Mediaboss Marketing

Kristina: We're seeing the proliferation of user-generated content across all mediums. How can brands be using user-generated content to reach more consumers?

Amir Shub, General Manager, Americas, Smartly.io: BARK, the company behind BarkBox, is a great example of a customer having success here. Canvas works really well for them. They use a lot of variations of images and video, and often compile video that customers upload when they get new boxes delivered. They source the videos by having customers use #barkboxday when they share on social, and the ads get a lot of organic engagement, likes and comments. We've also worked with fashion ecommerce companies that use third party software to pull Instagram and social media posts, often from a hashtag, from their customers and use that as ad creative. User generated content helps tell a much more colorful story about a brand and opens up a lot of different visuals to work with.

Kristina: Facebook has a number of video ad formats. How can brands be using those formats to their fullest extent?

Amir: Facebook does have quite a few ad formats specific to video and that allow video and static image to be combined. Shoppable video can be really effective because it eliminates a step for the consumer. Canvas ads, which instantly load to a full-screen experience, are great for video and can be used to show a localized collections of products alongside a map showing a consumer to the store. The Collection format lets brands highlight one product they know will grab a consumer's attention alongside other related products for upselling.

Kristina: What about automation - is this something brands need to invest in?

Amir: Creative automation can help brands get the assets needed to take advantage of each format, but what's most important is ongoing testing to see what resonates best with each brand's' own audience and then moving the spend to what's working. For example, our customer JustFab (a TechStyle brand) was putting a lot of efforts into Carousel ads, but the data showed they were doing fine but not a top performer and this insight led the company to experiment with different formats. They found showing multiple products in one creative vs. one product per ad was much more effective. Another customer uses automated creative to launch over 500 different ads each day, but then by the end of the day is only putting budget into the five best-performing. More high-volume testing and use of data really lets brands refine their strategy and focus on the formats and creative that are driving performance.

Kristina: Let's skip ahead to ten years from now. Tell me, what does video advertising look like?

Amir: It's early to say now, but with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, video for digital publishers and advertisers is only in its infancy. It's not so much what does it look like, but where it'll be, which is everywhere. I really expect that video will be the dominant medium that we deliver information through and that brands connect with consumers through. The ways we create and distribute video will be incredibly tailored to the consumer using technology. As attention shifts away from TV and to digital, we'll maintain the video medium that made TV so successful for so many years, but also see video evolve and advance tremendously.

Tags: advertising, Smartly.io, social marketing, social video, video advertising, video trends

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How to capitalize on social video formats - BizReport

One of the most talked about marketing trends over the past few years has been influencer marketing, and rightfully so, as it provides brands with an incredible opportunity to be seen by extremely engaged audiences.

The majority of buzz surrounding influencers is the money they are able to make from sponsored posts and brand endorsements. Its a very lucrative time to be an influencer with a large, engaged following -- I speak with brands of all sizes daily through my agency that arent even sure what influencer marketing even entails -- they just think they need to jump on the train.

While many are leveraging their social influence to land big paychecks, many millennials are focused on leveraging their influencer for social good -- the media just doesnt like to focus on it. A story about a social influencer being paid six-figues for a single post is going to pull more attention, clicks and social shares than one about social good -- like The Santa Clause Affect-- but these stories do exist.

Related: 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

There are so many benefits of building a personal brand, and the recent surge of social media stars is a prime example of how powerful your own brand can become. There are some social media influencers who have larger followings than some of the most popular actors and entertainers in the world.

Social media provides the perfect platform to establish, grow and then leverage a personal brand. Millennial initiatives like The Santa Clause Affect, are providing education, based on knowledge of the social media ecosystem. Understanding how to create content and build a following can be used for more than just become a social media superstar -- it can lead to successful career opportunities in virtually any industry or setting. They are teaching a skillset that can be used for enormous personal and professional growth opportunities.

Related: 4 Ways to Market Your Business for Free

Social media is the ultimate platform to raise social awareness -- Harambe is the perfect example of how the millennial generation is taking causes they feel strongly about, and turning them into viral stories.

In todays social setting, when somethinggoes viral, it is often turned into a meme. Millennials understand that they can use a twist of humor to garner social media tractions.

While many social influencers are leveraging their reach for personal and financial gain, a large percentage also useit to make positive impacts in society.

Related: Use These 5 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

Social media stardom has created several self-made millionaires. Its opened the doors to paid endorsement deals, movies, TV, merchandise and more. While the odds of becoming rich and famous on social media are extremely slim, its a great example of how working hard can help you achieve your dreams.

Being a social media staris an actual career these days, as crazy as that might sound to those older than the millennial generation. Social media can be the breeding ground for new opportunities, and millennials have no problem teaching others how to best use it as a launching platform to create social good.

Jonathan Long is the founder ofMarket Domination Media,a performance-based online marketing agency, blerrp, an influencer marketing agencyand co-founder of consumer productSexy Smile Kit&trade...

More:
3 Ways Millennials Are Leveraging Social Influence for Social Good - Entrepreneur

An immediate opportunity has arisen for a driven and talented intern to use and take the lead of our social, content and copywriting.

Ideally, you will have strong social media skills or content manager background, with at least hands-on experience making you ready to step into this role. Youre a natural leader with the vision required to develop and lead a small, but professional team to manage and inspire a varied client base that includes some well-known brands.

Lianmonleyhealth a young, fun and rapidly growing holistic health retreat company is creative agency located based in Syd and Bali. We are looking for someone who thinks outside the box and can be at the forefront of a company about to be re branded and be the leader in wellness and fitness retreats looking to expand worldwide.

You will help drive social media and content marketing strategy, and you will be a talented copywriter who can lend your writing skills to campaigns, eDMs, website content and tone of voice documents.

Responsibilities:

Lead the social and content team

Oversee and manage the development, implementation and monitoring of all social calendars

Manage social reporting for our clients

Develop content strategies for a wide range of campaigns and clients

Copywrite various marketing materials including websites, blog posts, press releases and adsEnsure digital innovation across all channels for all clients

Manage client budgets and ad spend

Contribute to new social media and content marketing client proposals, to drive a profitable social and content marketing division.

What youll need to succeed:Youll have demonstrated ability to effectively plan, create and execute strategic, social media campaigns. Youll be able to create engaging, fit for purpose content to be distributed via a range of social channels and digital technology. Youll have experience in CMS systems, social platforms and third-party social managers (Sendible, Sprout Social, Hootsuite). You will be comfortable working with paid social (Facebook Ad Manager, Power Editor). Youll have skills in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and a demonstrated ability to grow and engage audiences on social media.

You will have:

A degree in a marketing-related discipline

Facebook Power Editor and/or Ad Manager

Intermediate/Advanced Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or Google Docs

A high level of organisation and excellent attention to detail

Great time management skills

Business acumen representing the company in a positive and professional manner

A passion and knowledge of the latest trends in social media, content and digital marketing

Strong interpersonal relationship skills

A hardworking analytical approach

Why You Want This Job:

Enormous potential for success. We are a fast-growth company in Sydney and Bali and is led by a young and dynamic team with proven track records.

You have great executive support, mentorship to help you build and execute the strategy to create the best results.

The talent youll meet. Our team are some of the brightest young minds in our industry and we take great pride in the amazing work we collectively deliver to our clients.

The team were building. We have a great team that works hard and has a lot of fun along the way. We will continue to pack the office with passionate, exceptionally talented people that believe in our vision and embody our values.

This opportunity is only for serious candidates who have the drive to be the best and are looking for an opportunity to grow and lead. There is paid travel involved for the candidate to our retreats in Bali and potentially a full time paid position.

Other Details:

This is a remote internship so there should be no travelling costs associated with the internship. Any out of pocket expenses will be covered within reason.

As it is a remote internship, you will need access to your own computer and have an internet connection.

This internship is for 1-2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Perfect for someone who is still studying.

The internship can be accredited to any relevant study if it applied.

To apply send your cover letter and resume to lianmonleyhealth@gmail.com | Only applicants with cover letters will be accepted | No recruiters please.

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Social Media and Marketing Intern for Health Retreat Company - Pedestrian TV

Social media marketing is no longer in its infancy, nonetheless, brands continue to put their necks on the line with ill-fated campaigns that enable the public at large to plaster expletives and filth on its content.

Team GB and the National Lottery are the latest brands to fall into the trap of forgetting that the internet takes great pride in subverting cheesy and saccharine marketing campaigns, intended to evoke passion or emotion, into something all-the-more darker.

The sooner brands realise their personalised social media campaigns serve only as a reluctant canvas for the species' darkest urges, the better.

The campaign saw the UKs brightest athletes, complete with a full-on smile, wield toxic sentiments deliberately uploaded to erode any attempts at brand building and instead make a mockery of the efforts.

The National Lottery said: "We are aware that some people are maliciously targeting our British Athletics Twitter campaign with offensive and abhorrent content.

"We are dealing with this as quickly as possible and are hugely sorry for any offence caused by this malicious act."

But should the mishap have happened in the first place? There are plenty historic examples to learn from.

Here are six campaigns that suffered similar fates as a result of personalisation and social media.

UK crisp brand Walkers advanced beyond mere written expletives, allowing internet users to integrate a selfie into a personalised video from mascot Gary Lineker.

The long-time brand ambassador, in automated fashion, would unknowingly compliment the selfie before undeservingly entering the individual into a prize draw for Champions League Final tickets.

The #WalkersWave was being hijacked with despicable British faces, all seemingly receiving an endorsement from Lineker. A lack of moderation on the content saw criminals like Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman and Rolf Harris potentially projected onto the side of Wales national stadium before the final.

Walkers said in a statement: "We recognise people were offended by irresponsible and offensive posts by individuals, and we apologise. We are equally upset and have shut down all activity."

Watch the video in action here.

Microsoft opened up its AI platform Tay to the world in 2016. The machine was supposed to have the tone and interests of a teenage girl, designed to learn from Twitter interactions with real people.

The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, said Microsoft, and she did. Humanity made real efforts to radicalise and taint the project. By sending Tay toxic sentiment, she would absorb the content and integrate it into her future musings.

In a remarkably short time the account mentioned Hitler, 9/11 and outlined the hellish fate feminists deserve, back in 2016.

Since then the wayward teen has been in lock-down, perhaps Microsoft was not testing a bot, but was instead testing mankinds propensity to bring ruination to all it comes into contact with.

Nutella looked to spread the joy (and sales) by allowing consumers to mock up personalised jars back in 2015.

The high-in-sugar spread endured unsurprising connotations with poop, diabetes and more, all shared with the #MyNutella hashtag. Using the site, users could get previews of their labels, meaning they were just a screenshot away from whipping up a brand disaster on Twitter.

Nutella stood strong: Although some people have chosen to use the campaign as an opportunity to create and post less then appropriate images online, most consumers have embraced it in the manner it was intended...

Ferrero-owned Nutella has yet to pick up the campaign again, with a profanity filter and some human moderation, it could emulate the success of the Share a Coke campaign.

Coke released a well-intended gif maker in 2016 order to promote its new 'Taste the Feeling' strapline.

Social media users were able to overlay gifs from the ad with their own original ad copy.

Again, the campaign rolled out exactly as you would expect.

McDonalds New Zealand has learned the hard way how ruthless the denizens of the web can be when asked to express their creativity.

The company launched a hub where burger enthusiasts could design and name their own patties.

Those who participated in the scheme would receive free fries and a soft drink... even if they probably did not deserve them. It's unclear how many of these suggestions McDonald's could put on menu, naturally the hub was shut down before more damage could be done.

Aldi Australia made the mistake of running a fill-in-the-blank challenge on Twitter in 2016, it asked I became an Aldi lover when I tasted _____ for the first time.

Aldi no doubt expected answers like freshly baked pastries or fresh, free range eggs but that is not the route the campaign went down, in hindsight predictably.

Everything from genitals, unsavoury people, and of course horse meat, was thrown into the mix, most of which is not sold in the aisles of Aldi. Some sound advice filtered through to the brand from a concerned bystander.

As Mark Borkowski is the founder of Borkowski.do wrote on the subject after the Walkers gaffe, brands need to stop thinking people love them.

We'll close on a final image that should sum up these doomed endeavours, Boaty McBoatFace, the ill-fated poll to name a research vessel and the definitive case study in working with the public.

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Six personalised social media fails the National Lottery should have paid heed to - The Drum

Social media has changed a lot over the last five years and truth be told, thats the understatement of the century.

New platforms have come into the mix. Veteran platforms continue to evolve their algorithms, rules and layouts. There are constantly new things to learn about how to use social media to get the highest coveted asset of all in this space attention.

One thing that never seems to change about social media marketing is the need for something eye-catching. Marketers have argued over whether one-liners beat several paragraphs. Weve talked about the importance of hashtags.

But what also doesnt change, despite the constant ebb and flow of social updates, is the need for the content to compel a fan or follower to stop, look and react.

Social media is a noisy place. Your content is shoved between moving objects (videos) and GIFs (the hottest trend in commenting these days). To capture the attention of the person whos often mindlessly scrolling through the newsfeed, you need something just as catchy.

Does that mean your job is to pump out content thats just as loud? Far from it.

To get someone to stop and engage with your business on social media, you need to create compelling content that promises something in exchange for the persons time. Once YOU know the key takeaway (I cant decide that for you), then you can get to work creating images, videos and more that beg to be engaged with.

And when youre ready to do that, I have 10 tools that you can use to put your message together in a beautiful-looking post thatll stop a scroller in his or her tracks. Lets take a peek.

Im kick-starting this list with a tool thats relatively well-known but often not maximized to its full potential.

Canva is the go-to tool for non-designers because its so easy to use. Yes, you can create some fun social media graphics using its templates, but theres more to it. You can also design advertisements, infographics, brochures and more. Those pieces can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, which means you can get more out of every type of marketing collateral you design even whats meant for offline.

LinkedIn owns SlideShare, so its a natural platform to include on this list because it automatically syncs with one of the largest social media networks used today.

On SlideShare, you can upload your presentations, so they dont gather digital dust sitting on your computer after youve given them. Sharing them with your audience is easy. Simply press a button, and you can distribute them to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

You can also embed your SlideShare presentation on your website using IFrame or WordPress shortcodes (depending on what you use to house your website).

Take your presentation uploads a step further and add your voice overlay to them with SlideSnack.

With this presentation-sharing tool, you can upload past presentations, put your voice to them, and then share them on Facebook or YouTube. You can also embed them on most websites, including those that use WordPress, Blogger, Weebly and more.

Video is the holy grail of social media marketing because it incorporates both visual movement and audio interest. If you have a stellar idea for a video, turn your concept into a reality with PowToon.

You dont have to be a video master to use PowToon. This platform offers several templates to choose from that you can customize and brand according to your business. Then, all you do is plug and play your content and share.

With your video in place, you can use it to promote your business on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and just about any social network.

Magisto is another video editor that makes it easy to put together professional-looking and -sounding videos, regardless of your skill level. Once you have your videos uploaded and a theme selected, you can drag and drop scenes and add your logo, captions, music and narration.

The free version is limited but still quite robust. With the commercial version, you get several more features, including the ability to custom-brand your video and use commercially licensed music.

Whats an easy way to get engagement? Ask a question. But sometimes, just asking a single question isnt enough to get a healthy response from your audience. Thats where Typeform comes into play.

Typeform is an easy-to-use quiz builder that lets you ask your audience questions. Use the drag-and-drop builder to put together a variety of styles of questions, including multiple choice, image-based, yes or no answers, short or long text answers and more.

Once you have your quiz created, share the link on any social network to encourage participation in a unique way.You can also embed Typeforms on your website.

Perhaps you want to have a little fun with your audience. Interactive quizzes with results you can instantly share are hotcakes on social media these days. Your company can create one, too, using Playbuzz.

Playbuzz lets you put together a series of tests or questions for your audience. Once the respondent is done answering them, theyll either get their end result (10 out of 10 correct!) or find out a fun fact about themselves (for example, which character youre most like on a TV show).

Its a simple way to engage your followers and make your brand fun. These are also great types of content because they encourage your followers friends to engage with your brand, too.

Piktochart lets you take survey results, stats and other tidbits of knowledge and turn them into an eye-catching (and scroll-stopping) infographic.

This type of social media content often scares many non-designers because it feels so rich, and thus hard to create. Piktochart simplifies the process by offering you over 600 templates to choose from.

With your template in place, you can add your own text, fonts, colors and logo. When its done, you can share it quickly with built-in social media options. Its fast and easy.

Visme is another tool that lets you put information together in a beautiful way. This platform offers several options for how that information is displayed, including in presentations, infographics, reports, wireframes and more.

Once created, you can share your content on your website, from a URL or on social media.

Podcasting is a huge trend these days, but if youre new to the world of audio content, production can be a roadblock. Podbean changes that by giving you an easy way to create professional podcasts in minutes without high-tech software or equipment.

Once created, you can publish your podcasts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. Or you can upload and promote your podcasts with a Podbean paid plan.

At one point, a lack of technological knowledge was a good excuse for not offering stellar social media content. These tools change that.

Once you have your content format in mind images, videos, quizzes, infographics or audio choose the tool that best matches your goals and get to work.

What other tools have you used to create compelling social media content your audience cant wait to consume?

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

Read more from the original source:
10 tools for creating compelling content for social media - Marketing Land