USA Today Feature: Future of Virtual & Hybrid Events Campaign

June 10, 2021 / marissapick / Leave a comment

I’m excited to be a parter with Mediaplanet for their Future of Virtual and Hybrid Events campaign which launched this week. The event planning industry has gone through what was probably the most difficult year in its history, but event planners are primed to make a major comeback.

You can learn more about the tools and resources to make your next virtual/hybrid meeting or event a smashing success by picking up a copy of the campaign in USA Today. The virtual campaign can be found online by visiting the website.

I’m a firm believer that virtual conferences of the past year have had a positive impact. The digital events have enabled more people to attend virtually. Many of these events have been free, with participants paying a small fee to access slides, if they choose. My article for the campaign outlines, How Virtual and Hybrid Events Are Helping the Events Industry Thrive Post-Pandemic.

Hybrid events have allowed brands to have an extended impact, helping them reach a broader audience and drive deeper engagement online. Plus, by developing content and deeper connections with speakers and attendees from virtual events, brands can stand out and have higher retention.

Now’s the time to use digital event platforms to connect audiences and build longer-lasting relationships. Within the article I shared some of my favorite platforms, including Brella, which offers custom, one-to-one meetings, as well as live streaming; and Hopin, which provides webinar sessions, chats and polls, and interactive elements that can be fully customizable and brandable.

I believe brands must refocus their goals and understand why people will attend the event, whether it’s virtual or in-person. For example, is it for lead generation to drive sales? Content marketing? Engagement? This will allow companies or event producers to refine how they’re doing things, and consider how they might be able to — whether it’s driving sales or driving engagement — mix up and shake up what works and what doesn’t.

Let me know what you think of my article within the campaign. I’d love to hear how you think virtual and hybrid events are helping the events industry thrive post-pandemic. Leave a comment below or send me a tweet with your thoughts.

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.

Screen Shot 2016-02-12 at 12.34.02 PM

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.

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.

Content Is Fire, Social Media is Gasoline

March 22, 2015March 22, 2015 / marissapick / 2 Comments

In 2013 Dave Kerpen shared a post on LinkedIn entitled Content Is Fire, Social Media is Gasoline. Within the post he discusses the importance of keeping it real while also keeping it relevant. If your social media informs more often than it promotes, you’re on the right track. If it is deeply helpful rather than deeply promotional, you’re probably on a roll.

To get a better sense for how businesses can use content and social media together to be successful, Dave Kerpen asked Jay Baer to summarize the concepts of his book Youtility. Within the book he shares information regarding the concept of using marketing to promote your marketing. Brands often talk too often on social media and miss the mark by never saying anything other than “we’re great” and “buy buy buy.” With so many updates constantly on social media brands are competing for attention, and can do so easily by being useful, not by shouting louder.

Dave uses the company ExactTarget as an example, sharing two tweets back to back. The first is a corporate message less relevant to a wider twitter audience. The second is a real time tweet which created content on the most popular Olympic sports based on followers, which was sent during the London Olympic games. The infographic has no information abut ExactTarget’s products and services, rather it used real time relevancy to create interest and to showcase some of it’s products (it has a software allowing companies to monitor and engage on twitter).

Content is everywhere, you can’t help but consume it within your everyday life. Everyone has something they want to share with the world and we are constantly taking that information in. We put content out there through the tools of social networks, leveraging sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on.

“Content is fire. Social Media is Gasoline.” – Jay Baer

Social media is what sparks our message and keeps the fire burning faster and brighter. Our number one tool so get our content and our message out there is the social media, and once we start the process, we need to keep feeding our fire.

“You cannot create without first consuming something.” -Jill Falk

Within my role I’m consuming content about 90% of my day. I wake up each morning and check my Twitter account before even stepping out of bed. I download two newspapers each morning to read on my ipad during my 40 minute train each morning. I often sit next to my husband silently who does the same, and shares some additional content he finds on the various apps he checks into such as flipboard or good reader. At work I build social media strategies to help boost the content my company created, and I often get emails on my work and personal accounts with content my friends, family, and co-workers find interesting.

It’s part of my job to keep up with these things, and also get myself out there. I send tweets more than I pickup a phone, and I am guilty of constantly checking and updating my social notworks, I admit it, i’m totally addicted. I learn new things everyday using social media and it keeps me up to date with what’s going on in the world and what is going on with my friends and family. After we delivered our son and shared the moment with close friends and family, hours later I posted a photo and watched it spread like wildfire, the texts, calls, and messages rolled in. I remember turning to my husband totally overwhelmed and overjoyed with the amount of messages I had to respond too, and it took me almost two weeks to circle back with everyone!

I always remember Jay’s words, “Content is the fire, social media is the gasoline.” Keep feeding your fire and keep it going! Do what you love, and enjoy!

Ten Eye Opening (and Tweetable) #Instagram Stats

February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 / marissapick / Leave a comment

Data from the Pew Research Center shows that among social media networks, Instagram has surpassed Twitter in popularity among United States Adults. The research states that 26% of online adults in the U.S. used Instagram in 2014, up 17% from the previous year, and 13% from 2012. As a comparison 23% of online adults in the U.S. used Twitter in 2014. The data finds that Facebook remains by far the social media site, however over the past year Instagram has made a splash, and engagement on Instagram is 15 times that of Facebook’s!

One of the most interesting aspects of Instagram is that it’s not a site, but lives only on the mobile app. Numerous brands have begun to use Instagram as businesses are seeing results from showcasing more visual images. With over 300 million monthly active users, Instagram executives think the network will eventually hit 1 BILLION monthly active users!

If you’re still not bought into Instagram, here are Ten Eye Opening Stats:

Instagram is the eighth most popular mobile app in the U.S. (comScore)- Tweet This
Instagram is projected to reach 45.8 million U.S. users in 2015 and 50.6 million in 2016 (Statista)- Tweet This
More than 30 billion photos have been shared on Instagram since it was launched in 2010 (Instagram). – Tweet This
An average of 70 million photos are shared through the app each day (Instagram).- Tweet This
53 percent of Internet-using adults age 18 to 29 are on Instagram (Pew Research Center). That’s up from 37 percent in 2013.- Tweet This
76 percent of American teenagers use Instagram, making it their favorite social media network (CBS News).- Tweet This
49 percent of all Instagram users use the app each day (Pew Research Center).- Tweet This
94 percent of Instagram users are on Facebook (Pew Research Center). Facebook owns Instagram.- Tweet This
58 percent of Twitter users also use Instagram (Pew Research Center). – Tweet This
52 percent of Instagram users also use Twitter (Pew Research Center).- Tweet This

In less than five years Instagram has gone from it’s infancy to a social media rock star, and i’m excited to see what the future will hold!

Is your brand on Instagram, would love to know your experience, and how you are succeeding, or the challenges you face, leave a comment below, or tweet me @MarissaPick.

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.

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Four Trends Marketers Shouldn’t Ignore