Mediaboss Marketing

Community Idea Stations

Art and Social Marketing Address Rising Problem of Ocean Plastics Community Idea Stations The traveling exhibit Washed Ashore creates large sculptures of marine life out of plastic debris collected at beaches. Volunteers have processed nearly 40,000 pounds of trash for more than 60 sculptures. (Photo: Catherine Komp) ...

Read the original:
Art and Social Marketing Address Rising Problem of Ocean Plastics - Community Idea Stations

Social media marketing isbig business. In addition to the intangible value offered by earned and owned media, advertising revenue across social networks worldwide amounted to $25.14 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow to $41 billion this year.

But bringing everything together into one social media management has always been a challenge.

Today Sysomos has announcedthe Sysomos Platform, which combines its full suite of social marketing and analytics capabilities, along with artificial intelligence to help marketers make the right moves.

The new platform unifies the companys tools for search, discovery, listening, publishing, engagement, and analysis. Using AI, it lets marketers take action in real time and measure the effect of those actions in a single user interface. Think of it as a social cloud, if you will. The platform also offers role-based customization so that users can design an experience to match their needs.

So what is Sysomos proposing to do with AI that isnt already handled by regular analytics and statistics?

SysomosAI uses intelligence toproactively deliver actionable insights, Peter Heffring, CEO of Sysomos, told VentureBeat. Instead of marketerscreating rules tofind what they want and get results, SysomosAI willspot any anomaly, affinity, or association in the data, but then put in the proper context for the marketer.

Thats important because it helps the marketer or social media managerseemessages and interactions they might otherwise miss. And thats just the beginning for Sysomos as it looks to enhance the platform further with additional AI capabilities.

In the future, ourAI will integrate and processmultiple data sources beyond social and campaign data and use that to help identify cause-and-effect relationships that deliver automated actions based on a companys business objectives, Heffring said.

Ive seen the application at work. In addition to using AI to identify engagements, it has image recognition that can help you determine secondary trends. For example, it might be that users are generating content that includes fashion, which theyre pairing with photos of your products or services. That helps you to identify affinitiesand assists with future campaigns.

The system isnt perfect yet, like most image identification technologies Ive seen. So how does Sysomos deal with the currently inevitable identification issues?

This is Sysomosproprietary technology, and weconstantly tune the model, Heffring said. When we have a specific request from a client, such as to focus on cars or shoes, we will train [the system] with more objects, and more varieties of those objects. For logo recognition, we are typically able to achieve an accuracy of up to 85 percent. For object recognition, depending on the object, accuracy typically is in the 60-80 percent range. The accuracy can be improved through further training by boxing or masking the objects to pinpoint whats being detected.

While the AI is helping at the moment, and the companys plans sound appealing, Heffring doesnt believe that AI will completely take over, at least not yet. After all, that would somewhat negate the social in social media.

Marketers will always want humans involved, but for many of the common product, brand, and service questions, AI will take over thoseresponses, Heffring said. However, there will be limits in the near term. When acustomer is expressing emotions and speaking in nuanced language like through emoji, GIFs, and similar media AI wont cut itright now. That will change, though,as automated responses from marketers will soon be able to pass the Turing test.

And AI has benefits beyondwhat the companys customers see.

AI also willbe invaluable to aggregateinsights from human interactions to funnel back to product development, customer service, marketing, and other departments, Heffring said.

Ultimately, the combination of a unified platform for social media management, along with AI-powered advice and analytics, can helpbusinesses interact at scale without losing the human touch.

As AI takes over, these corporate interactions wont be social in any meaningful respect, and thatsfine, Heffring said. Social media has always been about people interacting with each other. Consumers wont care how automated the interactions from businesses are, as long as those interactions address consumers needs.

The Sysomos Platform is available from today.

Read more:
Sysomos launches its new AI-powered social marketing platform ... - VentureBeat

Enterprise Irregulars (blog)

Social media marketing maturity Enterprise Irregulars (blog) If that's all you read you might believe that everything we've thought and acted upon involving social media marketing was wrong; however, it's not, though the research clearly signals that we have to adjust our thinking. Back before there was ...

Visit link:
Social media marketing maturity - Enterprise Irregulars (blog)

Kristina: What does snapchat offer that brands need to understand?

Frdric Charles Petit, CEO and Founder of Toluna: Snapchat is becoming an increasingly important platform for brands to connect with younger consumers. There are several features that allow brands to push content out to users and it is critical that marketers understand how to use these features to engage their targeted audiences. Brands can leverage Snapchat Discover, geo-filters, and custom profiles, but not all features will help brands to engage with all Snapchat users equally. For example, our data shows men are more likely to use Snapchat Discover (50 percent vs. 40 percent of women) and older snapchat users are much less likely to view any kind of branded content (45% of baby boomers have not viewed branded content vs. 31% of millennials) It is essential that marketers dive deeper into the platform's demographics to understand these differences and build their strategy.

Kristina: What are the drawbacks to Snapchat and similar platforms?

Frdric: All platforms of consumer communication present their own unique challenges. Social media platforms in particular have a tendency to go through quick-paced changes, and often go in and out of style faster than marketers can adapt. Snapchat is not yet as ubiquitous as Facebook or Twitter, but there are substantial benefits to connecting with consumers in a more human way via Snapchat that brand managers cannot ignore.

As I mentioned, our research uncovered distinct differences between how different genders and populations prefer to interact with branded content on Snapchat - and those preferences are evolving as rapidly as the technology. To ameliorate the risk of new features and user demographics making a brand's Snapchat strategy obsolete, it is essential to research your target audience's use of the app and test marketing concepts early and often.

Kristina: How can brands use a platform like snapchat to engage, especially when the messages last a short amount of time?

Frdric: Snapchat has established its identity as a platform for sharing short, snackable content that is easy to digest. It's clear that marketers cannot just move content from Facebook or Instagram to a Snapchat profile and expect to be successful. In order to engage Snapchat users, marketers need to customize the content and test its relevance with the specific audience they expect to reach on Snapchat. Concept testing is an essential component in this process.

Understanding how consumers are using Snapchat, and more importantly why they are using Snapchat, will enable brands to make meaningful connections with their customers and deliver messages that make an impact in ten seconds or less.

Tags: SnapChat, SnapChat marketing, social marketing, social marketing trends, Toluna

Read the original:
Expert: How brands can engage with SnapChat - BizReport

SOCi, a San Diego a developer of social media management and marketing software, said Thursday that it has raised $8.25 million in venture capital funding to boost sales and marketing.

Silicon Valleys Vertical Venture Partners and Grayhawk Capital, an Arizona-based technology fund, led the round. Additional investors included the Stanford University DAPER fund, Peninsula Ventures and Tallwave Capital.

Founded in 2012, SOCi makes software to manage social marketing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Yelp, Instagram and others.

It launched its subscription software in early 2015. It targets sectors including large apartment managers, multi-location franchises, enterprise brands and digital ad agencies to help them manage and monitor social media.

A call to SOCi was not returned by press time, but Chief Executive Afif Khoury said in a statement "a new day in social media has arrived where large enterprises are finding themselves having to manage hundreds or thousands of local social media pages on behalf of their storefronts, agents, advisors and clients.

The companys technology helps solve the difficult workflow management issues faced by these multi-location businesses," said Khoury.

Last year, SOCi raised $2.5 million from angel investors including Taner Halicioglu, Facebook's first full-time employee, and Doug Hecht, former president of digital marketing agency Digitaria.

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973

Read the original:
San Diego start-up SOCi raises $8.25 million to help brands manage social media - The San Diego Union-Tribune