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10 companies with outstanding social media presences

Some can discount the importance of online marketing, especially when brand managers' efforts on social platforms become stale. Model your campaigns after these organizations instead.

There's been endless debate over the last few years as to whether or not social media marketing is dead.

Recently, the Content Marketing Institute finally put the debate to rest—or tried to—with a podcast arguing that social media isn't actually dead, we're just using it wrong. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there are still plenty of companies that are rocking social media marketing and can inspire the masses to follow suit with their perfected strategies.

Here are 10 to start following today:

1. Old Spice

When Isaiah Mustafa stepped into the role of the ultimate Old Spice guy, the drugstore cologne-turned-viral sensation attracted a legion of followers across multiple social media channels.

The brand's managers keep exploring unexpected ideas, like having Mustafa answer tweets on YouTube. What Old Spice really gets right is the emotional element of marketing, making followers wish their man was as suave as that cologne guy.

2. TEDx

It’s not easy to take informational lectures and turn them into sensational content that everyone is talking about.

TEDx doesn’t just nail its medium, it also manages to turn authentic storytelling videos into bite-size, shareable content across social media. Check out the organization's Twitter page and you'll see everything from how asteroid mining can help us live in space to how loneliness scrambles our thinking.

All this is sandwiched in between awesome food pics from TEDx events around the world.

3. Newcastle Brown Ale

Newcastle pioneered self-aware advertising in a quest for "no bullocks" messaging, and got it right.

For starters, the brand took the genius concept of not having enough cash to put together a Super Bowl ad, and produced one anyway. Without the funds to broadcast it to millions, Newcastle instead spread the ad around social media to poke fun at itself, its budget and the Super Bowl.

Essentially, Newcastle called bollocks on the idea of needing millions to effectively earn global recognition.

4. Starbucks

Unlike Newcastle, Starbucks probably has the budget for Super Bowl-worthy ads. However, the coffee company's stand-out feature on social media is how it has taken the idea of engagement to a whole new level.

For a while, Starbucks even gave customers the option to manage and reload their coffee cards on social media. The company also makes it easy to find nearby locations, look up international Starbucks spots and apply for jobs at its stores.

5. Denny’s

This dining franchise has quickly earned the reputation of being deliciously weird on social media.

Denny’s has mostly ditched the idea of traditional promotional specials and asking diners how they like their burgers and omelets. Instead, Denny's has worked to stand out from its competitors and attract a younger crowd.

6. Staples

The office-supply juggernaut gets plenty right, like educating and informing its audience and offering gift card giveaways and product promotions. Staples also thrills followers by making fun of office culture and the doldrums of cubicle life.

The chain recognizes that its followers are into more than just paper clips and office furniture. Staples engages that audience by asking questions like, “Who is your favorite “Star Wars” character?” alongside offering quirky videos on office party etiquette.

7. NASA

It’s not just geeky space talk and shuttle news on NASA’s social media channels. The organization's Mars Curiosity channel on Twitter wows followers with the latest mission to explore that planet's surface.

Its Rover takes photos of everything from two-story Martian dunes to silica deposits. It also turns out that those nerds at NASA also have a great sense of humor. One of their recent Tweets simply said, "I'm on a road trip to Mars' Bagnold Dunes. What's new with you?"

8. Pampers

Pampers knows its target audience well and embraces that nurturing parent vibe accordingly.

The company regularly hosts photo contests to encourage moms to upload photos of their babies and offer information on their rewards program. Pampers' #BetterForBaby campaign tugged on heartstrings by showing struggling families trying to make their babies’ lives better.

By the time we see how Pampers transforms their lives, social media followers are wiping away tears in secret.

9. GoPro

YouTube turned GoPro into a viral sensation with its extraordinary videos created by users wearing the tiny camera. GoPro understood that user-generated videos and the value they created wasn't just a trend. Scores of GoPro converts are creating amazing videos, from pelicans flying to skydivers taking their first jump. The videos are contagious and widely shared.

GoPro videos have become more than just people watching shaky adventure footage on YouTube. There’s even a GoPro channel on Virgin America Airlines and a streaming option right from Xbox.

10. XBox

XBox’s Twitter page resembles a buttoned-up corporation sending out news, promotions and slick advertising photos. Meanwhile, over at its @XboxSupport handle, gamers can get near-instantaneous answers to their issues.

That may be their most powerful strategy in social media marketing. In between tweets assuring users that it's working hard to answer everyone's questions, Xbox also offers resources such as phone numbers and common topics addressed online.

What are your favorite companies that are still rocking social media marketing? 

Source : http://bit.ly/1P5QSnO

How social media changed teens’ lives forever

Social media is one of the fastest-growing industries in today’s interconnected world, attracting more users every day. At the forefront of this movement are teens—a Pew Research Center study stated 92 percent of teens report going online daily, making them the most active social media participants of any demographic.

“For people entering college next year, social media will be ubiquitous—next year’s freshman class will have largely been born in 1998,” said Paul Booth, associate professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul University. “They will not remember a world without YouTube, Facebook or Twitter … They’re certainly more ‘plugged in’ than earlier generations because that’s the world they grew up in.”

As a result of this ubiquity, teens have seen a monumental shift in nearly all facets of adolescent life.

Changing relationships

Lyons Township junior Elly Cooper said she thinks that social media often detracts from face-to-face communication.

“I think it definitely makes in-person relationships harder because of people’s attention given to their phones or devices instead of their boyfriend or girlfriend,” Cooper said.

Beyond diminishing a couple’s time spent together, some think there’s a greater possibility for things to get lost in translation over social media.

“You also lose a more personable experience because if half of your relationship is over social media, you don’t really know how the other person is reacting, and it may not feel as intimate as other relationships,” St. Charles East junior Sienna Schulte said.

Though there may be a greater risk for disconnect in teen relationships over social media, some argue that bonds are more easily initiated and accessible through the online platforms.

With this accessibility, teens are able to generate relationships with anyone, regardless of location. St. Charles East senior Beth Kaplan met her long-distance boyfriend of a year through social media. He currently lives in Scotland, but with the help of social media, they’re still able to frequently communicate with one another.

“I can feel close to someone that I’m talking to via FaceTime,” Kaplan said. “I can be miles away from someone and feel like they’re in the room. Social media has made this virtual intimacy a reality.”

While social media has made it possible for some teens to grow closer together, it can also cause problems in the event of a breakup. St. Charles East senior Jake Battista said his ex had an anonymous Twitter account that she used to share the details of their breakup with her followers. Battista said he didn’t know about the account until a friend showed him.

“Relationships are personal and the problems that occur in the relationships don’t need to be broadcasted to everyone. You know?” he said. “It ain’t cool. And it definitely makes you lose trust in people.”

In light of this dilemma, Facebook recently introduced a tool to help make it easier to separate from an ex. When a user changes their relationship status to single, he or she is now given the option to see less of that person in their feed and keep Facebook from automatically suggesting their name in tagging.

Tricky parenting

M.J. Wallace is the mother of two teens, one of whom is a Cary-Grove junior. She said she thinks social media is beneficial in the way it keeps people connected.

“Family out of town gets to see as they grow up (with) activities being posted like choir, plays and stuff,” Wallace said. “Family out of town used to have to miss performances and then never got to see it.”

On the other hand, Wallace said she recognizes the danger in how much teens post on social media. Future employers or college admissions officers can search and find whatever kids put online. Despite this reality, she said she doesn’t actively supervise her kids’ social media accounts but she does try to be aware of what’s going on.

“I don’t have time to monitor their social media things, but I am on Facebook so if I do see something that’s a little inappropriate, I will give them a call to take it down,” she said.

Wanting to be ‘liked’

The rise of social media has granted more opportunities to meet new people and begin relationships, but it also has changed the way teens view themselves and compare each other.

This trend made news recently when 19-year-old Instagram star Essena O’Neill announced that she was quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online.

Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem. According to a Livescience Health study, about 23 percent of teens report being targeted in some means over social media.

“I’ve seen social media lowering a teenager’s self-esteem,” adolescent therapist Kathy Catenacci said. “They can’t escape the constant barrage of negative posts, how they should look, dress and act without being able to escape it for very long.”

In particular, anonymous apps such as Yik Yak function as incredibly large and easy outlets for cyberbullying and targeting. The app allows users within a five-mile radius to create and add to discussion threads about anything and everything. Cooper said that teens targeted anonymously on these sites can’t help but feel embarrassed and hurt.

Opening new doors

On the other hand, Lyons Township junior Armin Korsos takes advantage of the feedback he receives over social media. Korsos runs his own YouTube channel and uses the reactions and comments to his video—positive or negative—to help him improve his channel for the future. Through social media, his videos reach people across the world.

“Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that has never been possible before,” Korsos said.

Nonetheless, Korsos recognizes the distraction that social media has become.

“People begin to forget that social media isn’t a necessity to live,” he said. “Yes, it helps people connect with their friends and stay updated on what’s going on, but it’s not all necessary.”

Social media has forever changed teens’ lives, making them more connected—and disconnected—than ever before. But for everyone labeling social networks a social disaster, Booth said it’s just the latest change in technology.

“And in 60 years, when a new form of communication technology comes out, people who are teens today may look at each other and think about how much better it was when people were texting and sending emojis back in 2016,” Booth said.

Source : http://bit.ly/1P6N1ma

The Secret to Predicting Startup Success in 2016

When it comes to investing in startups, one thing is clear ... nobody knows the outcome. This can change that.

What's the best way to measure a startup?

Profit is non-existent for most startups. Even revenue can be elusive at the early stages. And what's the magic number for users or customers? 100? 10,000? 100,000?

In the book Startup Wealth: How the Best Angel Investors Make Money in Startups, Josh Maher interviews many legendary investors including Brad Feld, Mark Suster, Catherine Mott, Christopher Mirabile, Allan May, Joanne Wilson, and more. What heuristics did they use to know whether or not to invest in a startup?

Right now the answer is all over the board. There are no standards. Some people invest purely based on their relationship with the founders and do little to no due diligence. Others spend months or even years tracking a startup before taking the plunge.

I'd argue that Net Promoter Score (NPS) should be a required foundational metric behind measuring startups of every size. If you are a startup founder, it should be used as a KPI. If you are an angel investor, you should request it for due diligence. And if you are a venture capitalist, you should be requesting your entire portfolio to be reporting NPS figures to you.

Here's why:

Universal Applicability

Whether you are running a consulting company or a high tech mobile app... whether you have just one customer or tens of thousands ... whether you have no revenue or millions in profit ... you can still run NPS campaigns.

That's because fundamentally all businesses have customers. Even if you don't have revenue yet (maybe you are still building out your user base) you still have users. And with users you can have an NPS score.

With NPS, you ask just one question: How likely (from 0 to 10) are you to recommend my product or service to a friend or colleague? As long as you have some kind of product or service, you can measure NPS.

This makes NPS an ideal key performance indicator if you are trying to evaluate a startup.

TIP #1: Don't fret about the exact score.

If your potential investment is running an NPS campaign for the first time, the chances are that their score is not going to be that great. Many products find that their first score is not what they expect. That's what makes NPS such a powerful survey technique. It gives you an honest assessment of how well you are turning users into fans.

You might be hoping that they are in the high +70's like Apple. But as long as they are positive (and not net-negative), it should not be raising any big red flags at this point.

(After all, the real power of NPS is in the follow-up process)

The score is just a starting point on a journey.

So if you aren't overly concerned with the NPS score, how do you use NPS as a metric for evaluating a startup? Good question! That brings us to our second point.

Honest Customer Feedback

Most investors ask for customer references as part of the diligence process before investing. But this has always confused me. Whenever you ask for a reference, the people given as references are intrinsically likely to tell you good things, since they are often friends with the person in the first place.

But ideally, you would want a way to get a more critical eye for some honest customer feedback rather than just talking to the one or two best references that a startup can provide you.

If you have an NPS campaign as part of due diligence, spend most of your time evaluating the individual responses rather than obsessing about the overall score. And if you are not given all the individual responses, insist on seeing them.

The second question in a NPS survey is: What was the biggest reason for having given that score?

This open-ended question lets customers praise and vent about what they care about most. Reading through these responses will give you the most independent and honest feedback you can get when evaluating a startup.

Often, these responses will include the best and worst of a startup. People who love the service will tell you why they love it. People who are having trouble with the service will tell you why they are having trouble. Those problem areas can then be used as starting points for further diligence.

Many people underestimate how powerful NPS is, especially because it is so simple to implement with just two quick questions. But done correctly, these two questions really are the only two questions that need to be asked.

Implicit Accountability

Although I've already said that the first NPS score doesn't matter, I don't want you to come away with the impression that none of the NPS scores matter.

In fact, tracking NPS scores over time is a fantastic way to audit that progress is being made to improve the product or service.

After the first NPS campaign, you will know the top three biggest problem areas. The next time an NPS campaign is sent, if the same problems come up again in the same frequency (or worse), then it is a sign that something is deeply wrong.

Ideally, as an investor in startups, you should be able to keep track of all your portfolio's NPS scores over time. Comparing them to each other is a possible way to keep an eye on the investments that might need more of your attention. However, a better indicator is to make sure that all of your portfolio's NPS scores are steadily improving over time.

No other score that I know of can provide this kind of warning system no matter the underlying business model or source of revenue. NPS gives you a tool that uniquely can predict breakout success or imminent failure for venture capitalists.

 

Implementing NPS as a key performance indicator can easily be done whether you are a startup founder, an angel investor or a venture capitalist. And done properly, the results can be amazing. For example, after we implemented just one sales technique into our NPS process at Promoter.io, we were able to increase MRR by 32%. You can even use NPS to drive a marketing campaign. So add this tool to your diligence worksheet and ensure that all the startups you work with start tracking it today.

Source : http://bit.ly/1OCrAt6

6 key strategies to ramp up your B2B marketing success

In the super competitive world of B2B marketing, it’s a battle between your success –or that of your competitors. The right marketing strategies can keep you way ahead of the curve, but if you aren’t keeping up with the times, your competition will be hard on your heels.

The modern B2B cycle has evolved. It is no longer a funnel, but rather a fluid cycle with overlapping touchpoints, multiple stakeholders, and prospects engaging in more independent research. B2B products and services are also typically more complex, and require solutions geared towards rational decision making versus spur-of-the moment purchases.

Take a look at 6 key strategies to keep your marketing going strong and your revenues running higher:

1. Content Marketing

You may have heard this repeatedly, but content marketing continues to rule strong for B2B marketers. In the past, a sales representative, dealer, or channel partner was the key point of contact for gathering information. From warranty information, pricing, product features, and more, a sales rep was the gateway to any information related to the product or service.

Of course, we know this is no longer the case. B2B buyers have numerous channels on which to research. In fact, an estimated 57% of the purchase decision is made before a prospect even engages a sales rep.

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According to a recent study by Regalix, 80% of senior marketers said creating marketing collateral is a top priority. In another study by TopRank, the most effective content marketing tactics according to B2B marketers are:

• In-person events (70%)
• Case studies (65%)
• Videos (63%)
• Webinars (63%)
• Blogs (62%)
• Newsletters (60%)
• White papers and research reports (59%)

As prospects are doing research, be sure to create different types of content based on where they are in the buying cycle. Develop a mixture of content to help a buyer move seamlessly from awareness to price and product comparison, without any involvement from a sales rep until the prospect is ready to engage.

2. Digital Marketing Channels

B2B market leaders are investing big in digital marketing channels. According to a survey by StrongView, spend is on the rise for email, social media, mobile marketing, and search (SEO, PPC).

As prospects head to digital sources to do their research, B2B marketers must make sure they are being relevant in the channels a prospect is most likely to be searching. Now that you have an arsenal full of great content, the next important step is to make sure your content can be found!

3. Social Media Channels = #B2B Revenue

Social media is a great way to share content, build brand loyalty, and engage with potential prospects. Real Business Rescue shares some great insights on the value of social media for B2B marketers:

• 9 in 10 B2B businesses say that increased exposure is the number one benefit of social media
• Increased traffic (80%) the development of loyal fans (72%) and marketplace insights (71%) were also cited as major benefits

While social media has been thought of as primarily a B2C strategy in the past, nothing can be further from the truth. As customer purchase decisions are increasingly affected by word of mouth and content marketing, social media is an ideal avenue to engage with prospects seeking education and peer recommendations.

4. The Power of Third-Party Data

Did you know that on average, every 30 minutes 120 business addresses change, 75 phone numbers change, 20 CEOs leave their jobs, and 30 new businesses are formed?(Source: D&B The Sales and Marketing Institute)

Keeping your customer and prospect information accurate and up-to-date can mean the difference between a sale for you, or a sale for your competitor. A wrong email address or phone number can quickly derail the best laid out communication strategy. Not knowing about key management changes or about the formation of a new company can leave opportunities on the table.

A third-party vendor can quickly get your data into shape by correcting wrong information and adding missing information such as phone numbers and email addresses. Additional information such as online IDs can also be appended to boost digital targeting across channels.

According to a survey by Spear Marketing Group, 40.7% of B2B marketers currently use a third-party data solution while almost half (46%) don’t use any type of third-party lead enrichment.

5. Personalize the Experience

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Personalization is an active topic of discussion among both B2B and B2C marketers. Your prospects and customer have come to expect companies to know who they are and to deliver personalized experiences based on this knowledge. 

According to Accenture, 50% of B2B buyers want personalization and identified it as being a key feature among suppliers they would want to work with.

Consider offering the following types of personalization:

• Social Media: Engage in personal conversations with your customers. Just as importantly, be sure to continually monitor social sites. Social users expect a quick response to their questions and inquiries.
• Email: Send targeted emails to segments based on purchase history, firmographic information, stage in the process cycle, and so forth.
• Websites: Offer different navigation options, a good site search engine, and landing pages for promotions.
• Phone: Be sure you have an interface to quickly pull up customer details so you can offer personalized recommendations and offers at the moment.

6. Don’t Forget about the Millennials

As millennials become of age, there has been an increasing shift over the past 2 years in the profile of today’s B2B buyer. According to Google research, nearly half of B2B buyers are between the ages of 18-34, an increase of 70%!As millennial buyers have more influence over purchase decisions, implementing ways to connect with this generation are increasing in importance. Millennials are more likely to trust information found in social communities because they believe they provide more accurate, authentic information. Research by Elite Daily revealed that 62% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer.

Millennials also expect to engage with sales reps through the channel of their choosing and at any time. 87% of millennials use between 2 and 3 devices on a daily basis, so having information easily accessible and mobile friendly is crucial to capture the attention of this audience.

As B2B buyers are becoming more sophisticated, so must your marketing strategies. The way buyers research and buy products has changed and your marketing must be able to do more of the heavy lifting before a buyer is finally ready to engage with your sales reps.

Source : bit.ly/1lG3xCz

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Fresh Ideas News on Vine.

TURN SOCIAL-MEDIA HASSLES INTO HAPPINESS!

Content Strategy… Sales Await!

You have your morning cup of coffee, turn on your computer and look at all of your e-mails and “To Do” list.

Then, that gnawing feeling hits you.

You need to post something on all of your social-media channels again. Ugh! It’s never-ending.

What to post?

Where do you find information to share?

Where do you post it and when?

It is such a hassle, but you know you need to be on social media. Well, it’s time to make a change and … 

Turn Social Media into a Sales Magnet in 3 Steps

Instead of dreading your social-media responsibilities, you can turn this process into a valuable part of your business success. And the best part is, it doesn’t need to be a hassle. Here are 3, simple steps to help you get started …

1. Create topics.

Simply write down various topics your customers are interested in hearing about on the top of a spreadsheet or piece of paper. This may include local, national and business news, valuable insights about your company, celebrity updates, industry trends, and more.

2. Add to your list.

Set aside some time to research various stories and news for each topic you have listed. Then, add a brief entry under each topic that you can post to your various, social-media venues.

3. Track and repeat.

Create entries for the month in advance, and then post accordingly on each site. Review the responses and communicate with your social-media audience when necessary. Then, repeat the entire process from step 1.

Simple, But a Start

By setting aside a few hours each month and following these simple steps, you can start a successful, social-media process. Instead of posting things “just to post something,” you’ll have an initial plan in place. Then, you can develop the process, and get more people involved to help you with research, strategy, posting, and responses.

Over time, you’ll interact more with customers and start to see brand awareness and sales increase. Then, your social-media won’t be a hassle. Instead, you’ll look forward to working on it as a major part of your organization’s marketing process!

Source : http://bit.ly/1SrmGDb

Don’t Say This to a Designer!

I have worked with numerous designers, developers, managers and other team members of all shapes and sizes. With some I’ve developed lasting friendships, with a few I have developed lasting white hairs. But we were all trying to do only one thing: make the product better. Unfortunately, good intentions don’t always translate to helpful comments. Here’s some things you’re better off not saying to your designer and what you can do instead.

“Can you make that bold?”

“Like designers, if you give a programmer a problem with parameters, they’ll apply every bit of genius they have to solve it in the best possible way. If you tell them how to do it, you’ll suffer the wrath of an angry God.” — Derek Powazek

But unlike programming, design is a collaborative process that benefits from constructive feedback.

So do tell your designer what you honestly feel. Raise questions about the interactions, talk about scenarios they may not have thought of, point out inconsistencies they might have compromised on, comment on the feel and the style if it doesn’t feel right. Your feedback can bring in a new perspective and help a lot. What doesn’t help however, is when somebody tries to micro-manage instead of explaining the problem.

Example time:

You are looking at a new design and it looks great but it is painfully obvious to you that that heading will look better if it is bold. So you tell your designer to “make that bold”.

What you don’t know is the context. Are the headings like this on all other screens and will making it bold here break the consistency? Are there complex visual hierarchies the designer has maintained? Will the clarity of some other element be sacrificed if she makes it bold? Did she already try it in bold and decided regular was the best balance? Is she already aware of the problem you are trying to solve but made a conscious trade-off for some reason?

Now, in most cases she will ask you why you think it should be bold and if the problem is legit, suggest a solution that fits best. But if you do this too many times (especially if you’re in a managerial position), she will start picking her battles and give you the smaller changes. This sucks for everyone because it sucks for the product.

So what should you do? Just frame the feedback better, that’s really all. Instead of telling her to “make that bold”, tell her that you don’t think the title has enough emphasis, or that the headings don’t stand out enough and then let her decide what to do about the problem. Also be ready to support all your feedback with arguments and examples.

“There were some problems with the design; don’t worry I fixed them.”

Never ever make design changes in the final product without consulting the designer. This is the worst thing you can do and you’ll instantly earn your designer’s absolute distrust. It is as if a designer took your production-ready code and made some changes because things didn’t feel right. The small changes you make on the fly might seem small but they will accumulate. If you’re not satisfied with a design, talk to the designer. Give them honest, constructive feedback and trust them to do their job well.

Side note for managers:

If you’re in a managerial position and find yourself making changes at the final stage without consulting the designer, that’s a symptom of a larger problem. If you have been giving your designer constructive feedback but still aren’t satisfied with the final designs, you need to either have an honest conversation with them or find a designer you can trust. You are paying them to do a job and if you have to do it instead, there’s no point keeping them around. If you don’t have the time to provide feedback and go through the iterations, you are about to lose even more time fixing the haphazard fixes later (these can accumulate really quickly, trust me), plus you will end up iterating in product cycles instead of at the design level
.

“Will moving that button 5 px to the left really make a difference?”

It’s our job to sweat the details. Mis-aligned UI elements is the stuff of our nightmares. But that’s not why you should care about those 5 pixels; you should care because every one of those 5 pixels strewn around the product accumulates and reflects on the final feel. Can you tell the difference between the millions of shitty-looking apps in the stores and the few high-quality, well-designed ones? Well, each of those painfully 5-pixel-aligned buttons contributes to making those high-quality apps look that way.

“Nope, can’t be done.”

Say that it will take too much time, more than the deadline permits. Say that it will lead to compromises in the code. Say that it’s not a priority. Say that you don’t think it’s worth the time to figure out how to do it. All of which can lead to a conversation rather than shut it down.

There’s nothing more frustrating than repeatedly hearing “That’s not possible” every time you want to try something new. We all want to enthusiastically build the best product. That involves going to 100% polished not just 70% functional. I realise that too much AfterEffects and Photoshop can sometimes keep designers out of touch with real-life constraints. If that is the case, please remind us of the limitations of the platform or framework. As designers we can dream up wonderful things, but we rely on your brilliance to help make these dreams a reality.

Source : http://bit.ly/1GHFInE