There’s no disputing the fact that Instagram has become one of the world’s most popular apps. With over 150 million users across the globe, the photo-sharing app has become the marketing engine of some of today’s hottest brands from Nike to Ben and Jerry’s to Red Bull. But how did the brainchild of two graduates from Stanford University rise to billion dollar success in just under three years? One word: demographics. Continue reading “What’s the Secret to Instagram’s Success?”
How Content Marketing Can Create Buzz for Your App
Like most people, I am in love with my smartphone. When the battery dies, I feel betrayed. When I notice a new podcast has been downloaded, my heart swoons once again. And like most smartphone owners, I have a number of apps that I depend on each day. It is interesting, though, to consider exactly how and why each app has been downloaded.
Consider how app use is on the rise. In December 2012, Portio Research estimated that 1.2 billion people worldwide were using mobile apps. That figure is projected to grow at a CAGR of almost 30 percent to eventually reach 4.4 billion mobile app users by the end of 2017.
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A Reminder of 2013’s Worst Marketing Blunders
While 2013 brought with it a slew of genius marketing campaigns—including Jean Claude Van Damme’s epic collaboration with Volvo—it was also witness to some of the biggest “oops” marketing moments. In case you were living under a rock this year, here’s a recap of the top marketing disasters of 2013. Continue reading “A Reminder of 2013’s Worst Marketing Blunders”
Ice Cream in December: Ben & Jerry’s Dominates Instagram—and Fans Love It
Right now, the majority of Americans are reaching for bowls of hot soup and putting on multiple layers of clothes in order to combat the cold winter air. But not me.
Instead of trying to run away from winter, I like to embrace it by reaching for a bowl of ice cream—the colder the better. After all, winter only lasts for a few months and then everyone starts complaining about the heat again. So when I opened my Instagram news feed recently to see a picture of someone holding an ice cream cone up to a cloud, I was pleasantly surprised—and not at all annoyed about seeing an advertisement in my news feed.
Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way, too. After all, it’s hard to get upset about seeing a picture of an ice cream cone. As it turns out, Instagram’s decision to incorporate ads panned out quite nicely for the company. In fact, Ben & Jerry’s experienced a 20 percent spike in followers after the advertising initiative. Here are some other interesting statistics that emerged as well:
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Pinterest’s New API Allows Brands to Take Content Marketing One Step Further
This week, it was revealed that Pinterest launched its first application programming interface (API), which enables brand partners to use real-time data from the social sharing platform to generate lists of the most-pinned items in their physical stores.
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Holiday Shopping Made Easy with Social Media
Searching for the perfect holiday gift to spoil yourself or that special someone? Instead of scouring hundreds of stores only to come up short, try checking out your social media feeds for some holiday shopping inspiration.
According to a recent infographic by Crowdtap, a collaborative social marketing platform, almost 65 percent of shoppers use social media to search for gifts, while 70 percent purchase items they’ve found on social media. Moreover, social media and peer recommendations have proven to have an enormous influence on the habits of holiday shoppers.
In fact, 90 percent of recently surveyed participants said they trust social media recommendations more than any other form of advertising, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Shopping for holiday gift ideas on social media is like having all your closest friends shopping with you except there are no long lines, pesky salespeople, or crowds of unruly shoppers.
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Twitter’s New Feed: What Do You Think?
To answer my own question, I don’t like it. Well, let me rephrase that: the consumer in me doesn’t like it. The marketer in me? Well, I think it is gold.
Let’s back track for a moment. Just a few days ago, Twitter announced that it is launching a new initiative to make tweets even more visual. As you will recall, if you previously embedded a video or picture with your tweet, it would show up as a link, teasing a Twitter user to click on the link to figure out what the visual would be. But now, Twitter wants to make it “easier” for everyone to enjoy what the company refers to as “those great moments you share on Twitter.”
Twelve Sunny Social Statistics to Warm Up Your Frigid Content Marketing Strategy
Depending on your personal tastes and preferences, now could be either the worst or best time of the year to inhabit the seasonally unpredictable corner of the northeastern United States. I’m a part of the former group of people, as I love the summer and cannot stand the winter (while, it cannot be disputed that the first snowfall of the season is beautiful, that frosty feeling of goodness fades away just as quickly as it stirs within you).
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New Content Marketing Study Reveals Astronomical Growth of LinkedIn
It’s always a good fight in the content marketing arena; in one corner we have the blog and in the other the eNewsletter; while video is getting prepped for the next round, the infographic is making its way into the boxing ring; meanwhile, whitepapers and case studies have been duking it out to no end. Between all of these messy matches, though, appears to be one consistent winner—one content marketing tactic that remains triumphant over all: social media.
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The Surprising and Not-So Surprising Demographics of Social Networks
Some things in life just go better together – for instance, peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, Barbie and Ken, Batman and Robin. The same could be said about content marketing and social media. Social media has become an integral part of businesses’ content marketing strategies, helping to amplify customer engagement, boost lead generation and spread brand awareness.
B2B marketers are using a number of social media platforms to distribute content more frequently than they did last year, according to Content Marketing Institute’s “B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends –North America” study. In fact, marketers are now using an average of six social platforms, compared to just five last year. Continue reading “The Surprising and Not-So Surprising Demographics of Social Networks”