Month: October 2021

facebook-metaverse

Newsmax: Facebook Forging Forward With Zuckerberg’s ‘Metaverse’

Posted on | by devops
Originally published on Oct. 21, 2021 at Newsmax.com, Written by Marisa Herman

It has only been a few months since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the possibility of transforming the powerful social media company into an immersive “metaverse” — and the big tech billionaire isn’t wasting any time creating his unprecedented virtual reality world.

Despite months of high-profile problems — including allegations from whistleblowers, lawmakers calling for more regulation, and numerous lawsuits — Facebook announced plans to hire 10,000 highly skilled workers from Europe during the next five years to develop its metaverse. The social media behemoth is also rumored to be announcing a company name change in the coming days to reflect its new focus.

As imagined, a metaverse is a Matrix-like, virtual form of reality where users are immersed in the internet, rather  than looking at it from the outside. The term was coined nearly 30 years ago in the 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash,” and elements of the futuristic metaverse have already debuted in popular video games such as Fortnight and Roblox.

Techies view the metaverse as the internet’s next frontier to be conquered and Facebook appears to be moving quickly toward completing its quest to become the first major tech company to take the plunge, offering the masses a space that combines the physical world with an augmented virtual existence.

Chris Haynes, a political science professor at the University of New Haven, said Zuckerberg’s hiring spree shouldn’t come as much of a surprise because Facebook has been looking into a pivot towards the untapped metaverse for some time.

Facebook has said that this new virtual reality is the next generation of Facebook as opposed to [it] just being a social media company.

“This is something that has been a real buzz in the tech world, especially with the COVID pandemic and the inability for people to get out there and interact,” Haynes said. “Facebook has said that this new virtual reality is the next generation of Facebook as opposed to [it] just being a social media company.”

Back in 2014, Facebook spent $2 billion to purchase Oculus, a company behind virtual reality gaming headsets. Since then, the tech giant has invested more money and manpower in developing the next phase of tech, positioning the company to shift away from tools like messenger and toward services like virtual boardroom meetings.

A few months ago, Facebook rolled out Horizon Workrooms, an app that allows users wearing VR headsets to gather in boardroom-style meetings with cartoon avatars of their co-workers. The app is reported to be part of Facebook’s secret “Horizon” project, which, according to The Verge, is an unreleased VR version of Facebook.

This summer, Zuckerberg shared his vision for the metaverse, which he dubbed “an embodied internet,” on “The Vergecast” podcast.

He said the metaverse will be a “big focus” for Facebook and a “big part of the next chapter for the way that the internet evolves after the mobile internet.”

Haynes said the timing of the jobs announcement, however, is no coincidence and comes as Zuckerberg is “attempting to change the narrative and reframe the public image of the company and himself.”

“[Facebook] recognizes that they have done a lot of damage,” he said. “One way of shifting the narrative of the news media is to focus on something that is more beneficial.”

Haynes said given the fact that Facebook hasn’t always been completely transparent with its users and the government, the company is betting its public perception will get a boost by touting the benefits the metaverse will bring.

He said the calculus behind the metaverse push is that if there is public buy in for it, the government will back off.

Currently, Facebook is taking heat from users and elected officials on both sides of the political aisle. It has been blasted by lawmakers on the left for not doing enough to manage alleged misinformation posted to the social platform. It’s also been slammed by conservatives who feel the company suppresses the voices of those who lean to the right, including former President Donald Trump. The company is facing a barrage of lawsuits ranging from privacy issues to antitrust concerns, too.

Dallas-based marketing and big tech expert Adam Rizzieri said that, on one hand, Facebook should clean up the mess it faces in the U.S. before it jets across the world to start its new endeavor. He noted the irony in Facebook’s talk about consolidating and strengthening what it has already built even as it builds the metaverse — all while Congress is trying to reel the company in.

But he isn’t surprised to see Zuckerberg brush off the criticism he faces at home for a fresh start elsewhere because “Facebook sees the world as its house” more than it views itself as an American company.

“Anyone who is watching knows that issues within Facebook’s walls are yet to be resolved,” he said. “The focus on the rebrand is an interesting way of ignoring problems that still exist.”

He said Zuckerberg’s move into the metaverse showcases the “power that the company continues to wield” and its desire to “control the future and their destiny in it.”

“Today we are concerned about big tech unfairly wielding its power in our daily online interactions,” he said. “Tomorrow, with the metaverse, we have to be concerned about big tech doing the same in a world that has no boundaries.”

As the physical and virtual worlds become more intertwined, he questions where we will “draw the line of separation between what’s mine and what’s ours?

 

© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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best-ad-campaigns

The 18 Best Advertisements & Ad Campaigns of All Time

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For The 18 Best Advertisements & Ad Campaigns of All Time

While it can often feel like many of the adverts you see in the modern world are cut from the same cloth, there is an art to creating an ad campaign that people remember. Many of today’s ads borrow elements from the best campaigns that have been seen throughout history, using the foundations that other companies have set.

For those that have seen shows like HBO’s Mad Men, though, you will know just how much has gone into creating some of the world’s best advertisements. Join us as we explore some of the most outstanding ad campaigns of all time.

1. Budweiser, “Wassup?!”

Let’s start with a fun one. Budweiser struck gold with their 1999 “Wassup?!” campaign, featuring a series of videos of friends on a group phone call having fun and repeatedly exclaiming “Wassup?!” in silly voices to one another. This made the beer look fun and lighthearted while also painting a picture of kinship amongst its drinkers.

2. Nike, “Just Do It.”

Nike has always invested a lot into advertising, but their “Just Do It” slogan has been on just about every one of their ads since the late 80s. This ad campaign is designed to convey a no-nonsense approach to pushing people to achieve their fitness goals. Can’t be bothered to exercise today? Just do it. Nikes got your back.

3. Coca-Cola, “Share A Coke.”

From changing the color of Santa’s outfit to poking fun at rival companies like Pepsi, Coca-Cola has long dominated the field of marketing. In 2011, Coca-Cola began adding individual names to their bottles for their “Share A Coke” campaign. People love a personal touch, and buying a bottle with your name on it is a genius way to achieve this.

4. Apple, “There’s An App For That.”

It’s tough to say which of Apple’s ad campaigns is the best; there have been so many great ones. The “There’s An App For That” campaign kicked off in 2009 as a way to show off the versatility of the latest iPhone devices. Campaigns like this have paid off for Apple, with iPhones being one of the most popular mobile devices on the market.

5. De Beers, “A Diamond Is Forever.”

Diamonds didn’t use to be that popular, but now most people would associate this rock with wedding and engagement rings, as well as luxury jewelry. In 1947, De Beers launched their “A Diamond Is Forever” campaign, targeting young men who wanted to show their status and give something extra special to the important woman in their life.

6. Cadbury, “Gorilla Drummer Drums.”

Advertising a product like chocolate can be a challenge without relying on the sultry imagery usually found in perfume ads. Just about everyone remembers the famous “Gorilla Drummer Drums” adverts from back in 2009, in which a gorilla drums along to Phil Colins’ “In The Air Tonight.” This ad was for their Dairy Milk brand and was voted the UK’s favorite advert.

7. Old Spice, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

Most companies will target the people who will be using their product when they make an advert. Old Spice took a different approach with their “The Man, Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, though, targeting ladies who wanted their partner to smell as good as possible. The tagline is one thing, but the video cuts in these adverts make them stand out.

8. Google, “Year In Search.”

In 2018, Google decided to launch an ad campaign centered around the most common search terms used on their platform throughout the previous year. This proved to be a great way to connect everyone who watched the adverts, especially when it was revealed that the word “Good” had been searched more times than ever before.

9. Volkswagen, “Think Small.”

Even a decade and a half after WWII, American’s were still fixated on the large and fast US-made cars that dominated the market, rather than smaller European models. VW decided to take advantage of this in 1960, producing their “Think Small” ad campaign that sought to highlight the small size of their cars as a selling point rather than something terrible.

10. Skittles, “Taste The Rainbow.”

Skittles have long been using the “Taste The Rainbow” slogan for their advertising, and most people will associate these words with the colorful candy. The tagline works because it gives customers the sense that they will not only see the colors in Skittles; they will be able to taste it. Conveying taste through marketing can be challenging, but Skittles has nailed it with this one.

11. Sony (Bravia), “Colour Like No Other.”

The early 2000s was an excellent time for companies like Sony. Anyone old enough to remember 2006 will likely have seen the “Colour Like No Other” balls advert that hit TVs worldwide. This advert is compelling yet straightforward, with Sony dropping 250,000 bouncy balls down a San Francisco street to get across the idea that their Bravia TV line-up offered better color than anyone else’s. 

12. Leslie’s Weekly, “I Want You!”

It’s time to look back at an ancient marketing campaign, one that is often viewed as propaganda today. Most people know of Uncle Sam and will have seen the famous “I Want You!” poster plastered across the US throughout 1917. This poster was initially published in Leslie’s Weekly to push young people to join the military during WWI.

13. Red Bull, “Stratos.”

Red Bull has long been using extreme sports to advertise its energy drinks. The Red Bull Stratos project was a little different and involved sending a man named Felix Baumgartner up to an altitude of almost 26 miles for the highest free-fall in human history. More than 9.5 million users watched the event live, and Felix was the first human to break the sound barrier without a powered vehicle. Pretty cool, and great advertising.

14. Absolut, “The Bottle Campaign.”

Starting in 1980, Absolut ran their “Bottle” campaign for around 25 years. Making their bottles one of the most recognizable globally, this campaign involved countless printed images of their bottles taking on different forms. These ads have gone down in history from New York taxi cabs to the peel from an orange. 

15. Twix, “It’s Time To DeSide.”

Despite both sides of a Twix bar being identical, this candy manufacturer took advantage of the competitiveness of humans with their “It’s Time To DeSide” campaign. Asking customers which side of Twix was the best, they could poke fun at their product while also creating an ad campaign that stuck in customers’ minds.

16. Dos Equis, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”

Even if you haven’t seen the legendary Dos Equis “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, it’s likely that you’ve seen the memes that have spawned from it. The catchphrase that comes with these adverts has been enshrined in internet history, and this is an excellent way to sell a product, even if it wasn’t the intended result.

17. Pepsi, “Is Pepsi okay?”

If you’ve ever asked for a Coke at a restaurant or bar that serves Pepsi, you’ve probably heard “Is Pepsi okay?” as the response. Well aware of being widely considered second-best compared to Coca-Cola, Pepsi has long taken advantage of this, with their “Is Pepsi okay?” campaign poking fun at their beverage.

18. Avis, “We Try Harder.”

Much like Pepsi, Avis has long been the second most successful company in its field. Having worked extremely hard to take the top spot, Avis created the “We Try Harder” campaign to show customers that they work much harder than the competition.

Advertising has long been a significant element of human society. No matter where you are in the world, you can see adverts plastered on walls and displayed through your TV screens. While many of history’s most outstanding ad campaigns are behind us, there is still plenty of room for more to join the ranks of those we’ve covered in this article. 

email-marketing-services

7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2021)

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For 7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2021)

Email marketing is one of the most tried-and-true and consistently reliable forms of marketing available – and it comes with a wide variety of benefits that mean it should be a staple in any business marketing arsenal.

For one thing, email marketing is generally remarkably cost-effective by comparison to other marketing approaches. An email itself typically costs nothing to send. Still, for your email marketing campaign to be truly effective, it’s essential to utilize the exemplary email marketing software service for the job – which will entail some cost.

Still, when stacked up against all sorts of other forms of marketing, email marketing is consistently one of the most affordable and cost-effective and likely to prove to be a worthwhile investment of resources.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, businesses in the United States see an average 4300 percent ROI (Return on Investment) with email marketing.

All the same, effective email marketing does largely depend on utilizing the right email marketing software, not least of all to ensure that your emails get reliably delivered.

If you don’t choose wisely, there’s a risk that you’ll end up paying for a service that yields a dismal deliverability rate, therefore costing you money, time and also undermining your entire marketing effort.

Here are seven of the best email marketing services for small businesses as of 2021.

  1. SendinBlue

SendinBlue offers a complete SMS and email marketing service for businesses and has the distinction of being one of the fastest-growing email marketing businesses in all of Europe.

Simplicity is the name of the game with this service, with a simple drag-and-drop email editor allowing for even complete novices to email marketing to create beautiful, elegant, and highly engaging emails that can make all the difference.

SendinBlue also offers a series of beginner-friendly marketing automation tools that allow for the creation of automatic follow-up emails, transactional emails, timed bulk emails, and more.

The free plan for SendinBlue allows for unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails a day, although the emails will Include company branding. Paid plans start at $25 per month, with the option to add SMS services – although these can influence price depending on specific requirements. 

  1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is known for being one of the most important and rapidly growing email marketing services globally and one of the most beginner-friendly.

With this service, managing email lists, templates, scheduling, and more, is straightforward and intuitive – and the company offers unparalleled customer support, ranging from phone lines to email and live chat to a great library of valuable resources.

Constant Contact also offers excellent live training seminars across the United States, helping anyone proficient in email marketing.

The service begins with a 60-day free trial, with no credit card requirement, and after that, paid services start at as little as $20 a month.

  1. Drip

Drip is an email marketing service that shines for people working in eCommerce and digital marketers and bloggers. It can be described as a powerful enterprise service.

Importantly, their email marketing software integrates seamlessly with the leading website building and content management systems, including WordPress and WooCommerce, which makes it easy to incorporate things like pop-ups and signup forms to your website as a way of drawing in and converting more leads.

Drip is notable for its intelligent automation tools, including split testing features, list groups, a visual automation workflow builder, and more, that help you reach targeted customers very precisely to increase sales.

Recently, Drip has included SMS features.

Drip offers a free trial, after which the service costs $49 per month for access to all features.

  1. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is explicitly aimed at professional marketers, authors, and bloggers and is easy to use and notably powerful at what it does.

The feature of this service that most stands out is that It makes it especially easy to offer content upgrades and various incentives via email signup forms and makes it very easy to set up autoresponders.

ConvertKit allows you to quickly categorize subscribers and divide them between those who have already made a purchase and those who haven’t, allowing for a more targeted and personalised form of marketing.

The company offers a 14-day free trial (complete with a 30-day refund policy), and subscription pricing starts from $29 per month.

  1. AWeber

AWeber is well known for being one of the oldest and most well-established email marketing services in the world and one of the most popular.

The tools they offer are particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses, and include features for a/b testing, detailed email tracking, list management, autoresponders, and more.

This service integrates seamlessly with most platforms, including WordPress.

AWeber has a limited free plan that allows for up to 500 subscribers, with subscription pricing starting from $19 per month.

  1. GetResponse

GetResponse is popular and easy to use and primarily simplifies email marketing for small businesses.

This service features a drag-and-drop campaign builder, allows for effectively categorizing and segmenting contacts, and has beautiful and responsive signup forms and landing pages, among other things.

Customer support is available by phone, live chat, and email, and the GetResponse help section contains plenty of free learning materials, including videos, how-to guides, webinars, and more.

GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial, followed by a subscription starting at $15 per month. 

  1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing services globally, not just because of its memorable mascot and name. This service comes with a “forever free” email marketing plan that allows sending 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers.

Mailchimp features an easy drag-and-drop email builder, as well as autoresponders, the ability to categorize and segment subscribers easily, and more. It is also easily integrated with various eCommerce and website-building platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and more.

Mailchimp offers significantly fewer features than many other services but can stand out as an entry-level service.

Paid Mailchimp plans start at $10 per month for 500 subscribers, with the cost increasing for every additional 500 subscribers. However, for an unlimited audience and more advanced features, you would need to pay for the $299 per month plan.

paid-search

What is Paid Search?

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For What is Paid Search?

If you are new to the world of paid search, you may feel a little bit overwhelmed by all of the available information. It can feel impossible to know what paid search entails and whether or not this will be a wise advertisement strategy for your business. There is no need to panic, though, as below, we will explain exactly what paid search is so that you can get a better understanding.

What is paid search?

Paid search represents a type of digital marketing where search engines like Bing and Google enable advertisers to display adverts on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Paid search works on a model known as pay-per-click, and so you do exactly what it says on the tin; you only pay when they click on your advert. The aim here is to make sure that the money you spend on marketing is controllable and measurable, which was not always the case with conventional forms of marketing.

Paid ad formats include shopping ads displayed above the search results and text ads, which you can see at the bottom or top of the organic search results. Most businesses will use a mixture of PPC and SEO (aimed at building organic search results) to give their business the best chance of success online.

Understanding what paid search can do for your business.

Now that you know what paid search is and how it works, it is important to understand why it matters! Why should you care? Well, if you think about it, every second, there are thousands and thousands of people typing into that famed Google search bar, looking for different answers, solutions, products, and services.

As a business, this gives you an outstanding opportunity to promote your company to an engaged and relevant audience, i.e., people actively searching for information relating to the sort of products and services you provide.

Some of the other types of advertisement that are available to you are deemed interruption marketing. Banner ads are a good example of this. This means that any person who views the ad may not actually be ready to purchase something at that moment. This is where paid search has an edge. This is because, with paid search, you know that the user has typed something into the search bar that has an intent relating to the sort of service your business provides.

Creating a well-paid search ad

Of course, your paid search efforts are only going to be as good as your ads are. You need to create adverts that engage your audience, guiding them to select your advert over the other ads that you compete with on the page.

There are several different elements you need to make sure your ad has. Unique selling points are critical; they will set your business apart, after all! It would help if you also had phrases and words that are relevant to your keywords, as well as a compelling call to action.

It will help if you track your ROI when implementing paid search.

There are clearly several different benefits that are associated with paid search. However, for paid search to succeed, you need to make sure that you track your ROI, otherwise known as return on investment. This is where a lot of businesses tend to go wrong.

Not only can you see the number of people who have clicked on your adverts when tracking, but you will be able to get important data on how many conversions you have, how much it has cost you, and so on. This helps you refine your campaign to keep on making improvements and extract the maximum benefit from PPC.

Don’t stick with the default broad match keywords.

This is another common error when it comes to those that are new to the realm of paid search. Not only is this is a mistake, but it can be quite a costly one. The default match type of keywords are broad match keywords, so many advertisers and business owners will end up just going with this.

However, if you do that, you will end up being in thousands of variations for the keyword, and so you can end up blowing your budget on keywords you do not really want to be targeting. This is why you really need to refine your strategy to hone in on those keywords you want to target.

Add ad extensions alongside your paid search advert.

In addition to the tips we have mentioned so far, it is also critical to put ad extensions onto your adverts. For those unaware, ad extensions offer extra information snippets about your company, and they can go alongside your adverts. They are beneficial for several reasons.

Firstly, they ensure an improved user experience. Moreover, they help your ad take up more space on the result page and boost your quality score. There are a lot of different ad extensions for you to select from, including seller ratings, price, call, location, callouts, and site links.

Seller ratings are good, as they link to your review score on the likes of TrustPilot and Google My Business, helping to build up a trusted brand image for your business.

Final words on paid search

So there you have it: everything that you need to know about paid search. We hope that this helps you better understand paid search and what it means for your business. Paid search is a vital advertisement medium, but it needs to be used correctly. If you would like to discover more and benefit from the assistance of an experienced and reputable marketing team, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today for more information.

facebook-ads-marketing

A Deep Dive Into Facebook Ads: How to Create, Optimize, and Test Facebook Ads

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For A Deep Dive Into Facebook Ads: How to Create, Optimize, and Test Facebook Ads

Marketing is the art of effectively speaking to prospective customers on their terms and convincing them that your particular product or service is genuinely worth spending some money on.

To carry out the subtle art as effectively as possible, people use many different channels. Still, some have only really started to become recognized for their full potential in recent times.

Until quite recently indeed, many marketers believed that Facebook marketing was essentially a waste of time – and if you’re the average Facebook user, you might also be suspicious that very few people end up clicking on those ads.

Though, you’d be wrong if you came to either of these conclusions.

Facebook advertising can be very effective indeed in a variety of different ways. It’s just a b matter of understanding which businesses are the best fit for Facebook ads and then knowing how to properly run successful ad campaigns tailored to the business in the right way.

Here’s a rundown of some of the basics you should understand about Facebook ads.

Are Facebook Ads Right for Your Business?

Although Facebook ads can be very effective, it’s essential to remember that they won’t be the best fit for every business model.

Before getting started with using Facebook ads, it’s essential to investigate whether or not your business is likely to be one of those that will benefit from this particular marketing approach. It’s also necessary to understand how Facebook ads have developed over time – such as the fact that they are now much more helpful than in the past for selling products directly to customers.

Here are some of the types of business models that might be a good fit for Facebook ads.

Low-Friction Conversion Businesses

“Low-friction conversion” refers to a business model where you don’t ask very much of your prospective clients upfront whatsoever.

When it comes to Facebook marketing, it’s important to remember that the people who click through to your site are likely not very invested and are not already highly motivated to purchase your product or service. For that reason, you need to make the process of converting visitors into leads as smooth and easy as possible.

It’s mainly because businesses such as Groupon that only asked for a simple commitment upfront – like signing up with an email address – tend to be especially well-suited to Facebook advertising.

Businesses Based on Small Purchases or Long Sales Cycle

Businesses based on earning revenue from their customers over a prolonged period, maybe as a result of repeated small purchases, are likely to do better in terms of benefiting from Facebook ads than businesses that try to sell expensive goods upfront.

This again is partly down to the fact that Facebook ads tend to attract casual interest. In contrast, people tend to only make large, expensive purchases after plenty of premeditation and consideration.

An ideal approach might see a business earning 20% payback on their Facebook ad on day one and 100% payback after six months.

Tips for Properly Targeting Your Facebook Ads

Facebook ads allow for exact targeting of your advertisements to particular demographics and prospective customer bases to ensure that your ad has the highest likelihood of being correctly effective.

Unfortunately, failing to target Facebook ads appropriately is the number one thing that makes them ineffective for many marketers.

Just a few of the various things that Facebook allows you to target your ads based on include:

  • Language 
  • Relationship status 
  • Location 
  • Age range 
  • Interests
  • Connections 
  • Education

Here are some of the targeting techniques you can employ using Facebook ads.

Targeting to Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Facebook offers the powerful ability to target your ads to “Lookalike Audiences,” which means targeting your ads to audiences that are similar to yours but that exclude your current audience.

If you have Facebook Pixel or other custom audience data that you can plug into the advertising tool, you will be able to use this service to break new ground potentially.

Retargeting to Existing Customers or Audiences

Facebook allows you to “retarget” ads to people who are already familiar with your business, products, and services by focusing on users who – for example – have already clicked on an advertisement of yours or visited your website without completing a purchase.

This can be a great strategy to close the deal and up the ante with new and alluring products or more dynamic and visually appealing ads than previously.

Detailed Interest Ad Targeting

Facebook allows for a truly staggering amount of specificity when it comes to detailed marketing. You can even market to individuals who have “liked” specific films or sports, among other things. As a general rule, the more focused you can get your ads, the likelier you will find an audience that is ideally in line with your particular product or service. On the other hand, if you are too broad, you can easily miss out. Wherever possible, go for maximum nuance and detail when targeting your ads.

Broad Category Ad Targeting

Going for a “broad category” approach to ad targeting instead of detailed interest ad targeting tends to be more expensive and result in fewer conversions.

While this should not be your first-line approach to Facebook advertising, broad category targeting may be helpful alongside detailed interest targeting in some instances. It’s something to try out in a balanced and tentative manner.

Utilizing Visuals for Ads

Visual elements are essential for getting people to click on your Facebook ads, so it’s necessary to go for high-quality images and graphics.

Avoid going for any low-quality pictures or very generic stock images, and don’t make your logo prominent (or even include it at all) unless you are a significant and recognizable company.

Instead, purchase high-quality images or look for unique and high-quality photos with a Creative Commons Licence, and emphasize pictures of people, clearly visible text with easily readable and well-designed typeface, and elements of humor if they work in the context of your ad.

most-disliked-brand

Katy Trail Weekly: Most Disliked Brand in Texas Surprising

Posted on | by devops
Most Disliked Brand in Texas Surprising
Originally published on KatyTrailWeekly.com, Written by David Mullen

A new statistical report asserts that the most disliked brands by state on social media are often not necessarily the ones you might think. For example, Colonel Sanders is not welcome in Des Moines. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is the most disliked brand on Twitter in Iowa. In Kentucky, it is Uber. Go figure.

Many of the most successful companies and well-known names have become unpopular brands. RAVE Reviews teamed up with research tool SentiStrength to measure the most hated brands across the U.S by state as measured on Twitter. They assessed more than a million brand-related tweets for positive or negative content and calculated what is referred to as the “hate rate” (percentage of negative tweets) by state.

Everyone loves LEGO, right? In six states, the brand is the most unpopular. No data supports if the hate rate coincides with the percentage of parents with young children that walk around the house in their bare feet.

Twitter, as a social platform, doesn’t represent the diverse opinions of states, let alone countries…

“Twitter, as a social platform, doesn’t represent the diverse opinions of states, let alone countries,” said Adam Rizzieri, an SMU and Boston University graduate and CMO at the Plano based Agency Partner Interactive, a marketing company that specializes in working with small business to help them create online experiences to foster growth. “And it is overwhelmingly male and typically more affluent. But that doesn’t mean what comes off Twitter doesn’t matter.”

It is logical that a foreign car brand is most hated in Michigan. But one would think it would be Toyota, Nissan or Honda in America’s automotive center. The most hated brand in Michigan is Ferrari. “I think that might relate to racing fans,” Rizzieri said. “[It could be] throwing hate on whatever [Ferrari Formula One drivers] Carlos Sainz, Jr. or Charles Leclerc had done on the racetrack.

Why do so many people hate KFC or LEGO with so much fury? People are two to three times more inclined to tweet a frustration than a positive experience. With KFC, it could be a delivery experience like “They forgot my gravy!”’

In California, surprisingly, Uber is most hated brand, even though the company is headquartered in San Francisco. “People that hate Uber are still going to use the service,” Rizzieri said. “It’s a little unfair. Think about the volume. I think Uber and Toyota share the same thing. They do so much volume and have a ton of happy customers. But because they have so many users, you are bound to do something — or not do something — to piss somebody off.”

Amazon is the most disliked brand in New Mexico, which seems counterproductive. So does Red Bull not charging up Nevada, America’s 24-hour gaming mecca. McDonalds is not a Maine brand, Minnesota is not gaga over Google, Colorado dislikes Disney, Alaska is not hot on Starbucks and Mississippi hates French luxury fashion brand Chanel. Maybe Mississippians meant to say “channel” because they don’t like their TV shows.

Sony is the most hated brand in Texas. That seems odd. One would think that any company not based in Texas would be tied for No. 1 least liked brand.

“I tried to think about that one because I have literally never heard someone [in Texas] say, ‘I hate Sony,’” Rizzieri said. “As a company, at a higher level, it is a multi-national conglomerate. It is a huge corporation. They are a movie producer. They are an electronics manufacturer. They are also a gaming console brand.

“When I think about Texas and Sony and what the connection might be, I go back to the eSports gaming world,” Rizzieri continued. “All of the people competing may be use Sony consoles or the games themselves and are expressing some sort of discontent. You have [Mark Cuban] and Jerry Jones investing heavily in eSports, and you have a big gaming concentration in Houston and Dallas.”

Tesla is the second most hated brand in Texas, despite building a large plant in Austin. Texas is synonymous with oil and Tesla is synonymous with green energy. Oil and alternative power don’t mix.

The thing that people should recognize is that source of the tweet matters tremendously

“The thing that people should recognize is that source of the tweet matters tremendously,” Rizzieri concluded, “whether it is a troll just throwing some hate or if it is Elon Musk talking about what Tesla’s next big investment or next partnership is going to be. When Elon [Musk] tweets something, you know it is going to be really important.

“Think about Disney. Thirty percent of all the tweets on Twitter about Disney were really hateful, mean tweets. In the same year that they had all of this negativity spewing on social media, their share price rose by 125 percent. Negativity on social media doesn’t always matter. What matters most is who is tweeting and what the customer cares about.”

© 2021 Trail Publishing and Agency Partner Interactive. All rights reserved.

Catch Us In the Media

Agency Partner’s award-winning team often contributes expert opinions and perspectives on things that matter. Follow our contributions to the latest news and media topics or head over to the newly reinstated/uncancelled Agency Partner YouTube page to see us on TV and hear us on the radio or podcasts.

If your business is looking to utilize a digital marketing strategy or perhaps you need help with your web design and mobile needs, we’re happy to help! For no risk and no obligation, give us a shot!

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How To Create a Twitter Marketing Strategy For Your Brand

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For How To Create a Twitter Marketing Strategy For Your Brand

As with most social media today, Twitter has moved on from a primary site for social engagement to a powerful Twitter Marketing channel used for brand building and brand promotion. But it isn’t always an easy task, even for those with social media experience.

The Twitter channel is slightly different from other platforms and requires a strategic brand marketing strategy to get the most from it. We look at some of the best ways to use Twitter to market your brand and grow a dedicated following.

Use Twitter analytics

The first step to creating a successful Twitter marketing plan is to crack open your Twitter analytics and takes a closer look at what’s working (or not working) for your brand. Twitter analytics provides valuable insights into engagement rates for different types of tweets – called “impressions.”

Twitter impressions give you the performance of tweets in recent months and over the previous 28 days. It tells you what tweets have been popular and why. You can also look at your marketing strategy and see where your campaign supported more vital impressions.

Tailor your brand voice

A brand voice is crucial for connecting with your audience and strengthening your brand identity. As with your brand logo, packaging, and social media ads, your voice must be consistent across platforms and reassuring for your audience – however, you can still be creative.

Once you have established a voice that is true to your brand and connects with your audience, you can use it creatively on Twitter to generate interest and stay relevant. Of course, that doesn’t mean jumping on trends, but you can still incorporate trends into Tweets using your distinctive voice.

Use trends and hashtags

Did you know that tweets with hashtags get double the engagement rates than tweets without them? Statistics like this suggest you should apply hashtags to every tweet you put out, but this isn’t a good idea either. Instead, it’s best to use hashtags for an intended purpose.

Most brands use hashtags for promotional purposes, and this is very effective. If you have a campaign for a short period – such as discounts on Black Friday – some relevant hashtags can significantly increase engagement rates and help grow your audience and brand awareness.

Use Twitter ads

Twitter ads work like other social media and search engine ads. However, you pay a premium – a monthly subscription in the case of Twitter – and you get to optimize your setting to target different demographics. Your ads then appear on users’ Twitter feeds.

Although this costs money, it’s an effective way to engage new people with your brand and promote a new product or service. Even if someone doesn’t follow your brand, the ads will show up in their news feed if they have an optimized interest.

Time your Tweets

Once you tweet, that post will remain on the Twitter newsfeed until it is deleted, but that doesn’t mean anyone will see it. The Twitter newsfeed moves incredibly fast, so a post that went up thirty minutes ago might well be invisible always. One technique is to time your tweets effectively.

Posting a tweet at the right time can mean the difference between high engagement and none at all. The average half-life is around thirty minutes, and tweets reach 75% of their potential in three hours, so posting at the right time is crucial. Use an engagement schedule to help.

Schedule your Tweets

Consistency is vital when posting to Twitter. Audiences expect regular – often daily posts – from the brands they follow. It helps the Twitter algorithm identify popular and relevant Tweets to boost engagement. So you need to time your tweets, but you also need to schedule them to land consistently.

If you’re a brand, it’s recommended that you post to Twitter at least once a day, but many brands will post much more than that – up to fifteen times a day! The frequency of your posts is usually determined by the relevance and quantity of the content you create.

Engage with Twitter Audiences

To create a successful brand on Twitter, you need to interact with your Twitter audience and anyone on the platform who mentions your brand. Whether positive or negative, you need to communicate with your brand community to build trust and confidence.

As with other social media platforms, Twitter is a two-way channel. If your brand posts regularly but displays low audience engagement, it makes users feel like an overly promotional business, but interacting with creates a strong brand community that users can invest in.

Set brand goals for Twitter

No Twitter marketing strategy is complete without brand goals. Brand goals help to keep your campaign on track and monitor the success of your promotions and campaigns. Brand goals on Twitter can mean “growing awareness” and “brand engagement.”

These are separate things. Growing awareness is measured by “followers” and “reach,” while brand engagement is measured by “replies” and “shares.” There are many other goals you can set, it depends on your overall strategy, but it’s essential to monitor them frequently.

Use a cross-platform strategy.

Today’s effective brand strategy involves more than one social media platform because the platforms have different audiences and different forms of engagement. Your Twitter profile can be integrated into an overall social media strategy to get the most out of every forum.

You might need some help to create an effective social media brand strategy that’s effective cross-platform. Each platform has micro-differences that require separate management. Your Twitter accounts are no different; ensure you have a dedicated team to operate your Twitter brand marketing strategy.

To sum up

Brand awareness and engagement on social media are essential for building and maintaining a lasting brand, but it doesn’t happen by accident. Each social media platform has unique traits that you need to work with to ensure your brand stays healthy and relevant.

Using Twitter Marketing to create goals for your brand and monitor them often, you can engage with existing audiences more effectively and grow your audience using intelligent advertising.

google-ad-ban

Newsmax: Google’s Ad Ban on Climate Skeptics Is About Politics, Not Environment

Posted on | by devops
Originally published on Newsmax.com, Written by Marisa Herman
Google says skeptics of what the company determines to be “scientific consensus” about climate change will be prevented from making money or spreading so-called “misinformation” on YouTube, a major decision that tech experts say is motivated more by politics than sincere environmental concerns.

The tech behemoth announced the policy change in a Thursday blog post that noted the change will “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” and is slated to affect YouTube video creators, advertisers, and publishers.

Critics immediately questioned whether the move was yet another example of a big tech company working in lockstep with the Democratic Party’s agenda to silence those who have the “wrong” thoughts about a debatable issue.

Steve Milloy, a former Trump EPA transition member and the founder of JunkScience.com, said the forthcoming policy “does nothing but validate what climate realists have been saying for years: It’s not about the climate; it’s about the political power.”

“If what we were saying was wrong, we would have been laughed off the Internet long ago,” he said. “Instead, reality is validating us and public support for climate idiocy is going nowhere.”

The new Google policy applies to any content that it determines calls climate change a hoax or denies that greenhouse gas emissions and human activity have contributed to the overall warming of the earth.

Google’s ad team said a “growing number” of its “advertising and publisher partners” have expressed concerns in recent years about “ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change.”

The company says that advertisers don’t want their ads showing up next to content that denies climate change, and publishers and creators don’t want the content to appear on their pages or videos.

Milloy believes the change, which is set to go into effect in November, will “have no effect on climate realist websites for the simple reason that the ad revenue is pretty trivial.”

I don’t know of any climate realist who blogs for the Google ad revenue…

“I don’t know of any climate realist who blogs for the Google ad revenue,” he said. “We do it because we oppose the abuse of science, especially as it is being used to advance totalitarianism.”

Google said it will use a mix of both automated tools and human reviewers to enforce the policy. It says it will “look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim” when it evaluates content.

While Google may be responding to pressure from climate activists to “do more,” critics say the policy is another reason why the publisher shouldn’t be protected by Sec. 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a controversial protection afforded to tech companies that shields them from being sued over content that users post on their site.

Marketing and big tech expert Adam Rizzieri called the new policy “par for the course” when it comes to tech organizations protecting the speech of the “elite, VIP class of users, while rapidly silencing and de-platforming all others.”

“Google routinely allows politically divisive issues to dictate how its platforms operate and what its users can do and say,” Rizzieri said. “Unlike private companies, Google wields the de facto power of a government entity and therefore abuses its power in how it actively silences the free speech of users, spanning from daily users to renowned thought leaders.”

When it comes to YouTube, he said the video platform has already “routinely demonetized or suspended credentialed, industry experts” on other topics.

“They target your average YouTube user, but they also go after thought leaders – including Nobel Prize winners and actual history makers,” he said. “When YouTube’s enforcement teams believe themselves to know more than Nobel Prize winners and legal thought leaders like Alan Dershowitz, we have a big problem.”

When YouTube’s enforcement teams believe themselves to know more than Nobel Prize winners and legal thought leaders like Alan Dershowitz, we have a big problem.

Because policies like these “actively violate the First Amendment rights of everyone,” Rizzieri said big tech companies “should not get to enjoy Section 230 immunities.”

James Taylor, the president of the Illinois-based thinktank The Heartland Institute, says concerns about actions like those taken by Google have led 33 states to push legislation in a bid to combat censorship and free speech concerns. Florida and Texas have already had two of those bills signed into law.

“Google and Big Tech are perpetrating Digital Age book-burning,” Taylor said, adding, “It is now The People versus Big Tech — and they brought it upon themselves.”

Milloy added, “Google’s demonetization is an admission that we are winning, a treasure far more valuable than Google ad revenue.”

© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Catch Us In the Media

Agency Partner’s award-winning team often contributes expert opinions and perspectives on things that matter. Follow our contributions to the latest news and media topics or head over to the newly reinstated/uncancelled Agency Partner YouTube page to see us on TV and hear us on the radio or podcasts.

If your business is looking to utilize a digital marketing strategy or perhaps you need help with your web design and mobile needs, we’re happy to help! For no risk and no obligation, give us a shot!

Make the team at Agency Partner your next call.

b2b-marketing-2021

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2021

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2021

When it comes to business marketing, 2021 looks completely different than last year. A few years ago, the strategies and plans you had in place for b2b marketing will need an overhaul for 2021. COVID-19 threw changes at businesses, increasing the need to appeal to customers and clients working from home.

As a marketer, you may already know that business-to-business marketing has to be on-trend, modern, and engaging, and the only way to do this is to follow the latest trends and line up with what your clients will need to see from you.

B2B marketers today have to rethink their plans, rework strategies and consider their current approach and whether it applies. Customer expectations are changing, and the need for digital engagement is on the up. With different digital channels used to build new and existing customer relationships, B2B marketing experts must widen their scope with digital engagement.

Business-to-business marketing strategies will differ from business to business, but the most significant focus needs to be on driving growth and improving consumer experiences. This will boost your business marketing and improve your relationships with your customers at the same time.

The world may look like a different place right now than a few years ago, but digital marketing is steaming forward, and we all need to look at customer engagement and branding. Below, we’ve put together a list of the B2B marketing strategies that will be taking 2021 by storm. 

Widen Digital Engagement

Did you know that over 90% of B2B marketing experts use email as their primary strategy for marketing? Email marketing – despite what people think – is not dead yet! From using interesting subjects to segmenting emails depending on the customer group, B2B marketers are using responsive and user-friendly emails to capture the attention of their customers.

It’s important to broaden this sphere, so missing in web marketing (paid ads, SEO, and a branded website) will help. More than 80% of consumers will check a company website before they commit to a purchase.

Lastly, use content marketing! People are using their phones and their computers to search for information. Excellent content needs to be value-driven, data-driven, and AI-driven, too. 

Invest In SEO

As most of the world moves in and out of lockdown, B2B marketers need to consider their current SEO strategy and adjust it to suit. It will help if you enhance your visibility while generating quality leads for B2B businesses. When you have a strong SEO strategy, your marketing goals can be better realized.

Offer Better UX

User experience is one of the most crucial pieces of the B2B marketing puzzle. It ensures that your business customers repeatedly return, so you need to make the necessary investments in user experience (UX) to grow the business quickly.

Inbound Marketing Increases In Popularity

Did you know that inbound marketing is as essential as any other marketing sphere? It’s going to increase with customers that are looking for tailored content. You must build long-lasting connections with your customers, and to do this, you have to gear your content toward offering them the answers they need to their business problems.

Consider Artificial Intelligence

One of the most popular marketing strategies for this year is artificial intelligence. This can help you broaden the scope of B2B marketing. Marketers in the business sphere can employ automation strategies to gain better insights and make better decisions. In our data-driven culture, artificial intelligence is ready to change the game. AI is going to be an essential tool for delivering user-friendly content.

With our need for instant gratification, chatbots and live help (all AI-based) are becoming more popular for businesses worldwide. It’s all about customer service, and chatbots are there to help you connect better to your customers, providing them exceptional experiences every time.

More Than One Channel

When it comes to your B2B marketing strategies, you need to ensure an omnichannel provider. This is more than a trend; this is the next step in promoting the right message between consumer and brand. Social and digital channels need to be maximized to offer the best possible service.

Consider Software As A Service

This is a business-to-business marketing strategy that is provided to other businesses through cloud-based applications. SaaS uses platforms such as the internet for better accessibility and at a cheaper cost. You can optimize sales and generate more revenue, all the while improving your performance!

Invest In CRM

When was the last time you updated your customer relationship management software? With people staying at home and business leaders working from anywhere, you need to retain your customers. To do that, you need to invest in the best cutting-edge CRM software this year, and it’s expected that many B2B marketers will do precisely that!

Voice Search Soars

Ah, Siri and Alexa have changed the marketing game! Voice search is becoming more and more popular with customers who are more tech-savvy than all the rest, and with the help of AI and ML, more companies are utilizing voice search on their websites to attract more customers.

B2B marketing is full of challenges, but the traditional B2B marketing strategies are in dire need of an overhaul given the changes to the way businesses are working throughout the pandemic. Companies have to do what they can to reach their targeted audiences, and with the help of digital engagement and multi-channel marketing, your business can better connect with consumers.

When it comes down to it, whatever digital tools are at the disposal of your business, you should use them. You can ensure that you reach business customers in the right way and provide them with the best marketing and content options. All of this will keep them coming back for more!

social-media-down

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are Down

Posted on | by devops

 

Facebook and Instagram’s servers are down for nearly 2.85 billion users worldwide. Facebook CTO, Mike Schroepfer, added the following statement via Twitter:

Inside Facebook, the outage has broken nearly all internal systems employees use to communicate and work. Several employees told The Verge they’ve resorted to talking through their work-provided Outlook email accounts, though employees can’t receive emails from external addresses. Employees logged into work tools such as Google Docs and Zoom before the outage can still use those, but any employee who needs to log in with their work email is blocked. 

The Verge reports that Facebook engineers have been sent to the company’s U.S. data centers to try and fix the problem, according to two people familiar with the situation. That means the outage, already Facebook’s most severe in years could be further prolonged. 

What does this mean for your business? 

Having a well-built website that won’t crash is important for sales and customer representation. Depending on when Facebook’s servers will be back up, this could negatively affect their business. Since Facebook went down, its stock $FB has been down nearly 5 points. 

Many businesses are scrambling to cope with this potential loss of revenue due to the outage. The best course of action for businesses is to ensure their email and SEO strategies are included in their marketing strategies.  

How can we help you protect your sales during outages? At Agency Partner Interactive (API), we focus on a holistic marketing strategy that does not rely on only social media. Having a proper SEO strategy can prevent your brand from losing out on sales or leads when Facebook or Instagram goes down.
Contact us now!