Tag Archive for: Social Media Marketing

Vero: The Social Media Platform Free of Data Mining, Bots, and Ads

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Could this be the next big thing in social media? Or is it all too good to be true? The jury is still out, but the future does look considerably promising for Vero.

Comparison

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was under fire again this week for the platform’s privacy policies. Zuckerberg simply stated that users all agree to meet each of Facebook’s terms and conditions when they sign up for a Facebook account.

Facebook is very clear about how the platform stores information about users, and this information is then used to better target consumers through the Facebook Ads platform. Since this is the primary source of income for Facebook, it is obvious that this is of primary concern to them as well. As a digital marketer, this kind of information is absolutely amazing, but as a consumer, this is concerning to say the least.

Many consumers are becoming more and more drawn to the idea of keeping their lives truly private. It is often found to be “creepy” and “invasive” when consumers are served ads for items they recently viewed or even those that they merely spoke of. All of these irritants provide a prime opportunity for a social media platform like Vero to strike.

What is Vero?

As stated on their website, Vero claims itself to be, “a social network for anyone who loves anything enough to share it – and wants control over who they share it with. Just like we do in real life.”

The whole purpose behind Vero is to allow people a space to share their interests, free from the worry of being bombarded by ads once they do. For example, if you were to make a post on Facebook about a designer dress, you would likely receive lots of advertisements afterward trying to sell you similar dresses or similar pieces from that designer.

Vero does not do this. Instead, anything posted on this platform is serving no other purpose than to please you by expressing and exploring things you personally connect with.

Vero is also very specific in the types of connections you would wish to make. The platform offers four separate groupings every time you post. These groupings consist of close friends, friends, acquaintances, and followers. Ever wanted to post something for your friends to see but not for your boss to see? Yeah, Vero thought so too.

Each and every feature of Vero is designed with the consumer’s typical social media frustrations in mind. This new platform is clearly trying to break away from the pack by offering everything that others aren’t, and so far it has been working to Vero’s advantage.

Concerns For Vero

In light of all of the positive features to Vero, there are also a few problems to consider. The company recently experienced troubles with their terms of service. This conflict was resolved by an updated version of the agreement that made it clear to users that Vero does not own their own content like they had previously suggested.

The company’s CEO, Ayman Hariri, has also brought a fair amount of controversy to the company. According to Gulf Business, Hariri’s family was sued by 30,000 workers at their construction firm for unpaid wages. Hariri claims to have cut all professional ties with his family and also claims to have divested from Vero to keep the brand image more reputable.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Vero can actually manage to capitalize on the public’s discontent with platforms like Facebook, or if they too will fizzle out in the near future like so many other “next big thing” platforms have in the past.

For more articles on social media and digital advertising please visit the Onimod Global news section. There you will find relevant and recent information about the incredible industry of digital marketing. Enjoy!

How to Effectively Market Your Brand to Spring Break Travelers

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Each year, thousands of college students pour into the city of Chicago for spring break. Although the city is not as warm as other popular destinations, it does provide plenty of activities for spring breakers to participate in.

All of these extra people mean extra business for you. Make sure to capitalize on this huge event by optimizing your marketing efforts toward spring breakers.

Merchandising

A perfect way to attract students on spring break is to offer them free merchandise. As college students, they are very willing to accept anything that does not cost money.

This allows you an opportunity to get students interested in your brand, and to vicariously promote your brand to other spring breakers in the area. As a rule of thumb, always put your logo on every single piece of promotional material in order to maximize brand awareness. Enlarging this logo is also a good idea so you can be sure to make it stand out.

This method may seem a bit simplistic and perhaps even outdated, but we can assure you that you will see a response from travelers if you incentivise them with a cheap t-shirt or pair of sunglasses.

Facebook

During spring break, visibility is key. This does not necessarily mean to be visible physically such as with billboards and promotional merchandise. You can also generate an incredible amount of traffic to your business by utilizing online advertising strategies and platforms.

Facebook is an incredible resource for all companies that are looking to directly target a detailed group of people. The Facebook ads manager tools allow you to refine your target audience based on current and previous locations. You can also use a multitude of other keywords or phrases to put your ads in front of ideal consumers. This makes it so simple for you to precisely target college students from out of town that are now within a close proximity to your business.

The other major benefit is that Facebook ads are also highly cost effective. If you create a week-long campaign to drive people to your website, you are likely to generate conversions for mere pennies on the dollar!

Twitter

The strategy behind Twitter ads is very similar to that of Facebook ads, but Twitter is not quite as successful at generating leads. However, Twitter is absolutely ideal for achieving better brand awareness. If you do not possess a prime location that receives a lot of walk-by traffic, then you could be missing out on substantial potential profits.

With Twitter, you can make sure that students on spring break are seeing your business, even if they are not clicking on the ad. Even on a subconscious level, consumers are more likely to interact with a brand that they recognize than with one that they do not. Now go ahead and get your brand out there!

More From Onimod Global

To learn more about the digital marketing industry, please visit the Onimod blog today! Our content creation specialists regularly produce up-to-date content so that you remain current on digital marketing methods and strategies.

A few of our most recent articles include: The Importance of Google My Business for Local SEO Rankings, How to Build Customer Loyalty That Drives Search Traffic, 4 Statistics That Should Impact Your 2018 Online Marketing Strategy, and much more!

Unilever CMO Collaborates with Platforms for Better Digital Advertising Standards

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Keith Weed, Unilever CMO, believes that many platforms have not yet caught up to the innovative technologies of today. As a result, many of these platforms are serving poor quality advertisements to consumers, with little recourse.

Ongoing Topic of Conversation

Procter & Gamble CMO Marc Pritchard has voiced many of these same concerns. Generally speaking, Pritchard is focused on 4 ways in which brands should rethink their current digital marketing tactics:

  1. Transparency
  2. Ad Quality
  3. Mass One-to-One Marketing
  4. Messages For Good

To learn more about Pritchard’s digital marketing strategies, please read through our article, “Digital Marketing Advice From Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer”.

While Weed and Pritchard share similar concerns, they are each handling these concerns in very different ways. Pritchard has been much more forward about failures within the digital advertising industry, and has presented an ultimatum to platforms that facilitate such services.

This ultimatum basically consists of the platforms correcting their mistakes and producing a better performing platform, or risk immediately losing business from major companies like Procter & Gamble.

A New Approach

Rather than publicly address platforms with harsh ultimatums, Weed believes it is in the best interest of all (the company, the platform, and the consumer) for large corporations to work alongside these platforms to create a better experience for the end user.

In his own words, Weed expressed to Adweek that, “This has gone beyond us talking internally within the industry about the efficiencies of the media supply chain. This is now impacting trust as a societal level, which I think brings great urgency.”

Even with Weed’s compassionate understanding toward platforms, Unilever has begun shifting their ad dollars around. Weed freely admits that the company is indeed moving money around to spaces that meet their higher standards in the viewability and third-party verification of digital ads.

In the end, what matters most is the user and their experience. Both Weed and Pritchard are trying their very best to better this experience, despite their different approaches. However, their efforts are likely to produce results that all digital advertisers can enjoy going forward.

2017 Year in Review: Digital Marketing

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As we near the end of 2017, we recall many of the new ideas and innovations that this year brought to us. In digital marketing, there have been many changes. Digital marketing is centered around change, as it is required for this industry to live and thrive. Now we take a look at some of the biggest changes to digital marketing in 2017.

The Move to Mobile

This past year saw an incredible shift in user preference to mobile devices. It has grown to such a height that mobile search has now overtaken desktop search. The trend began early in 2017, but did not slow down at all. 33.3% of all transactions from Cyber Monday were completed on a mobile device. This mobile activity is up nearly 17% from the previous year.

It is also worth noting that age does not matter when it comes to mobile. Most people assume that the only demographic utilizing these mobile technologies are younger generations. In reality, older consumers are regularly active on digital devices. In fact, 50+ year old consumers had a 12% growth in smartphone usage over the past year. Read more in our article, “How to Reach Senior Citizens Using Digital Marketing”.

Competition Between Social Platforms

In 2017, each major social platform was vying for the spotlight. Twitter attempted to increase their numbers by doubling the character limit from 140 to 280. Sadly, this change did not produce the desired effect they were looking for, as their Q3 reports showed another decline in activity.

Snapchat focused on increasing advertising revenue. Their ‘Snap Pixel’ gives marketers better insight into consumer behaviors, which is certainly valuable when forming any kind of marketing strategy.

In the end, one social media platform came out on top in 2017. There can only be one winner, and this winner is Facebook. Facebook provides a larger audience, better targeting options, and superior results when it comes to digital marketing. Their resources and refined tools cannot be outdone. It is also very likely that their success will only continue to grow in the upcoming year.

The Importance of a Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing has become much more calculated. As the industry grows, experts are looking to make the most precise decisions when it comes to their digital marketing efforts. This means that anyone serious about digital marketing should be using a well thought out marketing strategy.

Long standing organizations have the benefit of possessing a history of data. This data is invaluable. Past behavior predicts future behavior. So, data can show you exactly what decisions to make, without much risk of failure.

However, if you do not have a large database to fall back on, it is best to begin with broad objectives which are then refined over time as you begin to notice what works and what does not. For more detailed information in creating a marketing strategy, please take a look at our article, “Create the Perfect Digital Marketing Strategy”.

Digital Permeation

As the digital industry continues to grow, it expands across many other industries. Digital marketing presents all businesses with the ability to better market their products and services. The main advantage is digital marketing’s low cost. Of course, digital marketing campaigns can become expensive if desired, but most campaigns produce results for mere pennies on the dollar.

This advantage has allowed digital marketing to infiltrate every area of business possible. There are no real limitations when it comes to digital marketing. Any organization looking to sell their product to a specified target audience can do it.

As a result, digital marketing strategies have been developed for entire industries. Food, healthcare, metal fabrication, you name it. All of these industries have been affected by digital marketing, and will continue to be affected in 2018.

Maximize the Potential of Your Social Video Marketing Strategy

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Consumers are constantly shifting toward the convenient. This is exactly why popularity of video content has soared in 2017, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Users are able to more quickly absorb information through videos, which makes them a very attractive form of advertisement and promotion.

Advertising Implications

The world of digital marketing and advertising revolves around innovation. The goal is to continually adapt to the needs/wants of the consumer in order to be better able to promote products and services to them. Video marketing is proving to be a very effective method in accomplishing this exact objective.

An infographic by Rendrfx states that over 22 billion videos are viewed daily between Facebook (8 billion), Snapchat (10 billion), and YouTube (4 billion). Another statistic that they boast is an online video ad viewer attention rate that is 18.3 times higher than that of T.V. commercials.

The numbers do not lie. What’s more is that daily use of videos is only expected to increase in the next several years. So how can marketers and advertisers best utilize and optimize this trending marketing medium?

Social Spaces Are Best

Social medias have become a wealth of opportunity for digital marketers in recent years. It is a perfect way to tap into the daily activities of target consumers, and to appear as native as possible in advertising style. The more an advertisement looks like a normal piece of news feed foder, the better.

Facebook has become the single most dominant force in social media marketing. With over 2 billion active users, and more than $40 billion made in 2017 from advertisements, according to Statista, it is clear that Facebook is running the show when it comes to paid social media marketing.

Adweek contributor Aubrie Richey wrote a great article on how to get the best value from your Facebook video marketing campaign. Her article is summed up here in the following 5 tips:

  1. Design your ad in a mobile format to best reach potential customers.
  2. Keep the length of your video between 15-30 seconds.
  3. Do not stop being adaptable and flexible with your content!
  4. Your video does not need to be perfect. A less refined video will make the ad seem much more genuine and appealing.
  5. Use video as a supportive piece of the overall customer journey.

More From Onimod Global

This article is only one of the many that has been produced by the Onimod Global content team! We are relentlessly searching to find the most accurate and up-to-date information to keep you informed of what is going on inside of the ever-evolving digital marketing industry.

To read through more of our articles, please visit our blog by clicking HERE. We hope you enjoy reading through the best that our digital marketing experts have to offer!

Paid Advertising Metrics That Matter

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There is no busier time of the year for an advertiser than the holidays. As millions of consumers are looking to purchase gifts for their loved ones, we advertisers are here competing against one another for their attention.

Digital technologies have allowed advertisers much more access into the everyday life of the consumer, which is an incredible advantage for most. However, it is not enough to simply run a digital marketing campaign unless you can accurately measure and interpret its results. So what do you need to look for?

AdWords Pay Per Click

SearchEngineLand.com has recently published an article that discusses the best measurements to analyze when assessing the value of a PPC campaign, particularly those carried out through Google AdWords. The article brings many important topics to light, and is centered around 4 major areas of concern for AdWords PPC campaigns:

  1. High Cost Per Click = low profitability
  2. Long-tail keywords are a waste of money
  3. More clicks don’t mean more conversions
  4. There is no silver bullet

Facebook

Facebook has completely dominated the market when it comes to social media advertising. With more than 2 billion active users, Facebook provides an ideal consumer base for most businesses. The platform is also equipped with many different tools to help marketers keep track of how well their campaigns are performing.

The Facebook Pixel is just such a tool. As you are setting up your campaign, you are given the option to track users with the Facebook Pixel. This allows marketers to get a more complete picture of the customer journey by embedding a tiny, pixel-sized image into the ad. A similar Onimod blog post discusses this topic a bit further with the recent debut of the Snapchat Pixel. To read the full article, please click HERE.

Another highly useful Facebook tool is their split testing option. This campaign type allows the marketer to run two of the exact same ads to two completely different audiences. This form of A/B testing helps advertisers get a better idea of who their target consumers truly are.

More From Onimod Global

At Onimod Global, our content creation team strives to consistently offer the latest industry news combined with expert insight. We have many other articles relating to this subject of paid advertising metrics, including:

For more information from the team at Onimod Global, please visit our website!

The Increasing Power of Instagram

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As marketers, we are constantly on the lookout for the latest and greatest marketing technologies. New gadgets and gizmos come and go, but few can withstand the test of time. One that has achieved this honor is Instagram.

A Brief Instagram History

Instagram’s success has been gaining ground ever since the platform launched in 2010. Only 2 months after its release, Instagram had already acquired over 1 million users. But they didn’t stop there.

Instagram continued improving and innovating itself. Users loved uploading their photos, applying all kinds of professional filters, and adding witty captions to explain their images.

The team at Facebook saw the incredible potential that Instagram possessed, and so they made a move to buy the company in April of 2012. For more information regarding the history of Instagram, please visit wersm.com.

Recent Accomplishments

Today, the social media platform boasts an enormous network of 800 million active users, according to Statista. Instagram also recently announced that more than 25 million business profiles exist through their platform.

These incredible numbers are a direct result from advertisers catching the Insta-wave. Advertisers have started to notice that there is no slowing down for the platform as it continues to increase the size of its network year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. This produces an incredible base for many different ad campaigns.

Social media marketing has been proven to be incredibly useful because it is a more native form of advertising. As consumers continue to reject pushy and annoying advertisements, platforms like Instagram become more and more attractive to them.

It is likely that businesses and marketers will continue to flock toward Instagram. As the platform goes on to increase its user base, it also increases its appeal to marketers.

Latest News From Onimod Global

Keep up to speed with the digital marketing industry by visiting our blog! Our content creation team is constantly releasing new information regarding industry trends, state of the art technologies, and expert digital marketing advice.

5 Ways To Improve Your Ecommerce Business

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It’s not much of a surprise, but the ecommerce market is continually on the rise. According to Statista, “from 2010 to 2013, total U.S. retail ecommerce sales increased from $167.3 billion to $263.3 billion. In 2014 that number jumped up to $304.1 billion.” Although this article was published two years ago, the trends tell us that the ecommerce market will continue to boom as many organizations are integrating ecommerce platforms to account for the demand. Listed below are a few ideas that will help improve any organization’s ecommerce business.

Prioritizing SEO:
As the ecommerce market continues to grow, the direct result is more organizations “fighting” for first page search engine results. Therefore, ensuring that your ecommerce site is highly optimized is very important. SEO and ecommerce essentially go hand in hand with one another. Some aspects of SEO to pay attention to are using rich keyword phrases, placing your site on directory listings, having a secure site (SSL installed), and frequently checking up on site speed.

Monitor Competition:
If you’re seeking to gain a competitive advantage in terms of ecommerce, paying close attention to competition is key. This involves researching prices, marketing tactics, and anything else competitors are doing that works. Being competitive with pricing is especially important due to the amount of options that are out there in the ecommerce world for related products. Although high profit margins are extremely important, having insufficient pricing can make or break ecommerce success.

Social Media Engagement:
With millions of users, the potential for finding consumers through social media in today’s market is huge. Many consumers enjoy the engagement that social media has to offer. Spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Google Plus can be rewarding in the long run. Creating engaging content, interacting with customers, and even sponsoring some posts are all good starting points to reach possible customers.

Mobile Optimization:
Due to a massive presence of mobile traffic, optimizing your ecommerce site for mobile devices is essential. According to Digital Commerce 360, trends are showing that “mobile devices will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile will jump from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018.” This shows the importance of mobile optimization and how if it’s not a priority for your ecommerce business, the chance of becoming irrelevant in the future is likely.

Blogging:
Related to SEO, having a blog and consistently producing content can exponentially increase ecommerce site traffic. Using relevant keywords in posts and frequently sharing on social media platforms are two aspects of effective blogging. Also be sure to add multiple call to action links that will direct readers to landing pages on your site. It’s clear that blogging takes time, yet time is the only drawback of blogging. Search engine algorithms like Google and Bing reward engaging and relevant content, therefore there’s no reason any ecommerce organization should avoid blogging.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. Check out our Case Studies and see how our clients like Vipply and Rent Letters are excelling in ecommerce.

Twitter Launches New 280 Character Limit: Good or Bad Move?

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Twitter has recently announced that a character limit change is official – tweets can now contain up to 280 characters, but not for every user yet. It’s an interesting and risky move, as the 140 character limit is what Twitter has always been known for and is a major way they differentiate themselves from their social media competitors. According to an article from Market Land, this would mark the “biggest change to Twitter since its founding in 2006 and the biggest risk yet by the company to increase its user base.” This post will explore the potential benefits and disadvantages that could come along with an increased character limit.

Potential Benefits:
Introducing a doubled character limit (280 compared to 140) has the potential be a beneficial move for Twitter moving forward. One possible benefit of a larger character limit is that it would allow users to “better express themselves,” according to the Marketing Land article. This is a legitimate reason as a restricted character limit has forced users to limit what they’re trying to say. A 280 limit would also decrease the “loopholes” of tweeting such as screenshots of longer text and the annoying threads that appear on timelines. Another important point to mention is the increased opportunity this presents for Twitter’s advertising platform. An expanded character limit gives advertisers an opportunity to create more appealing ads, and as a result this could lead to more ad revenue for Twitter in the long run.

The Marketing Land article also quotes Aliza Rosen (Twitter’s Product Manager) stating that “Twitter is hoping fewer tweets run into the character limit, which should make it easier for everyone to tweet.” Ultimately, Twitter’s overall goal of increasing the character limit appears to be focused on making it easier for everyone to tweet and reducing the frustrations that come along with character limits.

Potential Drawbacks:
Based on all of the potential benefits above, the expanded 280 character limit seems like a brilliant idea. However, there could be some possible drawbacks of having larger character limits. A clear negative of moving away from the 140 characters is that Twitter would now be steering away from their core idea that has differentiated themselves from other social media competition. The article states that Twitter’s original thought behind the 140 character limit was “replicating the length of a text message would make the social network more inviting to people to post thoughts on the fly from their phones.”

Another disadvantage that could come along with expanding the character limit is an increase in spam. There would be nothing worse then scrolling through a timeline of spam accounts or reading 280 character tweets from irrelevant sources. In the end, it will be very interesting to see what happens with Twitter’s new 280 character limit moving forward. Based on outside research and analysis, it appears to us that the potential benefits of an increased character limit would outweigh the possible disadvantages.

Contact Us:
For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

How to Run a Successful Cause Marketing Campaign

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Cause marketing is a relatively new term. What it boils down to is a campaign led by a large organization in order to help fund a charitable project. This idea began with American Express back in 1980.

Historically

The credit card company decided to launch a campaign that would donate a portion of each American Express transaction to fund the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. The results were wildly successful as the company generated over $1.7 million for the restoration project, and the card’s use rose 27%.

Since this marketing milestone, many other large businesses have followed suit, and have achieved the same success. But how do they do it? Sure, everyone loves a good cause, but that is not all there is to it. Follow along for deeper insight into cause marketing and how your business can reap its benefits too.

Find Your Cause

The first step behind a cause marketing campaign is to take a look at how your brand is associated with a certain cause.

For instance, Dawn dish soap has been partnering with wildlife foundations for years. Most notably, their soap was instrumental in the rescue of thousands of animals after the giant BP oil spill in 2010. This kind of direct link between grease-covered ducklings and dish soap is exactly what your business should be looking for.

Positive or Negative?

The outcomes from positive vs negative advertising have been debated many times over. While a review of 100+ scientific studies from Wiley found no definitive difference between the two approaches, there is still more to the story.

Certain types of industries tend to have different reactions to these two methods of advertising. Negativity tends to work very well in political situations. On the other hand, positivity relates well to humanitarian efforts.

Ultimately, the direction of your cause campaign lies in the stance that your business wishes to take. Get a comprehensive view on the situation. Do a little research. It may even be worthwhile to run short campaigns in select areas to see which message produces better results.

Social Media

The use of social media in marketing should never be overlooked. For cause marketing specifically, this rings especially true. Once it is time to start running your campaign across a variety of digital mediums, social media will prove to be very advantageous.

As in many marketing strategies, your goal in this instance is to tell a compelling story. The use of photos and videos is a great way to get this message across.

When consumers can actually see what their support it going toward and how they are changing the world, they feel much more drawn to the cause. Many social media platforms are constantly evolving to create more ways in which to share a story.

As mobile usage continues to skyrocket, we see users spending less time looking at each individual post on their social media feed. So in order to get your message across, you need to do it quickly and effectively. Continue reading more about the benefits of mobile advertising with our article “Why Mobile Matters.”

Conclusion

A cause marketing campaign should always start with your business. How can it help? What can it do? Once you find a connection, find your viewpoint. Determine how to tell your story, positive or negative. Finally, start sharing that message across every digital space you can think of to get people involved. This is how your company can achieve success through cause marketing.