Social Media & SEO

Earlier in the month we were surprised when consumer engagement with B2C brands on Facebook during the 3rd quarter (July 1-Sept. 30) was down year over year ( PRN, Nov. 7). The trend continued with nonprofits, this week’s focus. Consumer engagement with nonprofits’ posts on Facebook declined 42% year over year (B2C brands were off just 20%), according to data provided exclusively to PR News Pro by Shareablee. On the upside, video engagement rose 61% vs. the same quarter in 2015. Engagement, or actions, is defined here as the total of likes, comments and shares.

Creative Solution: A tip of the cap for creativity to MyTravelResearch.com (MTR), a firm in Australia that’s taken on the task of publicizing what many in the developed world take for granted: toilets. Nov. 19 was U.N. International Toilet Day, an effort to publicize the need for more toilets, in the developing world especially, and encourage people to use them. The U.N. says 1 in 10 people still defecate without a toilet daily. This, the U.N. says, results in disease, environmental health challenges, increased mortality and lack of productivity at work. It’s also a security issue as sometimes wild animals mistake squatting humans, especially children, for food. The U.N. wants to create adequate toilet provisions globally by 2030. To raise awareness MTR created the Toilet Tourism Awards, whose proceeds will be donated to the U.N.’s effort in the winner’s name.

The Trends: In this age of immediacy, consumers are going digital to find inspiration, tips and answers to all sorts of questions, including preparation of the Thanksgiving turkey. This desire for information to be “on demand” seems paramount in all industries. We’ve observed consumers walking through grocery store aisles not looking at shelves as they consider what to purchase to prepare the perfect meal, but peering down at their phone as their go-to resource. This year, we anticipate a cadre of new holiday chefs—my demographic of older millennials—will be preparing the Thanksgiving turkey for the first time.

For a crash course in how not to communicate with millennials, take the time to visit /r/FellowKids, a “subreddit” of gigantic content-aggregation site Reddit. It’s a site dedicated to mocking examples of “advertisements and media that totally appeal to the radical youth of today. Cowabunga!”

Autodesk, producer of 3D design software, is one company that takes the “radiation” approach to YouTube as opposed to the passive storehouse approach. The company devotes much of its communications resources to its YouTube channel, and that devotion has paid off in 220,000 subscribers. The immediate goal for its YouTube channel might surprise you, considering this is a software company we’re talking about.

On Nov. 1 Instagram said it was testing a feature that will allow users to buy what they see in their feeds directly from brands. The beta involves 20 brands, including J.Crew, Macy’s and Levi’s. The user clicks on a button and up pops the product’s name and price. Another click provides a more in-depth description of the product. Then there’s the ever-popular “shop now” click, which takes the user to the retailer’s website. Seems simple, right? Actually, the implications could be enormous.

The vending machines, styled “Snapbots”—are distinctively bright yellow, with a smiling mouth and one big cartoonish eye, like a Minion without the blue overalls. Also, they are elusive: The Snapbots will only be in one place at a time, for one day only.

Want to create a powerful video ad on Instagram that will get people to stop scrolling and pay attention? First, you have to know your brand story, but then it’s important to communicate in the correct visual language. You don’t want to be salesy, you want to be relational.

At a networking event last week, an industry colleague asked me if I’ve ever Googled myself. She whispered the question to me as if to self-Google were verboten. Fortunately, we were interrupted by a mutual… Continued

The Chicago Cubs taught the world last week that nothing lasts forever, especially when you define forever as 108 years. And Sir Isaac Newton, well before Blood Sweat & Tears’ Spinning Wheel, said, not sang, “What goes up, must come down.”

Those two bits of knowledge explain this week’s Data Dive, where, for the first time in quite awhile, consumer engagement with U.S. B2C brands’ posts are down, according to Shareablee data provided exclusively to PR News Pro.