“Holoportation” Another VR Blog…

“Holoportation” Another VR Blog…

VR has been a topic thrown around the mix every now and again. Virtual and Augmented Reality is really transforming digital technology, but we are still in the young stages. Or are we?

While we have been going about our daily routines, Microsoft has been working hard on the ‘Holoportation’ in the backgrounds.

So what is it? Why is it different? And why is it important enough that it’s made its way onto our blog? All very good questions…

Holoportation is a “3D, real-time hologram of someone who is a world away, but still interacts with you.” Basically, its everything a hologram in the Hollywood Movie world told us it would be. Somehow, in our lifetime it has made its way into reality. Can you believe it? The Star Wars age is with us.

We are not quite at Tony Stark’s level in terms of holographic computers, however…

It’s still pretty interesting! You can see it in action in this video below:

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It definitely would make long distance calls much more interesting. Or even a replacement for business meetings when we aren’t physically close enough or well. There are so many possibilities for the Holoportation, and we can’t wait to see how it progresses. Let us know what you think.

“Chat 2.0”? Will Snapchat become “the best way to…

“Chat 2.0”? Will Snapchat become “the best way to communicate”? (You know, besides being in the flesh…)

There is always a new update for the latest social media trend of platform that everyone’s using. Could Snapchat be next? Word on the street is that Snapchat has been making some unique updates, and apparently on the road to becoming “the best way to communicate”. Based on the trending dog filter, it’s probably fair to say that they could be right…

Here are some of the features of the new and improved Snapchat 2.0:

Video Notes

Live Video Calls

Audio

GIFs

Stickers

Traditional Texts

Send images from your phone’s Camera Roll

Auto-advance ‘Stories’

Will Snapchat over take Facebook? Looking at it from a young person’s perspective… The youngsters do not have to filter the content they share as their families and potential employers do not have access to this (as of yet). With only 24 hours access to the content, they are more willing to upload it even if it is riskier, or potentially the less interesting parts of our day for friends and fellow snappers. Of course, the Snapchat privacy protects you if your content is taken and abused which arguably could encourage this market to embrace the riskiness associated with the app.

If Snapchat really does take off, will businesses and marketers inevitably saturate yet ANOTHER social media platform? Forcing us to discover a new social media platform in the hope to escape. There are signs that it is being used for business purpose already. Many makeup artists, celebrities and Vine stars are using it to promote their work while creating content around it meanwhile updating viewers about future projects and personal life insights.

As it stands now, Snapchat is still for the most part an app for the public. No ads interrupt you during your time on the app, and businesses have not yet embraced it in mass. But this is why there is a gap in the market if you have a business that could find a use for this interesting output. You never know, quirky filters and ‘Stories’ could even be the best way to communicate with your target market.

Marketing to Millennials

Marketing to different Generations

Suspect 1 Profile

The Millennials aka The Fresh Meat

Age: 20-35 years

Skill: Can see through promotional lies. The Millennial is open-minded and accepting of other lifestyles and cultures.

Weakness: Filter out promotional materials, being exposed to so much of it and often miss out on deals. To target their weakness, you have to aim for their funny bone.

Unpredictable by nature, the Millennial is prone to impulse buying. Growing up during the rise of technologies and social media, a Millennial is comfortable with digital media, online shopping as well as being knowledgeable of other lifestyles and keeping up with the latest crazes. They tend to be highly responsive to funny content, out-of-the-box ideas, images and videos as a format. The red flag with the Millennial is that they are so comfortable that they filter our the promotional material. In fact, they are even immune to typical sales strategies and recognise a trustworthy brand from one that isn’t as if it were second nature.

The Solution: Get rid of those Christmas cracker jokes, and take a minute to come up with a funny one liner for your campaign. Try to be original if you can or revamp an old campaign. Stick to digital. Maybe throw in one of those cheeky pop-up discount promotions that appear as they try to navigate away from the page (There are statistics all over the internet that says that this is a deal-breaker for unsure customers).

Is the world resting on your shoulders?

Is the world resting on your shoulders? Appealing to a Global Audience

Are you trying to appeal to a global audience? (No pressure). It is great that you have such a large market to sell your products and services too. This does mean more work for you though.

The more data that you gather or communicate with, the more difficult it becomes to discard any unnecessary ‘junk’ posts that do not actually benefit you. There are a few things that you can do just to take the weight off a bit:

• Create more specific searches.
• Use a tool online where you can filter the services from where you’ll gather the information.
• Manual analysis also (so that you can discard data coming from unreliable sources).

 

As you are trying to reach such a variety of people, you probably have to handle a few social media platforms too. You’ll know already that different social groups or geographical locations focus on different social media sites.

One way that you can try to make your data more specific is by tracking these groups in their native language, which means you get less confused data and you can analyse where your audiences are coming from.

If you do keep up with this over time you can create a meaningful message that changes depending on the audience, their social trends, language, local news and events. All of this combines to create a more personal service remember so it will be worth it!

Coschedule Review

An Exclusive Coschedule Review

Here’s one for all of those fellow marketers and small business owners out there. As a business owner you probably know that you need to prioritise responsibilities and day-to-day jobs. Too often, marketing/social media can take the back seat because we are just far too busy with other important things.

Drum roll please… Enter Coschedule!

After researching a number of similar marketing calendars, tools and services it was a blessing to pick Coschedule out of the haystack.

Why do we love Coschedule?

We’ve been discussing Coschedule in the office and our overall consensus is that collectively we are all pro-Coschedule! Our favourite thing about it is the convenience and usability. One of Coschedules unique qualities is that it is not just a calendar for you to use to get organised.

It actually connects to your social media profiles so that you can schedule posts across Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Twitter…you name it. It is a social hub for you to create the posts and actually schedule them ahead of time so they automatically post for you. And you can edit them right up until the set time of the post with no problems. Admittedly, it did take some time before we stopped checking that the post went out – you know, just in case.

Are there any functionality problems with the tool?

Only once or twice in the couple of months that we have been using it has one of the links we have included in our posts not worked. Honestly this has only happened not even a handful of times and it was a problem easily fixed.

After discussing Coschedule in the office, the other one of our favourite little bonuses were the emails that Coschedule send you on a regular basis. They don’t over-saturate our inbox but they actually do have some super helpful tips and tricks that we haven’t considered using before, which is great for us as we are now trying some different approaches. We are getting organised, and opening our eyes to new ideas at the same time.

So this article wasn’t an extensive pros and cons list about Coschedule, rather our favourite little features in case you were considering using it or even just looking for a marketing tool in general to get you organised.

Thanks Coschedule!

Who’s Marketing Whom? Co-creation

Who’s Marketing Who? Co-creation

Customers are not just spectators who absorb marketing campaigns and accept it these days. They are very much a part of the creation and marketing themselves and you should tap into this opportunity to create a personal experience around your brand.

Part of the reason for Social Listening is to create an experience for your customers, and for this to be seen by other people that may be interested in your products or services. Try to think of yourself as the customer. You probably trust another person who has used the product or service more than the company itself, and might even look into reviews before committing to buy it.

If you encourage your audience to make their own content around your product and publish it to the Internet, you are adding value to your business and possibly reaching more people than before. Also, by not focusing on transactions or sales all the time, you are probably likely to get more of them.

Be aware that people are attempting to do things for themselves before going to a business for help. It is so easy for them to access information from a trustworthy person that can walk them through a process on YouTube or online forum. Perhaps scan the Internet for the information that might hinder your sales, and prioritize these users who uploaded the content as ones you would like to engage with.

By scanning the web for readily available information that may be hindering your sales you may find the places already being visited by potential customers. If this is the case should you not prioritise these platforms as ones where you become the accepted expert..?

Our four top picks for free Analytics tools

Our four top picks for free Analytics tools

Now this section does seem a bit daunting, and frankly too time-consuming to do thoroughly for many small businesses. Luckily, there are tools available that allow you to keep track of the searches you do and convert all of that information into an overview.

The information can be put into dashboards, graphs or charts and they let you keep the content for future use. As these tools are flexible, you can focus more narrowly on what you would like to know.

For example, the frequency of mentions over time, demographics, urgent content that you need to respond to much more quickly and you can even use it as a personal ‘database’ for you to pick and choose what you need when you need it.

Online tools that are available to you:

Socialoomph: On Socialoomph you can manage your social media accounts and blogs as well as schedule posts in bulk, target users to follow and download analytics that have been gathered for you.

Although scheduled posts are handy and can save you a lot of time, you might want to consider whether this feature will be particularly  helpful to the variety of audiences you want to reach on different online platforms.

Hootsuite: This tool is highly recommended by experts. You can subscribe to the free version online or (if you are willing to pay), you can add features such as private chat. If you are a manager for example and will have multiple employees using the tool, you can see when they are logging in, delegate work online as well as chat with employees (which is great if your employees work out of the office).

The cost of this feature increases per member so if you are a smaller business the cost is not too extortionate. Analytics are sent by email reports, which you can file or download to your desktop.

ManageFlitter: A great feature of ManageFlitter is the ‘power post’. See when most of your followers are online and schedule posts appropriately during this time. Other features involve tracking ‘unfollows’ and are soon to be introducing an analytics feature in some form.

Social Mention: Social Mention is a slightly different social listening tool. Instead of a dashboard of your accounts, it is a real-time search where you can find the most up-to-date information at that time. Just like other search engines, it is free and based on keywords or phrases.

You may have to filter out some irrelevant sources, but this tool does consider the meanings behind what you search and the information it finds, as well as brings up related keywords, mentions per second and the top users. Of course you would have to keep checking the same keywords over time if you would like to monitor them.

There is also the option to download the data. A very good tool, but depending on the aims of your business, it may not be the best if you are going to be away from the office and unable to monitor the information in the background.

How to tackle Content Marketing

How to tackle Content Marketing – Be aware of your surroundings!

I guess you could say Content Marketing is one of the latest crazes! But some people have done it since marketing began.

So much plays a part in how we choose to deliver our content. Everything from our social and cultural groups to our individual preference affects how we interact with content. Not to mention the different tones and atmospheres on each social media platform that already exist, and how people are already using them.

If someone wanted to post a quick, witty comment about current events or something that happened in their day, they are probably more likely to use Twitter. Twitter is generally recognised for the sense of humour in the content.

Instagram of course is used differently. Do you see what we mean? This puts you at an advantage because you already know who it is that you want to talk to and the type of content to create.

But bear in mind too that people tend to behave differently behind a computer than face-to-face, including when they interact with businesses/ a brand.

Consider how you would deal with a customer in person; you wouldn’t take every customer out to a 3-course dinner with wine to discuss potential business opportunities as different customers are worth more to you. So you should do the same online.

Staying relevant can be a tricky and time-consuming task. Even if you are engaging with conversations regularly, you may find yourself having similar conversations or even pestering people.

You are probably thinking how do I avoid pestering my customers? And still stay relevant in their minds? Get involved with or start conversations about relevant topics that are happening locally or even globally as well. Don’t only post about your business. And post where conversations are already happening.

Tip: Make sure you keep the values of the business throughout any opinions you or a colleague expresses towards controversial topics.

Have you heard about Social Listening

Have you heard about Social Listening?

No? Well you have come to the right place. Long story short, it’s all about paying attention to your customers online.

Here is the low down on how you could benefit from doing this!

You can use Social Listening to manage the mentions of your brand as well as communicate your message to a new or existing market! Just keep in mind that you need to create up to date and relevant content that does appeal to your business needs, and this tool will do all the hard work for you.

If you are a start up business or perhaps just using social media as a new strategy, Social Listening is perfect for managing mentions of your brand or creating a strategy to reach as many people as possible for example.

It may seem daunting at first; however stick with it as we will be talking about simple to use tools that will help streamline the process.

Social Listening is a tool, but it is also a long-term strategy and a commitment. The first steps are as easy as researching your target audience, influencers, keywords and trends. Your social business strategy will start to take shape.

You will be rewarded for your perseverance when the business suddenly has a lot more opportunities arising that you wouldn’t have come across without Social Listening. If you do feel like you need a little extra help, subscribe to a tool that you think will fit your business best for getting you started or feel free to leave us a comment with any questions.

VIP Influencers of your business

The VIP Influencers of your business

So who are the VIPs of your business? They are the people you should consider targeting. VIPs have a higher level of influence as theya re looked up to by certain groups of the public (and some of your target market).

If they express a positive opinion about your product, their followers will recognize and remember you for it. The influencers will hopefully encourage others to buy your products. It would be a good idea to stay aware of the following ‘VIP’ influencers:

Competitors:

Are people disappointed with a competitor’s product/ service? You can focus your conversation around the topic of their weaknesses and how yours can make up for their loss so to speak. Of course you shouldn’t discuss the actual competitor or refer to them in a negative way.

Suppliers:

Do you remember when Tesco’s and other brands were selling horse meat? If your suppliers have been caught doing something unethical, you’ll want to be well aware before the public makes the connection to you.

Employees:

Much like your customers, you’ll want your employees to be happy so it is beneficial to know their feelings towards the company outside of work. You can take necessary actions if they post colourful content or a video of themselves perhaps behaving inappropriately in the workplace (which hopefully will not be the case).

It is not just customers who can become brand advocates. If you want to create a positive company culture it is important for converting employees into brand ambassadors too.

Reviewers/ Bloggers

Bloggers have a lot of power based on the amount of views they get and how this can ultimately persuade someone to buy or ignore your product or service. You will probably find through doing some research that blogs, articles and forums reach so many people and this is where the discussions are.

As a business you can be social listening to the conversations they are having and contributing to these. Google+ is an example of a platform where people share other’s articles and discuss them. These people also have a lot of influence.

Influencers

Influencers can be anyone from a local business person with many connections to a celebrity who has used your product. You want to build relationships with these people or even a non-competitive company who targets the same audience. By rewarding influencers, their positive opinion will spread to their followers and hopefully extend your reach!