Four Trends Marketers Shouldn’t Ignore

February 12, 2016February 12, 2016 / marissapick / 1 Comment

Are you wondering what you should be keeping an eye out in 2016? Look no further, within this post I share key findings from recently published reports from PulsePoint and PageFair and Adobe highlighting key trends and stats marketers can’t afford to ignore.

1. Content Marketing is King!

If you’re vaguely familiar with Content Marketing you’ve heard heard the term “Content Is King.” A report published by PulsePoint found that by 2017 content marketing budgets are projected to double, and 83% of marketers believe content marketing will go “programatic” by 2017. (Click to Tweet)

When most of us think about real-time content marketing, we think of examples like Oreo’s tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout, when they advised customers that they “can still dunk in the dark.” That tweet was a great response to an unexpected occasion and the birth of the awareness of real time content marketing.

Keep in mind that real-time content does not always have to be spontaneous. The majority of real-time content advertising and marketing can be prepared to some level by maintaining a close eye on preparing and trending topics material that replies to a broad range of scenarios. Brand who are setup with strong content marketing strategies will rapidly set themselves apart and cut through the noise and “win” within this arena.

2. Content marketing and native growth will outpace display and search

Brands, agencies and publishers reported that content marketing and native are both important to their organizations and strategies. But are the ad dollars and digital inventory available to back them? The answer is yes as both supply and demand are expected to grow over the next two years.

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While display and search still command most of the ad dollars, 37% of respondents to PulsePoint’s study named content marketing as one of the largest spending buckets. That gap is only set to narrow, as content marketing and native ads both are both projected to see increased budgets over the next two years. The other format tracking slightly behind is digital video since the formal draws a higher audience engagement which is pivotal for brands with upper funnel campaign objectives.

3. Ad Blocking Is Rapidly Expanding, and Costing Publishers Billions of Dollars.

The number of consumers using ad blocking software worldwide has increased 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users according to a report by PageFair and Adobe. (Click to Tweet)

Ad blocking is increasingly a challenge to marketers and it’s estimated that the click-through rate across all ad formats and placements is only 0.06 per cent. Now users are able to be more discretionary than ever about which content they want and what they don’t.

screenshot 2015-08-10 at 09.04.09.png

Currently ad blocking almost always happens via desktop computers, however ad blocking on mobile could soon become a mainstream phenomenon.

The rate of ad blocking varies country by country. The US has an estimated 45 million monthly active ad block users, up 48% year-on-year which across Europe, 35% of the internet population (77 million users) used an ad blocker at least once a month. The report also found that ad block users are usually young and technically savvy and predominantly male.

4. Mobile Emailing Marketing Remains in The Mix

Email is a channel which can’t be ignored however with the rise of wearable technology and mobile marketers must work towards firming up their email marketing strategy.

A study from Moveable Ink found that in the first quarter of 2015, 67% of all U.S. email opens occurred on a mobile device and 75% of those were smartphones. (Click to Tweet)

The growth in mobile is staggering and the shift is undeniable as tablets and wearables are now being dubbed the “new inbox.” Marketers must ensure their messaging is “mobile friendly,” personalized, and optimized for success.

What trends do you think Marketers should watch into 2016, leave a comment below or send me a tweet.

Five Surprising Social Media Statistics That Might Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016 / marissapick / 1 Comment

Social Media is changing faster than ever. It’s hard to believe that, only a decade ago, social media was little more than a budding trend. Of course there were websites such as Friendster and MySpace which had a decent level of adoption, but the population as a whole had not come around to it yet.

These days a new social media channel or app seems to be popping up hourly, it’s exhausting to keep up! Did you know that the average american spends 40 minutes per day on Facebook? (Source: NBC News) When you consider how much time Americans spend engaging with digital media–nine hours a day—40 minutes on Facebook might not seem like a lot of time. (Click to Tweet).

Social Media Examiner put together an easy-to-read Social Media Marketing Industry Report for 2015 which included insights which may help in determining and shaping your 2016 social media strategy. Below I’ve outlined five surprising social media stastics which may help shape or rethink your 2016 Social Media Strategy.

1. Infographics are Liked and shared on social media 3X more than other any other type of content. (Click to Tweet)

Infographics are an information tool that compresses a lot of information in one single medium. It simplifies what your entire article is all about. Aside from the pictures, it is loaded with texts, graphs, etc. to give you a clearer idea of what the topic is all about. Infographics are a visually compelling communication medium that when done well can communicate complex data in a visual format that is potentially viral,make sure they’re a part of your 2016 strategy! (Source: Mass Planner)

2. 64% of marketers are using social media for six hours or more weekly. (Click to Tweet)

By spending as little as six hours per week on social, more than 66% of those marketers are seeing lead generation benefits with social media. However to reach these goals marketers often rely on the help of social media management tools. 87% of marketers reported they don’t know which social media management tools are best to use. (Source: Social Media Examiner) *Need Help with Social Media Tools? Here are three of my favorite social media tools.

3. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube were the top five platforms used by marketers in 2015. (Click to Tweet)

Some of the larger changes seen from 2014 included Twitter use dropping from 83% to 79%, Instagram increasing from 28% to 36% use in 2015, and SlideShare joining the ranks. Facebook had a 1% decline in marketer use from last year. It is likely these trends will continue into 2016, and new platforms like Periscope will take part of the market share. It’s crucial to have a strategy unique to optimizing each platform, remember there’s no one size fits all social media strategy. (Source: Social Media Examiner)

4. 66% of marketers plan to increase their use of Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn in the future. (Click to Tweet)

Twitter moved up two spots from the 2014 report to be the number one social media platform that marketers plan to use more of in the future. YouTube and LinkedIn followed close behind, especially among B2B marketers. Surprisingly, Facebook saw an 8% decline in reported future use. (Source: Social Media Examiner).

Quick Tip: Make sure you’ve got a plan to optimize and analyze specific social media channels to ensure you’re using your time properly. It’s important to know which channels to use based on the KPI’s and results you’re trying to drive.

5) When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (Click to Tweet)

You MUST have a visual social media strategy in 2016, it’s crucial. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text with 90% of the information transited to the brain is visual. If you want to shine on social media make sure you’re testing video, images, and quotes within your channels to best optimize and drive your KPIs. (Source: LifeLearn) *Need Help with Visual Social Media Tips, Check Out My Post “Don’t Get Left Behind, 6 Tips to Recharge Your Marketing Here.

Let me know what you think, leave a comment or shoot me a tweet. Enjoy!

Three Social Media Marketing Myths Debunked

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 / marissapick / 1 Comment

Social Media is similar to Pandora’s Box. It holds powerful tools which can help boost your business to new customers, retain loyal ones, and help to engage online within the digital world, or if can be a ton of wasted resources if not used properly. Along with anything new comes a lot of misconceptions. Although you maybe questioning the most efficient ways to maximize social media with your audience, don’t give up! Here are three major myths I come across which I’d like to take a stab at debunking.

Myth #1: I Don’t Have Enough Content to Fill my Social Media Feeds

Social media outlets are fast paced and constantly changing. Content gets posted online, flooded, pushed down, and becomes irrelevant quickly and before you know it. Although this may seem like a wasted effort it reminds us that it’s important to repost the same content in different ways to best represent your brand. Getting creative and thinking of interesting and exciting ways to share your content while avoiding making it seem too repetitive is important. People often miss things, forget them, and if it’s evergreen content, then it’s always useful. Putting a new spin and angle on how you repost it will help it live long and prosper. One of my favorite tools is pablo by buffer or canva, both can help quickly create visual content to accompany your content, and did I mention they’re both FREE. Remember, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text (click to tweet this) so visual content within social media is a MUST if you want to stand out and drive engagement!

Myth #2: My Social Media Channels Can’t Show Personality

Although your content should be targeted around your industry and demographic to best optimize, don’t be afraid to show personality. Behind your brand you’ve got REAL people following you and engaging online. Even if it doesn’t directly relate to your brand, product, or service spreading some humor can help to humanize your brand’s message. We’ve found quotes, funny gifs, and office photos and interesting news articles helpful at CFA Institute. Have a little fun, let your hair down, and get creative with your social media posts!

Myth #3: My Demographic Is Older, So Social Media Isn’t Relevant or Worth It

Contrary to what you believe, the older crowd is quite active on social media. According to comScore Mobile Matrix the average tablet minutes spent on social networks per visitor is up 115% from 2015 in the 55+ age bracket. According to FastCompany the fastest growing demographic on twitter is the 55-64 year age bracket (click to tweet this). This demographic has grown 79% since 2012. For Facebook this group has jumped 46%, for Google+ 56%.

Not broadening your brand to reach an older age group, or ignoring their presence on social media outlets will severely limit your company’s potential for growth.

What do you think of these three myths debunked? Would love to hear your thoughts, leave a comment below or send me a tweet, thanks!

Don’t Get Left Behind, Six Tips to Recharge Your Marketing

June 28, 2015 / marissapick / 2 Comments

The World is Changing, How are you Marketing to a Changing Audience? The average person now spends more than 12 hours online everyday! This is great news for marketers because by 2020 over 80% of the buying cycle will be under their control. It also means that marketers will need to better understand the the mindset of online users.

Every 60 Seconds:

98,000+ Tweets are sent

696,000 Facebook status updates

11 million instant messages

698,448 Google Searches

1,820 TB of data created

217 new mobile web users

168+ million emails sent

(Source HP Vertical)

Every 60 seconds over 98,000+ tweets are sent! Talk about a fast paced world! @BMAGlobal15 #BMA15 pic.twitter.com/KuhF7NsOID

— Marissa Pick (@marissapick) May 27, 2015

We need to understand what people want from their content. We live in a crowded marketplace and we need to find innovative ways to put our customers first, cut through the noise, and deliver a good and memorable digital experience.

Is your brand ready? It better be with stats from the one minute snapshot above! We live in a world where people trust peer recommendations more than advertising, and users seek out information online. You MUST ensure your brand has a digital presence, and a strategy for the future.

Below are six tips to keep in mind to help you recharge your marketing:

1) The User Is KING, your customer MUST come first:

Many marketers have always said Content is King, however this year the user is king, and we as marketers must ALWAYS put our customers first. Often we forget that someone is on the other end receiving the experience that we are creating. Marketers often assume because they can do something, that they should do it. It’s important to think about what not to do while considering what we are doing. These decisions matter.

We should focus on delivering clear messages, placing our customer first, and keep our brands messaging simple. Be honest, give them a reason to know you better.

2) Track Your Customers Journey:

Today, brands should be using information to deliver more personalized experience for individual users to help them along in their customer journey. Cookie based tracking now allows a brand to better understand a users mindset and online behavior. Now with the rollout of marketing automation more brands should focus on getting to know their customers and where they are within their buying process to better deliver messages customized to where they are within their journey.

3) Manage Unlimited Channels:

It used to be a simple uncrowded space back in 1960 when there were only a few marketing channels. In 2015 it’s become a crowded space with over 70 channels to choose from! The challenge marketers will face as we continue to expand is that now will have little control over the channel since the power will lie with the user and how they interact with one another without the brand’s involvement.

4) Organic Reach is Limited, Consider Methods to Stick Out and Reach Your Targets:

Research has shown that only 2-4% of a brand’s fans will see their content in an organic framework. As a result brands now should look into investing in paid social media to further leverage their message to their targeted audience. Content should be packaged with different images and messages to best optimize and leverage messaging. It should also be created with a strategy to be shared across various social networks. All messages and paid advertising should point to the same end channel, but marketers must test & optimize to better reach their audience.

It’s important to review, tweak, reinvent and develop campaigns to enable your brand to stand out and cut through the noise.

5) Publish the Right Content with the Right Platform:

As marketers we have an end goal of creating shareable and compelling content to further expand our brands value. Often those within my role often find themselves with the challenge of ensuring it’s optimized as best as it can be to encourage sharing across social media. We need to work to create a strategy before we create content. Chris Brogan said it best, “Content Marketing is weaponized storytelling.” We must to turn the tables and use great media thinking to drive content curation, and not the other way around. Remember, content is fire, and social media is gasoline!

6) Have a Visual Social Media Strategy:

The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text with 90% of the information transited to the brain is visual. If you want to stick out on social media test video, images, and quotes.

People don’t engage equally with every tweet. Research by Media Blog, which analyzed the content of over 2 million tweets sent by thousands of users over the course of a month, shows that adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%.

There’s a ton of tools to help you get started to develop free visual content, my favorite are pablo by buffer, canva, and quotr.

Hope you enjoyed this post, send me a tweet and let me know what you think, or leave a comment below!

Three minutes with ME, article featured online with B2B Marketing

May 21, 2015 / marissapick / Leave a comment

I’m looking forward to speaking next month in London during B2B Marketing’s B2B Summit. My presentation will focus around visual social marketing which I feel is the next generation of social media. I spoke with the editorial team who published the below article on their website here.

B2B MARKETING KNOWLEDGE BANK INTERVIEW:

Marissa Pick, director of social media at the CFA Institute and speaker at the upcoming B2B Summit, reveals what’s holding B2B marketers back on social

Q: Tell us a little bit about what you do
I just started a new role as director of social media at the CFA Institute. I oversee efforts to reach journalists, legislators, policymakers, and investment professionals who play essential roles in shaping the direction of the financial services industry. I oversee the global social media campaigns and lead a global team.

Q: How and when did you get into social media marketing?
I signed up to Twitter about six years ago, and loved the real-time element and engagement. I worked at BizBash Media in New York and started to see how social media fit into live events and how excited delegates would get to see a live Twitter feed onsite at an event. It merged online and offline communications and to this day I still get excited when I talk about social media marketing; it’s a real passion for me.

Q: Social media is known as one of the most difficult channels to prove ROI from. Is it possible? How do you do it?
Showing ROI from social media is a challenge every marketer is facing. We’re working a lot with our analytics and web team to add on as much tagging as possible to track our traffic and paid conversions. We are also testing discount codes in FY16 to track event delegates from our social media activities. It is possible, but it’s difficult and takes time. Social media is still in its infancy so we have to remember to be patient while companies are working on solutions to make it easier. In the past I’ve worked to develop custom social media packages such as sponsored tweets and social media lounges, which show direct ROI from our efforts.

Q: Your session at the B2B Summit is on visual social media. Are B2B brands missing a trick by not using it?
The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text and 90 per cent of the information transited to the brain is visual. Visual platforms allow real-time marketing to give brands an advantage for a behind the scenes look to drive more personal connections. Companies should be tapping into visual social media to show their audience how awesome the brand is and to provide the visual stories the customers/delegates want to see and hear. It’s important to keep an open mind and formulate a social media plan with realistic expectations and don’t be afraid to test new things, and push the limit. We can’t measure success without having failures as part of our journey.

Q: What’s the most common barrier to B2B brands succeeding on social?
The most common barrier is fear and not knowing where to start. I try to break down barriers and enable employees to feel empowered by setting up social media training sessions for our staff and walking them through the basics. I find the biggest challenge most individuals face is not knowing how to get started with social media. It’s quite simple, it takes time, but once brands set a social media strategy and get going often they’re hooked with the real-time engagement. I would recommend providing training to staff, and keeping everyone in the loop with social media trends and advances.

Published May 2015

Authority, Impact, and the Future of Influence Marketing

April 14, 2015April 14, 2015 / marissapick / 1 Comment

Influencer marketing is the most powerful tool in getting a brand’s message to an interested audience in a relevant and authentic way. Whether launching a new product or just trying to raise brand awareness, it’s effective in driving engagement, visibility,quality traffic, and more. Last week I spoke at ClickZ Live New York on Authority, Impact, and the Future of Influence Marketing.

The future of influence marketing is up and coming as marketers are trying to hone in on how to develop relationships with key influencers with hopes to lift awareness of their brands. It’s not enough to market through influencers, now it’s crucial to find a way to collaborate in partnerships with influencers.

Within my speech I discussed the four rules of influencer marketing:

1) Popularity Does NOT Equal influence.

2) To be influential, a person has to be actively writing on topics which matter to your audience.

3) To be influential, a person has to have authority.

4) Influencer’s drive action.

Platforms like Instagram and YouTube have led to the rise of a new generation of influencers that have amassed huge followings on niche subject matters. A research study by Nielsen showed that buyers trust experts and influencers over branded content. It’s important start a campaign with a precise set of goals, and understand the purpose of your influencer outreach plan. Whether its to get them to be a brand advice, guest blog, or vouch for your brand you must begin by defining concise targets and have various KPI’s for various social media networks.

So how can you find Influencers? Great Question, here are some of my favorite (and free!) tools:

1) Follower Wonk Enables you to find, analyze, and optimize for social growth, and search bios of those influencers you’re after (especially very niche topics!).

2) Twitter provides free analytics which outlines top followers, influencers, and also gives a nice overview of your impressions, mentions, and more. I also find using twitter lists to be an excellent way to tap into and influencer and “digest” twitter in a more streamlined manner.

3) BuzzSumo allows you to find the most shared content and see what content performs best, as well as discover key influencers.

4) Topsy is one of my favorite tools to search all tweets and measure social trends, but they’ve also got an influencer option which has proven quite helpful.

5) Klout is the original tool to rank influencers based upon social networks and reach, they’ve started a content first approach, but hey, I still get free perks, and i’m still a fan!

Once you’ve found your influencers it’s important to get closer and engage with them using social media. Being socially active you’ll be one step closer to your influential audience. When reaching out to an influencer you’ve got to recruit, initialize and grow your relationship, and then nurture. Make sure your outreach is relevant. Taking time to research your target influencers interests, and understand who they are and what they like is crucial. Engage on social media by sharing an article, providing an opinion, and engaging when them in conversation without an ask. Once you’ve built your initial conversation pitch free it’s important to reach out offline to discuss next steps, and if possible remind them of your discussion and engagement to spark the conversation.

My slideshare from ClickZ Live is below, and remember Jay Baer’s quote, “Content is fire. Social Media is Gasoline.” When done right tapping into this new generation of influencers can put your brand on the map, increase traffic, engagement, and so much more.

What do you think of the presentation, send me a tweet @MarissaPick, or leave a comment below.

Does Social Media Rule Publishing? #Yes.

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 / marissapick / 1 Comment

The emergence of social media has had a tremendous impact of how digital news is produced, consumed, and specifically around how the journalists behind the stories are pressured to re approach and modify their craft. This month, Edelman Media Network teamed up with two start ups NewsWhip and Much Rack and surveyed 250 working journalists, revealing that more than three-quarters of them feel increased pressure to get their stories shared on social media.

This research revealed that:

More than 75% of journalists say they feel more pressure now to think about their story’s potential to get shared on social platforms.
To make their stories more shareable, journalists are infusing their stories with five key ingredients: video/images, brevity, localization, more use of human voice and a proximity to trending topics.
Nearly three-quarters of journalists are now creating original video content to accompany their stories. However, very few journalists (13%) are relying on sourcing consumer-generated video and only 3 percent are using corporate video.
Journalists see five key trends impacting their profession this year: more mobile friendly content, faster turnaround times, more original video, smaller newsroom staff and social media growing in influence.

Employers are becoming increasingly dependent on social media for traffic. In September 2013 Shareaholic reported the eight biggest social referrers drove 16.4% of traffic to publishers’ sites, and a year later, that number had nearly doubled, to 29.5%. As the study revealed, journalists are now feeling the pressure to write “sharable & digestible” stories surrounding topics which are already trending and focusing on ways to develop headlines which demand attention.

Journalists are also being called upon to leverage their individual social media profiles and adjust how they approach their stories to aide in getting the stories the most possible shares across social media. 82% of survey respondents said they use images to make stories more searchable (click to tweet).

It’s a fact that 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visually based (click to tweet), and the human brains processes images 60,000 times faster than text, a stat which I often share when discussing leveraging visual content within social media.

It’s no surprise the facts revealed within the study, and how social media has redefined journalism and publishing. As social media continues to become more prevalent many traditional media companies continue to struggle to keep up. Employers are becoming increasingly dependent on social media or traffic, and roles such as mine are here to help journalists, and the rest of the business stay up to speed with trends in social media. I think the study shares some great stats, and raises a great issue faced by journalists. What do you think? Please leave me a comment or tweet me your thoughts.

Four Critical #SocialMedia Mistakes to Avoid

May 15, 2014 / marissapick / Leave a comment

Social media can be of a great benefit to a brand, however it can be detrimental if not handled property. Still many companies are flocking to social media platforms for the one simple reason: not incorporating social media into their marketing strategy would be a loss to connect with potential customers while strengthening bonds with existing customers. As social media has become the most popular online activity, companies need to be careful and mindful of how they’re using social media to avoid simple mistakes which can lead to the demise of customer engagement across their social media platforms. Here are four critical social media mistakes for brands to avoid:

1) Using social media for selling, not conversing or engaging: Social Media is a place to build a personality and enhance a deeper relationship with your audience. Social media users often don’t respond well to a hard sell. Make sure your social media is a channel for starting a conversation, and engaging with your audience. Building up trust and a repertoire is crucial and from there the only thing you need to sell your customers on is that you’re going to include them in the conversation.

2) Avoiding Controversy and Complaints: Let’s face it, social media is the perfect channel to vent and let our frustrations out. Mistakes happen and as a brand you need to own up to them and let your customers know what you’re going to do to ensure they won’t be repeated. Ignoring complaints shows you’re going to do your own thing, and that as a brand you are backing away. Own your mistakes and man up! Make sure you have a plan in place for worst-case scenarios, and a social media disaster, it can’t hurt to be prepared!

3) #Getting #Hashtag #Happy on #SocialMedia: Using hashtags is a handy and effective tool, however sometimes they need to be used in moderation. Using too many hashtags within a tweet or an Instagram post can come off too pushy. We’re already limited to 140 characters on Twitter so utilizing an image and text should speak volumes and stand alone, with a hashtag as a supporting entity. Hashtags are fantastic for running promotions and enhancing searchability, however when used too often they can limit your ability to really amplify your message.

4) Lacking a Strategy with Clear Business Objectives: If you’ve ever read my blog you’ll understand that i’m a firm believer in understanding that what you decide to do is JUST as important as deciding what you’re not going to do. Make sure your brand has clear objectives set for utilizing social media, with a strategy for each social channel to help you achieve your goals. Creating a strategy should include having distinct and measurable goals, thinking through your brand’s voice, and planning out a content calendar with clear goals in mind. Setting a strategy and agreeing upon clear business objectives are the first two step’s in social media success.

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Four Trends Marketers Shouldn’t Ignore