Mediaboss Marketing

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By Mike Volpe2014-08-28 20:40:33 UTC

This article is part of SWOT Team, a new series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public relations.

Remember when social media was a new, unchartered territory for brands? Consumers flocked to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn overnight and marketers knew that, in order to stay relevant, they had to follow suit. Fast forward to today: 97% of marketers use social media to connect with buyers. The problem is, most still haven't figured out how to leverage social to create a personalized, relevant and enjoyable experience for their audience.

Socially awkward brands aren't just pushed to the sidelines, they miss out on building valuable relationships, or in some cases, end up on a viral list of social media blunders. Whether your brand is too boring, too tone-deaf or too promotional, your social media approach cant be an afterthought. Here are seven deadly sins of social media marketing to avoid at all costs to keep your audience engaged, interested and loyal.

The key to social media content is to show, not tell. Audiences prefer engaging with visual content over text anyday; did you know that tweets with image links get an engagement rate 200% higher than those with just 140 characters? Flooding your feeds with line after line of text could cause you to miss out on a huge opportunity to connect with your buyers. Instead, we should be emulating brands like Oreo, whose Twitter feed is addicting thanks to charming illustrations, clever videos and mouth-watering images.

Lucky for us, its easier than ever to share visual content, thanks to free design tools like Canva and seamless embed options on social platforms. For marketers, a picture really is worth a thousand words act accordingly.

Trying to apply your advertising approach to social is a big mistake. In fact, one of the reasons social media is effective is because so many people tune out traditional media and mass messaging. On social, its even easier to mute brands that talk, but don't listen with a quick click, consumers can unfollow or remove your content from their feed for good.

Instead of talking about yourself nonstop, make your audience the center of attention by highlighting their interests, like Monster Energy on Facebook, or sharing their content on Instagram like Sharpie. Your social following isnt a captive audience, so take a break from broadcasting and start sharing content they'll actually want to click on.

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7 Sins of Social Media Marketing

Rappler's #WHIPIT campaign beats social media titans Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in the Best Media Solution Social Media category, and bags double bronze awards for Best Content Team and Best Media Solution Online

MANILA, PHILIPPINES Rappler, the Philippines only social media news site, lived up to its name by winning on Thursday, August 28, the gold Spark award for Best Media Solution Social Media. The awards gala was held at the new Westin Hotel in Singapore.

FAMILIAR FACES. The #WhipIt campaign broke not just gender boundaries but geographical ones as well. The campaign was picked up by TIME Business & Money and was also applauded by Sheryl Sandberg.

Launched by Marketing magazine, the Spark Awards for Media Excellence assess media owners based on their compelling content, innovative solutions, products effectiveness and standout team performances.

The gold award for Best Media Solution Social Media recognizes the most creative, innovative and/or effective social media campaigns/solutions from a media owner for its client/s to engage their audience and drive commercial value for them.

Rappler also won the bronze award for Best Content Team, which recognizes the outstanding team with the ability to innovate and create powerful content based on audience and client needs; and the bronze for Best Media Solution Online, recognizing the most creative, innovative and/or effective online campaigns/solutions from a media owner for its client/s to engage their audience and drive commercial value for them.

GENDER INEQUALITY. Research was first conducted to generate the insights for the #WhipIt campaign.

It was our goal to change the game in an industry that was driven by traditional ads and we did this through the power of content. Rappler builds relevant stories and content campaigns that serve to engage our audience and drive optimum social reach while achieving brand objectives across different industries, said Carla Yap-Sysu, Head of Sales and Marketing for Rappler.

Rappler was the only Philippine company among the winners of the Best Content Team.

"The days of ads as interruptions are numbered," said Rappler's Maria Ressa. "We draw a line between our ad sales content creation team and our editorial team. Aligned with the best practices of journalism, our sales content is clearly labelled. Working with brands, our sales team gives you information you want and need."

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Rappler bags triple win in Singapore Spark awards

Troy, NY (PRWEB) August 28, 2014

Healthcare marketing agency Smith & Jones released a new issue of Protocol, titled Social Checkup: Take the Vitals of your Hospitals Social Media Policy. Accessible at smithandjones.com, this marketing report for c-level hospital executives and practice administrators discusses the implications of social media policies.

Many healthcare organizations developed a social media policy when they first created a Facebook page or Twitter account, but havent looked at it since. Others may have discussed a policy, but never put it in writing. Developing and enforcing a social media policy is somewhat like walking a tightrope. On the one hand, rules about legal compliance will protect the organization, but too much restriction on what can be said can stifle creativity and genuine conversation.

The balance is to develop a policy that focuses on the big picture, instead of the day to day tasks, said Mark Shipley, Strategy Director and Co-founder of Smith & Jones. Overall goals and brand values are enough to guide content without having to dissect individual posts or campaigns. This level of trust in staff empowers social engagement instead of hindering it.

This issue of Protocol discusses five topics that should be broached when developing a social media policy for a hospital or physician practice. Included topics are: education and training, engaging internal audiences, how to respond to negative comments, HIPAA compliance and entertaining content.

Access Social Checkup: Take the Vitals of your Hospitals Social Media Policy and join our email list for notifications of future publications at: http://www.smithandjones.com.

About Smith & Jones Smith & Jones is a healthcare marketing agency based in Troy, NY, that specializes in marketing for hospital systems and large physician practices. Learn more at http://www.smithandjones.com.

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Healthcare Marketing Agency Provides Checkup for Social Media Policies

By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer

Belk announced its partnership with iCrossing, leading global digital marketing organization, to manage the retailers digital marketing capabilities within all channels including analytics, paid social media, display media, and search engine marketing (SEM).

In effort to reach customers across all channels, promoting the retailers modern southern style, Belk has selected iCrossing to construct award-winning website designs, sale-driving mobile apps, interactive social marketing campaigns, and other digital designs to enhance the customer experience. iCrossing delivers campaigns in real time, transforms data and analytics into insights, enables cross-channel marketing, and increases ROI for partnering businesses.

With iCrossings data and analytic platform, Belk will have one complete view of the customers attitude, behavior, and interests across all channels, setting up opportunities to better connect with each customer by sending more relevant, personalized content and messages based off of collected data. By establishing synergies across all its digital channels, were able to help Belk create moments that matter for its customers by delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time. said Brian Powley, global president at iCrossing. The iCrossing analytic team eliminates the tedious work of sifting through excel spreadsheets as they compile large amounts of data from different sources, turning it into one combined dashboard full of insights that are simple for Belk to understand and act upon.

Belk has hired iCrossing to build integrated search marketing campaigns to drive customer awareness through bought, owned, and earned mediaby combining the search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM programs, the iCrossing platform will target new audiences, increase the number of clicks, conversion rates, and boost sales for Belk. As search engines, including smartphones, and tablets continue to evolve, iCrossing will help Belk keep the brand visible and evolve beyond the engines.

"iCrossing impressed us with their team of digital experts, audience insights and comprehensive approach to our business," said Jon Pollack, executive vice president of sales promotion, marketing and e-commerce at Belk.

iCrossing is a reputable digital marketing agency, building connected brands for major corporations worldwide including, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Toyota, FedEx, LG Electronics, Petsmart, Hampton Hotels, Cosmopolitan, DIRECTV, and Williams-Sonoma. The company states, Were creating connected campaigns that are being found, engaged with and talked about by consumers and the marketing industry alike.

Read more here:
Belk Partnering With iCrossing To Enhance Digital Features

Steve Goldner a.k.a Social Steve is Senior Director, Social Marketing at Ryan Partnership and heads up its social media marketing practice. He blogs regularly at the Social Steve Blog. You can connect with him on Twitter @SocialSteve.

Surprise! Facebook is about to change the use of its platform for marketers. Ever hear this before? "A source professionally familiar with Facebook's marketing strategy, who requested to remain anonymous, ... [states] that the social network is in the process of slashing organic page reach' down to 1 or 2 percent," according to Valleywag. What could prompt yet another change for Facebook?

Editorial/Commentary - Posted Apr 02, 2014

If there is one think failing social media marketing, it is a lack of social. I'll explain what I mean by this in a minute, but let's first examine the reality of today's business operations.More and more companies are moving to automated processing and communication to squeeze out operational costs and add a few more margin percentage points. When you call a service provider today to get a problem resolved, do you actually get a human being answering the call? Or, conversely, do you get an automated system that takes you through four levels of questions that get you nowhere and then leave you waiting 15 minutes or longer to get connected to an actual person to help you?

If you look at the most successful marketing endeavors brought to life, I would place a big bet that they all started with a creative brief. In case you are not familiar with a creative brief, it is a document produced to help develop creative deliverables such as advertising, websites, visual design, copy, and other marketing outputs. The creative brief consists of a series of simple questions and the answers help the Creative Team generate concepts, ideas, and bring them to life.

Column/Social Pulse - Posted Aug 23, 2012

So, you want to get social? You realize your business cannot live without it. Kudos to you for having a strategy and a plan and for not just putting up Facebook and Twitter pages. But now you realize how time-consuming it will be to drive real measurable success. So let me tell you how we determined the right tools to help us drive our social media practice.

If there is one thing we are used to from Facebook -- or, at least, are used to complaining about -- it is change. The company has a history of introducing new features at will and then abandoning them. Going forward, though, Facebook's willy-nilly changes may be frowned upon as investors from Friday's IPO start putting in their two cents. When the closing bell rang on Friday, Facebook raised about $16 billion, was valued at short of $105 billion. But investors are not the only ones taking on risk; marketers that think Facebook is the Holy Grail also gamble with company money.

Column/Social Pulse - Posted May 22, 2012

Do you ever really stop to think about what it means to drive a successful marketing program? Actually, it is pretty simple. If you can change behavior and produce quantifiable results, you have nailed it. But what does this actually mean?

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Steve Goldner