New and Updated DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

All You need to know as a basis about Social Media Marketing circa 2016-2017 - a Must Read Guide by Marketo

Social media is one of the most powerful ways to reach and engage with your buyers today. Because it’s almost universally used - by consumers and brands - social media is one of the most effective (and perhaps cost-effective) channels to connect with your audience.
Social media is now status quo in a business’ digital presence. Now, users expect to see their favorite brands on social media. And that’s why social media plays a critical role in the success of every business.

Social media marketing offers marketers a vast opportunity to engage with their buyers, across the entire customer lifecycle, on the platforms they actively tune in to for information. So, it's critical that, as a marketer, you know how to leverage social media marketing to build your brand, drive demand, and engage your buyer.

Download THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 

10 Ways Big Data Will Modernize Your Crisis Communications Plan

A Must Read e-Guide for All PR and Digital Communication Experts Who Live in Modern Times

The modern-day crisis can be defined in relation  to a digital footprint. Specifically, every crisis needs to be managed by the 3 V’s:

• Volume refers to the amount of data (i.e. millions of tweets, hundreds of media mentions or thousands of social media shares). 

• Velocity represents the speed at which that data is generated (i.e. number of tweets per second or online news stories per hour). 

• Variety refers to the variety of data generated, (i.e.images and Hashtags from Instagram, traditional broadcast stories, online story syndication, Tweets and videos from YouTube).

Based upon Zignal Labs' experiences, three trends ring true for every modern crisis:

1. A modern crisis is fueled by data: In today’s modern marketplace, companies are inundated with massive amounts data. In fact, major enterprises manage petabytes of big data every day. This influx of data grows exponentially due to the rapid proliferation of mobile devices and the digitization of consumers - generating an incredible 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.

2. Conventional approaches no longer work: In a modern crisis, the volume, velocity and variety of data will immediately overwhelm traditional tools and processes. Even the best laid plans can’t adequately address the challenges associated with a crisis instantaneously unfolding and mutating across digital and mobile channels.

3. Data provides the blueprint for a solution: While the data tsunami poses an
immediate challenge for any crisis communications team, data will also provide a path to a solution. Specifically, data will reveal critical trends, patterns and insights in the wake of a crisis to empower communications, PR, public affairs and marketing teams.

With an understanding that data will ultimately become a brand’s biggest threat during a crisis and a path to a solution, cross-functional teams within the enterprise must modernize their crisis communications plans accordingly. The following ten-point framework offers guidance that any organization can employ during the planning, response and assessment phases of a crisis.

Download Zignal Labs' "10 Ways Big Data Will Modernize Your Crisis Communications Plan"

The Guide for Instagram Advertising 2016

The Performance Advertiser’s Guide to Instagram - short but very useful eBook by AdRoll

Instagram has quickly become a key player in online advertising. With over half a billion mobile users and 200,000 active advertisers, the platform is expected to top $3.2 billion in revenue this year. This guide will help marketers unlock the power of Instagram as an advertising channel.

The experienced Instagram advertiser, will find some tips and best practices that will help take performance marketing to the next level. For marketers who are new to advertising on Instagram, the guide will break down how to get the most out of it.

Download "The Performance Advertiser’s Guide to Instagram"

Best Guides about Facebook Advertising and Facebook Analytics for 2016

I present to your attention two extremely useful guides which give you all the basics you need to know about Facebook Marketing:

The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising by Kevan Lee, published by Buffer and

The Complete Guide to Analytics on Facebook by Simply Measured, 2016 edition.

Download The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising

Download The Complete Guide to Analytics on Facebook

Complete Guide to Analytics on Facebook, 2016 edition from Boris Loukanov

The Best LinkedIn Marketing Guide 2016

The Sophisticated Marketers'Gude to LinkedIn - by LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Team

"This guide was written with you in mind, the sophisticated marketer. Everything you need to know about marketing on LinkedIn, written both strategically, and instructionally. It’s your one-stop shop to the vast opportunities that await—increase awareness, influence perception, generate high quality leads, and ultimately drive revenue with LinkedIn."

 


Download "The Sophisticated Marketers'Gude to LinkedIn"

KPCB Internet Trends 2016 Report

The 2016 edition of Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report covers today’s Internet growth and an in-depth look at the following:

• Global Internet users have surpassed 3B; India has supplanted the US as the world’s second-largest Internet market.
• Internet user growth remains consistent (led by acceleration in India), while smartphone user and shipment growth have slowed.
• In the face of a slowing global economy, key macro growth drivers from the past 2 decades are less certain.
• Internet advertising (particularly via mobile) continues to grow, but so does ad-blocking, pushing the envelope on development of more innovative ad formats.
• New online-first brands have rapidly grown in popularity for the millennial generation with their focus on omni-channel and personalized distribution strategies.
• In communication, video and images shared are growing as a means of storytelling; creators, consumers, and advertisers are taking part.
• Messaging has evolved from simple, expressive conversation to business-focused use cases, with Asian platforms often leading the way.
• More efficient and often more convenient than typing, voice-based interfaces are ramping quickly and creating a new paradigm for human-computer interaction.
• Transportation is being re-imagined, as the rise of car computerization, autonomous driving, and sharing transform our understanding of mobility.
• Looking to China, Internet leadership continues, as the country boasts global innovation powerhouses in e-commerce, messaging, travel, financial services, and on-demand transportation.
• The proliferation of data generated by a multitude of devices has fostered tremendous business opportunity, but privacy concerns abound.

See Video:

Download KPCB Internet Trends 2016 Report:

The Best Guide to Online Paid Media for Dummies

The 2016 Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Paid Media by Kuno Creative

Paid content distribution is a bridge above the swelling sea of content that connects brands with target audiences to help the right information find the right people. But for paid content distribution to work, it must follow inbound philosophy.

These powerful distribution channels offer immense filtering capabilities to zero in on specific groups and individuals. Once campaigns launch, track and measure results to gain new insights on your target audience and which campaigns resonate best with them. Feed this information back into your content marketing strategy to refine content, better connect with audiences and maximize the efficacy of each campaign.

These are just a few of the many paid content distribution channels and platforms at your disposal. Deciding which to implement will depend entirely on where your target audiences spend their time and your specific marketing goals. Don’t limit yourself to a single paid content distribution channel. Extend your creativity to many and observe which channels work best for you and your audiences.

Download The 2016 Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Paid Media 

The Facebook Ads Benchmark Report 2016

With the global footprint of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Social.com, sought to provide a benchmarking report for broad trends in the social advertising industry. Spending advertising money without first looking at overarching data is akin to wasting money, particularly in an industry rich with statistics to help guide you. These benchmarks provide a baseline for you to measure your own performance and costs against the performance and costs of others in your country, region and industry. With this knowledge, you can begin to understand where to focus your optimization efforts within a particular market, and ultimately receive more return for your advertising dollar.

As social media advertising continues to gain momentum, and marketers devote more of their budgets to it, the need for market research has become more important. Using Social.com data, Salesforce Marketing Cloud decided to benchmark performance and cost metrics for social advertising, focusing on Facebook advertising, to provide a baseline for key metrics by creative type, industry, and geography.

In this report, you’ll learn:

• Which Facebok ad types deliver the best performance
• Average KPIs such as cost per click and click-through rate for your industry
• Regional and country breakdown of performance and cost benchmarks for Facebook ads

Download "The Facebook Ads Benchmark Report"

The Best Guide about How to Use Instagram for Business

40-page e-book published by HubSpot  and Iconsquare 

With 400 million users and over 80 million posts per day, Instagram for business has become an essential element of social media marketing.

Instagram is a growing channel that will allows you to grow and humanize your brand, recruit future employees, showcase your product, company culture, delight customers, and generate new business. All with images you can create and share!

It’s critical to navigate growing Instagram for your business the right way, which is why we put together this guide on how to set up, grow, and optimize Instagram to increase your audience, followers, leads, customers, and continue down the path of becoming an (even more) lovable brand.

Download "How to Use Instagram for Business"

Brand New Research about Tech Trends 2016

Innovating in the Digital Era - Report by Deloitte University Press 

"In a business climate driven by powerful digital forces, disruption, and rapid-fire innovation, every company is now a technology company. Whereas technology was traditionally confined largely to operations and execution, its digital expression now informs all aspects of business, from ideation to delivery. We witness daily how it drives product design, upends venerable business models, and rewires competition...
The theme of this year’s report is innovating in the digital era, which is inspired by the opportunities today’s CIOs—across industries, geographies, and company sizes—have to shape tomorrow for every corner of their organizations by transforming “business as usual.” These leaders are in a rare position to imagine a future, and then harness innovation to build it responsibly from the realities of today...

Tech Trends features perspectives from client executives, industry and academic luminaries, and our global network of Deloitte professionals, all exploring major trends that are helping organizations innovate in the digital era. We also examine the roadmaps and investment priorities of start-ups, venture capitalists, and leading technology vendors...
Over the next 18–24 months, the only constant may be the specter of constant change. Amid this turmoil, organizations that can confidently and purposefully harness technology trends will find great opportunities to refocus, to revitalize, or even to inspire. Think beyond incremental adoption patterns. Look not only for ways to do familiar things differently, but also to do fundamentally
different things. Launch new processes, products, and services, and seek out new ways to compete. No matter what the scope, the time for you to act is now. Build tomorrow, starting today."

Download "Tech Trends 2016 - Innovating in the digital era

The Essential Guide to Online Marketing - New Fifth Edition

“Quirk’s eMarketing handbook covers all the most important concepts which are necessary for eMarketing excellence today. I would highly recommend it as both a study guide and a practitioner’s reference manual. Congratulations to the QuirkStars on all the thought, research and work that has obviously gone into this.”

Dave Duarte, founder and director of Nomadic Marketing, UCT Graduate School of Business

“WOW! It is an inspiration to see such a well written and truly essential guide to online marketing being written by South Africans! eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing should be read and referenced by every smart marketer who is dealing with
the complicated world of eMarketing.”

Bronwen Auret, Online Marketing Specialist, South African Tourism

“The perfect starting point for anyone entering the world of online marketing…. truly impressive.”

Stafford Masie, Country Manager, Google South Africa

Download eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing (pdf)

 
eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing 
(Fifth Edition) 
by Rob Stokes and the Minds of Quirk
First published 2008 by Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.

This book is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. This means that you can share and distribute this work and you can even modify it, as long as you do not use it for commercial gain, you share all modifications and you credit Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.

Micro-Moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile

Micro-Moments as the New Battleground for Brands - eBook by Google

Micro-moments are critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.

Thanks to mobile, micro-moments can happen anytime, anywhere.
In those moments, consumers expect brands to address their needs with real-time relevance.
Here’s a complete guide with strategies, insights and customer examples for mastering micro-moments.


Download "Micro-Moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile"