3 Unusual Tactics For Making Your Testimonials More Persuasive

I bet you’ve seen this sort of advice before…

When using a testimonial, you should always:

• List the customer’s first and last name
• Include their photo
• Avoid unbelievable, over-the-top praise

Those are all fine tips to follow, but they’re really just starting points.

Optimizing your social proof requires just as much strategy and testing as improving a headline, hero image or call-to-action button.

Because if you just stick to blindly following ‘best practices,’ you could be missing out on a huge opportunity to squeeze more conversions out of your website or landing page. Here’s why:

Social proof affects different audiences in different ways. The complexity of your offer, the demographics of your visitors and a host of other factors all influence how persuasive your testimonials will be.

And that means you may want to try optimizing them in ways that seem counterintuitive at first.

Or even just plain strange.

I’ll get into more detail about this in a moment. But first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what typically makes for a convincing and credible testimonial.

Don’t use testimonials unless you’ve seen these tips…

Plenty of articles have already been written offering great advice for using testimonials. And those tips can generally be summed up as:

• Include a photo and other details
  Providing the customer’s first and last name, location or any other relevant details makes testimonials more realistic. But an even bigger factor is including a (real) photo of the testimonial-giver. There’s plenty of research to back this up.
• Use testimonials from people your customers can relate to
  According to implicit egotism theory, we generally trust people who are either like us or who we aspire to be like. And that means strong testimonials are often from folks who reflect how your prospects see themselves.
• Use testimonials from people with authority (if possible)
  The most powerful testimonials come from people your audience sees as an expert or otherwise having authority. In essence, you’re ‘borrowing’ the positive feelings people have toward these individuals (this is called the Halo Effect) when you get their endorsement.
• Reinforce a specific benefit
  Emphasis on specific. Vague testimonials that say things like “great experience” or “tremendous value” won’t connect with anyone. And it might even hurt your conversion rate. Instead, testimonials should be used strategically as ‘proof’ to support specific claims you’re making on your pages.

• OR

• Quash a serious objection
  Research by MECLABS shows that placing testimonials near sources of anxiety (such as the ‘Add to Cart’ button) can ease objections and improve conversions. Bottom line: don’t just randomly sprinkle testimonials throughout your website. First, consider the role they’re playing on the page.

These tips make sense, right?

And if you’ve been in the conversion optimization game for any length of time, I suspect you’re already familiar with most of them.

Now, let’s dive into 3 lesser-known techniques for making your testimonials more credible, engaging and persuasive.

1) Try ‘long-form’ testimonials

Far too many articles give out generic advice like:

“Always keep your testimonials very short.”

Well, no. Not always.

Short, specific quotes from customers may work fine in certain situations. But sometimes a big, juicy testimonial can provide the exact dose of social proof that your page needs. Why?

For the same reasons that long copy can sometimes be more persuasive than short copy. Long-form sales messages often work great when your product is complicated, your audience has loads of objections or the price-tag is high.

As veteran ad man Jay Conrad Levinson puts it:

“Don’t be afraid to use lengthy copy. Of all the things people dislike about marketing, ‘lack of information’ comes in second, after ‘feeling deceived.’”

The trick is to ensure your long-form copy — or long-form testimonial — is interesting and relevant to your audience. Here’s an example:

Long-form testimonials make up the majority of content on Noah Kagan’s sales page for his How To Make A $1,000 A Month Business course. And some of them run well over 500 words!

Now, these testimonials work like sales copy in a number of different ways. But I want to point out one specific technique that makes them so effective: storytelling.

Several testimonials on the page tell raw, human stories about a problem the person was up against and how they discovered a life-changing solution thanks to Kagan’s course.

Take a look at this example:

Dave’s story kicks off with an emotional (and relatable) problem.

He then goes on to tell a story about how the course helped him, eventually building to the ‘climax’ detailing how his life changed afterwards:

In fact, some of the most effective long-form testimonials start with an emotional problem.

Here’s a prime example from the Sweat Block homepage, which was optimized by the team at Copy Hackers. This testimonial follows the tried-and-true problem-agitate-solve copywriting formula:

Now, a customer probably isn’t going to just hand you over a problem-agitate-solve testimonial by fluke. You may need to give them some guidance first.

So ask specific questions when requesting a testimonial. Things like:

• What made you seek out our product/service?
• What was the exact problem you needed to solve? How did it impact your life?
• How did our product/service solve this problem? How did it improve your [business/social life etc.]?

But even if you don’t take a problem-focused approach, the key to using effective long-form testimonials is to make sure they tell a gripping story.

One that will resonate with your target audience in a powerful way.

2) Show your warts (really, it’s OK)

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying you should post a testimonial that outright bashes your company.

That’d be weird. And, well, kind of dumb.

But I am suggesting that by leaving some minor ‘warts’ in your testimonials you can convey trust and credibility — if you do it the right way.

One study found that 68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both positive and negative scores. And a whopping 30% suspect faked reviews when they don’t see anything negative at all.

As master copywriter Bob Bly puts it, “showing your warts” can be an effective marketing technique provided you:

• demonstrate why your product’s weakness isn’t important or
• show how you’ve designed your product to overcome the weakness

This tactic works because arguing against your own self-interest builds credibility.

In this Unbounce article, marketer and entrepreneur Pratik Dholakiya suggests testing a landing page testimonial that tells people who your product isn’t right for. This might involve including a line like:

“This product isn’t for [so and so], it’s for [so and so].”

The beauty of this approach is that it sends the message you want happy, long-term customers; not just quicks sales for short-term gain.

Some brands have used not-so-shiny testimonials in more creative ways to reinforce a key message.

For example, Ship Your Enemies Glitter used to feature a reviews section that told an unfiltered story about their product — one testimonial even mentioned a customer’s pending divorce.

OK, this is an extreme example.

The point is that people are skeptical of both online reviews and testimonials. But by slipping in a few “warts” (in a strategic way), you can give your social proof a shot of credibility.

3) Make your testimonial the ‘hero’

Got a beauty of a testimonial?

One that’s credible, relatable and aligns perfectly with the goal of your page?

Then don’t bury it way below the fold! Instead, play that sucker up big time in the hero section for every visitor to see.

Emphasizing the right testimonial immediately sends the message to prospects that your product solves problems for people who are just like them.

I used this strategy while optimizing a key sales page for LivePlan, which is a SaaS product that helps entrepreneurs write professional business plans.

Research showed us that many prospects had niggling doubts when they hit the page. They often wondered:

“Will this software work for my specific industry?”

It was a big barrier to signing up.

So we created a landing page that targeted just a segment of LivePlan’s traffic: people who wanted to write a business plan specifically for a café.

But instead of us telling the audience “this works for café entrepreneurs like you,” we wanted to prove it to them by making a relatable testimonial the hero of the page.

So we emphasized a quick story about how café owner Brian Sung used LivePlan to write a business plan faster and with less effort. Then we A/B tested the new page.

Here are the two hero sections we tested:

The testimonial-focused variant hauled in a 72% boost in paid conversions, which translated into a 53% increase in revenue (when you consider average order value).

There were a few other variables at play here. But ultimately, I believe that this relatable testimonial proved the hypothesis that LivePlan customers needed to feel confident that the product would work for their industry before signing up.

Other companies have also seen ‘wins’ by playing up testimonials like this as well. For example, Highrise saw a 102% lift in conversions when they tested a giant image and quote from one of their customers.

But again, having the right testimonials is key here. You can’t just pick one at random.

If you know headlines focused on “saving time” convert well, playing up a testimonial about how a customer “saved money” isn’t going to cut it.

Consider your goals and strategy for the page. Then select your social proof accordingly.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with testimonials, user-reviews or client logos — the bottom line is the same:

Social proof affects different audiences in different ways.

Following best practices is a great starting point. But to squeeze the most persuasive value out of your testimonials, you need to consider things like your audience’s level of awareness and their thought sequence as they hit your page.

Now, maybe the 3 tactics outlined here aren’t a great fit for your prospects. That’s fine.

But it is important that you make an informed, strategic decision about how you use any type of social proof.

Because just tossing testimonials randomly on a page isn’t doing your visitors — or your conversion rates — any good.

About the author: Dustin Walker is a copywriter and partner at Good Funnel — a marketing agency that does in-depth customer research to help online businesses fire up their revenue. Follow Dustin on Twitter @dustinjaywalker.

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How Top Apps Are Leveraging Referral Marketing to Boost Downloads

How Top Apps Are Leveraging Referral Marketing to Boost Downloads written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Customer trust is a commodity that’s remarkably in short supply.

Lack of trust is one of the reasons why businesses fail to persuade customers to buy a product or service though they may have handsome rewards or gift coupons on offer. On the contrary, a good word about your brand or product from a trusted family member or friend might work like magic.  It could turn a reluctant customer in favor of your product. Sometimes forever.

The fact has been verified by Nielsen study which says, word of mouth marketing is 92% more effective than any other form of marketing.

The bottom line is: If you want your business to survive and thrive, get people talking about your product. More than that, get them to refer your product.

Even in the app landscape word-of-mouth marketing or referral marketing has proven its mettle, time and time again in driving app downloads. From DropBox, Airbnb, Uber to Evernote, referral marketing has turned out to be one of the most important pillars on which edifice of their success stands.

Nevertheless, you don’t have to take my word for it. There are many app companies who are already leveraging customer referral programs as their chief growth engine to drive incredible app downloads and more.

1. DropBox Referral Marketing Program

With a staggering 3900% growth rate, Dropbox is reckoned to be an all-time referral marketing champ. The company had just 1,00,000 registered users in 2008, which climbed to a staggering 4M registered users within a mere 15 month period, thanks to its straightforward referral program.

How did they do it?

Dropbox offered both the referrer and the referred a free 500 MB space on every successful referral. It’s called reciprocal incentive in the customer referral lexicon. Meaning, customers would refer your brand to their friends and family only if you give them something substantial in return. The referral program resonated well with the users and rest, as they say, is history.

2. Airbnb Referral Marketing Program

Though Dropbox engineered an unheard of growth rate through referrals, but then,  Airbnb’s referral program is touted to be the best in the world. Founded in 2007, the company is today valued at over $25 billion, thanks to its double-sided referral program.

How did they do it?

Airbnb offered both the referrer and the referred $25 travel credit, on the grounds the new member completed his/her first trip. This was a quite a calculated approach by Airbnb as the referrer was paid only when the new user made a purchase. This ensured they weren’t putting money into any unprofitable referral schemes.

Plus, they offered an additional $75 credit when the referred hosted a guest the first time.

The program was a runaway hit, helping Airbnb double its users each year since 2012. The company is also said to have made the most of the recommended contact feature available in Gmail and Android APIs, which resulting in higher conversions.

Few things Airbnb ensured while sending out their referral invites:

• They A/B tested their referral invites to ensure their referral invites sounded as gifts rather than promotions.
• The language of the invite was altruistic, given that altruistic emails enjoyed far more success ratio than outright promotional emails.

3. Uber Referral Marketing Program

Uber’s referral marketing program had become so popular that today every cab and ride sharing app is duplicating it, be it GRAB TAXI, LYFT, SIDECAR, or GET AROUND.

Uber also follows a double-sided referral scheme akin to Dropbox and Airbnb.  Nevertheless, the chief attraction is the drivers’ referral program. The drivers are considered to be valued partners of Uber and are offered  $5 cash for every new rider they bring on board.

How did they do it?

For Drivers

• Every Uber driver is offered a promotional code which is passed over to the potential So whenever a new buyer sign-ups for a driver’s account using the former’s promotion code they get linked to his account.
• And when the new driver completes his first ten trips, and if you are the first driver to refer him, you are entitled to $5 cash.

For RIDERS

• Any new rider using your promotional code will get $20 off on their first ride.
• You gain $5 cash in return every time your promotional code is used by a first-time rider.

4. Evernote’s App Referral Program

With a valuation of more than $1 billion, and with more than 100 billion worldwide users, the popular note-taking app has also launched a popular double-sided refer-a-friend program.

How did they do it?

Both the referrer and referred are rewarded when the later successfully completes a user sign-up. In return, the former wins Evernote Points. The referrer is entitled to use his earned points toward premium subscriptions, increase in monthly upload limit and so on.

On the other hand,  for signing up through your link, your referred – that is your friends and colleagues – would be offered a month of Evernote Premium for free, which means they could enjoy some powerful Evernote features like Offline Notebooks, smarter search, and more.

How App Start-ups Could Use Referral Program Strategy

All these four powerful app referral marketing case studies is a testament to the fact that referral marketing is one of the best marketing strategies to boost app downloads. In fact, it could be construed as a shortcut tool to built instant customer trust.

Nevertheless, app developers or marketers shouldn’t apply this strategy as soon as the app is ready. One needs to establish a loyal customer base first if they really want their referral campaign to hit the ground running.

A few selected tips to get your app referral campaign up and running:

1. Establish A Loyal Customer Base and Then Target Them

Don’t target the entire customer base. It could turn out to be an exercise in complete futility. Rather focus on your most active customers, because they wouldn’t mind recommending your app to his or her’s family and friends.

2. Employ Double-sided Referral Programs

All the above-mentioned app referral program worked fine because they leveraged double-sided referral strategy to a T.  Like it or not, humans are selfish. (Sure, there are exceptions to this, but by and large, “what’s in for me,” is how the human mind works.) So, dangle the reward bait without any second thoughts, if you really want to your referral program to work.

3. Take Industrial Data Into Account  

According to a recent study by app analytics firm AppsFlyer, iOS users download apps most during the weekends, while the Android users download more during weekdays.  So, while shooting your referral emails via SMS or push notifications, bear this point in mind.

Action days:

iOS apps:  Target your referrals on Thursdays and weekends. The iOS apps have 30% higher install rates on these days compared to other days of the week. However, avoid Mondays because there’s 40% drop compared to the weekends. Bottom line: Spend sparingly at the starting of the week when users are less likely to download apps.

Android apps: You are free to send out referrals all through the week as app installs are strong and consistent; nevertheless, target Tuesdays without fail, as it witnesses 4% higher download volume compared to the weekly average.

Rope in Key Influencers to Promote your Referrals  

Of the several users joining your referral program, only a few would qualify as the key influencers.  Find them and reward them handsomely so that they become the brand ambassadors of your app.

Leverage Social Media to Promote in-app Referrals

This goes without saying. It’s the age of social media, so if you want to really want to make your in-app referrals a grand success, leverage different social media channels. Even put your website and mobile site to work.

Wrapping Up

App referral programs are doing good.  Dropbox, Evernote, Airbnb, to name a few, are just tip of the iceberg. But then, before you embark on your referral campaign make sure that you earn some goodwill, that is building a good loyal customer base first and foremost. It’s because your referral marketing campaign would literally be riding on their shoulders. And also, make sure you are targeting quality users who would interest in using your app in the long run. And before I forget: A/B test your referral schemes. There’s nothing such as referral marketing blueprint to follow. Tweak and tinker your referral programs as and when needed.

So, tell me, are you using referral marketing to attract more customers? How is it going for you? Any experiences worth sharing? We are all ears.

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About the Author

Jini Maxin is a Senior Writer with OpenXcell – Mobile App Development Company which offers mobile app development services across the globe. She is a voracious reader who pours all her learning into producing well-researched and data-driven posts. You can connect with her on Twitter.

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Hey CMOs, This Is Not An Alternative Fact: Improving Customer Experience Can Increase Revenue

Sorry, I could not help myself with the "alternative fact" reference in the title. Just seemed appropriate given the context for as hard as it may be to believe for some, when a brand improves its customer experience, its revenue can and will increase, oftentimes significantly.

That was the overall finding of a recently-released Forrester report entitled "Drive Revenue With Great Customer Experience, 2017" which reveals the connection between customer experience quality and revenue growth across 13 different industries. The problem, or challenge as spelled out in the report is "many customer experience (CX) pros find it hard to show the connection between improving CX and growing revenue."

As organizations have struggled to show a direct correlation between improving CX and growing revenue, the new research uses Forrester’s CX Index data to model how CX improvements drive revenue growth through increased loyalty. For example:

• The high per unit revenue from the sale of a vehicle gives mass market auto manufacturers the highest revenue potential: A one point improvement in a mass market auto manufacturer’s CX Index score could result in $873 million in increased revenue.
• Traditional retail banks and direct banks are the two industries where the revenue upside from improving customer experience gets progressively bigger with higher CX Index scores: For traditional retail banks, increasing an already excellent CX Index score by one point drives revenue potential four times as much as increasing a poor CX Index score by one point.
• While the credit card industry has the lowest revenue potential related to CX Index scores, its advocacy revenue potential is 10 times greater than other industries, accounting for 31% of credit cards’ total CX-driven revenue potential.

Connection Problems

One of the paper's authors Maxie Schmidt, says there are two key reasons why so many brands have had problems showing the connection between improving CX and growing revenue.

1. Data challenges: Brands don't have the data they need to do that, at the level of granularity they need. Good CX leads to revenue because customers don't churn, buy more or get other customers to buy. But most companies cannot measure those behaviors at the individual customer level. And even if they could, they'd still not know the quality of each customer's customer experience. And data isn't available in a format that allows firms to correlate both.
2. Time lag: The revenue upside doesn't always materialize immediately. If a customer just bought a pair of shoes, it may take a while before the customer needs another pair of shoes and goes to buy at that store again. Depending on the love for shoes of that customer, of course ;-)

As for mistakes she sees brands making when it comes to CX she says one is trying to force the customer into a process instead of building a process around the customer needs. "This happens often also because companies are overly focused on optimizing their internal processes while they don't understand the customer perspective and the customer's journey," she says. 

Expectations Are Rising

As customer expectations continue to rise, businesses need to appoint a senior executive like the Chief Marketing Officer to deliver exceptional, end-to-end customer experiences. It’s a tall order, but if done right, enhanced customer experiences translate into not only increased revenue but loyalty and repeat business.

Download Should the Chief Marketing Officer Oversee the Whole Customer Experience? — written by Natalie L. Petouhoff, Vice President and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research and see for yourself how marketing leaders can create a basic blueprint to embark on a discussion about customer experience and how best to lead this key strategic initiative in their organization. 

This post is based on a previously published post in Forbes. 

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How to Make Story Your Core Message

How to Make Story Your Core Message written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

I’ve been writing about the use of story in marketing for years, and here’s what I know. A great story has many significant elements, and to have the greatest impact, each of these elements must be built in a certain order. The good news is that there’s a framework that any business can adopt to create an amazing story and grab their ideal customers’ attention.

Story is the hot marketing topic these days but it’s been with us forever. In fact, there’s a book I think everyone should read called Sapiens – A brief history of humankind. In it the author concludes that while humans were not always at the top of the food chain, they got there by developing the ability to tell stories – true and false – and use stories to get large groups of people to take action.

Perhaps the key point where I differ with most is that many people still focus on telling their story. I personally think it’s more about figuring out the story your client and prospect is telling themselves already and tapping into that. To show you what I mean, I’ve written a step by step guide below on how to craft your brand’s story for messaging.

Understand your brand

This sounds like a no-brainer, right? The fact is, however, many businesses have a tough time articulating what their brand is and what it represents. Before you can craft your story, you must understand your brand to its core. Having answers to the questions below will get you going in the right direction:

• What is your secret sauce? What is the one thing you do better than anybody else?
• Why should your audience care?
• What are your audience’s wants, needs, and pain points that you can help solve (more on that below)?
• Why would your audience need the solutions you provide?
• What’s preventing them from finding a solution?
• Why should they pick you over the competition?

There may be other questions that need to be addressed depending on your business, but having answers to these core questions is a good start. Through this process, you can find your brand’s authenticity, which will make for great storytelling.

Develop a Client Persona

A persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. You should have your persona in mind not only for your marketing efforts but for all business efforts. Personas help to visualize who your target audience is. To appropriately define your persona, you must understand what drives them, what they believe, what they fear, and what they desire. The more information you have to build the persona, the better your marketing and storytelling will be.

Create your hero

Remember, the story is not about YOU.  The hero of your story is your client persona. They need to see themselves in the story which starts with their challenges, problems, and issues that they don’t know how to solve. To appropriately create a hero for your story, you must:

• Learn the hero’s backstory – This is where developing a client persona will really come in handy.
• Give them an antagonist – What kind of story doesn’t have a villain? Help your hero understand the problem they face that you can help them solve.
• Call them to duty – Cue the Bat-Signal! Your story must give your hero hope that they have the power to overcome whatever the challenge is. They need to feel like what you have to offer is hope and empowerment, not just products and services.
• Help them persevere – You have to be prepared to demonstrate you’ll be there with them until they overcome their challenges. Be there every step of the way until their problem is solved.
• Free them – Show them the results and impact they’ll receive from your solutions. Make their fairytale a reality.

Craft the Journey

Today, most marketers understand the value of story as a way to market and sell just about anything. However, few understand the right way to use story and narrative as a way to guide people on the perfect journey.

Once you have the hero for your story, you can actually take them on their journey. When your persona is looking for solutions to their problems and answer to their questions, it’s up to you and your marketing efforts to give them what they’re looking for. When you understand the goals your personas are facing during each phase of their journey, you can create content and campaigns aimed at their specific desires. It’s important to interact with your persona as early on in the journey as possible before they make any decisions on their own without your involvement.

Become storytellers

Once you’ve carefully crafted your brand’s story, you need to tell it. You need to share it with your audience and include it within all of your messaging moving forward. Your website is a great place to start.

Here’s the thing, people buy stories before they buy stuff. The better you get at storytelling, the more likely you’ll able to turn people into customers.

Are you currently using story in your messaging? How has it impacted your business?

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Social Media Marketing Checklist: 16 Common Mistakes to Avoid

It’s no secret that social media has become an important and necessary tactic within most digital marketing strategies. Social media helps build brand awareness, and also provides a space for brands to engage their audience outside of their company website or brick and mortar facilities. In fact, 92% of companies consider social media an important part of their business.

Of course, with nearly every brand using social—as well as frequent tweaks to platform algorithms—the competition to stand out in news feeds has never been more fierce, with brands fighting for visibility and engagement.

As a result, many brands and marketers are looking for creative ways to up their social media marketing efforts. But while being creative is a must, some opportunities may be right in front of you.

There are several social media marketing mistakes that are easy to make, but also easy to remedy.

With that said, below we dive into some common social media marketing mistakes, as well as tips for helping you avoid them.

#1 – Not having a social media strategy.

Creating a social media marketing strategy will help you think critically about your goals, how you’ll execute tactics, and how you’ll measure success. In addition, your strategy can be used as a handy guide to keep you on track with posting and engaging regularly.

Tip: Get started by asking yourself some of the following questions:

• What do I want my followers to know about my brand? (What niche do I serve?)
• What are my audience’s pain points?
• What type of content does my audience consume on social?
• What social media platforms does my audience use?
• What kind of results do I want? (Increased social traffic to my blog? More followers?)
• How will I measure effectiveness or results? (Engagement metrics? Social traffic to the website?)

#2 – Not tailoring your message to your audience on each platform.

Chances are you’re using multiple social media channels to share content and engage with your audience. But writing one message and cross-posting it to each channel is not an effective use of your time.

Tip: Use data and insights to understand the type of content and messaging style that resonates with your audience on each platform. This will allow you to tailor your content to make a better impact.

#3 – Only posting links to your website.

The type of content your post as a big impact on reach and engagement. These days it’s pretty clear that audiences are looking for relevant, well-rounded content and discussion—so posting links to your website or blog content can’t and won’t get you the results you’re looking for

Tip: Embrace social media as a way to connect with your audience, encourage discussion, show your value and build a rapport. Set aside time—whether it’s daily, weekly or bi-monthly—to curate content that is relevant and interesting to your audience.

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Audiences are looking for relevant, well-rounded content & discussion. @CaitlinMBurgess #socialmedia
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#4 – Being too long-winded.

Generally speaking, posts that are short, sweet and creative are the most effective—especially on platforms where users are most likely using a mobile device to read, share and interact.

Tip: Keep your character count to between 90 and 100 for Facebook, LinkedIn Google+ and Twitter. For Instagram and Pinterest, aim to stay under 175 and 200 characters, respectively. In addition, use active voice to encourage action from your audience.

#5 – Improper use of hashtags.

Hashtags have different relevance and utility on every social media platform. As a result, under or over-hashtagging your content could have a negative impact on your social efforts.

Tip: Research hashtag best practices for each platform to understand if and how to use them. In addition, make sure you understand what hashtags actually mean, so you can use them in the appropriate way for each platform. Use the native search box within social platforms, as well as tools such as Hashtagify.me or Hashtags.org.

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#Hashtags have different relevance and utility on every #socialmedia platform.
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#6 – Neglecting to tag or mention others when curating content.

Mentioning and tagging other pages and users in your content is one of the best ways to amplify your posts. Not only do those you tag and mention get notified when you do so, but they’ll be more compelled to engage on your post or share your post with their audience.

Tip: Create a master list of the accounts or handles that you regularly curate content from to make it easy to mention or tag them in your posts.

#7 – Too much talking and not enough listening.

The whole point of social media is to provide a space for people to engage in sharing and discussion. For brands, it’s important to have a voice, but it’s also important to encourage others to have one, too.

Tip: Ask your community engaging and thoughtful questions to get the conversation going and tap into their insights. If you’re on Twitter, consider posting a weekly poll on a relevant topic to inspire engagement.

#8 – Not crediting the work of others.

While this one seems pretty obvious, it’s a good reminder. Crediting the work of others is not only the right thing to do, but also sends good signals to the original creators and your audience.

Tip: Just don’t do it. Take the extra time to include a credit in any of the content you produce.

#9 – Not taking advantage of native video uploads on Facebook.

It’s pretty safe to say that all marketers understand that video is an increasingly important marketing tool for capturing audience attention, showing value and encouraging engagement.

But when it comes to social media, specifically Facebook, you may just be sharing links to a YouTube video or an embedded video on your website, which requires your audience to take an additional step to watch it.

Tip: Consider uploading some of your video content natively to Facebook. Native video can eliminate a barrier to that interaction, keep people engaged with your brand in that very moment and make your video easy to share.

#10 – Forgetting about the power of images.

Humans are highly visual creatures. In fact, research shows that an estimated 90% of the information that comes to our brains is visual. So, if you’re not using images as part of your social media strategy, you’re doing your brand a disservice.

Tip: Research image sizing best practices for each platform to ensure any images you share will render properly. In addition, use tools such as Canva to create professional and compelling images.

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If you’re not using images as part of your #socialmedia strategy, you’re doing your brand a disservice.
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#11 – Having too many profiles on one platform.

This is something that many large enterprise companies may struggle with, but even small- to mid-size companies see the need for multiple pages on a single social platform. While each of their divisions may provide unique content, it could be confusing for audiences to see multiple branded accounts.

Tip: For LinkedIn specifically, take advantage of Showcase pages to highlight special divisions or companies under your parent umbrella. For other platforms, take time to perfect your on-page content to make it easy for your audience to understand who you are. In addition, make sure your company website details and links to all pages.

#12 – Ineffective or non-existing ad spending.

With so many brands and marketers on social media and decreased organic reach thanks to algorithm tweaks, the competition for your audience’s attention is stiff. As a result, social media advertising is becoming a necessity for many brands.

Tip: When starting a social advertising campaign, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you want to accomplish with your campaign?
• How much do you plan on investing?
• What is the content, product, service, offer or promotion that you’ll be advertising?

As with any type of marketing, the best results will come from campaigns with one specific goal and/or action to be taken.

#13 – Forgetting about analytics.

Once you launch your social media strategy, it can be easy to fall into a routine of simply executing that strategy. However, if you don’t take the time to understand what is and isn’t working, all your execution efforts will be for nothing.

Tip: Use Google Analytics or your preferred analytics tool to uncover how much referral traffic each social platform is sending to your website, top pages, time on page and average number of pages visited, and conversions. This will lend more context to the traffic you’re receiving and help you draw conclusions about whether or not your efforts are driving the results you’re looking for.

In addition, use the analytics and insights available on each platform to get more insights into the type of content that is resonating with your audience, as well as how they are actually engaging with that content.

#13 – Not testing new tactics and ideas.

The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving social media marketing success. Furthermore, a tactic that’s working great now may not get the same results in a few months. As a result, you should always be testing and experimenting with new ideas.

Tip: Choose one social media channel to launch your test. While each channel is unique, starting with just one will help you understand what is and isn’t working, so you can roll out something similar on your other channels later on.

#15 – Neglecting SEO.

All social media platforms contain their own search engines and many of them can be indexed by Google, Bing and other third-party search engines, making SEO an important component of any campaign or contest.

Tip: Compile a list of targeted keywords and topics, as well as any relevant hashtags, that you’d like to rank for socially. Once you have your list, conduct native query searches for the terms to discover who or what kind of content is coming up in searches. Theses insights can help you refine your keyword list, ensure relevancy, and potentially get a glimpse of the competition.

#16 – Neglecting community management.

Social media community management is all about nurturing your social audience to make it stronger, larger and more engaged.

Tip: Intertwine your tactical social media marketing efforts with community management to build a larger, more engaged community of followers.

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Intertwine your tactical #socialmedia marketing efforts with community management. @CaitlinMBurgess
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What social media marketing tactic is working great for your organization? What’s not working so well? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Thinker, Mover, Shaker, Spy: How One Man and His CIA-Backed Company are Changing the Way the Government Collects and Analyzes Your Data

The name Alex Karp may not mean much to you now — but it’s about to. That’s because Alex is the brains behind Palantir, the closest thing to a “killer app” the U.S. government has — a system which allows one to discern meaningful context and insights from a swamp of seemingly meaningless data.

With scraps of what appear to be unrelated information, Palantir can craft intuitive charts, visual graphs and vital forecasts — showcasing ties and links on everything from the locations of wanted criminals to hotbeds of human trafficking.

What does this mean for the rest of us? Everything.

What is Palantir?

The name “Palantir” comes from a fictional stone in the Tolkien universe that allowed the user to see things happening in different areas — much like a crystal ball. This modern version ties together wisps of information to track, monitor and make connections in everything from wars to law enforcement.

A few of Palantir’s more notable moments include:

• Helping U.S. forces track down and kill Osama Bin Laden
• Assisting the Marines in Afghanistan by doing forensic analysis of roadside bombs to predict insurgent attacks
• Sifting through 40 years of documents to convict Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff
• Locating Mexican drug cartel members who murdered an American customs agent
• Finding the hackers who installed spyware on the Dalai Lama’s computer

How Palantir Works

Emerging from its secretive cocoon of James Bond-like technologies and insights, Palantir is poised to change business as well. Pharmaceutical companies use Palantir to help them analyze and predict drug interactions. Hershey uses Palantir’s technology to help it increase chocolate sales. J.P. Morgan Chase uses Palantir to help it in the fight against mortgage fraud.

Imagine someone using your identity to open a home equity line of credit and siphoning funds to a computer in a cybercafe in Nigeria. Palantir can piece together these connections across data from bills, home and I.P. addresses to help eliminate the problem before it balloons into a massive loss (and a huge headache for whoever has had their identity stolen) — and it can do it all in seconds. Staff at J.P. Morgan Chase estimate that Palantir has saved them hundreds of millions of dollars.

In short, the brainchild of an eccentric philosopher is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative and profitable private tech companies. You may recognize the name of its largest stakeholder too — Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor behind PayPal and Facebook. And Palantir is poised to potentially go public — making Karp Silicon Valley’s newest billionaire and doubling Thiel’s original investment in the company.

But Karm fears the change that money will have on Palantir. An “I.P.O”, he says, “is corrosive to our culture, corrosive to our outcomes”. But at the same time, Palantir has to make money in order to thrive. It seeks out big contracts with major players and counts Democratic strategist James Carville, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, and former C.I.A. director George Tenet among its advisers.

But what does all of this mean for you?

Big Brother vs. Big Data

One need only look back a few decades to remember that making money and changing the world are often at odds with each other. While still graduate students at Stanford, Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote that “advertising-funded search engines will be inherently biased toward the advertisers”. Then they founded Google, which makes fistfuls of money off of advertising.

Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg championed a “society of complete openness” while being incredibly secretive about how it mines the information you share to target ads to you. A search engine and a social network are one thing – but something that can tie everything about you together in seconds – has much more serious and far-reaching implications.

But Palantir knows that privacy concerns about it are not unfounded. Courtney Bowman, a former employee at Google, now works at Palantir as a “civil liberties engineer” — helping lawmakers understand how to use modern technology while keeping privacy safeguards in place. One of Palantir’s features includes a series of safeguards designed to limit who can see what. Another feature includes an “audit trail” to let investigators see that certain rules and regulations with regard to data handling, were followed precisely.

And although these features are wired into the system, using them is not required. “What keeps me up at night is that we have to keep thinking about this as we grow into new marketing and new regions,” says Mr. Bowman. “[a]s you move into higher levels of computing complexity, you can’t retreat into the argument that [the technology of finding hidden things] is neutral.”

With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility

We’ve seen what could happen when commerce and surveillance combine. One Palantir employee pitched a Washington law firm on ways that they could expose WikiLeaks – which included cyberattacks and disinformation.

Although the idea was never formally executed, the pitch papers and emails between the two groups were posted online by hacktivist group Anonymous. Because of the sheer size of Palantir, coming to a consensus on how its service is used can be difficult. According to an article in the New York Times, some employees don’t want Palantir helping Israel because of their position against Palestinians. Palantir still has contracts with the Israeli government. But currently, they are not working with China. Nor are they working with tobacco companies.

At its core, Palantir still has a great deal of finding itself to do. As the company continues to grow, it’s easy to lose sight of its goals as it scales to accommodate massive growth and change. Palantir’s ability to remain steadfast in the face of corruption and very hot, sensitive issues will remain a focus, as will its very difficult decision as to whether or not it should go public.

Still, there’s a great deal of untapped potential for technology like this – especially for marketers. What are your thoughts on this kind of big data mapping and analysis? Do you feel that Palantir is poised to become the next big game changer in commerce much as the Internet was decades ago? Or do you feel it’s more of a fad that will only see limited use outside government, military and law enforcement areas?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

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3 Reasons to Attend Modern Marketing Experience 2017

Oracle Marketing Cloud customers, partners, and team members alike are gearing up for our flagship event, Modern Marketing Experience, April 25-27 in Las Vegas.

We’re hoping to see you there! Understanding that your time is in high demand, and your to do lists are always-evolving, here are three reasons why Modern Marketing Experience is a valuable and vibrant event to add to your calendar:

1.    Select your experience based on topics relevant to your interests. This year’s event offers session content focused on six themes to support marketers’ evolving education: Brand Experience; Data Driven Marketing; Marketing Automation; Cross-Channel Marketing; Mobile Marketing; and Account-Based Marketing. Think of the events grounds as a one-stop shop forum to learn about the most helpful and progressive strategies, tactics, and technologies driving modern marketing. 

2.    Garner wisdom from the brightest in the marketing crowd. Hear from leading brands across a variety of industries, segments, and specialties on their digital marketing success. Modern Marketing Experience is packed with customer and partner presentations that offer the input necessary to help you find value in your usage of similar tools and techniques. With fresh ideas and proven use cases, you are likely to walk away with new insight on old tricks by hearing from successful organizations that know how to most effectively leverage marketing technology. Celebrate excellence in Modern Marketing at the annual Markie Awards where we recognize innovation in a variety of categories.

3.     Enjoy the show(s)! In addition to the high-value keynote and sessions focused on marketing to help you in your career, the event offers an opportunity to enjoy Vegas, home to countless inspiring and entertaining shows. Take an extra day to enjoy The Strip and one of the many concerts, magic shows, and musicals. Maximize your experience with an invigorating performance!

You can view more details, session highlights, and speakers at the event page. 

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