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Thank you to everyone who made “The SMAC Stack” conference a success!If you weren’t able to join us at the SMAC Stack, register and you’ll be notified when our post-event SMAC content becomes available. Some highlights from the SMAC Stack: Bala Iyer gave a terrific overview of emerging technologies and how entrepreneurs can best position themselves to take advantage of tech trends.
Glenn Gaudet’s energetic Social Media presentation got the room popping with ideas on how to engage stakeholders in the mission of sharing your company’s messages.
Jeff Takle gave a real-world example of how mobile technology circumvented the need for complex infrastructure and expensive machinery to improve medical outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa.
IDC’s Dan Vesset shared that winning the analytics game was far more than “just buying Hadoop” but that it required leadership in 5 areas. We also learned that according to the Harvard Business Review, being a data scientist is the sexiest job of the 21st century.
Via The Ayantek Team
Who and what are the biggest social influencers in the digital space today? Recently, the editors at MBA in Marketing Degree Guide decided to find out and embarked on a research expedition that uncovered some interesting information.
The research began by probing who consumers trust when it comes to their purchasing decisions.
- 54 % of consumers report a greater amount of influence coming from communities of smaller size. So blogs with small but loyal followings can deliver high-percentage results in consumer influence.
- 31% of Internet purchases are influenced by blogs, ranking blogs third in influence behind only retail (56%) and brand sites (34%) in influence.
- While bloggers and social media influencers are a premier source of influence, most digital marketers devote few resources to incorporating key influencers into their digital efforts.
Read more...
Following in the footsteps of Facebook, which recently overhauled its search, LinkedIn on Monday announced a revamped search with auto-complete, suggested searches and other enh...
Now I’m pulling this next blurb from Vivaldi Partners via wikipedia but pay attention to it:
"Vivaldi Partners defined social currency as the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home."
Now, let’s fast forward to an article that Jay Baer wrote in which he states that online influencer outreach is overrated:
"I’m not suggesting that influencer outreach is useless or should be abandoned. But, it’s not magic beans. It needs to be looked at for what it actually is – the top of the funnel component of a larger program to generate awareness AND behavior using social media and content marketing."
So take all the aspects of social currency run them through how marketers use them, snap on Jay’s components and basically what you’re left with is a bunch of marketers floundering with the notion of what social currency is. They’re thinking that presence equates to value divided by attention will equal ROI.
Social currency may not be counterfeit but we need to put the proper value on the currency before it’s too late.
On the Internet, the big battle continues to be over “place.” Twitter’s spat with Instagram and Facebook’s continuing restrictions on data use are all about making sure that you use their website and applications — i.e., come to their house –so they can serve you the ads that make them money.
It’s critical to these social networks that you come to their owned sites/apps. You, however, probably don’t feel the same sense of urgency. I’m betting that you go to these social networks largely because that’s where the action is. That’s where your friends and family are. That’s where the news and updates you care about can be found. That’s where the photos and funny videos are served up to you.
But if the conversations and content came directly to you — precisely where and when you needed it — would you ever choose to go to Facebook?
Those good people at the Pew Research Centre recently updated their annual look at who is using social media, discovering that 16 percent of U.S. internet users are now active on Twitter, with the social micro-blogging network continuing to be popular with black and hispanic users, adults aged 18-29 and folks who live in urban areas.
But what about some of the other major social platforms? Aside from Twitter, who exactly is using Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr? The infographic below (courtesy of Adweek) takes Pew’s data and represents it all in a pleasing visual form, including these key takeaways: - City dwellers are significantly more likely than rural residents to be on Twitter
- Women are five times as likely as men to use Pinterest
- Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to use Instagram
One of the first questions I invariably ask when meeting with a communications team for the first time is, "How do you use digital communications and social media to listen to your customers?
As Facebook rolls out a steady stream of features designed to improve monetization, at least one financial analyst is arguing that the social network has begun to drive its users away.
Via Alex Butler
As social media marketers make their plans for 2013, understanding what worked well - and not so well - in 2012 can go a long way at making a savvy marketing
Via Ian Cole, JFS Marketing
Most businesses venture into social media expecting to see a big return on investment. The hope is that new customers will come in droves, and that the benefits and revenue generation will be huge. However, this is rarely the case. It takes time to build momentum with social media, and the benefits aren’t always as obvious as we would like.
If you’re feeling a bit skeptical about social media marketing and whether or not it’s worth the effort, following are some reasons why it may be working better than you realize....
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Successful enterprises know that creating a dedicated mobile sales application can help increase productivity and profit by: shortening the sales cycle, increasing the odds of a conversion, injecting innovation into the sales process, and showing prospects how you are leveraging the latest technology.
If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you cannot afford to wait to dive into the mobile space.
Download our eBook - Top 10 Mobile App Strategies to Empower your Field Sales Team - to help you get your mobile initiative moving in the right direction. There is a lot more to developing a mobile application than just building and distributing it. If you don't ask enough of the right questions, the end result may not provide the business impact you are expecting. Download our eBook now and position your custom mobile development project for success.
Want to know the latest cool facts about your favourite social media platforms? Here's 52 cool facts about social media in 2012.
It’s all to easy to understand why many ‘traditional’ or, dare I say it … old fashioned businesses don’t grasp the whole concept of social media.
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Despite generally high comfort levels with social media, business owners and entrepreneurs are often still confounded by the complexities associated with developing a smart, comprehensive social media marketing strategy.
A new infographic aims help in this struggle by covering the essential basics when outlining a winning plan of action.
So what can you take away from this “8-step strategy for successful social media marketing”? Check out the infographic below to find out.
See Infographic...
Only 10% of European consumers trust posts by brands on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter; in North America this number increases to 15%. This is the finding of new research from Forrester. It shows that consumer trust of brands in social media is still much lower than the trust they have for their friends and the posts they make.
The research, based on a sample of 20,788 (and 63,703 North American) European online consumers, was published by Forrester this week and explores how consumers react to different marketing messages and types of content.
Overall the message is clear – consumers trust content they go out to find (from expert reviews to recommendations from friends and family) than they do content that is pushed at them. Interruptive advertising such as marketing text messages and banner ads perform worst from a trust perspective. Posts by brands on Twitter and Facebook are the fourth least trusted source of information.
Read More...
In this connected economy, your marketing message is traveling through complex and interconnected networks of relationships.
This is why marketing today is more than a process of earning the attention of people and engaging them with your business. It also requires that you do the same with their friends and influencers, and then theirs too – and so on, and on, and on.
While this may seem to be a daunting task, leveraging digital and real-life networks to ensure the future success of your business can be distilled down to two basic practices:
- Communicate Well
- Play Well
Facebook has announced the expansion of the advertising system enabling marketers to tailor messages to users of the popular social network based on their browsing history.
According to coverage Tuesday morning from Reuters, the latest effort comes as Facebook continues to “refine its ad business.” So far, the system has been used to target graphical display ads on the right side of a Facebook user’s page, based on websites visited in the past, such as for products or potential vacation destinations.
Based on details provided in Tuesday’s announcement, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network of more than one billion members will integrate Facebook Exchange into the ads in Facebook’s News Feed.
“It ties together two of the most significant innovations that Facebook Inc has made in the past year to its advertising business,” today’s report reads, “which accounts for roughly 84 percent of the company’s revenue.”
The expansion, however, doesn’t include mobile for now. At first, the Facebook Exchange system will only be available for newsfeed ads that appear on desktop PCs.
“Desktop is more in line with what FBX (Facebook Exchange) has been doing effectively in the right hand side. And we also find that desktop is the place where more people convert from seeing direct-response ads,” says Facebook spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana.
Recently I came across a telling statistic: according to a recent survey by PriceWaterhouseCooper seven out of ten people never use social media sites to purchase items or services, even though almost half of the respondents check those sites on a daily basis.
As it is, marketers have tended to treat social media as either a shiny new toy or an Arctic island — frozen and desolate, far from the rest of their strategy. You’d think stats like that would dampen enthusiasm, or kill any future budget allocations towards social media initiatives. If nobody’s actually buying through Facebook, Twitter, Google + or Pinterest, then why bother with social media at all? Where’s the ROI in this scenario?
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Fleeting as social media exchanges may seem, they can have a pronounced impact on business and their influence can echoe far beyond a simple post or retweet.
While the anonymous, public and often informal nature of Internet dialogue often leads corporations to relax their guard, it’s important to note: Managing a brand’s social media presence is a tricky balancing act. The key to being successful? Keeping things polite and professional, and constantly acknowledging your audience’s voice, while adding value or insight to customer exchanges.
Looking to enhance your corporate social media efforts? Here are 10 simple rules every corporate social networking team should follow to better connect with fans and maximize the value of their online presences.
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For businesses and individuals alike, maximizing your social media efforts is important. It can also be fun, once newbies get beyond the often frustrating first steps of establishing an attractive social media presence.
Thanks to a helpful new infographic from imforza, it’s never been easier to customize a social media account with a professional-looking design.
Unlike the vast majority of throw-away infographics that populate the blogosphere today, this social media design cheat sheet is a keeper. Check it out Here.
Successful enterprises know that creating a dedicated mobile sales application can help increase productivity and profit by: shortening the sales cycle, increasing the odds of a conversion, injecting innovation into the sales process, and showing prospects how you are leveraging the latest technology. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you cannot afford to wait to dive into the mobile space. Download our eBook - Top 10 Mobile App Strategies to Empower your Field Sales Team - to help you get your mobile initiative moving in the right direction. There is a lot more to developing a mobile application than just building and distributing it. If you don't ask enough of the right questions, the end result may not provide the business impact you are expecting. Download our eBook now and position your custom mobile development project for success.
The term “Semantic Search” is certainly not new. However, it has taken on a new dimension and implications in both search and social engines today. In addition, it has had a strong impact on targeted semantic advertising. This special series of forthcoming articles on semantic search will take a look at the history behind the development of semantic technology and why it has now become so commercially viable and topical. It will also take a look at how the technology enables “answer engines,” rather than simple search engines, to improve the user experience. Rad More: http://searchengineland.com/semantic-search-what-is-it-how-are-major-search-and-social-engines-use-it-part-1-133160
Via Antonino Militello
The most valuable part of social media is driving recommendations and natural and authentic social mentions from your customers.
Marketing practices have evolved considerably in recent times, as businesses have looked beyond the quest for profit and instead sought to empower consumers as a part of their brand. Social media h...
A look at why marketers need to go back to the roots of marketing and re-evaluate their social media.
Two-thirds of marketers say they are investing more in data-related areas in 2013, with most expecting to use findings gleaned from social media to drive campaigns in the coming year.
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Turned out to be a great event! Check out out landing page for information on how you can get access to all the content from the day's events.
Going to be a great event. Speakers are top notch and looks like there's going to be great networking opportunities.