Social Marketing

Perceived social isolation (PSI) is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Social media platforms, commonly used by young adults, may offer an opportunity to ameliorate social isolation.

With responses from nearly 70 food retailers representing more than 4,600 stores across 34 states, the comprehensive study details growing investments in social media, mobile and more relevant promotions by U.S. grocers in response to changing consumer buying behavior.

One central theme running through the content marketing sessions at the Social Media Week conference this week in New York can be summed up with a question: Are brands spending too much money on the wrong content?

PACO Collective (PACO) announced that Flawless Beauty, LLC (Flawless), the new haircare line co-owned by Hollywood actress Gabrielle Union, has selected it as Social Media Agency of Record. PACO will be responsible for all social media efforts including social strategy, content management and creation, social engagement, and blogger management.

A decade after the emergence of smartphones, Facebook and Twitter, more than four out of five adults in the U.S. (86 percent) report that they constantly or often check their email, texts and social media accounts, according to part two of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) report Stress in America™:  This attachment to devices and the constant use of technology is associated with higher stress levels for these Americans.

Influencers are taking an increasingly large chunk of the digital ad market, and many individuals with hefty, engaged social media followings are charging top dollar to work with brands to spread the word about their products and services.

Seven in 10 US internet users will use social media regularly in 2017, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast. However, the ways in which social media users connect with friends, family members—and, of course, brands—vary greatly depending on the user’s age.

An October 2016 Influenster survey, which polled US influencers who are heavy users of at least two social networks, found that 93% of respondents ages 14 to 18 watch product reviews on YouTube, compared to 86% of overall influencers.

Picture the scene: you’re trying to share a video with a couple of friends to illustrate a point you’ve been arguing about for the last half hour. As the video loads, an ad pops up at twice the volume of what you’ve been playing before. You groan and turn the volume down, but you’ve missed the chance to skip the ad and get bounced to your browser as the brand site loads. You switch back to YouTube but the conversation has moved on and your friends have lost interest. Advertising has ruined the moment.

We’re over a decade into the social media era and it’s still the Wild West out there, with all kinds of criminal activity going basically unchecked.

As Facebook develops an ever-more diverse portfolio of businesses, questions arise of whether it risks diluting its core identity.  Put another way, will the future of Facebook look like Google? Or, will it look more like Yahoo?

“What’s next?” That question drives our industry every day. Answering it isn’t easy. You don’t get there using conjecture or assumptions—you get there using passion, precision, experience and rigorous science. And when it comes to measuring the breakneck evolution of social media—answering the question can be as difficult as it is vital. But when you take a closer look at up-to-the-minute social media data, the direction forward snaps into focus.

Third-party verification can’t come too soon to digital media, as the combination of bot fraud, fake news and audience restatements has 50% of marketers saying they will no longer place advertising on a platform they consider risky

Last week, the Doomsday Clock was moved from 3 minutes to midnight to 2.5 minutes to 12. Scientists believe that the chance of the world going up in a thermonuclear puff of smoke is the highest it’s been since 1953. This in the same week that Marc Pritchard, the global brand building officer from P&G, made waves by announcing that P&G, in effect, had moved the hand of the ad-spend doomsday clock to 12. High noon!

Interest in influencer marketing continues to increase—and prices are rising in tandem—but measurement capabilities haven’t kept pace.

Part of State Farm’s Hispanic social presence, Alma also developed a mini online sitcom rooted in Hispanic insights called Los Asegurados or The Insured in English.

With the proliferation of influencer content and the increased scrutiny of the FTC on disclosures, one of the critical elements is maintaining authenticity. In a time where so many CPG brands are investing in influencer marketing due to the abounding opportunities, do too many sponsored posts mean death to an influencer’s credibility, audience and engagement?

Pointing not only to an influx of fake news and spam, but also an ongoing challenge to distinguish what’s real and what’s not, Google took down 1.7 billion ads last year that violated its advertising policies—more than double the amount it removed in 2015.

In order to gain the credence of a wary audience, we have to stop selling and start communicating. Advertisements have become invisible to most and for those who still see them, skepticism has replaced intrigue.

The grandfather of the digital video space is still looking pretty youthful. Despite an increasingly competitive digital video space that is packed with new (and successful) properties, usage of YouTube remains strong and the unit continues to be an important part of parent company Alphabet’s portfolio.