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News
Lessons for marketers from the presidential elections forecast inaccuracies—Virtually all the polls, including those from highly-respected data experts, were confident of a Clinton victory. The fact that they got it so wrong should give marketers pause about the approach they take to the data analysis that has become so integral a part of their work. The lesson: Access to data doesn’t matter much if you don’t analyze it correctly. The big mistake in the election projections: cultural bias. That’s not to say cultural bias is always a bad thing, particularly if you know the culture of your customers; bias towards it “can uncover emerging markets or changes in buying habits.” Hidden cultural bias is another thing altogether. If you’re aware that it exists, you can create better analytical models. The takeaway: Data analytics must become a competency in communications, not just a tactic. How many communicators could even identify a cultural bias in a model for interpreting data? Yet it’s the interpretation of that data that ultimately will drive our approaches to communication. Read more
Public Affairs pros will learn from surprise Trump election—For one thing, with pollsters missing significant populations in their forecasts, public affairs professionals will have to figure out how to assess public sentiment more accurately when it comes to clients’ policy issues. “What you see on the ground might actually inform how you can use data in different ways,” said Hill + Knowlton Strategies EVP Ellen Moran. “If you aren’t also using data to track what is happening with people who you’re not trying to persuade, you might miss something.” Public Affairs professionals are also expecting reduced regulation but also reduced lobbying access, along with potential trade wars. The takeaway: Trump has no particular ideology, so paying close attention to the first 100 days of his administration will be vital to understanding the direction of his policies. In the meantime, the process of policy-making isn’t likely to undergo a significant change. Read more
Mobile Facebook use hits 1 billion milestone—The number of monthly active Facebook users accessing the social network strictly through mobile devices reached 1 billion for the first time in the third quarter. That’s about eight times more than the number who only use a computer, “a complete reversal of the trend from a few years ago,” according to one analyst. Facebook has 1.8 billion monthly active users, which means computer-only and mobile-plus-computer users are part of the remaining 800,000. It’s also worth noting that 1.2 billion users checked into Facebook every day in the third quarter. The takeaway: Whatever you’re doing on Facebook, make sure you account for the dominance of mobile access. This trend isn’t affecting Facebook alone. Give it a few more years and computers will be quaint old devices along with typewriters and rotary telephones. Read more
Emoji domains are coming. Yes, really.—Those of you who thought emojis were a passing fad will have to come to grips with reality now that Emoji URLs are coming. Spurred largely by increase mobile adoption, the idea of an emoji domain actually makes sense, and GoDaddy introduced a new service for registering and searching for emoji URLs. A Norwegian airline already uses an emoji URL to promote its flights to Las Vegas (knowing that the characters translate into letters and ASCII symbols). The browser would translate the emoji into the text-based URL that drives the web. The adoption of emoji URL requires ICANN approval, but more and more people think it’s inevitable. Stay tuned. The takeaway: While you shouldn’t be registering your emoji domains yet, you should be getting better acquainted with how people are using them. I’m telling clients to ignore anyone who says emojis have no place in the enterprise. If they communicate more effectively in a growing mobile landscape, they belong in business communication as much as anywhere else. Read more
Facebook opens jobs sections—In a direct assault on a core LinkedIn feature, Facebook began testing a feature that allows page administrators to display job openings and get applications from candidates. Evidently, small business owners post jobs on their pages anyway, which made the feature worth testing. The takeaway: While I don’t think big companies (think GE or Ford) will shift their job postings from LinkedIn to Facebook, it’ll be a great resource for small businesses. Even large businesses might be inclined to post some job openings on Facebook, if they’re seeking someone more likely to be a Facebook fan than a LinkedIn user. There’s also a good chance that a job listing on Facebook will get greater sharing than one on LinkedIn. Read more
Twitter is now considering selling Vine—It’s doubtful Twitter is motivated by an offer from Pornhub to buy Vine, but the company is looking at a number of term sheets from companies that want it. Twitter has narrowed the list of bidders from 10 to five, according to insiders. There’s no word on who those bidders are, though the messaging company LINE, once rumored to be among them, is apparently no longer interested. The takeaway: It would be nice to see Vine survive and have an owner that actually wants to invest in it. The sun will continue to rise, though, if these bids fall through and Twitter proceeds with its plan to shut Vine down. Read more
The Economist narrows its social media channels—While many organizations are bringing channel managers on board to help deliver content effectively across multiple channels, The Economist is giving up on Pinterest and Tumblr, opting instead to commit its resources to LinkedIn, where its goal is to build brand awareness instead of trying to drive traffic. 2.4 million people follow The Economist on LinnkedIn, up from half a million a year ago, and 25,000 new followers show up every week. Part of its success is to share content about art, culture, and entertainment—content that never struck a chord on Pinterest. The takeaway: I’m not sure The Economist couldn’t have succeeded on Pinterest or Tumblr with a different approach, but the success on LinkedIn demonstrates what experimentation and tweaks can do if you’re paying attention to what works and what doesn’t. Read more
Twitter awards best marketing uses of its platform—Twitter has present awards to marketers who are making the best use of Twitter. The top winners are Nascar (for a live campaign), AirBnB (for creativity), Apple Support (for customer relations efforts), Dove (for socially conscious work), and Snickers (for the most innovative use of Twitter). The takeaway: Looking into each of these award-winners is a lesson in understanding the platform rather than using it as just one more channel for delivering the same message. Read more
Snap’s lesson in marketing to its users—Rather than pull another tired marketing technique out of a textbook, Snap is schooling marketers on playful and surprising approaches. You may have heard about Spectacles, the glasses that will capture the wearer’s experiences and share the video via the Snapchat app. The company announced the glasses will be sold through “Snapbots,” physical locations at which you will “step into the bot’s field of view and use the screen to virtually try on the glasses in different colors before choosing.” The takeaway: The Snapbots use the same technology that drives Snapchat lenses, which its user base loves. Knowing their users led to the approach. What do you know about your customers that can lead to a surprising campaign that fits right in with what they love? Read more
Trends
We will need to deal with fake news—It’s not just media that will have to deal with fake news. Businesses will, too. Fake news gets spread on social media to audiences inclined to believe it; then they’re not exposed to the articles that correct the misinformation. It was a factor in the U.S. presidential election, where people read and believed a story claiming Clinton’s campaign was planning a radiological attack to stop voting (spread on Twitter by an informal Trump advisor); that’s just one example. The success of fake news in the election means it will now infiltrate other corners of society. The takeaway: As this New York Times piece notes, “the cure for fake journalism is an overwhelming dose of good journalism. When perceptions of business are affected by fake news (which they inevitably will), the same principle applies: It will require incredibly effective communication strategies to make sure the real story gets out and the fake story tamped down. Instead of political opponents, it’ll be activists, competitors, and critics flooding social media with real-looking news that isn’t. Companies that don’t have strategies in place for dealing with it will pay a price. And no, this isn’t the same as dealing with a misinformed blog post. Note that I’m working on a blog post on this very issue. Read more
The latest viral video craze: standing still—Haven’t seen one of the Mannequin Challenge videos yet, or heard of it? You will. These videos feature groups of people “freezing themselves in place, often in elaborate poses and scenarios.” It’s already showing up in spots from the Fox NFL pregame show and the S.E.C. Network (the South East Conference of the NCAA). The takeaway: As the Times article notes, it’s innocent fun. No doubt more brands will jump on the bandwagon and ruin it, demonstrating once again why we can’t have nice things. Read more
Companies demonstrate social awareness with election efforts—As I keep noting, consumers increasingly expect companies to be as focused on their social and sustainability responsibilities as their profit-making ventures. Some companies were able to demonstrate their commitment to the public good on election day, such as Zipcar, which offered free rides to polling places. (Uber and Lyft provided discounts.) One organization scoured social media for images of long voter lines and arranged delivery of pizza to those waiting. YMCA offered free babysitting to make it easier for parents to vote. Boost Mobile urged customers to demand more polling places and put its money where its mouth was by transforming five of its stores (in multi-cultural locations) into polling stations. And a number of companies gained visibility by providing time off for employees to vote. The takeaway: Active participation doesn’t necessarily mean taking a side, as these examples demonstrate. Read more
It’s time to set influencer marketing standards—Influencer marketing has repeatedly demonstrated itself to be one of the most effective marketing techniques around, but marketers have been ignoring the kind of misbehavior that could lead to regulatory restrictions. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already issued its first guidance around transparency and disclosure in influencer marketing, and more will come if the industry cannot police itself. That means setting standards across all industries to which marketers agree to abide. The takeaway: The same is true of native advertising. Our industry doesn’t do much to preclude regulations that force ethical behavior on us. We’ll have no right to complain when they do unless we take steps to establish standards and adhere to them. Let the consequences of misbehavior accrue only to those who don’t get in line. Read more
What trends will dominate social media in 2017?—It’s November, so the flood of inevitable prediction posts begin. I take these with more than a few grains of salt, but I do pay attention to Jayson DeMers, who embraces my own philosophy of looking at emerging trends that will get bigger rather than try to predict the next big unknown technology. When it comes to social media, Snap (formerly Snapchat) will continue to drive expectations and hardware innovation; Twitter’s collapse will continue as users grow weary of its rapid-fire, bite-sized messages; people will demand more vicarious experiences (like live video and 360-degree videos and images); and platforms will expand the kinds of communication opportunities they offer (like customer service or enterprise communication). The takeaway: The one trend DeMers lists that I disagree with: Brands will settle on a single social platform rather than engage across multiple social media channels. That will happen only if a company’s market settles in one platform. Until then, brands will be where their audiences are, using each channel based on its strengths. That’s why so many companies are hiring channel experts. Read more
What trends will dominate SEO in 2017?—Jayson DeMers also posted his predictions for SEO in the near year, which include the rise of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), with which I completely agree. If you don’t have an AMP-compliant version of your content yet, talk to your IT folks now. DeMers also envisions the rise of “dense” content to address fatigue over both bite-sized content and “epic” pieces. Dense content provides “as much information as possible in the smallest possible space.” Google’s ranking algorithm will be influenced by machine learning (that is, the algorithm will “learn how users phrase conversational queries” in order to deliver more meaningful results). User Experience Optimization (UEO) and SEO’s lines will blur, and personal digital assistants (like Siri and Cortana) will more greatly change the way many of us conduct searches. The takeaway: A lot of what’s happening in SEO requires the PR community to take a more active hand in influencing search results. That is, SEO has become as much a part of PR as media outreach. Read more
Internet access vital in hospitality industry—Business travelers decide what hotel they’ll stat at based on access to WiFi; free WiFi is a major preference as business travelers consider its availability in hotels to be similar to electricity (for which hotels don’t charge extra). They also look for useful features on mobile apps, SUB outlets, streaming services, and in-room chargers. The takeaway: What technology requirements do your customers have and how can you accommodate them, or even surprise them, by providing it (at a higher quality or lower price than your competitors)? Ten years ago, most hotels didn’t offer WiFi, but fast-moving technology has altered expectations. Are you up to date on what your customers expect? Read more
Research
30% of CEOs could fire their CMOs next year—Your chief marketing officer’s head could be on the chopping block, and the main reason may well be that she or he has not obtained the competencies required to manage digital business transformation. The strongest marketing efforts require both analytic and creative skills; according to Forrester Research, companies with analytic-focused CMOs underperform. The takeaway: This report just makes me want to cry. It has been several years since some colleagues and I developed a matrix of skills for success in the digital age and a process for helping audit an organization’s existing and missing competencies. We’ve had no takers for the audit because there’s no budget for it. Maybe that’ll change is CMOs see their jobs on the line. Read more
That seat at the table is just as hard to get as you think it is—Senior communicators may be part of the C-suite, but that doesn’t mean they’re taken seriously. An APCO Worldwide study found only 51% of comms chiefs are “highly confident” that their opinion matters to CEOs when it comes to business-critical discussions. Most communications leaders (89%) have access to the CEO, and 62% say communications matters more to CEOs these days thanks to the rise of social media. But fewer than half believe communications are “highly integrated or involved throughout the organization” and a shockingly low 26% said their opinions matter when the company makes business-critical decisions. The takeaway: Communicators will never be taken seriously until they can tie what they do directly to business performance. That requires a thorough understanding of the business and skill at delivering metrics that demonstrate the impact of communications in terms leaders respect and understand. Read more
PR works in B2B—Good old-fashioned PR pays off in the world of B2B. Getting articles placed in the press drives B2B buyers to look into the company, according to a Bospar study. Over half of CMOs and marketing VPs said they would visit a company’s web or mobile site after seeing just one story about the company in the news. Somewhat fewer marketing directors feel the same way (43%) and far fewer marketing managers (20%). However, seeing the story two to five times in the media gets you site visits from another third of CMOs, VPs, and marketing managers. Marketers put newspaper websites at the top of their news reading preferences, followed by Facebook, news aggregators, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The takeaway: I have been saying for decades that new media don’t kill old media. Here’s proof. PR definitely needs to adapt to new models, but it would be crazy to abandon media relations no matter how many people tell you it’s dead. Read more
In-house ad execs bullish on Internet of Things; agencies not so much—Another sign that agencies are out of step with their clients comes from the Internet of Things, which topped the list of disruptive technologies marketing executives think are important. Interestingly, those on the client side think it’s a more important technology than agencies, where conversational marketing and AI were seen as more important. Agency execs are also more bullish on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality than clients. The takeaway: Clients need to be educated about the disruptive technologies that excite agency marketers because they’re not wrong. At the same time, agencies need to get up to speed in the Internet of Things if they’re going to get the related work from clients who will quickly seek help from other sectors if they can’t get it from their marketing or PR agencies. Read more
Facebook is B2B’s favorite channel—That’s just one of the facts shared in this rundown of B2B marketing statistics. While 97% of B2C marketers prioritizing Facebook over other channels, 95% of B2B marketers take the same approach, with only 66% concentrating on LinkedIn. Even Twitter and YouTube are viewed as more important B2B channels than the business social network. There’s good reason: B2B marketers say Facebook outperforms other networks. They also find that video is the best-performing content on social media. The takeaway: While there are plenty of differences between B2B and B2C, there’s more than unites them than divides them. Keep in mind: Your B2B customers are also consumers attracted to the same kind of content and sites as other consumers. Read more
About that belief that Facebook debates won’t change anyone’s mind…—I can’t count the number of memes and cartoons I have seen that state what many believe to be the obvious: Political debate on Facebook doesn’t change anyone’s mind. Research, however, suggests it’s not true. Despite the fact that a lot of people don’t like political encounters online, “exposure to new ideas and viewpoints that many social media users encounter can occasionally cause people to change their minds on political issues or candidates,” according to the Pew Research Center. Some 20% of social media users admit that they’ve changed their view on a social or political issue thanks to something they saw or read on social media, and 17% say their views on a candidate was altered. Liberal Democrats are more likely to be open to changing their views. The takeaway: If your company is involved in a social or political issue, it’s not necessarily a waste of time to address it in social media. Understand whose mind you’re trying to change and make your case in a manner that is likely to have a genuine impact. The case studies in this research are well worth reading. Read more
Do you tap into your customers’ cultures?—A study aptly titled “Creating Cultural Value” has found 83% of brand marketers believe it’s important to connect with the wider culture of their customers; 71% try to contribute to culture and deliver value to consumers that extends beyond their products or services. According to a senior vice president at Kantar Added Value (which conducted the survey), “The topic of culture is rising on (marketers’) agenda as they consider the contributions they wish to make to people’s lives beyond products and services. Creating cultural value is playing an increasingly strategic role as a drive for brand engagement and expression.” The takeaway: It’s up to marketers and PR practitioners to serve as a “cultural radar,” which 73% of survey respondents say is an increasingly important role. If we know what’s relevant to our customers at any given moment, we can tap into that in support of our communication goals. Read more
Executives trust their gut more than data and analytics—Big data is a big deal, and most senior executives plan to spend more on it, but a survey of more than 2,000 data and analytics decision makers found only 38% have a high level of confidence in what the data tells them—even though they think the insights are vital to decision-making. Nearly half don’t support their organization’s data and analytics (D&A) strategy, feeling better about gut-feel decision-making. The complexity of data is another factor. The takeaway: If executives don’t trust their big-picture customer/consumer data, it’s even less likely they’ll trust what the data tells PR and corporate communicators. That trust is bound to dip even lower in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, where big data got it all wrong. It’s important to make sure your data goals are clear to your C-suite and provide greater transparency into the data analysis process. Read more
Video
Mobile video traffic posed to explode—A study finds the expansion of video opportunities in mobile apps (including messaging apps) will contribute to a surge of video traffic across mobile data networks. Mobile providers will need to adapt if they’re going to meet customer expectations for high-quality video experiences. The takeaway: As communicators explore their approaches to the user migration from social networks to messaging apps, video needs to be a key consideration. Read more
Periscope enhances engagement opportunities—Twitter’s Periscope live-streaming service has three new ways for engagement with a live audience. Superfans identifies your most engaged followers, assigns them a special flame icon, and ranks them from one to 10 based on their previous engagement. Groups lets you broadcast and share video with defined audience segments; only invited groups will be able to see the video, even though members of a group can add others. And an update to Periscope.tv eases the ability to find broadcasts through search, by browsing feeds and highlighted channels, and seeing what the community is sharing in real time. The update also brings a lot of the app’s features to the desktop experience. The takeaway: Live video’s march to prominence continues apace. I recommend a strategy session to determine which of your current activities could be enhanced by experimenting with live broadcasts via Periscope or Facebook Live. Read more
Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence
Developers can advertise Messenger bots in the Facebook news feed—For a price, that is. Chatbot creators will be able to buy News Feed ads using Facebook’s targeting capabilities to reach specific audiences. The takeaway: Good news for developers who have been frustrated getting the word out to the right people that their bot exists. Read more
Pinterest gets to 150 million MAUs thanks to AI—Artificial Intelligence is one of the key reasons—along with a faster ranking system and content localization—for Pinterest reaching 150 million monthly active users, with most of the new users coming from outside the U.S. The AI approach Pinterest has taken, deep learning, “which involves training artificial neural networks on lots of data—such as, you guessed it, photos in pins!—and then getting the neural networks to make inferences about new data.” Pinterest is applying deep learning to visual search and recommendations. The takeaway: Relevance is critical in attracting users, and AI’s abilities to get to know what interests people will play a powerful role in delivering that relevance. Read more
Facebook Messenger now houses 11,000 chatbots—More than 11,000 chatbots have been added to Facebook Messenger, with tens of thousands of developers creating more. There are also now “23,000 personal accounts for the Bot Engine tool from wit.ai, Facebook’s natural language processing service for developers.” Facebook is now allowing users to rate Messenger chatbots (the familiar one-to-five star approach) and write reviews. Those ratings and reviews are shared only with the developer for now. Bots can also now send videos, audio clips, GIFs, and other files. The takeaway: 11,000 bots and we’re still waiting for the “killer bot” (which sounds a lot worse than “killer app”). It’s coming—in fact, it may already be there, undiscovered so far. Read more
Some chatbots do a great job of branding—If you read my quip in the item above about the yet-to-appear killer chatbot, I didn’t mean to imply there were no chatbots doing an amazing job. VentureBeat listed four: Macallan (the whisky) raising awareness with a bot that helps customers find the right scotch through a guided, personalized quiz; candymaker Trolli, which engaged customers by having them care for a virtual “crawler” and sending funny videos, GIFs, quotes, and the like (consistent with its weirdness-oriented website); Absolut vodka, which delivered a personalized coupon you could redeem in a new bar in your hometown; and fashion company Burbrry, which showcased its newest runway items from London fashion Week and made it easy to buy them. The takeaway: Well-known consumer companies are using bots for marketing. How long will it take the PR/communications industry to figure out that bots are the future? It’s still not happening… Read more
Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality
Industry forecast pegs VR at $30 billion by 2020—That number will rise to $38 billion by 2026, according to Greenlight Insights. The report, “Road to VR,” suggests growth will be “very modest” for another couple years before taking off in a serious way. Few industry respondents expect to be profitable with VR in the next 12 months, and half think they’ll bring in less than $1 million in VR revenue over the next year. One of the big areas for growth: VR (or “immersive video”) cameras. The takeaway: Consumer curiosity is booming, pushed along by TV ads showing people in VR headsets (like the new Google headset for its Daydream-enabled Pixel smartphone). I know many readers consider VR a fad. It’s not, and as AR and MR begin to appear, adoption will take place in large part in the enterprise. Read more
Augmented Reality coming to GE factories—GE will introduce Augmented Reality in three business divisions next year. Workers at a GE Oil & Gas turbomachinery facility in Italy will don AR gear to see visuals they need to collect “dozens of precise measurements in the manufacturing of gas turbine nozzles.” Similar technology is coming to factories at GE’s Power and Aviation businesses later in 2017. The takeaway: The enterprise is most definitely the launching point for AR, and it doesn’t have to be limited to factory floors. Internal communicators should consider how AR can aid in company messaging, engagement, and other internal activities. Read more
This week’s image is a purely industrial look at a wrap. From the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Flickr Account, these are metal wrapping that protects push walls and stalls.