TL;DR | 2018 Yellow (the artist formerly known as Sensis) Social Media Report | Part 1

A Yellow rose by any other name…

The much-loved Sensis Social Media Report has changed its name. It’s now the Yellow Social Media Report. But what’s in a name? It’s still going to give you the same delicious stats and facts as always, just with a brighter background.

If you’re into Social Media, or data about the way businesses are using it, this report has something for you!

For the last 2 years I have brought you a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) summary of the report, and it’s always one of my most-read posts! This year I’m doing it again. I’ll highlight my main takeaways of the report from my opinion as a Social Media practitioner in regard to the way Western Australian’s and WA businesses are using Social Media.

Why the Yellow Social Media Report?

Why do we love this report so much?

The main reason the Australian Social Media community gets excited about this particular report is because even though there’s a LOT of data out there, it can be tough to find anything that reflects an Australian audience. We’re a big country with a small population and we just aren’t like anyone else.

Another reason is it’s incredibly important to stay up to date in this fast-moving industry. Trends shift in the blink of an eye, and as a Social Media professional (or a small business owner looking after your own businesses Socials) you need to keep up with usage trends to get the best from your efforts.

The Yellow Social Media Report has been asking (mostly) the same questions for the past 7 years, so it’s become somewhat of an authority piece.

Start to Finish

Did you know that the first thing nearly 60% of Australians do every day is use Social Media? It’s how they finish their day, too! I know I’m in that 60%…

62% of Australians use Social Media daily to connect to friends and family – and 60% open their Social Media more than 5 times per day, across an average of 3.5 “internet connected” devices.

Mostly we’re there to connect with people we know – but 44% of Aussies follow brands on Social (up from 25% last year) and they are using your presence to find out more about your business and check your reviews.

Facebook – STILL not dead.

People tell me Facebook is dead. Or that it “doesn’t work for my business” but maybe you’re not giving your audience what it wants, because it’s the most widely used Social Media platform in Australia – consuming an average of 10 hours per week of our time.

94% of Western Australians surveyed use Facebook, and it’s the same as last years result, despite people saying they’re going to #deletefacebook. This is also way out in front of second placed YouTube at 44%.

Message Me

It’s the same when we move to private messaging services, with Facebook Messenger coming out way in front in WA 79% for Messenger and 30% for Facebook’s other messenger option – WhatsApp. None of the others even came close.

Yellow Social Media Report - pic 2 — These are the Australia-wide figures

Live and let LIVE

Us sandgropers are not really embracing Facebook live – with 79% saying they have neither watched nor published a Live broadcast. Are we a bit behind? A bit camera-shy? Maybe we’ll catch up in next years report…

Tell it like it is!

We’re also behind all other states when it comes to publishing Snapchat, Instagram & Facebook Stories with 74% saying they have never published a story on the 3 channels.

Down to Business…

Why do we need to know all this stuff about how people use the platforms? Because it’ll help us as brands get our messages seen and acted on most effectively.

33% of us check out a brand’s social media presence before making our first online purchase from them. WHat if there’s nothing there when they look? Or something old and out of date? Not a good look!

40% of West Aussies said they had provided an online review (we’re the second last state for this – coming in last is SA) and people from the ACT shared the most opinions with 52%.

Only 12% of WA folks said they stopped following a brand in the past year. Mostly they did this because their content was irrelevant or unappealing – or they just posted too often.

Western Australians aren’t very trusting of news on Social Media, with only 20% trusting news on Social Media or news their friends posted on Social Media. We prefer our news on the news, thanks.

We’re also the state who cares least about likes, and the least likely to check our phones while eating with family and friends, so that’s good news.

So there you have it – that’s the Part 1 wrap up – Part 2 of the report should be out soon, letting us know more about brands and businesses use of Social Media.

What did you think of my wrapup of the report? Or the Yellow Social Media Report itself? Any surprises?

Want more? You can read the full report here.

January 23, 2018January 23, 2018

People Doing Cool Stuff – Tiffany Andrews | Ngapuhi Photography

I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of people from all over the world who are doing cool stuff!

Tiff Andrews isn’t just a regular photographer, she’s got a specific niche she works with! Her business is called Ngapuhi Photography, which she named after her tribe as a way of paying homage to her roots in Northland, New Zealand. Little did she know this would steer her photography business so much that she’d become one of Australia’s only cultural portraiture specialists.

So let’s have a look at some examples of her work and chat to her about her business!

Tiff Andrews and Ngapuhi Photography

I am of Maori heritage and Ngapuhi is the name of the tribe I’m from and calling my business that is a way of me paying homage to where I am from. I got into doing the cultural portraiture after being asked by so many Kiwi’s if I did them (because of the name of my business) I actually started out in photography as a Gig photographer and followed several Maori/Kiwi groups around.

I saw there was a market here in Australia for the cultural portraiture and decided to embark on that path and see where it would lead too. Generally Maori for example won’t go to a non-Maori photographer for these type of photos as the shots can be very emotional, and you need to understand what they are feeling and help support them along the way.

I specialize in Maori Portraiture as its my own culture and I’m sensitive to our customs and protocols. I have also photographed, Cook Island, Samoan, Tongan and Aboriginal cultures.

I also do the regular photography, Weddings, Maternity, Team Photos but I’m known for the Cultural Images.

There are a few of us that specialize in this genre, only 3 in Australia I’m aware of. We all have different styles of shooting so none of us are the same and most people can tell who did what images by looking at the style. I’ve never had someone try and impersonate my work.

You can tell a LOT about someone by their taste in music. What type of music or song have you got on high rotation?

Growing up in NZ, Reggae music was what I listened to as child and teenager along with our own cultural music. Things haven’t changed and I still listen to the same style music as well as basically anything that my ears enjoy.

Currently Conkarah from Jamaica is my fav tunes.

How do you stay motivated?

Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated when I’m not shooting, you just need to give yourself a kick in the pants and keep going.

The reactions I get out of making people happy with their photos is the best satisfaction I can get, and it can be addictive.

What’s your favorite way to relax?

My fav place and way to relax is shutting of the mind from work (which can be very hard) and just spending quality time with my family at the park or beach or catching a movie together.

If you weren’t running your cultural portraiture business, what do you think you’d be doing right now?

If I wasn’t doing this I would probably still be doing school photography. I quit that job due to the demands of my own work.

How do you you Social Media in promoting your business?

Facebook has been the main driving force behind my marketing, next to word of mouth. I started out with a Facebook page I added a few images to, and within a few months I had 5000 followers!

When I post openings for bookings and trips I generally get a lot of activity on my page, comments, shares, and private messages.

Without Facebook I wouldn’t be as established as I am now.

I’m very fortunate to have a lot of Polynesian Facebook Groups share my images on their pages and Instagram pages. Sometimes these pages have in excess of 10’s of thousands of members.

Did you hit any huge problems that made you re-think the whole thing? How did you get around it?

The big problems I have found with my career is being to trusting and generous with my work.

I’ve had a lot of people mess me around, deals that I’ve fulfilled on my side and they haven’t on theirs to name one. You learn to tighten up on your procedures, what you are willing to do in exchange for something else and who you will and won’t trust to work with in the future.

What is the hardest thing about your work?

The hardest thing about my work and every photographer can relate, is generating business.

I’m fortunate that I have very little competition and have a niche product that stands out from other local photographers, but it is still hard.

How do you manage it all with your busy schedule?

The only way I can manage my schedule is to WRITE IT DOWN in my diary.

My brain is usually focused on photos and without my diary I would probably forget EVERTHING else!

What’s next for you Tiff?

This year I hope to keep doing more of what I’m already doing, more trips lined up and the start of a book I want to put together about my journey as this type of photographer but using the clothing I use in my shoots to represent me as a person. The cloaks (Korowai) I use for my photos I now make myself as they are usually very expensive and hard to source.

I’m also in the process of putting a collection of Art Photography Images together for an exhibition I’m hoping to organize myself at a later stage.

So far in the few short years I have been doing these portraits, I have travelled to NZ, Brisbane, Melbourne and LA to hold portrait sessions. Whilst in LA I had images exhibited in a Kiwi’s in LA Annual Art Exhibition and was the first person to display my style of images since they began.

I also got to shoot a family’s portraits on Malibu Beach!

I’ve been interviewed for a radio station in NZ, had a four-page spread published in a New Zealand Newspaper Magazine (its was about my artist friend but they used my images and gave photo credit)

How do we follow more of your story?

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ngapuhiphotography

Website: www.ngapuhi-photography.com

Instagram: @ngapuhiphotography

What do you think, Tiff’s pretty cool huh? If you or someone you know needs cultural portraits done make sure you get in touch.

And stay tuned for more awesome stories from more People Doing Cool Stuff!

January 13, 2018January 13, 2018

Facebook Zero | OMG! | Algorithm Armageddon

Facebook Zero, the algorithm armageddon!

If you use Social Media for promoting your business, chances are you follow a couple (if not tonnes) of Social Media related publishers, and you would no doubt have seen a huge reaction from the community about the latest announcement from Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg (below) where he states they’ll be changing the way they select posts to display to users in the newsfeed.

This update is stated to prioritise user to user interaction and focus on quality of engagement – which appears to mean time spent and meaningfulness, favouring longer, well thought out comments over tagging friends in memes or simple reactions.

Cue freakouts over Facebook page reach.

Facebook seems to be taking aim at the passiveness of users simply scrolling the newsfeed and not interacting, and publishers – including those looking to game the system with engagement bait (which Facebook announced they were cracking down on a couple of weeks back)

BUT there’s so much we don’t know!

Facebook Zero – Really?

Social Media Examiner was one of the first (naturally as probably the most well know Social Media publisher) to get vocal and ask if this was “Facebook Zero” in an 11 minute live video (below)

Would pages get any organic reach? Are we all doomed to the naughty corner? Are our Facebook pages going to be put out on the lawn with the big TVs and DVD players?

Let’s just calm down and look at what we know for a sec, which to be honest isn’t much.

If you’ve been in this world a while you know for a fact every time the newsfeed algo is tweaked people lose their minds, and each time we adjust, measure, test, refine and evaluate our accounts to try and work out a way to stay relevant and SEEN by our target audience, followers and fans – both organically and using paid distribution.

Let’s remember we all use Facebook differently!

You get the newsfeed you deserve.

I have quoted this before, a friend of mine said it to me once and it’s so true. If you hate your newsfeed – I’m sorry to say you did that to yourself. There’s so many options to unfollow people who annoy you, unfriend people you have no interest in, hit “see first”on pages and people you like, and generally reacting to things you’re actually interested in.

Facebook’s smart at figuring out what we like – but it’s not flawless. If you hate cats – stop tagging your friends in cat videos. Facebook thinks you like cats and will show you more cat content, pretty simple right? If you want to know more about the newsfeed read my post here.

You see, Facebook’s ONE JOB is to learn what you like and optimise your experience to that so it can keep you on the platform longer. Mainly to serve more ads (to make more money) but also to make sure you aren’t using the other platforms (except Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp since it owns those)

But so what, Carma? What’s this got to do with this new Facebook Zero announcement?

The curated newsfeed

I, and probably many other Social Media Marketers might not be typical users – but we know one thing, and that is that Facebook has made a pretty big assumption in the basis for this update: that we want to see more content from our friends in our newsfeeds. For me this is not the case (soz friends)

People think the newsfeed has become a crowded place for ads and page updates, and they aren’t seeing enough posts from the people they care about. I don’t find this the case, as I’d rather read a breaking story from ABC News than another “creative” engagement, pregnancy or gender reveal announcement.

Adam Barrell of The StoryLab Perth put it this way:

Facebook used to be about sharing your whole life and connecting with friends. Now more than ever Facebook is used to engage with pages and publishers. People want to explore and find new things to read and engage with.

When I want to engage with friends and family I use messenger to share photos, articles and arrange catch ups.

Wasn’t Facebook meant to make the world more open? And now Zuck is telling us we’d much prefer seeing posts from friends and family the most?

Just make a Tab/filter that users can select to just see friend posts – don’t go changing the algorithm again.

Good point! Bit hard to connect the world, when people wont accept a friend request from people they don’t know…always too many degrees of separation!

And Jon Loomer (Facebook Ads Legend from Jon Loomer Digital) described it like so:

Not everyone uses Facebook the same way. I purposefully see more brand and publisher content in my news feed than posts from friends. That’s only partly because I’m an antisocial jerk. But it’s mainly because I care most about political and sports news.

That’s the stuff I actually want to see. I don’t comment on those posts. I don’t provide “long and thoughtful replies.” Will I stop seeing that content?

If I do, that would kind of suck. That would be bad for my Facebook experience.

Jon posted a long and very considered post this quote was taken from, you can read the full post here.

So why this change?

Facebook has been trying to prompt us, as users – not publishers, to post more original content since this has been declining. Also it’s no secret the kids don’t think Facebook is cool…PLUS they’re running out of ad space.

Facebook knows it needs to tread a very fine line between showing you what you like organically and what advertisers might think you like. This is why better targeted ads with higher relevance scores perform better. As users we accept there’s ads, we just don’t wanna see ads for things we’re not interested in.

In theory this change prompts less but deeper connections to the people we’re friends with, with less page posts cluttering it up, and would help achieve Facebook’s goal of making us feel better mental health wise than passively (maybe obsessively) scrolling our newsfeeds. We’ve all had one friend say they felt happier after quitting Facebook (or Social Media more generally) so essentially it’s a retention strategy.

Will it work?

IMO? No.

For the way this update appears to work (once it’s rolled out – again we don’t really know til it happens) would be based on the fact that people want to post more, or at least the same amount of original content they do now. Your newsfeed will always be full – so if your friends aren’t posting photos, live video, links, events etc then what will make up the rest of your feed?

Page posts and ads, right?

You probably already interact with the people you want to hear from, so their posts will get upweighted, but beyond that who are we going to see posts from? Old high school acquaintances? No thanks (no offence JFSHS class of ’96)

You can leave me with my newsfeed full of tech pages, recipe videos, and Social Media publishers thanks.

But what do you think?

Will this clear up your newsfeed for more friend action? Good or bad? If you’ve got some thoughts drop a comment, I’d love to know!

December 10, 2017December 10, 2017

Facebook Sound Collection | New Facebook Feature

Listen Up!

Facebook’s got a new featiure and not everyone has it yet – so I’m going to show it to you. Have you heard of Facebook Sound Collection? Neither had I, but I was doing to scheduling this morning and I stumbled across it in my page menu and decided to take a look.

It’s a library of sounds – both track and souns effects and you can download them to add to your content. Awesome!

I wondered if I was the first to discover it – so a quick Google search said that I was about a day behind – but none of the articles I read on Facebook Sound Collections had any screenshots of what it actually looked like.

Welcome to Facebook Sound Collection

Thanks Facebook! So polite, happy to be here 🙂

How do you get there?

In my page it’s under Publishing Tools, but there could be other ways to navigate straight there.

Then What?

You’ll notice it in the menu:

So what’s it got?

Sound Collection is literally a collection of sounds. It’s got 1,00 Tracks (I expect they’ll keep adding to it) in 24 Generes and 21 Moods. Then there’s also Sound Effects broken up into 17 Categories and lengths of between 2sec to 30sec+.

For some reason there’s more different zipper noises than you’d think were required…

Anyway as you can see above you can play the track or download it to your device.

But how is this useful?

Well if you’ve ever uploaded video and had it rejected by Facebook for the audio breaching copyright then Facebook Sound Collection is a good way to get around that as the tracks have been pre-approved.

Although many of us use Facebook with the sound off, anyone who’s ever consumed content knows that the right sound track can make all the difference. I’m seeing this new feature as another commitment by Facebook to removing the barriers of users to create high quality original video content.

Or is this just a play for Spotify’s business?

I guess we’ll see…

have you got Facebook Sound Collection yet? What do you think? Will you use it?

Want to read more?

Read Facebook’s announcement.

Endgadget’s post

Techcrunch’s post

December 3, 2017July 5, 2019

People Doing Cool Stuff – Ritu From Logojoy

I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of people from all over the world who are doing cool stuff!

I’m going to share some of their stories with you – and here we’re going to chat with Ritu from Logojoy!

So What is Logojoy?

Logojoy is a tech startup from Toronto that uses AI to provide personalized design services.

Why do we need it?

Logojoy is trying to revolutionize the way small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs approach their graphic design visions and challenges by guiding them through the development of their logos.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your journey, how did you get to this point?

One of my first jobs was at a health startup in Brooklyn, which was more advertising focused. After six years of various roles in digital advertising, I felt like I hit a ceiling and wanted to start helping people through communications.

This lead me to taking marketing and communications roles at startups because in this environment, I could have a lot more impact than at bigger corporate organizations.

You can tell a LOT about someone by their taste in music. What type of music or song have you got on high rotation?

I’m currently obsessed with Camilla Cabello. I love her soulful voice and catchy rhythms.

I also love listening to mantras when I work because of their meditative quality. My favorite mantra song is Narayana by Chakrini; I’ll never get tired of it.

How do you stay motivated?

This is a difficult one because I’m a highly emotive person and am also affected by the different seasons. The one thing that always gets my motivation back up when it I’m running low is exercise and reading.

Feeding my body with high energy and activity and feeding my mind with stories gets my motivation levels up.

What/who inspires you?

I’m inspired by people who live outside of their comfort zone.

Whether it is a founder who is constantly doing this for the survival of her business or a runner who always pushes himself to run that extra 500 meters. I’m inspired by these people because the biggest growth happens when you are willing to be uncomfortable and try something new or go further than you ever thought you could – the impossible starts to become possible.

This is a big one. How do you deal with impostor syndrome?

Imposter syndrome affects most people whether they realize it or not, or rather whether they realize it earlier or later.

For example, for me, it hit be when my performance in my work was low and I had to ask myself why that was. Faking it until you make it is an easy way to make yourself vulnerable to imposter syndrome.

For me, the best way to deal with it is to humble myself, admit that I was wrong and ask for help. No one will judge you for reaching out to them. You will be surprised by how much your self-worth increases when you are willing to humble yourself and ask for help.

What’s your favorite place/way to relax?

It is so important to give yourself a day once in awhile to do anything you want, even if that’s doing nothing.

I tend to push myself beyond normal work-life balance during the week, so one day per week, I shut down, cozy in at home and spend the day in my sweatpants. The Mondays after such a weekend are usually the most productive ones!

If you hadn’t made Logojoy – what do you think you’d be doing right now?

As the Director of Customer Marketing at Logojoy, storytelling is what I like best about my role at Logojoy, and gathering data and information from our customers.

There are amazing stories in the data, and I love sharing those stories. If I wasn’t doing this job, you’d find me traveling in Europe with a camera attached to my hand taking portraits of the locals.

How have you incorporated Social Media into the promotion of the site, and do you think it’s been successful?

At Logojoy, Social Media is a huge priority.

We use it to build community and also to provide customer support. We get dozens of urgent customer support requests on social and we’re committed to helping our customers no matter what channel they choose to ask for help.

Did you hit any huge problems that made you re-think the whole project? How did you get around it? What was your approach to solving the issue?

Our biggest priority at Logojoy is growth and a part of that means constantly experimenting and trying different strategies out. Some are successful and some are not.

The biggest challenge is monitoring the results accurately and having the courage to end an experiment when it fails, and then, start the next experiment. Being comfortable to constant change is important here.

What was the hardest piece of the site to put together technically?

Our founders, Dawson Whitfield and Rares Crisan designed the website using an approach called “microservices architecture,” or simply, microservices.

This is an increasingly popular method for developing software; rather than building a huge, complicated site that does everything at once, it puts together small, independently deployable, modular tasks that can communicate with each other and be combined toward a bigger goal.

I’ve noticed (and received) very attentive and personalised support from you in using your services, is this something that’s important for you to be directly involved in?

Customer service and more importantly the success of our customers is very important to us.

We pride ourselves on our mission of helping entrepreneurs start new businesses and making a logo is a crucial part of that.

Personally, I answer every single message that comes to me directly or via our support team. So much can be learnt from listening to your customers, so they should be prioritized in you any business.

How do you manage it all with your busy schedule?

I’m a huge fan of meditation and it is as essential to my daily routine as brushing my teeth. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane. I also teach meditation in my spare time. I highly recommend Atma Kriya Yoga style of meditation. If you are looking to integrate meditation into your daily life and if you’re not afraid of positive change and personal growth, then you should definitely try this out.

What’s next for Logojoy?

We are constantly trying to improve our product at Logojoy and we are working hard to make our artificial design engine smarter and smarter. We have some incredible technological innovations on the way.

Stay tuned to hear more!

What’s next for Ritu?

Even though I admire those who live their lives outside of the comfort zone, I don’t think I practice this enough. I’m in the process of setting some time bound and actionable goals that will help me to do this more at work and also in my personal life.

Anything to add?

I’d love to connect with you. Let’s hang out on social media:

Logojoy: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Ritu: Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin

So there you have it guys, my first People Doing Cool Stuff post! What do you think? Feel free to leave me (or Ritu) a comment.

I’ve got some more awesome folks in the pipeline – and if you are Doing Cool Stuff I’d LOVE to hear from you too!

July 1, 2017July 1, 2017

TL;DR | 2017 Sensis Social Media Report

It’s that time again!

Sensis has brought us their much anticipated annual Social Media report! If you’re into Social Media, or data about the way businesses are using it, this report is an exciting announcement!

Last year I brought you a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) summary of the report, and it was one of my most-read posts! This year I’m doing the same – I’ll highlight my main takeaways of the report from my opinion as a Social Media practitioner in regard to the way Western Australian’s and WA businesses are using Social Media.

Why the Sensis Social Media Report?

But firstly – why is the 2017 Sensis Social Media Report so highly anticipated? The main reason the Australian Social Media community gets excited about this particular report is because even though there’s a LOT of data out there, it can be tough to find anything that reflects an Australian audience. We’re a big country with a small population and we just aren’t like anyone else.

Another reason is it’s incredibly important to stay up to date in this fast-moving realm. Trends shift in the blink of an eye, and as a Social Media professional (or a small business owner looking after your own businesses Socials) you need to stay abreast of changes and react to get the best from your efforts.

Is it a fad?

With 84% of Australians accessing the internet daily, Social Media is here to stay. 85% of West Aussies have a smartphone, and 67% of people with a smartphone in Australia use it to access the internet more than 5 times a day.

If you’re not concentrating your marketing and indeed, your sales process and customer service online (and in fact mobile-first) you’re getting left behind. Like, already. Not you will get left behind. You are behind.

Facebook – Still not dead.

94% of Western Australians surveyed use Facebook. Way out in front of second place YouTube at 63%. That’s massive – and it’s only dropped 1% since last year, despite people saying they’re not using it anymore.

I hear often that Facebook is dying, Facebook is irrelevant, “my customers aren’t on Facebook” and so on. Well, it’s still our biggest Social Media platform.

Message Me

It’s the same when we move to private messaging services, with Facebook Messenger coming out way in front in WA, coming out with 89%, in front of it’s next rival, Viber on 41%.

WA People are a funny lot:

We’re more likely than any other state to use Social Media at the gym.
We’re the equal highest (with Queensland) to publish a live video.
We’re more likely to leave an online rating, more likely than any other state to read blogs or online reviews, and we’re more likely to post an online review or blog.
And we don’t put up with any shit from our friends! In WA 50% of us have delete friends.

2017 Sensis Social Media Report

Down to Business…

Why do we need to know all this stuff about how people use the platforms? Because it’ll help us as brands get our messages seen and acted on most effectively.

“The survey discovered that the main driver behind social media uptake from businesses is to aid marketing and sales. Providing a line of contact is the next biggest influence.”

You can help your marketing & sales if you aren’t on the right platforms, at the right time, using the right methods to reach the right people. A LOT has to go right, so the more you know the better chance you have of cutting through the noise.

What did we learn?

Not all businesses are on board with Social Media 😮

Many of them are not taking advantage of the targeting and availability of paid Social Media

In FACT – Social media presence in the business sector in Australia has not grown this year. Just under half the small and medium businesses have a presence. But before we get too excited about this Sensis provide a possible explanation.

in 2016, 17% of the large business sample consisted of businesses with over 1,000 employees, whereas this year only 2% of the businesses have over 1,000 staff and we have seen consistently that businesses with over 1,000 staff almost universally have a social media presence.

Although the report does indicate that 40% of Large Businesses had removed their Social Media profiles. Wow!

In Western Australia SMBs Social Media use has increased against the trend.

Pay to Play

Social Media advertising is still growing among small and medium businesses and remaining steady in large business if you take into account the data suggests 40% of them deleted their profiles.

And it seems much of this budget is used to drive website visits.

The majority of SMBs with a social media presence now have a strategy in place to drive people to their sites – 82% for small, 95% for medium and 97% for large sized businesses.

But aren’t very successful at measuring it. In fact we’re getting worse…

But we’re getting better at being strategic!

Which is great news! We focus our messaging, have an easier time measuring, and become more efficient when we have articulated goals for our Socials.

Did you want to check out the full 81 page report? You can see it here.

So what do you think? Do these results follow your experience in your business?

I’d love to hear about it, so feel free to leave me a comment!

June 23, 2017June 23, 2019

Why Do People Hate WordPress?

People seem to freak out at the mention of WordPress.

If you google “why not to use WordPress” it seems there’s a million articles with a billion reasons why WordPress is the devil. But, used properly, it’s one of the best ways to make a website in the world. Brands like Tech Crunch, the New Yorker, even Facebook rely on WordPress for some or all of their digital presence, and there are more people who use WordPress than there are people who live in Turkey. Nearly 25% of all websites are powered by WordPress in some way.

There is however, two completely different meanings to the word WordPress.

There’s WordPress.com, a “do it yourself” service the WordPress offers and kinda works like most other blogging platforms (like tumblr or whatever is cool these days) but you pay for them to manage your service.

and WordPress.org, a completely free cms system you download and manage yourself.

Which is better?

That’s the issue. It totally depends on what you want, and this is where people trip up.

WordPress.org is fantastic if you have a limited skill set when it comes to the web, but you need something simple and straight out the box. You’ll never have to worry about it and you can totally edit it yourself. It’s actually really easy, and with a decent selection of themes it doesn’t end up looking like every other website.

WordPress.com however is what most people need. If you are a business or even just someone who wants more than just a blog then you need this, and you’ll need help too.

WordPress.com is widely considered to be both one of the best and one of the worst CMS systems at the same time, mainly because it’s so easy to use that people can do it themselves, but nobody looks after it properly!

First of all you’ll need your own hosting, with database support, this scares a lot of people into the WordPress.org route straight off the bat. Secondly, if it goes wrong and you don’t know what you’re doing then you’re in trouble. But once it’s set up, it’s super easy to add pages, posts, change your navigation and more or less do anything you need to keep your content up to date.

That falls into the next reason why people don’t use WordPress right.

Keeping it up to date.

WordPress has some of the best support in the world, due to it’s community and it’s range of plug ins you can make it do anything. Quite literally there’s a plug in for anything. But picking the right ones is key, and missing out on some important things can cost you a lot of internet points. A lot of the complaints about WordPress are so easily remedied with a few simple plug ins that people ignore. Page speed, SEO, security, and all the other reasons people say WordPress is rubbish, all require the right knowledge of the plug in world.

So why the hell would you go to all that effort?

Because it’s fully customisable. If you want something you can do it. If you don’t like something you can change it. If something looks wrong you can fix it!

Not many cms systems are as flexible as WordPress. A good WordPress developer can bring you the perfect set-up, with a fully bespoke look and feel, and with all the features you want, and because it’s free all you’ll need to pay is the hosting – which is a hell of a lot cheaper than any DIY website builder.

It’s true, WordPress is the devil, but if you know what you’re doing it’s also the best thing ever, you just need help from the right people.

P.s. you read all this on a website built with a WordPress cms.

January 14, 2017October 31, 2018

2017 Digital Marketing Predictions | Part Two | The Interviews

Digital Marketing Predictions…

They’re everywhere! I published mine, and then I thought – one person’s predictions are not enough! We need more data! Let’s ask some people I know who work in Digital Marketing and see if they’d like to share their 2017 Digital Marketing predictions with me (so that I could share them with you)

So I did. And they did! I sent some questions as prompts and this post is a collection of the responses I received.

I hope you gain some insight into the direction/s Digital Marketing is heading!

Clayton Smith – Social Media Manager

Founder of Smith Social, Clayton offers an end to end Digital solution to small businesses in Perth.

Fun fact – him and Carma are birthday twins!

Me: What were the main platforms you concentrated on in 2016 as a Digital Marketer?

Clayton: Facebook, Instagram & Email Marketing

Me: Will this change in 2017?

Clayton:

No. In the world of small business, using social media as a marketing tool is still a developing idea, especially in Perth, WA. When you have a very limited marketing budget, very little time and little knowledge of digital platforms, investing in social and digital can seem daunting. So, the two main platforms of Facebook & Instagram get all the focus, where small business owners know the vast majority of their customers will definitely be.

Me: What are some emerging trends you noticed in Digital Marketing in 2016?

Clayton: Live Video arrived and it’s kind of a big deal. Email Marketing keeps on keeping on.

Me: Do you think these will continue?

Clayton: Absolutely!

Live video, as well as semi permanent video (snapchat style where content disappears after a set amount of time) has arrived and it is kind of a big deal.

The ability to live broadcast from anywhere in the palm of your hand is as amazing as it sounds. So amazing in fact, everyone is still trying to figure out what’s happening, and like any goldrush, the miners who made it to the goldfields first had a much better chance of finding gold. Every social platform is flying headfirst into video and the businesses and brands who took advantage are reaping huge benefits. I just listened to an international digital marketing podcast with a massive listenership where they interviewed a Sydney chocolatier who has built a following. Some guy from Sydney with one little chocolate shop! WHAT? That’s amazing. Once again, those who get their pickaxes in the video dirt first have the best chance to strike follower gold. Get live people!

Email Marketing – If live video is the wild west of digital marketing, email marketing is the well trodden, boring city road. It isn’t anywhere near as exciting, BUT, email subscription is still the most direct digital marketing channel we have, and although people’s inboxes are crowded, if you have done the work and developed a good relationship with your subscriber by providing them quality content that they want to see, you will still convert and convert well.

Me: Do you use video content in your Digital Marketing?

Clayton: Minimal

Me: Will this increase in 2017?

Clayton:

Yes. Getting a small business to start doing video is turning out to be tricky, just starting a regular consistent blog is a tough challenge for most. Let alone video content, and don’t even think about live video.

Unless of course the business owner themselves is already doing it, that’s a different story. It’s power cannot be ignored though, and I will be pushing clients to get started with video content.

Me: Did you use bots in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Clayton: No.

Me: Will you be using them in 2017?

Clayton:

Not likely. Small businesses do not have the enquiry traffic that would warrant investing in bots, especially when a selling point of most small businesses is the one on one, bespoke personal service they can provide.

Me: Do you have any predictions on the overall state of Digital Marketing for 2017?

Clayton:

Live Video, 360 live video especially, will continue to lead the way on social platforms, with the platforms themselves looking to better monetise video content.

The Snapchat Vs Facebook/Instagram Battle will be the best and biggest show in town, and it will be fascinating to see who makes what move next. Mr Zuckerberg has shown he is not scared to rip off Snapchat ideas and incorporate into his own platforms, making it an interesting challenge for Snapchat to continue it’s incredible growth rates. I think Snapchat will need to evolve to differentiate itself from the Big Blue Book, both to draw new users in and keep their young follower base interested at the same time.

I will put my money where my mouth is and have a guess at a much better “Discover” experience and some sort of ability to post a link in a video as well.

Me: Are there any trends you feel have been exhausted and will drop off in 2017?

Clayton: Hopefully dabbing?

Lloyd Birch – Digital Development Specialist

I was given my first computer at a very young age, the first thing I did was take it to pieces. I’ve always been enthused by computers and technology. At school I loved business and marketing, most intrigued by consumer behaviours. My goals have always been a mixture of these elements, creating digital marketing with the consumer in mind.

Growing up in the era of mobile internet and the boom of internet on the go, devices are a huge part of my life. Utilising this, I always aim to create content that looks beautiful and is easy to consume no matter what device is being used, as I’d expect this myself.

With my experiences in website development, promotional email creation, search engine marketing, social media marketing and everything else digital that you can imagine, I aim to produce usable design that is consistent across all platforms.

Me: What were the main platforms you concentrated on in 2016 as a Digital Marketer?

Lloyd: Web, Email, LinkedIn, a little facebook and twitter.

Me: Why LinkedIn?

Lloyd:

I Moved into a B2B market. LinkedIn seems to be making strides to better market itself as a selling tool, it’s still full of recruiters that hound people like a plague which is it’s major downfall as a professional social media space but there are much better tools to gain information and target advertising which is an improvement.

Me: Do you use video content in your Digital Marketing?

Lloyd:

Not currently. I don’t personally like video advertising but can see it’s merit in certain marketing platforms.

Video advertising is shifting from being a marketing led sales pitch to being a more adhoc story based approach. People don’t seek out advertising and feel invaded when marketing is thrust upon them, so a more story based approach works well. The best use of video advertising I’ve seen recently was a cleaning product called Vanish (UK) that asked people to record their own tips and tricks for using their product. This community and story based approach advertises the key USPs of their product without being a corporate sales message and created a community of interest. Also, bonus, it was probably really cheap to do!

Me: Did you include Facebook LIVE (or live on other platforms) in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Lloyd: No

Me: Will you be adding it to your content types in 2017?

Lloyd:

Facebook isn’t on my radar in the B2B industry, but I also think Facebook Live as an advertising tool is a lot of investment for potentially very little gain if the video isn’t backed up by a larger viral campaign. I personally believe the novelty of Facebook Live will fade away.

Me: Did you use bots in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Lloyd:

Due to the nature of B2B marketing, there is much more emphasis of knowledge rather than data, therefore bots don’t have a huge part to play as it requires a human touch to understand and act upon the information gathered. B2B is very granular but very small marketing pools can produce large yields, so it makes sense to have a much more human approach to marketing.

That being said, I am in the process of producing automated email sign up campaigns to automate the release of information initially as repetitive human content distribution isn’t time effective.

Me: Do you have any predictions on the overall state of Digital Marketing for 2017?

Lloyd:

I think 2017 is going to be the year marketing gets quicker, shorter, and more regular. With the increasing use of multiple channel advertising and more targeted campaigns people are becoming more consumed, therefore less responsive, and it seems to be a trend that right place right time marketing is more persuasive than loyalty or brand retention due to the huge amount of competition and consumers are becoming more likely to try new products or services they’d never considered before, a lot of this is driven by big data from grassroots such as reviews ratings etc as people see other people as more trustworthy than brand marketing, which has always been the case but it’s becoming more readily accessible every day.
There’s also lot of distrust going around lately! Especially social media, it seems to be more and more of an avenue to air grievances. People like to hurt a brands appearance publicly when they feel the services aren’t up to scratch. Maybe because having a one to one discussion with the company in private doesn’t satisfy consumer grievance.

All this is good for small business, the barriers to entry are becoming more and more relaxed every day. Big businesses are seeing their brand recognition doesn’t mean as much as it used to, in some cases the bigger the brand is the more the diseconomies of scale are hurting their public perception as a faceless entity focused on profit rather than satisfying consumer need.

Me: Are there any trends you feel have been exhausted and will drop off in 2017?

Lloyd:

I think one trend that will drop off in 2017 is brands attempts to hijack new and upcoming social media tools, as the rate at which these tools crop up and brands are trying to encompass all forms of media, usually with little success as they are not prepared to adapt their marketing strategies to cope with the different approach each platform makes. An example of this would be snapchat and boomerang for Instagram.

As companies jump on the bandwagon and try to ride the wave of the latest craze, few companies stop to think whether the platform is appropriate for their target audience or communication style and this leads to wasted investment. Many companies are now not as willing to jump on the hype train as they weigh up the return on investment of new and upcoming media channels.

Many businesses are now creating marketing plans that focus on a select few modes of communication based on whether they reflect the communication style of the business and target audience so that they can effectively manage their resources rather than try and be across all platforms.

Alana Christidis – Digital Marketing Specialist

Alana is a Social Media enthusiast from way back. She enjoys creating Facebook advertising strategies just as much as lurking through memes.
As an avid consumer of content, she loves finding new, exciting ways to share a brand’s story.

Me: What were the main platforms you concentrated on in 2016 as a Digital Marketer?

Alana:

Facebook and Instagram with a heavy emphasis on advertising – and I can’t imagine that changing too drastically in 2017.

With the introduction of awesome features like Stories, Instagram was a really fun, engaging platform that did really well in telling a story for brands. Facebook was my predominate focus, especially in advertising. I really focused on generating ROI with killer ad strategies.

Me: What are some emerging trends you noticed in Digital Marketing in 2016?

Alana:

Augmented Reality was a big emerging trend in my opinion. As someone who opens Snapchat every day just to check what new filters I can use and celebrated like a crazy person when I caught a Dragonite in Kings Park playing Pokemon Go, I think that we’re going to see more and more opportunity with it in 2017.

Me: Do you use video content in your Digital Marketing?

Alana:

Video was a big player in my content strategies. In a sea of articles and photos, video stood out and got a lot of engagement as a result.

Super short, bite sized videos quickly grab attention when no one has time to read your 5,000 world article. This year, my focus will be on quality over quantity when it comes to my content – rather than smashing the posts, create quality pieces.

Me: Did you include Facebook LIVE (or live on other platforms) in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Alana:

While I didn’t personally use Facebook Live in my Digital Marketing, I think it’s a fantastic method of communication for brands to tell a story and get real time engagement – if it’s done right! Brands need to be aware that swapping to the front camera on their phone and um-ing through a script isn’t amazing content just because it’s live. It’s just awkward to watch.

Be authentic in your storytelling and in my eyes, you have a winning piece of content.

Me: Did you use bots in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Alana:

I haven’t used them but I sure love talking to them. The use of bots is only going to grow this year. It’s such a smart way to improve customer interactions and increase conversions in the process. Since messaging apps have surpassed social media platforms in terms of users, it’s natural that people are looking to messages to communicate with their brands.

Me: Do you have any predictions on the overall state of Digital Marketing for 2017?

Alana:

The decrease in social media automation and the growth of storytelling. People are looking for authenticity when it comes to the brands that they follow and humanistic exchanges.

With the exception of bots, I think digital marketers will move away from automated, robotic feeling responses to their consumers and the inevitable blunders that come along with it and move to more personalised exchanges.

Me: Are there any trends you feel have been exhausted and will drop off in 2017?

Alana:

I think Twitter’s struggle to remain relevant is going to become even bigger this year. With the continued popularity of visual content, it’s hard to see how they will keep up.

I also really hope people stop screenshotting their Snapchat filtered photos and posting them to Instagram.

Kelly Nelson – Marketing Consultant

A marketing professional with over 13 years experience having worked in a number of different industries including state & local government, mining, construction, IT and not-for-profit.

Kelly has worked in Scotland, Canada and Australia and specialises in online marketing and social media.

Me: What were the main platforms you concentrated on in 2016 as a Digital Marketer?

Kelly: Social Media, Email marketing & Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Me: Will this change in 2017?

Kelly:

No. I think these are the big players in digital marketing – these platforms have been around for a while and businesses continue to see results when using them.

Social Media is continually evolving and changing and it’s a really exciting platform to work with. Businesses know that they need to be on social media to gain exposure, they’re just uncertain on where or how to start.

Email Marketing is still a great platform to use. It’s free, personable and is delivered straight to a captured audience (depending on how you created your database!). You’d be surprised how many people still sign up for newsletters while visiting an organisation’s website or place of business.

I think SEO is still an underused, unknown (but very valuable) digital marketing tool. Clients often don’t understand the importance of having an optimised website until it’s mentioned that it’s an easy way to get your website found by your target audience. Additionally, many digital marketing platforms direct online traffic to an organisation’s website. Once your potential customer is there, you want them to stay! It’s so important to understand what they want and how they may navigate your website.

Me: What are some emerging trends you noticed in Digital Marketing in 2016?

Kelly:

The increased use of video and imagery (including GIF and memes) in social media. The increased use of a marketing strategy and well defined target audiences.

Me: Do you think these will continue?

Kelly:

Yes. Many people use social media on a mobile device, in short amounts of time, such as sitting on the train or over a quick coffee. Digital marketing content that is relatable, quick to skim and arouses emotion (whether it be laugh out loud or pull at the heart strings) is more likely to be engaged with and go viral. Video and imagery do just that.

It’s refreshing to see more organisations having a defined marketing strategy, campaign and target audience/s. There used to be a time where digital marketing was a ‘free-for-all’, whereby content was wishy-washy and an organisation’s brand had to be everywhere, all the time. Perhaps the slower economic climate has allowed management and marketers to take a step back and analyse their business objectives and how this ties in with digital marketing.

Me: Do you use video content in your Digital Marketing?

Kelly: Yes

Me: Will this increase 2017?

Kelly:

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, people are more engaged with content that is quick to look at and watch. With the increasing use of mobile devices (and wearable devices such as GoPro), more videos are also being created and shared by users. There’s been numerous additions to Social Media platforms to enable the use of video content, including Facebook advertising, Facebook LIVE, Instagram and the phenomenal growth of Snapchat. Plus YouTube is still HUGE. Video is only going to be used more in 2017.

Me: Did you include Facebook LIVE (or live on other platforms) in your Digital Marketing in 2016?

Kelly: No

Me: Will you be adding it to your content types in 2017?

Kelly:

Yes. The digital world is forever changing, therefore Digital Marketing has to evolve with it. However it’s still important to reassess each digital media platform to see if it would suit your businesses needs and if it captures your target audience.

Me: Do you have any predictions on the overall state of Digital Marketing for 2017?

Kelly:

I think wearables (e.g. Apple Watch, activity trackers) will start to emerge more in Australia in 2017. Wearables are one of the hottest consumer commodities in the US. People already track their physical activity (eg 5km run) and share on Social Media. It will be interesting to see what companies do with this data, and how they can use it to market their product and target potential customers.

Virtual Reality (VR) will also be making its appearance soon! Mark Zuckerberg has already demonstrated using Messenger in VR, so it won’t be far from Facebook

Me: Are there any trends you feel have been exhausted and will drop off in 2017?

Kelly:

Display advertising including banners, ads and pop-ups. I feel that these are really annoying and wonder if people really actually read what’s there? I tend to ignore them. I hope they will drop off but I doubt it. Wishful thinking.

Businesses thinking that they don’t need to spend money on social media because it’s free. Well it isn’t anymore! The social media arena is busy, busy, busy and the majority of businesses will need to add social media advertising into their marketing budget in order to gain targeted exposure.

Paul Ramondo – CEO Ramondo Media

Paul Ramondo teaches entrepreneurs how to use Facebook Ads and Digital Marketing Funnels to generate qualified leads and sales from their websites.

Me: What were the main platforms you concentrated on in 2016 as a Digital Marketer?

Paul: Facebook, Instagram & Snapchat

Me: Will this change in 2017?

Paul:

I plan to go all in on Facebook as a paid media platform and will scale back the time and effort I invest into Instagram. I also plan to keep my marketing and personal branding efforts on Snapchat consistent (just got the new Spectacles… they’re super fun and present awesome new opportunities for unique first person storytelling – come give me a creep if you’re curious – U/N = paulramondo)

Me: Why?

Paul:

In a nutshell … Facebook Ads’ ability to provide concrete ROI is unparalleled by other platforms, and I only see it improving from here.

I’m also really excited to see how much Facebook expands its product offering this year as it continues to swallow the internet as a whole…

Happy days though… More platforms owned by Facebook + more Facebook product offerings = increased average time on site per user + more data about those user’s behaviours.

This means the total supply of media for ads will increase (driving costs down for advertisers – ceteris paribus). It also means advertiser’s ability to pinpoint and target desired audiences will increase simultaneously

Me: What are some emerging trends you noticed in Digital Marketing in 2016?

Paul:

The lines separating our digital and “real” lives continued to blur as disruptive tech (like Snap Inc’s “Spectacles”) have started to become ubiquitous.

Me: Do you think these will continue?

Paul: Yes, exponentially.

Me: Why is that?

Paul:

I think we’ll continue to society’s obsession with on-demand, document everything, eyes glued to smartphones increase as these trends become more habitual and second nature than ever before.

This of course will be met with increased advertising as brands both big and small scramble to capture people’s attention long enough for them to hear their story.

Me: Do you use video content in your Digital Marketing?

Paul: Yes – (mainly) Facebook Ads, YouTube and Snapchat

Me: Will this increase or decrease in 2017?

Paul:

Increase. I’ll be investing a lot more time into creating immersive content experiences for my audience through video as it is by far the best way for me to generate a return on my time and ad spend.

Casey Bryan – Search Specialist & Blogger

Casey Bryan by day is an SEO geek at White Chalk Road in her role as a Senior Online Marketing Account Manager looking after a portfolio of local and national clients.

By night she is a wine blogger for travellingcorkscrew.com.au, making sure no wine goes un-tasted

At White Chalk Road where I work as a Senior Account Manager our speciality is Search Engine Marketing (SEM), we are one of very few boutique agencies in Perth who focus solely on SEO and Google AdWords. We understand how vital these online strategies are for businesses small and large and there’s no doubt in 2017 many more websites will put more time, money and emphasis on these channels as they provide positive ROI.

We all know how quickly the digital landscape changes. With more and more businesses actively doing SEM it means competition is ramping up so being on top of your game is a must in 2017. What you were doing for SEM 2 years ago simply won’t cut it today.

In 2016 there were countless changes, from penguin 4.0 (focus on toxic links) to the possum update (local search) and of course there was the big Mobile-Friendly ‘Mobilegeddon’ update in May which caused everyone to rush out and make sure Google deemed their websites as user-friendly for visitors on mobile devices. That’s just a handful of the SEO changes and then there’s the Google AdWords updates; from the new extended text ads to no right-hand side ads in the SERP’s to paid local search ads. There’s no denying you have to constantly be on your toes and ready to adapt your strategy when working in SEM.

Me: So what do I think we should be aware of in 2017 with regards to SEM?

Casey:

1. Secure Websites

By this I mean, shifting to HTTPS and making sure when you make the move, you don’t loose any of the hard work you’ve put into improving your organic search results. In terms of a ranking factor, if you have an HTTPS website rather than HTTP you will have a very small advantage however there’s no doubt this ranking factor is going to get stronger whether that’s in 2017 or 2018. My advice is to move sooner than later as it’ll be less pages to redirect, thus making your job easier. There are risks with moving to HTTPS so make sure you know what you’re doing.

2. Mobile Website Optimisation

We live in a mobile-first world and this is not going to change in 2017. In 2016 we finally saw mobile overtake desktop as the primary device users are on when accessing websites and that teamed with Google’s plan to move to mobile-first indexing means you NEED to be all over your mobile marketing.

3. Website Page Speed

Ain’t nobody got time for that! Both your desktop and mobile versions of your website must be as quick as possible in 2017. This has not changed since 2016 however with mobile becoming even more important this year, then the need to keep things as quick as possible is a strategy we should all live by moving forward.

4. Website Content

Again this shouldn’t be news to anyone online – good quality, unique content is what the web is all about. The more of this type of content you can put up on your website the better, if you don’t have a blog/news section then add one now! This content is not only good for your readers/customers but it can skyrocket your SEO results. All websites should aim for at least 1 piece of new content a month, minimum 600 words – the more the better really but it needs to be useful and interesting content. Make the content as shareworthy as possible so readers want to share it on social media and link to it. Natural link-building doesn’t come easy but by gosh it’s worth it!

2017 is going to be a big year for search. I am excited to be a part of it with the White Chalk Road team alongside building up my blog, Travelling Corkscrew, which welcomed over 75,000 organic visitors in 2016!

So there you have it folks!

A broad range of backgrounds, experience and niches produced different views of where Digital Marketing is heading in 2017! A big thanks to Clayton, Lloyd, Kelly, Alana, Casey and Paul for taking the time to share their thoughts with me (and you guys!)

If you have your own predictions and would like to be featured I’d love to hear from you, or if you just have a comment or question use the comment section below, I’m always welcome for feedback 🙂

Time will only tell what 2017 holds for us in the Digital Marketing world, but it never hurts to have professional insight into future trends to help you target your marketing efforts!

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August 24, 2016October 31, 2018

The WA Digital Marketing Report 2016 – Stats the way (uh-huh uh-huh) I like it

What’s the state of WA Digital Marketing?

Are you interested in how WA businesses approach their Digital Marketing?

I asked Freddy Hollow from Bang Digital some questions about their annual WA Digital Marketing Report to find out more!

What do you think is significant about the move from top place to third position for Search Marketing?

Well SEO and SM were the old faithful’s and they still have a very important place in the mix, but it indicates a broader acceptance and recognition of Social Media and Email marketing as viable channels. The updates in the FB advertising platform and email automation have likely had a big hand in the jump.

Will Search continue to drop?

I don’t think so, Search, Social, and Email are the core 3 channels that should be the basis of a marketing campaign.

Do you think Video will continue to rise as a content strategy?

Yes, the cost of entry is lowering and it’s such a good method of delivering messages. Like anything, people will need to be creative with it and use it in the right way.

Do you think “Content Marketing” is widely understood in the Business world as a term? Would more people have had that as a response if they were more familiar with the term?

As a general concept it is definitely well known, but I’m not sure if it’s understood correctly. The marketing trends page (7) gives an indication to how Content Marketing is understood by businesses as 52% were planning to utilise content marketing this year so businesses obviously understand that Content Marketing is important.

Generally people think content marketing is social or blogs or videos (which are all great) but really content marketing could be the way you design or format instruction sheets or FAQ’s or a pricing comparison on a product page. These aren’t the exciting things people think of when discussing content marketing, but good content marketing is about providing the right information at the right time during your customer’s (or customer segment/avatar) particular customer journey.

Next year we will definitely add Content Marketing as its own answer to the list on the Marketing Priorities section of the survey.

We’ve seen some of the “Main benefits of digital marketing” responses in the report – what would your response have been?

Trackability – the accuracy in which you can track your results vs spend.
Targeting – the amount of targeting options available through digital channels.
Segmentation & Customization – the ability to segment your audience and then customise the messaging for those specific audience segments
Automation – all of the cool new marketing automation techniques/platforms that can help you do all of the above

All of the “Digital presence” stats for the individual social platforms are up on last year – do you think any will drop next year? Will a new player be introduced in 2017?

I don’t think any will drop and we will add Snapchat into the survey for 2017.

The stats for “Digital marketing spend” are all increasing. Do you think this will continue into 2017? Are some businesses being priced out of the market?

Yes, it will only continue to increase year on year for the foreseeable future. I don’t think businesses are necessarily getting priced out – there are plenty of activities that businesses can utilise themselves and marketing professionals are only getting stronger in this area.

We’ve seen some of the responses to the “Digital challenges facing business” question – what do you think the biggest challenge is as a marketer? What’s the one you hear from clients or your team most often?

Time and understanding seem to be the biggest challenges. The amount of time it takes be across or implement the relevant channels and the understanding of the digital marketing mix. People understand what a tv, print or radio advert is but don’t understand some of the newer digital techniques and channels.

Are WA businesses becoming better at analysing their data from digital marketing?

Yes – we have seen a big jump in the understanding of digital as a whole but definitely an increase in the understanding of Google analytics and key digital marketing metrics.

Do you infer anything else from the survey results about the state of digital marketing in WA in 2016?

Not as something that jumps out – working with clients constantly I’m pretty in tune with how people view digital marketing in WA.

As an agency, how do these stats help you? And how do they benefit your clients?

From us as an agency it’s really positive to see an increased understanding in digital and it also highlights areas that people are interested in, so we can tailor or own content accordingly but really as an agency we are always educating our clients or providing them with recommendations that help their specific business – so although the stats may say that everyone is interested in Video it really depends on each businesses individual situation.

For clients it hopefully it acts as a reference or education piece that helps them plan out their marketing activities or acts as a verification of sorts for their own strategy recommendations.

Freddy Hollow — This is Freddy, Operations Manager at Bang Digital

So there we have it folks! We got a bit of insight beyond what’s available in the report itself, which if you haven’t read in full and would like to make sure you check it out! Thanks so much to Bang Digital for putting together this report every year, it’s so interesting for a stat nerd like myself – and for businesses to see how the rest of the industry is travelling! And a big thanks to Freddy for fitting me into his busy schedule and answering my quesitons!

For those who have read the report – did you have any other questions I didn’t ask? I’d love to read them in the comments!