social media marketing Archives - Branding and Marketing

Facebook Video Ads Not Measuring Up?

Serious questions are piling up about the value of Facebook video ads and the actual viewing time.

How long do people watch them? Do they click on them at all? Has Facebook been miscalculating the time people watch? Would it be better to use something like YouTube?

One lawsuit against Facebook that alleges they have been calculating the views or length of viewing time incorrectly. By using a different number to divide by, Facebook may have overstated the actual time the video was watched by followers of a page. The viewership in question may be as high as 190 to 900 times overstated.

WOW! I find it hard to believe that a company full of high tech, brainy folks in Mountain View California could get their math wrong on a “simple” thing like length of viewing time and number of views. But I’m sure how you define the terms makes a difference too.

For a long deep dive into your content, podcasting has it all over Facebook. But I guess that is no surprise. People are using Facebook for social media, just to find out what their friends are doing or thinking. (Or at least what their friends are saying that they are doing/thinking, but that’s a different subject!) A recent interview in Dave Jackson’s School of Podcasting explains how YouTube – and certainly your own Podcast – is much much more effective than Facebook for getting a message listened to. Although someone’s page may have hundreds even thousands of views, the views are so quick, that people are not absorbing the content.

The podcast is comparing viewership of Facebook Live recordings that were boosted as paid advertising and I’m not sure what type of videos the lawsuit was about.

I just boosted two different videos for a client which seemed to have great results. Lots of people showed up at their event and that was the goal. But because of the podcast I listened to on Monday and the article I read this morning, I’m less comfortable claiming the stats we got from Facebook when I’m showing the client their results for their money. (I’m happy their event was good, otherwise it’d be a more difficult conversation.)

The Bigger Problem
The real problem is that there isn’t an independent group reporting the numbers. In the past advertising viewership (readership/engagement) was measured by old stand by’s like Neilson ratings for TV viewing or BPA for magazines, Technorati (RIP) — now Alexa for websites. Of course there are lots of other audit measures… but who, other than Facebook, sees how long people view things on Facebook?

The numbers that the podcasters are looking at are consumption figures from Apple Connect (formerly iTunes). It’s only a part of the audience because it doesn’t include people who listen on a host of other platforms (Stitcher, Castbox, Spotify, Google Play, – especially Android phones.

This all is a moving target as developers create tools and more developers change platforms… and of course the view public changes their collective mind.

Remember MySpace, Friendster, etc? Perhaps Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and SnapChat will be replaced just as quickly.

But from a marketer’s standpoint, keeping up with all the social media platforms, one thing is clear. If you own your hosting, domain, content and are not relying on the platforms that you pay to tell you that you have viewers, you have a better chance of trusting the numbers.

Meanwhile, pay per click, anyone?

Tools for Making Marketing Tactics Easier

Add music to video copyright free — This video of leaves falling is enhanced with music from Magisto.May not work with your browser.

Apps and tools make things easier when you’re working on marketing tactics. Here are a few tools that I’ve used to make preparing marketing easier over the past few weeks.

NOTES: I like to dictate into “notes” on my phone and then later send it to myself as an email. I especially use this following a client meeting. I head out the car and take a few minutes before leaving to give myself a quick to do list. I review the notes from the meeting and use the voice app to let the iPhone type the notes.

Later when I get back to the office, it is a matter of editing the “auto corrects” and rearranging the top of mind notes. I have found that it saves time and I don’t forget a detail that previously I may have missed. This is especially helpful if I have several different client meetings back to back. For an Android phone, you may have to install a separate app. This article has 10 note apps that could also work on iPhone – each has unique features.

HIGHTAIL: When there are numerous people on a committee and everyone needs to review and proofread, it is time-consuming to have it happen in parallel (one person, then the next, then the next, in bottom up order.) It is especially annoying when one person disagrees with another person, or misinterprets their revisions. It can waste a lot of graphic design and editing hours. Using Hightail allows everyone to log in to view the PDF when they have a moment. Easy-to-use sticky notes allow people to review by marking where the change is and asking a question or making a statement. All others can see revisions so it speeds the process along. Hefty monthly fee if you are a casual user, but great for a small business. Shout out to Cecilia Sveda and Brad Hain.

MAGISTO – Have a series of photos or a short video that you’d like to pull together with free music for a memorable social media video? Want to add music to video copyright free? I tried this recently and had good success with a short video (under a minute), but it edited out half of my slides for a longer (2 minute) video. The cool thing was the music I could add without worrying about copyright infringement or paying a royalty. The paid account ($10/a month) takes the water mark off the video at the end and lets you embed into email. Shout out to Angela Dash.
https://www.magisto.com/video/IF4AJUQUSiw2DwxhCzE?l=vsm&o=w&c=c

What programs and apps do you use to make things easier, faster and more effective? Leave a comment below.

Marketing with Instagram – A Podcast Interview with Instagram Expert Jeremy McGilvrey

Keeping up with all the changes and nuances of social media can be difficult. Many marketing professionals are still wondering if they should even bother with trying to market their using Instagram. “How does it make sense from an ROI standpoint,” is a common question. There are some industries that can really benefit from making use of it, such as those who use instagram for real estate to show off the luxury of a new build, or for those who work in the events industry sending Instagram shots during their latest shows. With a little imagination, a lot is possible and there is always a solution. Some people may put off the idea of using Instagram, as they may think that people aren’t interested in what they have to share. This isn’t the case. There is an audience out there for pretty much everything. Even if it comes to the point where a company may decide to buy followers, or even look on sites such as https://bumped.in/best-instagram-bot-reviews/ to run their profile for them and in return, boost their social following! This could be a step in the right direction when it comes to using this platform to its advantage. Over time, there will be things that people who use Instagram will learn. For example, the only place you can put an Instagram link is in the bio, but you can only put a singular link in it. However, there is an answer… a micro webpage that contains all your links. This is what websites like link tree and other similar sites can do for you. Before using link tree, you should probably read a review on suevu first.

I recently talked with Jeremy McGilvrey, Instagram expert and author of Instagram Secrets: the underground playbook for growing your following fast, driving massive traffic and generating predictable profits. His book will soon be released.
We talked about the “shout out process” on Instagram, strategies for selecting keywords and how to approach influencers about their promotions. He suggests using a free app called KIK and explained why Instagram is better than Facebook for reaching your target audience. At the end of the day, influencers are hugely powerful and create an extremely valuable platform for product placement, thanks to their reems of loyal followers, so until the hay day of social media comes to an end it will always be a great marketing tool. If you click here you can see an example of an influencer agency that works entirely on this premise with great success.

This is one of the first Branding and Marketing podcasts and it’s only about 20 minutes. Click on the embedded media to list to our conversation.

His book is 21 chapters and talks about how to structure your page, how to connect, what to name your Instagram page, how to structure your page, how to turn your followers into dollars, how to follow up and sell products and services.

Instagram Launches a New Logo

Instagram announced a new logo recently. I’m wondering where all marketers will be scrambling to make the adjustments. After all, instagram has become the hottest platform for marketers which is why many businesses are trying to get a large number of instagram followers.

Is it shown on any of your printed material? (Hope not!) Do you use a list of social media icons linked to your social media accounts on your website or blog?

If so, are you using the “latest” Instagram logo? Well, better click thru your websites to make sure you’re plugin’s and social media icons are up to date!

Click here for branding information from Instagram Brand Resources.

Here’s how they announced their refreshed logo a couple of days ago. This is how they described it:

Today we’re introducing a new look. You’ll see an updated icon and app design for Instagram. Inspired by the previous app icon, the new one represents a simpler camera and the rainbow lives on in gradient form. You’ll also see updated icons for our other creative apps: Layout, Boomerang and Hyperlapse.

We’ve made improvements to how the Instagram app looks on the inside as well. The simpler design puts more focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app.

The Instagram community has evolved over the past five years from a place to share filtered photos to so much more — a global community of interests sharing more than 80 million photos and videos every day. Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become.

I’ve seen a few very short videos on Imgur that make fun of the changes… I guess there are always folks that love to make fun of any changes. Here is the “official” video on an account called Instagram on Vimeo makes the change look a bit more complicated.

Instagram Launches a New Logo With Simple Icon over Rainbow Colors

And I believe that this post explains a lot of the thought process that went into the new logo.

How to Create a Social Media Header for your Business

Four Tools for Creating Your Social Media Header

Many of the main social media sites not only have business page profiles, they also have headers. In Facebook, it’s called a cover photo. Twitter and LinkedIn both call it a header.

One of the tricky things is each social media account has slightly different sizes. And the profile photo incorporates differently with each one, especially considering the responsive design that helps with mobile, tablet and desktop viewing of the same URL into a different size.

One nice chart that I found shows all the social media profile and header sizes in one place, but it was issued in January 2016. No doubt that in just a few weeks one of the social media sites will have revised their sizing requirements! But finding a guideline that is close can give you a good head start to branding and marketing your company or yourself in social media. This Social Media Cheat Sheet is courtesy of LouiseM.com. Please see the website link for more explanation and how to repurpose your Twitter header for a LinkedIn header.
Another place I found with a cheat sheet for social media sizes for headers and profiles has promised to always stay up-to-date. That’s a challenge. I have found that I am always looking up what the different size requirements are for the various social media marketing profiles. Between the headers, posters, profile photos, and cover shots… it’s always changing.
I like the way Sprout Social approaches this challenge as well. they have a tool called landscape that helps you size things correctly and offer a free trial.
Hubspot knows people are looking for an easy way to create headers and profiles so they’ve provided templates for the 5 top sites… you just have to give away your email in trade.

How do you stay current with the sizing changes?