Learning from eBay's CEO Devin Wenig

The Internet, or maybe more specifically the World Wide Web, is incredible! 

Seriously.

I know we've become jaded over the years. Between e-commerce ads following us everywhere, the pressures of social media, increased screen time and so much more, we've become cynical, demanding and unimpressed. 

Forget all of that and think about the fact that EVERYTHING is at our fingertips. That's what lead me to the great Oxford Union series of talks from brilliant thinkers from around the world. 

In the video below you can listen to current eBay CEO Devin Wenig discuss all sorts, including how positive the internet and technology can be for us moving forward into the future. 

I know we're surrounded by fake news, echo-chambers and trolls but moving forward we have the choice; it can be good or bad depending on what we want. 

Changing Times in Ireland's Town Centres

Earlier this week I stumbled across this photo article on The Guardian detailing the demise and disappearance of classic, quirky old Irish shop and storefronts in our town and village centres and it got me thinking.

The world is constantly changing, seemingly faster than ever before, and with the likes of voice-activated shopping, AI and the Internet of Things all in the ascendency it doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

For many, that’s a bad thing but I believe we should look towards, and search for, the positives out there.

Cause of Changes

Before we get to that, it’s worth considering the cause of the changes our centres have been experiencing over the last two decades.

Although I’ve worked on a number of Ballymena BID projects in the past (and as a result heard all kinds of reasoning for problems in our town centres) I would never claim to be an expert in this field.

However, I think the problems can be roughly divided into three: out-of-town centres, national chains and “the internet”.

You could also throw rising rates and rents, as well as a squeezing of disposable incomes, into the mix but the three major issues listed above have pulled shoppers away from town centre streets and in to massive outlets or back into their living rooms behind screens.

Major national chains closing branches and shops post-recession is the icing on the cake…

The Not to Distant Future

Pretty bleak, right? Yes and no.

There’s no doubt that our town centres are currently struggling through a transition phrase right now.

Centres throughout Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK are littered with closed, vacant and abandoned lots but that doesn’t always have to be the case, and most likely won’t.

In the face of unlimited options more and more consumers have chosen local or different (just see your closest specialty coffee shop as an example) and I can see this trend continuing in the years to come.

In the face of 360 degrees competition, high rates and rent (which will hopefully drop when councils and landlords realise an empty lot in a dying town is worthless) and the omnipresence of the Internet – I believe we’ll see a leaner, stripped down, more adaptable retailer emerge.

Local crafters, artists, Internet-first retailers, service providers and even YouTubers or creators could fill those empty spaces and breathe life back into our town centres.

So it isn’t all lost, yet.

A Few Favourites

Finally, it wouldn’t be right to highlight the article above without picking out a few Counter Digital favourites (obviously all images credited to and owned by Trevor Finnegan) so without further ado:

Being Honest with Your Social Media Marketing

Earlier this week, during a discussion about social media content, I asked the person across the table to really think hard about “why would anyone follow your social media channels?”

Amidst the rush and excitement of setting up different social media channels this is, without a doubt, the hardest thing to answer and address.

However, only by addressing it or at least attempting to do so, can you begin to create a social media strategy that might succeed.

Why would someone follow you on Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Snapchat?

Honesty is the Best Policy

Take a step back, look around, and you’ll see that the business and marketing worlds are rife with people saying one thing and doing another.

“We need to push the hard sell in this campaign.”

“We need to cram as much information in as possible.”

“Those images are fine.”

If you audit the social media actions, and attention, of both yourself and your family and friends you’ll quickly see that we’re all incredibly selfish with our time.

If it doesn’t interest us, or capture our attention or imagination in one way or another, we’ll scroll past without skipping a beat.

Yet even though this is true for 99% of the population you constantly see social media channels filled with rubbish, with sales posts, with generic content and with zero offering or value.

Behind each of those accounts is a business owner, marketer or consultant wondering, “Why is nobody following along?”

It’s because nobody cares and the sooner we’re all honest about it, the better. The sooner we’re honest about asking and answering the key question above, the better! 

How to Improve Your Organic Social Media

Being honest is the first step but what’s next?

In order to develop social media channels that people actually care about and want to follow you have to tap into their wants and needs.

What’s going to make them stop and listen?

People follow brands, businesses and influencers for lots of different reasons.

For some it could be for education, inspiration or information/updates. For others it could be for escapism, desire, humour, entertainment or debate.

There are countless reasons out there and defining your target audience needs won’t happen instantly but take a piece of paper (or phone, laptop etc.) and begin the brainstorming session.

After that, pair your audience needs with the types of content you can create for each channel and get cracking. Testing and heightened awareness will be your friend from this point onwards…

Other Channels

You might’ve noticed that this blog, and message, focuses specifically on “social media”. There’s a reason for that.

I know it’s easy for everyone to lump social and digital together but other digital marketing channels behave differently and consumers are more or less receptive to different strategies within each.

In 2018 you can guarantee that the majority of your new email subscribers expect a sales pitch at some point or another. If you can make it good, and worthwhile, then go for it!

In PPC advertising the hard sell is also universally expected. In the case of search ads you’re catching someone right at the crucial moment of need, so if you can help them, sell away!

Podcast advertising, remarketing, influencer outreach, sponsored posts… There are so many options out there waiting to be utilised for the hard sell.

Organic social media just isn’t one of them…if you want to grow a following and succeed…

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If you’re unsure about what organic social media content is exactly, in 2018, then get in touch for a chat here.

The Death of Facebook…Again?

If you’ve followed the rise of Facebook over the last decade you’ll probably have heard about “the death of Facebook” on more than one occasion.

As the world’s biggest social media platform Facebook is an easy target for everyone from advertisers to governments to regular users in the general public. As a result, we’ve seen this type of headline time and time again.

Is this really the end for Facebook? What does the future hold for the channel synonymous with social media?

Pivot, Pivot…PIVOT!*

You don’t need an MBA or years of experience in the business world to recognise that Mark Zuckerberg has been a pretty impressive founder and CEO up to this point.

With this in mind, and a history of acquisitions including Instagram and aggressively attacking competitors like Snapchat, it’s fair to assume that Facebook will pivot and react, as and when younger audience attention shifts.

However, even with this in mind it’s unlikely Facebook will ever again become the “go-to” place for younger audiences. This is primarily because it now has such a large adult and senior audience that the numbers will almost certainly always skew upwards.

Also, when you combine the fact that Zuckerberg is unlikely to turn his back on the highly lucrative mature audiences anytime soon with the age-old understanding that kids, teens and younger groups always want their “own” space, on and offline, it’s safe to say Facebook will most likely never return to its younger, cooler image of approximately 2008-2012.

*Who got the Friends reference?

Segmented Digital Messaging

Marketers and advertisers are no strangers to segmented audiences and messaging and this may develop further in the coming years, more so than even at present.

To a certain extent businesses, marketers and advertisers already understand that different social media channels mean different audiences (think Snapchat for under 25s etc.).

As a result, and if younger users continually drop-off, or never join, Facebook the social media channel could simply become a platform to reach audiences in the over thirties market.

This would essentially represent a 180 degrees flip, as for years the channel was seen as a platform to reach teenagers, university students and those in their early twenties, but wouldn’t kill the channel by a long shot.

In the near future you could see marketers use Snapchat and Instagram to reach anyone under thirty, Facebook for over thirties and one or two other experimental channels for teenagers or seniors.

Part of the Mainstream

With all of the above in mind one of the most likely developments (it’s happening already) is that Facebook simply becomes part of the mainstream media machine we’ve all known, in some shape or form, throughout our lives.

For many the Brexit and US Presidential political results of 2016 represented a watershed moment as Facebook had reached the mainstream as a key media channel. It could even be this increased awareness, of the channel and its powers over society, that is leading to younger audiences moving away.

Whatever the reasons, becoming part of the mainstream media offering in no way means Facebook is nearing grim death. It might simply no-longer be where the cool kids hang out…although some would say that happened years ago!

What to Do?

As always it’s best to let these things play out and simply maintain an awareness of any major changes.

If you’re in the business of marketing or selling to anyone over the age of 25 then this is probably a non-issue. If you target teenage or young adult markets it’s time to get experimental…if you haven’t already.

Any other questions on social media for business, or digital marketing in general, contact me here.

Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Big Data, Big Revelations

If you’re interested in the future of the Internet, consumer behaviour in an increasingly digital world, debunking truths about human nature or just have a curious mind, then this book is for you.

That’s the short version of the review done and dusted but if you’re sticking around a little longer then we’ll delve deeper.

Big Data, Big Revelations

Over the course of eight chapters Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard and Stanford educated behavioural economics and data scientist, explores what Google searches, Facebook likes and article clicks tell us about the modern 21st century world we live in today.

It’s equally fascinating from both a personal and a business point of view.

For instance, did you know that thousands of us type statements such as “I am sad” or “I am happy” into Google for no particular reason (that we currently know of)?

If I was operating within a mental health charity or organisation I’d be pretty interested in that.

Similarly, in a comparison study of The Atlantic (high brow) and The National Enquirer (low brow), Stephens-Davidowitz was able to identify that as a general public we want to “appear smart and cultured” yet in reality all we want is low brow, easy to consume, entertainment and gossip.

How did he do this?

Seth compared the number of Facebook “likes”, article clicks and monthly readership between the two publications and his results quickly revealed that even though we “liked” Atlantic articles 24 more times than the National Enquirer, the latter still had a bigger audience and readership base.

What does this mean from a business perspective?

Well, maybe it means that social media content needs to be more entertaining, casual and accessible, even if we’re promoting premium brands. Just a thought, but one we might not have without the data analysis mentioned above.

The two examples above might not be the most ground breaking, and in some cases you may have already assumed people behaved that way, but data takes assumption out of the equation and for marketing, that can be a game changer.

Macro Behaviour, Micro Action

On a small scale those specific instances of “I am sad” or The Atlantic v National Enquirer might not seem like much but on a macro level, alongside other revelations in the book, they can tell us about how people behave online and also offline.

With that sort of information, and better recognition of what to do with it, we can shift our marketing messages and business actions to better fit the current climate, whatever our end goal may be.

I don’t normally do book reviews on this blog (this is the first and maybe last one…) but Everybody Lies deserves a mention and should be a must-read for any digital marketer in 2017 and beyond.

Enjoy!

Branding is More Important than ever in the Internet of Things

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who was eulogising about the benefits of having an Amazon Dash Button connected to their fridge at home.

For the uninitiated, the Amazon Dash Button is the latest brainchild of Jeff Bezos’ team and falls under the category of an “Internet of Things” product. Essentially this button lets any user simply reorder a product with one simple click – nothing more, nothing less.

A general rule of thumb in the web 2.0 world is that a customer should be no-more than “three clicks” away from exactly what they want on your website at any one time. The Amazon Dash Button crushes that level of efficiency and thus pushes the consumer journey on yet another step.

So far so good. Right?

From a practical point of view this sounds perfect for the consumer. They get exactly what they want with minimal fuss.

The dark side, however, is that we enter product or brand echo chambers from which we never escape without proactive action.

Think of the echo chamber issue that’s currently impacting social media, news and politics and then multiply it into every other facet of your life and beyond.

Products of the Near Future

As briefly mentioned above, the Amazon Dash Button is already here. You can buy multiple variations for different parts of your home (fridge, washing machine, bathroom etc.), set it up via your smart device and Amazon account, and never again go without your favourite brands.

Current options include the ability to re-order Heineken beers, Dettol bleach, Duracell batteries, Listerine mouthwash and so much more.

Next up is British Gas’ Hive product. Hive is a smart home heating system that, once installed, allows you to control your home temperature, turn heating on and off and control hot water all from the screen of your smart device, no matter where you are.

Another interesting smart, Internet of Things, product is the FitBark.

It might be pretty obvious but, if you haven't already guessed it, the FitBark is essentially the FitBit for dogs and it’s yet another example of smart products entering every facet of our lives, and this is just the beginning! 

Why Branding is Critical

With all of that in mind, branding is becoming even more crucial than ever before.

Imagine a world where a household only drinks and reorders (through one simple button click) one type of beer. No more competition for shelf space at the supermarket or local off-license, no-more price promotions to entice new customers…

Just one beer bought over and over again through the power of that one initial message, campaign or advertisement that cut through the noise and converted.

That’s what we’re potentially talking about in a product echo chamber world and the same scenario can be replicated over and over again. One gas supplier, one toothpaste, one mouthwash, one dog product brand, on and on and on…

Product and brand monopolies aren’t new ideas but this level of convenience paired with the monopolisation of our data, on personal, public and societal scales, means top-level branding and consumer awareness is becoming even more important than ever before.

Moving Forward

Feeling gloomy? Don’t be!

This is just the latest business challenge and the best always overcome and succeed.

This new and developing Internet of Things reality simply means a re-focusing and doubling down on branding is an essential part of any consumer brand strategy.

From a practical point of view it means focusing on developing brand, creating awareness and capturing attention via social media (where modern attention primarily exists) and other key channels. It means tapping into consumer wants and needs more than ever before, delivering a brand story that aligns with customer values and resonates over time, and it means providing the highest quality possible because these product echo chambers will most likely reward quality alongside, or potentially above, price.

The Internet of Things is here, the first and second waves of products is also here but in the fantastic words of Ray Dalio (billionaire investor) just remember - “If you worry, don’t worry and if you don’t worry, worry!”

Content Marketing: Learning from HP’s The Wolf

Content marketing, in all its various forms, has been around for decades but it’s probably fair to say that the digital age has lead to an explosion in both quantity and importance over the last few years.

Unfortunately quality isn’t always at the forefront of the content marketing world but in HP’s 2017 mini series The Wolf we have a standout winner and something to draw serious lessons from.

The Wolf by HP

If you’re not yet acquainted with it, The Wolf is an online mini series, created by HP to highlight IT security and cyber crime risks in printers, staring Christian Slater.

See below to watch The Wolf and the sequel The Wolf: The Hunt Continues.

Eagle-eyed readers, or TV bingers, might recognise Slater from his most recent hit, Amazon’s Mr Robot. That series revolves around the dark underbelly of the digital world so it’s clear why The Wolf producers cast the Hollywood star in their new content marketing extravaganza.

Why You Should Care About The Wolf

If you’ve got this far then you might be wondering why you or any other business or marketing person should care about The Wolf or whatever the hell HP are doing.

Well, think about it. Did it captivate you? Did it grab your attention and convey important messages?

HP are banking on getting affirmative “Yes!” answers to all of the above questions and the majority of viewers and readers probably answered exactly that.

By creating something captivating HP were able to deliver key business messages, aligning closely with their own products and services, whilst retaining consumer attention.

If you were like me you didn’t switch off once throughout the entire 14 minutes over the two videos – a miracle in the social media age of short form content!

The SME Option

So what does this mean for the average SME out there?

I know, I know… We don’t all have six figure budgets to blow on incredible directors, producers, Hollywood stars and A-list screenwriters!

However, that isn’t the excuse and permission to do nothing. It’s a limitation and nothing more.

Huge brands like HP don’t waste money on projects like The Wolf for goodwill or entertainment, they do it because they understand that consumer attention is the most valuable commodity in the business world and they won’t capture it with bland, boring, predictable messaging and content.

So for SMEs it means we have to try to create content that captivates, entertains, educates, informs and more!

This can be at whichever level you operate, locally, regionally, nationally or beyond, and however you like, but as the Internet gets noisier it becomes ever more important.

Creativity is a huge currency in a world that is now saturated with marketing and advertising messages so with that in mind, get brainstorming and if you don’t have the creativity, draft in someone who does.

Without creativity your business will never stand out from the crowd, on or offline. This is true in both B2C and B2B because in both markets you’re trying to connect with, and capture the attention of, another human and we’re all the same in that we’ll only respond to something that triggers something inside us.

Take a leaf out of the HP book and go for it.

Getting Awareness Through Engagement on Social Media

“Engagement” and “Awareness” might sound like digital marketing buzzwords (they are…but hear me out…) but they are absolutely crucial in today’s social media marketing world.

In many cases the two elements go hand in hand in a social media context as more engagement generally leads to more awareness via the “word of mouth” friendly algorithms of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc.

The result of this means that we need to constantly keep both elements at the forefront of our minds throughout the content creation process.

Why Awareness is Crucial

Awareness, attention, exposure… Each word carries its own slight variation in meaning but at the core, they all mean the same thing in a marketing and business context…

You need EYES and EARS on your business before you can ever generate qualified leads or sales.

You might have the best product, service or message in the world but if nobody is listening then nobody will care. You have to grab that attention first, way before a potential sale can ever be considered, by you or the customer.

How do we grab attention and get eyes on our business in a social media world?

Engagement.

Why Engagement is Key

Obviously there are more ways to grab attention than just engagement but it can be a seriously powerful element within your social media marketing plans as it creates that “word of mouth” reach that otherwise could only be achieved via paid for advertising.

Of course, you could always combine the two for double the fun…

 What is engagement on social media? For me it’s all about comments.

I know that you can include likes and shares in the engagement bubble (and they’re worthwhile in their own way) but comments generate a different level of traction, which in turn gains the customer eyes and ears we all seek out.

If you look at Facebook in a 2017 world, the content that achieves the widest organic reach generally encourages comments. These comments could be loosely split into three categories – answers, debate and the tagging of other Facebook friends. 

Asking for It!

So, how do we get this engagement and the resulting awareness?

One of the easiest and most effective ways of creating more engagement is by simply asking for it!

Think about it (or even better, check your newsfeed and see), how many times have you seen a piece of content that says “tag a friend”, asks a question or some other variation of the two?

The businesses, brands and personalities behind these pieces of content know that engagement is crucial to spreading reach and awareness far beyond their budget capabilities and they know that asking for it works!

Creating

If you’re still with me (and believe in everything that has been said above…) then it’s time to start the creation process.

Think about the things (topics, issues, debates, jokes etc.) that really get your customers talking and go from there!

If you have any questions, contact me here!

Learning from Deliveroo’s Belfast Content Marketing

It doesn’t happen as often as it should but, every now and then, I’ll scroll through my Facebook newsfeed and stumble across some social media marketing that actually makes me stop, read, listen or watch…

Happily, that happened recently when I was targeted with a Deliveroo Facebook ad.

The fast-food delivery tech giant (bit of a weird phrase that…) aren’t strangers to moving with marketing trends and recently launched a #BestofBelfast campaign that thankfully let content marketing do the talking and selling.

What is Content Marketing?

Before we look at the Deliveroo ad let's just confirm what content marketing actually is.

According to Google, content marketing is “a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services” so that’s that then.

For me, I see content marketing as one of the more interesting sides to marketing in general.

Instead of a simple “here we are, this is what we do and this is how much it costs” message you focus on providing value as a hook to draw the customer in.

This value could be to inform, educate, humour, provide a cause for thought or countless other variations and it is paired with creative text, images or video to cut through the noise of everything else out there in the ether.

Deliveroo and John Long’s Fish & Chips

In the case of Deliveroo, they caught my eye by telling me a short story (in a video under 1 minute) about John Long’s Fish & Chips, a staple of the Belfast food scene for decades that I’d never even heard of!

Now I’m interested.

Not once did the video say “buy now” or talk about an “evening special”. Instead, the video told me that John Long keeps things traditional, that he hasn’t changed his batter recipe in over 100 years and that his patrons love it. That’s what hooked me in.

Obviously it helped that the video looked and sounded great as well and you can easily see a difference between the John Long's content ad above and the more regular "order from us" ad seen below.

Lessons to Learn

So, with all that in mind what can we learn and how can we apply it to our own businesses?

The formula is simple…

Decide what type of value you want to bring to the table. Think about what is going to truly interest your target customer and then combine that with eye-catching creative that makes them stop and listen to you and you alone.

See? Simple.

It’s the application and creation that’s the hard part.

For more on content marketing contact me here.

What Next After Facebook Stories?

In a move that surprised absolutely nobody, Facebook has finally completely rolled out their new Facebook Stories feature…at least here in the UK and Ireland.

At present the Facebook Stories feature, which is almost identical to Instagram Stories, which in turn is a carbon-copy rip-off of Snapchat Stories, is only available to personal account holders.

This means that, for now, the Stories feature is inaccessible and unavailable to Facebook business and brand pages. That could of course change in the coming months.

This entire episode, Facebook’s aggressive replication of the feature invented by Snapchat, leads me to consider one key question – why?

No-one can truly say or know why, unless they’re coming from Facebook HQ, but I think that it points us towards two trends that will continue to grow and develop…

Micro Content

Social media is filled with micro content in varying forms nowadays. A quick scroll through your Facebook newsfeed will most likely reveal countless 10, 20 and 30 second videos.

The same can be said of Instagram and Twitter, the birthplace of micro content as we know it today, where one piece of text, image or video is all people want.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule and certain channels and mediums (such as podcasting, long-form journalism and YouTube shows) thrive with longer forms of content but as a whole the trends seem to suggest that we love bite-sized chunks.

Snapchat discovered this and Facebook, via Instagram, has simply replicated the process indicating that they think this form of messaging and entertainment is here to stay or get bigger!

Storytelling

This leads us to my next point, storytelling.

Storytelling in marketing isn’t a new concept (far from it!) but in years gone by, even in the digital age, it was done at a much slower rate over the course of weeks and months.

That all changed with the introduction of tools like Twitter where people and businesses could provide quick updates and messages literally all day and night if they wished.

Snapchat Stories, and the new Instagram and Facebook replications, took this one massive step further by giving brands and businesses the ability to story tell quickly, easily and most importantly, visually.

Now consumers and fans can dip in and out of the “stories” of their favourite personalities, brands and businesses at will, whenever they want to. All of this is again made easier for consumers to do because everything is now micro (point one!) so they don’t feel like they have to commit so much time and attention to the content if they don’t want to.

This new level of access has also lead to countless new creative storytelling avenues whilst also opening up more casual and comfortable ways to communicate and engage and the entire episode hints at storytelling becoming even more powerful and important as we move even further into social and digital marketing!

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If any of this has got the dusty old cogs in your brain turning about your own business or project you can get in touch with me here!