If you are in charge of your company’s marketing strategy, you know the number of channels you need to keep track of is completely out of control! From website analytics to social media ROI, PPC conversion rates to keyword optimization to content development and display advertising – the spinning world of internet marketing never sleeps.

However, there are a few cornerstone factors which can refresh and awaken your tired eyes and keep your competition on their toes.

1. Email Marketing + Facebook Retargeting = Brand Visibility
Email is still one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal when used correctly. Segmenting your email lists into different silos to separate repeat customers, abandoned shopping carts customers, social media leads, geo-targeting and other prospect categories, will help you deliver highly customized and targeted messages that speak directly to that prospect. In addition, Facebook now allows you to re-target your existing email lead lists and deliver highly personalized content through Power Editor. By creating custom audiences, you can grow awareness and engage your prospects in a brand new way. Just make sure your messages are fun, align with your brand and deliver valuable content.

(Please, make sure to check our portfolio for examples of how we’ve successfully managed to incorporate the Social and Email Marketing combo in our comprehensive Online Marketing Campaigns for brands like Appzen and The New Me.)

2. Mobile Strategy + Social Media = Customer Retention
If you set the stage with a professionally designed and responsive website which is capable of delivering your message on mobile devices and then pair it with a smart social media outreach program, you will see better customer engagement and retention.  In the long-run, your target audience will recognize you as an industry thought leader, be aware of your solutions and this will ultimately convert into more sales.

(Please, make sure to check our portfolio for examples of how we’ve successfully managed to incorporate the Mobile Strategy and Social Media Marketing combo in our comprehensive Online Marketing Campaigns for brands like Plasticity Brain Center.)

 3. Social Sales + Your Bottom Line = Best Sales Year EVER!
If you are in sales today, (and let’s face it,  no matter what your title, if you own a business, you are in sales) you need to be comfortable using  the phone, email and voicemail. In addition, you need to  have a strong social presence, social klout and thought leadership. Using social media to your advantage to generate new leads, nurture your relationships and ultimately close more deals is one of the best ways to grow your bottom line.

(Please, make sure to check our portfolio for examples of how we’ve successfully managed to incorporate the Social Sales and Client’s Bottom Line combo in our comprehensive Online Marketing Campaigns for brands like The Make-Up Show, One Plus Some, Chloe Colette, KT – Tape.)

4. Influencer Marketing + Virality = Quick Brand Promotion Boost

You think that you need years to nourish large online community and loyal fanbase on social medias? Well, not necessarily! There is a shortcut that you should definitely explore. Influencer Marketing is not that much of an economical investment, but it surely could prove to be a quick ROI strategy that could boost brand awareness and sales rather abruptly.

The most longed-for and targeted positive side of social media marketing is its tendency to turn highly favoured posts into viral content. Virality is a subliminal marketing success that most marketers aim for when creating branded content. And while it is quite difficult to come up with such pieces on purpose, it is more natural and equally effective to rely on a social media influencers to ‘virally’ spread the notion for your brand.

If you carefully do your research and reach out to really powerful and relevant social media ‘celebrity’ you would maximise your chances to effectively reach your target audience and to make them hear your message, because the given influencer’s fanbase already trust him. They know that they can expect valuable info from him and the ‘overcome suspicion and doubt’ phase that is a common challenge for promoting branded content by companies has already been overcome by the independent influencer persona.

(Please, make sure to check our portfolio for examples of how we’ve successfully managed to incorporate the Influencer Marketing and Virality combo in our comprehensive Online Marketing Campaigns for brands like Liena.)

So let’s face it, social media is a relatively a new game for brands. Just to give you an idea — there are 2.5 billion photos uploaded to Facebook every month, 200 billion spam emails sent per day, 1 billion YouTube videos uploaded per day and the average person watches 182 online videos per month! So although it may feel as though social media marketing has been around for a while, we are only beginning to scratch the surface.  New technology and features will enhance existing channels and give you the ability to get creative with your marketing.

So go forth and be fearless fellow business owners!

To find out more about these 3 strategies, please email me at ken [at] socialfix.com or follow us @socialfixMedia

Some of the best minds of the day are scared, very scared, for our future. Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Michio Kaku imagine a world where AI can gain self-consciousness and therefore a sense of self-protection that supersedes human subordination. At that point, they imagine robots, powered on the incredible powers of AI, becoming just a bit unruly and wreaking havoc all over human creation. 

According to the movies, that sounds about right, but the actual history of robots, which begins as early as the 10th c. B.C.E., tells a different story. Robots have always been programmed to assist humans, and though the war machine has created robotic weapons used to destroy living things, and indeed they have, we nevertheless possess all the ethical protections we need. One of these dates to Aristotle. The other is the contemporary 3000.09 Directive on robotic design and operation, which designs command over robots that can never select humans as targets. 

There’s much more to the story. Check out the complete article in Forbes, ditch the fear, and have a cyberful day.

Socialfix is a transformational growth hacker agency focused on emerging technology platforms, video and podcast production, content marketing, and startup strategy. If you would like help launching or growing your business, come connect with us.

Are Marketers Ready for Virtual Assistants?

 Virtual assistants (VAs) are coming, and as we further immerse ourselves in the digital world we’re better off for it. Who doesn’t benefit from dictating our text messages to Alexa as we squeeze more social responsibilities into each trafficky drive? Or asking Google Home for a serenade as you change diapers and dodge projectile baby food? 

It does seem possible we could fall into a social quagmire like Joaquin Phoenix’s character Theodore does in Spike Jonze’s Her, but martech isn’t so much presently concerned with this area of virtual assisting and cyber-social catastrophe. Marketers can expect a whole new realm of bi- and multilateral audible marketing, and those who think ahead will capitalize on it big time. Check out these areas where marketers can expect the trends and strategize for the near and distant futures.  

VAs in the web

Imagine a social media channel where marketers can speak directly to consumers with audible VAs rather than with chatbots. The emotional bond tightens and presses on the consumer for a greater reaction. If developers can tap into APIs and integrate their templates, a much more bespoke and open marketing experience will rock the consumer nation.  

Will ecommerce sites open up their APIs more freely than Facebook, Snapchat, or LinkedIn? It’s anyone’s guess right now, but it does seem intuitive that it will help merchants sell more. Installing brand-bespoke VAs into ecommerce APIs can transform a very 2D experience into an audible-enhanced hyper-interactive one. The elderly and those with mental or physical hardships that prevent them from outside shopping will have a 3D reason to buy online.

Ho about the website upgrade you’ve been wanting? Picture your products jumping off the screen in 3D. There are already holographic iterations for smartphones being developed, but reviewers don’t seem to be impressed yet. Other holographic explorations include holographic concierges that are mapped to real faces. Some affordable options, like holographic projectors and projector fans, are already trickling into the market, but it will take a leap in the technology to get up to consumer expectations. 

Smartening your world

The next time you’re in the market to buy a refrigerator in the next few years, you might notice that many are equipped with smart features. This sets the arena where a battle of privacy and convenience will have an epic battle. Which rooms of your home would you allow VAs to access so you can streamline your hectic schedule and, for instance, automate the order of that Death Wish Coffee you so desperately need to spark your day? Alexa, Google Home, Siri: they’re just the beginning of smart living. Soon all your devices will communicate autonomously through the Internet of Things (IoT). This isn’t just where the office blends with the bathroom and kitchen work can be done in the bedroom. The market goal will be eliminating home labor entirely. Ideal for those always on the run, home VAs can actually help reduce overbuying and hoarding by automating stock supplies—an eco-friendly technology that even Neo-Luddites might get behind.    

Once we’ve allowed VAs the run of the home, we might as well see what they can do on the streets. History is actually familiar: autonomous vehicles can be sourced to da Vinci’s self-driving cart. Essentially VAs on wheels, we’re all familiar with them to some degree, but what would life be like if Walmart-type robots fanned out into the streets of your city, directing tourists and traffic, cleaning up accidents, delivering food and gear? Sure, we wouldn’t want to enter a surveillance state that resembles the ‘social credit system’, but wherein citizens consent to automated assistance, cities can start to accommodate residents and tourists in whole new, hopefully practical, ways.

VAs in their heads

This is the part where you cringe from some futurist already speaking of a Fifth Industrial Revolution, one where the natural and digital worlds coalesce in a kind of cyborg league, where the lines of demarcation between man, animals, nature, and machines become blurred. Robotic and genetic technologies are, indeed, being developed to ‘optimize’ human and animal capabilities. If the money is available, who might be tempted? And how real or invasive will VAs need to become before they’re deemed unethical and banned by authorities? Not only are scientists developing technology whereby rats can be controlled with smartphones, called brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), brain-brain interfaces (BBIs) have the proficiency to even cut out the smartphone entirely so that human brains can control the locomotion of cyborg animals—and potentially humans even—wirelessly.

 Perhaps the realization of this tech for consumers is way ahead of our time; perhaps not. But regardless of how virtual assistants will become more pronounced in our lives, the possibilities run far and wide, and not just for marketers. Some things are evidently clearer: all of these possibilities are already in or out of testing phases. Now deciding how we want this technology to pervade our lives is only a matter of ethical query and practical law and time. 

How Holography Will Refit Martech

Holography was invented by Nobel Laureate Dennis Gabor in 1948, but most people didn’t know it existed until 1976 when films like Logan’s Run and Star Wars hit the screens. (“Imagine a world in which you need never be alone. You touch a switch, turn a dial, and the perfect lover steps into your arms…”) After these blockbusters, it’d be strange to see a sci-fi film without some holographic stimulus.

 As cool as it is, as vital as it is for Trekkies universe-wide, holography has had some ups and downs since its debut. Remember the lull a few years back after the hype of its initial debut died down? Long gone. Holography has seen a revival recently, owing to advances in deep learning that have minimized hardware and reconstructed the holographic paradigm with data-driven performance. It’s opened up new opportunities in imaging systems in myriad fields—the medical, automotive, entertainment, military, botany, retail, laser science, and data storage fields just to name a few. The medical holography market alone is expected to grow to $4.04 billion by 2025, according to a report by Million Insights last year.

 There are some almost speechless advancements in the field lately. A team at Duke University has overcome bulky optical components to develop a better way to display 3D colors that can be used for smartphones, AR glasses, and heads-up displays (HUDs). At UC Berkeley, neuroscientists are using holographic projections in mice brains to edit sensory input by activating or suppressing thousands of neurons simultaneously. When actuated in humans, the technology could have life-changing effects. Director of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Ehud Isacoff, says, “By encoding perceptions into the human cortex, you could allow the blind to see or the paralyzed to feel touch.”

 The holographic revival, of course, reveals fascinating promises for many areas of business and commerce. Less invasive than robots, and a more versatile medium for marketing in general, holograms will start to find their way into our most frequented environments. Marketers should be looking forward to holography as a new realm to develop and showcase their promotions. They can start thinking about holographic prototypes and how such models can take shape in the martech field. Here are a few areas where holography will soon affect the marketing world.  

AR vs. robots

Mixed feelings echoed through the Walmart isles as robots fanned out onto floors across the nation recently. Although these robots are used to automate “unpopular” jobs at the colossal everything-chain, from doing inventory to cleaning spills, holograms could be used to save space and augment the shopping experience. It’s sometimes trying to find employees to field questions in stores. Product service holograms can be projected from every zone. Less invasive than robots, floating holograms can spot spills and run inventory themselves like phantoms.   

Back to retail 

Marketers keep getting interesting glimpses of how holography can invade the shopping experience in films like the Minority Report (2002) when Tom Cruise’s character walks through a mall and gets bombarded in frenetic advertising. Despite the dystopian scene, viewers saw how the mall could evolve. Imagine shoppers wowed by their favorite stars modeling clothes throughout stores. It seems obvious that holograms will give retail a shot in the arm, but e- and m-commerce will benefit too, since shoppers can get a 3D feel for the products they’re considering from the convenience of various locations. The harder to reach demographics will have another way into the shopping experience. 

In the holographic flesh

Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, and Tupac are just a few superstars that have been holographically woke from the grave to bless the stage once again. In order to be built, these holograms are scanned and shaped by archival photos and footage, then placed on invisible film where it’s stretched at an angle with an LED projector, creating the 3D illusion, explains Eyellusion CEO Jeff Pezzuti. This tech combined with voice and facial reenactment will bring animation to life and give marketers more tools and material to launch ultramodern campaigns.  Movies and plays will come of the screen and fill the lounge. Gaming will come off the screen like Pokémon Go. The Call of Duty will animate the real neighborhood and get kids off the couch again. If users can see Elvis drink a Coke in their kitchen, they just might consent to the advertisement. 

Heads-up displays

Volkswagen has acquired a stake in SeeReal holographic technologies, which will create 3D heads-up displays that show holographic data to users without them needing to look away from viewpoints. We’ve seen this kind of holographic dashboard in plenty of sci-fi films, thus “transforming illusion into reality.” Volkswagen says, “Potentially hazardous situations on the road will be projected into the driver’s environment in three dimensions, ‘touchable’ displays will be suspended instead of controls, partners and telephone conversations will appear as holograms, passengers will be able to play hovering three-dimensional Tetris…” The company thinks that traditional dashboards may even be replaced by this touchable augmented display technology one day. Whether advertising on these virtual platforms will be allowed will depend on laws and consumer acceptance, but agile marketing teams could get ahead of the curve and start thinking of how to holographically position their ads in vehicles before competitors roll over to it. 

We can bet it forward that negative spaces will get an animation upgrade on city streets, in offices, shops, restaurants, stages and venues, our homes and even places of worship. Hopefully the technology will be noninvasive and tastefully done. Regardless, depending on the ethos and laws governing advertising, our spatial experiences will be forever changed. Even physicists are using holograms to reconcile the fissure between Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum mechanics. It might turn out that holograms, these strange phantoms of reality, just might be the keys to unlock the obscurest secrets of our universe.  

Entrepreneurs and CEOs alike are crowdfunding for venture capital (VC) for fruitful reasons. Not only is it a great way to gather funds to scale, it simultaneously spreads the word on brand and product ideas at a low cost entry. 

Get in the crowdfunding gold rush before it floods, and refer to our Forbes article, “Seven Crowdfunding Mistakes to Avoid,” for what to avoid and what to do better in your campaigns. It could make all the difference between landing that VC you need to scale or, all too often, ditching that precious idea and starting over.  

Check out the article on Forbes. 

Socialfix has helped over 300 clients generate millions of dollars in revenue, fundraising and profit. If you’re interested in learning more about how crowdfunding or another strategy can amplify your ideas and business, connect with us. 

There’s a silent revolution happening. Are you seeing it? By now you’ve heard of blockchain but you might not know that it will affect nearly every industry in some major way. Its decentralizing attraction is irresistible to consumers. To large entities, like banks, it provides a safe chain of data almost impossible to breach. 

Despite its universal appeal, the blockchain inception will be ignored by some. Nevertheless, being left behind is an option, and marketers should greet the change. Read our Forbes article, “Receiving Blockchain: What Marketers Should Expect in the Revolution,” to hear how martech will evolve and marketers can plan for and leverage the blockchains that lie just around the corner.

Check out the article on Forbes.

Socialfix is a transformational growth hacker agency focused on emerging technology platforms, video and podcast production, content marketing, and startup strategy. If you would like help launching or growing your business, connect with us.

Socialfix Media has been working hard into the new year to bring you some winning news and content. Clutch has awarded Socialfix with Top 1000 best global B2B service providers in 2019; Founder, Terry Tateossian, is publishing some fascinating Forbes articles about cutting-edge technologies in the martech space; and, the media company just released four new episodes with preeminent guests on the Amplified3 podcast.

Clutch 1000 award

Clutch, the leading B2B ratings and reviews platform, published its second annual ranking of the 1000 best B2B service providers from 35 countries and 374 cities around the world. Winners were selected by analyzing companies’ quality and quantity of client reviews, offered services, portfolio of clients, brand reputation, and visibility in their target market. Socialfix Media came in strong on the 2019 list. Socialfix is honored and would like to thank their clients and Clutch for the recognition.

Forbes publications

Can high EQ robots save the world? What can we expect in the emerging world of virtual assistants? How will blockchain change the martech ecosystem? What’s the best crowdfunding strategy for startups? If you’ve ever been interested in these topics and questions or are just starting to become intrigued, check out Socialfix Founder Terry Tateossian’s latest Forbes articles. In each piece, Tateossian reaches to the furthest points of emerging tech to bring you fresh and inspiring martech content that will surely change the way marketers see and work within the rapidly evolving martech space.

Amplified3 podcast releases

Socialfix recently launched a new batch of podcasts featuring some of tech’s industry leaders on Amplified3. Trailblazer of branding to video, Brett Garfinkel talks about the phenomenon of digital influencer marketing and how companies can filter the fake from the valid. Serial entrepreneur and pioneer of the internet, Miko Matsumura talks startups and crypto. Director of Technology, Mobile & Emerging Platforms at Discover, Tim McElreath gives a peek into the new wave of multimodal devices that are changing the face of digital TV. And entrepreneur, Arjun Rai talks about the trials and tribulations along the fruitful yet bumpy road of start-up life. Check out the episodes on Amplified3, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Amplified3 delivers essential audio storytelling for the tech space.

Stay tuned for more upcoming news and content from Socialfix Media and Amplified3.

Alexa and Siri are just the beginning. Not too far in the digital future virtual assistant (VA) technology is going to be interwoven into our lives. Are marketers preparing for it?

Not only in social channels but e-commerce, websites, smart cities, and maybe even in your brain (via brain-brain interfaces) will virtual assistants remake the digital world. Imagine chatbots taking three dimensions and popping holographically off the screen and floating holographic city guides escorting tourists throughout smart cities. Even closer to our pockets, holographic smartphone technology will facilitate this UX magic right from users’ hands. 

What’s the future of VAs, and how can marketers leverage them for companies? Read our article, “How Marketers Can Prepare for AI-Based Virtual Assistants,” to take the first steps in understanding how to leverage this forthcoming avant-garde technology that will change the martech landscape and life in general.

Check out the article on Forbes.

Socialfix is a transformational growth hacker agency focused on emerging technology platforms, video and podcast production, content marketing, and startup strategy. If you would like help launching or growing your business, come connect with us.

What exactly is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a ledger that digitally records transactions and encrypts the information so that it is verifiable and permanent. So once data is recorded on it, there is absolutely no way it can be changed. The technology can ensure security, confidentiality and authenticity.

Blockchain and Real Estate: An Overview.

What would seem like a very unlikely combo is actually a revolutionary marriage.

The real estate industry is built on several, varying transactions between opposing parties. With each transaction, there is some level of confidential or sensitive data being delivered between two endpoints. For this reason, the Real Estate industry a perfect match for blockchain technology.  

Besides providing a level of security, unmatched by other solutions, blockchain applications will have a huge affect on time, effort and money.

Top 5 Applications for Blockchain within the Real Estate Industry.  

Smart Contracts.

Digitizing and centralizing contracts would drastically reduce the chance of fraud. Smart contracts would combine ID verification and escrow into one simple step made visible on the blockchain. This process would limit any need for intermediaries during the contract step, except for buyer and seller.

Title Management.

Property titles are usually paper-based. This leaves them vulnerable to fraud and error. As of right now, the title management industry has grown to be worth $15 Billion, due to the number of intermediaries involved in transferring properties title. On the blockchain, the entire process would become more transparent thus reducing the need for insurance, a major financial expense during this process.   

Property Search Process.

Technology can, and will, disrupt industries. Like the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), at one time, it transformed the way that buyers looked for properties and engaged with real estate agents. Now, as time and technology evolve, blockchain is adding a new level to MLS solutions. In present day, MLS services can be fragmented, decentralized, restricted and out of date. With blockchain technology, the property search process would be transformed. Buyers will have real time access to property information. This means that listing prices, available properties would be instantly updated at any change of status.

Monetary Transactions.

With blockchain, monetary transactions have the potential to become more efficient and secure. Right now, both the buyer and seller have to pay for lawyers, brokers, and insurance agencies for a property purchase to be completed. The process becomes more expensive with each new intermediary added to the transaction. With blockchain and the tokenization of assets, this process would be completely simplified. If buyers could purchase properties as  “tokens” (In this case, digitized property assets) through a blockchain, the seller or buyer wouldn’t need to invest additional money into a costly transaction. The blockchain would simply record all transactions into one public, immutable ledger.

Due Diligence & Financial Evaluation Process.

One tedious and exhausting step in real estate purchases is conducting research into property. This step includes conducting home inspections, investigating neighborhoods, working with a lender, insurer, and other professionals to acquire all the information about the property and the buyer’s credit history. This process is extremely time consuming, especially because all information about a property exists in various places. By digitizing real estate property information, this could consolidate volumes of information. Vacancy, tenant profiles, financial, legal status, inspection history could be accessible in a centralized location. Access to such a comprehensive property profile would reduce time searching for all required information.

How do you know if Blockchain is right for your business?  

It depends on what your goals are as an agent or agency. The bottom line is:  blockchain will streamline the real estate ecosystem by enabling people to securely and efficiently share data and money. Frictionless experiences for buyers, sellers, lawyers, etc, will only help with driving more sales. Of course, before you jump into the new trend, it’s important to take inventory of what your business’ current goals are, as well as the current pain points. Are you looking to improve your process for buyers, and provide a secure platform for them to purchase your property? Then it might be a good fit.

Facebook Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos, delivered a message at the Facebook F8 Developers Conference this past March that would potentially disrupt one of the most tactful marketing strategies on its platform: influencer marketing.

Stamos revealed that Instagram would be rolling out a new feature that would hide “Like” counts on posts throughout users’ public feeds. The goal of the update is to improve the way that users interact with the app. The new feature was in response to the growing statistics of depression and anxiety in app users. The Royal Society For Public Health published a report that ranked Instagram the worst for young people’s mental health.

As of right now, the new feature is only being tested in Canada. Future roll-out plans for the US market have not be disclosed.

It goes without saying, such an update would have an impact on the way marketers and influencers partner to create content that aims to engage with targeted audiences through the app.

According to an interview from the NYPost, beauty influencer, Nanit Jean-Aimee says that the update would have a detrimental effect on her business. As an influencer, her main source of income is through sponsorships. She states, “The more engagement you have, the higher chance of you getting more sponsorships and collaborations.” Although all users will be able to view their likes through their own profiles, brands will have to reach out to all influencers to gauge those numbers. Garnering interest in potential brands might require more effort on behalf of the influencer, whereas, the content used to speak for itself.

By hiding  “Likes”, marketers will have to do more work to source influencers that have engaged viewers.  Although this means more work for marketers, the end result could mean creating partnerships that are more authentic, and content that invites more action.

Marketers should take into account that, although this means more in-feed “like” counts might be hidden, Instagram stories have hidden that count since their inception. For brands looking to continue marketing on social media and developing influence campaigns, now might be the best time to put more power behind story content. In addition to reving up on producing content, it might also be beneficial to work with current influencer to audit which content is performing well on that feature. By doing so, the impactful content will inform how to proceed with “like”-less posts on feed.

For more information on Instagram content creation, strategies and implementation check out our capabilities page or drop a note at hello@socialfix.