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Round-up of the Top 10 Social Marketing Predictions for 2016

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It has been a memorable year in social media, with many new platform functions and trends, but the best may be yet to come. We can’t help but be excited for all of the 2016 marketing predictions we’ve seen floating around and what’s in store for social media in the coming year.

Not enough time to read the heavy influx of marketing predictions for 2016? No problem! The Motherhood has skimmed the most newsworthy pieces and summarized the top trends.

Marketing Predictions for 2016

Here are the social media trends you need to know for the upcoming year:

1. Ad Blocking shifts eyes to organic and social

2. Shift from automated to authentic

  • Because online consumers have developed the keen skills to identify and ignore ads and automated sponsored content, authentic, personal content will rise as marketers realize its value in connecting with online audiences.
  • Simply searching for influencers in your space and asking them to push out stale messages will become less effective; greater strategy will be needed to engage key influencers.
  • Marketing that is less disruptive and more focused on fostering relationships will be conductive to building a loyal customer base.

3. Creativity will thrive

4. Experience = shared value 

  • Content will continue to fuel the customer experience.
  • More and more consumers turn to third parties, such as online influencers, as trusted sources of information on brands/products.
  • Brands will recognize more that linking an experience or story with a brand/product better resonates with consumers than facts and figures.
  • Humanizing your brand helps to create shared trust through personal experience.

5. Engagement > Reach 

  • Marketers will place a greater focus on identifying meaningful measurement metrics of engagement with sponsored content.
  • By evaluating engagement of online campaigns, marketers can gain better insights from, and connection with, targeted audiences.
  • We’ve already seen many of our clients begin to look at engagement metrics rather than impressions in our programs, as they recognize the value in targeted engagement.

6. Data and insights

  • Analytics and social insights will become more readily available, leading to a jump in automated data analysis and implementation of big data insights to create better social messaging.
  • Rather than trying to do it all, marketers will focus on key performance indicators and creating more valuable insights aligned with those indicators.
  • Using data to develop more personalized experiences for consumers will create more value for both businesses and customers.

7. Instant Gratification AND Snapchat

  • In-the-moment posts will dominate with the rise in popularity of Periscope and the addition of Facebook Live Streaming.
  • While reaching consumers organically via SnapChat is not a cost-effective option, SnapChat will become the “New TV.”
  • As this Ad Age article perfectly states, “Think appointment-watching, awareness and buying eyeballs.”

8. Video, video, video

  • 70 percent of companies now say video is the most effective tool in their online marketing belts, and two out of three businesses expect it to dominate their strategy going forward.
  • Google now includes video content in search results, and Facebook and Bing have started offering video options for advertisers.
  • Using video to tell stories can be used as an advantage by marketers to effectively convey a brand message.
  • Social video is rapidly rising, and videos need to be tailored for each platform and target audience.

9. Social messaging and messaging apps

  • Messaging apps have seen explosive growth and have already evolved as a customer service feature.
  • While messaging apps are still a mystery, big brands are testing them out as marketing channels.
  • Messaging apps are the most-used of all category apps, meaning there is a largely untapped potential for advertising in this space.

10. Social isn’t free

  • The exponential growth of brands on social has led to less organic reach, so increases in social marketing spending will continue to increase.
  • Simply promoting posts or getting your message incorporated in authentic content from key influencers will increase in order to maintain a share of voice.
  • Online influencers know their value and demand for them as key content creators continues to increase, so navigating these relationships will become trickier.

 

The recurring theme we found throughout the plethora of predictions is that the customer will be heard in 2016, and as a result, marketers will be using more data and insight in their campaigns, and will need to implement authentic, personalized content programs.

Which predictions do you think are most accurate?

What Your Influencer Marketing Might Be Missing: Evergreen

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Get the most out of your influencer marketing campaigns by leveraging the power of evergreen content.

During a recent call with a potential new client, The Motherhood’s leadership team outlined a variety of social media marketing services and shared a few case studies to demonstrate clients’ successes with past campaigns. When the presentation ended, the potential client made an interesting comment. “We can see the power of what you’re doing,” he said. “We’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.”

More and more brands and organizations have come to the same conclusion. As traditional online advertising loses potency due to the rise of ad blockers, more of them are turning to influencer marketing and sponsored content campaigns to share information about their products and services with target audiences.

However, with the online space becoming saturated, it’s more important than ever to find ways for brands to get the most out of their campaigns: While traditional influencer marketing tactics focus on the “now” (sales, impressions, link clicks, etc.), there is unlocked potential in “evergreen” influencer-driven content that serves as a digital bookshelf for brands over a long period of time.

What makes content evergreen? Evergreen content lives on in searches and continually generates traffic to your site. It provides information that is not tied to one particularly timely “hook” or event and is not likely to change in the near future, meaning it can continue to provide value to the reader over time.

In a recent study distributed by The Motherhood, bloggers repeatedly mentioned that both their blogs and the brands they work with get more value from content that is authentic and evergreen. We see brands starting to catch onto this theme, and we believe that evergreen content will become even more prevalent as its value is realized.

Why is influencer-driven evergreen content powerful? It offers brands:

  1. Long-term Results: Content grows in popularity over time, continually drives traffic to your site and increases brand awareness.
  2. Search Engine Optimization: It helps achieve search rankings for industry terms as well as improving SEO results for the brand through link building.
  3. Credible Voice: Influencer content can serve as a landing page for a brand other than its official website, building the brand’s reputation and providing increased value for users.
  4. Resources for Customers When They Need It: It is always available and is sought after by potential customers when they are further along the path to purchase.

With easy access to online resources and others’ opinions, consumers no longer put all of their trust in brand advertising and marketing without also doing their own independent research. In fact, based on a recent survey by The Motherhood, consumers trust family, friends and customer reviews 44% more than retailer and company websites.

Brands can create and publish their own evergreen content, but influencer-created content – shared by someone their readers feel they know and can trust – adds an extra layer of authenticity and often gives consumers the confidence they need to take the next step to purchase the product or service. When brands find an influencer who genuinely loves their products or services and can share that information with her readers, it’s a relationship that provides a natural avenue brands can tap to build trust with consumers.

Bloggers in The Motherhood’s network know the power of evergreen; here are some real-world examples!

Example #1: Bloggers Become Top Traffic-Drivers

Blog posts from an influencer marketing campaign served as one of the top drivers of traffic to a healthcare client’s website. Many of the influencers’ blog posts have generated hundreds and even thousands of monthly visits to the company’s site.

evergreen traffic increase over time

Here are some key learnings from the blog post that performed best over the long term:

  • It contained practical tips on the general topic with a naturally flowing product link at the very end
  • One year after the blog post went live, it was still generating an average of 400 daily views
  • The highest source of traffic to the blog post was Pinterest

Because of these evergreen blog posts, the client has continued to see a high level of referral traffic to the site long after the original campaign ended, and the client has become an industry leader in online conversations. Through The Motherhood, the client has also maintained a working relationship with key influencers to repurpose content and collaborate on additional campaigns.

Tip: Focus on authentic conversations that can be optimized for search and authentically share product information.

Example #2: Annual Holidays and Events Generate Recurring Traffic

The Motherhood’s blog received a boost in traffic this October from a Halloween-themed blog post published back in 2011! With primary traffic to the post coming from organic search and Pinterest, the post generated an 88% increase in page views from September to October 2015. Each year around Halloween, this blog post generates a higher number of page views.

increased site traffic analytics

Furthermore, a 2010 blog post written by The Motherhood on Halloween safety tips, sponsored by Energizer, was picked up this year by a municipality and sent to all residents in that area, generating a huge spike in traffic to the post.

Tip: Take advantage of reoccurring events such as holidays, rather than one-time events or occurrences.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can engage influencers to write evergreen content for your brand:

  1. Share Stats and Data
  2. Invite Product Reviews / Consumer Insights
  3. Provide Expert How-to Guides or Tips
  4. Offer Strategies for Common Problems
  5. Storytelling through Personal Anecdotes

Before initiating a campaign focused on generating evergreen content, be sure to keep the following points in mind:

  1. Be authentic. Pinpoint influencers who are a good fit for your brand and focus on quality of their content and professionalism of their work rather than simply looking at their numbers.
  2. Fully identify goals such as search rankings and keywords. This is probably the hardest step, but it is extremely important to have in place before moving forward. These terms must be effectively communicated to the bloggers so that they can seamlessly work them into content during the writing process.
  3. Add value. Bloggers and influencers have an interest in creating quality content and bringing traffic to their blog and your content. Be sure that the content you are asking influencers to create will provide value to readers and presents information and insight other than what is provided in traditional marketing practices.
  4. Use a blogger network/agency. Consider leveraging the expertise of an agency, which has existing relationships with influencers in your space, along with experience crafting campaigns focused on authentic long-term content.

Most importantly, remember that patience is a virtue. Evergreen success does not happen overnight; you have to allow time to reap the rewards!

The Motherhood is a social media marketing firm and blogger network with extensive experience in the space of influencer marketing, and has continually been a leader in innovation within the industry. To work with The Motherhood’s network in creating branded evergreen content that will live on in users’ search results, you can reach us at [email protected].

This Giving Tuesday, Dance to Help Eradicate Polio

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On Tuesday, December 1, 2015, The Motherhood will be celebrating the fourth annual Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday), a global day designed to support giving and philanthropy.

This year, we are working with United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign to champion vaccines – specifically, the polio vaccine – as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries.

Did you know that we are 99% of the way to eradicating polio all together? In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. Today there are 51 cases in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Eradicating polio will have a long-lasting impact: it will generate savings of $50 billion over the next 20 years, and the expertise, infrastructure and personnel are already being applied to address other health challenges.

Can You Feel The Beat…To Beat Polio?

To support the cause, we’re encouraging you to dance to end polio. Why dancing? Polio is a viral illness that causes paralysis and impedes the ability to move, walk and dance. As long as it exists anywhere, it’s a threat to children everywhere. This Giving Tuesday, let’s join together and dance to raise awareness of the need to end polio once and for all!

It’s easy to get involved on Giving Tuesday:

  1. Dance. Create a fun, short GIF or video involving your kids, other family members and/or friends dancing to create a polio-free world (to create GIFs, check out Boomerang).
  2. Share. Then, share your GIF or video on social media using the hashtags #ShotatLife and #GivingTuesday, and tag your friends to encourage them to do the same.
  3. Donate. Consider donating a small amount to support polio vaccines for children globally. You can donate here: www.ShotatLife.org/Donate.

Won’t you dance with us this Giving Tuesday and help end polio?

Influencer Spotlight: Xenia, Raised By Culture

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Xenia, of Raised By Culture, is celebrating Dia de los Muertos today, sharing the secret to Thanksgiving dinner and some smart advice for new bloggers! She also has some words of wisdom for new moms that we loved.

Read on to learn more about what Xenia loves about the fall season, what her favorite project was with The Motherhood and the #1 way she would like to utilize social media for good.

Give her a shout out at @RaisedByCulture!

Xenia

Did you love learning about Raised By Culture and want to read more about bloggers that were featured as part of the spotlight series? Check out all of our Influencer Spotlight posts here!

Case Study: Bloggers, Brands Come Together at Local Market Events

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The Motherhood’s network includes thousands of social media moms all across the country, so much of our work is done over email. However, we also execute in-person local market events that enable us to connect our trusted influencers with the organizations we’re proud to call our partners.

When bloggers experience a brand in person through a carefully and thoughtfully planned event, the resulting content comes to life beautifully through words, personal photos and videos. Beyond the blog post, however, brands have an opportunity to earn bloggers’ trust, build advocacy, interact with the blogger as a customer, gather feedback and forge a powerful and valuable connection for years to come.

During summer 2015, The Motherhood executed a number of local market events:

Northwoood for Moms: It’s a Mom’s World

local market events
Image courtesy of Apple Box Studios

To tell the story of how Pittsburgh-based Northwood Realty Services is an ideal place for moms to start a real estate career, The Motherhood invited 10 bloggers from the region to an event to meet some of Northwood’s top real estate agents—who also happen to be moms!

Bloggers exchanged stories with the Northwood Moms and engaged in a robust conversation about balancing career and family, pursuing passions and the many ways to define success. Bloggers live-tweeted using the hashtag #NorthwoodForMoms, earning Northwood a spot on the list of trending topics in the Pittsburgh region. The event resulted in not only a trending hashtag and more than three million impressions in the target market, but it also directly led to multiple interviews from moms who are interested in being real estate agents.

Bolthouse Farms Kids: Fruits & Veggies Disguised as Snacks

local market events
Image courtesy of Bolthouse Farms Kids

To elevate the Bolthouse Farms Kids brand in Pittsburgh and generate awareness of its new products, The Motherhood enlisted a powerhouse team of influential Pittsburgh moms to attend a series of local market events.

To kick off the program, each blogger received a box of Bolthouse Farms Kids smoothies, fruit tubes and veggie snackers to share with their family and their blog readers. As part of their social media posts, bloggers also urged their readers to spot the #SnackMob trucks and attend events in their area. Then, each blogger attended #SnackMob truck events throughout the city and encouraged their readers to do the same. Bloggers also used their social media posts to spread the word about the #SnackMob contest and to document their own experiences with this one-of-a-kind snack truck.

Chick-fil-A: Where Good Meets Gracious

Image courtesy of Chick-fil-AThe Motherhood recently partnered with a group of bloggers for a local market event that gave them a behind-the-scenes look at the heart and soul of Chick-fil-A – inspiring them to create personal and heartfelt posts about the facets of the company that only an in-person gathering could have revealed.

Bloggers shared a sneak peek at a few soon-to-be-released menu items (that had been flown in from Atlanta by the company’s menu development manager so the bloggers could sample them), tried their hand at creating lemonade the same way each Chick-fil-A store does, and discovered some truly special connections with the store operators. Others appreciated how Chick-fil-A supports local communities or how the company makes life easier for working moms. Chick-fil-A also inspired this 7 Day “Be the Change” Family Challenge.

Email [email protected] for more information on securing blogger attendance at local market events.

The Motherhood Blogger Network: Why Work with Us

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Ten years ago, public relations veterans Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann recognized the power and marketing potential of the communities growing online, particularly around parenting and families. At a time when the term “blog” was just beginning to enter the national conversation, Facebook was in its infancy and most social platforms didn’t yet exist, they founded The Motherhood and began building a dynamic network of PR-friendly mom blogs to apply that marketing potential.

A decade later, their vision is flourishing as brands, agencies and nonprofit organizations search for ways to join and contribute to the conversation online – and for good reason.

According to Nielsen (as reported in She-conomy), by May 2012, about one in three U.S. moms were bloggers. Research compiled by The Next Web outlines a number of compelling reasons to put your product, service or cause in front of moms online:

  • Women drive 70-80 percent of all consumer purchasing through their buying power and influence.
  • More than three-quarters of women in the U.S. use the Internet for product information before making a purchase.
  • Nearly two-thirds of moms ask other mothers for advice before they purchase a new product.
  • 90 percent of moms are online, and nearly 20 million Internet users who are moms read blogs at least once a month.

Many companies use blogger networks like The Motherhood to help them connect these dots: With the right blogger influencers sharing information, stories, reviews and positive word of mouth, they can build awareness and drive purchases.

As a parent blogger network and social media marketing agency, The Motherhood functions as an experienced partner in helping companies identify and approach highly targeted bloggers for both small and large-scale coordinated online marketing campaigns.

Here are a few of the benefits of working with blogger networks in general and The Motherhood in particular:

  • We can pinpoint your most influential consumers. The Motherhood’s proprietary database includes thousands of bloggers we’ve personally worked with over the years. We make it our business to know what’s important to the influencers in our network, and we can quickly identify and mobilize a team according to the specific criteria most important to you. Our approach to blogger engagement is personal, resulting in a team of influencers who are advocates of your brand and deeply invested in the program’s success.
  • We work with influencers to create rich, dynamic content. Working closely with you, and always with your overarching brand objectives in mind, we create opportunities for trusted blogger ambassadors to develop compelling, shareable content online. That content lives indefinitely and contributes to great SEO and search results for your company or client.
  • We know social. We partner with bloggers on a daily basis and live on social media, and we’ve done it for years. We can help you find exactly the people you want to engage in short-term blog campaigns, long-term ambassador programs, Twitter parties, virtual focus groups and more to spread the word about your product, service or cause. 
  • We’re experienced in PR. The Motherhood team comes from the world’s top PR agencies. We provide you with powerful ideas based on insight and years of experience in the industry, and we can move at your pace – fast.
  • We guarantee coverage. We identify influencers who fit your objectives and target audience and love your brand, so it’s a win for everyone – and we guarantee coverage and engagement. Every step of the way, we provide detailed results reporting, insights and analysis.

Brands, PR/ad agencies, nonprofit organizations and other companies: To learn more about our online campaign options to reach influencers or inquire about partnering with The Motherhood to supplement your integrated marketing efforts, email [email protected].