Who better to promote your company than the employees themselves? More often than not, employees’ personal social media following is in-line with the company’s target audience, especially within the travel and lifestyle sector. For social media strategists and community managers, sharing company content is like second nature, but without a content advocacy program, some companies may be missing out on an opportunity for content sharing and building brand awareness. To encourage social sharing from company employees and boost brand advocacy within your company, make sure they know it’s important – make it easy, add incentives and recognition for involvement, and track social media metrics to show accountability.
New techy travel companion, Google Glass, recently announced on its Google+ page that it will now offer new Glasswear apps from TripIt, Foursquare, and OpenTable. Google’s innovative wearable technology claims to help users “enjoy their vacation without getting lost in your technology.” Skift Editor, Jason Clampet notes, “while this does seem incredibly useful, it’s still a computer on your face.” Touché, sir.
“Content is King” might be the three most overused words in the digital world, but they’re not inaccurate by any stretch of the imagination. Brands are consistently looking for new ways to capture audience attention and transform compelling digital content into dollars signs through effective social media e-commerce strategies. Recent social media research indicates that using organic Instagram-type images instead of stock photos in advertising and social media marketing can increase click-through rates and dramatically boost conversion rates by appearing more “authentic” to consumers. Additional tips for creating a solid content marketing strategy include publishing quality content, writing for the audience, monitoring analytics, staying current and creating sharable content that can be displayed on a variety of devices.
Social scrapbooking platform, Pinterest, announced the addition of Promoted Pins earlier this week, allowing advertisers to pay to more prominently display their pins to current and potential users. Pinterest’s heavy female demographic is an attractive audience for travel and lifestyle marketers alike, enticing brands including Gap, Target, Expedia, Lululemon and Disney World to run campaigns with three- to six-month commitments. Pinterest’s “consultative approach” to ad selling works closely with brands to help them understand what type of creative resonates with its users on this specific platform.
Facebook and Youtube can account for nearly one third of mobile traffic shares in 2014 as more people shift to using mobile devices to upload video content to social networks. It is this high volume of mobile traffic that helped contribute to Facebook’s $2.3 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter alone. With digital video at the forefront of sharable social media content, there is no indication of slowed revenue growth for the network anytime in the near future. Facebook is preparing to launch its long-awaited autoplay video ads over the next few weeks, giving the platform a solid chance to contend with YouTube in the growing digital video advertising industry.