Just because they're sharing, it doesn't mean they're reading

If you're visiting this article before or after sharing it on a social channel, then may I offer you a warm welcome to an increasingly exclusive club. For you are just one of the 41% of people who not only shared the article but actually read it too. 

In news that will embolden some, depress others and possibly surprise nobody, a new study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute reveals that 59% of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked.

As the Washington Post put it this weekend in one of their best headlines ever – 6 in 10 of you will share this link without reading it, a new, depressing study says.

Back in 2014, it was estimated that social media referral was responsible for 30% of total visits to websites. However according to the research published by HAL (yes, a group of computer scientists publish their research under the name HAL, what of it? Why are you terrified?) and using a dataset amounting to 2.8 million shares, 75 billion potential views and 9.6 million actual clicks to 59,088 unique resources, most people just retweet news without ever reading it.

According to the study's co-author, Arnaud Legout, “This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or a summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper.”

These blind retweeters are also, worryingly, shaping the news agenda, by sharing what is already 'viral' and adding to social platform's 'trend-watching algorithms' without first stopping and reading what they're actually doing.

Or are our favourite news sources so trustworthy that we can put blind faith in anything they publish? To be honest, Facebook will probably just ignore much of this anyway.

For proof of this, you need not look any further than May 26, when a certain social media manager (*cough*) tweeted the following headline but accidentally forgot to include the link to the article.

Is content marketing really working? Advice and insight from #ClickZChat: http://pic.twitter.com/MotnFQ49q6

- Search Engine Watch (@sewatch) May 27, 2016

And yet the tweet enjoyed 25 retweets and 28 likes. That's one of our most popular tweets, and yet not one person noticed the lack of link. Maybe that's the key for us… black and white photo + non sequitur headline – link = engagement gold.

A peek behind the wizard's curtain

To add our own two pence (or cents depending on where you are right now) to this debate, let's open up our own analytics and let you see what influence SEW's social channel on traffic to the site.

Let's look at our own Twitter analytics for May 2016…

A 'robust' 2.5 million impressions from only 465 tweets is pretty good. But what about actual click-through rate (CTR)?

Let's take a look at our top tweet in May…

The impressions gained from its 29 retweets resulted in 18,202 impressions and ultimately 40 link clicks. This means it had a CTR of 0.2% which is about our average. Sadly, this is a little lower than the industry average.

According to Hubspot the average Twitter CTR is 1.64%, and the more followers you have, the fewer clicks you'll receive on your tweets.

• Users with 50 – 1,000 followers had a 6.16% CTR.


• Users with 1,000 – 5,000 followers had a 1.45% CTR.


• Users with 5,000 – 10,000 followers had a 0.55% CTR.


• Users with 10,000+ followers had a 0.45% CTR.

And according to this Quora forum on Twitter CTR, links shared by Mashable's Twitter account, despite its 7+ million followers, results in a CTR of just 0.11%.

If that's not enough to be completely down heartened, let's open up Google Analytics and see how much traffic social drove to SEW in May.

Over the course of 31 days in May, only 4% of our total traffic came from social. The majority of our traffic comes from organic search (as you would hope and expect from a site with 'search engine' in the title), with direct, email and referral all coming in above social.

To break it down further by social channel, it's 47% from Twitter, 24% from Facebook, 11% from LinkedIn and, uh, 0.3% from Pinterest.

However if we look at Twitter, the most popular social channel we operate, it drove more than 16,000 sessions to the site, 40% of which are from unique users.

So despite a low CTR, these aren't inconsiderable numbers, and certainly the research presented by HAL should not be used as an excuse to 'switch off' your social activity.

You should just be aware that, if your boss is asking for metrics to measure your engagement, a simple number of retweets isn't good enough.

Just because they're sharing, it doesn't mean they're reading

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10 Essential Imaging Tools For Successful Bloggers

Blog posts with images get 94% more views, and visuals increase both the time spent on posts and social shares…

So why are so many bloggers resistant to tools for image creation and data visualization?

The main reason is that they don't know where to start.

Imaging tools can seem overwhelming to bloggers, especially if your main art is content and writing. The good news is that they don't have to be.

Here are 10 tools you can start using today to make your blog look better while increasing social engagement. To make this list, the apps needed to meet three key criteria. They had to be:

• Easy to use


• Free or offer a free trial


• Useful to bloggers (duh)

From creating shareable, visually engaging blog post headers to making advanced visualizations that pull real-time data into the mix, you can try these tools in order or check them all out today in a flurry of imaging mania!

1. Pablo by Buffer

Buffer's Pablo app might be the easiest imaging resource on the planet for bloggers. Plus, it actually lives up to Buffer's claim that anyone can create engaging social media images in “less than 30 seconds”.

Yes, you read that right: seconds not minutes. Pablo is ideal for creating attractive blog header images with the title of your blog post or a quote from the post.

The app lets you add text to an image, style it, and share or download the finished image immediately. There isn't even a sign-in process (Pablo can link to your Buffer social account, but you can also just open Pablo, add text to an image and download it in just the right size for your blog or specific social accounts).

Pro Tip: When searching through stock images, use keywords related to the type of image you want to find, eg. “city” or “office”, rather than always sticking to keywords about the type of product you're promoting. You can also upload images for consistency with your brand or blog design.

2. Canva

Canva is simple but amazingly powerful. The Webby-winning image design app lets you create any type of blog image and adjust design elements using a clean, responsive interface. The resulting images look so professional that you'd never know they came from a drag-and-drop web interface.

Once you get some experience using Canva for blog headers and illustrations, you can start using the free app to create other types of content like posters and infographics. You might even discover an inner designer lurking behind your blogger personality.

3. Placeit

Writing a blog post about a new mobile app and want a blog image that will stand out and get more social activity? Cue Placeit, a totally free online design app for iphone mockups and demo videos.

Placeit's streamlined technology lets you upload images or even record your screen and then place that video on an image. You can add your mockup images to a wide range of tech products, including smart watches and Kindles.

4. MobileTest.me

MobileTest.me is an even simpler way to get mobile images for your blog. It's designed to let you test websites on smartphones and tablets (by the way, have you tested your blog lately?), but many bloggers find it useful when writing about mobile apps or wanting to illustrate a point about customer experience, blogging or social media, since basically everybody these days uses their mobile devices to connect with brands.

For example, when my client Agile CRM was working on a new set of Getting Started Guides, we needed a main blog post image that demonstrated the usefulness of those guides to customers. After a lot of iterations, we ended up using MobileTest.me to create a mockup of how the new guides would look on a smartphone, and this image helped the post about Getting Started with Marketing Automation get more traction than our previous posts about marketing automation.

5. Twitter Collages

True brilliance is remembered by its effect on people, not things. http://pic.twitter.com/wQjjNEF2nH

- General Electric (@generalelectric) March 28, 2014

Many bloggers focus on using Click-to-Tweet content in their blog posts – in other words, new content for their readers to share on Twitter - but why not use Twitter's image features to enhance your blog posts and get more likes and shares on content you've already put out to the world?

While Twitter collages may sound like just another feature for use on Twitter itself, they can be a powerful addition to blog posts. Make a collage, then take a screenshot or embed the tweet directly in your blog post.

6. Easel.ly

Infographics can represent visually what it would otherwise take an entire blog post to cover. Easel.ly is a useful site for quickly creating shareable infographics using data or content touchpoints that you're highlighting in a blog post.

Easel.ly's infographic editor works directly in your browser. While you can upgrade to a Pro account for more templates, most bloggers find that the basic templates are more than enough. Plus, the constraints can be helpful in getting things done quickly.

Pro Tip: Remember to list your blog name and URL on the infographic in case the graphic ends up getting traction on social and loses the context of the original post.

7. Venngage

Venngage is a top-of-the-line infographic-making app with some of the most attractive templates in the graphic design universe. For design-dummies like me, it's been an essential resource.

I recommend starting with the free version of Venngage.

Then later, if you're working on a guest blog post for a bigger brand or starting a blog campaign that needs higher social media marketing results, upgrade to a paid plan that eliminates their branding from the infographics you create.

8. Google Charts

If you're comfortable using Javascript, Google Charts are a solid choice for blog images based on real-time data.

Bubble charts, scatter charts, mind maps, histograms… the sky's the limit! Plus, images made with Google Charts are compatible across browsers and include three years' backward compatibility.

9. Infogr.am

If you're looking for a way to make your blog charts pop, check out Infogr.am. It's advanced technology, but they're built-in templates to make the creation process simple.

The coolest thing about Infogr.am is how you can incorporate real-time data into the visualizations. For example, you can create a chart with survey results and then connect a live data source so that when you embed the chart on your blog, it will always show real-time results.

Want to learn more about visualization? Nathan Yau's site and blog, FlowingData, is a great place to start.

10. Tableau

Ah, Tableau. Basically Tableau is a way to organize and visualize your data, but it's actually much more than that.

The great thing for bloggers is that if you learn how to use Tableau, you can get a much clearer view of business data for your site or company while also taking your content governance and analytics to the next level AND creating visually stunning charts, graphs and maps.

Tableau is especially recommended for business bloggers or content marketers who are serious about sharing useful blog posts with their audience, based on real data.

Pro Tip: The most effective bloggers and social media marketers know when to use imaging tools to create shareable content and when it's more beneficial to just use them for mockups that will help designers. Don't have an in-house designer? Check out Visually, where you can connect with over 1,000 hand-picked designers to get visual content for social media marketing campaigns.

Guest Author: Ari Messer is a product marketing consultant who always emphasizes customer happiness above all other metrics. Connect with him on LinkedIn to learn more.

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How to Find Your Genius in a Digital World

“I have to make a hard choice”.

It was a long train trip. The statement caught me by surprise. She now had my attention.

This was a moment of brutal honesty that doesn't happen often. But it made me sit up and ask “that” question.

What was that choice?

This was a random intersection of human conversation. When sharing ideas, personal experiences and acute observations with a total stranger transcend our guarded exterior.

It was one of those moments.

The pressure of family and work was taking it's toll. She was a teacher that was passionate about making learning fun.

The choice.

To take a new position that offered the opportunity to research on the topic while being paid by the organisation. It was a lifelong dream and a possible life changing choice.

Or…….take the responsible path. Accept a “job” that provided proximity to those family responsibilities in another city.

So what was it to be……….follow your dream or be responsible?

But did the choice need to be that stark?

The old way

After hundreds of years of being embedded in an industrial age and under corporate control we seem to have sometimes lost our sense of our own greatness. We often see ourselves as subservient to the organisational machine. Or we don't even know that we have compromised our soul.

Your intellectual property is often captured and contracted to “the company”.

Share your ideas and they are no longer your own but owned by another.  It is often written into employment contracts and used in “non-compete” clauses.

You work, retire and wait to die.

In the past sharing your genius and passion with the world was hard and the friction from artistic creation to being discovered was high.

• A writer maybe managed to have an article published in a local magazine. You sent your ideas to a newspaper journalist and hoped they would share them.


• The musician needed the agent and a record company.


• The fashion designer hoped to ride the skirts of the retailer from obscurity to fame.

The connected and powerful, the high cost of attention and the difficulty of accessing traditional media.

These were all roadblocks to sharing your genius with a world.

A new way

But we now have a promise of artistic and creative freedom. You maybe don't know it yet. Or stumbled upon the mindset and tools.

It's the social and mobile web.

It is technology. It's easy to use platforms that provide creative portals to share with the world. They also provide publishing and marketing power that drives attention, builds trust and credibility.

Humans are creative creatures.

The rise of a digital artisan and maker is redefining innovation. We can determine and build our own world as the barriers to reaching and having a conversation with the planet fall away.

The means to individual freedom is just a few clicks away. The gatekeeper's power is falling away. The digital world has given you tools that are severing individual invisibility.

But we are scared of making that step.

To be seen as foolish.

Be wrong.

Judged.

Magic happens when….

You start distilling your research, thoughts and genius into a coherent framework. A structure. Of even making them visible and audible to the world. It goes beyond just putting them on paper in private.  Making them public.

This is where the genius starts to unfold.

An idea that is not captured. Some inspiration that is not acted on. Or a thoughtful conversation. These are a start…….but an idea needs to be acted on for its form to be revealed.

Activity alone will be the start to provide an insight into you and your ideas true power.

But there is something else.

Persistence is power

Creating once is one thing but persistent creation is another. “Genius is often persistence in disguise” – Unknown

Stepping up to the plate to hit just one home run is both improbable and foolish

So…..

 

 

Build your digital platform. It may be just a passion project art first. But it may become much more if you are prepared to dream.

So. Start researching, creating and publishing.

Persist.

Continue to share your genius…….your insights. You will start changing the world and it will speak back and change you. You may not notice it at first but it will.

We are now able to have a 2 way conversation with humanity. And be discovered.

So…….

Be willing to be vulnerable. Start creating in parallel with your day job. Get up early. Stay up late. And stop giving away your genius to the corporate masters. When you go to retire just ask yourself one thing.

Where have I left my genius?

What is you passionate purpose that needs to be recorded and shared with the world?

Don't go to the grave with your song unsung.

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#SocialSkim: Snapchat Gets Serious About Advertising, Plus 11 More Stories in This Week's Roundup

This week's all about ads, ads, and more ads as major social networks introduced new ad products and Snapchat debuted its ad API. Also: Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn, Facebook's struggle to stop the livestreaming of crimes and acts of terror. And much more! Read the full article at MarketingProfs

#SocialSkim: Snapchat Gets Serious About Advertising, Plus 11 More Stories in This Week's Roundup

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B2B vs. B2C Content Marketing: Stuff You Need to Know

Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies for today's marketers. But the mindset, objectives, and intentions of B2B audiences are different from those of B2C audiences. Content for those different audiences must also differ. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

B2B vs. B2C Content Marketing: Stuff You Need to Know

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What Is “Growth Hacking,” Really? Jeff Bullas on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

Global digital marketing influencer, strategist, and blogger Jeff Bullas offers up the secret to “growth hacking” and explains why it's valuable for big brands and smaller businesses alike. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

What Is “Growth Hacking,” Really? Jeff Bullas on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

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5 True Stories That Will Revolutionize Your Mobile Strategy

Just about everything about mobile is spontaneous and immediate, except for one thing – the strategy.

In fact, mobile marketing is not about improvising an idea and testing it out sporadically. Creating a good mobile strategy means expanding horizons, time and tools in order to achieve significant results.

A series of actions must be studied and coordinated with each other and with the overall marketing plan of the brand.

You must also put yourself in the shoes of your target: what do they search for on mobile, how can they find your brand, what can convince them to convert their interest into action?

In addition, you have to set clear goals for your strategy: convert leads, build awareness, and create engagement.

45% of marketers already have a strategy, do you?

Do you think it is hard to implement a mobile strategy?

Note that while you are thinking about this, 62% of the brands have increased their investment for this type of device in the past year, while 45% of marketers are working on a defined mobile strategy. And at least one of your competitors is among them.

That is why you must get to work and to help you get started, we'll give you practical ideas.

Here are 5 brands that have already implemented a successful mobile strategy.

1. How to increase conversions: Vegas.com

Vegas.com sells travel packages and tickets to the main shows taking place in Las Vegas.

Until recently, its website mobile performance was disastrous: visitors who hit the site on their smartphones were likely to abandon it after viewing only one page.

In fact, analytics data showed that mobile bounce rate was 50% higher than that of desktop and even conversions were significantly lower. This data was alarming, considering that mobile visits were growing year after year.

So the Vegas.com team decided to improve the browsing experience on mobile devices, with the goal to encourage the visitors to stay longer on their site and increase sales.

Thus a mobile version of some parts of the site was created: home, category pages and hotel room search tool. To improve mobile experience, content was simplified, with direct links to the most popular categories of the site.

At this early stage, they decided to redesign only a few pages and test them. Half of all mobile visitors were sent to the traditional homepage and the other half to the optimized site.

Results

After two months of testing, the redesigned pages for mobile resulted in 22% lower bounce rate, 16% more page views and 4% higher conversion rate. The Vegas.com team then extended mobile optimization to their entire site architecture.

This test experience for mobile was necessary for a targeted strategy to improve user experience, starting from the website.

The idea to follow

When optimizing a mobile site, take into account the statistics: do it before intervening, to understand which ones are the most critical, and after creating the new optimized pages, to assess whether you intervened in the right way.

Proceed step by step and test before implementing. Make good use of the results that are being monitored. Understanding user behavior is useful to determine the next steps of your mobile strategy.

2. How to increase product awareness: Virgin Media

The goal of Virgin Media was to make its TV packages related to football games more widely known.

After analyzing the target (football fans aged between 18 and 35 years old), a campaign on mobile was identified as the best strategy. The campaign was planned for three weekends during the Premier League on the mobile site of The Guardian.

Their idea was to capture the attention of the target audience during the football event, inviting them to click on an ad related to it, through two call-to-actions. One asked them to check out for more Virgin products, while the other offered an option to download the calendar for Premier League matches, which would automatically sync with the users' phone.

Results

During the season of the campaign, 100,000 new subscriptions were registered, of which 52,000 were to the sports channel.

The hundreds of downloads of the calendar of the Premier League, showed that people would willingly interact with mobile campaigns when they are offered relevant content.

The idea to follow

It is the moment that matters when it comes to mobile.

Capturing users attention during an event they are interested in and involving them (whether it is a national holiday or their birthday) significantly influence the results of a campaign.

Therefore, it is important to plan your mobile strategy taking into account the right time to communicate to your target.

3. How to increase online sales: ASDA

ASDA, a British chain of supermarkets, wanted to simplify the purchase process of its products by promoting itself as a brand providing customer-oriented services. To do so, it created a free app that allows users to shop more quickly and conveniently.

Among many features, the customer can choose the products that interest them on the app, scan the barcode of the various items to add them to a shopping cart, and see the nearest ASDA supermarkets on the map.

But what counts even more is the fact that the app offers a broader user experience. It offers not only purchasing services, but also useful information in daily life, from recipes to real time updates on the price of gasoline.

Results

The app created by ASDA has been downloaded 2 million times. Mobile purchases accounts for 18% of all online orders with a shopping frequency that is 1.8 times higher than desktop.

The idea to follow

Think about your customers' needs, how can you simplify the purchase process of your product and offer more to them?

Mobile provides more opportunities for interaction and involvement than physical stores or desktop e-commerce.

Keep this in mind for your mobile strategy and make the best of it.

4. How to build customer loyalty: zpizza

The restaurant chain zpizza had a goal to achieve 100 high-spending clients (those who spend at least $50 per month) for each of its shops.

How to identify this target? The first step to be taken in this case is to create a database of registered users for your newsletter and loyalty programs.

So zpizza ran a data collection campaign by integrating web and offline means, email and SMS.

Promotional postcards were made and sent to the residents within 2 miles of each local zpizza restaurant. The postcards contained a code for users to send via SMS along with their email address for a chance to win $5,000 or other prizes.

Participants would then receive a reply to the email address they provided. The campaign was also announced on the website and on the brand's social channels.

Results

With the data provided voluntarily by customers, zpizza achieved two goals: to enrich its mobile database with new contacts for future campaigns, to get registrations to loyalty programs, which increased by 5% during the 6-month campaign, as well as to identify the high-spending target.

The idea to follow

Integrate your mobile strategy with traditional marketing tools, they are useful for involving people from several fronts, offline and online.

If you use SMS, also consider tracking the users' geographical location, you can use this data for future geolocalized campaigns which are highly effective on mobile.

5. How to create engagement: Bud Light

Mobile strategies have long been part of the marketing strategy for the American beer Bud Light.

In 2010, it ran a campaign promoting a continuous 5-day party at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. The brand invited participants to register for the event's mobile program, to receive updates, prizes and special offers during the days of the party.

The result? 57% of participants at the event signed up and interacted with the brand's communications.

Recently, it launched a new interesting mobile campaign using Tinder's native videos. This app was chosen because its main target is Millenials, which coincides with that of Bud Light.

Users were invited to send a video to show their enthusiasm to participate in future events sponsored by the brand. The participants had a chance to spend a weekend partying in an unknown location.

Bud Light's video that promoted the campaign was displayed in the native flow and redirected Tinder users to their site with the rules. Those who were not interested in this content could swipe left, exactly like what they usually do on Tinder. Those who wanted to participate could go directly to the web page to upload their video.

Results

Bud Light achieved its goal: reach and engage its younger target audience who are constantly using their smartphones, thus increasing brand awareness. Among the tens of thousands of participants in the contest, over 1,000 were rewarded with an invitation to attend the weekend party.

The idea to follow

If you choose to promote a mobile campaign on a specific channel, study its dynamics and create messages in the predominant format. Only then will the promotional content be able to interest and engage users.

Which formats are more effective in general? As demonstrated also in this case study, video is definitely one of the formats that creates more engagement on social and must definitely be included in your mobile strategy.

Guest Author: Silvio Porcellana is the CEO and Founder of mob.is.it, the online tool over 1,000 agencies and professionals use to build mobile websites and native apps for customers worldwide. From his retreat in the Monferrato Hills in North West Italy, he bootstraps companies, writes about web and mobile marketing, and helps customers succeed online. Read more from Silvio at mob.is.it blog. Twitter: @silvioporcellan

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