Three Things For Which Every Marketer Should be Thankful
Thanksgiving – a time to be thankful for our many digital blessings. It is also a time to go for seconds at the dinner table (without feeling guilty) and to stand in line in the middle of the night (if you so desire) to purchase that top-of-line television for half price. As marketing professionals, it’s time to reflect on the devices and technologies that we should be thankful for that help us succeed in our careers and more effectively reach our target markets.
Here are the top three marketing devices, in my humble opinion, to be thankful for:
1.) YouTube
YouTube provides companies with a platform to create videos to enhance marketing and advertising programs. It is also a great tool for customer service. Specifically, companies can conduct interviews with experts, post video footage from presentations given, showcase their products and company cultural, and provide clients with how-to videos. ComScore reported U.S. Internet users watched 39 billion online videos in September 2012. Online video usage is increasing and data has been collected from the past three years to support a marketer’s usage of YouTube to drive revenue.
Oh and how could I forget! YouTube has also introduced us to Nicole Westbrook, the star behind the song, “It’s Thanksgiving!” It’s not my fault if this song gets stuck in your head for two days.
2.) Blogs
Blogging is a powerful tool to create a community around your favorite topic or area of expertise. A few blogs have turned into popular movies (Julie & Julia) and successful books (Post Secret). Thanks to WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr, you can set up a blog in a few clicks and have an online space to share your passions and knowledge with the world. Blogging can be highly profitable for businesses. A company blog gives businesses the opportunity to not only demonstrate their expertise and promote business partners, but also to improve SEO and SEM to generate revenue for the company. Check out the New York Times blog, You’re the Boss, to learn more about the art of business blogging.
In a little more than four years, Nate Silver went from a little known statistics blogger to a worldwide phenomena and established data/political guru. This was all thanks to his blog FiveThirtyEight where he began publishing analyses and predictions of the 2008 United States presidential election. His popularity caught the attention of the New York Times who purchased licensing rights to his blog in 2010. There are already movie rumors that Hollywood will be adapting his story for the big screen.
3.) Smartphones
Smartphone usage is increasing by the day. On September 11, 2012, The Pew Research Center reported, “45% of American adults own smartphones. They are particularly popular with young adults; 66% of those ages 18-29 own smartphones.”
A smartphone allows users to talk on the phone, check email, ‘check in’ on FourSquare, check the stock market, check the weather, update their Facebook status, pay bills and etc. We should be thankful for smartphones, because they also allow users to take high quality pictures and immediately share those pictures through multiple social media tools like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Studies have shown people respond and decipher pictures much more quickly than text and these social media tools have revolutionized the power of a picture. It is recommended that every marketer should use visual content within their marketing content mix. HubSpot has put together ‘19 Reasons You Should Include Visual Content in Your Marketing [Data]’.
Pictures have also allowed pet owners to take snapshots of their pet’s worst household misdemeanors and reveal them on Shameyourpet.com.
