Its my favorite time of the year to catch up on all my missed blogs (especially while weeding out all the pre, pre-pre and post holiday junk mail).
I came across this one via @Buffer which I likes simply because it laid out some trending new digital landscape options and tools. So while they may all not be one that is useful to you; knowing they exist allow you to keep your “mental tool chest” full.
The 20 Best New Social Media Tools to Try in 2017 (And How to Use Them)
Every so often, a new social media platform emerges to capture our attention (Peach) or become part of our daily lives (Snapchat).
The social media tools landscape can be just as fascinating — and robust!
Every week, people build and launch new social media tools, empowering us marketers in our day-to-day work. To give you a sense of how amazing the landscape is, here’s a graphic of some of the social media tools available: social media management, listening, analyzing, content creation and more. And here’s the even crazier part: The graphic (from Buddy Media) is four years old. Imagine how jam-packed it’d be today!
To make it easier to find the tools that are most helpful to you, here’s a look at all we’ll cover in this post. Feel free to jump to any that catch your eye!
We’ve also added these tools to a Product Hunt collection for easy browsing and bookmarking. Feel free to check it out there to see the conversation about each of these great tools.
11 Examples of Facebook Ads That Actually Work (And Why) – One way to do just that is to create optimized Facebook Ads targeted at the right audience. Optimized ads can help you spend your PPC budget wisely and see a positive return on your investment. So, what does optimized Facebook advertising actually look like? If you’re looking for some great examples, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll quickly go over the three overarching formats for Facebook Ads: right column, desktop News Feed, and mobile News Feed. Then, we’ll show you eight different types of Facebook Ads, each with real-life examples — along with some insights into why that ad is so successful. But before we get to these examples, let’s discuss the four components of a good Facebook Ad (or any ad, really) regardless of its type …
Dunkin’ Donuts, Wendy’s and other brands sound off on what works in live streaming – Live video has emerged as an important tool in the marketer’s arsenal. With streaming video expected to account for 82 percent of all internet traffic by 2020, according to Cisco’s June 2016 Visual Networking Index report, more brands are likely to take the leap. Here’s what they can keep in mind, according to brands that have already tested the waters: [ED NOTE: Must read]
25 ideas to squeeze out more time for content creation – Successful bloggers, YouTubers and podcasters have the same number of hours in a day as you. Everybody has equal opportunity to create content, but not everybody makes it a priority. The real question isn’t having the time, it’s whether you have the tenacity to do it—and keep doing it. I can’t bolster your determination, but I can provide 25 ideas and best practices to help you squeeze more content-producing productivity out of every hour:
Snapchat users cut short video ad views – Some marketers aren’t pleased with viewability numbers for ads on Snapchat, according to Ad Age. The metric that stands out the most is that video ads on the app are viewed for less than 3 seconds on average. Part of the issue is that video ads run as interstitials in user Snap stories, leading many to simply tap through brand spots rather than engage. Snapchat argues that ads on the app are effective even with a short viewing time, pointing to eye-tracking studies that found ads on its platform get more attention than ads on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Two-thirds of Snapchat ads also run with the sound on, unlike video ads on Facebook.
A Website That Gives You Points as It Spies on You – Welcome to the strange, creepy world of clickclickclick.click. (That’s a URL. Go ahead! Click!) When you arrive, you’re asked to turn on the sound. That’s so a quiet man’s voice with a European lilt can encourage and taunt you as you click around. The setting: nothing but a big green button and a scrolling background of text cataloguing your achievements. Big achievements these are not. You’ll get points for clicking the button five times fast, or moving your cursor in a straight line, or making the browser window as big as possible. Poke around for 30 seconds and the site seems silly. Stay a little longer and the absurdity starts to mean something. The site is showcase of the ways, big and small, your browser can be used to spy on you. It turns the browser window into a circus ring, and asks you to perform flips to rack up meaningless points. For the curious and obsessive (me), it’s impossible to click away.
5 Mistakes Employees Make When Challenging the Status Quo – It’s time for companies to embrace their rebel talent as a way to foster innovation, employee engagement, and change from within. But what happens when a brave employee decides to challenge organizational conformity and offer new ideas that she sincerely believes would improve operations, before the company has embraced the idea of rebel talent? She’s often on her own, making it up as she goes along, often tripping over organizational potholes and stepping on cultural landmines.
3 ways to make your videos sizzle instead of fizzle – Most corporate videos are boring and creatively bankrupt. These duds include talking-head videos, tired product demos and pandering customer testimonials. It’s no wonder they evaporate quickly into the online mist. Here are three steps for creating videos worth watching:
One of the e-lists I am on, share these weekly and when I find a few worth sharing I will post them as well.
Now You Can Create Twitter Moments via Mobile Devices– Back in September, Twitter (finally) announced that all users would be able to create their own Moments, Twitter’s narrative-style ‘storytelling by tweet’ device which they introduced just over a year ago. And while Moments has failed to gain the traction that Twitter had hoped it would, opening up the option to all users presented a whole new option, a whole new canvas for people to work with, and there’s been some great examples of brands who’ve used the option to create interesting, compelling new campaigns.
Keys to conquering social media in 2017 – Social media—as many digital marketers know it—refuses to slow down. To keep up with trends, consumer inquiries and engagement efforts, it’s imperative that PR pros and social media managers learn new skills and apply them to their current strategies. To more effectively engage with audiences, automation marketing outfit TapInfluence foresees an increased dependence on the relationship between brand managers and influential social media users. Here’s more, from its 2017 predictions guide: Influencer marketing has emerged as a real line item in the modern marketer’s toolkit. The question is no longer whether or not it works; rather, it’s how to best integrate influencer marketing in a scalable way. What else should social media marketing teams have on their radar for the coming year?
While We Weren’t Looking, Snapchat Revolutionized Social Networks– Snap Inc., the parent company of the popular photo-messaging and storytelling app Snapchat, is having a productive autumn. A couple of weeks ago, Snap filed confidential documents for a coming stock offering that could value the firm at $30 billion, which would make it one of the largest initial public offerings in recent years. Around the same time, it began selling Spectacles, sunglasses that can record video clips, which have become one of the most sought-after gadgets of the season. And yet, even when it’s grabbing headlines, it often seems as if Snap gets little respect.
Confessions of an Instagram Influencer – Because of this—and because advertising budgets will inevitably flow to any medium where large numbers of people are spending large amounts of time—Instagram has attracted a sort of professional class. These “influencers,” as they’re known, are media properties unto themselves, turning good looks and taste into an income stream: Brands pay them to feature their wares. Look a little more closely at your Instagram feed, and you’ll probably notice that attached to the post of the gleaming hotel lobby, the strappy heels, the exquisitely berried breakfast is a sea of hashtags—among them, #ad or #sp, which discreetly disclose that these are in fact sponsored posts. There are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of influencers making a living this way. Some make a lot more than a living. The most successful demand $10,000 and up for a single Instagram shot.
