Wednesday, 9 March 2016

FB

Understanding Facebook’s new “Reactions” using the “7 C’s framework of Digital Marketing”

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Add a Noun/ Verb (Love), few adjectives (Sad, Angry) & few interjections (Haha, Wow) and you get the new ensemble cast of Facebook, ready to disrupt Social media, as we know it.
I am sure by now you are wondering what’s so disruptive about this minor enhancement that Facebook recently launched. Let’s see some data points…..the very reason why this launch assumes enormous proportion.
  • Facebook has 1.59 billion users worldwide, highest for any Social media platform.
  • 42% of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business. (Source: State of Inbound Marketing 2012
  • On an average, the Like and Share Buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily. (Source: Facebook as of 10/2/2014)
  • Every 60 seconds on Facebook
    • 293,000 statuses are updated,
    • 136,000 photos are uploaded,
    • 510 comments are posted (Source: The Social Skinny).
  • Most importantly, approx. 4 mn postsare liked by Facebook users every 60 seconds
  • Add to this the average time spent per Facebook visit of 20 minutes/ day (Source: Infodocket)
So What’s new with these data points..…I agree with your thought..….these are just data points….errrr……this is where Facebook has played the smartest card so far.
Mark Zuckerberg describes new Reactions as “company's biggest design change to date” and went against his own philosophy of “move fast and break things” for this one. “We’ve been working on this for a while. It’s surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that you want to be that simple,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a public town hall in Menlo Park, California, in September 2015, the first time Facebook publicly acknowledged it was working on a change.
Facebook stores more than 300 petabytes of data and has multiple algorithms to categorize various content/ comments on its platform into meaningful data points for marketers to leverage its network.
"We will initially use any Reaction similar to a Like to infer that you want to see more of that type of content," Facebook said in a separate blog post. The company said it will also use "Reactions" to track user behavior and for ad delivery.
If one looks at the recent Facebook initiatives of “Memories from past year”, 360 degree Video content, GIFs, Facebook for Work or the Upcoming Virtual Reality, all these have been aimed towards introducing new content types or mediums to engage with the larger community but none which indicates what one feels about that content. Yes, Comments section has existed since the launch but we all know that its adoption rate is just a fraction of “Likes” phenomenon. “Reactions” has the potential to make this phenomenon“Infinitely” better and provide great insights to how people engage.
Let’s use the Digital Marketing framework of 7C’s (refer to my earlier post on “Digital Marketing - Shift from 4Ps to 5Cs” to evaluate how the new “Reactions” score from a Marketers perspective.
 7C’s framework (Context -> Content -> Customize -> Compare -> Connect -> Convenience -> Culture) to evaluate new “Reactions”
1. Context:
Notwithstanding the varying adoption rates across countries, in few years, Facebook will have tons of “Rich data” available for Marketers to leverage and micro target specific audiences. “Like” button, though still powerful, has lost its relevance courtesy Social media etiquettes.
Don’t be surprised if in few years Marketers start considering only the new five reactions in their internal metrics for true engagement rate and this forces other social media platforms to follow suite with similar launches.
2. Content:
Ask any Digital marketer on his/her biggest pain point and “Good content” is bound to be in the top 3 things to solve/ keep doing. Given the relative poor engagement (compared to Likes) of Comments section, new Reactions will provide key insights on which content is working well for the target audience & enable real time modification.
3. Connect:
Marketers have finally adapted themselves to the truth of organic reach of 1% - 3%. There is still no magic data cut available which guarantees conversion similar to that of search campaigns. Reactions & available data (when Facebook decides to share) would provide enough hope & optimism to generate similar ROI for social media spends too. Re-marketing itself to the select few with desired reactions will help increase ROI significantly.
Brand awareness campaigns will also benefit from this micro targeting opportunity.
Example: Political parties might not want to show a candidate’s ad on news feed of those people who have expressed “Angry” emotions for similar previous content. Alternatively, companies supporting niche sports would like to specifically target users who expressed “Love”, “Wow” for that particular sport, with increased probability of creating a more close knit community on Facebook.
4. Convenience:
Marketers would like this feature to be integrated on their digital platforms & would like to see the same feature being implemented for Comments section too.
Imagine companies flaunting xxxxx Hearts & yyyy Wow’s instead of text based reviews to attract existing customers & prospects alike for their products/ solutions on Facebook. Add the “Buy on Facebook” feature to this combination to further reduce the time from Active consideration to Actual purchase decision.
Unlike laptop/ desktop users, where these Reactions appear intuitively on hover, I foresee need for further simplicity (read periodic reminders) being introduced by Facebook for mobile users to aid its adoption.                
5. Customize:
In today’s age of personalization, power to customize & choose should remain with the users. Marketers would love to customize these Reactions, either by choosing from the five that suit their content type or by creating their own Reactions from the list of pre-defined emotions by Facebook.
6. Compare:
Facebook has still not restricted users to view their competitor’s engagement activity on various reactions and that can be leveraged to suitably modify one’s campaign/ content.
It’s only time before the Social listening tools adapt to this change and puts combined pressure on Facebook to allow capturing these insights automatically & provide easy to comprehend comparisons for marketers.
In the coming months we could see the emergence of a new engagement rate where a “Love” reaction is equal to x “Likes” and an “Angry” reaction would mean minus y “Likes”.
7. Culture:
At a fundamental level, the new Reactions feature encourages a Culture of openness, enhances freedom of expression and makes it convenient & fun to use too. Peer pressure will now gradually force adoption from mere Likes to adopting the new Reactions to express one self.
In this context, it is heartening to note that Facebook didn’t yield to popular demand of adding a “Dislike” button and instead provided a variety of reactions which find relevance across the globe (would have personally liked “Yay” option too as that’s the language of millennial but nevertheless).
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and so does for this new feature. We all know how Twitter is trying its best to manage Trolls which has been the bane of most marketers. In some sense the new “Angry” reaction on Facebook can also be potentially misused by trolls and keep the otherwise considered safe (marketers have option to disable/ delete posts/ comments on their page) Facebook medium risqué especially for new entrants.  
Add to that the growing privacy concerns and this new found expression data being misused by Facebook itself to wilfully manipulate its feed (remember the famous experiment few years back) or by unscrupulous marketers, we will have to wait and watch whether the promise of not sharing this data remains intact or is introduced with certain pre-conditions.  
Summary:
For all those Facebook users who either hesitated or found posting comments inconvenient to express their true emotions, new Reactions will come as a breath of fresh air. We will soon see other social platforms mimicking or adding more customization features to lure marketers & users alike.
While increased revenue potential is at the heart of this change from Facebook & Marketers perspective, as a normal Facebook user, let me enjoy the most convenient way of expressing how I feel, just as you would for this article. Go, check it out now!




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Tuesday, 1 March 2016


Top Tips for Effective Presentations

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.
But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.
Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.
Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.
As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.
While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.
You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:
What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?
You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.
Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.
Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.
And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.
If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport, which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.
To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.
They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.
Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:
  • Contain no more than 10 slides;
  • Last no more than 20 minutes; and
  • Use a font size of no less than 30 point.
This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.
As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.
If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.
Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.
Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:
  1. Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.
    For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:
    • The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
    • The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

  2. A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).
    For example…
    • Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
    • Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?
To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips.

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.
Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.
For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking.

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.
That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.
Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.
One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.
For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves.
If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.
Improve your Presentation Skills
Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preperation, delievery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.


Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html#ixzz41dfJlh9t
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