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The Ultimate Guide to Generation Z Marketing

1/29/2018

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The Ultimate Guide to Generation Z Marketing

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Businesses need to look toward the future to survive and thrive.

I’m sure you’ve got an effective strategy in place that targets Millennials or Baby Boomers.

But it’s time to shift your focus to a younger generation.

The term Generation Z describes people born after Millennials.

They may also be referred to as:

Post-Millennials
Homeland Generation
iGeneration

Although there isn’t an exact date range, it typically refers to anyone born after the mid to late 1990s.

That means the oldest members of this generation are in college or just graduating.

The reason why this information is so important is because they are starting to enter the workforce.

With a steady annual salary, Gen Z will now have more buying power.

Extra money in their pockets means marketing experts need to target this group.

There’s a big opportunity here for increased and sustainable growth for your company, regardless of the industry.

That’s why Generation Z marketing made my list of the top marketing trends for 2018.

If you’ve never targeted Gen Z before and you’re not sure how to get started, I can help you out.

I’ve used research-backed data to identify some of the top characteristics and habits of this generation.

I’ll also explain in detail how you can use this information to your advantage as a marketer.

Here’s what you need to know.

Understand the key differences between Generation Z and Millennials

First, you need to be able to distinguish the difference between Gen Z and Millennials.

While on the surface these two groups may have some similarities, they needed to be targeted differently from a marketing perspective.

For example, look at how much younger an average Gen Z person was when they got their first smartphone compared to Millennials:

It’s no secret that our world is trending in a mobile direction. Marketers need to accommodate the needs of mobile users.

But Gen Z are the first group to have a smartphone throughout their entire teenage years.

This means they are reliant on these devices more than anyone else, including Millennials.

Generation Z are impatient, and their attention span reflects this.

The average attention span of a Millennial is 12 seconds, but it’s only 8 seconds for Gen Z.

That’s why they use more digital platforms simultaneously.

Millennials typically use three screens at the same time, while generation Z bounces between five screens at the same time.

Gen Z also doesn’t care about customer loyalty programs the same way Millennials do.

I’ll go into greater detail about this concept later on.

Generation Z also embraces influencer marketing more than Millennials do:

Their engagement with YouTube creators shows how much they value the opinions of regular people as opposed to celebrities.

Your company may want to consider working with more micro-influencers on social media to promote your brand.

Learn how to market your business on Snapchat

If you want to target Gen Z, you can’t afford to ignore Snapchat anymore.

About 71% of Gen Z use Snapchat on a daily basis.

Furthermore, 51% of this group use it about 11 times per day.

Take a look at some of the top companies that promote sponsored content on Snapchat’s discover page:

I’m sure you recognize these logos.

The fact that these major companies have already identified and adapted to this trend should show you how the market has shifted to this platform.

You can use Snapchat for brand exposure.

As we saw earlier, Gen Z don’t have a long attention span.

Just seeing your company’s logo could be enough to remind them of your brand.

In addition to using sponsored ads, your company should also have an account.

Add pictures and videos to your story on a daily basis.

Here’s an example.

Sour Patch Kids came up with a Snapchat campaign after partnering with Logan Paul, a YouTube personality.

The campaign delivered:

120,000 new followers
26,000 screenshots
583,000 impressions on the first day
6.8 million impressions for the last story of the week

Once you gain those initial followers, continue to promote your brand using Snapchat as a platform.

Use Instagram stories

One of the reasons why Instagram stories are so popular is because of their similarity to Snapchat.

Instagram realized how successful the idea of “disappearing content” was and added it to their platform.

You can add photos and videos to your Instagram story, and they will disappear after 24 hours.

In less than two years, Instagram stories have blown Snapchat out of the water:

Use your Instagram story to share exclusive content with your followers.

Even if you’re not posting a picture or video on your Instagram profile each day, you should at least be utilizing your story.

As I said earlier, Gen Z love micro-influencers.

Try to get those influencers to take over your account.

Alternatively, you can ask them to promote your brand on their personal stories.

Take your followers behind the scenes of your daily operations.

Showcase your production facilities, and introduce your staff.

This connects with people and shows them the human side of your company.

The marketing opportunities are endless with Instagram stories.

You just need to get creative and think outside the box to gain exposure.

Encourage entrepreneurship

Part of being a great marketer means you need to understand how your target audience thinks.

Generation Z have an entrepreneurial spirit.

In fact, 72% of teens in the United States say they want to start their own business one day.

If this group follows through with their goals, it will drastically change the future of our country’s workforce.

That’s because 61% of this group want to start a business directly out of college.

But Gen Z don’t value education as much as other generations do.

Only 64% of Generation Z plan to pursue a college degree compared to 71% of Millennials—a seven-percent difference.

It’s possible they don’t think they need college education to be successful.

This might be based on the rising cost of college tuition.

These numbers are rising higher than the country’s inflation rate.

The high costs could have an impact on Gen Z’s attitude towards higher education.

But with so many resources available on the Internet, Gen Z feel like they don’t need college to be successful or start their own business.

What does this mean for your company?

Try to come up with clever ways to engage those entrepreneurial minds.

Consider partnering with successful entrepreneurs who didn’t go to college as brand ambassadors for your company.

You could also try to create a value proposition that speaks to young entrepreneurs.

Generation Z has an influence on purchases their parents make

Market products and services to Generation Z even if they are not consumed by teens.

Here’s a graph to show you what I mean:

Most marketers wouldn’t think to pitch a family vacation, cell phone, or car to an 11-year-old.

But research shows that Generation Z has an influence on household purchases.

This generation is resourceful.

They may be more likely to research products and read reviews than their parents.

Just because they may not have the personal funds or resources to buy home furnishings or a plane ticket doesn’t mean your company can’t target these kids.

Their opinions may be the deciding factor between a purchase from your company or your competitor.

Facebook shouldn’t be your top priority

Facebook always tends to be the king in terms of social media marketing platforms.

But Generation Z don’t feel the same way about Facebook as other generations.

In fact, Facebook lost over 25% of users between the ages of 13 and 17 on their platform over a three-year stretch.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not saying you need to abandon your Facebook marketing strategy.

As you can see from this graph, the growth rate is rising for every other age group.

There’s still a ton of users out there for you.

But with that said, this shouldn’t be your primary strategy if you’re targeting just Generation Z.

Campaigns solely designed for Gen Z should be used on other social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube.

Generation Z want to make a positive impact on the world

Your company needs to be conscious of the environment, planet, and society.

According to a recent study, 60% of Gen Z want to positively change the future of our world.

Only 39% of Millennials feel the same way.

Furthermore, about 25% of teens today are already involved in volunteer work.

This is great news for the future of our world.

It seems like every time you turn on the TV or read the paper, all you hear is negative stories.

But Gen Z want to make a difference:

Take a look at these numbers.

To stay engaged with this group, your company needs to do its part as well.

Talk about any positive impact you are making in the community.

Are you working with charities?

Do your employees volunteer?

Come up with a mission that contributes to the greater good of the society.

Embrace it.

TOMS Shoes is a great example of this marketing strategy.

For every pair of shoes bought on their website, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to a child in need.

It’s a powerful campaign that speaks to generations who care about the future of our world.

Quality is more important than brand loyalty

Does this sound like your current marketing strategy?

Acquire new customers for as cheap as possible and retain them through customer loyalty programs.

It’s not a bad idea, and it’s probably been working for a while.

Once a customer becomes loyal to your brand, they’ll continue to support you for years to come.

They may start buying different product lines within your company, spend more money with each purchase, and even be willing to pay for more expensive products.

But you may not have as much luck with this strategy if you’re targeting Generation Z.

Look at how Gen Z view brand loyalty compared to Millennials:

This means you may have to put more effort into your current retention strategies for Gen Z.

Find ways to make them loyal.

There’s another way to interpret this information.

You could save your marketing dollars and not dump money on loyalty reward programs for Gen Z.

This decision is totally up to you.

It depends on your current retention and acquisition rates.

One of the best ways to retain Gen Z customers is through meaningful interactions.

A recent study showed that 44% of Gen Z are interested in contributing ideas to products and designs for their favorite brands.

Take advantage of this.

Use surveys, interviews, and focus groups with your customers to come up with new ideas.

If your customers contributed to the design, they are more likely to feel a connection with your brand and stay loyal.

Another statistic of interest is that 61% of Generation Z consumers are drawn to new brands.

Startup companies need to start targeting this generation right away in an effort to build brand loyalty.

Upload content to your YouTube channel

Generation Z love YouTube.

I discussed this earlier when I talked about micro-influencers.

I also showed you the success that Sour Patch Kids had using a YouTube creator in one of their marketing campaigns.

On average, Gen Z watch two to four hours of YouTube content each day.

They enjoy this much more than cable TV, which only accounts for about 30 minutes of their daily video consumption.

So if you’re relying on TV commercials to reach Gen Z, you’re wasting your money.

Instead, you need to increase your YouTube presence.

I love using YouTube as a promotional channel because it’s so easy to repurpose those videos.

It’s easy to add YouTube videos to your website or emails and incorporate them into your overall content marketing strategy.

Focus on their love of video games

Sixty-six percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 11 say that gaming is their primary source of entertainment.

Furthermore, Gen Z own more video game systems than every other generation.

But your company doesn’t make video games.

You may not even be in the technology or entertainment industry.

What does this mean for you?

Get creative.

That’s the fun part of marketing.

Come up with clever ways to use this information to your advantage.

For example, you could try to use product placement in video games.

You could also partner with specific games or gaming systems.

Sponsor an event or release of a new game.

If you sell certain electronics, advertise them for video game usage.

Things like microphones, headsets, routers, Wi-Fi extenders are all important to young gamers.

Conclusion

Right now, Generation Z are still an untapped market.

While companies have started targeting this group, there is still a huge opportunity for your brand to get a piece of the action.

You just need to understand how this new generation behaves, thinks, and consumes.

Don’t approach them the same way you have Millennials. As we saw, these two groups are different.

Use Snapchat and Instagram story to promote your brand.

Recognize that Generation Z value entrepreneurship and want to have a positive impact on the world.

They even have an influence over purchases made by their parents.

Gen Z are less active on Facebook, and they care about the quality of interactions with companies more than brand loyalty.

They love watching content on YouTube and playing video games.

If you follow this guide, your company can benefit from a new income stream.

What marketing platforms are you using to target Generation Z?

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January 29, 2018 at 10:07AM

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10 Sites to Get Free Stock Videos for Social Media

1/29/2018

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10 Sites to Get Free Stock Videos for Social Media

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Feel like you’re seeing more and more video content on your social feeds lately? You probably are. Forty-six percent of respondents in Hootsuite’s annual customer survey said they’re already using social videos, and another 26 percent plan on starting this year. And according to Kenshoo, spending on social video advertising grew by 130 percent in 2017.

To take advantage of this growing trend, you need video footage (obviously). But that can be complicated and costly to produce. So we’ve rounded up a list of places you can get free stock videos to use in your social media content.

10 of the best sites for free stock videos

1. Pixabay

Pixabay offers over 1.2 million images and videos, all released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) License. That means you don’t need to get permission or give credit to the artist to use or modify the content, even if you’re using it for commercial purposes (but it’s still best practice to always credit the owner).

Pixabay has a great collection of HD stock videos, whether you’re looking for a quick 12-second clip of someone typing or a minute-long shot of future earth from space.

2. Pexels

Pexels began as a free photo site, but has since added a large library of free HD stock videos. And true to their name, all videos on Pexels have enough pixels to look great on any screen.

Their collection is also under the CC0 license, so you can edit and use the videos for personal or commercial purposes without asking for permission or linking back to the original source. Use their list of popular searches to find the most in-demand stock videos.

3. Videvo

Videvo offers free stock video footage as well as motion graphics created by their community of users. The clips you download from Videvo will be licensed in one of two ways: either through the Videvo Standard License or the Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Videos under the Videvo Standard License can be downloaded for free to use in any project, the only restriction being that you don’t make the clips available for download anywhere else.

Those licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 can be used in any project but credit must be given to the original creator. You can find licensing information on the download page for each clip.

4. Life of Vids

Life of Vids is a collection of free stock videos, clips, and loops from Leeroy, an advertising agency in Montreal, Canada. There are no copyright restrictions, but redistribution on other sites is limited to 10 videos.

To download a high-res version of any video on the site, click on the Vimeo logo in the bottom right hand corner of the video player and you’ll see the “Download” button. New videos are added weekly, and they’ve got a beautiful collection of free stock images you can check out as well.

5. Splitshire

Splitshare was created by web designer Daniel Nanescu, who wanted to offer his photos and videos free for personal and commercial use. The fact that these photos and videos were all created by one person makes them more unique than content from other stock sites.

The videos are primarily drone footage of beautiful outdoor scenes, and you can download them by clicking on the title below each video. You’re free to use them across all your social media channels, but you can’t sell them or use them in projects with inappropriate content such as violence, racism, or discrimination.

6. Distill

For an ongoing supply of free HD videos, check out Distill. It’s a collection of carefully curated stock footage, made for creatives by creatives.

Just submit your email address, and you’ll get 10 free videos delivered to your inbox every 10 days. Since the clips have been handpicked by a team of creatives, you’re guaranteed to get video footage that will help you stand out on social.

7. Stock Footage 4 Free

With new videos added every day, Stock Footage 4 Free has a wide range of video footage you can use on your social networks. Sign up with your email, and you’ll have access to their entire collection of professional stock videos. They all come with a royalty-free license, meaning you can use their clips without any fees.

The videos on Stock Footage 4 Free are organized in categories, making it easy to find a clip that will fit your brand. Categories include construction and energy, nature and animals, mansions and wealth, international locations, and more.

8. Videezy

Videezy has a large collection of video clips that are royalty-free for personal and commercial use, although they do ask that you credit Videezy.com when using their footage. However, you can also buy credits that will allow you to use footage without attribution.

There’s a wide variety of high-quality video clips to choose from, in both HD and 4K resolution. When searching for videos, any results marked with “Pro” are premium clips that are only available by paying with credits.

9. Videoblocks

Videoblocks has a huge collection of aerial footage, time lapse videos, and standard B-roll clips of various environments and situations.

You do have to become a member to download videos, but during your 7-day free trial you can download 20 files per day. The search fields make it easy to narrow down your results and find the perfect clip for your project.

10. Vidsplay

There are new videos added on a weekly basis to the Vidsplay collection, which makes it a great resource for keeping your social video content fresh—and you can download and use any video without paying royalties.

To download a video clip, right click on the download link and then choose “Save Link As.” If you’re using your phone, just press and hold the video clip to download it.

So you’ve got some amazing (and free) stock video footage. Now what? Check out our 10-step guide to creating great social videos.

Once you’ve created your social videos you can use Hootsuite to easily upload, schedule, and promote them across multiple social networks.

Get Started

The post 10 Sites to Get Free Stock Videos for Social Media appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

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January 29, 2018 at 08:32AM

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How to Sell More With Facebook Custom Audiences

1/29/2018

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How to Sell More With Facebook Custom Audiences

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Want more sales from your Facebook ads?

Wondering which type of Facebook custom audience works best at each stage of the customer journey?

In this article, you’ll discover how to pair Facebook custom audiences with different types of prospects to create an effective Facebook marketing funnel.

How to Sell More With Facebook Custom Audiences by Lauren Ahluwalia on Social Media Examiner.

Structure Your Facebook Campaigns for Maximum Return

When you run Facebook advertising campaigns, your ads should be tailored to your audience for whichever stage of the customer journey they’re in.

For example, you don’t want to target a highly specific Facebook ad to users who have no understanding of your brand or products. Instead, structure your campaigns so you’re reaching the optimal audience at the right time. Break up your campaigns to focus on one stage of the marketing funnel at a time and deliver your ads to specific custom audiences.

To run advanced Facebook audiences, at minimum you need to install the Facebook pixel base code on your website. Here’s how to match ad types and custom audiences to each stage of your marketing funnel.

#1: Introduce Your Brand or Product

For the first stage of your marketing funnel, you want to introduce your business to a new audience. Suitable ad types for new audiences include:

Video content that introduces your brand
Promoted posts that introduce your brand and unique selling propositions
Boosted organic posts that are popular
Successful blog posts

After you choose an ad type, here are two types of audiences you can target.

Manually Selected Audience

Manually selecting your target audience can be a great way to explore new audiences on Facebook, especially if your business is relatively new or has a small following.

It’s essential to map out your customer personas so you have a good idea of who your audience is. Identify demographics (use your Facebook page insights to reveal this), interests, and behaviors for your target audience.

Defining your audience helps you zero in on users who will provide you with a good return on investment over time. After you’ve created this audience, save it so you can use it again.

Lookalike Audience Similar to Your Facebook Page Audience

If you’re seeing good engagement rates on your Facebook page and want to find new users who are similar to your audience, create a lookalike audience.

To set up a lookalike audience, navigate to Audiences in Facebook Ads Manager. Then click Create Audience and select Lookalike Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the Create a Lookalike Audience window, choose your source (your Facebook page) and select a location (country only for now) you want to target. Under Audience Size, select a percentage of the total population in this country to include. Start with 1%, and if this audience is too small, you can expand it to 2% or 3%.

Finally, give your audience a name and save it so you can choose this audience when creating your ad set.

Remember, engagement is affected not only by your audience but also by your content, assets, and ad types. A good way to measure whether your audience is engaged with your content is the ad’s relevancy score.

#2: Build on Engagement With Warm Audiences

For the second stage of the funnel, you want to target warm audiences to help drive traffic to your site or app. Types of content that are suitable to promote to warm audiences include:

Blog posts
Case studies
White papers
Product ranges
Services

To target people who are interested in your brand, set up custom audiences based on engagement with your page or content.

Custom Audience of Users Who Have Engaged With Your Page

This custom audience consists of people who have visited your Facebook page. This allows you to retarget users who are familiar with your business and move them further down the marketing funnel.

To create this audience, go to Audiences in Facebook Ads Manager. Then click Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the next window, select Engagement as the source for your custom audience.

Then choose Facebook Page.

In the Create a Custom Audience window, select Everyone Who Engaged With Your Page from the drop-down list and give your custom audience a name. Then click Create Audience.

Custom Audience of Users Who Engaged With Your Video

This custom audience is made up of users who watched your video or parts of your video. These users are aware of your brand on Facebook, making them more receptive to your campaigns.

Follow the same steps to create this engagement custom audience, but instead of choosing Facebook Page, choose Video.

In the Create a Custom Audience window, select People Who Have Watched 25% of Your Video under Engagement. Then select your video, choose a time period (the number of days users will remain in your audience after engaging with your video), and add an audience name and description. Finally, click Create Audience.

#3: Convert Prospects Into Customers

In the third stage of your marketing funnel, you’ll start to see a return on investment from your efforts. Whether your goal is to generate product sales or signups, Facebook provides different ad types that are suitable for your objectives. Here are some that can drive conversions:

Product ads (carousel and collection ad types)
Lead ads
Event ads
Dynamic product ads
App installment ads, such as this one from Kiwi for Gmail

Once you decide which ad to run, here are a few audiences to target to help convert prospects into customers.

Custom Audience of Website Visitors

This custom audience lets you target users who have visited your website. If you want to segment your audience, set up separate audience lists for different landing pages and then create separate campaigns for different product ranges or services.

To create a custom audience of website visitors, create a new custom audience in the Audiences tool. Then choose Website Traffic as the source for this audience.

In the Create a Custom Audience window, you can leave the default setting as All Website Visitors if you want. However, if you want to target users who have visited specific product or service pages, select People Who Visited Specific Web Pages from the drop-down list and add the URLs you want to target.

Next, select a time period and give your audience a name. Then click Create Audience.

Custom Audience of Users Who Didn’t Convert

This custom audience lets you target users who visited your website shopping basket page but didn’t convert. In the Audiences tool, create a new custom audience and choose Website Traffic as the source.

In the Create a Custom Audience window, choose Users Who Visited Specific Pages from the drop-down list. Then add your shopping basket URL (for instance, “/Shopping-Basket/”).

Next, you want to exclude people who visited your thank-you page so the audience will only include people who didn’t convert. Click Exclude and add the URL of your thank-you page.

Finally, give your audience a name and click Create Audience.

Custom Audience of People Who Didn’t Fill Out Your Lead Form

For non-ecommerce websites, lead ads can be a great way to generate qualified prospects. Facebook allows you to set up a custom audience of users who opened your lead form but didn’t submit it. This is a useful way to retarget people who didn’t convert the first time.

In the Audiences tool in Ads Manager, create a new custom audience and select Engagement > Lead Form as the source for this audience.

In the Create a Custom Audience window, choose People Who Opened but Didn’t Submit Form from the drop-down list, type in an audience name, and click Create Audience.

#4: Fuel Retention and Loyalty

Retaining customers over time is one way to maximize return on investment from your ad spend. For the fourth stage of your marketing funnel, here are some types of content suitable for remarketing ads:

New product launches, such as the ultra-thin acetate frames highlighted in the Zenni Optical ad below
Upselling
Dynamic product ads
Product remarketing

To retarget users who have already converted, set up these custom audiences.

Custom Audience of People Who Viewed Your Thank-You Page

You likely have a thank-you page that’s displayed when users complete a purchase or submit a lead form. Create a custom audience of users who have visited this thank-you page.

In the Audiences tool in Ads Manager, create a new custom audience and choose Website Traffic as the source for this audience.

Next, rather than target all website visitors, select People Who Visited Specific Web Pages from the drop-down list and add the URL of your thank-you page (such as, “/Thank-you/”).

Choose a time period between 90 and 180 days. Choose 90 days to include users who have converted in the last 90 days, etc. Then add a name and click Create Audience.

Custom Audience Based on Your Email List

Creating this custom audience allows you to re-engage with email subscribers on the Facebook platform. These users are already engaged with your brand through email, so they’ll likely be more receptive to your Facebook campaigns.

In the Audiences tool in Ads Manager, create a new custom audience and choose Customer File as the source.

Then choose whether to upload your customer file or import your customer email addresses from MailChimp.

After you upload your email list, Facebook will match your data to the user information they have. To find out more about importing your email lists to Facebook, read Facebook’s best practice guide.

Be sure to give your audience a name so you can use it when setting up a campaign.

Tip: Also create a lookalike audience of the users on your mailing list.

Conclusion

Engaging with the right audience at each stage of your marketing funnel is key to achieving your objectives with Facebook ads. You can run multiple campaigns at once and continue to explore and develop your audiences over time.

What do you think? Which types of Facebook ads work best at each stage of your marketing funnel? What custom audiences do you target at each stage? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Discover how to pair Facebook custom audiences with different types of prospects to create an effective Facebook marketing funnel.

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January 29, 2018 at 05:06AM

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Social media is giving us trypophobia

1/27/2018

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Social media is giving us trypophobia

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Social media is giving us trypophobia | TechCrunch

Something is rotten in the state of technology.

But amid all the hand-wringing over fake news, the cries of election deforming Kremlin disinformation plots, the calls from political podia for tech giants to locate a social conscience, a knottier realization is taking shape.

Fake news and disinformation are just a few of the symptoms of what’s wrong and what’s rotten. The problem with platform giants is something far more fundamental.

The problem is these vastly powerful algorithmic engines are blackboxes. And, at the business end of the operation, each individual user only sees what each individual user sees.

The great lie of social media has been to claim it shows us the world. And their follow-on deception: That their technology products bring us closer together.

In truth, social media is not a telescopic lens — as the telephone actually was — but an opinion-fracturing prism that shatters social cohesion by replacing a shared public sphere and its dynamically overlapping discourse with a wall of increasingly concentrated filter bubbles.

Social media is not connective tissue but engineered segmentation that treats each pair of human eyeballs as a discrete unit to be plucked out and separated off from its fellows.

Think about it, it’s a trypophobic’s nightmare.

Or the panopticon in reverse — each user bricked into an individual cell that’s surveilled from the platform controller’s tinted glass tower.

Little wonder lies spread and inflate so quickly via products that are not only hyper-accelerating the rate at which information can travel but deliberately pickling people inside a stew of their own prejudices.

First it panders then it polarizes then it pushes us apart.

We aren’t so much seeing through a lens darkly when we log onto Facebook or peer at personalized search results on Google, we’re being individually strapped into a custom-moulded headset that’s continuously screening a bespoke movie — in the dark, in a single-seater theatre, without any windows or doors.

Are you feeling claustrophobic yet?

It’s a movie that the algorithmic engine believes you’ll like. Because it’s figured out your favorite actors. It knows what genre you skew to. The nightmares that keep you up at night. The first thing you think about in the morning.

It knows your politics, who your friends are, where you go. It watches you ceaselessly and packages this intelligence into a bespoke, tailor-made, ever-iterating, emotion-tugging product just for you.

Its secret recipe is an infinite blend of your personal likes and dislikes, scraped off the Internet where you unwittingly scatter them. (Your offline habits aren’t safe from its harvest either — it pays data brokers to snitch on those too.)

No one else will ever get to see this movie. Or even know it exists. There are no adverts announcing it’s screening. Why bother putting up billboards for a movie made just for you? The personalized content is all but guaranteed to strap you in your seat.

If social media platforms were sausage factories we could at least intercept the delivery lorry on its way out of the gate to probe the chemistry of the flesh-colored substance inside each packet — and find out if it’s really as palatable as they claim.

Of course we’d still have to do that thousands of times to get meaningful data on what was being piped inside each custom sachet. But it could be done.

Alas, platforms involve no such physical product, and leave no such physical trace for us to investigate.

Smoke and mirrors

Understanding platforms’ information-shaping processes would require access to their algorithmic blackboxes. But those are locked up inside corporate HQs — behind big signs marked: ‘Proprietary! No visitors! Commercially sensitive IP!’

Only engineers and owners get to peer in. And even they don’t necessarily always understand the decisions their machines are making.

But how sustainable is this asymmetry? If we, the wider society — on whom platforms depend for data, eyeballs, content and revenue; we are their business model — can’t see how we are being divided by what they individually drip-feed us, how can we judge what the technology is doing to us, one and all? And determine how it’s systemizing and reshaping society?

How can we hope to measure its impact? Except when we feel its harms.

Without access to meaningful data how can we tell whether time spent here or there or on any of these prejudice-pandering advertiser platforms can ever be said to be “time well spent“?

What does it tell us about the attention-sucking power that tech giants hold over us when — just one example — a train station has to put up signs warning parents to stop looking at their smartphones and point their eyes at their children instead?

Is there a new idiot wind blowing through society of a sudden? Or are we been unfairly robbed of our attention?

What should we think when tech CEOs confess they don’t want kids in their family anywhere near the products they’re pushing on everyone else? It sure sounds like this stuff might be the new nicotine.

External researchers have been trying their best to map and analyze flows of online opinion and influence in an attempt to quantify platform giants’ societal impacts.

Yet Twitter, for one, actively degrades these efforts by playing pick and choose from its gatekeeper position — rubbishing any studies with results it doesn’t like by claiming the picture is flawed because it’s incomplete.

Why? Because external researchers don’t have access to all its information flows. Why? Because they can’t see how data is shaped by Twitter’s algorithms, or how each individual Twitter user might (or might not) have flipped a content suppression switch which can also — says Twitter — mould the sausage and determine who consumes it.

Why not? Because Twitter doesn’t give outsiders that kind of access. Sorry, didn’t you see the sign?

And when politicians press the company to provide the full picture — based on the data that only Twitter can see — they just get fed more self-selected scraps shaped by Twitter’s corporate self-interest.

(This particular game of ‘whack an awkward question’ / ‘hide the unsightly mole’ could run and run and run. Yet it also doesn’t seem, long term, to be a very politically sustainable one — however much quiz games might be suddenly back in fashion.)

And how can we trust Facebook to create robust and rigorous disclosure systems around political advertising when the company has been shown failing to uphold its existing ad standards?

Mark Zuckerberg wants us to believe we can trust him to do the right thing. Yet he is also the powerful tech CEO who studiously ignored concerns that malicious disinformation was running rampant on his platform. Who even ignored specific warnings that fake news could impact democracy — from some pretty knowledgeable political insiders and mentors too.

Biased blackboxes

Before fake news became an existential crisis for Facebook’s business, Zuckerberg’s standard line of defense to any raised content concern was deflection — that infamous claim ‘we’re not a media company; we’re a tech company’.

Turns out maybe he was right to say that. Because maybe big tech platforms really do require a new type of bespoke regulation. One that reflects the uniquely hypertargeted nature of the individualized product their factories are churning out at — trypophobics look away now! — 4BN+ eyeball scale.

In recent years there have been calls for regulators to have access to algorithmic blackboxes to lift the lids on engines that act on us yet which we the product are prevented from seeing (and thus overseeing).

Rising use of AI certainly makes that case stronger, with the risk of prejudices scaling as fast and far as tech platforms if they get blindbaked into commercially privileged blackboxes.

Do we think it’s right and fair to automate disadvantage? At least until the complaints get loud enough and egregious enough that someone somewhere with enough influence notices and cries foul?

Algorithmic accountability should not mean that a critical mass of human suffering is needed to reverse engineer a technological failure. We should absolutely demand proper processes and meaningful accountability. Whatever it takes to get there.

And if powerful platforms are perceived to be footdragging and truth-shaping every time they’re asked to provide answers to questions that scale far beyond their own commercial interests — answers, let me stress it again, that only they hold — then calls to crack open their blackboxes will become a clamor because they will have fulsome public support.

Lawmakers are already alert to the phrase algorithmic accountability. It’s on their lips and in their rhetoric. Risks are being articulated. Extant harms are being weighed. Algorithmic blackboxes are losing their deflective public sheen — a decade+ into platform giant’s great hyperpersonalization experiment.

No one would now doubt these platforms impact and shape public discourse. But, arguably, in recent years, they’ve made the public street coarser, angrier, more outrage-prone, less constructive, as algorithms have rewarded trolls and provocateurs who best played their games.

So all it would take is for enough people — enough ‘users’ — to join the dots and realize what it is that’s been making them feel so uneasy and queasy online — and these products will wither on the vine, as others have before.

There’s no engineering workaround for that either. Even if generative AIs get so good at dreaming up content that they could substitute a significant chunk of humanity’s sweating toil, they’d still never possess the biological eyeballs required to blink forth the ad dollars the tech giants’ businesses depend on. (The phrase ‘user generated content platform’ should really be bookended with the unmentioned yet entirely salient point: ‘and user consumed’.)

This week the UK prime minister, Theresa May, used a Davos podium World Economic Forum speech to slam social media platforms for failing to operate with a social conscience.

And after laying into the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google — for, as she tells it, facilitating child abuse, modern slavery and spreading terrorist and extremist content — she pointed to a Edelman survey showing a global erosion of trust in social media (and a simultaneous leap in trust for journalism).

Her subtext was clear: Where tech giants are concerned world leaders now feel willing and able to sharpen their knives.

Nor was she the only Davos speaker roasting social media either.

“Facebook and Google have grown into ever more powerful monopolies, they have become obstacles to innovation, and they have caused a variety of problems of which we are only now beginning to become aware,” said billionaire US philanthropist George Soros, calling — out-and-out — for regulatory action to break the hold platforms have built over us.

And while politicians (and journalists — and most probably Soros too) are used to being roundly hated, tech firms most certainly are not. These companies have basked in the halo that’s perma-attached to the word “innovation” for years. ‘Mainstream backlash’ isn’t in their lexicon. Just like ‘social responsibility’ wasn’t until very recently. (You only have to look at the worry lines etched on Zuckerberg’s face to see how ill-prepared Silicon Valley’s boy kings are to deal with roiling public anger.)

Guessing games

The opacity of big tech platforms has another harmful and dehumanizing impact — not just for their data-mined users but for their content creators too.

A platform like YouTube, which depends on a volunteer army of makers to keep content flowing across the countless screens that pull the billions of streams off of its platform (and stream the billions of ad dollars into Google’s coffers), nonetheless operates with an opaque screen pulled down between itself and its creators.

YouTube has a set of content policies which it says its content uploaders must abide by. But Google has not consistently enforced these policies. And a media scandal or an advertiser boycott can trigger sudden spurts of enforcement action that leave creators scrambling not to be shut out in the cold.

One creator, who originally got in touch with TechCrunch because she was given a safety strike on a satirical video about the Tide Pod Challenge, describes being managed by YouTube’s heavily automated systems as an “omnipresent headache” and a dehumanizing guessing game.

“Most of my issues on YouTube are the result of automated ratings, anonymous flags (which are abused) and anonymous, vague help from anonymous email support with limited corrective powers,” Aimee Davison told us. “It will take direct human interaction and negotiation to improve partner relations on YouTube and clear, explicit notice of consistent guidelines.”

“YouTube needs to grade its content adequately without engaging in excessive artistic censorship — and they need to humanize our account management,” she added.

Yet YouTube has not even been doing a good job of managing its most high profile content creators. Aka its ‘YouTube stars’.

So where does the blame lie when ‘star’ YouTube creator Logan Paul — an erstwhile Preferred Partner on Google’s ad platform — uploads a video of himself making jokes beside the dead body of a suicide victim?

Paul must manage his own conscience. But blame must also scale beyond any one individual who is being algorithmically managed (read: manipulated) on a platform to produce content that literally enriches Google because people are being guided by its reward system.

In Paul’s case YouTube staff had also manually reviewed and approved his video. So even when YouTube claims it has human eyeballs reviewing content those eyeballs don’t appear to have adequate time and tools to be able to do the job.

And no wonder, given how massive the task is.

Google has said it will increase headcount of staff who carry out moderation and other enforcement duties — to 10,000 this year.

Yet that number is as nothing vs the amount of content being uploaded to YouTube. (According to Statista, 400 hours of video were being uploaded to YouTube every minute — as of July 2015; it could easily have risen to 600 or 700 hours per minute by now.)

The sheer size of YouTube’s free-to-upload content platform all but makes it impossible to meaningfully moderate.

And that’s an existential problem when the platform’s massive size, pervasive tracking and individualized targeting technology also gives it the power to influence and shape society at large.

The company itself says its 1BN+ users constitute one-third of the entire Internet.

Throw in Google’s preference for hands-off (read: lower cost) algorithmic management of content and some of the societal impacts flowing from the decisions its machines are making are — to put it politely — questionable.

Indeed, YouTube’s algorithms have been described by its own staff as having extremist tendencies.

The platform has also been accused of essentially automating online radicalization — by pushing viewers towards increasingly extreme and hateful views. Click on a video about a populist right wing pundit and end up — via algorithmic suggestion — pushed towards a neo-nazi hate group.

And the company’s suggested fix for this AI extremism problem? Yet more AI…

Yet it’s AI-powered platforms that have been caught amplifying fakes and accelerating hates and incentivizing sociopathy.

And it’s AI-powered moderation systems that are too stupid to judge context and understand nuance like humans do. (Or at least humans can when they’re given enough time to think.)

Zuckerberg himself said as much a year ago, as the scale of the existential crisis facing his company was beginning to become clear. “It’s worth noting that major advances in AI are required to understand text, photos and videos to judge whether they contain hate speech, graphic violence, sexually explicit content, and more,” he said then. “At our current pace of research, we hope to begin handling some of these cases in 2017, but others will not be possible for many years.”

‘Many years’ is tech CEO speak for ‘actually we might not ever be able to engineer that’.

And if you’re talking about the very hard, very editorial problem of content moderation, identifying terrorism is actually a relatively narrow challenge.

Understanding satire — or even just knowing whether a piece of content has any kind of intrinsic value at all vs been purely worthless algorithmically groomed junk? Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the robot that can do that.

Especially not when — across the spectrum — people are crying out for tech firms to show more humanity. And tech firms are still trying to give us more AI.

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

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January 27, 2018 at 02:06PM

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YouTube Monetization and Partnership Changes

1/27/2018

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YouTube Monetization and Partnership Changes

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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.

On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore we explore YouTube monetization and partnership changes with Steve Dotto, Instagram Stories updates with Jeff Sieh, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week!

Watch the Social Media Marketing Talk Show

If you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, January 26, 2018. You can also listen to the show as an audio podcast, found on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS.

For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above.

YouTube Announces Tougher Policies Around Monetization and Partnerships: In light of offensive content, scandals, and community issues involving YouTube this past year, the platform announced a “new approach” to monetization and partnerships in an effort to regain advertisers’ and creators’ trust. These updates include a higher threshold for joining the YouTube Partner Program beginning February 20, 2018. YouTube will also roll out a new manual review process for Google Preferred channels and “a three-tier suitability system that allows advertisers to reflect their view of appropriate placements for their brand while understanding potential reach trade-offs.” (2:50)

YouTube Expands Official Artist Channels to Include All Subscribers: Last year, YouTube launched official artist channels to make it easier for fans to find official videos, live performances, albums, and more from their favorite artists under one channel. This week, YouTube is “simplifying things even more” by bringing together all of an artist’s subscribers under their official artist channel. As YouTube explains, all subscribers to an unofficial artist channel will soon be subscribed to the official artist channel and their subscriptions to any unofficial artist channels will become inactive. YouTube is expanding the rollout of the new official artist channels to artists on the platform “over the coming weeks.” (11:49)

If you're currently subscribed to an unofficial artist channel, you will soon be subscribed to their Official Artist Channel and your subscription to any unofficial artist channels will become inactive.

If you’re currently subscribed to an unofficial artist channel, you’ll soon be subscribed to the official artist channel and your subscription to any unofficial artist channels will become inactive.

Instagram Introduces GIF Stickers and Ability to Upload Photos and Videos of Any Size to Stories: Instagram announced that users can now “add fun, expressive GIF stickers to any photo or video” in their story. There are now “hundreds of thousands of moving stickers powered by GIPHY” to select from when you add a sticker to Instagram stories. This feature will also highlight what’s currently trending on GIPHY and is available for iOS and Android as part of Instagram version 29. (17:35)

Instagram users can now add GIF stickers to any photo or video in their Instagram stories.

Instagram also announced that in the “coming weeks,” users will be able to upload photos and videos of any size to their Instagram stories. According to Instagram, photos and videos can now be shown as a square, portrait, or landscape and any extra room will be filled with a custom color gradient that matches the content that has been shared.

In the coming weeks, Instagram users will be able to upload photos and videos of any size to their stories.

Instagram Tests Recording and Screenshot Alert Feature for Stories: Instagram is reportedly testing a new feature that notifies users when another user has taken a screenshot or a screen recording of their Instagram stories. WABetaInfo reports that this new feature is only being tested internally, but it has been spotted by select users. Instagram hasn’t confirmed any plans to roll out this feature more broadly at this time. (24:46)

Instagram is supposedly testing a feature that tells you when someone’s recorded your story https://t.co/QjiIattcmG pic.twitter.com/ZI7cXLzNYy

— Mashable (@mashable) January 24, 2018

Facebook Announces Upcoming Changes to Messenger: Facebook shared its 2018 plans for Messenger, which include “massively simplifying and streamlining Messenger.” According to the company announcement, this entails shaping the platform to become “a true Customer Care channel” and driving richer messaging experiences for all types of businesses and brands. Facebook will also continue to encourage more real-time communication, roll out more features and tools, and invest in more visual features on Messenger this year.

Facebook’s head of Messenger says it got too cluttered and will get streamlined this year. Here’s my interpretation of what its 6 vague “trends” for 2018 will actually mean for users https://t.co/APIgkSMK6s

— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) January 16, 2018

Facebook Tests New Stories Features for the Desktop: Facebook is testing the option to create and share stories from Facebook on the desktop, as well as moving them to a much more prominent placement at the top of the news feed instead of in the sidebar. Previously, Facebook users on the web could only consume stories that had to be created on mobile. Facebook is hoping to attract more monologue-style vloggers who are accustomed to talking into their computer and are set up to produce content with a webcam. TechCrunch reports that only “a small percentage of users will see this new posting ability and design” but details of a further rollout haven’t yet been determined.

Facebook won’t retreat from Stories as it adds desktop posting https://t.co/3dOL70ixBS by @joshconstine

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) January 18, 2018

WhatsApp Officially Launches WhatsApp Business App in Select Markets: WhatsApp rolled out WhatsApp Business, a new app that “will make it easier for companies to connect with customers and more convenient for [its] 1.3 billion users to chat with businesses that matter to them.” The app is currently only available for Android devices in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the UK, and the U.S. but is rolling out more broadly around the world “in the coming weeks.”

WhatsApp rolled out WhatsApp Business, a new app that will make it easier for companies and customers to connect and chat.

Twitter Uses Machine Learning to Crop Photo Previews: Twitter rolled out a new tool powered by machine learning that crops thumbnails within tweets to feature the more interesting parts of the images. Twitter initially began using facial recognition to crop images to faces but found this method doesn’t work with photos of scenery, objects, text, and animals. Their solution is “cropping using saliency,” which means identifying the most interesting thing in a picture based on eye-tracking studies and other research. This update is currently being rolled out to everyone on twitter.com, iOS, and Android.

We have developed a new ML model to improve smart auto-cropping of images on Twitter. Learn more: https://t.co/3FMxCqt4r8

— Twitter Engineering (@TwitterEng) January 24, 2018

Facebook “Quiet Mode” Feature for Videos Rolls Out to Mobile: Last month, Facebook added a Quiet Mode button that allows videos to continue playing without the disruption of the comments and reactions to the video on the desktop. It appears that this button has now been expanded to the mobile app. This mobile update was spotted by Matt Navarra.

NEW: Facebook’s ‘Quiet mode’ feature for videos is now available on mobile**

**Previously spotted on desktop videos last month: https://t.co/rt4QmHaliA pic.twitter.com/ktUXQ46MLm

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) January 20, 2018

Facebook Launches a New List Post Feature: It appears that Facebook introduced a new post feature called List that allows users to create a numbered list with a title. Facebook also offers suggestions on types of lists to create such as “My goals for 2018” and “My lifetime bucket list.” This update was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong.

Facebook introduced a new post feature called list that allows users to create a numerated list with a title.

Facebook introduced a new post feature called List that allows users to create a numbered list with a title.

Facebook Business Manager Rolls Out a New Test and Learn Tool: Under the Measure and Report section of Facebook’s Business Manager, there’s a new Test and Learn tool that allows admins “to easily create advertising tests that help [them] find the strategies that work best for [their] business.” This tool was highlighted by Matt Navarra.

Facebook Business Manager rolls out a new Test and Learn tool.

Facebook Now Asks Your Goals When Boosting Posts: Facebook now asks what marketers’ goals are when they boost a post. They can select from two options, either “get likes, comments, and shares” or “engage and chat with potential customers.” Facebook will automatically show the posts to people who are most likely to engage with it. This new option was discovered by Roslyn Ryan, a member of Social Media Marketing Society.

Facebook now asks what marketers’ goals are when they boost a post.

Facebook Rolls Out Two New Ads Manager Reporting Options: Facebook rolled out two new reporting features for Ads Manager. These include Date Comparison, which compares results from two different date ranges in the Ads Manager table, and the ability to see creative performance across all of your ad sets at once with Creative Reporting. These two new reporting options were discovered by Matt Navarra.

Facebook rolled out two new reporting features in Ads Manager, Date Comparison and Creative Reporting.

Facebook rolled out two new reporting features for Ads Manager: Date Comparison and Creative Reporting.

Facebook Starts Training Consumers on News Feed Changes: This past week, Facebook users were greeted with a card at the top of the news feed notifying them Facebook is “making some updates so you see more from [friends and family]” and a link to a Help Center page that explains “what kinds of posts [they] will see in News Feed.” The post notes that the content users are seeing first in their news feed is influenced by their connections and activity on Facebook. It also notes that the number of comments, likes, and reactions on a post influences how high it will appear in the news feed.

LinkedIn Starts Rolling Out Changes to Groups: Last week, LinkedIn announced plans to reintegrate LinkedIn Groups back into the core LinkedIn experience and sunset its stand-alone iOS app for Groups as of February 15, 2018. In a follow-up email, LinkedIn notified group admins and moderators that they’ll start real-time alerts for social activities on group posts including likes, comments, and @mentions, and for membership activities like group invitations within the Notifications tab on the LinkedIn website and mobile apps.

Snapchat Adds Ability to Share Select Stories Beyond the App: Snapchat added the ability to share three types of Stories with other people who don’t have the app. These include Official Stories from verified accounts; Our Stories, which are hand-curated stories from specific events; and Search Stories, which are public, user-generated stories that are found by searching keywords and they can now be viewed through a new web player on Snapchat.com.

The Next Web reports that this new feature is currently only available to Snapchat users with access to the new, redesigned Snapchat app. The company says it intends to roll out the redesign to more users “over the following few weeks.”

Snapchat adds ability to share (certain) Stories with people who don’t use Snapchat https://t.co/Ji7xj21PYu

— TNW Apps (@TNWapps) January 23, 2018

Snapchat Courts Publishers in Response to Facebook News Feed Changes: Snapchat is reportedly placing more emphasis on courting and growing its relationships with publishers after Facebook’s most recent news feed updates. Digiday and Business Insider both confirm that Snapchat added a new role within the company that oversees day-to-day work with Discover publishers and announced a first-time publisher summit to help them be successful on the platform.

Publishers still reeling from the Facebook news feed-pocalypse might find comfort in Snapchat. The disappearing messages app is stepping up efforts to curry favor with publishers. https://t.co/ukzeFP9Qfn

— Digiday (@Digiday) January 19, 2018

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January 27, 2018 at 05:06AM

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9 Ways to Get Your Startup Funded

1/26/2018

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9 Ways to Get Your Startup Funded

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Don’t let money stop you from pursuing your dreams.

If you want to start your own business but don’t have the funding, you can still get it off the ground in a number of ways.

As an entrepreneur myself, I admire anyone who wants to create a company.

It’s not easy.

In fact, only half of small businesses in the United States will survive through their fifth year of operation.

Furthermore, just 30% of those businesses make it through ten years.

Based on this information, it’s clear that failure is more frequent than success when it comes to startup companies.

So I commend you for wanting to pursue this path.

While running a startup may be difficult, it’s also extremely rewarding.

You’ll learn a lot along the way. There are plenty of things I wish I knew before starting my first company.

But getting your startup off the ground is the first step.

Like with most aspects of business, you’ll need some money to do this.

If you’ve never been through this process before, it may seem intimidating.

Not sure where to start?

There’s no one right answer.

In fact, you can get money from multiple sources.

I’ve outlined 9 ways for you to get your startup funded.

I’ll let you decide which ones are best for your startup company.

1. Create a detailed business plan

Before you do anything else, you need to have a clear understanding of how you plan to operate your business.

A business plan will increase your chances of securing funds:

Companies that have a business plan also have higher growth rates.

Here’s why.

First of all, it’ll be hard for you to raise money from anyone without a business plan.

Different types of investors, which we’ll discuss shortly, will need to see financial projections before they even consider giving you a dime.

This plan will also set you up for success.

Once you get into the daily grind of your business operations, you’ll always have your plan as a reference to remind you how to proceed.

You may forget some ideas a year or two down the road if you don’t have everything in writing.

Your business plan should have a clear description of your business.

Who are you?

What do you do?

It should also include a market analysis.

This will discuss information and research about your competitors as well as your target market.

You’ll also want to outline the organizational structure of your company.

Have clearly defined roles for managers and other positions within your organization.

Arguably the most important part of a business plan is the financials.

Do your best to include financial projections for the next three to five years:

Make sure your projections are realistic.

As you can see from the example above, this company doesn’t project profitability until the third year of operation.

That’s okay.

You don’t need to turn a profit on your first day or even your first year.

Just try your best to accurately predict your finances.

This section of the business plan will help you secure funding from other sources on our list as well.

2. Visit your local bank

Go to the banks you use for your personal banking needs.

I recommend starting there because you already have a relationship with those companies.

Set up an appointment with a loan officer.

Show up to your meeting prepared.

Dress professionally. Bring your business plan.

Explain to the loan officer how much money you need and what it will be used for.

Depending on your situation, you may qualify for loans for certain aspects of your business, such as equipment.

If the bank denies your small business loan application, you could also try to get a personal line of credit from that institution.

You can use that line of credit to fund your initial business expenses.

Don’t quit after your first appointment.

You could try other banks and financial institutions if your first stop is unsuccessful.

3. Seek help from friends and family

In the United States, friends and family are second on the list for top startup funding sources.

These are the people who love you and trust you.

Most importantly, they believe in you and your potential.

Don’t be afraid to ask your loved ones for a loan.

Plus, unlike with a bank, you’ll likely be able to get some money from your friends and family without having to pay any interest.

Who knows, if you’re lucky, you might even get funds as a gift.

So talk to your parents, siblings, grandparents, or even your rich uncle.

Just know there are some risks associated with this approach as well.

You definitely don’t want to take a loan your friends gave you in good faith and lose it.

That could put both of you in a very uncomfortable situation.

With that said, I’ve talked to some entrepreneurs who said this had the opposite effect on them.

Loans from their family contributed to their success because they had extra motivation to not lose the investment.

They didn’t want to let their loved ones down.

4. Venture capitalists (VCs)

You can also secure funds from venture capitalists.

VC firms invest in the early stages of your company in exchange for an equity share.

If you decide to take this route, be prepared to give away a portion of your business.

That’s not always a bad thing.

If VCs have some skin in the game, they may be able to provide you with other resources that can contribute to the success of the company.

But just understand that smart VCs will only structure these deals if they are in their favor.

They don’t want to make a return on their investment in 30 years.

VCs want to make their money back, plus some, as soon as possible.

The likelihood of you receiving VC funding largely depends on your industry.

As you can see from this data, venture capital firms are typically drawn to startups within software and technology sectors.

So if your startup company is a local pizza shop, you probably won’t have luck with VCs.

5. Angel investors

Although these terms are often used interchangeably, angel investors differ from VCs.

While angel investors can take an equity share of your startup in exchange for their investment, their funding can also be exchanged for convertible debt.

It’s not uncommon for these investors to be entrepreneurs or former entrepreneurs themselves.

Although money is their motivation, they are more likely to be genuinely interested in your business as well as the growth and development of particular industries.

If you find the right angel investor, you may benefit from their expert advice and management skills.

It’s more common for angel investors to supply funding to businesses when they are still in the early stages, whereas VCs typically look to get involved a little bit later.

Unlike a VC firm that has a committee and advisors working together, an angel investor may make a decision on their own.

They may simply like your plan, trust your goals, and believe that your business will be successful.

That’s why it’s important for you to be able to articulate your business plan well.

A short meeting over coffee or lunch with an angel investor might be all it takes to get them on board to fund your startup.

6. Crowdfunding

Take advantage of the resources available to you online.

You can use crowdfunding websites to raise capital.

While most people think of Kickstarter when it comes to these platforms, there are some alternative websites you can consider as well.

Here are a few popular choices for startup companies:

All of these sites operate in more or less the same way.

Some put you in a pool of professional investors, while others let you raise money from anyone.

If your project is promoted properly, you can raise a ton of money.

Here’s an example to show you what I’m talking about.

In 2012, a company called Oculus Rift launched a campaign on Kickstarter with a goal of $250,000.

The company aimed to produce virtual reality headsets.

They ended up raising $2.4 million dollars, which was nearly ten times their goal.

It’s safe to say that funding was successful.

The money led to rapid success and growth of the company.

Just two years later, Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion.

It just goes to show crowdfunding isn’t just for college students or small side projects.

There’s real money to be found out there.

You just need to look for it.

Here’s a look at some of the other top crowdfunded startups in terms of capital raised:

But just because you secure millions in funding doesn’t mean your company will automatically be successful.

Pebble Watches raised over $10 million in 2012, which largely exceeded their $100,000 goal.

But a highly competitive space made it difficult for this company to stand the test of time.

In 2016, Pebble announced they were ceasing daily operations. They stopped producing watches and honoring warranties.

The company folded.

7. Dip into your personal savings

You could also consider funding the startup company on your own.

If you’ve got money saved up for a down payment on a house or some other big purchase, you could use it to launch your business instead.

It’s risky because you won’t have any money to fall back on if your business is unsuccessful.

But if you’re willing to bet on yourself, there are plenty of positive factors to this route.

First of all, you won’t have to give up any equity in your company.

You get to keep all the profits instead of sharing them with investors.

You also won’t have to pay any interest on a line of credit or bank loan.

If you pay for everything yourself, you won’t be letting down friends or family members who may have loaned you money.

This isn’t an option for everyone.

But if you have an extra $20,000 in the bank, consider using it if your startup costs are low.

8. Look for a strategic partner

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Two heads are better than one.”

Getting a strategic partner for your startup company can help accelerate the development of your business.

In fact, over 80% of companies say partnerships are essential to their growth.

Your partner has a bank account as well.

Between the two of you, you might have enough money saved to get your startup off the ground.

If not, it’s another person to help you secure funding through the other methods I’ve outlined in this post.

Partners also reduce your liability. You won’t be on the hook for as much if things go south.

On a flip side, you’ll only get half the profits.

You may get even less if you give away equity to other investors.

Make sure you find someone you can trust.

While your strategic partner may be able to bring new ideas and solutions to the table, there can also be conflicts and disagreements.

9. Try to minimize initial business costs

Reevaluate your startup costs.

You may not need to raise as much money as you initially thought.

Make the money you already have last as long as possible.

Instead of paying for an office, you could work from your home or a shared office space.

Pay for goods and services as you go instead of paying upfront for large quantities of products.

Use cost-effective materials.

Think outside the box.

And while this may not work for every startup, you can also barter.

Instead of paying for certain products or services, offer your own services in return.

This may be successful if you’re working with other startup companies in a similar to yours situation.

Just do your best to keep costs as low as possible.

Conclusion

Starting a new business is exciting.

But it’s not cheap.

Not everyone has enough money to get their startup company off the ground.

If you can’t fund your business on your own, try getting a loan or line of credit from your local bank.

You could always ask your friends and family for help.

Venture capitalists, angel investors, strategic partners, and crowdfunding platforms are also great options to consider.

It’s important that you always start with a strong business plan.

Come up with realistic financial projections.

This will make it easier for you to get money from investors.

You also need to keep all your costs as low as possible to make your funds last until you can get a steady income stream.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be on the right path toward raising money for your company.

Good luck!

What strategies are you using to secure funding for your startup company?

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January 26, 2018 at 10:04AM

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Equity podcast: Netflix soars Twitter loses a big bird Lyft isnt woke and more ICOs

1/26/2018

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Equity podcast: Netflix soars, Twitter loses a big bird, Lyft isn’t woke and more ICOs

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Equity podcast: Netflix soars, Twitter loses a big bird, Lyft isn’t woke and more ICOs | TechCrunch

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week we once again had the full crew on set: Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself. And even better, we were joined by Sarah Tavel from Benchmark, who helped us unspool a topic or three.

And topics we had. This being earnings season, we had little choice but to talk about at least one public company’s results. Obviously we picked Netflix, a firm whose stock has gone parabolic as its cashflow has moved in the opposite direction.

But as we discuss, in the era of infinite money for land grabs, why slow down?

Next up was Twitter, from which a bird has flown the nest right into the arms of SoFi. Yes, SoFi is picking up Twitter’s COO for its CEO role. Regular listeners will know why SoFi, a heavily funded unicorn, needs a new CEO in the first place.

Next up was the venture world. How much money did VCs disburse in 2017? Quite a lot as it turns out. In the United States and the world, the numbers were quite large — records since the dot-com boom. (More here if you are so inclined). We also noodled over the ICO landscape, including the Telegram offering.

All that and it turns out that Lyft is not woke. Alas.

And one last thing. Equity is recording a live episode on February 6 at SaaStr, which is cool.

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcast, Downcast and all the casts.

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January 26, 2018 at 08:25AM

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Twitter accused of dodging Brexit botnet questions again

1/26/2018

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Twitter accused of dodging Brexit botnet questions again

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Once again Twitter stands accused of dodging questions from a parliamentary committee that’s investigating Russian bot activity during the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum.

In a letter sent yesterday to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, DCMS committee chair Damian Collins writes: “I’m afraid there are outstanding questions… that Twitter have not yet answered, and some further ones that come from your most recent letter.”

In Twitter’s letter — sent last Friday — the company says it has now conducted an analysis of a dataset underpinning a City University study from last October (which had identified a ~13,500-strong botnet of fake Twitter accounts that had tweeted extensively about the Brexit referendum and vanished shortly after the vote).

And it says that 1% of these accounts were “registered in Russia”.

But Twitter’s letter doesn’t say very much else.

“While many of the accounts identified by City University were in violation of the Twitter Rules regarding spam, at this time, we do not have sufficiently strong evidence to enable us to conclusively link them with Russia or indeed the Internet Research Agency [a previously identified Russian trollfarm],” it writes.

Twitter goes on to state that 6,508 of the total accounts had already been suspended prior to the study’s publication (which we knew already, per the study itself) — and says that more than 99% of these suspensions “specifically related to the violation of our spam policies”.

So it’s saying that a major chunk of these accounts were engaged in spamming other Twitter users. And that — as a consequence — tweets from those accounts would not have been very visible because of its anti-spam measures.

“Of the remaining accounts, approximately 44.2% were deactivated permanently,” it continues, without exactly explaining why they were shuttered. “Of these, 1,093 accounts had been labelled as spam or low quality by Twitter prior to deletion, which would have resulted in their Tweets being hidden in Search for all users and not contributing to trending topics in any way.

“As we said in our previous letter, these defensive actions are not visible to researchers using our public APIs; however they are an important part of our proactive, technological approach to addressing these issues.”

Twitter’s letter writer, UK head of public policy Nick Pickles, adds that “a very small number of accounts identified by City University are still active on Twitter and are not currently in breach of our rules”.

He does not say how small.

tl;dr a small portion of this Brexit botnet is actually still live on Twitter.com.

While Twitter’s letter runs to two pages, the second of which points to a December 2017 Brexit bot study by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, also relying on data from Twitter’s public streaming API, which Twitter says “found little evidence of links to Russian sources” — literally right after shitting on research conducted by “researchers using our public APIs” — Collins is clearly not wooed by either the quantity or the quality of the intelligence being so tardily provided.

Cutting to the chase, he asks Twitter to specify how many of the accounts “were being controlled from agencies in Russia, even if they were not registered there”.

He also wants to know: “How many of the accounts share the characteristics of the accounts that have already been identified as being linked to Russia, even if you are yet to establish conclusively that that link exists.”

And he points out that Twitter still hasn’t told the committee whether the 13,493 suspected bot accounts were “legitimate users or bots; who controlled these accounts, what the audience was for their activity during the referendum, and who deleted the tweets from these accounts”.

So many questions, still lacking robust answers.

“I’m afraid that the failure to obtain straight answers to these questions, whatever they might be, is simply increasing concerns about these issues, rather than reassuring people,” Collins adds.

We reached out to Twitter for a response to his letter but the company declined to provide a public statement.

Last week, after Collins had accused both Twitter and Facebook of essentially ignoring his requests for information, Facebook wrote to the committee saying it would take a more thorough look into its historic data around the event — though how comprehensive that follow up will be remains to be seen. (Facebook has also said the process will take “some weeks”, giving itself no firm deadline).

Both companies also disclosed some information last month, in response to a parallel Electoral Commission probe that’s looking at digital spending around the Brexit vote — but then they just revealed details of paid-for advertising by Russian entities that had targeted Brexit (saying this was: ~$1k and ~$1, respectively).

So they made no attempt to cast their net wider and look for Russian-backed non-paid content being freely created and spread on their platforms.

To date Collins has reserved his most withering criticisms for Twitter over this issue but he’s warned both they could face sanctions if they continued to stonewall his enquiry.

The DCMS committee is traveling to Washington next month for a public evidence session that Facebook and Twitter reps have been asked to attend.

It’s clearly hoping that proximity to Washington — and the recent memory of the companies’ grilling at the hands of US lawmakers over US election-related disinformation — might shame them into a more fulsome kind of co-operation.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee, which is able to take closed door evidence from domestic spy agencies, discussed the security threat from state actors in its annual report last year.

And although its report did not explicitly identify Brexit as having been a definitive target for Russian meddling, it did raise concerns around Russia’s invigorated cyber activities and warn that elections and referenda could be targets for disinformation attacks.

“State actors are highly capable of carrying out advanced cyber attacks; however, their use of these methods has historically been restricted by the diplomatic and geopolitical consequences that would follow should the activity be uncovered. Recent Russian cyber activity appears to indicate that this may no longer be the case,” the committee wrote, citing the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta’s emails as indications that Russia is adopting a “more brazen approach to its cyber activities”.

Evidence it took from the UK’s GCHQ and MI5 spy agencies is redacted in the report — including in a section discussing the security of the UK’s political system.

Here the committee writes that cyber attacks by hostile foreign states and terrorist groups could “potentially include planting fake information on legitimate political and current affairs websites, or otherwise interfering with the online presence of political parties and institutions”.

Another redacted section of evidence from GCHQ then details how the agency “is already alert to the risks surrounding the integrity of data”.

The ISC goes on to speculate that such state attacks could have a variety of motives, including:

generally undermining the integrity of the UK’s political processes, with a view to weakening the UK Government in the eyes of both the British population and the wider world;
subverting a specific election or referendum by undermining or supporting particular campaigns, with a countervailing benefit to the hostile actor’s preferred side;
poisoning public discourse about a sensitive political issue in a manner that suits the hostile state’s foreign policy aims; or
in the case of political parties’ sensitive data on the electorate, obtaining the political predilections and other characteristics of a large proportion of the UK population, thereby identifying people who might be open to subversion or political extremism in the hostile actor’s interests

“The combination of the high capability of state actors with an increasingly brazen approach places an ever greater importance on ensuring the security of systems in the UK which control the Critical National Infrastructure. Detecting and countering high-end cyber activity must remain a top priority for the government,” it adds.

This week the UK government announced plans to set up a dedicated national security unit to combat state-led disinformation campaigns.

Featured Image: NurPhoto/Getty Images

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January 26, 2018 at 07:07AM

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Here's why your Instagram and Facebook feeds are looking bare this morning

1/26/2018

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Here's why your Instagram and Facebook feeds are looking bare this morning

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Were your Facebook and Instagram feeds looking pretty bare this morning? Fear not, you still have friends. The real reason was actually a massive global outage on Instagram and Facebook which hit the social networks late Thursday.

Per DownDetector, the Facebook outage affected users in the U.S., UK, Mexico and parts of South America, with users reporting that they were unable to access the site for hours. According to TNW, the issue began around 1pm ET (6pm GMT).

Facebook users—including publishers—were unable to post anything to the site during the outage, which might explain why your feed is looking pretty sparse this morning.

And several big publishers in the UK — like The Guardian, HuffPost and IBTimes UK — were reporting publishing problems Friday morning, according to IBTimes UK. Many of their scheduled posts aren't going live, and of posts that do make it through, there's no engagement.

Facebook said they are investigating the issue with "highest priority."

In a statement sent to TNW at 4:42pm ET Thursday, a Facebook spokesperson said the issue had been resolved.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble connecting to Facebook and Instagram. We resolved this issue for everyone, and we apologize for any inconvenience," read the statement.

Instagram users took to Twitter around the same time to vent their frustration about Instagram's simultaneous outage.

Some users said they weren't able to post their Instagram stories.

#instagramdown Switched insta acc.. on my mom's phone., Logged in, sent the story material to my mom's whatsapp , logged in insta.. could not do it..
Went to twitter and realized that Instagram and Facebook were down..

What did u do... SLEEP??

— Sahaj Singh (@the1_1sahaj) January 25, 2018

So, there you have it. That's why your feeds are looking bare this morning.

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January 26, 2018 at 05:50AM

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Storytelling With Video: The Journey

1/26/2018

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Storytelling With Video: The Journey

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Want to use video to help more people know, like, and trust you?

Wondering how to create episodic video content that keeps people watching?

To explore how and why we produce a weekly video documentary, I pull back the curtain on our show, The Journey.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I share my experiences leading up to and then creating The Journey.

You’ll discover how sharing the struggles of entrepreneurship has helped my team and business.

I’ll share tips for creating your own show.

Storytelling With Video: The Journey featuring insights from Michael Stelzner on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

Listen Now

Listen now: Play in new window | Download

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Storytelling With Video

My Early Storytelling

When I was around 10 or 12 years old, I remember sitting on my neighbor’s huge front porch and telling stories to the neighborhood kids. I’d make up crazy, fantastic 20- to 30-minute stories on the fly that involved all of my friends’ parents and siblings. I guess I knew early on that storytelling would become important for me later in life.

A proverb says, “Tell me the facts, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I’ll believe. Tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.” The story I’m sharing in this podcast involves facing fear, facing giants, and going on an incredible journey.

About a year ago, we did these NPR-style stories on our podcast and hired Jay Acunzo to do the series. The 5- to 7-minute stories came from Social Media Marketing World attendees and employees at our company, and were very well-produced. From the audio files and some B-roll footage, we then created videos and posted them on social. People absolutely loved the video versions of these stories. There was something magical about showing what was behind the story.

Making a Party an Exceptional Experience

Have you wondered what it takes to make a conference party an exceptional experience?

Go behind the scenes at Social Media Marketing World to discover how we do it! – Erik

Psst…want to join the fun? Learn more here: http://ift.tt/2DOVWP6

Posted by Social Media Examiner on Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Up to that point, with the exception of our live video show, everything Social Media Examiner did was focused on the written word and produced audio content. The emotional response after we turned the audio stories into videos planted a seed inside my brain that would later germinate. I thought maybe we could do something more regularly with video. I had watched Gary Vaynerchuk (DailyVee) crush it with video.

Around the same time, my daughter, who was turning 13, wanted to get into YouTube. It freaked me out, so I decided to see what it’s like to create video content. I had this journey of 30 days of live vlogging, calling it an experiment. Because I didn’t have time for produced video, I went live every day via my iPhone on a selfie stick so I could learn what having a daily vlog was like.

I hiked canyons, wandered around the Social Media Examiner building, and got comfortable being the authentic me on camera. A lot of crazy stuff happened. I had flies fly into my mouth while I was live. I had trees smack me in the face. I tripped. I had people looking at me weird, like, “What the heck? Who’s this guy wandering around with this stick and a phone on it?”

My journey to becoming a vlogger, maybe…

Posted by Michael Stelzner on Thursday, April 6, 2017

I made it to day 25 and quit because I didn’t have anything more to say. I felt like I had successfully accomplished something: going 25 days straight, creating on-the-fly content. It was a great experience to be my true self. Prior to this, everything I did was thoroughly scripted, figured out, and well-produced. For instance, on this podcast I generally interview a guest; I don’t just talk.

The idea of winging it and seeing what happened scared me. But I believed in myself and realized what an interesting experience it was.

Listen to the show to learn more about the tales I told as a kid.

The Start of The Journey

Fast-forward to fall 2017. I hired Mitch Dong to our team. With Social Media Marketing World coming up in February, I wanted to do something interesting and completely out of the ordinary to help us. So I talked to my core team at Social Media Examiner about creating a video documentary, which would be a real ongoing story.

My goal was to show the good and the bad, the struggles of entrepreneurship and marketing. The story would unfold as we were filming. We didn’t have a script. We would document the real ups and downs of what we were trying to accomplish with growing the conference 62% year over year.

I said to my team, “Are you sure? Are you ready to be authentically you on camera?” They all were up for it, so I told Mitch to bring in his equipment. We started recording in September 2017, and on October 13, 2017, we launched episode one of The Journey.

VIDEO

That was the imperfect first episode. I was at Derral Eves’ VidSummit, and Joel Comm and I were video-Skyping with Mitch doing last-minute edits until about 11 PM. The show dropped that Friday.

Listen to the show to hear my thoughts on the tension between envisioning future success and actually finishing a task or project.

What Is The Journey?

The Journey is an ongoing video documentary. Because it’s episodic, it has a story arc that spans lots of short videos. Each episode is about 5 to 7 (no longer than 8) minutes. The hypothesis was if we create a show about how we promote Social Media Marketing World, the behind-the-scenes type of storytelling would be the most important thing we’ve done in the company. In hindsight, this proved true.

As of this recording, we have 12 episodes in the can and the results are beyond my wildest imagination.

VIDEO

My gut instinct is that the world is moving toward video as Facebook Watch and other platforms go after creators. I felt if I could create something for our tribe so they could get to know me (the flip-flops and t-shirt CEO of Social Media Examiner) and our company, they might want to be part of the 5,000 Social Media Marketing World attendees, which is the target number of attendees for the conference.

I took a lot of my inspiration from watching reality television. I am a Survivor fan; I’ve watched 35 seasons, have had lunch with the co-executive producer for the first eight seasons, and have gotten some insight into how they do what they do. I used to watch shows like Undercover Boss, and am a huge fan of Shark Tank and The Profit.

I watched how these shows work and why they have such a loyal following, and I started to connect the dots. I thought, “Wow. There’s a really big appetite for business content that’s entertaining and educational. And I wonder if I can just split it up over many, many different weeks and create a shorter kind of a show.” That was the theory.

This podcast was recorded December 29, 2017, and the results are summed up by this email that we got from Matt McWilliams, who sent a PS inside of a message. He said, “I absolutely LOVE The Journey. It is my crack … but much better for me. ? Thanks for doing it.”

I received these kinds of messages over and over. I got messages from high-profile video experts, like Zach King, telling me that they love the show; people who put on events saying the show was going to be required watching for everyone on their team; and college professors from all over the world saying the show was going to be part of their curriculum. I was hoping for that affirmation.

I thought if I could get 1,000 people to watch The Journey every week, we would be successful in the long run.

The Journey has over 16k subscribers.

As of this recording, we’ve released 11 episodes and between 15,000 and 37,000 people have watched the episodes. I get messages from people who binge-watch the whole series. With an average of 7 or 8 minutes per episode, that’s about an hour and a half.

Outside of the podcast experience, nowhere else in the marketing world do people spend that kind of time with you. Think about ways to create more behind-the-scenes content for your business. It can be as simple as going live on Stories for 10 or 15 seconds or something more elaborate, along the lines of what we’re doing at Social Media Examiner.

Listen to the show to find out why The Journey doesn’t work as audio-only.

Benefits

Marketers know that people buy from those whom they know, like, and trust. That’s one of the biggest benefits of content like The Journey. I’ve received messages from people saying, “Okay. I’m in. I’m coming back to Social Media Marketing World this year. I just persuaded eight of my friends to come.”

Plus, even though The Journey has a marketing undertone, people are sharing this content. Think about it. What other form of marketing are people willing to share that’s not a crazy image or funny 30- or 60-second video, but actually 7 or 8 minutes long? And it’s content that could lead someone to get hooked on all the rest of our content. Every episode has a hook to bring people into the other episodes.

VIDEO

The show also makes us publicly accountable for the work we’re trying to do. We typically record the show about 3 to 4 weeks before it’s released, so we’ll watch and see where we’re at. The show puts us on our A game because we know the world is watching.

Something that has blown me away is the people who want to help. I get emails and messages almost every other day from people giving us ideas on how to solve some of the problems we mention. Here are two amazing stories from people whom I had not previously known, who contacted me after watching The Journey:

Daniel Abrams of Ai-media.tv (a closed-captioning company in Australia) sent me a message with the closed-captioning of the first five episodes of The Journey. They were exceptional. I said I wanted to hire him to do the rest, but Daniel said having his company do all the closed-captioning for The Journey was his gift, because he’s been following Social Media Examiner for years.

The next example is Kenneth Todd, an Australian who lives in America and works for the GAIA Media Group. Kenneth sent me a video where he recorded feedback on how we could change our sales page. I implemented his changes and sales started increasing. These two examples represent the many people who reached out and wanted to help after seeing The Journey.

Listen to find out how we plan to feature some of the other feedback and help in response to The Journey.

The Process

Our main platforms for The Journey are Facebook and YouTube. We have the largest following on Facebook, but we push everyone over to YouTube at the end of every episode because YouTube is a much easier vehicle for watching episodic content. YouTube is our secondary platform. We have fewer views but a very loyal following.

We’ve recently started uploading the episodes of The Journey to my personal LinkedIn profile via LinkedIn native video. When video comes to pages, that approach might change.

As far as challenges are concerned, creating a show is a lot of work, partially because I’m a perfectionist. I care about quality and a good story. The most time-consuming part isn’t recording and documenting; it’s going through every episode with Mitch and tightening it up.

Typically, he’ll put together a 20-minute episode with a lot of the highlights. Then we review the video using Vimeo because it allows you to comment and tag moments. We do at least two, sometimes three or more, rounds of edits.

After we have a version that’s between 9 and 11 minutes, Mitch and I work together for 2 or 3 hours on fine-tuning that version by taking out anything that’s not important. For instance, we’ll take a long sentence and cut it into two short segments to get to its core.

We don’t cover up our edits, which means we just cut and go from place to place. A lot of times, we don’t have multiple cameras, so you can see the cuts. This approach pushes the production process forward really fast.

Mitch probably spends 25 to 30 hours a week working on each episode of the show. Therefore, you might need a full-time person if you choose to do video at this level.

Another challenge is that you will be publicly criticized. You need to be okay with that. Some people don’t like the show. You’ll get thumbs-down on YouTube. Others just don’t like certain things about what you say and do. The benefits, however, far outweigh the criticism.

Thumbs down votes on YouTube.

Although you might feel like quitting, your tribe (especially if they love it) will come to your defense. Generally, we’ve received criticisms such as “I can’t believe you guys aren’t trying this.” Or, “that was a pretty intense conversation you had.” I’d respond, “It’s the reality. It’s who I am, or it’s who we are. And I understand that you might not like it, and it’s not for everyone.”

The other challenge is that you and your team need to feel really comfortable on camera. And you need to protect everyone’s best interests. I call it “protecting the innocent.” We go through some exceptionally intense times. In one of the episodes, one of my employees fires a contractor. We had to be very careful about protecting the person who was fired, not telling anybody who they are.

It’s important to protect the innocent because they didn’t ask to be on the show. When you do record people, let them know. Ask, “Are you okay with what we recorded? Is there anything that you want to make sure doesn’t appear in the show?” Every week, we do showings with the core team so they get a chance to see everything and make sure they’re comfortable with the way they’re portrayed.

On The Journey, we don’t put the outtakes at the end. We actually disperse them throughout the show, because that’s real life. In real life, you say silly things and you make mistakes. In particular, I do some really quirky stuff, and people get a chance to see a side of me that they’ve never seen before. I leave that in the show, and it adds comic relief. Similar to the 3:07 mark in this episode:

VIDEO

A lot of people don’t do that. I do and encourage my teammates to do so, too. They’ve got to be comfortable with themselves and how they’re portrayed, but it’s also important that you show the struggle.

In the best stories, like Star Wars, The Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings, you have an unlikely hero on an impossible journey. The pitfalls and struggles along the way are actually the best part of the story. If you take that out, people won’t like the story as much. I get really raw and talk about how I’m going through hell in some of these episodes, and people love to hear that.

Listen to discover what people say in response to the way I portray my journey.

Tips

If, like me, you don’t have a professional cameraman around all the time, buy some equipment so you can record audio and video of yourself. By adding a high-quality audio recorder to your setup, you can record video on your iPhone or computer without running into audio problems. To record the picture you want, you might have to set your phone or computer far away, which makes the audio sound echo-y.

I suggest a Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder. It’s about $200 and sounds like professional audio. Stick it right in the middle of the scene. We might hide the audio recorder with a little plant or cup so you can’t see it in the video.

VIDEO

Second, if you use a smartphone like I do (I record on my iPhone 6S), check whether you can film in 4K resolution. We film everything in 4K so we can zoom in and create cool effects. Then the final show is produced at 1080p.

You also might want to consider getting a tripod, such as a tiny one that can extend. Then you can put it on a desk or place it around the room, set the scene, and hit record.

When my camera guy isn’t around, I record different angles on computers using ScreenFlow for Mac. My iPhone on a tripod captures one angle. A Logitech Pro on a computer captures another. Then a standard computer camera captures a third angle. Sometimes, I also use ScreenFlow to record my screen, because I bring in people on Skype. My camera guy can then cut among all of the angles to create a cool look and feel.

Hooks, cliffhangers, and story arcs are the secret sauce for turning the content you record into a show. First, create a hook (I credit Derral Eves for teaching me this). A hook is a clip from the last third of the video. Ideally, it’s a dramatic moment that’s 3 or 4 seconds long. Play that hook at the beginning of the episode, like we did in this episode, before you roll into your typical music and intro. Doing this pulls the trigger in people’s brains that something juicy is coming, so they’ll watch the video longer.

VIDEO

The other thing is a cliffhanger. At the end of every show, we grab something from the next week’s show. Typically, it’s something crazy like my social team just freaked out because … and then cut. In one episode, Lisa Jenkins from my editorial team said, “Oh, this has been the worst day of my life. I am so, so sorry, Mike.” And then it says, “To be continued.” We do that in every single episode.

You also need story arcs, and if you’re creating an ongoing documentary, it’s important to track the core stories. Certain kinds of stories don’t come back throughout the season or are like little satellites that are there and gone in one episode, such as a little experience, a funny clip, or whatever. However, the core story arcs (we have eight or nine) spread across many different episodes.

Your story arcs can include new characters. In our case, those characters are the experts we bring on. For example, we hired Chris Dayley to do conversion rate optimization. In later episodes, we bring him back and talk about the testing and what we’re learning. Another story arc features Tim Paige, whom we hired to do webinars. In one episode, we talk about setting up the webinars, and in a later episode, we talk about how well those worked.

Make sure you don’t forget those stories. Any good movie or story has characters, themes, and struggles that come and go. That’s what you want to work into your show.

When you watch The Journey, you can see how each element of the show improves and how we learned as we went along. In the first episode, we didn’t film in 4K. We did in the second. In the first and second episodes, we didn’t have the music tracks down and then we figured it out. Then we started figuring out the hooks, the teasers, and the cliffhangers, and introduced crazy things at the end of every video to encourage people to share it.

I don’t know whether we’ll continue making The Journey forever. The episodes will appear through March 2018 because we want to take people right up to the conference. Whether we hit the goal of 5,000 attendees, we want to show people the experience, and that is The Journey.

Listen to the show to hear my challenge to anyone who wants to create their own show.

Discovery of the Week

Selfissimo is a cool mobile app from Google that snaps photos automatically like a photo booth.

Set up your mobile device, tap a button in the app so it starts taking photos with the front-facing camera. The app can sense movement. Every time you stop moving and pose in front of the camera, it takes a picture. After you take a bunch of photos, Selfissimo assembles them into a grid.

Selfissimo, available for iOS and Android, works like a photo booth for selfies.

At a party or event, you could use this app so people can take photo-booth-style images or take group shots by setting up a tablet somewhere in the room. As soon as you and a bunch of your friends stop moving, the app snaps a photo. Then everybody moves again and strikes a different pose. Do it over and over to get multiple group shots.

Selfissimo is a free app for iOS and Android.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how Selfissimo works for you.

Listen to the show!

Listen now: Play in new window | Download

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

Watch The Journey.
Follow Social Media Examiner on Facebook.
Learn more about Jay Acunzo and watch one of his NPR-style videos.
Take a look at my live vlogging experiment.
Start with the first episode of The Journey.
Explore Facebook Watch.
Check out Survivor, Undercover Boss, Shark Tank, and The Profit.
Learn more about Ai-media.tv and GAIA Media Group.
Explore Vimeo, Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder, and ScreenFlow for Mac.
Find out more about Gary Vaynerchuk’s YouTube channel, Derral Eves’ VidSummit, Joel Comm, Zach King, Chris Dayley, and Tim Paige.
Check out Selfissimo for iOS and Android.
Watch our weekly Social Media Marketing Talk Show on Fridays at 10 AM Pacific on Crowdcast or tune in on Facebook Live.
Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2018.

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Social Media Marketing Podcast 286. In this episode Michael Stelzner talks about how and why we produce our weekly video documentary, The Journey.

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January 26, 2018 at 05:08AM

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Understand the key differences between Generation Z and Millennials

Learn how to market your business on Snapchat

Use Instagram stories

Encourage entrepreneurship

Generation Z has an influence on purchases their parents make

Facebook shouldn’t be your top priority

Generation Z want to make a positive impact on the world

Quality is more important than brand loyalty

Upload content to your YouTube channel

Focus on their love of video games

Conclusion

10 of the best sites for free stock videos

1. Pixabay

2. Pexels

3. Videvo

4. Life of Vids

5. Splitshire

6. Distill

7. Stock Footage 4 Free

8. Videezy

9. Videoblocks

10. Vidsplay

Structure Your Facebook Campaigns for Maximum Return

#1: Introduce Your Brand or Product

#2: Build on Engagement With Warm Audiences

#3: Convert Prospects Into Customers

#4: Fuel Retention and Loyalty

Smoke and mirrors

Biased blackboxes

Guessing games

Watch the Social Media Marketing Talk Show

1. Create a detailed business plan

2. Visit your local bank

3. Seek help from friends and family

4. Venture capitalists (VCs)

5. Angel investors

6. Crowdfunding

7. Dip into your personal savings

8. Look for a strategic partner

9. Try to minimize initial business costs

Conclusion

More About This Show

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Storytelling With Video

Discovery of the Week

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

Amazing WeightLoss

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