We're trying to position the orchestra, and adopted a tagline a couple years ago with this in mind, as the orchestra for everyone, Hodge told CMO. I've been in the classical music industry for 30 years. We want to change the perception that orchestral and classical music is just for certain types of people or if you have a certain amount of money.

So the orchestra for everyone something we believe in. It drives everything from physical programs to marketing, to demystifying the experience. That's now become the official mission of the company."

All this makes it vital QSO allow people to experience the music before they come to an actual concert.

"It's important to let people know what we do and let them hear us performing. And so something like a live stream gives us a chance to showcase to social media followers what we do," Hodge continued.

Its important to recognise we are not the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, we are the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, so we need to be available widely across the entire state. Being able to stream this performance not just on Facebook, but to places like the Wesley Mission, gets us into various homes, nursing homes and residences, because music is good for peoples well-being."

For Hodge, live streaming saw QSO a bunch of people who for various health or physical reasons would not be able to make it into the concert hall.

"Plus, also by shooting it, we put a lot into the camera work to create a really great production that will be put on YouTube, which actually allows us to position ourselves internationally as a great orchestra. So it achieves a lot of ends for us, he said.

As with all of QSO's digital marketing plan, there's an emphasis on segmentation, A/B testing and working closely with Alpha to ensure every digital activity is optimised.

We have data coming in from our performances and we combine it with whos looking at advertising. If youve got to spend money on these advertisements, you want to know that they go to the right place and reaching the right audience, and the audience is similar to the audience you want," Hodge said.

And the dynamic advertising has been interesting. We use different imagery and copy and test the waters. We do this because... the only form of advertising you would ever see for classical music would usually be a headshot of your visiting conductor or visiting artist. Sometimes they have great dynamic photos and are very engaging. But other times, it might just be a photo of a person staring into space and it doesn't always grab you.

Music speaks to people in these deep emotional ways. So a very simple idea was to adjust our digital marketing to reflect this and experiment."

For instance, QSO has tried using a landscape or eye-catching image to better reflect what the music is about.

We recently played a music concert where the theme was water, and so the all the music is about water, called Sounds in the Deep. Instead of a picture of the conductor, we had a picture of rolling water," Hodge explained.

We actually get to experiment with a whole bunch of images and copy, because what attracts people in is different for different people. It allows me to market a show from a number of different angles, which I find really useful.

Sometimes there have been shows where the abstract imagery has worked really well. And then there's been other shows where it might be an off the cuff photo of the musician."

What all this has proved is that you don't just have one stock standard photo of the conductor to get people's attention.

"It's helped us to be creative, like we all feel we can make each concert look different," Hodge said. "Only having one type of imagery for every call might lead you to believe that every concert is the same. But actually every show is a completely different musical experience.

Moving into 2020, the QSO hopes to continue with what Hodge called his working model of why people like music. His three Ps are: Purpose, personal connection and pattern matching.

Purpose means it fills a certain purpose you want that music for, for instance when you are jogging or when you want to relax," he said. So we can position things in different ways. For instance, if you want to go hear a live music experience because it's evocative and exciting.

"However, if I put a picture of a very serious looking musician on my marketing, the message is that the only purpose is to hear the music played excellently by a great musician. It might not suggest it's fun and evocative, or whatever it is that you're looking for. So by choosing different types of imagery and copy, I can position the purpose of the show to reach a broader range of purposes."

Hodge's second P is personal connection." If you are between the age of 35 and 65, you have probably grown up being pegged by your musical choice and there are certain types of music that are for people like you," he said.

Personal connection is about how I send the message that this music is for people like you. I get to build a sense of personal connection between the musicians and you. We're just now starting to ramp up digital content to do more of this personal connection targeting.

The third p is pattern matching, which is the idea that your brain tends to like music which sounds similar to music you already like or music your brain can follow. It tends to not like it as much if its unfamiliar, which can be difficult with classical music because it's so long form and most people are used to listening to songs which are four minutes long.

So knowing a little bit more about the music and the different types of patterns, like what's the difference between a symphony and a concerto, simple stuff like that... and demystifying actually helps your brain process the music so you find it a little easier to enjoy.

I think there's great room for expansion in this, so more people are listening and exploring in their own time.

Follow CMO on Twitter:@CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn:CMO ANZ,follow our regular updatesvia CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.

Continue reading here:
Using social media marketing to extend music beyond the concert hall - CMO

Falcon.io Releases 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, Exploring Trends That Will Shape the Future of Digital and Social Media – PRNewswire

CHICAGO, Dec. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Falcon.io, a Cision company, has released the latest edition of its annual Digital Marketing Trends Handbook. This is the fourth edition of the handbook, which lists the 15 trends most likely to affect marketers in 2020.The trends are based on industry research, Falcon.io's expertise, as well as input from customers, partners and influencers.

While the trends vary, they all represent both the challenges and opportunities for digital marketers in 2020 and beyond. Some of the topics explored include:

"The sheer volume of digital and social media formats now available can be overwhelming, and digital marketers are working in an industry that's changing every day," explained Rachel Kador, Content Marketing Specialist at Falcon.io. "Added to which, marketers have to also contend with how quickly customer behavior is changing."

"To succeed in today's landscape, it's crucial that marketers stay knowledgeable about not only current trends, but what to prepare for in the future."

Falcon.io will host a webinar addressing the social media trends covered in the 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook on January 23rd. The webinar will be co-hosted by social media consultant and influencer Matt Navarra. Registration for the webinar can be found here.

In addition, the handbook will form the basis of a Roadshow to take place in selected cities around the world, beginning in January 2020. Each session will cover the key trends with ample room for discussion and knowledge-sharing.

"The Roadshow will provide us with the opportunity to connect even more closely with our peers, and discuss how marketers all over the world are approaching similar challenges," said Kador.

Roadshow locations and agenda to be announced soon on http://www.Falcon.io.

To download and read the full 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, click here.

About Falcon.io Falcon.iooffers an integrated SaaS platform for social media listening, engaging, publishing, advertising, analytics and benchmarking. The company enables its clients to explore the full potential of digital marketing by managing multiple customer touchpoints from one platform. Its client portfolio includes Carlsberg, Toyota, William Grant & Sons, momondo, Panasonic and Coca-Cola.

About Cision Cision Ltd (NYSE: CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 4,800 employees with offices in 22 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about its award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud, visitwww.cision.comand follow Cision on Twitter @Cision.

Media Contact: Rebecca Dersh PR Manager, Cision cisionpr@cision.com

SOURCE Falcon.io; Cision

http://www.cision.com

Visit link:
Falcon.io Releases 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Handbook, Exploring Trends That Will Shape the Future of Digital and Social Media - PRNewswire

The digital marketing trends to look out for in 2020 – The National

As digital and influencer marketing continues to grow and evolve, professionals in the industry need to be ahead of the curve by being creative and trend conscious over the coming year.

Throughout my career, weve worked with many businesses, collaborating with a number of influencers. Looking ahead, partnerships with content creators and social influencers will not slow down but gain further prominence as the preferred marketing channel of businesses globally and within the Arab world.

As the year draws to a close, its important to take note of digital marketing trends that will take centre stage in 2020:

TikTok to grow in prominence

Instagram will not lose its popularity, as longer video content shared on its Instagram TV (IGTV) platform, garners more engagement by users and viewers. However, social media app TikTok, is growing in popularity, especially within the youth population. Launched in 2016, TikTok allows users to create and share videos. The video service run by social media giant ByteDance is now the third most downloaded non-gaming app, according to marketing intelligence firm SensorTower. TikTok is an ideal platform to reach younger demographics, and we could predict that more brands would want to reach their audience through the channel next year.

Influencer marketing is here to stay

The past few years have proven influencer marketing isnt a fad. Whether it is advertising products, services, or government initiatives, influencers are the go-to channels for many businesses. Businesses are realising the effectiveness of reaching more focused groups as opposed to mass audiences, and that its more about quality than quantity. Theyre opting to work with micro-influencers, or those with less than 100,000 followers.

Data is king

In the past, brands didnt focus so much on metrics. But thats changed now that Instagram and other apps are providing business pages with detailed analysis of their audience and their engagement on the page.

Brands realise that just because a certain page has thousands or millions of followers, it doesnt necessarily mean they are real. Numerous online agencies offer followers at competitive prices, that can be delivered in a matter of hours.

Instagram, and other apps allow users to access to data that highlights demographics, interests, and engagement of each post. That provides businesses with transparency, which allows them to evaluate the success of their marketing efforts.

Metrics and data are important not only for businesses, but also for influencers themselves, to better understand their audience and know which posts receive more engagement. That effectively allows them to adjust their approach accordingly. Data helps users grow.

Video rules

The production and consumption of video content on social media platforms has risen exponentially over the past couple of years. Videos on YouTube viewed on mobile devices reach more US audience members than any TV network, with over 1 billion hours watched every day, according to statistics published by YouTube. Videos are also becoming shorter and shorter. In 2018, the average video was 4.07 minutes long, 33 per cent shorter than 2017 videos, which stood at 6.07 minutes, according to the 2019-benchmark report by Canadian video platform for businesses, Vidyard.

Businesses and users engagement

Instagram stories, and other features on different social apps, allow businesses to interact and engage with their audience. Social media platforms are essentially another customer service front and cant be ignored by businesses that want to operate in the digital space. Consumers not only want to see images of the latest products, but they also want to see the real side of brands: aspects of what happens behind the scenes, insight to the lives and personas of owners, and interactive Q&A sessions with the founders. A day in a life posts are also quite attractive, and is finessed by Kuwaiti social influencer and entrepreneur Ascia Al Faraj. One-minute videos of how her day is spent, and how she is managing her beauty business have traction.

Digital marketing in 2020 will likely be more focused and transparent, set to see additional engagement between businesses and their audience.

Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati journalist and entrepreneur, who manages her marketing and communications company in Abu Dhabi

Updated: December 16, 2019 10:43 AM

Go here to see the original:
The digital marketing trends to look out for in 2020 - The National