Future of Marketing Communication

According to the 2015 Meaningful Brands research by Havas, most people would not care if 74% of all brands disappeared for good. This should be a wake-up call for the majority of brands. The marketing landscape is continuously changing and digital technology is developing faster than ever. It will come as no surprise, that some businesses fail to keep up with these trends.

Most of the problems that brands face nowadays result from problems in marketing communication. Many marketers have not updated their strategies to today's consumers who are more demanding in terms of customers service, less loyal to favorite brands and more resistant to traditional marketing messages.

Social media is a digital reflection of today's consumers' lives. Platforms like Facebook or Twitter are a natural environment, especially for the young users. They spent a massive amount of time there. These digital networks are constantly adjusting to evolving consumers to meet their expectations and make them spend even more time on social media. Social platforms are sources for news, information about friends and entertainment. They let users express themselves, share their experiences and views, interact with others and ask for opinions.

It creates a wide space for brands to step in and communicate with clients and prospects. Users leave lots of information about their interests and preferences. Marketers who do not listen their audiences miss the opportunity to reach out to the most promising leads.

Internet users create over 30,000 mentions with "where can I buy" phrase monthly. Social listening tools enable you to collect such comments in one place and then reach out to prospects. It is one of the most effective channels for generating sales. Leads that you collect with social listening are authentically interested in particular products or services and what's more important these prospects express their demand publicly. If you reply directly to a user who ask for recommendation chances are he or she will settle on your product.

According to the Brand Storytelling Report 2015 by Headstream, more than a half of consumers are more likely to buy a product in the future if they really love a brand story. People want to hear stories about real humans, stories they can relate to. Relevant stories that speak to consumers make brands meaningful. On top of that, they can go viral, giving brands organic recommendations that are more trustworthy than any other corporate messages. Emotional marketing helps businesses to stand out in the highly competitive market.

Apple flipped their marketing strategy. They don't sell computers. They offer a way of thinking and a challenge to the status quo, by making their products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. It just happen they fulfill this vision by making computers.

Other meaningful brands start with the why as well. Coke doesn't sell soda, they offer happiness, Universal Music doesn't sell songs, they give you emotions and moments. Redefinition of marketing strategy can change the way people perceive a brand and bring them around to its offer.

Consumers, especially the young ones, often don't trust brands any longer. Corporations no longer have a big impact on customer behavior and their preferences. Traditional advertising is not effective as it used to be a few years back. People use ad blocking and if not, they unconsciously tuning traditional ads out.

That's why Internet users are more willing to trust a favorite blogger rather than a recommendation from a brand. Thus, bloggers and other influencers have the power of shaping consumer opinions. They are more credible to today's audiences.

Word of month has always been a valuable source for customer acquisition and retention. However, with social media development it moved to a different level. Recommendations have no longer one-to-one character. Everyone with Internet access can reach out to broad audiences. If a user happen to be influential on social media, he or she has a powerful weapon of shaping customers opinions in hands.

Therefore, more and more brands started to leverage this channel in fixed marketing strategy. Influencer marketing brings measurable results to businesses. For instance, a cosmetic brand managed to significantly improve sentiment structure within 18 months (graph), since they started to cooperate with influencers.

Somersby incorporated influencer marketing in their strategy as well. They have cooperated with bloggers on regular basis for many years. It helped them improve online image and improve sales results.

If you work in marketing you should never stop learning. Follow trends and always listen to your audience. Your clients and prospects is the most valuable brand asset you can ever earn and also a rich source for insights that will help your business to grow.

Agencies will Become Educators

Teaching will be another model that will continue to take shape. More specifically, teaching people and companies. Not keeping the secret sauce secret. This means educating and enabling as opposed to controlling (practice what you preach, right?).

This means agencies/consultants, etc. will continue to create their own content online and off.

Perhaps it is monthly events in your home town where you invite out business owners and marketers.

And in many ways, this content can be monetized directly. Perhaps instead of clients, you have subscribers and create a community. A membership site or a mentoring program.

The end result is part publisher and part agency.

Most branded content will come from consumers. User generated content will far exceed branded content and brands need to embrace this and accept they aren’t in complete control of their own brand. As such, it’s imperative that brands create a strong identity in the minds and hearts of consumers. 

Here are some of the traits that will be seen in Consumer, Markets and Suppliers:

• Small Screen versus Big Screen versus Screen on demand (The latter being my bet for handling the new complex consumer). Mobility will still have its part, but don’t just think of Mobility being small device.
• Pinpoint narrowcast profiling versus Viral broadcast
• Knowledgeable Consumers
• Immediacy of transactions and how the Profile wants to transact
• Increased Collaboration to live your life and high levels of independence
• Decentralisation of where people live and more reliance on Screen-based technologies.
• Consumers creating their own marketing opportunities
• Consumers as Advertisers of their own content
• 3D printing conceptual information and holography
• Consumers will want to ‘Find’ an answer on demand, not ‘Search’, but we should expect this to be automated
• Consumers lives will be more chaotic, so will need convenience providers to help them trade ‘time’ for money or favours
• Applications will be more Consumer-centric rather than Consumers being driven to SM alters. Consumer will want to have ‘My Life’ on a screen which will help them coordinate their lives.
• Big Data will be transparent, but Big Information will be the focus for Consumers.
• Be prepared to pay-per-view the Consumer directly to listen to your Marketing Communications as a shared model with the Tool provider. A new ecosystem will evolve.
• Attention span will be less, but there will be a rapid Judge and Execution
• Consumers own Video’s will be routes/channels for your Marketing Communications and tools will become available to make that happen
• Consumer profiles will be Real-time, but only if they want you to see it (intense Privacy laws)
• Consumers will use SaaS to build their life style tools.
• Consumers will demand/expect very high Content quality and highly intuitive.

Sources:

Natalia Chrzanowska, Smart Insights, 2016

URL:http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/4-trends-will-change-marketing-communication-2016/

Brad Hogan 2016, URL:http://www.therisetothetop.com/davids-blog/5-predictions-future-marketing-pr-advertising-agencies/

Dugdale consulting, Word Press 2016, 

URL:https://dugdaleconsulting.com/2014/02/18/marketing-communications-and-the-future-a-view/

transforming marketing ideas into messages

Idea Generating Process

Def: The process of creating, developing, and communicating ideas which are abstract, concrete, or visual. The process includes the process of constructing through the idea, innovating the concept, developing the process, and bringing the concept to reality. (business dictionary)

Tools and techniques for creation process

One technique involves getting into groups and coming up with ideas, known as brainstorming, and this is a tried and true method. This technique has many variations. Some teams use a traditional brainstorming approach and simply let their minds wander while they speak up whenever something promising occurs to them or by passing papers with ideas written so that others can physically add to the group thinking. Other teams may utilize a modified approach where they think of ideas that achieve the opposite of their desired outcome to get thinking out of the box.

One techniques is to save discussion for later where the team is presented with the problem to solve and then sent back to work on other tasks while allowing the new problem and possible ideas to develop in the back of their minds for a given amount of time.

Story boarding or making picture illustrations to help develop new ideas and find solutions is a valuable visual technique. New insights can be reached when thinking about a task.

To encourage active participation and thinking role playing or having employees work out in a specific scenario can be employed for idea generation. (study.com)

How people perceive the message?

Stages of perception in Marketing

Sensation
Sensation describes what occurs when a person's senses are initially exposed to the external stimulus of a product or brand marketing. The sensory receptors of a consumer are engaged by product or brand cues through sight, sound, smell, taste and texture. For example, Starbucks engages all the senses in its sensory brand marketing. A customer who enters a Starbucks coffee shop may hear the sounds and smell the aroma of the grinding of fresh coffee in the store. Background music and a unique store design round out the experience of the taste of hot or cold coffee and food products that can be enjoyed in-store at quaint cafe tables.

Attention
In consumer information processing, attention occurs when a person lingers and gives mental processing capacity to the external stimulus from a product or brand. Selective perception is when a consumer pays attention to messages that are consistent with her attitudes, beliefs and needs. When a product is inconsistent with these factors, the consumer will withdraw attention.

Interpretation
Interpretation occurs when a person assigns a meaning to the sensory stimulus from a product or brand marketing. Comprehension is aided by expectations and familiarity. A consumer scans his memory to retrieve previous experiences with the brand or a similar brand. Store-brand marketing frequently capitalizes on the interpretation stage when product packaging design contains logos, colors and other elements that are similar to national brands that consumers are generally more familiar with.

Retention
The conclusion of the consumer perception process is the retention stage. This is marked by the storage of product or brand information in short-term and long-term memory. The marketer's goal is to provide positive stimuli in the proceeding stages that translate into consumers storing the information about the product or brand into long-term memory.

(chron.com)

How to align created idea according to objectives?

• Develop your content strategy based on corporate goals and research.
• Create a content strategy that is based on themes that matter to your audience — but that intersect with what you offer — and detail the goals at the highest and lowest levels.
• Lay out a plan that specifies how you will execute your content marketing strategy. (contentmarketinginstitute.com)

Sources:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-idea-generation-definition-process-techniques.html
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_97.htm
https://www.cleverism.com/18-best-idea-generation-techniques/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stages-perception-marketing-22161.html

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/02/coca-colas-content-strategy-lessons-for-marketers/

Media Agencies and Selecting the Media Mix

Selecting the right Media Mix

Know how your audience and where they receive their information: Selling your product or service is your ultimate goal, so you must know who your target audience is and how they like to receive their information – is it magazines, websites, newsletters, podcasts, webinars, tradeshows? One way to help learn about your online audiences is to use Google Analytics, which offers powerful insight into the behavior of visitors to your website. You can use it to identify which sites visitors come from, what their demographics are, which content they view the most, and how loyal and engaged they are. Once you analyze the behavior of your audience and know where they are tapped into, you can identify the correct channels to reach them.

Match your product/service with the right media: Once you know your audience, it’s critical to make sure you are matching your efforts to the right media since certain media have more appeal to different groups. When you know which media specialize in your specific niche, it makes it easier for you to get quality coverage because you’re giving them stories they are already looking for. For example, a hot new mobile app company might want to focus on targeting online media sources frequently visited by a mobile-savvy audience rather than radio or TV sources. 

Continually evaluate your media mix: Once you have followed steps one and two above and have a solid understanding of which your best audiences and media outlets are, you must continually evaluate the effectiveness of your mix. Trends, opinions and perceptions change constantly, and your chosen media mix will not be immune to this. By actively evaluating and researching your media mix, you can identify patterns and implement adjustments as your audience and their preferred media outlets change to ensure your mix continues to make the best impact for your efforts. ( Pan communications)

How Do Media Agencies search their target audience

Interactive marketing is a one to one marketing process that reacts and changes based on the actions of individual customers and prospects. This ability to react to the actions of customers and prospects means that trigger based marketing is dramatically more effective than normal direct marketing.
It depends on customers expressing their preferences in order for marketers to respond to their needs in an appropriate way and produce applicable marketing measures (Marketing schools, 2012). The capability to address a consumer and the ability to collect and retain their response are the two fundamental features of interactive marketing communications. Interactivity is therefore seen as a tool that allows good marketing to result in good communication (Sorrell et al., 1996).

Intermedia And Intramedia
Intramedia is competition between media within the same type of medium whereas Intermedia is competition between different media types. 

Google books 

Media Studies: Policy, management and media representation

By Pieter J. Fourie

Word of Mouth is a powerful thing and it’s rife amongst social media folk, so connecting with those that are connected to your target audiences can be worthwhile.
Then think about who these people are, which industries they work in, what they like, what they read, what motivates them, age ranges, personality traits, where they hang out, technical know-how, how likely they are to use social media. Really do your research and segment your audiences by creating profiles for them. You may uncover some less obvious people that could be great for you. Keep a record of this, a simple spreadsheet will do, and make sure you review and update it, adding others as necessary.


Also identify your key influencers. These could be people that stand out within your communities, people that others listen to, people that create action (not necessarily those people with thousands of Twitter followers). They could be peers, journalists, thought-leaders or other stakeholders. People with game-changing opinion and ideas. People who challenge the norm. Or simply people that talk sense.

The types of audiences you could be looking for include:

• Current clients or customers
• Potential clients or customers
• Associates of current/potential clients or customers
• Journalists and editors
• Bloggers
• Suppliers
• Affiliate businesses
• Thought-leaders

If you don’t know who these people are, make the most of the various free monitoring tools to track who is talking about the keywords associated with your business: such as Google Analytics, Social Mention, Delicious and Board Reader. This should highlight who has a voice in these subject areas.

Once you’ve profiled the people you want to connect with, you need to find them. This is an on-going process and takes a little time. This will give you a good idea of which social platforms you should have a presence on, so keep your mind open to niche sites as well as the big guns.

As for finding people, there are a bunch of tools you can use to help you find them on the main social networks:
How to find people on Twitter
Search.twitter.com is a favourite. It has a wide criteria range to search on, including location (handy for local businesses). Also use this tool to find the key influencers in your industry and browse their follower/following lists. You could find some great people to connect with there.
Twitterrel lets you find people talking about related topics.
Twellow is the Twitter equivalent of the Yellow Pages, a directory sorted by occupation.
Just Tweet It is a directory sorted by interest.
Tweepz help you find people nearby.
Also pay attention to hashtags being used for events, you could find some great people there.
How to find people on LinkedIn
Search for the names of those people you’ve already identified by name using LinkedIn’s search box. Also make the most of the advanced search feature.
You can also use this search box to search for keywords that will be included in profiles. Make the most of using OR or AND in these searches to include a few keywords (OR allows you to look for any one of those terms in the profile, AND allows you to look for a number of words).
You can also search for people using their email addresses.
Join groups that fit your interests or industry. Once you’ve been accepted as a member, browse the member lists and find people with shared interests that you want to connect with.
Use the Questions and Answer function to start a conversation around your key subject area. You’ll find those people interested in this subject will respond to you, after which you can connect with them.

You can’t simply choose to connect with people on LinkedIn as you can with Twitter. They need to give their approval (which I’m a fan of), so if they’re connected to you through someone you’re connected to, request to be introduced to them.
Know Where Your Customers Spend Their Time

Three recent research studies show active Internet users spend anywhere from 16% to nearly 25% of their online time on social networks.
Find Content That Will Resonate Deeply With Your Audience

The comScore graphic above shows an upward trend in online entertainment consumption. Given the growing numbers of consumers ages 18-34 who watch videos and engage on social networks simultaneously, it is important for marketers to become skilled at engaging in conversations about hot cultural topics seen in the entertainment industry.

Nielsen’s study revealed that owners of mobile devices are increasingly multi-taskingwhile watching a TV program. While the majority of people check their email, a significant 44% also visit social sites.



By socialmediaexaminer.com

Sources
http://blog.prspeak.com/blog/3-tactics-for-picking-the-right-media-mix
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com

Social Media As A Tool

Social Media Platforms that help you Network:

Blab: It allows you to broadcast your content to your followers and, better still, allows you to invite them into the video conversation. This two-way dialogue is what makes blab a game changer in the industry. Strengths: The two-way capabilities make blab stand out in a crowded field. Weaknesses: It has a small (but growing) user base.

Facebook: Strengths: Widely-adopted by large segments of the population. Weaknesses: Will the younger generation stay on Facebook once Grandma has “friended” them?

Google+: The clean, simple interface makes connecting with friends, family and business associates a piece of cake. Google+ was the fastest-growing social network in history and looks as though it’s here for the foreseeable future. Strengths: Ease-of-use and uncluttered environment. Weaknesses: Competition from other well-established social media platforms.

Friendster: A way to stay connected with everything that’s important to you — hobbies, interests, causes, business, etc. Strengths: A simple web-interface makes this easy-to-use. Weaknesses: Not as widely adopted as some other platform-runs. Might have peaked.

hi5: This is a social networking platform that skews a little younger than LinkedIn. Members can play games, watch videos, flirt, give gifts or just hang out. Strengths: It’s a great alternative to MySpace and/or Facebook for the younger crowd. Weaknesses: It may not be the best social networking platform for business.

LinkedIn: They’ve been around since 2003, which, in social media terms is also known as “since the beginning of time.” Strengths: Everybody’s on LinkedIn. Weaknesses: Most people have trouble knowing what to do with LinkedIn after they upload their business information.

Meerkat: This live streaming social media platform is perfect for people who want to share videos of the special moments in their lives. Perfect for business, social networking, or for close friends, this mobile-only social network is growing quickly and rapidly.

MyLife: A clean, simple site that helps people connect with family, friends and other relationships. Over 750 million profiles. Strengths: The easy-to-use interface is one of the site’s great strengths. Perfect if you’re looking for an engaging, simple way to connect with old friends. Weaknesses: Not as widely adopted as some other sites.

Ning: This site connects groups of people who are passionate about particular interests, topics or hobbies. Co-Founded by Marc Andreessen, who helped launch Netscape. Strengths: Great for connecting with others who are interested in your area of expertise. Weaknesses: The user interface is so simple and uncluttered that getting started can be confusing. But once you’ve figured it out, it can be a good tool.

Periscope: Like its close relative Meerkat, this new video sharing platform is taking the world by storm. Are you interested in using live video to share parts of your life with the world around you? If so, then Periscope is for you.

Plaxo: Currently hosts address books for more than 40 million people. Helps people stay in touch with “Pulse,” which is a dashboard that lets you see what the people you know are sharing all over the web. Strengths: Graphical user interface makes it easy-to-use. Weaknesses: It’s not as widely-adopted as some other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Twitter: A surprisingly-successful tool that is widely-adopted and used for everything from business to fun and games. Strengths: Used by large segments of the population. Weaknesses: Can be a distraction, especially if you have Attention Deficit Disor … wow, look at that bird outside my window!

XING: XING has more than 8 million subscribers worldwide. It has over 34,000 specialized groups and over 150,000 live networking events each year. Strengths: XING adds new developments to their platform on a regular basis. Weaknesses: Not as widely-adopted as some other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Social Media Platforms that help you Promote:

Bing: Bing, Google and Yahoo aren’t technically social media platforms, but they are tools that can be used to promote your product or service, so we’re including all three in this overview. The technique for using any search engine to promote your product or service is the same so you’ll want to optimize your website so that the search engines see it. By doing so, you’ll drive traffic to your website from the people doing searches on specific topics. Strengths: Bing uses “intelligent search” to make searches even more relevant for the user. Weaknesses: It’s fighting against Google, which is a tough battle.

Blogging Platforms: These are tools that are used to create blogs. Some of them, like Blogger, Tumblr, Vox or Xanga are straightforward platforms that are great for people who want to do a simple blog about their vacation, their company or their family reunion. If you’re ready to create a more robust blog that adds a lot of SEO value for your website, you’ll want to useJoomla, Drupal, Typepad or WordPress. These are the blogging platforms used by serious bloggers.

Discussion Boards and Forums: Are you interested in creating an online forum where members of your community can engage with each other and offer each other advice? Then a discussion board or forum is for you. The best-known platforms for forums include Lefora, Zoho, Drupal, PhpBB,Simple Machines, Vanila, JavaBB and vBulletin. Strengths: Forums are a great way to build a relationship with customers and prospects. Weaknesses: They require regular, ongoing time and energy to keep them running properly.

Google: Google is technically not a social media platform, but can be used as a social tool to drive visits to your well-optimized website. Strengths: Ease-of-use and pervasiveness. Weaknesses: Are they spreading their brand across too many channels? Does this confuse people? (Answer: Probably not, but we’re struggling to come up with any weakness for Google. They’re just so darn nice, it’s hard to figure out what they’re not good at. They’re even good at not being evil, you know?)

Email Marketing Platforms: Email can often get overlooked in the world of social media, but if you define social media as tools that help you have a dialogue with your customers and prospects, then email falls into the social media category. Popular email marketing tools include AWeber (affiliate link), Constant Contact, iContact, ExactTarget and others. Strengths: Email is a highly measurable way to connect with customers and prospects. Weaknesses: Email marketing requires a concerted, ongoing effort if you’re going to do it right.

Flickr: This is a photo-sharing site that can be used to build awareness and drive traffic to your product pages. If you’re selling hunting rifles or tennis rackets or widgets, you’ll want to use Flickr to a) build awareness for your product and b) drive people from Flickr to your website. Strengths: Flickr is easy-to-use and has a clean user-interface. Weaknesses: Photo-sharing sites are important, but they’re not the very first thing you’ll want to work on in your social media campaign.

Howcast: Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a website where you could watch “How To” videos on the topic of your choice? Well, there is and it’s called Howcast. It’s an extremely worthy-competitor to YouTube. Strengths: A great place to upload high-quality content. Weaknesses: The default is still YouTube. Most people are conditioned to automatically type “YouTube” into their browser.

iTunes: This is not the only podcasting site, but it’s the best-known and most popular. If you’re doing interviews with industry experts or if you’re creating mini-radio shows, iTunes is the place to be. Strengths: It’s a well-known, well-respected platform. Weaknesses: If you don’t create scintillating content, people won’t come back for more.

MySpace: MySpace. They arguably started this whole social media thing to begin with. Today, MySpace is primarily used as a congregation point for younger people interested in pop culture. They’re evolving and seem to be finding a niche. Strengths: A well-known social media platform that most everybody has visited at one time or another. Weaknesses: They’re not the ubiquitous social media platform they once were.

Picasa: This is a photo organizing, editing and sharing site that’s owned by Google. You can tag photos to enable quick searches by users. Strengths: As with most Google services, Picasa is easy-to-use and loads very quickly. Weaknesses: Photo sharing is important, but it’s not the very first thing you’d want to work on in your social media campaign.

Vimeo: Think of Vimeo as a high-end YouTube. It’s perfect for people interested in sharing their videos with a community of positive, encouraging creative professionals. Strengths: You gotta love a site that oozes upbeat, optimistic, life-affirming energy that Vimeo does. Weaknesses: It’s not a default site the way YouTube is, but that may change in the near future.

Yahoo: Like Google and Bing, this is not technically a social media platform. But it is a tool that ultimately can drive traffic to your website. Be sure to optimize your website so that search engines like Yahoo can see it. Strengths: Yahoo is one of the work horses of the search engine world, so it’s always a good idea to keep it on your radar screen. Weaknesses: Is Yahoo a search engine? An online portal? A web magazine? Perhaps it’s all of these things. And perhaps that’s not a weakness after all.

YouTube: Of course, YouTube is one of the better-known platforms used to promote businesses. The key to YouTube is to keep the videos short and sweet. Make sure they solve the “what’s in it for me” equation. YouTube is perfect for “How To” videos, but it’s not a good place to upload the CEOs annual speech to shareholders. Strengths: YouTube is ubiquitous. Weaknesses: It’s a cluttered environment that can sometimes have some pretty racy videos on it.

Social Media Platforms that help you Share:

Buffer: This social media management tool allows you to schedule Tweets and Facebook updates quickly and easily from your web browser. It’s perfect for people not interested in using TweetDeck or HootSuite. Just sign up, install on your browser and the next time you’re at a web page you want to share, hit the Buffer button and schedule it for sometime in the future. Strengths: An easy way to schedule updates on Twitter and Facebook. Weaknesses: Other platforms offer the same functionality.

Delicious: This is a social bookmarking service owned by Yahoo. When someone tags your article, video or blog post with a Delicious bookmark, it’s the equivalent of a “vote.” The more votes you get, the more visibility your content has on the Delicious website. Strengths: It’s everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

Digg: Similar to Delicious in that people vote for articles, videos and blog posts they like. If your content receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the front page for millions of visitors to see. Strengths: Like Delicious, Digg is everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

HootSuite: This is a tool that allows you to manage multiple social media channels through one dashboard. If you have a company with more than one contributor to your social media program, HootSuite is a good solution. Strengths: A very easy-to-use interface. Simple set-up, yet still powerful. Weaknesses: If your social media program is no more extensive than updating a Twitter account, then HootSuite would be over-kill.

Instagram: A surprisingly fun photography app that’s sweeping the globe. Install Instagram on your smartphone and, next time you take a photo, use it to enhance, stylize and share the photo with others in your network. Strengths: A fun, easy-to-use app. Weaknesses: Other apps provide a similar experience.

LocalVox: This is a social media dashboard that’s similar to HootSuite and TweetDeck. It’s perfect for people who are interested in drilling down a little deeper than either HootSuite or TweetDeck allow you to do. You wouldn’t want to use LocalVox in addition to the others, but instead of. If you need a more in-depth experience, LocalVox may be just what you need.

Path: A location-based social sharing app that allows you to share photos, memories, music, thoughts and other moments with friends in your social media circle. Strengths: A fun way to share your life journey with friends. Weaknesses: Heavy competition from intrenched competitors like Facebook, Google+ and others.

Pinterest: We live in a visual world and Pinterest leverages that. Tired of reading long blog posts (like this one) but still enjoy skimming through images that are worth 1,000 words? If so, then Pinterest is for you. Just visit the site, sign up and start sharing images by re-pinning them to your profile. Strengths: A visually-appealing way to share information with followers. Weaknesses: Competition from a wide variety of other social media platforms.

Quora: This is the perfect place to go if you’re interested in asking a question that requires an expert answer. Just type in a question you have about any topic and Quora will provide answers from other users. Quora is frequented by smart, well-educated users, so the answers tend to be very helpful and well-thought-out. Strengths: A simple, easy-to-use platform. Weaknesses: A simple Google search can sometimes offer the same quality of answers.

Reddit: Similar to Digg and Delicious. Reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web. Users can vote articles up or down on the site, so readers can check out the hot, trending topics from blogs, newspapers and other sources around the globe. Strengths: Like Digg and Delicious, Reddit is everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

Scribd: This is the largest social publishing and reading site in the world. You simply upload your speech, ebook or PowerPoint presentation to the site so that others can be awed by your wisdom and expertise. Strengths: A great way to potentially get your content in front of thousands of readers. Weaknesses: There are a lot of other people competing for the same eyeballs.

SlideShare: One of the better-known places to upload your content for sharing with others. Take your PowerPoint, your ebook, your Podcast or just about any other content and share it with the SlideShare community. Strengths: Like Scribd, SlideShare is a great way to get in front of a large number of visitors. Weaknesses: There are a lot of other people competing for the same eyeballs.

StumbleUpon: Very similar to Digg, Delicious and Reddit. When you rate a website that you like using StumbleUpon, it’s automatically shared with like-minded people. And it helps you find great sites your friends recommend. Strengths: StumbleUpon helps spread your content to people not regularly exposed to your products and/or services. Weaknesses: Competes with several other well-established tools, like Digg, Delicious and Reddit.

TweetDeck: Like HootSuite, TweetDeck provides a way to track many of your social media channels on one dashboard. It can be a time-saver and a productivity-enhancer, assuming you’re not easily distracted. Strengths: It’s very easy to set-up and get started. Weaknesses: Like all dashboard tools, it can lead to distractions for employees who are easily … Whoa! Is that a fly on the ceiling or just a speck of dust?

Wikipedia: It still amazes us that this user-generated encyclopedia is run by just a few dozen employees (along with hundreds of thousands of contributors around the globe). It’s a great tool for legitimate entries. Don’t try to game the system by adding overly-promotional posts. But if your entry will be helpful to the Wikipedia community at large, have at it. Strengths: It’s a great tool for uploading legitimate, helpful content about your product, service or company. Weaknesses: If your target market is over the age of 40, they might struggle with Wikipedia’s miniscule type.

Yelp: This platform offers user-generated reviews on cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play. Yelp has an augmented reality Smart Phone application that makes using it on the run a blast. Strengths: User-generated reviews are a great way for customers and prospects to find out about your business. Weaknesses: Some people try to game the system with faux reviews, but Yelp does a pretty good job of keeping those faux reviews at bay.

Platforms that are exploding in 2016: (60secondmarketer)

Wanelo. Wanelo is a type of social shopping app, and if you’re curious about its name, it’s derived from the words “want, need, love.” Wanelo, once downloaded in app form, allows you to peruse millions of different products offered by major brands, online retailers, and even independent artists and producers like those on Etsy. You can also create wishlists, establish connections, and find out what your friends are interested in. This app could rival Pinterest because of its strong visual components and similar demographics, but is better poised for online shoppers because of its convenient wishlist and product management tools. Expect it to be eyed by Pinterest or see it take off on its own.

2. SlideShare. SlideShare has a decent user base already, but it has a long way to go before it stands among the leaders in the social media world. Through SlideShare, professionals can create slideshow presentations and videos—almost like YouTube, but with a much more professional appeal. Users who appreciate LinkedIn for its professional nature and targeted formatting will appreciate how SlideShare positions itself for its users—and the practicality of the app is useful in almost any business application. Expect to see SlideShare integrated with LinkedIn in multiple ways, or expect to see it used by a greater percentage of active professionals.

3. Shots. Shots’s greatest advantage is also one of its greatest weaknesses; it’s simple. It’s designed almost exclusively for “selfies,” utilizing only the front-facing camera of a phone. Users can connect with each other and send pictures, or scroll down a feed of others’ photos. Commenting on those photos is disabled, but users can chat with each other. In this way, Shots functions like Snapchat, but it’s less concerned with individual privacy and more concerned with connecting users to one another. So far, Shots functions like a weaker hybrid of Snapchat and Instagram, but with the addition of a few new features, it could easily see its audience explode.


4. Ello. Ello is an all-purpose social media network, almost like Facebook or Tumblr, which similarly allows you to forge new connections, share written updates, photos, videos, or any other content that you feel like sharing. The key difference is that Ellostands against advertising, with a full manifesto criticizing other social platforms for being “owned” by advertisers. Ello claims it will never have forced advertising on its platform, nor will it ever sell your information to third parties. Expect Ello to help spark a new trend in anti-advertising in certain circles—though it will probably never replace the ubiquity of Facebook, even with its advertising and privacy concerns.

5. Hyper. Hyper combines a few different social media ideas, but stands on its own as a unique platform. Like Instagram, its primary function is to allow users to post and share photos with one another. Like Reddit, it features an upvote/downvote system that increases the visibility of more popular posts. It also features geographic tags that allow users to discover new things happening in their vicinity. Currently, Hyper is only on iOS and doesn’t have much of a user base, but its unique position and functionality could cause it to grow exponentially by 2016.

6. Bebo. Bebo isn’t technically new. It was one of the original founding social media stars, alongside Facebook and the much less fortunate MySpace. Like with MySpace, Bebo quickly burned out once everyone decided that Facebook was the be-all end-all social platform of choice. However, Bebo has recently relaunched as a completely new app. Now, users can create individual avatars and use custom illustrations and hashtags to communicate with each other. It’s a new form of communication that doesn’t rely on photos like so many new apps today.

Measuring the effectiveness of Social Media Platforms:

1. Google Analytics

Google has a comprehensive analytics service that helps track user activity on your website in real-time. Within a matter of minutes, you can have Google Analytics set up to tell you, among other things, the number of daily visits to your site, the demographics of your users, how they got to your site, how long they stay, and which of your pieces of content are most—and least—popular. Once you’re set up, the real trick will be keeping yourself from spending too much time cutting and re-cutting your graphs. (forbes.com)

2. Klout
The Klout Score measures influence, which Klout defines as “your ability to drive action on social networks,” and, increasingly, in the real world. Specifically, it tells you how many people you influence, how much you influence them, and the influence of your network across your social media platforms. Once you’re signed-up, Klout will let you see a map of your social media activity over the past 90 days, enabling you to cross-reference the exact moments your score increased (under their algorithm, at least) with the content you posted or ways you engaged at that time. (forbes.com)

3. Wildfire’s Social Media Monitor
Wildfire is a social media marketing company that was recently acquired by Google. While the majority of its tools require payment, Wildfire does offer a free social media monitor that can help you understand your Twitter and Facebook presence versus that of your competitors. Wildfire’s tool will let you easily compare the number of likes, check-ins, and followers each page boasts. (forbes.com)

4. My Top Tweet by TwitSprout
Want an easy way to know which of your tweets got the most retweets? Check out My Top Tweet, which ranks your top 10 most-shared tweets and the number of times they were retweeted. Not only is this helpful for your own brand, but it allows you to educate yourself on what works well for other brands—including for your competitors. (forbes.com)



Check Engagement of Fans:

While the number of fans can be a measure of your marketing success, a more accurate measure would be how much your fans are interacting with your page/profile – number of likes, shares, re-tweets and pokes can be an indication of how effective your campaign is.

Check Traffic To Your Website:

The primary aim of any social medial marketing campaign is to send traffic to your website. So check your statistics (through Google Analytics) to see how much of your traffic is coming from social platforms, and is there any increase since the time you’ve intensified your social campaigns.

Check Conversions:

Getting traffic is great, but what if they’re useless to you? The next thing to do is to check if your visitors are taking the desired action. I say desired action because the aim of the marketing campaign may not always be to make a sale. It could also be to make them download an e-book, participate in a contest, or even subscribe to a newsletter. Whatever the aim may be, you’ll need to check that it is being achieved.

Choosing the Right Platform:
There are many things that contribute to the success of any social media marketing campaign, but the most important one is the choice of the platform. Every social media platform has its own features and attracts a certain kind of audience, so if you want to succeed you need to know what suits your business the best.

So how do you make sure that you choose right? Here are a few factors you should consider:

Know Your Audience:

The demographics of your audience plays an important role in choosing the platform. For instance, take a look at the chart below:

The survey takes into consideration the 5 most popular social platforms to show you the demographics of its users. As you can see, in terms of gender, Pinterest is more popular with women while LinkedIn is more popular with men (I have ignored Facebook numbers here as it’s high for all criteria due to sheer high volume of users). Likewise you can do a study of all the criteria, and then decide which platform fits the demographics of your target customer the best.

Know Your Content:

When you’re on social media, you promote your business through content. So the type of content you create will determine the platform you choose. For instance:
Images: If most of your content comprises of images, then image-sharing platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal for you.
Videos: If creating awesome videos is your specialty, then you should go for video networks like YouTube, Vimeo and Vine.
Posts: If you’re looking at writing engaging posts for your target audience, you should go for Facebook, Twitter or just plain blogging.

Know What You Want:

Do you want to improve SEO? Do you want more people to walk into your store? Do you want to target smaller niches instead of the social giants mentioned above? Do want to make connections with other businesses? Knowing what you want will decide what social platform fits best.

For instance, if you want *SEO (search Engine Optimization), then its Google+; if you want walk-ins then you’ll have to join location-based networks like Yelp and FourSquare; if you want smaller niches, then the perfect place to start is Reddit; and lastly,LinkedIn will help you make those vital business connections.

*SEO:

SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.

SEO isn't just about building search engine-friendly websites. It's about making your site better for people too.

The Top 5 Social Media Platforms:

Still not too sure? To help you out, here are the top 5 social media platforms and when you should choose them:

Facebook:

Facebook is huge, and this gives you exposure to a much wider audience than any other platform. It is a great platform for sharing interesting posts, pictures and videos that will help the audience connect and engage with your brand better. If that’s what you’re looking for, then go for it.

But there are 2 things that you should keep in mind: First, Facebook is mainly used to connect with friends and family, so it may not (always) be the right place for an out and out promotion campaign. And second, it’s sheer size exposes you to a lot of competition – the newsfeed is perpetually crowded and your message may get lost in all that noise.

Twitter:
Twitter serves to the younger crowd (often referred to as information junkies), and comprises of both men and women. It’s best for those

businesses that want to reach out to their audience through announcements, queries and news.

Apart from the character limit (140 characters per tweet), Twitter can be a challenge to those brands that are not equipped to promptly respond to the statements and queries of it’s fans. Twitter is more “in the moment” hang out place so you need to be on your toes.

LinkedIn:
Like I mentioned above, LinkedIn is great for building connections. In addition, you can also establish yourself as an authority in your niche by participating in groups and discussions and giving out expert advice.

Since LinkedIn is not very visual (as compared to the others), it suits best for businesses that offer services rather than products.

YouTube:
If you can create interesting videos that will engage the audience, then you can opt for YouTube. The best part about this channel is that it also has it’s own video-editing software so that you can edit your videos without any hassle.

The biggest drawback here is severe competition. Every day, millions of videos are getting posted on YouTube, out of which at least a few thousands will be similar to what you’re going to publish. So it becomes a difficult job to promote it in a way that it goes viral.

Pinterest:
Pinterest works great for those businesses that can showcase themselves through visuals. So if you have a lot of visuals, or are creative enough to create interesting visuals, you can sign up with Pinterest.

However, one thing to keep in mind here is that the platform mainly caters to women and categories like food and DIY are the most popular.

Conclusion:

For best results, it is recommended that you promote your business on at least 3-4 social platforms. This ensures that you reach out to a wider audience.

However, do not take on what you can’t handle. Social media marketing is a rigorous process wherein you need to post regular updates and monitor your profiles regularly so that you can respond to comments and queries in a timely manner. So it makes no sense if you sign up for 10 accounts, but fail to keep up with the maintenance of all the 10 profiles. Take on less, and give it your best shot. That way, you’re more likely to succeed.

Sources:

URL: www.60secondmarketer.com

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/08/22/4-ways-to-measure-your-social-media-success/#6723fe14310b

Marketing Communication Plan

Communication plan

Definition: Communication planning is the art and science of reaching target audiences using marketing communication channels such as advertising, public relations, experiences or direct mail for example. It is concerned with deciding who to target, when, with what message and how. (Wikipedia)



Characteristics of a good communication plan:

• Participative
• Dynamic
• Flexible
• Audience driven
• Combines the best of PR and marketing
• Contains a mix of strategy and tactics
• Achievable

Design a communication plan

• Start with identifying the vision and objectives
• Make use of research tools (Brainstorming sessions, SWOT analysis, Audience discovery interviews, focus groups)
• Design the framework of the firm's message (positioning:connects with your target group and identify the competitive advantage, tag lining:keywords or phrases to capture what makes the organization special)
• The framework should include audiences, benefits and attributes, key messages
• Develop startegies
• Select communication channels
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate the plan
• Measure the success

Different methods and frameworks for developing marketing communication plan:

POST method:

P: people -- know your target audience and their social behaviors
O: objectives -- What is the firm trying to accomplish
S: Strategy -- How do the firm want the relationship to change with target audience. How do new and traditional media support your objectives.
T: Technology-- Appropriate tools and tactics to address the target audience

SOSTAC model:

S- situation analysis (Where are we now?)
O- objectives (Where do we want to go)
S- strategy (how we get there)
T- Tactics (details of strategy)
A- action (implementation)
C- control (measurement, monitoring)

 Allocating resources
The use able amount of financial resources must be calculated based on company's financial statements and plans.

• Financial resources
• Human resources

Resource allocation methods:

• Basic Allocation --- Which items to fund in the plan, what funding it should recieve and what not to be funded
• Contingency mechanism-- there is priority ranking of items excluded from the plan showing which items to be funded if more resources become available and then showing which itms to be sacrificed in case of shortage

Measure and monitor the affects of communication plan

Several methods used for measurement:

• Quantitative methods (phone, email, direct mail, surveys: Asks- how many)
• Qualitative methods (Interviews, metaphors, stories, rumors, Asks- What and Why)
• Revenue matrix

Advantages of structured communication plan

• Firm has set clear goals, identified their objectives and strategies 
• Better promotion and message delivered in a better way
• Firm can work in a structured way to achieve its goals

Sources:
https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/2618/Laitinen_Jenni-Mari.pdf
http://www.slideshare.net/kbgluciaja/resource-allocation-16175159
http://www.slideshare.net/ssaurage/measurement-tools-for-communications-and-marketing-strategy

Story telling

Building brand storytelling:
There are no hard-and-fast rules for developing your brand’s stories, but you can go back and look at classic storytelling and structure as a helpful map to guide you. For example, the classic “hero’s journey” from Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, outlines what he calls the “mono myth” — which is a pattern that many believe can be found in almost every narrative around the world. 
Campbell’s point is that storytelling across time shares a fundamental structure and can be summarized into this journey. Later, in 1992, screenwriter and story consultant Christopher Vogler took Campbell’s structure, modernized it for today’s audiences, and reduced it to 12 stages in his book, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers. This made the stages much more approachable for today’s writers — and is now mandatory reading for any novel or screenwriter. Vogler’s hero’s journey is this: 

• There are ways to use this hero’s journey to develop your own pillars of content — your own stories.
• The conventional market:This is your brand’s world — and as you brainstorm your pillars of content, you should know and be able to define the conventional:What does your market look like?Where are your competitors situated?Why do they currently identify with your brand?
• The challenge: This is your big “What if?“:What if XYZ were actually true?What would the world look like if you could actually realize that “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” (BHAG) that you’ve set out for your brand?What is the call to adventure for your product?What’s the big promise?Why hasn’t this been done?Why haven’t you done it yet?What’s the pain that the conventional market feels now?What will you need to add to your story to let your audience know what will be left behind?Are you conflicted about this?What will be the effect of this change on your existing brand?Who in your company (or outside of it) can help you take this adventure?Who will provide guidance for your brand as it makes this journey? Is it you? Is it your CEO? Or, do you even have that person? Is it more than one person? Can you get someone external for this?Will you need to conjure an imaginary character to act as your sage or mentor?Who can stand in front of the world and credibly tell your audience that you are going on this journey together?
• The rejection of the challenge
• Appointment of the sage
• Crossing into the unfamiliar: This is where you burn the ships so that you can’t go back. Ultimately, in your content marketing, your brand must take a definitive point of view that is differentiated — and it will cross into your new “what if?” idea. This is the unknown — and it’s what you are exploring:How will you communicate this crossing into this new idea — this new adventure?How will you lead your audience into this new unknown with you?
• Map the road of challenges: Part of this step is unknown to you as an author, but you can use it to determine how you’ll gather friends. Or maybe you’ll take a strong point of view that may actually create enemies, or controversy:Who will your brand align with?How can they help you move forward?What tests to your brand’s legitimacy will it face in the unknown?Who will be the naysayers?What tests and challenges can you plan for?What skills will your brand need to address?
• The final challenge: As your brand faces these challenges, attracts and aligns with friends, and establishes a differentiated point of view, it should establish itself as differentiated — as a leader:What will it ultimately achieve?What learned skills (or attributes) will your organization take into the final challenge?What will that final challenge be?This is the culmination of your brand story. In the larger sense, you may never want your brand’s (your hero’s) story to end. And this content marketing campaign may be but one episode in your story. But this final challenge is what you have to overcome to get to the possibility of the “what if?“…
• Looking back: Take a look back at the ordinary world. Your brand is different now. How do you show that differentiation?
• The final renewal:Your brand’s story is never going to end, and you are now ready to continue on your journey. But you may encounter new, formidable challenges now that you are a changed entity: What ambush could — or will — your brand face now that it is different?What will the competition say about you now — and how do you continue?
• The celebration: This is you realizing the dream. Celebrating. It’s the final part of your story. There you have it — the structure. It can be used across one small content marketing initiative — or across an entire strategy of content marketing across the enterprise. Changing the level of hero from product, to brand, to service can make it more interesting, and enables you to explore ever more creative “webs” of stories among them.

This story structure — which is inherently linear — can also help you structure your content into a story map. The story map helps to organize your pieces of content across a timeline. It compels you to think of your content pieces as “chapters” or “scenes,” and can help reveal the gaps. It may resemble a high-level editorial calendar — but is structured with a focus on telling your complete brand story as you continue along your content development process.
Sources:
contentmarketinginstitute.com, "brand-storytelling-content-marketing-heros-journey"
Paulus, Trena M.; Marianne Woodside; Mary Ziegler (2007). ""Determined women at work" Group construction of narrative meaning". 
Jump up"Stories are also growing". www.playbacktheatre.org.
Jump upLord, Albert Bates (2000). The singer of tales, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Jump upPrice, Reynolds (1978). A Palpable God, New York:Atheneum, p.3.
Jump upStorytellingday.net. "Oral Traditions In Storytelling ." Retrieved November 21, 2013.
Jump upAtta-Alla, M.N. (2012). Integrating language skills through storytelling. English Language Teaching Journal, 
Jump upDavidson, Michelle (2004). "A phenomenological evaluation: using storytelling as a primary teaching method". 

Integrated Marketing Communication

How to Construct an effective integrated marketing communications system?

IMC: "A planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”
(American Marketing Association)

Example: The IMC planning process has been compared to composing a musical score. In a piece of music, while every instrument has a specific task, the goal is to have them come together in a way that produces beautiful music. It’s the same in IMC, where advertising might be your violin, social media your piano, public relations your trumpet and so on.

Different Channels/ Communication Tools 

• Marketing
• Advertising
• Sales
• Promotional tools (Search engine optimization (SEO) tactics
• Banner advertisements
• Webinars
• Blogs
• Traditional marketing communication channels (newspapers, billboards, magazines)

NB: It is important to choose the appropriate combination of digital and traditional communication tools for the target audience to build a strong brand consumer relationship. (boundless.com)

How to Choose the channels

"Hitting a Hole in One"

• Have a clear understanding about your target audience. That includes attitudes, interests, behaviors and expectations along with demographic factors. Think about their motivations and how they like to be communicated to. Which marketing channels they use. If they use social media, what are they talking about.
• Configure the pros and cons of marketing channels and select the most effective one to deliver the message than to focus on all of them

.

How to ensure successful integration internally and externally

Integration begins with the way a company and its agencies organize the process for creating and building brand images.
Internally, companies need to create a better working environment where everyone works together ensuring that all departments are integrated. Companies tend to have very well planned for communicating internally. Everyone should be aware of the IMC objectives of the company and should focus on working together towards them.
External integration is usually represented by a company's check over the outsourced activities or helping agents. This can be done through a representative or all employees could have access to outsourced activities.

When and Why Outsource

Outsourcing is needed when companies lack a specific expertise or bandwidth or a specific technology. A better approach is to outsource several marketing functions to specialists who use leading edge technologies. 
Companies want to manage more costs as variable expenses. Specific cost of outsourcing might appear to be higher than doing it yourself, there are internal costs hidden in maintaining internal fixed marketing assets. These include delays due to changing priorities, lack of support when it is needed etc.
Companies want to focus on insight than operations and need to grow more rapidly. During a high-growth phase, it is usually faster and often cheaper to outsource.
Companies want to mitigate their legal risk or launch an additional customer channel through outsourcing.

What kind of agencies are there ?

There are many agencies available in the market with different strengths and expertise but the company need to focus on which expertise are required to achieve their objective of IMC. Agencies use multiple communication channels to deliver the message and are expert in their field.

References

Forbes, Steve Olenski, Last assessed: Sep 16, 2013
URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2013/09/16/why-integrated-marketing-communications-is-more-important-than-ever/#7915ac0d2325
URL: http://www.cmo.com/slide-shows/10-reasons-to-outsource-more-of-your-marketing.html

American Association of Marketing, 
URL: http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc

Marketing Communication, An integrated Approach by Paul Russell Smith 
URL: https://books.google.fi/books

URL: http://www.outsourcemarketing.com/whitepaper/why_outsource.pdf