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If you’re looking for the best cheap web hosting available, it’s likely for one of two reasons. The first is a kind of “no need to pay a lot for something I’ll hardly use” mentality: you know your website is neither big nor complex nor particularly well-trafficked. Maybe it’s even going to be a temporary site, like for an event. If that sounds like you, we recommend looking into a free website builder first. You might be able to get what you need for no money at all. If that’s not you, you do need hosting. If you’re looking for hosting that’s cheap, it means you’ve decided you don’t need the very best ever — kind of like shopping for a new car knowing you’re more in the market for a Mazda than a Maserati. For those looking for hosting that’s really cheap — we’re talking under $3/month — there are some decent options. Like cars, though, you tend to get what you pay for with web hosts: a higher price tag means smarter technology, a faster site, more customer support, and better security. The customer support alone usually makes the price worth it, and some top-of-the-line shared hosting providers don’t actually cost much at all. The Cheapest Web Hosts
The Best (and Still Pretty Cheap) Web Hosts
What cheap plan is best comes down to who has the most robust Mazda for the least amount of cash. But even that isn’t always straightforward. You’re going to have to do some math. How to Figure Out How Much Your Web Hosting Will CostRemember to compare intro pricing to a plan’s long-term pricingPretty much every web host out there offers some sort of introductory pricing, typically for the length of your first contract. These prices tend to be dramatically lower than the base rate of the plan. (iPage, for example, offers a one-year contract for $3/month. The second year, that same plan bumps up to $10/month.) A provider’s promotional pricing isn’t consistent — throughout the year, some discounts are bigger than others — but it’s pretty much constant. Think of it like shopping at Old Navy: pretty soon, everything will go on sale.
There are a handful providers that don’t participate in much promotional pricing. These hosts tend to scale pricing with the length of the contract: longer contracts mean lower monthly pricing. FastComet sells one of its shared hosting plans for $6/month on a month-to-month basis, but drops it to $3/month if you sign on for three years. Both situations beg the question: What’s the best contract length? There’s no single good answer. The cons of a short-term contract are pretty clear: they are more expensive. Go for a long contract, though, and you lose the flexibility to switch to a different, more interesting, more powerful provider should you outgrow your host’s services or become unhappy with its quality after the initial money-back guarantee period. Three additional costs to keep in mindDepending on what you hope to achieve with your website, the hosting part of a web host’s services isn’t the only price point to consider.
Other Things to Consider When Looking for a Cheap Web HostShopping around for a great cheap web host isn’t all that different than looking for a great web host in general. As we reviewed our top picks for best cheap web host, we took into consideration the following in addition to price:
Our Two Favorite Cheap Web Hosting ProvidersWebHostFace – Best for Multi-Year ContractsWebHostFace is relatively new to the web hosting scene and is making a name for itself with extremely low promotional pricing — we’re talking under a dollar. And because that promotional pricing is available on both short month-to-month contracts as well as big three-year contracts, you can get a lot of hosting for not much money. (That said, at about $7-10/month, its plans’ base rates aren’t all that “cheap.”) Typically, we don’t recommend hosts that are only 5 years old: longevity is a good marker for quality. But for the rock-bottom price, we like WebHostFace’s free Let’s Encrypt SSL and one free assisted site migration. We also like that SSD disk space and CDN is included, which will give websites more optimized performance. There are hard caps on storage space — the cheapest plan tops out at 15GB, the next bigger caps at 20GB. That’s plenty of room for most websites, but something to keep in mind if your site is particularly big or complex. Cheapest Plan
WebHostFace doesn’t offer any promotions or deals on domain registration. We generally recommend registering with a separate domain registrar than your hosting company, and in this case, it makes extra sense. Domain registration through a provider like Namecheap will score you a better deal, and you’ll still get to take advantage of extremely low hosting costs. Hosting Plus Domain Registration and Domain PrivacyPrice for 1 year: $35 Just HostingPrice for 1 year: $8 UpgradingUpgrading to WebHostFace’s middle tier (about $10/month) increases disk space and grants users SSH access. VPS is significantly cheaper than some of the competition, with plans starting as low as $10/month. Namecheap – Best for Monthly and Annual ContractsNamecheap is best known as a domain registrar, but also offers budget hosting with a beautifully intuitive and easy-to-use backend, and a decent knowledge center. Like WebHostFace, it has caps on its storage (the cheapest plan offers 20GB). Unlike WebHostFace, its disk space is SSD-accelerated (as opposed to pure SSD). Not a problem for a simple, low-key website, but something to keep in mind if you’re afraid of sluggish speeds. Also unlike WebHostFace, it charges for an SSL certificate — not great, especially since it’s de rigueur for lots of web hosts to include one for free. Namecheap plays hard in promotional pricing, with first-year discounts on everything from hosting to domain names to SSL certificates. It also offers only two contract lengths — month-to-month or one year — which means you aren’t going to score the mega deals that a host with multi-year contracts can offer. That said, the non-promotional price for its cheapest plan is comparatively low: under $3/month. (WebHostFace’s equivalent plan is nearly $7/month if you’re paying in full). If long-term contracts make you nervous, and you’d prefer to purchase hosting monthly or year-by-year, Namecheap is going to be your best deal. There are two other things we appreciate with Namecheap hosting. The first is domain privacy is free for life if you register your domain with (or transfer it to) Namecheap. This is pretty rare — Dreamhost is one of the only other hosts that offers this add-on for free. Also, migration assistance is included at no cost, which is a nice-to-have if you’re looking for a new host for your existing site. Cheapest Plan
Namecheap is our favorite domain registrar, and it’s the only one we’d even consider hosting a site with — despite it’s less-than-stellar specs. That said, if you’re comfortable paying for web hosting three years at a time, you’re going to get better site performance and more robust customer support for about the same price if you register your domain with Namecheap and host your site on Dreamhost. Registering a Domain and Hosting a Site with NamecheapPrice for 1 year: $26 Registering a Domain with Namecheap and Hosting a Site with DreamhostPrice for 1 year: $56 UpgradingThe next cheapest shared hosting plan jumps to about $5/month (or $52/year), and increases storage limits, email accounts, and some control panel features. Upgrading to VPS starts at $20/month. How Our Other Favorite Web Hosts CompareWhen we reviewed the best web hosts for small businesses, three shared hosting providers stood out with reputations for excellent customer support and even better performance. If you have growth goals for your website, we think one of these hosts is worth the additional expense. In some cases, that expense might not end up being all that extravagant: these providers also deal in promotional pricing and free add-ons. Dreamhost – Cheapest Managed WordPress HostingDreamHost isn’t our favorite web host ever. It has enough little quirks — like a custom, non-universal control panel and phone support you have to pay to use — to keep it out of our top slot for lots of small businesses. But, when you compare it to “cheap” web hosts, it’s a pretty stellar deal, especially considering even its lowest-tier shared hosting plan has managed WordPress hosting built right in. On top of that, DreamHost provides a free SSL and free domain privacy (if you choose to register your domain through DreamHost), and it offers a massive 97-day money-back guarantee. There’s no promotional pricing with DreamHost either, which means you can get 50GB of storage and unlimited traffic for under $3/month, if you opt for a three year contract. Buy a plan year by year and you’ll get it for just under $4/month. InMotion Hosting – Best Customer SupportWe think of InMotion as the Subaru of web hosts: it’s an all-around provider with a solid reputation. It especially stands out for its customer support, with a knowledge center that’s recognized as one of the best in the business. It also offers a full 90-day money-back guarantee — second longest only to Dreamhost. For those looking for cheap web hosting, its plans are discounted at a fairly comfortable $4-5/month, depending on whether you opt for a two-year or one-year contract. After that, shared hosting runs about $8/month. SiteGround – Best ReputationSiteGround has a glowing reputation and the performance to back it up — it’s typically one of the first hosts to introduce new and developing technology to its shared hosting customers. If you’re looking for excellent web hosting, you’ll be very happy with SiteGround. If you’re looking for cheap hosting, you probably won’t go for it. At around $4/month, its promotional pricing is on par with lots of other web hosts. But after your initial contract (either one, two, or three years) that price triples to $12/month. Other Cheap Web Hosts We Considered1&1 Ionos offers big shared hosting plans (100GB) for a dollar a month for the first year before bumping up to $8/month. It also offers a sort of “pay for what you use” model when it comes to traffic — its cheapest plans can accommodate around 100 visitors/minutes. To be able to handle more, you can either pay $2/month per “performance level” (up to level 5) or upgrade to higher-tier plan. Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosts around — along with SiteGround and Dreamhost, it’s one of WordPress’s three recommended web hosts. We like it, but don’t love it. For the same price (about $4/month for the first contract and then $8/month) you can go with InMotion, which offers similar specs, but better customer support, higher ratings, and a longer free trial. Bluehost does stand out for offering a five-year contract, though. InMotion caps out at two years. FastComet offers cloud hosting for reasonable rates. It’s an interesting option for those looking for fast performance and dependable uptime, but isn’t the cheapest option out there. FastComet scales pricing with contract length: opt for a three-year contract, and you’ll get hosting for under $3/month, while month-to-month hosting runs about $6. Hostgator is another extremely popular host with decent pricing, especially if you sign up during a good sale and lock into a nice, long, three-year contract. Like Bluehost, though, its technical specs are similar to InMotion’s and for available for a similar price: about $7/month. We prefer InMotion. Hostinger is the closest contender to a runner-up for great cheap web hosting. It’s not quite as cheap as WebHostFace, though, plus its plans are smaller (10GB) and it only includes a free SSL on its highest tier of shared hosting. A couple of things we do like, though: one free site migration, and the promise of a 24-hour turnaround on all help tickets. iPage is a budget sister provider to popular web hosts Hostgator and Bluehost, and stands out for offering only one shared hosting plan at deep discounts for its long-term contracts: hosting for under $2/month for three years before it bumps up to around $7-10/month. Pretty cheap, but you can do better with both Namecheap and WebHostFace, especially considering storage isn’t SSD and migrating a site will run you a whopping $150. Recap: The Best Cheap Web Hosting
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How to Segment Your Audience By Motivation (and Why You Should) https://ift.tt/2rcLsAZ One of the greatest advantages of social media marketing is being able to broadcast to an enormous audience. Facebook alone has on the order of 2.2 billion monthly active users, and there’s practically no ceiling to how many users you can engage. However, increasing the sheer number of people you reach isn’t always the best course of action. Instead, it’s better to segment your audience by different dimensions, including motivation, so you can focus on them individually and drive more relevant engagements. Examples of SegmentationAudience segmentation is an important concept in marketing, but in case you aren’t familiar, it refers to any effort designed to focus on one subsection of your core audience at a time. If you’re segmenting by motivation, that means you’re focusing on a group of users based on why they might interact with you. For example, if you’re creating content for people who are planning bachelor parties, you could segment that audience by focusing on those who want a clean party, and those who want a raunchier experience. If you’re creating content for business owners, you could differentiate between those who became entrepreneurs to retire early, and those who want to create a legacy for their family. Why Motivational Segments MatterSo why are these segments important?
Defining Your SegmentsOne of the biggest challenges you’ll face is defining your segments, both to come up with how to differentiate your audience segments and to determine what types of content will work best for those audiences. One effective tactic here is conducting surveys to your broader audience, asking them why they follow your brand and what types of content they’d like to see in the future. You can also monitor your analytics more closely, evaluating which actions your followers take after becoming familiar with your brand (such as buying specific products or visiting specific pages). From there, you’ll need to experiment with different types of content and different voices until you find combinations that work for each of your segments. Applying Your SegmentsOf course, you’ll also need to ensure those segments are getting your content appropriately. You can apply your marketing segments on social media with the following:
The better you understand your demographics’ motivations in following your brand, the more opportunities you’ll have to market to them specifically. It takes time to truly understand those audience segments, and write content that they’ll appreciate, but when successful, you’ll break away from the competition and nurture more engagement with your most loyal followers. The post How to Segment Your Audience By Motivation (and Why You Should) appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 28, 2018 at 11:19AM
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Watch this poor iguana and his dinner fall off the damn counter https://ift.tt/2TSXH2T Think you're having a rough day? It's probably not as rough as this iguana's. On Tuesday night, right before taking the first bite of his dinner, Twitter user @connerhallmark's iguana had a tragic fall. Right as he was inching towards his paper towel topped with lettuce and tomato — a salad, we'll call it — he slipped off his chair and plummeted to the floor. And the worst part? His front claw caught the paper towel on the way down, pulling his dinner off the counter with him. You can view the dramatic footage below. The owner of this poor iguana tweeted the four-second long Snapchat video of the incident, appropriately captioned "NOOO," and further explained to followers the dinner date did not go as planned. Read more... More about Animals, Social Media, Web Culture, Iguana, and CultureSocial Media via Mashable https://ift.tt/2DCFv97 November 28, 2018 at 11:02AM
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How Blockchain Is Changing the Digital Marketing Industry https://ift.tt/2FJdTAY Cryptocurrencies have been a hot topic lately to say the least. You probably heard about Bitcoin years ago—the most popular cryptocurrency with the most media coverage. In the early days, it was primarily used for transactions on the dark web. But today, cryptocurrencies have evolved and are starting to gain traction. Everyone knows someone with a cryptocurrency story. Either a friend, family member, or a friend of a friend invested in Bitcoin years ago and made a fortune off it. Or maybe you’ve talked to someone who regrets selling too early before some of the most recent surges took place. That said, I didn’t create this guide to spark a cryptocurrency debate. Everyone has an opinion on this method of payment, and I don’t want to get into all the pros and cons. Instead, I want to focus on one specific area that makes this technology work. Blockchain. On the surface level, people associate blockchain with buying and selling cryptocurrencies, but it’s much more than that. As a marketer, you need to recognize the latest trends and understand how blockchain technology works. It will potentially impact your business today and in the future. It’s in your best interest to start educating yourself now. Even if you’re not planning to implement cryptocurrency as a payment method just yet, knowing the concepts of blockchain is still important because it’s changing the digital marketing industry. Here’s what you need to know. What is blockchain?Let’s start with the basics. Blockchain technology can be compared to a shared ledger or an open record system. These records are used to keep track of different transactions. There are multiple uses for the records on file. As I said before, cryptocurrency is what comes to mind first. But blockchain can also be used to keep track of data such as home records, voting records, and medical information. Each transaction is segmented by blocks, hence the name. These blocks get verified by other users within the system. Blocks cannot be changed once they are verified. The permanent blocks become added to a chain of other blocks that have already been validated as well. It may sound a bit confusing, but here’s a great visual representation of the way blockchain works: Right now, people are constantly buying and selling goods on the web. You might be one of those people. But let’s look at third-party marketplace websites such as eBay. Marketplaces turn a profit by charging buyers and sellers fees to use their platforms. If you buy something on eBay, the platform will use your bank and the seller’s bank to verify the transaction. They will also confirm that the buyer and product actually exist. Blockchain technology allows buyers and sellers to cut out these middlemen. This makes it possible to process transactions without the need of a third-party marketplace. There won’t be any banks involved or transaction fees associated with the purchase either. Neither party will have to worry about exchange rates, even for international purchases. It’s supposed to be a safe and fast way to make transactions. Blockchain is the backbone behind peer-to-peer electronic payments. The first blockchain was created when the first cryptocurrency was created. The software is open-source, allowing anyone to see the coding and make modifications to it. Next, different people and companies came out with different versions of blockchain without using the original coding. Any user can see transactions made with blockchain. They are visible to everyone, even when completed between two people. While the blockchains are visible to anyone, the identities of the users can remain anonymous: Instead of having a name, each user in the system has a public address. Algorithms can be written to automate the transactions. This is similar to the way you pay a Spotify subscription each month with your credit card. Now that you understand the basics of how blockchain works, I’ll show you how this technology is being used to revolutionize the digital marketing industry. Middlemen in digital marketing can be eliminatedBlockchain technology makes it possible for advertisers to avoid middlemen. Right now, marketers go through third parties to handle their advertisements. Let’s go through an example. Let’s say a company wants to offer banner advertisements on its website. But it doesn’t want to sell its ad space to just anyone. Ads linking to low authority or sketchy businesses won’t add credibility to your website. How does this company proceed? It goes through a platform such as Google. In this case, Google will act as the middleman. By participating in Google Adsense, the company is assured that it will be connected only with credible businesses that want to buy advertising space. This process makes both parties feel secure about the ads. The site selling the space knows it won’t have any malicious content from unreputable brands being displayed on its pages. Furthermore, the company buying the advertisement knows that its ads will be run on legitimate sites. Google processes the transaction and charges a fee for its part in the deal. That’s the current system that marketers are using without blockchain technology: Now, let’s apply the blockchain concepts to this example. Companies won’t have the need to go through a third-party platform such as Google with the blockchain structure. That’s because blockchain users can be verified through its networks. People would know they’re getting what they’re paying for as opposed to potentially paying for clicks that aren’t genuine. It’s still a safe and secure way to process each transaction. Blockchain, ultimately, eliminates the need for intermediaries in the procedure: Don’t get me wrong. Google and its advertising platform aren’t going anywhere just yet. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s still arguably the biggest powerhouse in the marketing industry. I’m not telling you to ditch your Google AdSense strategy either. All I’m saying is the concepts behind blockchain technology will make it possible for companies to avoid these types of third-party platforms. Ditching the middleman will make advertisements more profitable since marketers won’t have to pay additional fees for the transactions. Consumers can control contentAs a marketer, you don’t want to hear this, but consumers don’t want to see ads all the time. That’s why ad blocking penetration continues to rise each year in the United States: People have different reasons for using ad blockers. According to a recent study, 51% of people justify their use of ad blockers because it’s their Internet experience and they want to be in complete control of it. Other top results from the survey include convenience and wanting on-demand content without waiting for an ad to load. In some instances, it seems ads have grown out of control. But that’s the nature of the modern digital world. Ad targeting has become much better with new technology. The ability, for example, to use lifetime value to create Facebook audiences that convert makes it much easier for businesses to reach their target markets. Sometimes when a customer makes a transaction or gives out their information to one party, they receive advertisements even when they never opted in to it. Blockchain technology can give consumers the right to charge companies for their contact information. If a company wants a consumer to subscribe to their newsletter, the customer can reply with their price to receive that content. For example, each consumer who reads an email could cost brands fractions of a cent. Transactions would be processed through cryptocurrencies automatically. This concept gives consumers complete control over who has their information. It will also make it more challenging for marketers to showcase their relevance and level of importance to the consumer. Brands will need to learn how to create a highly effective value proposition in these instances. Transparency and accountability will build trustIt’s not always easy for brands to gain the trust of their consumers. This is especially true for smaller, less-known businesses. With so much information out there, people have become skeptical about what they’re being told and which brands are telling the truth. People want answers. They want to know where their food is coming from. They want to make sure their clothes are coming from factories with appropriate working conditions for the employees. Trust has a major impact on purchasing decisions: Blockchain will force businesses to become more transparent about their operations. That’s because every step and record can be verified and documented for everyone to see on these open source networks. Consumers can have complete access to the supply chain of a retailer or distributor. This type of information will show everyone exactly how and where their products are being manufactured. Each step of the process is tracked with blockchain. Since this information will become public record, companies will be held more accountable for their actions. They can’t claim their goods were manufactured in a factory with good health conditions if that’s not true. Otherwise, it won’t be verified in the blockchain. Do you think this sounds crazy? Too good to be true? Think again. Companies have already started doing this. I recently read a case study on this subject conducted with IBM and Walmart. It covers the supply chain process with blockchain technology: Technology was used to track where the products were coming from. In this case, it was tracking food. The idea was to trace the source and supply chain of pork products through each step of the supply chain. It started all the way back in China—the world’s largest pork producer. Blockchain holds companies accountable and builds trust between the brand and their customers. This is a brand’s way of showing everyone it has nothing to hide. With blockchain technology, the public can see digital contracts between two parties. This forces everyone involved to keep up their end of the deal. Security must be a priorityWith this technology becoming part of our lives fast, businesses need to prioritize security more than ever. Don’t get me wrong, businesses always needed to emphasize website security and protecting customer information. However, since blockchain can be used to process transactions, malicious advertisements could potentially become an issue. People are already concerned about malicious malware and viruses when it comes to their privacy and ads: As a result of these concerns, we should see a growth in the fraud verification industry. They will implement blockchain technology. The verifications required to add blocks in this system can prevent criminals and bots from stealing precious information. Businesses will accept more alternative payment methodsRight now, you probably can’t walk into your local coffee shop and buy something with Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. But we may not be too far from those days. Some companies are already preparing to adapt to alternative payment types: Only about 9% of businesses plan to accept Bitcoin within the next three years. We’re still not at the point where it has penetrated the mass consumer market. But this could be approaching us faster than you might think. Blockchain technology is making this possible. As a business owner, you need to recognize this and at least prepare yourself to adapt when these types of payments gain more traction at the mass consumer level. ConclusionBlockchain is almost always associated with processing cryptocurrency payments. However, this technology can be used for much more than that. Its applications have the ability to change the digital marketing world as we know it. Blockchain gives marketers the ability to cut out middlemen when buying or selling advertisements, such as a PPC campaign. Consumers will have more control over which companies can send them information. Since blockchain transactions are an open ledger for anyone to see, businesses will be held accountable for their actions and forced to be more transparent. Your business might not be ready to accept cryptocurrency just yet, and I’m not saying it should be. But it should keep an eye on this emerging trend in the coming years. How is your company preparing for digital marketing changes associated with blockchain technology? Social Media via Quick Sprout https://ift.tt/UU7LJr November 28, 2018 at 10:07AM
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The 8 Moments That Changed Social Media in 2018 https://ift.tt/2TSxtO7 The Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s algorithmic turbulence, API changes, and the arrival of GDPR—2018 brought big shifts to our industry. As we enter the final days of 2018, I’d like to take a look back at the 8 moments that changed social media this year. I’ll also offer a few actionable tips and resources you can use to adapt to these new changes. While I’m looking in the rearview mirror, our research team at Hootsuite has been busy researching the future. On December 5th, we launch our 2019 Social Trends report and webinar. You’ll learn the new forces shaping social media in 2019. Save your spot here. Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence. 8 of the biggest social media moments in 20181. The great Facebook algorithmic update of 2018The year began with a roar. On January 11th, the Prince of Palo Alto, Mark Zuckerberg, made an announcement on his personal Facebook page. “We’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content—posts from businesses, brands and media—is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” Mr. Zuckerberg explained. In a follow-up press release, Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed, explained that Facebook’s algorithm would “prioritize posts from friends and family over public content.” In particular, Facebook took specific aim at the following types of content:
While it was clear that content would have a harder time gaining organic traction, Facebook suggested new ways for brands to approach content distribution on Facebook. For example, Facebook explicitly stated that “page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in News Feed.” Live videos, for example, often create more discussion and interaction than passive content. According to internal data from Facebook, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos. Facebook Groups—which now count 100 million members—have also been touted as new sources for brands to build customer communities and increase their organic reach. 2. Mark Zuckerberg heads to CongressIn 2018, data privacy took center stage. Soon after the Cambridge Analytica scandal—in which a political consultancy accessed 87 million Facebook profiles—Zuckerberg was called to Congress. He testified at two hearings in two days, with 10 hours of questioning from 91 lawmakers. Zuckerberg’s appearance in Congress was political theatre. But marketers felt the effects of this political pressure. Facebook soon restricted access to their APIs, (affecting platforms like Hootsuite and our competitors), restricted ad targeting options, and reduced many of the granular ways marketers could target with features such as custom audiences. 3. The hammer of GDPR fallsIf you’re like me, you’ve been leaking personal data all over the internet since 1999. Weak passwords, my indiscriminate clicking of ‘Which Friends Character Are You?’ Facebook quizzes—my privacy life is a hot mess! While consumers tend to leak data online, The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) is designed to protect them against unscrupulous companies. As one lawyer eloquently put it, “The GDPR is an attempt to strengthen, harmonize, and modernize EU data protection law and enhance individual rights and freedoms, consistent with the European understanding of privacy as a fundamental human right.” In the past, it was assumed that things like social security numbers, physical addresses, email addresses were personal. But GDPR expanded the scope of personal information to include things that marketers typically exploit such as IP addresses, behavioral data, location data, biometric data, financial information, and much more. If you work at a large company, you likely had a team responsible for making sure your marketing programs are GDPR compliant. If you work as a consultant or at a smaller company, do you really need to care about GDPR? Yep. Especially if you are doing the following things in your marketing:
Complying with GDPR takes a bit of work and would be too much to explain in this blog post. This resource from Reforge, a growth marketing blog, is the most practical guide I’ve found. It also includes a fantastic explanation of what consent means in a GDPR world. 4. IGTV and Facebook Watch go globalSource: InstagramIn 2014, Zuckerberg was widely quoted that the News Feed would be “mostly video” in five years time. But in 2018, this story took a turn. Public content—which is mostly video—was targeted by the algorithm update. And Facebook is looking for way to capture those valuable video views beyond the crowded News Feed. On June 20th, Instagram launched IGTV, a standalone app for longer video. Facebook Watch—Facebook’s video platform that features made-for-social TV shows and longer content—was also rolled out globally. The company has not shared much data on the user adoption of these new video platforms, so this will be a story to follow in 2019. Features that will be of interest to video creators are Facebook’s Ad Breaks program, giving publishers new ways to monetize. IGTV is still new. But there’s lots of opportunity for video publishers—especially if you offer niche content—as video discovery and searching is on the rise in Instagram. 5. Instagram shakes up the ecommerce world with shoppable mediaOn September 17th, Instagram announced the arrival of shoppable media. This is a giant leap forward for social commerce, with Instagram reporting that 90 million accounts are already using tags in shopping posts on Instagram every month. Now, your business can use shoppable posts and shoppable stories. The days of asking customers to shop your “link in bio” are over, creating a smoother and more direct shopping experience within the app. There are also rumours that Instagram is building a standalone shopping app called “IG Shopping.” Whether or not that rumour is true, they did launch a Shopping channel in Explore, helping more people discover new products and creating a specific place within the network to do so. Instagram’s push into ecommerce creates a giant new revenue source for the company, as well as new opportunities for smaller retail merchants to reach passionate customers around the world. Four in five Instagram users follow at least one business. And Facebook reports that one in three daily active Instagrammers surveyed in BR, ID, UK and the US say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it on Instagram Stories. You can learn some best practices for creating effective Story advertising content here. 6. Tech stocks stumbleOn July 26th, Facebook’s stock tumbled into a sell-off, spiraling from $215 per share to $176 per share. The drop was caused by Facebook’s warning that revenue growth would slow in the coming years, as costs (including increased spending on security and content moderation measures) increased. Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence. Get the free guide right now!Likewise, Snapchat had a tumultuous year. Snapchat has struggled with user growth beyond their core demographic of 13- to 34-year-olds. According to data from Statista, Snapchat had 186 million daily active users on average, down from 191 million in the first three months of 2018. Snapchat’s troubles show how hard it is for a new platform to compete against the established giants. We’re seeing tools and networks consolidate as the industry matures. For social media professionals, I believe this consolidation offers an incredible opportunity. It’s a safe bet to specialize your skills in the major networks and build more focused marketing strategies. Professionals with specific skills—such as master Facebook ad buyers, experts in Instagram ecommerce features, or talented video creators who understand the social viewing experience—will be highly valued in the next era of social, rather than the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ social media managers that have typified the profession in previous years. 7. TikTok tops the video chartsWeChat, Sina Weibo, and Alibaba’s Youku have struggled to gain ground outside of China. But recently, the social video app TikTok charged into hypergrowth, amassing more than half a billion users with around 40 percent of them outside China across 150 countries and regions. CNBC reports that TikTok was the world’s most downloaded iOS app during the first half of 2018, beating app downloads of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Adding fuel to the fire, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance acquired the popular teen video app Musical.ly and migrated their 200 million users into TikTok. The mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower found that in the third quarter of 2018, TikTok increased their downloads by 5X year-over-year and now rank among the top three social video apps in the world (alongside Instagram and Vigo, which is also owned by ByteDance). ByteDance is apparently now looking to secure new investment from SoftBank, with a valuation of $75 billion. This would rank ByteDance as one of the most valuable startups in the world alongside Uber. We’re starting to see brands use TikTok to increase brand awareness or launch new products. The retail brand Guess launched the first ever branded content campaign in September. Their campaign targeted millennials with their #InMyDenim hashtag challenge. “Trends often originate on TikTok and GUESS is known for being ahead of the trends,” explained Matty Lin, Director of Brand Partnerships at TikTok US. Burger King also recently partnered with TikTok. They created a “lick your elbow” challenge to promote a new burger, asking users to post funny videos of themselves. If you’re trying to reach younger demographics (especially with B2C products), then search for rising video stars on TiKTok to recruit into your influencer programs. While there is opportunity for brands to be seen as innovative by using TikTok, we’ve seen similar networks quickly rise and fall before. In November, Facebook also quietly launched a clone video app called Lasso in the US market. In the past, Facebook’s aggressive copy-cat strategies have crushed competitors before, so we’ll see how this video battle plays out in 2019. 8. Stories grow 15X faster than feedsFrom the rise of messaging (WhatsApp and Facebook have grown over 30 percent year-over-year) to the explosion of story-based sharing, consumers are moving towards one-to-one personal communication. At Facebook’s annual developer conference in May, chief product officer Chris Cox revealed that “the Stories format is on a path to surpass feeds as the primary way people share things with their friends sometime next year.” According to Facebook’s internal data, stories are growing 15 times faster than feeds. Stories are the format of the future. They change how we share information, how we communicate, and create new rules for the types of advertising that users will permit in these private spaces. Brands that quickly learn these new rules—both for organic and paid content formats—will have an edge in the coming year. So what should you do to prepare?We’ll be discussing these shifts—as well as outlining other key forces shaping the social landscape–in our annual Social Trends webinar and global report. In this data-packed webinar, you’ll hear our 2019 predictions, gain new insights from our survey of 3,255+ of social media professionals and leave with cutting-edge best practices from the world’s brightest social brands. The post The 8 Moments That Changed Social Media in 2018 appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management. Social Media via Hootsuite Social Media Management https://ift.tt/1LdunxE November 28, 2018 at 08:39AM
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6 Instagram Lead Generation Tactics https://ift.tt/2FMHcSX Do you have an engaged audience on Instagram? Want to convert your Instagram followers into leads? In this article, you’ll discover how to combine calls to action with Instagram features to capture more leads for your business. #1: Link Your Profile Bio to a Lead Generating Landing Page To best capture leads on Instagram, you’ll […] The post 6 Instagram Lead Generation Tactics appeared first on Social Media Examiner. Social Media via Social Media Examiner https://ift.tt/1LtH18p November 28, 2018 at 05:02AM
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Top 10 Instagram Automation Platforms of 2019 https://ift.tt/2FJ80nd If there’s anything that 2018 had proved, it was that Instagram wasn’t just another flash in the pan. It’s here to stay, and it’s only going to get even bigger in the coming year. Not only is Instagram the fastest growing social network, but it’s become one of the central hubs for commerce on the internet. Businesses and influencers from every imaginable industry are on it, all of them trying to reach a greater audience. Some achieve success over time. The rest find themselves stuck in the never-ending loop of trying to push a metaphorical boulder uphill. Regardless of the outcome, it’s an strenuous endeavor that is far more exhausting than it needs to be. The solution is automation. There are countless tools out there for Instagram that can lighten the load for you. They accomplish this by accessing your account and connecting with others in your place. Not sure where to start looking for one before 2019 arrives? Here’s a list of the ten best Instagram automation platforms around right now: 1. SocialCaptainAs it stands, you can’t really top SocialCaptain when it comes to Instagram automation. It offers an excellent set of targeting features, live analytics, and an AI-enhanced boosting module. Another remarkable thing about SocialCaptain is the sheer speed at which it stimulates growth. Its Turbo plan is 10x faster than the average automation service. With it you can get your follower count up and off the ground in a snap. 2. SocialUpgradeThere are some automation services that try to deceive you into thinking that they’re working. A trick that they often use is having bot accounts follow you and pad out your numbers. You can rest assured that’s not the case with SocialUpgrade, though. SocialUpgrade promises that all of the accounts that it interacts with are real people. The growth that you receive is purely organic, which guarantees that there will be actual engagement with your posts. In turn, this will boost your account’s visibility higher than ever. 3. Gold NitroSecurity is one of the biggest concerns with navigating the internet today. As you may have noticed in the news lately, a disconcerting amount of platforms have failed at protecting their users’ sensitive information. It’s understandably made many nervous about who they trust. Gold Nitro is an automation tool dedicated to protecting its customers from harm. It utilizes top-level encryption to safeguard any data you share with it. It also has defenses in place to make sure that your Instagram account isn’t stolen and used without your permission. 4. Instant DashYou’ve probably heard somebody tell you to “try before you buy.” It’s a pretty sound piece of advice all around. With Instant Dash’s generous 14 day free trial, you are given more than enough time to judge whether the service is for you. While you’re trying it out, feel free to talk to their on-hand account managers. They will happily assist you in understanding the different settings and make sure that you are maximizing the tool to its full potential. 5. Falcon SocialSome services go beyond just automating your activity. Falcon Social, for instance, will provide you with content consulting if you opt to go with their Premium or Pro membership plans. This is an amazing deal considering that it costs the same as most other automation platforms. Their teams of digital marketing experts study your account and its intended audience, and then help you with formulating more effective strategies. This includes guidance on various areas, from the most optimal post times to which types of captions tend to provoke more responses. 6. GramflareWith their plans as low as $7 per week and $25 per month, Gramflare is easily one of the most affordable services on this list. Don’t worry about getting a lower quality experience as a result, though. Gramflare should satisfy most users’ needs. Even with their cheapest plans, you still get full access to all of their features, such as their post scheduler, growth analytics tools, and location targeting settings. This makes them a perfect choice for anybody working on a smaller budget. 7. InstazoodA lot of automation platforms are limited to only liking, following, and unfollowing. A decent chunk of them will also do comments for you. Instazood goes above and beyond by not only covering all of the above, but also handling your DMs and post scheduling as well. Instazood is ideal for anybody who wants to focus on their content or business concerns without bothering with the social media elements. With such a versatile system, it’s almost like your account is operating itself. 8. EXPLOD SocialXPLOD Social is another service that does consulting as part of its package. In fact, it has just about everything you’d want from an automation tool. You get performance reports, 24/7 support, targeting filters, posting recommendations, and much more. There’s one additional thing that XPLOD Social certainly has in its favor: big name endorsements. The service is has been used and approved by brands such as Toyota, Audi, and CORE Nutrition. If it meets their standards, then it surely should fulfill most everybody else’s. 9. UpleapUpleap is fairly unique in its approach to automation. After you sign up, you are immediately partnered with one of their account managers. This person is assigned to oversee your account and assist you with customizing it to your specifications. Upleap has three tiers of plans, with both monthly and yearly options. Their Lite plan is geared for influencers getting started. Meanwhile, their Standard and Premium plans are more intended for intermediates and businesses looking to kick it up a notch. 10. DroplittThe core idea behind Droplitt is simplicity. It aims to make using Instagram as uncomplicated as possible. This means that if you wanted, you could automate almost all of your actions: reposts, DMs, follows, comments, likes, and everything else. The only things you absolutely have to do is upload your content, write a caption, and set a date for its publication. Droplitt will take care of the rest for you, once it has been configured and set. The post Top 10 Instagram Automation Platforms of 2019 appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 27, 2018 at 05:40PM
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Absolute moo-nit: Look at this really big cow https://ift.tt/2RkHx0r Friends, gather round. We'd like you to look at this really big cow (OK, steer) named Knickers, who is six feet, three inches tall and currently dwarfing his peers on a farm in Western Australia. Knickers, a seven-year-old Holstein Friesian, who was originally purchased to lead other cattle around, currently holds the unofficial title of Australia's biggest bovine representative. He weighs 1.4 tonnes, which is about 3,086 pounds. A lot! See if you can spot him in this video from 7 News in Brisbane. It's OK; take your time. More about Twitter, Australia, Social Media, Cow, and CultureSocial Media via Mashable https://ift.tt/2DCFv97 November 27, 2018 at 04:41PM The Business Of Fake YouTube Views Has Got To Stop https://ift.tt/2r724dF YouTube has a dirty little secret that many users have already figured out: it’s entirely possible to boost the number of views for any single video on the site, as long as you’re willing to pay. As part of an ongoing investigation into the whole “fake followers” aspect to social media, the New York Times recently did a deep dive into YouTube, and what they found wasn’t pretty: the web is filled with hundreds of companies guaranteeing inflated views on YouTube, and YouTube is relatively powerless to stop this practice of selling fake views. The “fake views” problemIn fact, if you consider that Facebook has a “fake news” problem, then YouTube definitely has a “fake views” problem. The classic YouTube scheme goes something like this: a would-be YouTube superstar contacts a company selling fake views, and orders a fixed number of views, ranging in size from 500 new views to 5 million new views. As soon as they pay the fees, the views “magically” appear on the YouTube video, sometimes within days, and sometimes within weeks (if you are ordering 1 million+ views). As you might imagine, those aren’t real people watching your videos, even though YouTube treats them as real views. Instead, most of the YouTube scammers simply use bots to generate the views. In some cases, the fake view sellers employ other tricks as well, all designed to trick the YouTube algorithm into thinking a real person is watching every video from start to beginning. If nobody “real” is watching the videos, then what’s the point?If you’re still asking that question, then you obviously haven’t spent any appreciable time on social media recently. Today, “views” and “likes” are all that matters. Watch any YouTube video, and the video creator will likely implore you to click the like button, subscribe and watch even more videos. The YouTube algorithm rewards views and likes, and so it’s no surprise that content creators are always on the lookout for ways to get both of them as easily as possible. What the YouTube scammers have figured out is that a lot of people are willing to pay a relatively modest sum (as in just pennies for each view) in order to appear popular, influential or important on YouTube. The New York Times found that musicians were among the biggest buyers of fake views, mostly because music-ranking sites take YouTube views into consideration. Other big buyers of fake YouTube views were celebrities, marketing agencies, and even political lobbying groups. Fake followers, fake likes and now fake viewsSo the big question becomes: Is the process of buying YouTube views unethical? Those questioned by the New York Times tended to claim that they were deceived by the whole scheme because it all looked so official – after all, companies were blatantly advertising their services online. It’s not like they were going to the Dark Web to buy something from a shady offshore operator. Thus, many people see nothing unethical with buying views. After all, the practice of buying followers and likes on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is pretty much par for the course these days. How will YouTube react?In fact, even YouTube seems puzzled by how to stop this practice because it is done so openly and brazenly. In public, YouTube will claim that only a relatively small number of views (about 1% of total views) are fake. In private, though, YouTube employees privately joke about “The Inversion” – the point in time where fake views so overwhelm the number of real views that the YouTube algorithm “flips” and begins to consider all fake views as real, and all real views as fake. That’s a scary thought, and it’s obvious that YouTube needs to do more than just state publicly that fake views are against its Terms of Service, or use automated bots of its own to remove fake views generated by other automated bots. View selling is so popular, in fact, that it might be the case that the only way to stop the practice entirely is to remove the view counter that lurks below each and every YouTube video. The post The Business Of Fake YouTube Views Has Got To Stop appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 27, 2018 at 03:38PM 'Frat boy billionaire' Mark Zuckerberg shamed by international lawmakers for not attending hearing11/27/2018
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'Frat boy billionaire' Mark Zuckerberg shamed by international lawmakers for not attending hearing https://ift.tt/2P5Ggsi Lawmakers from nine different countries openly mocked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for not attending a hearing in the UK. On Tuesday, two dozen lawmakers from nine international parliaments convened in London for the inaugural “International Grand Committee on Disinformation.” The intended purpose of the event was to grill Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over the company's scandals involving fake news. While representatives from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore, and the UK were in attendance, one individual was glaringly absent: Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder and CEO was repeatedly asked to attend by the committee. The social media company sent its Vice President of Public Policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Richard Allan, in Zuckerberg’s place. Allan was seated next to an empty chair designated for his boss for the entirety of the event. Facebook’s policy chief apologized to the committee for Zuckerberg’s absence. The Facebook founder’s decision to skip the hearing did not sit well with lawmakers.
"We've never seen anything quite like Facebook, where while we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions ... seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California," said Charlie Angus, a representative from Canada. At the committee meeting, one British lawmaker, Damian Collins, unveiled a new piece of information regarding unusual Russia-linked activity on Facebook. According to internal company documents, a Facebook engineer warned the social media giant of a data issue involving Russia in 2014 — earlier than Facebook has previously publicly admitted.
"An engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses had been using a Pinterest API key to pull over three billion data points a day through the Ordered Friends API," said Collins. Collins, who heads the British parliamentary committee on disinformation, made headlines this past weekend when he invoked a "rare parliamentary mechanism" in order to obtain internal Facebook. The British lawmaker has yet to release the internal Facebook documents, but claims he has full power to do so. The same documents are currently under a court seal in the U.S. Social Media via Mashable https://ift.tt/2DCFv97 November 27, 2018 at 09:54AM |
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