Social Media & SEO

As the world’s second-largest search engine, YouTube remains an essential platform for brands to reach target audiences. As such, measuring the success of your YouTube digital marketing should be a top priority. Here are a few tactics to help you do it.

Food brands, whether fast food restaurants, traditional mainstays or innovative products, continue to have some of the best PR and advertising reach. In 2019, many brands dominated conversations in social media, and laid the groundwork for creative, memorable campaigns. We look at a few of the most noteworthy campaigns of 2019.

In a world where influencers-turned-stars and tales of ‘cancel culture’ dominate, it can seem like fame and producing the next viral hit should be important goals. Many brands chase ‘internet fame’ – whether through social content or partnerships with celebrities – but success stories like fast food Twitter wars or Carmax’s viral YouTube video remain elusive. Even if the odds of success were higher, should ‘fame’ and virality be your goals?

As Instagram users become warier of sponsored posts, and following the Federal Trade Commission’s reissuing of a crystal-clear set of guidelines, influencers—and the brands they works with—are running out of excuses when it comes to following FTC regulations. Still, not every influencer is blessed with a legal team, so it’s crucial for marketers to understand the rules and be able to communicate them to content creators in every partnership.

Mankind’s digital exhaust is social science’s Big Data. We create digital data with every post, purchase or picture. This offers social scientists access to previously unimaginable reams of data. Coupling that with new computing power and the possibilities are endless, argues Peter Zandan, global vice chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Brands can decode what makes ideas spread, how purchasing decisions are reached and who and what influences influencers. It’s time to prepare, he writes.

The expectation is that video will be about 80 percent of internet traffic in 2020. That means brands need to craft videos that are compelling enough to break through a great deal of noise. This mini-case study explains how a law firm’s marketing chief cleverly destroyed the recruitment video model. He also put a human face on what’s often perceived as a cold, impersonal profession.

Depending on where you live you might have the winter blues. Believe it or not, this is a real condition. As you will read in this case study, Arizona used the winter blues as part of a social campaign to encourage tourism. Turns out Arizona is the country’s sunniest state.

When you think of financial services, references to pop culture and current trends are likely not the first things that come to mind. Yet in a recent campaign, investment firm Vanguard managed to leverage some pop culture staples, along with adopting a more relatable vernacular across social media channels. In its “Invest Like You Own the Place” effort, Vanguard’s social team empowered and engaged current and potential clients with a combination of bold red visuals, humor, contests and fan stories.

In this first of a two-part series, SEO expert Luke Budka takes a basic approach to improving a company’s reputation using Google. For example, when you Google your business name, is it the first thing that comes up. Even better, everything Budka recommends here is free.

Our (almost) year-end look at social media engagement by B2C and B2B brands shows a pattern in both categories. Engagement is off year over year. Data is provided exclusively to PRNEWS by data partner Shareablee.