Prior to taking on the role of Entertainment editor here at Trapit, I was (like so many other devotees) a lover of the highly-stylized and often guilt-inducing reality series Jersey Shore.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Jersey Shore is a hugely successful series in which several self-identifying “guidoes and guidettes” (all supposedly Italian-American) live in a house and basically party, when they’re not half-heartedly working one service job or another. The formula is simple: put a bunch of loud people in a confined space and watch them scramble (I’m looking at you, Big Brother). Yet it has proven itself so many times in the world of reality TV that Ryan Seacrest is currently producing a spinoff that would insert wealthy young Persian-Americans into the shoes of a Shore-inspired cast. He’s using “Shahs of Sunset” as a working title. I’m not making this up.

Truth is, sometimes I couldn’t tell what it was that kept me addicted to the Shore. Was I looking on with an ironic mind, appreciating the show from a safe distance for its full-blown machismo and ethnicized oddity? Or did I truly connect to The Situation and Snooki when they celebrated their faux workweek by clubbing as hard as humanly possible? Sometimes I found myself in a near trance as I watched the Shore house implode one season after another; sometimes I felt the bile rise in my throat when the fists would start pumping. In both cases, however, Jersey Shore had an indelible effect on me–I couldn’t bring myself to look away, no matter how knotted my stomach became at the prospect of watching another second.

It is within this love-hate paradox that I found my fascination piqued for reality television. Since the 1940s, television has flirted with the concept of evoking an unscripted (read: less scripted) version of “reality.” As one NYT editorial written by Alessandra Stanley last year reminded us, reality TV is far from a brand new idea:

“Reality shows that exalt indolent, loud-mouthed exhibitionists may seem like almost biblical retribution for our materialistic, celebrity-obsessed age. But actually, these kinds of series are an extension of a time-honored form of entertainment, one that reaches back to the era of landed gentry, debutantes, and social seasons in places like Newport, R.I., or the French Riviera.”

That said, we have inarguably entered an era in which that flirtation has formed into an outrageous love affair. I figured that even if I didn’t entirely believe in the medium, I had to give it more credence than a cynical viewing of Jersey Shore. One of the first topics I began following on Trapit was (unsurprisingly) reality TV. My access to information about the subject had long been limited to the gossip mill: Kim Kardashian is going to make at least 2 million dollars on her wedding; that one girl from 16 And Pregnant got arrested; Bentley Williams is a jerk and Vienna Girardi from The Bachelor got a nose job, etc.

As you can see, I still got a lot of that stuff–and I don’t regret reading one juicy word of it–but what really got under my skin were those occasional editorial gems I found, placing the life of reality television into a historical and cultural framework wherein it could be better understood. Interestingly enough, those same articles identified the gossip mill as a primary reason for our fascination with the genre. To put it simply, “Bad behavior serves as a warning but succeeds as entertainment.”

So why do I watch reality television? It certainly has a lot to do with perspective. It’s fun to watch people “behave badly,” especially when they fit so nicely into a social stereotype of some sort: the grating tones of our “Real Housewives,” the representation of Louisiana gator hunters or “hillbilly handfishers.” I’d like to think that there’s a better justification than that one, but chances are, I probably watch reality shows for the same reason most people do: because it toes that line between the real and the absurd so well.

All this said, what benefits do I derive from watching it?

Um.

I’ll get back to you on that one.

-Henry

I recently took some time off work to attend the Oregon Country Fair, a craft, music, and arts festival in Venetta, Oregon with roots in the 60s counterculture (and to Ken Kesey’s family). All goods sold at the fair are made by hand and do not incorporate imported materials. It’s a good place to pick up a one-of-a-kind, hand-made leather jacket or just marvel at the many labor of love trades and skills on display (yay for blacksmiths and mimes!)

Perusing booths and watching circus artists and vaudeville performers got me thinking about the possibility of quitting one’s day job. With the Internet’s ability to network people with niche interests together (and present ways to capitalize on that), there exists perhaps more opportunities for turning one’s passion into a viable living than there did a decade ago.

So back at my day job I created the following traps dedicated to the pursuit of quitting one’s day job (or at the very least making sure your day job is a labor of love or perhaps supplemented by one). Enjoy.

The Etsy Trap:

Many of the crafters I saw at fair have brick and mortar stores in Oregon, but many of them also sell goods (and make the bulk of their living) on Etsy.com, an e-commerce site dedicated to hand made and vintage goods (think ebay for crafters).

The Etsy Trap features tips and tricks for starting and running an Etsy store; educate yourself on copyright and crafting or watch a video tutorial on photographing your goods.

The Etsy Trap also includes some stories of folks who’ve managed to quit their day jobs to pursue something they love. One of my favorites being the story of a science teacher turned artist/welder.

The Kickstarter Trap:

Kickstarter is a website that harnesses the power of crowdsourcing to fund projects of as wide a variety as there is human imagination. From digital preservation projects to art projects to bottle opening iphone cases. If you can convince enough people that your project is worth a buck or two, your dreams can get funded.

And as a side note, critics who bemoan the lack of scalability for sites like Etsy and Kickstarter (I think) totally miss the point. Certainly there are a limited number of folks with crowdsourcable dreams or who are willing to hand craft wine bottle carriers for bikes, but the Etsy and Kickstarter movement isn’t so much about ever expanding profits, it’s about getting to do what you love for a living.

Speaking of what you love, if I were to quit my day job it would be to run away and join the circus (or maybe just teach an Aerial Arts class). For those of you who dream of being clowns, trapeze artists, or contortionists I present the Circus Trap.-Laura

All sales teams strive to acquire new customers and increase customer lifetime value. Social selling can help you achieve those goals. However, before you can create a social selling program and implement a platform, you need to get executives on board.

Part of that process involves building a business case for social selling. That means stringing together an argument and demonstrating how social sales will help your company achieve its goals. Here are the basic steps that you will take to develop your argument.

The Past and Present: How Did Your Sales Team Get Where It Is?

When you start your business case, think about the current state of affairs. How is your sales team currently selling? How did the organization arrive at this strategy? To move your sales team forward, you have to understand where you are right now. Take the time to interview key stakeholders and look at the tools and processes in place with a critical eye. Here are a few questions you might want to ask:

The Company at Large:

• Are you currently using social in your company? For example, is your marketing department using social?
• How are those departments using it?
• Who are they key stakeholders and what have they learned? (They can help guide you as you plan your program.)

The Sales Team:

• How is your sales team performing? Is there room for improvement?
• What tactics are your sales reps using? Which ones are working? Which ones aren’t?
• Is your sales team currently using social? If so, how?

The Future: Where Do You Want Your Sales Team to Go?

Now that you understand your sales team’s past and present, it’s time to think about where you want the team to go. This is an opportunity to show how social selling will help not just your sales team, but the company at large. As you look to the future, ask yourself:

Questions Related to the Overall Program:

• What is the problem that social selling can help the sales team overcome? For example, are you missing revenue targets?
• Why will social selling help us overcome that problem?
• How will this project support our business strategy?
• What are the financial and non-financial benefits of this program?
• What are the goals for our social selling program?

Questions Related to the Sales Reps:

• What problems do the sales reps face, and how will social selling help them solve those problems?
• What are the benefits of social selling?
• How will reps fit social selling into their existing routines?
• What should reps’ personal goals be?

Getting from Point A to Point B

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it is time to document the steps that will get you where you want to go. It doesn’t need to be a detailed Gantt chart at this point, but you should have a high level overview of how the project will take shape. This gives stakeholders an idea of how they can help.

Things to consider:

• What roles do you need to fill?
• What risks are involved in this project, and what plans are in place to mitigate risk?
• How will you purchase technology?
• How will you ensure successful participation in the program?
• How will you introduce new technology to the sales team?
• How will you train your employees?
• What is your timeline for launching your program?

Quick tip

As you think about your timeline, create a 30-, 60-, 90-day plan for launch. For example, the training portion of your program might look something like this:

• In 30 days, we will launch sales training.
• In 60 days, we will ensure that all of our sales reps are trained in social selling best practices and on our social selling platform.
• In 90 days, we will establish a process for capturing and sharing social selling success stories internally.

Return on Investment

A key part of your business case is the return on investment. The good news is that the ROI of social selling can be quantified into dollars, which makes it much easier for management to approve your project. After all, it’s difficult to argue with hard numbers.

So, take the time to do some research and find some great industry stats on social selling that will help tip the scales in your favor. Look for information that demonstrates the ROI of social selling – for instance, how it can improve sales opportunities and reps’ quota attainment. For example, according to LinkedIn’s data, top social sellers create 45% more opportunities per quarter.

Need more stats or help building your business case? Check out this resource:

Posted by Patricia Hume on Wed, Mar 26, 2014 @ 12:12 PM Tweet

Just because we’re living in the Digital Age, don’t think ancient means of human communication are passé.

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Camelot – a magical mystical place. Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy commented that “Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere.” The first reference to Camelot was in 1170 and, still today, continues to be an enchanting story that delights and engages audiences of all ages. It is quite likely that the origins of this popular legend were most certainly born around Celtic campfires centuries before 1170. Out of Camelot comes our love for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, as well as our belief that Merlin and Arthur really understood the significance of freeing Excaliber – proof of Arthur’s lineage and right to the throne. It is here that Galahad conquers the Siege Perilous, and where knights see a vision of the Holy Grail and swear to find it. And we cannot forget the romantic love between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. A timeless story has a little bit of something for everyone.

Why is this story something so many of us remember, and believe will likely still be retold a century from now? Perhaps because it is a story we fantasize as a metaphor for our own daily struggles – one which we can engage and believe? And through the magic of language, the story triggers our imagination, helping us relate to the characters, their values, and their hopes that are mostly closely aligned to our own.

Camelot is a good example of the power of a story; an illustration of what we can learn and relate through allegory and metaphor. What we can take from Camelot we can apply to our ability to write stories that are enduring and engaging to our audience. When I am telling stories, whether for pleasure or business, these are some of the things I consider:

1. Trigger the reader’s imagination: Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. Certainly, the image of a young Britton exacting a sword from a rock captures the imagination. People buy with their imagination, features and benefits to justify their thoughts.

2. Ignite an emotional response: People remember things they feel. Lancelot’s love for Guinevere, at conflict with his love for Arthur, is rife with emotion. Emotional memories are strong and tend to last because we relate to them differently than something that had no impact on our feelings.

3. Be human: As human’s we relate to others. Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere – all tragic and believable human figures. Our audience is affirmed as human beings through the stories we tell. It is a way of building a community – humanity is affirmed in storytelling. The only common denominator of our audience is that they are all human.

4. Use imagery: The use of imagery triggers the reader’s senses. Can you not vividly recall the surreal image of The Lady of the Lake’s haunting arm rising through the misty waters with Excalibur? Through this technique you increase the engagement of the audience. They can experience the story through enacting the sense – touch, smell, sound, sight and taste, and therefore the ability to recall will be enhanced.

5. Portray values: Jonah Sachs, author of “Winning the Story Wars,” says “…your role as an organization is to “connect your audience to their deeper values.” Your story isn’t about you it’s about motivating and empowering your audience.” Consider the values forged by brave ancient knights, hands clasped around a table without head or foot. So by creating that motivation, you are also creating emotion, imagination, and a human image associated to whatever story you are writing.

And as a general rule of thumb, keep your stories simple. There is no need to over complicate what you write. Avoid using “big” words and complicated details. Simple is better. The simpler a story, the more likely it will stick. Leo Widrich in his blog titled, “What listening to a story does to our Brains” tells us that “using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way truly relate to the happenings of a story.

The success of your story will be measured in your audiences’ engagement. Direct involvement from your audience means valuable actions such as sharing with their friends or remembering the brand’s message just a little more clearly.

If you are using social media as a channel for your story, you need to watch the actions taken across those channels. Or, if you are using a story as part of a campaign – your engagement and success is measured in the leads that are generated. When the audience is engaged in your story and converses about your brand, the brand then becomes content. Content that people are sharing. That is the desired effect.

And back to Camelot – our imaginations are engulfed in imagery of Britain in the times of King Arthur whose values and human characteristics create impact and most certainly trigger an emotional and memorable response. When writing your story – remember the one that has had the most impact in your life.

– Pat

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: audience Posted by Patricia Hume on Tue, Jan 28, 2014 @ 02:07 PM Tweet

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Most of us have been to the public library. Certainly, in our academic lives, we went to the library to gather relevant information, allowing us to do our assignments. I remember having to do a paper about Christopher Columbus back in the days when I did not have the luxury of sitting home and surfing the web to find the facts and figures needed to complete my assignment.

I went to the library. Once there, I used the Dewey Decimal System – the card catalogue – to find the books that I needed to “check out” for my paper. I went to the section where the pertinent books were housed, and then I began the tedious process of my own curation. Without the magic of Internet discovery or search, I needed to physically leaf through volumes to find that which was relevant to the task at hand.

I like the metaphor of the library as it relates to content curation. Let’s take a step back and look at the history of how libraries came to be and, equally important, the role of the librarian. Librarians have actually been around since 8th century BC, when the “keeper of the books” had to oversee the thousands of tablets that contained relevant and important data. These early-day librarians were responsible to oversee the thousands of stored tablets containing content. These tablets were tagged, indexed, and arranged in logical order. The role of librarians has certainly evolved, but as we look back, isn’t it true that librarians were the first curators of content?

Today, more than ever, we need to find relevant content. 90% of all the worlds content that has been created in the past two years – thanks to the Internet and the ability it has given us all to be not only content consumers, but content creators. But now that we have this digital oasis filled with reams of information, it is a very difficult task to search for what we really need, accessible when we need it.

Marketers are creating content management strategies. They are focused on content marketing to become the authority in their industry, improve their brand equity, increase their following, drive more leads, and keep up with their competitors. Their strategies blend both created and curated content in order for them to keep up with the need to reach out to their audiences multiple times per day across multiple channels with compelling and relevant stories. When considering curation, marketers need to find the most efficient, economic approach, while ensuring they are receiving content that is pertinent and relevant. Many times the sources for this curated content are really not known and marketers are forced to, through trial and error, search for what they need. This is not efficient, nor does it render the intended results.

We understood this issue and have responded by building a digital library of original, quality content– a place where marketers can discover and curate the sources of information that they need to complete their assignments. As digital “librarians,” we take the time and focused attention to find the right sources, review them for quality, originality, and appropriateness, then we index, tag, and arrange them in logical order (thank you Mr. Dewey!). Only now, the content is not on shelves, but in that proverbial “cloud.” Sound familiar?

The library in the sky – the curator of the 21st century – brought to you through the inspiration of the scribes of ancient times.

– Pat

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: content curation Posted by Patricia Hume on Tue, Nov 19, 2013 @ 03:57 PM Tweet

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I know the rest of you won’t believe this, but the answer to the question is staring us all in the face. It is simply one word – but what an important one: marketing. No adjective required. What is all the hype about the need for categorization? It is confusing at best. So, as we continue to read about content marketing I am tempted to ask, “Isn’t this just marketing after all?” Really, what is marketing without content? Granted, the fact that the Internet has opened up a new world of data, information, and content adds some level of complexity to what marketers should do to create compelling stories for their audiences. Oh, but what a promise…a promise that there is more than enough – a true abundance – of really wonderful “stuff” out there, allowing a marketer to now become a marketing mixologist, creating great “cocktails” for their readers to consume.

I have been attending different events and listening to the arguments about what kind of content should be leveraged. The debate revolves around these questions: do I create? Or do I curate? I am truly curious as to why certain marketing leaders feel that the only way to preserve their brand, their values, and their voice is through what they control and content they create. My curiosity continues when the discussion leads then to “to curate or not to curate?” And those same leaders are quick to argue that if they curate, they are no longer original, creative, or controlled.

My argument goes something like this: For goodness sake, with social networks, who can control anything anyway? People are going to read what they want and take away what they believe to be good, bad, or indifferent. So my belief is that the real marketing leaders will take hold of a balanced approach to getting their messages to their audience. They will curate, and they will create. They will leverage different channels to get their story told. They will understand who is at the other end of those channels, and make sure that what they say is compelling and making an impact on the reader. The best will tell fun, exciting, enduring stories and they will be the first to engage with something that is different. Their new cocktail is one that is intoxicating, memorable, and engaging enough to keep the audience drinking more. The perfect balance of one shot of created mixed with 2 shots of curated.

I love marketing because it allows us to be creative. I love the Internet because it brings us new and interesting stories. I love to create content because I have a story to tell. And there’s no reason why those can’t all combine in perfect harmony.

-Pat

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments Posted by Patricia Hume on Thu, Sep 12, 2013 @ 05:03 PM Tweet

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Four leaf clovers are rare and very hard to find. They are symbols of luck and, as such, the bearer is better off for having found one. These little gems do exist, but it takes patience to sort through thousands and thousands of three leaf clovers to find one – an arduous task. The largest four leaf clover collection is held by George J Kaminski, who single-handily collected 72,927 – and he found them within the grounds of a prison in Pennsylvania. I guess he had a lot of time on his hands. Though as a career criminal, one might question his luck.

As marketers we face a new – but similar – challenge. We need to provide our customers and prospects with information that is revealing, unique, and engaging – content that must be relevant and timely. Finding relevant content can be difficult and expensive. There is just too much data out there, both in the public domain and in your company’s private domains. As we all know searching for information using today’s search engines is time consuming and not always rewarding, and finding those little four-leafed gems is even harder. And you probably don’t have as much time on your hands as George.

Our audience wants and expects us to help them understand and learn what to buy and why they should buy it. In today’s world of instant information, we know that when a prospect comes to us with an intent to purchase, they have already done their research and narrowed the number of suppliers to just a few. You can bet that they are already at least half way through their buying decision cycle. It is up to us as marketers to ensure that our brand and our story is the one that is most compelling so that we capture their interest and have an opportunity to win their business. Remember, it is not the leads that we know we lost that are most troubling – at least we learn something. Rather, it is instead losing a lead we never had the chance to convert.

Discovering relevant content is everything. Curating content from sources other than your own is critical. Delivering content in a manner that your audience wants is fundamental. As a marketer you must design and execute a content strategy that is rich with the information that compels your audience to take a deeper look at your product. In short, since your audience does not likely have George Kaminski’s time on their hands, you need to figure out how to make it fun and easy to find those four leaf clovers that make you stand out in a field crowded with ordinary three-leafers.

The challenges that you face are time, volume, cost and relevancy. At Trapit we can help with all of this. Our new Content Curation Center will allow you to discover, trap, and deliver the content you need to stay ahead of the crowd. We reduce the time and costs associated with human curation while ensuring that you are finding those gems that keep your audience coming back. And this is not about luck – it is about applying the right solution to help you rapidly and efficiently solve these challenges.

Come and visit us at Trapit and see how fun we make it to help you find your four leaf clovers.

-Pat

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments Posted by Patricia Hume on Tue, Jul 30, 2013 @ 12:58 PM Tweet

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Trust. Trust is something that people value. When there is trust there is a sense of safety, a feeling of contentment, an overall belief that things are ok – perhaps better than ok. Think about who you trust: a doctor, a friend, a partner, even a pet. We learn trust based on consistency in our experience. The experience needs to be worthy of the trust we place in it. Trust can be achieved through a deeply personal experience, and sometimes trust is created because the masses have expressed their opinion. So through their collective delight, the natural outcome is one of naïve trust – not experienced but supported through the mere fact that if the crowd feels something is right – it must be right!

What is trust anyway? Is it a belief in something or someone? For instance, I trust you. Is it a hope? Or perhaps a promise? Yes, Yes, and Yes. So what is the relevance of trust as it relates to marketers…. and does it really matter?

Today, as in the past, companies bear the responsibility to build trust in the goods or services that they deliver to the market. There is a lot of noise about “promise of value” associated with companies brands. A promise is made and we are asked to believe and trust that the promise will be delivered. Think of the “good housekeeping” seal of approval, which gives instant credibility. Whether you are marketing cars, clothes, or canned goods, you want your audience to believe in what you are telling them – you need them to trust you so they will act.

Doesn’t every brand need to advise, teach, and coach in a manner that is tried, true, and trusted? Sure they do. But is trust enough?

Once again the marketers’ dilemma surfaces and new thinking is required. Buyers need more than to just trust in a brand. They need to view the brand promise and associated offering as something that is better than the alternative. The brand needs to differentiate not just by being a trusted advisor but also an advisor with credibility, authority, permission, and authenticity. The Internet houses an ocean of data and therein is the secret ingredient to advancing from the trusted advisor to the advisor who stands out as an authority who the buyer can trust.

Content is the all-important key– it is all about content and relevance. Content without relevance is like shoes with holes in the sole. Your audience demands that you provide information that means something to them. This helps them in their endeavors, and even if they don’t buy at first, they are appreciative and this appreciation renders itself in loyalty and eventual action.

Delivering the brand story with confidence and authority requires courage. Yes, courage. Because relevant content isn’t just about your company and its products and services, but all that surrounds, impacts, and influences it. That means that your competitors’ stories might need to appear in your content. Building credibility means you need to provide balanced and compelling stories…those that are interesting, but most importantly relevant.

Many companies define content as a keystone of their marketing strategy – yet a pretty website with lots of content that is myopic, overwhelming, unimaginative, or candidly boring is really not the way that brands become authorities. They become authorities by going beyond the norm – reaching out beyond the typical boundaries and telling stories that are important, provocative and relevant so that people keep wanting more – keep coming back – and why? It’s simple. They trust that you are an authority not only with your products and services, but an authority about the sector and all that surrounds it.

At Trapit we can help you become the authority that is trusted. With our Content Curation Center you can discover and deliver relevant real time content on your website, through email, on smartphones, tablets, or through social outlets. And guess what – it’s fun and easy. Come and visit us at Trap.it – we are your authority when it comes to creating content that counts. Let us make you one too.

-Pat

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments Posted by Patricia Hume on Tue, Jul 09, 2013 @ 11:57 AM Tweet

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Storytelling has endured as a form of communication since before humans invented the written word. Throughout the centuries telling stories was a way to educate and preserve. It informed vital political, religious, cultural and family matters. Without stories, history, values, events, even a good laugh would have been lost. Stories have been told not only in the narrative sense but also through art – think about the stories told in caves, pottery, fabrics, coffins, and other artifacts. Imagine just how personalized and relevant these stories must have been.

We learn through stories – we remember facts better when there is a context in which they are presented. Most of us recall vividly stories we heard as children. Fairytales, nursery rhymes, and fables that our families shared with us – these all had purpose. They became something that we believe in – something that we go back to time and time again – something that, in some cases, built our core values and eternal truths.

How do we bridge our love of storytelling to today’s reality? Humans have been telling stories in different ways throughout history. With new inventions we are able to reach more broadly and with new ways to communicate. From a picture on a wall to a digitally created application – the spectrum is broad and the results through time are staggering. The Internet has provided us an ability to know about stories that we otherwise might never see. But therein lies the challenge. How do you discover stories that really matter to you?

Stories are extremely relevant in how we think about marketing our companies, our products, or ourselves. Many brand executives would argue that it is the story not the features/function of the product that captures the audience and keeps them connected. The ability for a brand to present itself in context with something that resonates with the target audience is essential to drive a trusted relationship. This ability to provide a context around the brand and educate your audience is what differentiates a great marketing strategy from a good one. We are all hearing the buzz about “content marketing”. So what kind of content should be marketed?

Let’s step back for a moment and think about this marketer’s dilemma. How does the marketer educate while driving loyalty, capturing the audience with something that really matters to them? Making it personal – something that we say “oh yeah – I understand – I get it – I need it – I will buy it.” And then ensure that they come back time and time again – because they believe and they are loyal.

Are brands now becoming publishers? Do brands need to publish contextual stories so that they educate and delight their customers? Few would argue that this is probably true – so now the question becomes how to deliver the “promise of value” in a compelling story AND make it personal.

Hypothetically let’s take a stab –

Let’s say a given soap is marketed as a great moisturizer for women’s skin – leaving skin soft, subtle and clean. The story line is about a woman who used the soap and received great results. Perhaps this is enough for the consumer to decide to trust the soap based on the personal results of the woman who tells her story…

But what if not only could one hear her story – but also could also start to learn about what else is important regarding women’s skincare, health concerns, cosmetics, new medical procedures and the like. What if the brand could begin to publish this type of relevant, personal and real-time content to the potential customer?

This example can be applied to almost anything.

The answer to making this a reality can be quite simple. How about creating an application that provides the stories, relevant, personalized, customized, real-time and mobile – that seems like a great place to start. And in order to do this well it is important to have access to great content – content that is original and of high quality. And much of the content that might apply could be hidden somewhere inside your organization. Perhaps somewhere in those databases that are very hard to navigate.

Or leverage your website and house cool stories that delight and educate your audience and capture mindshare. Remembering that it is important that the stories be pertinent and available – allowing your customer to read the stories where and when they want to – this too will create value – why – because you are making it simple for them.

At Trapit we provide an easy and comprehensive way to support marketers in becoming a trusted advisor, educator, and storyteller. We are supporting publishers and marketers with an ability to access our 100K plus vetted sources, integrate in their own sources, and provide a real time, highly personalized, and mobile experience. With Trapit you can capture your audience with something that really matters to them.

Come learn to tell stories again – visit us at www.trapit.com

-Patricia

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Metrics and KPIs can be overwhelming. There are too many things you can measure, making it difficult to determine how your employee advocacy program has impacted your company’s bottom line.

Today, we’ll look at how you can calculate the ROI for your brand ambassadorship program. Specifically, we’ll look at ad spend on social vs. employee advocacy on social.

As you know, paying to run ads on social media isn’t cheap. Thankfully, your employees can offset those costs.

But how much money are your employees saving you? Let’s take a look at the math.

What You’ll Need:

To do this calculation, you’ll need:

1. Your average cost-per-click (CPC) for each social network (monthly)
2. The total number of clicks that your employees generate on each social network (monthly)
3. Additional costs for your employee advocacy program (monthly)

Using those numbers, we’ll answer this question: How much would your marketing team have to spend on paid social in order to get the same number of clicks that your employees generate?

Here’s the basic formula that we’ll use:

If you don’t know your monthly CPC on each social network, here are a few sites that give you average numbers for Twitter and LinkedIn ads. As you look at those pages, bear in mind that your CPC could be much higher, depending on your target audience.

Step 1: Calculate your Twitter Savings for One Month

Let’s say that you typically spend $1.53 per click on Twitter.

Now, imagine that your group of 300 employees generates a total of 19,689 clicks on Twitter in one month.

Let’s plug those numbers into our formula to find out how much you saved on Twitter…

19,689 clicks x $1.53 CPC = $30,124.17

To generate 19,689 clicks on Twitter, you would have to spend $30,124.17. In other words, by empowering 300 employees, you saved your marketing team over $30k on Twitter in one month.

Not too shabby.

Step 2: Calculate Your LinkedIn Savings for One Month

LinkedIn sponsored updates are typically more expensive than Twitter ads. So, let’s say that you typically spend $7.50 per click.

And let’s say that your group of 300 employees generates 2,433 clicks on LinkedIn in one month.

How much did you save on LinkedIn?

2,433 clicks x $7.50 CPC = $18,247.50

You saved your marketing team roughly $18,250 on LinkedIn in one month.

Step 3: Add up Your Savings for One Month

The next step is to add up how much you saved across your social networks. In this post’s example, we’d add up our LinkedIn savings and our Twitter savings, but you might also throw Facebook into the mix, as well.

$30,124.17 + $18,247.50 = $48,371.67

In one month, your employees saved your marketing department $48,371.67 in paid advertising costs. Woohoo!

But wait… employee advocacy programs aren’t completely free, which brings us to step 4.

Step 4: Subtract Any Additional Costs Associated with Your Employee Advocacy Program

With employee advocacy programs, you might have some monthly expenses. Perhaps you’re paying a monthly fee for your advocacy platform, or perhaps you’ve outsourced your advocacy program to an agency.

Don’t forget to subtract those costs from your subtotal in step 3. In so doing, you’ll discover whether your advocacy program is cost effective.

If you find yourself with a negative number at the end of this step, you’re spending more than you’re saving. In other words, your advocacy program is costing your company money.

But if you find yourself with a positive number at the end of this step, you’re doing things right. Your advocacy program, even with expenses taken into account, is saving your company money.

The ROI of Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy programs have been proven to be a valuable asset to any marketing program. With a little strategic thinking, you can prove the ROI of your program to your executive team.

In this post, we looked at one way to show your company’s leadership the economic value of your advocacy program. In future posts, we’ll look at other calculations that you can use.

Stay tuned!

-Mark

Image via Flickr

Looking for an Employee Advocacy Solution?

Contact us. We’d love to discuss your specific needs.

Posted byMark Bajus

Posted by Gary Griffiths on Tue, Mar 18, 2014 @ 12:26 PM Tweet

While face-to-face is the most effective medium for communication, distribution – and quality – are formidable barriers

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Whether it is entertainment, education, or simply communication, the closer the recipient of the message can get to the originator, the better the chances that the message will be received appropriately. In the first days of human civilization, communications were face-to-face – it was story-telling – great deeds or practical knowledge transmitted from one person to another – or a small group – in an intimate, personal, real-time setting. Effective, but hardly scalable. And, as anyone who’s ever played the “telephone game” knows, not very accurate past the first telling.

Enter the written word. These stories were first captured on stone tablets, and eventually on paper, mass-produced through the genius of movable type and printing presses. Scalable? You bet. And precise too. Yet, even in the hands of the most gifted writer, words on paper are cold, impersonal – sterile as compared to the emotion, the warmth – the passion – of the creator conveying their message in person. The theatre was a step in providing this missing personal touch, and raised the bar a bit on scalability, but not enough – especially as measured in the age of the Internet where billions of people are simultaneously approachable.

It was 1888 when the first film with a “motion picture camera” was produced. Of course, producing a “moving image” and solving the problem of distribution are hardly equal. That is, inventing the camera was a milestone, but the “projector” was still a ways off. And having a moving image solved a huge part of the recreation of a real-time, physical event, but synchronization with sound presented another problem – one that would take another three decades to solve. And then, there was also color.

Anyway, you get it. My purpose here is not to retell the history of Hollywood, but rather to establish the importance of conveying a personal experience in communicating effectively. As a species, humans have evolved from stories told around campfires to smart phones and software capable of producing integrated video and audio ten-times more powerful than what Academy Award-winning directors were using less than two decades ago. This has led to a proliferation of video content easily distributed and widely available on the Internet. But unlike our ancestors, we can now tap into countless campfires around the globe – from Chicago to Calcutta to Siberia. And through the power of video, capture that emotion – the passion – the nuance – of the creator of that message, whether it is a 30-second clip or a three-hour feature film.

But therein lies another problem. Billions of videos. YouTube reports that every minute, 100 hours of video are uploaded. From the historical Zapruder amateur video of the Kennedy assassination to the first men walking on the moon – to yet another of a million nonsensical clips of cats playing with yarn. Point is, I suspect that cat videos were not the hot topics around primeval campfires. To wit, it has been reported that 90% of all of the content that has been created since the beginning of time has been created in the past two years. But before you high-five in celebration of the “awesomeness” of this proliferation of content, consider this: does the guy/gal behind the iPhone clips of college boys farting at frat parties rate with the brilliance of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Hemmingway, Steinbeck…? Quantity does not equal quality. So, while technology has solved the problem of scalability, it has created another problem: in this sea of content – video content specifically – how do you know where content that is actually relevant to you will exist? Faced with the prospect of joining a billion campfires around the world, how can you choose the one that really will matter to you? We’ve all heard “three hundred channels and nothing to watch.” Well, multiply that by another million or so – and you’ll get an appreciation for the problem we all face with scale vs. quality.

At Trapit, we understand this. We love video. We get the power of this media. We understand that 80% of all content – in bytes at least – on the Internet today is video. But we also understand that some high percentage of this – 70, 80, 90%? – is crap – at least for any given individual. Trapit can help. We have done the heavy lifting. We’ve culled the Internet. We’ve sifted the flotsam and jetsam from the trillions of gallons of the Internet oceans of content – text and video – that swim in this ocean. And we’ve identified only the top sites for original, quality video content. Over twenty thousand of these sources – and growing. No spam, no aggregators, no porn. No crap. And our customers can decide how they want to categorize this content – not only in the topics that are relevant to them – but the medium. Text, video, audio. Any of the above – or all of the above. Perhaps for one topic, our customer decides to share only video content with their constituents – or in another a combination of text and video. Trapit will give you the power to find that campfire that fits.

– Gary

4 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: video Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Thu, Mar 13, 2014 @ 12:49 PM Tweet

Image “If someone shows you who they truly are, believe them.” -Maya Angelou Imagine the scene: you walk into a store you wouldn’t normally frequent because you know they have an item you want to purchase for a dear friend. A sales representative approaches you, and tries to interest you in all sorts of products that aren’t the gift you’re looking for. An annoying experience for you, to be sure, since you’re likely to politely decline all the offers of help (that you never wanted to begin with), find what you came for and leave. But what about the representative? If only they had known in advance that you weren’t the target audience for their pitch, they could have spent their time and efforts more productively, and perhaps even increased their store’s revenue.

You might not think about it the same way, but marketing your brand online is really no different. Every marketer and salesperson loves talking about their products and features, but if you have the same conversation with everyone — regardless of what their needs are — then your content strategy is inefficient at best, and can even be destructive to potential customer relationships. Instead, understanding the needs and problems of your target audience, and targeting your message to address those pain points specifically can make all the difference in the world.

That means being aware of what problems your target audience is actually facing, and speaking to those problems. That means building trust by showing that you’re attuned to your audience’s pain points. That means reaching out to influential members of that community, including ones that have successfully addressed those needs and those yet to do so. That means creating case studies and sharing customer testimonials, because there’s no better demonstration of an effective solution than plucking one straight out of the real world.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you can craft the story of your company. Everyone has challenges they’re facing, and if you can identify the major ones faced by the potential customers you’re targeting, you can share their stories. You can connect with them socially, you can build relationships with them, and you can use their influence to draw attention to your own brand. Not every influencer needs to be a customer, either; sometimes building trust, establishing expertise, or simply showing that you understand the needs of your audience can have tremendous value. Every audience is different, and you need to make sure that you’re crafting your story to effectively engage with yours.

And engagement means content. As far as where that content comes from, this means both creating original content and sharing third-party content that supports all of these steps. As long as the content is high-quality and engaging, you’re doing what you need to establish trust, leadership, and to position your brand as the solution to your audience. Because you don’t win customers by promising your audience what you can do, you win them by showing who you are. So show them the entire story, and let the needs of your audience be your guide!

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Imagine the scene: you walk into a store you wouldn’t normally frequent because you know they have an item you want to purchase for a dear friend. A sales representative approaches you, and tries to interest you in all sorts of products that aren’t the gift you’re looking for. An annoying experience for you, to be sure, since you’re likely to politely decline all the offers of help (that you never wanted to begin with), find what you came for, and leave. But what about the representative? If only they had known in advance that you weren’t the target audience for their pitch, they could have spent their time and efforts more productively, and perhaps even increased their store’s revenue.

You might not think about it the same way, but marketing your brand online is really no different. Every marketer and salesperson loves talking about their products and features, but if you have the same conversation with everyone — regardless of what their needs are — then your content strategy is inefficient at best, and can even be destructive to potential customer relationships. Instead, understanding the needs and problems of your target audience, and targeting your message to address those pain points specifically can make all the difference in the world.

That means being aware of what problems your target audience is actually facing, and speaking to those problems. That means building trust by showing that you’re attuned to your audience’s pain points. That means reaching out to influential members of that community, including ones that have successfully addressed those needs and those yet to do so. That means creating case studies and sharing customer testimonials, because there’s no better demonstration of an effective solution than plucking one straight from the real world.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you can craft the story of your company. Everyone has challenges they’re facing, and if you can identify the major ones faced by the potential customers you’re targeting, you can share their stories. You can connect with them socially, you can build relationships with them, and you can use their influence to draw attention to your own brand. Not every influencer needs to be a customer, either; sometimes building trust, establishing expertise, or simply showing that you understand the needs of your audience can have tremendous value. Every audience is different, and you need to make sure that you’re crafting your story to effectively engage with yours.

And engagement means content. As far as where that content comes from, this means both creating original content and sharing third-party content that supports all of these steps. As long as the content is high-quality and engaging, you’re doing what you need to establish trust, leadership, and to position your brand as the solution to your audience. Because you don’t win customers by promising your audience what you can do, you win them by showing who you are. So show them the entire story, and let the needs of your audience be your guide.

– Ethan

1 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: audience Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Tue, Mar 11, 2014 @ 01:57 PM Tweet

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If you’re a brand and you’re not on Twitter, you’re doing something wrong. While Google is still the first stop for a quick company search, Twitter is quickly becoming the place to discover and interact with brands, both big and small. Angry at Comcast for a dropped call or billing error? Tweet them and you’ll likely get a more enjoyable response than sitting on the phone on hold for 25 minutes. Want to find out about the best new products from your favorite clothing retailer? Check out their Twitter for real-time updates or even special offers. As a brand, just being on Twitter isn’t enough. Both your customers and prospects have expectations of just how a company should behave. Let’s call it social brand etiquette. Here are the absolute basics.

News about your company

If you have news about your company or brand, great! Be sure to share it on social. Having it on your website isn’t enough. There are countless customers and prospects who may only see you via your social presence. Make sure they know what the latest happenings are and what your brand is up to. You might catch the eye of a casual Twitter user who wouldn’t ever come directly to your brand’s website.

Quality original content

This one is a no-brainer, and it’s undoubtedly part of any successful brand strategy on Twitter. If you have a company blog, white-paper, or infographic, don’t neglect to post it on Twitter, even if it seems like it may be more successful on a different social channel. It doesn’t hurt to put all of your quality content out there for customers to see. They will appreciate being well-informed about you and your product.

Quality curated content

We are big proponents of curation, and there are good reasons to back that up. By posting quality content created by others on your social channels, you are telling your customers and audience that you care about your industry and sharing relevant insights, even if they come from another individual or company. Sharing curated content alongside your own content builds trust, brand authority, and thought-leadership. Your Twitter will become a place your audience goes for quality information.

Customer service

Twitter is a great outlet for basic customer service, and your customers like it that way. I know I, for one, would much rather Tweet a question to a brand, go on with my day, and get an answer back within a few hours, than sit on the phone listening to bad muzak for an undetermined amount of time. Be sure to monitor Twitter for mentions of your brand, and always respond. If you can answer a question or solve a problem on Twitter, do it. If the issue is too complicated to express in 140 characters, kindly thank them for reaching out and direct them to your email or a customer support email address.

Timely responses

Whether you are onboard with it or not, you will receive questions, feedback, and probably also complaints on Twitter. The sooner you can respond to all of those Tweets, even the negative ones, the better. Responding within 24 hours is ideal. Whenever I have tried contacting brands on Twitter, a timely and kind response has gone a long way in my respect for that brand and their customer service. It makes your customers feel like you are always there for them, accessible on one of their favorite social outlets.

Your brand voice

Last, but absolutely not least, your Twitter activity should always reflect your brand voice. Defining your brand voice is a whole other post, but once you’ve nailed down whether you are the authoritative professional type, the fun and playful type, or somewhere in between, make sure that your activity on Twitter reflects that style. If your voice is formal and professional, sharing silly viral videos might seem out of character. If your voice is light and silly, responding to customers with terse, short answers might be off-putting. Keep your voice consistent in your own Tweets, the content you share, and the way you respond to your customers.

– Kelly0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: social, audience Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Fri, Mar 07, 2014 @ 11:58 AM Tweet

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When Google Reader was on its death bed this past summer, I couldn’t help but speculate as to why the decision was being made to shut down the RSS news platform. One of the prominent arguments I came across was that RSS always suffered from lack of consumer appeal.I agree to a certain extent. It’s not that the standard user simply isn’t capable of grasping how RSS works, but I do recognize the struggle exists for standard users to make the most out of their RSS experience. My stance has little to do with any reader services that queue up the content, nor the subscriber functionality of RSS. The problem resides in the fact that not enough websites out there have been doing enough with their RSS capabilities. In order for the future of RSS to hum like a well-oiled machine in an overcrowded internet, the sources of content must become more robust, more niche and more versatile. The web is a free democracy – RSS must mirror this concept and empower readers with more choices when it comes to the content subscriptions that auto-filter into our daily digest of information we consider valuable.

RSS Food for Thought – The Buffet Analogy

Website owners should take notes next time they walk into a buffet (bear with me). When I enter a buffet, my stomach wants it all – everything. Contrarily, my heart desires something lighter and more healthy. Despite these conflicts of interest, I know ultimately that I am in a position to choose the most well-rounded plate that’ll satisfy the taste-budding opinions inside me that are constantly butting heads. I deliberate carefully. I look around and appreciate how the square footage of the buffet is broken down (much like websites) into subsections, by genres–italian, seafood, salad bar, sweets, etc. If you are like me, you make one stop per trip to the seafood section and you leave with shrimp and shrimp only, approximately five panko pieces. I know the salmon is there, it stares at me wondering if today is the day my palate makes that connection. But I’m here for the shrimp, and the buffet respects that. It’s why I return, unbothered, unfettered. Maybe tomorrow, salmon.

Websites must do the same. Allow your readers to subscribe to the things they desire consuming routinely. Recognize that a consumer’s stomach can only expand so far, so why force feed them? Imagine if said-buffet instead unloaded a dump truck of food on your table, forcing you to sift through it all to fill your plate. You’d probably choose a different buffet. In order to compete in this smartphone-crazed world where attention spans are rapidly shrinking, RSS functionality must become a diverse content buffet that allows readers the versatility to subscribe to either large chunks or tiny slivers of content. With all the multitasking we do on a daily basis (Facebooking, Twitter-skimming, Insta-gazing) how much room do we have left in the tank to read quality content when our mind settles down at the night’s end? RSS should be that cornerstone can’t-miss feature in the world of content that will bring readers what they want, when they want it.

Dissecting RSS: Empower the Contributors that make your Website Superb

Sure, “All News” or “All Articles” feeds are fantastic and important to have available for subscription, but let’s be real here. As readers, occasionally certain writers or writing styles come across as annoying, while others can hook, line and sink our return. Twitter gives you the option to mute someone’s retweets and empowers users with the choice to only follow an original voice. Websites should do the same for each and every contributor, syncing a RSS feed to each individual, even if they merely appear seldomly as featured guests. Whether a reader is subscribing to one writer, or a handful, RSS connectivity in this manner will bring readers back to the website when they feel like it and the content flow will never feel overwhelming, because they will remain in control. Who knows, they may pick up a piece of salmon along the way.

Broad categorical feeds are great, but niche keyword topics are golden

Sports, technology, news, health, science, fitness – the list goes on. These are great general feeds to have featured in a RSS section of a website, but are they really robust enough for readers to narrow in and get the most out of your website’s content? I consider myself a tech nerd, but have very little interest when it comes to the economics of the tech world. Those type of articles would keep me from ever subscribing. However, if I could pull a feed that dissected further into the tech section, I’d jump on the “smart tech,” “drones,” and “apple” feeds. And odds are, I may even jump from my RSS queue back into the general realm of the website to explore further, perhaps pick up some new interests along the way. Having the freedom to subscribe to my can’t-miss interests is key and brings a sense of organization when I’ve grown tired of web surfing for the day.

A website that simply “gets it”

Bloomberg View, an editorial division of what we know as Bloomberg News, is the cookie-cutter example of how a website should manage its RSS connectivity for its consumers. Tabs at the top of the page begin with a section where you can view all the content in a clean flow, queueing the articles chronologically for those wanting to browse the latest. The other two tabs are my favorite. The “contributors” section lists all the people who are posting content to the website. Inside, you can find the contributor’s bio, relevant keywords that provide a glimpse of what that writer is likely addressing in their editorials, and most importantly, a RSS feed clear as day at the top of the bio. Skip a tab over to the right, it gets even better. Inside the “topics” section, you’ll find a list of nearly 100 topics that take website categories to a new level. Climate Change, Oil, Olympics, Energy, Gadgets, China are the ones I’m currently subscribed to from the site. With a mixture of breadth, and narrowed specifics, Bloomberg View recognizes that niche topics of interest are fantastic candidates to sync with RSS.

—

When Google Reader etched its name in a tombstone, tech critics questioned if this truly meant RSS was perishing after all. My rebuttal is simple: Nas said the same thing about hip-hop music being dead and look what happened. He made another album. And another. Content, just like music, will never die, so long as readers are still lingering around with open eyes and cat-like curiosity. With new data continuing its exponential rise on the internet, websites have to recognize that RSS functionality must become more sophisticated if they expect to hold onto the unique interests of its diverse readership. Most of us can’t seem to read anything longer than 140 characters these days, but when our brains settle down and we’re done tapping and finger-swiping, RSS must be that pipeline for all the go-to information. Get it done, internet.

– Geoff

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: RSS Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Wed, Mar 05, 2014 @ 12:03 PM Tweet

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Do you really know your audience? With the intense content needs that all marketers face, it’s easy to jump right to creating content and pushing it out before figuring out exactly who you want to read that blog entry, white paper, or social media post. We know all too well that creating or curating enough content to keep up with the competition often outweighs other priorities, but it will pay off down the road to stop for a few minutes and learn about your audience. Once you’ve figured out who your audience is, it’s a lot easier to determine what they need and want. Creating content is one thing, but creating content that resonates with your audience — making them want to come back to you or buy your product — takes a little more finesse.

So, before you panic about how many blog posts or white papers you have to write this week, stop and consider the points below. Try to develop buyer and reader personas, either in your head or on paper, and look back to those every time you create a new piece of content.

1. Define your ideal target audience – for both buying your product and consuming content.

While the buyer persona is probably the most important audience to define, you may also want to think about a reader persona. Some people in your industry will be interested in purchasing your product (buyer persona), while others may be engaged members of your industry who are interested in what you do and may read or share your content, but are not likely to buy (reader persona). Both of these can be valuable for creating leads and brand awareness. Maybe your buyer persona is a CMO of a Fortune 500 company, but your reader persona is the social media specialist at a smaller company in your industry. Both are valid. When defining each one, think about what their job may entail, why they would come to you, and how you can best reach them.

2. Think about what their pain points and challenges are on a daily basis.

Now that you’ve created a general outline of your audience, or audiences (job title, duties, industry, etc.), you need to learn more about what challenges they face – so that you can then present them with thoughtful information about or solutions to those problems. Don’t just think about what your product or company does, but think about that person and what kind of problems they face day in and day out. Are they a marketer who is stressed about creating enough content each week? Are they in charge of helping their company stand out on social? Are they an apparel brand trying to engage their audience in new ways online? Try to make a long list of problems you think they might face, or even reach out on social media to find ou moret. From that list will emerge themes that you can create content around – content that will provide value to your audience, because you know them and their struggles.

3. Find out where they are online, and when.

The most engaging content will be content that is presented to your audience in a space they know and like, and in a format they understand. Because you’ve already created your buyer and reader personas, you’re halfway there. Think about your personas, and think about where they consume the most content. What are they doing while they consume the content? How much time do they spend? Are they engaging or just perusing? All of these small questions will have an effect on your content strategy. If you’re dealing with C-level executives, you might want to focus on content for LinkedIn or high-quality white papers for your website. If your audience is younger online professionals, Twitter and Facebook might be the right space for your content. And if you’re going for the teens and tweens, look to the latest popular social media apps like Vine and Snapchat.

Think about what mindset they might be in when they see your content. Are they lounging at home with their iPad, ready to read a thoughtful long-form article? Or are they trying to keep up with the latest news at work, with only enough time for a quick tip-sheet? Adjust the time you post your content based on whether you want to reach them at work, at rest, or somewhere in between.

4. What do they need to know about you and your product?

Now that you have a better grasp on what kind of content your audience or audiences may want in general, and when and where to give it to them, it’s also important to think about what information they need from you about your company and your product. While “sell, sell, sell” is not exactly a recommended motto in the blogging world, your audience does need to be informed about you and your company. What are your most frequently asked questions? What are the most common gripes or suggestions you hear? What might they be thinking if they are comparing you against a competitor? Content on your website, blog, or social media can be a great way to answer these questions and show your audience exactly who you are and what you offer them. Now that you’ve discovered their pain points, you can use thoughtful content to gently show them that you and your company may offer a solution.

– Kelly1 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: audience Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Thu, Feb 20, 2014 @ 11:46 AM Tweet

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Smartphones are everywhere these days, and are becoming progressively more and more integral to every aspect of our lives. We spend more than two hours a day engaged with our mobile devices, more time than we spend on desktop and laptop computers combined. But what’s even more important is how people are using them, and what it means for brands and businesses.

For starters, it isn’t just taking over e-commerce, although m-commerce has grown to nearly 20% of all online sales; it’s also making its way into brick-and-mortar stores. The percentage of shoppers using a smartphone to look for information about potential in-store purchases is at a whopping 61%, or more than half of all shoppers. These mobile-influenced shoppers also spent significantly more on average, and mobile commerce has grown by 45-to-50% from 2012 alone! The biggest value-add that the mobile experience gives customers are product information, price comparison, and (of course) customer reviews.

But don’t think for a minute that this means smartphones aren’t indispensable targets for businesses. Virtually all smartphone users are using their devices to get information about local businesses and for purchases while they’re there. In fact:

• 95% of smartphone owners use their device to look for local information,
• 77% will contact a local business as a result of what they find,
• 74% of smartphone shoppers wind up making a purchase either online, in-store, or on their phones,
• 71% of smartphone users wind up searching on their phone due to ad exposure, and, most importantly,
• 24% wind up recommending a brand or product to others as a result of smartphone searches.

So, what’s your strategy? No matter how big or small you are, you don’t want to leave it up to organic searches alone.

Are you going to let Google or Bing determine what your customers find? Are you going to let the Walmarts and Amazons and Neiman Marcuses of the world corner the market on a quality mobile experience for their customers? The point is, if you’re ignoring smartphones, you’re ignoring the needs of the majority of customers, and your competition isn’t. If you’re not reaching out to them, someone else will be, even in your own store.

Over the next three years, m-commerce and mobile influenced store sales are projected to more than double, accounting for as much as 15% of all sales. So forget about phones at your own peril, because the companies that wind up growing the fastest won’t.

-Ethan

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: mobile Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Wed, Feb 19, 2014 @ 11:36 AM Tweet

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In this day and age, it’s rare to even think about buying something without doing a little online research. It’s become a natural part of the purchasing process, for things big and small, because who wants to get a bad price or have buyer’s remorse? If a customer is buying a new pair of running shoes, they will go online to see the features, specs, and reviews before clicking “buy.” If they are looking for a new laptop, they will most likely check out reviews on top tech websites, or even better, go look at the laptops in a brick-and-mortar store and then find the best price online. When it comes to business, marketing, and software services, the buying process isn’t so different. With a wealth of information out there on the web, why would you make any purchase without being well-informed? You wouldn’t.

So, if you know that your prospects are doing their own research and forming their own opinions before you even get a chance to email or speak with them, how do you engage and put yourself ahead of the pack? It starts with your content. It has to be out there working for you all of the time. Your customers or prospects are definitely doing their own research and surveying the competition before ever contacting you or clicking that “learn more” button. By that time, they are probably pretty closing to making up their minds. With that being said, your options for engaging that prospect before that point are fairly limited. You can’t email them or call them on the phone, but what you can do is give them the content they need to make a well-informed decision, hopefully leading them back to you instead of your competitors. If not, so be it, at least they saw what you had to offer. That’s a better scenario than that prospect passing you by because of a dearth of content on your company’s site. It’s time to give in to the fact that your prospect wants to be almost sure of their decision before ever speaking to a representative. Give them the content they need to do so.

Let your content do the talking – Is there enough content on your website? What does it say about you? Think about the customer and what kind of content they want to see to help them make an informed purchase. Look at your competitor’s sites and see what kind of information they are putting out there. You may not want to give away all your secrets, but put enough out there to give prospects a good idea of what you are all about and what kind of services you offer. Fact sheets, case studies, and blog posts that demonstrate thought-leadership in your area of expertise are a good place to start. If you’re not sure what kind of content to create, start with listing out your customers biggest pain point and business problems. Consider what you would want each prospect to know if you could, in fact, talk to them. Write blog posts or e-books about those subjects to make sure they are in the loop.

Put your content out there – your content is your best shot at engaging with a prospect before they narrow down the field, make sure that content is visible. Don’t hide it in a back page of your website. Put it out there and make it easily accessible or even downloadable. Integrate your blog into your main website so that with one click a prospect can read several posts that help them understand your brand and your purpose. Stay active on social media, too. If you are distributing your content to multiple channels every day, your prospect is more likely to see that content and keep you top-of-mind. The more visible your brand is, the more likely that prospect will keep you in the running and eventually click to contact you.

If you’ve done a good job with your content, your prospect will have a lot of knowledge about what you offer by the time they make the decision to become a customer. That means they will be making an educated decision and will be a lot less likely to have buyer’s remorse or be surprised when they find out exactly what you do. An informed customer is a happy one, so let your brand content do the work for you.

– Kelly
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Tue, Feb 11, 2014 @ 12:37 PM Tweet

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If you aren’t thinking about mobile as part of your overall content strategy — you should be. It’s no easy task, but creating a comprehensive content strategy today has to include all important aspects of content creation and consumption, from blogging to social and definitely to mobile. You can probably guess where browsing and content consumption is heading based on your very own mobile habits. Typical online browsing may still be the norm at work, but when I get home and kick off my shoes, it’s my iPhone I reach for instead of my computer. Sure, it’s a smaller screen, but I can browse at a leisurely pace, multitask with Instagram or games, and pick it up and put it down whenever I want. It’s no wonder that mobile web browsing accounted for 30% of all web traffic in 2012 and is expected to account for 50% by this year.

So, if you’re not optimizing your website and your content for mobile, you could be losing out on a whole lot of traffic. In theory, that traffic could be even more valuable than the traditional traffic we’ve all been gunning for. Where do you want to reach your users most? At work during the day, where they are likely too busy to delve into a lengthy piece of content, or at home in their off-hours when they have the time to read and browse for enjoyment? That question doesn’t have a right answer, but if you’re hoping to increase your traffic overall, mobile is undoubtedly an important component to consider. While there are plenty of advanced ways to optimize and strategize for mobile, here are a few first steps to get you started.

1. Make your website mobile-friendly

If you want users to be visiting your site and spending time there from their smartphones or tablets, it absolutely needs to be optimized for mobile. There are two common ways of achieving this. The first is to build a version of your website for mobile — one that is simpler, probably includes less text, and is easy to view and navigate from a smartphone or tablet. If you choose this option, it’s also preferable to include a link to your full website, just in case the user wants to see your full-functioning page. The second option is to use a responsive design for you site, which basically means that the features and content on your site will naturally adjust to fit whatever size device the viewer is using, be that a phone, tablet, or full-size desktop.

2. Stay active on social

If you think that your social and mobile content strategies are two different things, think again. When your users, customers, or prospects are consuming content on their mobile devices, they are most likely using social networking apps to do so. You want your content to reach your followers wherever they are. Spoiler alert: they are all over social. If you can create, share, or curate content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram (just to name a few), you will be getting your content out there and showing up in the mobile apps where they spend their time. Your audience is spending a good chunk of their time in social networking apps on their smartphones and tablets. If you’re reaching them on social, you’re also reaching them on mobile.

3. Don’t forget about email

Email marketing may seem like old-news compared to social, video, and infographics, but it can still be crucially important. If you have a smartphone, ask yourself how many times a day you check your email with that device. We won’t judge you. If you are like 72% of email users, that number will be 6 or higher. So, kill two birds with one stone and create some killer email marketing campaigns. Not only will it serve you well for web traffic and conversions, but you’ll also be getting a leg up on reaching your audience on mobile. If a user checks their email over the course of a day on their computer, tablet, and smartphone, sending them an email campaign means that you’ll be reaching them on all three devices, at all different times of the day.

– Kelly

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: mobile Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Thu, Feb 06, 2014 @ 12:07 PM Tweet

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Mobile users are snackers when it comes to content: looking for headlines to skim through, articles to quickly scan and then pass over, and maybe a comic or image to linger on for a brief moment. At least, that’s the conventional wisdom, and the mobile strategy that most companies are banking on.

Except what if it’s not true? What if more than 80% of mobile users would watch long-form TV shows or movies on their phone if available? What if a majority of mobile users actually preferred long-form content to clips or snippets? And what if long-form content titan Buzzfeed was not only getting 50% of its traffic from mobile, but that phone users were spending twice as long reading articles than those on tablets?

As Buzzfeed’s CEO, Jonah Peretti says,

Reaching a large audience with mobile by streamlining your site is no doubt still important, but streamlining your content is no longer an option. The so-called second screen is becoming the primary screen for a large number of people, and this is true for both video and text-based content.

It seems counterintuitive, that people would choose to spend their time watching a movie designed for a theatrical experience on a 4-inch screen, or read a 6,000 word article on a device that’s an eighth the size of a single page. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. As smartphones continue to penetrate the market, and a number of users switch to mobile devices as their primary computing devices, reaching a mobile audience with full-length articles, stories and videos is more important than ever.

In 2010, the average American adult spent just 24 minutes on their mobile devices a day, yet as of a few months ago, that figure had surged to 2 hours and 21 minutes a day. That increase hasn’t been because they’re spending more time skimming; they’re spending that time reading magazine-style articles or watching full-length videos. And if you’re not providing them with the same high-quality content on their mobile devices that they can get elsewhere, someone else will. You can cut down on any number of things for an improved mobile experience, but if you don’t want to disappoint your audience, don’t cut the content.

– Ethan

0 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: mobile Posted by Kelly Montgomery on Wed, Feb 05, 2014 @ 11:59 AM Tweet

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Co-editor of the 18th-Century French Encyclopedia, rebel against conventional narrative style, renowned critique of art and drama, predecessor of complexity theory, and advocate of feminine sexuality, Denis Diderot is one of my personal heroes. This Enlightenment polymath devoted much of his philosophical energy to championing Empiricism – the school of thought that holds that knowledge is rooted in observations we accumulate in life – over the then prevailing school of Rationalism – which holds that knowledge is rooted in hard-wired, logical patterns of thought we are born with. Rationalists build clean, coherent theories and search for data to support their conclusions; empiricists trade elegance for complexity, allowing observations to lead them astray into discovery, unearthing knowledge they didn’t know they were looking for when starting their quest.

To illustrate his preference for inquisitive empiricism, Diderot repurposes one of Aesop’s fables in his Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature, published in 1754. The fable tells of a father, on his death bed, who advises his children that there is treasure buried in his field, but that he does not remember where. The children dig and scourge the field to find the treasure, but to no avail. The following year, they continue their search but with sharper tools, convinced the treasure must be buried deeper in the ground. Eventually, one of them sees some shining fragments and realizes he may have discovered a mine. So the children shift tactics. They give up looking for treasure to focus their efforts on exploiting the mine, which yields plenty. For Diderot, the children start as rationalists obsessed with solving a particular problem which was likely unsolvable and ended as empiricists, who “come to make discoveries more important than the solution itself.”

These debates between rationalism and empiricism still take place today, although in slightly different forms to match different stakes and discussions. And, with a bit of imaginative license, we can draw analogies between these two approaches to knowledge and the use of contemporary technologies.

Consider, for example, the distinction between search and discovery as tools for finding and curating content on the internet. Search tools provide exact character matches between the input entity one searches for and the collection of content one searches on; input “horse,” and the engine will scan content to find the word “horse” and return pages that contain that word as the result set. Multiple organizations are hard at work to refine these tools to intuit the intention of the searcher when conducting the search. The assumption is that, through our habitual use of search engines like Google or Yahoo, we’ve started to develop our own niche language for how we think queries are structured. For example, when an expecting mother is looking for a stroller for her son, she does not transcribe her literal question (“where can I find the best stroller for my son?”) but rather inputs a truncated phrase to mimic how she expects the search engine functions to get the results she wants (“best strollers”). If the engine is right, search can be powerful, extensive and precise. But the extent of the result set is always limited to what the searcher thinks he or she is looking at the outset. Search is the tool to help the children in the fable dig through the field to find the buried treasure.

Discovery, by contrast, extends the parameters of our initial inquiry to unearth content we may not know we’re looking for when we start. Words are not absolute, independent units with their own intrinsic meanings, but relative, dependent units whose meanings blossom in context. For each word, therefore, there are multiple related words that create clusters of meaning that index a topic, theme or context. To return to the example of “horse,” we might situate horse within the cluster of words related to the practice riding (tack, bit, saddle), the cluster of words related to similar species (donkey, zebra), the cluster of words related to sociology and demographics (aristocrat, noblemen, polo). Someone initially searching for “horse” may be interested in any one of these clusters. While a curating engine needs further information to discern the intended cluster, it can use subsequent activity to provide more accurate and relevant results going forward. Once given the cue to find content in a particular cluster, a discovery engine can return vastly different results than search: our horse-lover may start an inquiry with the word “horse” and end up finding a fascinating body of knowledge about Lully’s 17th-century ballets. To return to our fable, discovery is the tool that helps the children find the plentiful mine, riches greater than the treasure they originally sought.

The applications for content marketing are powerful. In today’s world, branding strategies have shifted from inundating repetition of single images and refrains to distributing varied content through vehicles that best align with individuals’ particular habits, interests and preferences. Like words, people’s interests are not discrete and absolute; they are tied into an integrated whole, each topic a Lilly pad connected to others by a root system of analogies, associations and experiences. Simply put, Trapit’s discovery engine enables content marketers to enrich their corpuses, filling them not only with precisely defined content indexed by search, but also with the vast body of related topics that extend horizons, providing consumers the novelty they want to retain loyalty to a trusted brand.

So often in life, it’s when we’re not intently focused on searching for something that we open ourselves up to discover the beautiful surprises that end up providing us the most meaning and happiness. A woman went shopping for shoes, and came home with her favorite dress (forget the shoes); Proust took a bit of a cookie and found one of the greatest novels of the 20th century; a man started a conversation with a woman on a plane and ended up marrying her, the love of his life. Knowledge we don’t yet know we’re looking for is out there to be discovered in the endless, dormant mines of the web.

– Kathryn Hume

Kathryn Hume leads marketing for the Risk Practice Group at Intapp, Inc, a software company that provides business operations technology to law firms. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and focuses on the intersection between law, the humanities and new technologies.

1 Comments Click here to read/write commentsTags: discovery

The vice president of sales role is undergoing some growing pains, and digital disruption is largely to blame.

Digital has removed barriers across sectors, shortening the shelf life of any product’s competitive advantage and making it easier for competitors to steal customers. What’s more, buyers are more informed than ever before. They have endless product options and can complete much of their research online – without speaking to a sales rep. Many sales professionals don’t know how to react to the buyer’s newfound control, and they are overwhelmed by the glut of new channels and ways they can communicate with their buyers.

Needless to say, all this has complicated the lives of VPs of Sales. While the role of sales leaders varies across sectors, here are four competencies that every VP of Sales needs to master in the digital age.

Design the Right Strategies to Engage Buyers in a Multichannel World

Clear insight into the customer journey must be a top priority for sales leaders. A better understanding will lead to an increase in sales productivity. However, it won’t be easy. The customer journey is often complex. Even simple tasks often involve multiple steps and channels.

A customer may fill out a form to see a demo, jump on a discovery call with a salesperson, open a follow-up email from the sales rep, connect with a salesperson on social, click on a piece of content that a rep shared on Twitter, discuss vendor research with colleagues in an in-person meeting, go silent for a few weeks, reappear by texting a sales rep, jump on another sales call…

Let’s face it. The bichannel world of phone calls and email is long gone. Sales leaders need to design a consistently positive, rewarding experience across multiple online and offline touch points. And they need to recognize that doing so requires them to be attuned to their customers’ needs, which brings me to my next point…

Create a Culture Focused on the Customer

Sales teams know what they want: they want to get their products in front of their customers as quickly as possible, and they want to crush their quotas.

Unfortunately, that’s not want buyers want. Buyers want to educate themselves, create informed decisions, and avoid sales reps whenever possible. At least, that’s what Forrester’s research shows:

Why are buyers reluctant to engage sellers? Largely because sellers have not adapted to the new buying dynamic. Sales reps continue to pounce and pitch and push, which annoys buyers. Instead, sales reps should be helping buyers do their research and acting as trusted consultants.

To win over buyers in today’s world, the mentality of sales teams needs to shift. Reps must go from a “Sales reps are in control” mindset to a “Customers are in control” mindset. They must move from an “Of course, customers want to see my product” mindset to an “I need to gain my customers’ trust before I show them my product” mindset.

It’s up to the VP of Sales to set the tone and model the mentality that sales reps should adopt.

Exercise Diplomatic Muscles

Talking about being customer-centric is trendy right now, but the implications of being customer-centric are often overlooked. To attract, retain, and upsell customers, sales leaders must act diplomatically and learn how to partner internally.

To put it differently, today’s sales leaders need to develop their soft skills as much as their hard skills. They need to forge strong working relationships with the C-suite, be transparent, and build processes that will be mutually beneficial for themselves and other leaders within the organization.

After all, the customer’s journey crisscrosses several departments – from marketing to sales to customer success. Delivering a consistent and rewarding experiencing across all customer touch points requires the input and buy-in of multiple stakeholders. Gone are the days when sales teams could be siloed off from the rest of the company.

Truth be told, silos have hurt sales reps. Many times, sales teams are holding back their companies from truly embracing the new customer journey. By and large, marketers have adapted to the modern buyer, with CMOs often being digital change agents within their companies. Yet, many sales teams have not followed suit. They remain relatively digitally immature and continue to engage buyers on their preferred channels – not their customers’. As a result, sales reps’ tactics are largely ineffective and inefficient.

VPs of Sales have the opportunity to learn a lot from their marketing counterparts. Writing about the digital transformation of sales, Peter O’Neill of Forrester advises:

Choose Technology That Serves Sales Reps – Not Management

To state the obvious, sales tools have evolved over the last decade. However, Accenture’s research shows that many reps see sales technology as a barrier to performance.

In part, this is because sales management has selected technology that serves their needs. 58% of sales professionals believe that their sales tools are used for monitoring them rather than improving their performance.

Sure, from the perspective of a VP of Sales, the need to monitor reps is an understandable concern. There’s one of VP of Sales, and there are hundreds – if not thousands – of reps. Sales management needs analytics and reporting to make sure that sales reps are doing their job and doing it well.

That said, every VP of Sales needs to ensure that the team’s tool set does more than spit out reports. Their technology stack needs to support sales reps as they help buyers on their journey and engage with customers in a multichannel environment.

Are You Ready to Adapt?

The need to adapt to the new digital customer places a lot of pressure on the VP of Sales. But the growing pains are worth it. Sales leaders who create multichannel playbooks for their teams, learn about their customers’ needs, build effective bridges across the organization, and give their teams the right technology will see their sales increase.

It’s hard to keep up with the latest news in the world of content and marketing, isn’t it?

We curate content using Trapit all week long, and to help you keep up, we’ve highlighted some of our favorite discoveries below. To save you a little time, we’re giving you the quick breakdown, too.

Background: 10 pieces of content. According to Joe Pulizzi in Epic Content Marketing, that’s how many pieces of content the average buyer looks at before reaching a decision. But in B2B scenarios, who’s consuming that content?

CMO and NetLine examined how employees pass along content as they research their buying options.

It turns out there isn’t a dominant content path.

Why should we care about this?

When creating content, B2B marketers want to cater to specific personas. However, as this study points out, there are limits to marketers’ specificity. We can’t write content just for junior-level teams or just for senior management or just for executive-level management because we don’t know who will be consuming our content.

The solution, according to Yuyu Chen, is to develop a point of view supported by “industry facts and stats, research, and insights.”

In other words: Remember the good, ol’-fashioned research that went into creating white papers? Yeah, well, good, ol’-fashioned research hasn’t died. The challenge is to find ways to repurpose the research and to present the information across different channels.

2. Why 55% of potential B2B buyers might not trust your website content

Author: Dianna Huff | Site: CMI | Link

If you haven’t read this article, go ahead and take a guess. What establishes credibility with B2B buyers?

Are you ready for the answer?

It’s your “About page.” Fancy that.

On your “About page,” you better put your e-mail address and phone number. 81% of buyers prefer to contact vendors via e-mail, and 58% of buyers prefer to contact vendors via phone.

For more stats from the study, click here.

3. Is curation overused? The votes are in

Author: Steven Rosenbaum | Site: Forbes | Link

The problem: Curation has become a buzzword, and as a result, thought leaders have begun to poke fun at it. Most notably, NPR’s Scott Simon channeled his inner Elizabeth Barrett Browning and said, “How do I love thee? Let me curate the ways…”

Rosenbaum’s take: He points out that the term curation isn’t as overused as members of the media would have you believe. According to CNBC’s 2014 poll, “viral” is far buzzier than the word “curation.”

Rosenbaum includes a call-to-action: “Let’s start by putting our foot down and returning the world of curation to the world of content. Maybe we need the curation police to start handing out tickets for unlicensed curators and irresponsible use of the word.”

To that, I’d like to add a sappy, but sincere note: Curation is about more than simply “the world of content.” The verb “curate” comes from the Latin verb curare, meaning “to care for.” So, for me, good content curation involves some tender, love, and care.

To put it differently, good curation means caring about what the original author wrote. It means engaging with the content on a deeper intellectual or emotional level. Good content curation also means caring about your audience – sharing content that your audience wants and needs to digest, and it means feeding your audience enough context so that they can appreciate the deliciousness of the content.

4. Why content marketers should step back from creation and focus on strategy

Author: Nathan Safran | Site: Search Engine Watch | Link

The main idea: According to a Demand Metric study:

Only 13% of marketers think that their content strategy is “very successful.”

Let me repeat that…

Only 13% of marketers think that their content strategy is “very successful.”

Why don’t content marketers feel more successful?

Nathan Safran conjectures that marketers are focused on the wrong things. Mainly, they are fixated on generating leads.

53% of enterprise marketers seek to increase leads through content marketing.

56% of marketers from small- and medium-sized businesses seek to increase leads through content marketing.

But… How is that a problem? Don’t all marketers want to increase leads?

Perhaps, but Safran’s point is this: Content can’t generate leads if no one is looking at it! And unless our buyers are expert conjurers, they will not find our content by magic. So, in Safran’s view, marketers should focus more on how potential buyers find their content.

So… how do we make sure that our buyers see our content?

As someone writing for Search Engine Watch, Safran is focused on all things search-y. So, his solution is to focus on SEO strategies and social media. (ICYMI: Search engines have begun to incorporate social media signals like +1s into their results. More info here.)

By improving our search ranking, we will make sure that potential buyers will see our content, which, in turn, will generate more leads. Or so Safran’s logic goes.

But is SEO our magical antidote?

That’s a tough one. I agree that we have to focus on how our audience will find our content, but I’m reluctant to be as prescriptive as Nathan Safran.

What I will say is this: SEO can be a bumpy and frustrating road, given that many sites are vying for that top spot in search results. After all, the first-ranked search results receives 33% of the traffic. (Study summary here.)

But herein lies the rub. There’s only one first-ranked search result. Only one page can receive 33% of the Google traffic. So, as Journey says in “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Some will win. Some will lose.”

Bottom line: There’s no one-size-fits-all solution in marketing, but the general goal is to be where your audience is.

5. Visualize it: Get started with the content that will rule 2014

Author: Kelly Montgomery | Site: Trapit

2014 continues to be the year of the visuals. In February of this year, Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio published their book The Power of Visual Storytelling. In the introduction of the book, the authors posit:

“Companies that go beyond creating and sharing content to embrace visual storytelling are emerging as the leaders of the pack and are being rewarded with engagmenet, referral traffic, and even sales.”

In case that snippet from the book didn’t convince you that visuals are important, Trapit’s own Kelly Montgomery created an infographic with some powerful stats:

You can read the rest of the blog post here.

So, there you have it…

5 summaries of 5 content marketing posts from the week of March 30, 2014. If you’d like to discuss any of these stories or if you’d like to add one article to the list, leave a comment below.

Until next time,

-Mark

As Hank Nothhaft, Jr. our CEO, outlines in his 2017 predictions, social selling will shift from a hobby to a strategic imperative. To cross that chasm, companies will need to put several key elements in place so that they can build transformative, successful social selling programs. In 2016, there has been recognition of the importance of change management for digital transformation programs such as social selling. I believe that, in 2017, organizational change management will be at the core of successful programs.

Here are some more specific predictions that will drive the success of strategic social selling programs.

• Executives (especially the C-suite) will adopt and experience the value of social media. Executive engagement will prove to be a key driver of social selling program adoption and growth.
• Quality training will bring social selling programs to life, setting the foundation for adoption, growth, and business results.

Let’s explore these predictions in a bit more detail.

Executive Engagement and Adoption of Social Media

As digital transformation and a deeper connection to customers become an imperative in 2017, social media adoption by executives will be key. Executives will need to understand the value themselves and lead by example at their organizations.

Many executives have seen the impact of social firsthand. They use Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social platforms to:

Build Digital Literacy: Customers are active on social and other digital channels. Today, it is hard to lead and understand the digital customer without a social media presence.

Keep up with Industry Trends: Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter are a great way to listen and learn from industry thought leaders, experts, and your peers. Not only will you be experiencing the value of using social media, but you will be increasing your knowledge overall.

Create deeper customer connections: Consumers are looking for deeper connections with brands. Active and engaging CEOs on social media can help to build those connections, by positioning a brand as human and accessible. For more information, see Fortune’s article Social Media Use By CEOs Is Increasing—Slowly.

Drive adoption of social media across the organization: In 2017, as we see organizations strive to build strategic social selling and employee social media programs, executive engagement and active use of social media will be key to driving adoption. Executives will lead by example, champion the programs, and motivate others to adopt.

But for that to happen, executives will need training on social, which brings us to the next section…

Quality social selling training will be a key part of building strategic social selling programs

Training – on-going education and dialogue concerning best practices and success stories – will be a critical foundation of strategic social selling programs. Successful training will not be ad hoc sessions, lunch and learns, or a guest speaker talking about building your personal brand. It will be strategic and aligned to an organization’s business, marketing, and sales priorities. This does not mean outsourcing, but building the capability internally and integrating it into your organization.

What will high quality social selling training programs look like?

• Includes the why, what, and how of social selling: listening and research, educating, sharing insights, engagement, and building credibility and relationships.
• Focused on a mindset and behavioral shift of the sales rep as a consultant, subject matter expert, and trusted advisor.
• Integrated into sales enablement programs including onboarding, training, coaching, and development.
• Program owners will share success stories and develop case studies as part of training. This will help sales teams visualize the value and understand how to incorporate social selling best practices into their sales activities.
• Extend beyond the classroom and online training sessions to collaborative environments where sales reps can share evolving best practices and success stories.

This approach to training and developing sales reps will create a strong foundation for adoption of social selling. Successful sales reps will see how social selling integrates into their roles and helps them do their jobs more effectively.

As an aside, I expect this approach will also evolve the perception of social selling both inside and outside the organization. Negative behavior such as cold LinkedIn InMails, blatant promotion of products, and automatic Twitter DMs with no value are driving a negative perception of social selling. As more organizations invest in strategic social selling programs with quality training, I look forward to a decrease in these negative behaviors. We will (hopefully) see less aggressive ‘cold’ outreach on social media and more value created through content, engagement, and building relationships.

Digital Transformation and Change Management

Each of these predictions is rooted in the fundamentals of change management. In 2016 we have seen tons of dialogue on the importance of taking a change management approach to digital transformation efforts. At its core, digital transformation and building successful social selling programs is about driving change. Change leadership requires executive leadership, as well as training designed to support efforts across throughout organization – from the junior ranks to the top leadership.

Here are some blog posts that go into more detail on all of the important elements of change management:

What’s the biggest challenge that social media marketers face?

Go ahead. Take a guess.

According to Social Media Examiner’s 2015 Industry Report, social media marketers want to figure out which tactics work (biggest challenge) so that they can better engage their audiences (second biggest challenge).

As we look at the report, it’s not surprising to see tactics on the list. They have long been a concern of social media marketers. Worrying about audience engagement, on the other hand, is a more recent concern. (In 2010, engagement wasn’t even in the top three, and now, it’s the second biggest concern.)

Why are marketers suddenly interested in engagement? And what can social media marketers do about it? Let’s take a look.

Why Are Marketers Concerned about Engagement?

1. Content Overload

It’s hard to stand out on social. According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report in 2015, 97% of marketers use social media. With so many marketers on social, just imagine how many messages bombard buyers every minute of every day.

Can’t fathom that? Luckily, Domo has done a study on internet activity. It turns out that, every minute, Twitter uses tweet 277,000 times, Facebook users upload 2,460,000 pieces of content, and YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video.

2. Shrinking Reach

In the social media marketing world, it is no secret that organic reach is falling. Brands now reach between 2% and 6% of their fans organically.

I don’t need to preach to you about how pathetic that is.

How Companies Have Dealt With This Problem

Faced with declining reach and content overload, many companies have slapped a Band-Aid on this problem. Instead of trying to think of new ways to promote community and reach buyers, they’ve succumbed to the pressures of social networks.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have marketers exactly where they want them. Companies are investing large amounts of money in paid advertising.

In the U.S. alone, social media ad spend topped $8.5 billion in 2014, and Business Insider estimates that the number could reach $14 billion by 2018.

In other words, it will become more expensive to reach more buyers. Marketers have to ask themselves if that’s a game they want to play.

The Problems with Social Advertising

1. Lack of Trust

If you plan to reach your audience through advertising, you have a problem on your hands, and it’s not just a monetary one. Buyers are savvy. They know an ad when they see one, and they don’t necessarily like them.

Nielsen has found that only 48% of people trust social media advertisements. People trust ads in newspapers and magazines more than they trust ads on social networking sites. Heck, they even trust ads on radio more.

So, what’s the point in spending hefty sums of money on social media advertising if only a few people will trust your ads?

2. Lack of Control

When you choose to advertise on a social network, you are at the mercy of the network’s algorithms. Sometimes, these algorithms work. Sometimes, they don’t.

Nielsen, for example, wanted to promote a webinar recording, so they created some Twitter ads. Where did those ads end up? On adult-themed profiles. That’s not exactly the reputation that Nielsen wanted to cultivate, I’d imagine.

Solution: Employee Advocacy

Forward-thinking companies are taking a different approach to their social media marketing. They are empowering their employees to act as advocates on social media: to share marketing messages, to increase engagement, and to drive sales.

Why does this solve several of the problems listed above?

1. Authentic Human-to-Human Interactions

It’s awkward speaking with a company on social media. Sure, brands have personalities, but those personalities are contrived. Corporate social accounts do not have a name or face, and many times, their messages are automated.

By empowering your employees to be active on social media, you remove a layer of awkwardness, and you replace it with a layer of authenticity. Your potential buyers can interact with flesh-and-blood humans — the people who are behind the company.

And believe it or not, buyers value this kind of interaction.

2. Real Trust

Buyers trust the recommendations of friends, family members, and colleagues. While only 48% of people trust ads on social media, 84% of people trust recommendations from people they know.

If you are not encouraging your employees to act as marketers on social, you are missing a tremendous opportunity. By constantly growing their connections, by demonstrating their expertise in their niche, and by speaking about your products and services, your employees build rapport with potential buyers.

Also, because your employees have connections with their followers, they can deliver highly personalized messages to potential buyers. And ultimately, that’s what buyers want. They are tired of messages that are blasted en masse across social.

Want to Learn More about Employee Advocacy?

Check out Employee Advocacy 101: The Rise of the Employee Marketer, and learn how to engage your audience on social media today!