Mediaboss Marketing

Solution Search on Track to Receive More Entries Than Any Previous Contest

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) March 10, 2017

The deadline to submit entries for Solution Search, a global-crowdsourcing competition showcasing solutions to critical conservation challenges, has been extended to Monday, March 13 at 9:30 am ET. Touting more interest this year than any previous contest, Farming for Biodiversity has been seeking entries from organizations whose solution support sustainable environmental, social and economic outcomes in the agricultural sector.

Since December, organizations have been vying for a shot at one of two Solution Search grand prize awards of $30,000, among other prizes. The prestigious Solution Search judging panel will now spend three months reviewing over 120 submissions from dozens of countries and narrow down the field to ten finalists. These finalists will be announced in honor of World Agriculture Day (June 11th), on Monday, June 12th, and then the public will vote to determine the winner. That winner will be announced at the Solution Search awards ceremony in September.

"With more than 120 entries from over 35 countries around the world, this year's contest is poised to surface the most exceptional solutions to the most critical agricultural and environmental challenges of our time that, given the right tools, have the potential for tangible global impact," says Brett Jenks President and CEO of Rare.

In addition to the two $30,000 grand prize awards, all entrants will be eligible for one of the four side prizes of up to $15,000. The ten finalists will win a trip to New York City to attend a workshop and awards ceremony alongside some of the biggest names in conservation. All prize money must be used to further the winner's solution and organization's goals.

The contest is run in direct partnership with IFOAM-Organics International, with additional partners Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, Save the Children, Blue Solutions, the Global Island Partnership and Panorama joining from across the globe. Solution Search also recently welcomed Patagonia, EcoAgriculture Partners, and Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) as additional supporting partners in the contest. The UN's Indigenous Peoples' rapporteur, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, and Sarah Hayes, Patagonia's Senior Manager of Materials, Innovation & Development have joined the contest's prestigious judging panel. Most recently, Miranda Johnson of The Economist has been added to the judging panel as well.

This contest is part of a larger project run in joint partnership by Rare and IFOAM-Organics International, and is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI), a German initiative supported by The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will offer additional support to the project by linking its findings and messages to global policy making. Over three years, the partners will work together to identify these promising approaches and then host capacity-building workshops across the globe to spread these effective solutions. This workshop series, known as Campaigning for Conservation, will aim to further empower local practitioners to raise awareness of the value of biodiversity and to conduct social marketing campaigns promoting behavior change in support of the identified solutions. All entries to this contest will become part of a larger network of stakeholders engaged in supporting biodiversity-friendly agriculture.

Visit solutionsearch.org to learn more, apply, or nominate a fellow organization for a chance to win a $1,000 nomination prize yourself.

About Rare Ranked in the top 25 NGOs in the world by NGO ADVISORS, Rare is an innovative conservation organization that implements proven conservation solutions and trains local leaders in communities worldwide. Through its signature social marketing campaigns (called Pride campaigns), Rare inspires people to take pride in the species and habitats that make their community unique, while also introducing practical alternatives to environmentally destructive practices. Employees of local governments or non-profit organizations receive extensive training on fisheries management, campaign planning and social marketing to communities. They are equipped to deliver community-based solutions based on natural and social science, while leveraging policy and market forces to accelerate positive environmental change through programs in clean water, sustainable agriculture, and coastal fisheries. To learn more about Rare, please visit http://www.rare.org.

For more information and downloadable imagery, please visit our electronic press kit at https://www.rare.org/en-press-kit.

For media inquiries, please contact: Julie Langlie, 410.353.4587, julie.langlie(at)bullseyecomm(dot)com

About IFOAM-ORGANICS INTERNATIONAL

Since 1972, IFOAM - Organics International has occupied an unchallenged position as the only international umbrella organisation within the organic agriculture sector, uniting an enormous diversity of relevant stakeholders and key actors. IFOAM - Organics International implements the will of its broad-based constituency, close to 800 Affiliates in 125 countries, in a fair, inclusive and participatory manner.

IFOAM's vision is worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially and economically sound agriculture systems, which will support the projects overarching goal to mainstream biodiversity into the agricultural sector. Through their extensive experience working with smallholder farmers, family farms and cooperatives in the sector, and by building local capacity through their Leadership Courses, IFOAM has the right knowledge, expertise, institutional structure and products to support the project.

About CBD

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) entered into force on 29 December 1993. It has 3 main objectives: The conservation of biological diversity. The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.

The Convention was opened for signature on 5 June 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio "Earth Summit"). It remained open for signature until 4 June 1993, by which time it had received 168 signatures. The Convention entered into force on 29 December 1993.

It is the UN's main body concerned with the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

About IKI-BMUB

Since 2008, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) has been financing climate and biodiversity projects in developing and newly industrialising countries, as well as in countries in transition. Based on a decision taken by the German parliament (Bundestag), a sum of at least 120 million euros is available for use by the initiative annually. For the first few years the IKI was financed through the auctioning of emission allowances, but it is now funded from the budget of the BMUB. The IKI is a key element of Germany's climate financing and the funding commitments in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Initiative places clear emphasis on climate change mitigation, adaption to the impacts of climate change and the protection of biological diversity. These efforts provide various co-benefits, particularly the improvement of living conditions in partner countries. The IKI focuses on four areas: mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the impacts of climate change, conserving natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), as well as conserving biological diversity. New projects are primarily selected through a two-stage procedure that takes place once a year. Priority is given to activities that support creating an international climate protection architecture, to transparency, and to innovative and transferable solutions that have an impact beyond the individual project. The IKI cooperates closely with partner countries and supports consensus building for a comprehensive international climate agreement and the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Moreover, it is the goal of the IKI to create as many synergies as possible between climate protection and biodiversity conservation.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/03/prweb14140753.htm

Originally posted here:
Deadline Extended For Global Contest Seeking Innovative Solutions For Restoring Biodiversity - Benzinga

Forbes

Is Snapchat The Right Social Media Marketing Platform For Your Brand? Forbes Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, had the largest IPO since 2014, with a market evaluation of $24 billion. That being said, investors aren't the only ones keeping a close eye on the platformmarketers are, too. With over 158 million daily users, ...

Read more here:
Is Snapchat The Right Social Media Marketing Platform For Your Brand? - Forbes

Organic Social Marketing or Paid Social Advertising?

Which is the more effective traffic generation and customer acquisition channel between the two? Where should a social media marketer invest their resources (time, efforts and even dollars)?

In the social ecosystem, there has been a roaring debate going on for a long time over the use of Paid Advertising vs. Organic Marketing, and which one provides better value for a brands social marketing strategies.

So, lets dive in to compare the two contenders and find which one wins the Game of Thrones:

To play and win the game, you must know the rules of the game. So, lets understand how social algorithms work to get maximum organic social traffic to your website.

Easy to say, difficult to do!

Understanding the working mechanism of social algorithms is not a piece of cake. The algorithm for each social platform works differently. For instance, on Facebook, a core factor that affects the rankings of a post is: relevancy score, whereas on YouTube the total watch time of the video per session decides whether a video becomes a suggested video or not.

To add to the woes of social marketers, engineers update these social algorithms from time-to-time; making it next to impossible for social marketers to keep track of each and every social platforms algorithms on a regular basis.

However, after thoroughly analyzing a few social algorithms, social media experts have found that just like Googles algorithm, social algorithms are also basically designed to give users the best experience possible. In short, the goal behind any social algorithm is pretty simple To promote the best content to the most relevant people.

So, the key to amplify your website traffic with organic social marketing is to post only quality content (which falls in any of these 3 categories informative, inspiring or entertaining) that is relevant to your target audience.

Webcast, March 15th: How to Scale Upmarket with Enterprise Field Sales

Now that we know how to crack the social algorithms, lets see instances where it is beneficial to go for organic social marketing to generate traffic for your business website:

A large number of social media marketers believe that paid social ads delivers results. But simply investing dollars in paid social ads will do you no good. Your ad should be click-worthy!

The results of paid social ads depend on how enticing the ads are you have crafted. Ensure they have the right call-to-action buttons with a link to your website or landing page.

Here is the list of instances where a social media marketer must opt for paid social ads over organic social marketing:

Here is a list of factors which will help you to decide which social strategy you must opt for under a given circumstance:

Apart from the above mentioned factors, analyzing your competitors social strategy, the industry your business falls into, and individual social platforms will also help you in deciding the right social strategy. For instance, recently the Facebook algorithm reduced the exposure of organic content, so for exponential results on Facebook a brand must go for paid ads.

There is no one size fits all formula when it comes to social media marketing. For instance, a fast food chain restaurant could find a large number of people ordering food on their website with a simple organic Facebook post, and on the other hand a small mobile app development company may see dramatic results with a promoted tweet.

What may work for one, may not work for another.

From analyzing my own personal Tweets, I came to the conclusion that people are more likely to like or share content rather than click on it:

Therefore to earn large number of visitors from social platforms, you need to regularly post contagious content that will compel social users to visit your website.

Find the kind of posts your followers and target audience finds interesting by analyzing all social channels, campaigns and posts, and figure out what works best for your brand in a given scenario.

It is clear from this article that there is no single winner when it comes to selecting between paid social ads and organic social marketing.

Paid ads can help get the ball rolling and gain the initial needed exposure for your start-up, but to continue gaining traffic you definitely need to have concrete plans for organic social marketing. It is therefore advisable for you to use both the strategies in tandem to have a significant growth in web traffic.

As you layout your social marketing plan for 2017, dont forget to keep the above points in mind and select the right social strategy under a given situation to boost web traffic.

Which form of social media marketing is generating traffic for your company? Share with us your thoughts and experience of using social platforms by commenting below.

Read more here:
Organic Marketing Vs Paid Advertising: Who Wins The Traffic Game On Social? - Business 2 Community

Pinterest pinned Google vice president of legal Christine Flores as its new general counsel, succeeding Michael Yang, who announced last November that he was leaving the social network.

With this feature, broadcasters can share posts to their Channel Feeds, and these posts will automatically appear in the Pulse feeds of all of their friends and followers.

The visual search features Pinterest introduced last month are now available outside of the social network for the first time, via Pinterest browser extensions.

Creators of Twitter Moments now have a way to see how those Moments are performing with Tuesdays launch of Moments Analytics.

Facebook is marking International Womens Day Wednesday (March 8) with a 24-hour Facebook Live video.

Opinion: While Facebook presented a high-level, rosy summary of engagement when discussing results from the 2016 fiscal year, we felt that the overview it offered was incomplete. In an effort to help marketers understand how they can most effectively reach audiences in 2017, our team set out to shed more light on the current state of Facebook engagement.

Facebook introduced several new features for Messenger chat bots in Messenger Platform 1.4, released last week, including a menu of features offered by bots, more social sharing functionality and improvements to its customer matching feature.

OK, so its still not a dislike button, but Facebook is testing the addition of Reactions to its Messenger application, and a thumbs-down emoji is one of the offerings.

Putting tweets in print may seem like reverse-engineering, but thats exactly what The New York Times is doing as part of the redesign of its A2 and A3 print pages, introduced late last week.

To celebrate Women's History Month in March, the YouTube Kids application has been updated with a series of playlists allowing viewers to learn more about important women from history and today.

Link:
Social Pro Daily Adweek

Soylent's website introduces curious consumers to Trish. Credit: Courtesy of Soylent

Soylent, the meal-replacement brand designed to eliminate the hassles of regular eating, is getting a (fictional) artificially intelligent spokeswoman in its first work from Wieden & Kennedy's tech-focused Lodge group.

The character, Trish, will appear to run a virtual store on Soylent's website and play a part in a mix of broadcast, digital, social and other marketing as the brand sets out to broaden its consumer base, according to the company.

Still, the company is not abandoning its tech-savvy followers. Trish has a Bitcoin-based store, Soy Route, on the dark web, where Soylent aims to sell rare products including mystery-flavor Soylent, a beef-flavor kit and golden Soylent signed by the CEO. Trish is also set to make an appearance at the upcoming SXSW Conference.

Soylent, as the story goes, was started by CEO Rob Rhinehart and others who were frustrated with buying, preparing and eating not-so-healthy foods while busy working at startups. It began with crowdfunding in 2013 and started shipping products in 2014.

The Los Angeles-based company proclaims its mission is "to expand access to quality nutrition through food system innovation." So far, the biggest following it appears to have is among tech-savvy startup workers and others looking to streamline their daily grind. Drinking a pre-mixed bottle of Soylent drink, sipping Soylent coffiest or mixing Soylent powder with water frees up the time it takes to buy and prepare food or go out to eat.

Soylent hired W&K's Lodge in October after looking at multiple large and small agencies, Chief Marketing Officer Adam Grablick said via email.

"The W&K Lodge team's focus on emerging areas of tech and its ability to develop experiences that bring brands to life in unexpected ways appealed to our own team's innovative spirit and mission," said Mr. Grablick, who joined Soylent in 2016. "The type of work that the Lodge does is exactly what we need to attract this difficult to reach consumer."

Mr. Grablick was familiar with W&K, having worked with the agency during his tenure at Kraft, which he left in 2015.

Much of Soylent's marketing until now has centered around early adopters with experiential events, sampling, and social marketing, Mr. Grablick said. Now Soylent aims to broaden its appeal through a wider variety of channels.

Some may recall the name Soylent from the 1973 sci-fi movie "Soylent Green," in which a food replacement was made out of people. The brand name was selected based on the 1966 Harry Harrison sci-fi novel, "Make Room! Make Room!," on which "Soylent Green" was based.

Soylent intends to "significantly" ramp up its consumer-facing marketing, Mr. Grablick said, declining to be more specific about spending plans.

The Lodge will work with Soylent's in-house team on brand development, marketing strategy and product campaigns, including everything from website and package design to media planning and creative direction, Soylent said.

Last year, some people fell ill with stomach issues after consuming the brand's Soylent Bar and a certain version of its powder. The company's tests came back negative for food pathogens, toxins or outside contamination, but it decided to suspend sales of the bar anyway.

"Last fall's concerns had no effect on our overall marketing strategy," Mr. Grablick said.

Along with the Lodge, Soylent works with public relations, marketing and communications agency Autumn Communications on in-house communications and publicity, and with entertainment marketing agency Signal Entertainment Marketing on brand integration across film, television and digital content. Allied Integrated Marketing, an entertainment, culture and lifestyle agency, will work with Soylent on the activation at SXSW.

The rest is here:
Soylent Gets an AI Spokeswoman Courtesy of W&K's Lodge ... - AdAge.com