Nick Baggott's CRM and Digital Marketing Blog

The best creative ideas are often beautifully simple

I came across this old ad for 2012 for Staedtler pencils. Its simplicity is brilliant. Quite simply, even the greatest creations start with a simple sketch. Thanks to Jeff Bullas

What is the best, beautifully simple ad that you can think of?

Tik Tok - What is it and what is all the fuss about?

If you are under 24, you are probably already using Tik Tok. If you are older, then you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Last year, a chinese company purchased Musical.ly and rebranded it as Tik Tok. The usage has subsequently grown massively. 

In the first quarter of 2019, the Tik Tok app (iOS and Android) was downloaded twice as many times as YouTube or Instagram globally and there are already over 1 billion active monthly users. The majority are in China but the next biggest market is USA.

Tik Tok allows users to upload 15 second videos and share them (an updated version of what Vine was used for if you like). It is simple to edit and create videos and animations and you can live stream. This YouTube video shows an Australian news programme explaining simply what Tik Tok is and how you can use it. 

And if you want some great, practical advice on how to use Tik Tok for marketing, check out this great article by my good friend, Dan Rowles called "A marketer's guide to Tik Tok"

So why not download it, follow a few people (I started with big media starts like James Corden, Ed Sheeran and Jimmy Fallon) and let me know in the comments what you think.

 

A Latin American Approach to Ad Placement (Human Banner Ads)

I have just got back from 2 weeks working with a cosmetics client in Brazil and Mexico. I was struck by how much of their world is the same as ours in Europe. Their digital media channels are Facebook, Instagram, Google etc and they have similar challenges and opportunities. 

Whenever I travel for work outside of Europe (be it LatAm, Africa or Asia), I am struck by this notion and how similar we all are. I am rarely surprised by a new advertising or marketing approach. But, this caught my eye in Mexico last week...

 I 

I call it a Human Banner ad! These guys had an ad stretched between two poles. Every time the traffic stopped at the lights they would run across the road and stretch out their ad in front of the traffic waiting for the lights to turn. It struck me as a particular;y dangerous and ultimately fruitless task. The only people that could read the ads were the slightly confused and annoyed cars at the front of the queue. Every other driver's view was obscured by the car in front. Maybe not the most effective advertising format I have seen, but it shows initiative and bravery if nothing else....

Facebook trials new emoji's (including dislike button)

So here it is. The dislike button:

Actually it is 6 emoji's, to declare your love, laughter, agreement, surprise, sympathy and anger. They are being trialed in Ireland and Spain, before launching to the rest of the world.

Users have been asking for a dislike button for ages and personally i think this is a great reply from Facebook, enabling users to express a range of emotions without over complicating it for users.

Here is a neat video to explain it in more detail

For more info on recent Facebook updates, check out Dave Chaffey's Smart Insights blog.

 

Google Updates Algorithm to Favour Mobile Friendly Sites & Launches new free tool

Google has just announced that they have made a major change to their search algorithm. This is the most significant change since Panda, according to Marketing Magazine.

Basically, it penalizes sites (such as Marks & Spencer) which it does not see as mobile optimized. M&S has a separate mobile site and not one site with responsive design. Google has also launched a free app, which allows you to instantly check whether your site is sufficiently mobile friendly for Google. I ran on it on my web site and got the thumbs up! 

 

Google also says that half of search traffic now comes from mobile and that is why they have changed the algorithm to take this into account. Why not test out you page? It is free and quick to do using the Google Mobile Search tool. 

Twitter to move away from posting only in chronological order

Today, Twitter announced via their blog that they were going to launch "While you were away".

They say that when you come to twitter you will have missed some of your posts, so they will help you by posting those tweets that are most likely to have been of interest to you at the top of your news feed. This is very similar to what Facebook have done recently, where they arrange your news feed based on your behaviour with posts from your most favourite friends appearing first. Facebook's change was not popular with many users who dislike Facebook deciding who they should see posts from and advertisers too (as not all of your followers now see all of your posts). 

I do hope that this Twitter announcement, does not mean that they lose the one thing that twitter has over their rivals - the absolute timeliness of the content. If that is lost, does Twitter lose its USP?

I applaud personalisation and the use of behavioural data. I am just not 100% sure if it is right for Twitter. 

 

I have posted Twitter's blog post below:

Today we’re introducing something new to your home timeline: a recap of some of the top Tweets you might have missed from accounts you follow.

A lot can happen while you’re on the go. To fill in some of those gaps, we will surface a few of the best Tweets you probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise, determined by engagement and other factors. If you check in on Twitter now and then for a quick snapshot of what’s happening, you’ll see this recap more often; if you spend a lot of time on Twitter already, you’ll see it less.

Our goal is to help you keep up – or catch up – with your world, no matter how much time you spend on Twitter. With a few improvements to the home timeline we think we can do a better job of delivering on that promise without compromising the real time nature of Twitter.

Recaps, marked with a “While you were away” heading, will begin to appear for all Twitter for iOS users today, and on our Android app and twitter.com soon.

Who to follow on Twitter

I regularly get asked who to follow on twitter, the list is long. So here is a list of great marketing experts that are worth a follow: (I am @njbaggott) !

 

@CIMinfo

@CIMAcademy

@Jeffbullas

@MarketingUK

@HarvardBiz

@hootsuite

@Econsultancy

@thenetworkone

@BrandRepublic

@TheNextWeb

@socialbakers

@brandlearning

@smartinsights

@danielrowles

@comscore

@iftweeter

@thenextweb

@alltwtr

@twitter

@hubspot

@wearetwogether

@webtrends

@NBarley

@marketinguk

20 Most Popular Brands on Twitter

So, here are the 20 most popular brands on Twitter.

No surprise to see people following YT, Instagram, Twitter etc and the main news sites. Well done to Real Madrid and Barcelona FC, who are just about the only non digital tech or news brands listed...

I bet Twitter are gutted that a Google owned rival (YouTube) has more twitter followers than twitter and vine have combined...

How to improve your searching in Twitter

I have just been reading an incredibly useful and simple blog post from media bistro - it outlines ten ways in which you can change what you put into the twitter search box, to improve your searching accuracy. It is so well written that I have pasted in some of the text below:

Here is a link to read the full article - 10 tips for Twitter searching

 

1. Want to search for a phrase? Put it in quotes

Example: “social media”

2. Want to search for tweets that contain two items? Use AND or use OR

Example: twitter AND facebook (searches for both words)

Example: twitter OR Facebook (searches for either word)

3. Want to exclude something from your search? Use minus

Example: social -media

4. Want to search for tweets from somebody? Use from:

Example: from:sheamus

5. Want to search for tweets sent to somebody? Use to:

Example: to:sheamus

6. Want to search for all tweets in a specific area? Use near:

Example: raining near:london

7. You can narrow that search even further by also using within:

Example: raining near:london within:5mi

8. Want to search between two dates? Use since: and until:

Example: iPhone since:2014-09-01 until:2014-09-20

9. Want to search for just tweets with links? Use filter:links

Example: amazing filter:links

10. Want to search for tweets from specific clients and apps? Use source:

Example: incredible source:instagram

It’s worth noting that Twitter defaults to showing you the top results for searches – to see everything click on the ‘All’ link at the top of the screen. You can also click the button on the left to embed this search into your website via a widget, and there’s a save button on the right that lets you save the search for future use.

Ben & Jerry's Tweeting Trucks

Thanks to Bryan Kramer (@bryankramer) for tweeting about this great case study from Ben & Jerry's, showing how they use twitter to create a local buzz as their sampling teams hit different US Cities. I have pasted the key content below, but feel free to check out www.purematter.com for other great examples and good social media advice.

 

Jay Curley, the Senior Global Marketing Manager at Ben & Jerry’s, spoke with Bryan Kramer during a Purematter Substance webinar on the importance of creating authentic experiences for customers.

Ben & Jerry’s takes fun very seriously. Jerry, their co-founder, said “If it’s not fun why do it?” They are infamous for their humorous approach to flavor names- from  “Chubby Hubby “to “Karamel Sutra” and my favorite—“Everything But The…”.

Jay revealed that Ben & Jerry’s is much more than a “fun” brand. Every campaign they launch is carefully vetted to create authentic customer experience. They see social media as a way to bring them even closer to their customers.

One great example that he shared is the @BenJerrysTruck campaign. They take the truck on a multi-state tour and when they arrive in a city with the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Truck they send out tweets to ask locals where the truck should go. As you can imagine this generates all sorts of terrific content and moments of interaction with their customers.

On their most recent excursion to Chicago they traveled around the city providing free ice cream in response to tweets. They tweeted out photos of each group of recipients enjoying the ice cream.

 

Here is an example of a satisfied customer tweeting about their positive B&J experience: