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Unlocking Live Streaming

2015 is quickly becoming the year of the video. But what does the emergence of live streaming mean for your brand?

When Meerkat launched at SXSW, it caused a stir. Part of it was Twitter’s quick response (locking out the app), but it also granted users access to live, in the moment events as they were happening. Unlike Snapchat, it wasn’t a backdated story, it was the ‘now’ that Meerkat capitalized on. Fast forward a month later to Twitter launching Periscope, its own streaming app, and you begin to understand their decision to lock out Meerkat.

While video has been a part of social infrastructure, livestreaming has lagged behind until now. It was more the domain of sports broadcast and live news (both online and on traditional) and niche audiences such as gamers with Twitch.tv. But with mobile, the expectation is instant access and publishers are responding.

Recent stats demonstrate that live streaming isn’t just gaining popularity, it’s beating out VOD options. A 2013 survey in the U.S. reported that viewers watch 40 minutes of live video versus about 3 minutes of VOD on a per-play basis. 

So, how do you take advantage of these new live streaming options?

  • Identify the need: Do you absolutely need to livestream? Yes, it pays to be aware of new tools as they enter the market, however, you shouldn’t simply use something because it’s new. As with anything, start in reverse and identify your business goals, then work back to determine whether live streaming can help you meet them.
  • Be in the moment: The true value of livestreaming derives from granting somebody access to a unique moment in time and space, a piece of content that is only available then and there. If it’s just an overproduced ad/stunt that you’re able to replicate later, it holds little value in live streaming. Perfect examples would be conferences, fashion shows or sporting events. Yes you can read about that later, but half the value comes from experiencing it “first hand”.
  • Build in value: This applies to all social content, but more so to new platforms. There are multiple ways to consume content and you have to provide your viewers with the reason to consume yours (besides buying your product). Maybe they get a backstage view of a concert, or receive useful tips as the broadcast happens.
  • Plan for a granular audience: With multiple apps that provide similar services, it is important to understand that you will not have access to a mass audience right away. What you gain however, are very specific and defined demographics of early adapters and younger audiences. This is not to say that more people won’t start using Periscope or Meerkat, it’s more about being patient until they do and building brand equity with smaller, granular audiences in the meantime.
  • Mind the ecosystem : Nothing should live outside of its original ecosystem and your livestreaming strategy should tie seamlessly to what you’re doing across other channels. (Basic example: if you hold a social giveaway for concert tickets, live stream the concert experience to offer additional value to social followers).

As with Snapchat, Pinterest and other platforms not named Twitter or Facebook, live streaming apps and strategies come down to fit. The truth is, some events/brands will be more suited for it than others. With the NFL announcing that it will have the 2015 Draft up on Periscope, the league identified that one of the main appeals for sports fans is the “live” factor and it offers additional value through the app. Other examples included exclusive model reveals at the recent auto show events.

Overall, don’t think of live streaming as the next great thing to revolutionize your social or digital strategy, but rather as another pillar that can help you support the way you deliver content to your audience and the value your audiences receives from it.

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 30/04/2015

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Social Media Analytics Brief

Analytics and measurement remains a contentious topic in digital. Some would argue that we are living in the age of advanced metrics, where measurement is important. Meanwhile, others would point to the fact that we often shy away from measurement for multiple reasons. Yet, there is a growing demand for tighter, leaner numbers on both front and back ends of campaigns.

Analytics and measurement remains a contentious topic in digital. Some would argue that we are living in the age of advanced metrics, where measurement is important. Meanwhile, others would point to the fact that we often shy away from measurement for multiple reasons. Yet, there is a growing demand for tighter, leaner numbers on both front and back ends of campaigns.

There is no doubt that analytics is becoming an important part of digital strategy. Numbers usually do not lie (unless you want them to). 

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While we recognize the importance of analytics, we still struggle to identify what precisely needs to be measured and to what extent.  

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There is an overwhelming amount of categories to which we can apply analytics, both short and long term. I would argue that that list is incomplete because it doesn’t cover the entire scope of social listening as well as competitive analysis. You also have to break down these categories into social channels and demonstrate how they apply to business goals such as customer conversion or sales rates. These are all primary concerns for digital marketers moving forward. 

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What We Want to Focus On

Leaner measurements

The next step in analytics is to simplify measurement reports and narrow-in on the numbers that are important. The early trend was to include as much detail as possible, resulting in lots of numbers but little significance.

While impressions is a key stat, with changing algorithms it doesn’t always represent campaign effectiveness. Engagement on the other hand shows whether or not your content resonates with your audience as well as demonstrates its ability to grow organically across social platforms. In other words, engagement comes before impressions because it helps generate those impressions.

The next step is to identify the most important social and digital numbers that help you demonstrate effectiveness of your program (or flag the need for a strategic pivot). This can be conversion rates to a sales portal, or a click through rate on a YouTube ad. They key here is knowing what you’re looking for before you even begin the campaign which leads us to:

Tying Analytics to Business Goals

We need to demonstrate the right value. Digital marketers need to place more emphasis on access to client metrics to enhance reporting. Has there been an increased engagement online that corresponds with a good sales quarter? How many users are visiting the website or a sales portal from social properties? What is the click-through rate from a Twitter ad to the website? All of these stats demonstrate the effectiveness of social strategies when driving business results and we must get comfortable with showing them.

Recognizing Long and Short Term Analytics

There was an article on AdAge that discussed abolishing ROI measurements for social in lieu of ROEx2 (Return on Experience and Engagement). In the age of social, experience and engagement are important criteria, however, we must still factor the ROI measurements (we do have to adjust them for the reality of the digital landscape however).

To effectively measure both, we must pay equal attention to both long and short term analytics and demonstrate them to the client. Short term analytics (ROI) address campaign results and real-time customer data that shows how what we do affects business goals (online sales, event attendance, viewership). These results allow us to adapt tactics when we see something working (or not) and make sure we deliver the most effective content.

Long term analytics (ROEx2) require a deep dive into data. These numbers will not show immediate business results, however they demonstrate how a brand’s social presence cultivates relationships online, maintains engagement with users and grows organically across a digital infrastructure. By increasing the number of engaged users, brands increase the market size for those who will see their content (engagement leads to impressions) and in turn their potential audience. It’s important to track this growth and customer interaction because good long-term analytics can contribute to excellent short term gains and campaigns (and numbers).

It’s 2015, and we are less afraid of measuring our success than ever before.  

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 05/03/2015

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Twitter – Updated features you should know about

We took a look at some of the new features Twitter rolled out for 2015 and what they mean to your content strategy.

Every time Twitter unveils a new feature to its platform you’ll see a handful of brands and agencies begin to experiment and test its limits.  Over the last week we’ve seen a few new features be unveiled from the platform such as 30-second mobile video capture, which will be a great tool for brands to create quick product how-to’s, celebrate the excitement of in-store events and showcase behind-the-scene footage for their companies.  As well, a group direct messages features was unveiled for users to host a private conversation on the platform with up to 20 accounts – whether they’re direct followers or not.

But there’s another new Twitter feature we’re intrigued by – Twitter’s While You Were Away  recap which is now available on its iOS mobile app and coming soon to its web platform and Android app.  In an attempt to make the platform less intimidating for new users, this feature lets you “catch up” on “your world” to deliver “what you need to know first.” Basically giving content, advertised or not, an extended life which is similar to the Facebook timeline algorithm by showing users a summary of engaging content they might have missed while they were off the platform – while still remaining its real-time nature.

So how do you get included as a “top tweet”? It’s not entirely clear how Twitter picks and chooses which tweets it features in this feed, though presumably it’s an algorithm that serves us content based on metrics such as engagement (retweets or favourites) or other user habits.  Also if your fans are active users of the app – it’s less likely their see this feature and will most-likely appear for users that spend less time on the app.  Nonetheless, we’ll be watching to see how consumer react to this feature and how it evolves.

As Twitter continues to adapt and evolve, we’re looking forward to leveraging the platform to tell brand narratives in a new and creative way. 

Posted by
Katie Boland
on 28/01/2015

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Video Showdown: Facebook vs. YouTube

Taking a closer look at the rise of Facebook’s native video player and how it challenges YouTube.

There was a time when it was hard to imagine anyone unseating YouTube as the king of online video. While it’s not quite time to declare a new champion, it’s no longer unfathomable that someone will be up to the challenge, and it’s looking like that “someone” will be Facebook.

In 2014 we have seen a significant change on how users chose to both view and post videos. Here is a quick snapshot of change in worldwide Unique Desktop Video Viewers and what service they use to view it:

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Companies like Buzzfeed and WestJet have been weaning off posting their videos to Facebook via YouTube and opting to use the platforms built in software instead. Facebook video is optimized for the platform, with features like autoplay, making it easier for users to view the content and for publishers to get it to play on screen. The process of sharing and distributing content is also more intuitive on the native platform. 

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As you can see, at least on Facebook, the native player is already gaining the edge over YouTube because of its built in capabilities. It makes sense from a metrics perspective too, allowing you to gather all of the information in one place (not go to views to YouTube and engagement to Facebook and YouTube). Facebook is making it easier to track analytics on your video.

However, this is also where the differences come in. YouTube only registers a “unique view” when a user actively clicks “play” and only registers one view per unique connection. Facebook on the other hand counts any video that played for 3 seconds as a view and duplicates the count if a user later returns to view the content again. The stat can be deceiving since users pause while scrolling through their feed, allowing for the video to play.

What does this mean for my brand? As always all of these stats are pointless unless we can apply them to your brand and make them work for you.

What this is means is that YouTube is still more valuable to your brand overall. It keeps better metrics about user engagement and actively pushes content. Customers viewing your content on YouTube are more valuable because they are engaged and present; they are interested in the content (at least initially).

YouTube also stretches the shelf-life of your content. If you miss a video in your Facebook feed, odds are you are not going to come back to it. YouTube on the other hand maintains a library, allowing users to return to content.

However, if you post primarily to Facebook, you should start using the built-in media player on the platform. An array of handy features like autoplay helps you get your content in front of more eyeballs reduces the number of interactions required to view the video, especially on mobile.

As Facebook finds itself at the intersection of social media and mobile, they are quick to introduce features that make mobile experience more convenient and streamlined for both users and advertisers. The analytics and statistics in Facebook video views increase makes it a no-brainer for brands to start posting their content to the platform using the built-in player. 

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This week’s ruckus makers (May 25 – 29)

This week’s ruckus makers (May 25 – 29)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • The NBA is utilizing a lot of social listening and analytics to create content on the go for its consumers. 
  • E-Mail newsletters may have been a thing of the past yesterday, but now, some publishers see them as a separate platform. 
  • The U.S. Air Force is competing with Google when it comes to recruiting. 

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  • Violence against women is a serious issue and technology often helps us shine a light on it in unexpected ways. 
  • Heineken got creative by turning your Tweets into music:

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This week’s ruckus makers (June 1 – 5)

This week’s ruckus makers (June 1 – 5)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • Twitter continues to improve the usability experience with Periscope. Last week the released the app for Android, and now you can discover streamers in your area. 
  • If you’ve been noticing more ads on your Instagram feed, you are not alone. DigiDay delivers it’s verdict (so far) on the image sharing platform. 
  • In case you missed it, Pinterest finally announced that they will be adding a “buy” button to their boards. You can also catch up on Pinterest with our What the Ruckus issue about the platform. 

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This week’s ruckus makers (May 11 – 15)

This week’s ruckus makers (May 11 – 15)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • AdWeek made a useful list of all digital stats from the last month you need to be aware off. 
  • While more of a traditional media event, the ESPN vs. Bill Simmons conflict brings the debate of utility vs. content into the forefront. 

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  • Not a surprise that brands got involved with Cinco De Mayo on social media, however, not all of them got it right. Here is an example of someone who did:

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Join the growing team at ruckus!

We’re hiring! Wanna make a ruckus with us?

Are you tired of terrible social media content that seems to speak to no one at all? Ever thought “I could totally do better”? Well here’s your chance to prove it. At ruckus, we help brands tell a better story through social and digital media. Our dedicated teams are built for today’s evolved story telling – digital natives with big creative ideas that work in the real-time world of social media. And here’s your chance to be a part of that team.

As the social media landscape matures, brands and clients are looking for more detailed and results-driven digital activations. The social media world has evolved beyond channels like Facebook and Twitter – it’s now what you’re saying not just where you’re saying it. This is the rationale behind ruckus: to work with brands to find their stories and develop them into rich, engaging content across owned and paid channels.

What’s the gig:

ruckus is looking for a Social Strategist to join our growing team. Reporting to the Director, Digital Strategy this position will combine amazing creativity with storytelling, analytics measurement and community management. You will develop content and social strategies backed up with research and insights, not happenstance. The role collaborates closely with the firm’s lines of business and practices.

How you can help us grow:

  • You’re a digital native. You understand more than how the channels work, but also how brands can use them as a successful marketing tool.
  • You also recognize and appreciate the need to be timely and strategic with social engagement, knowing when to jump into a conversation and when to sit it out.
  • You understand the pace, tools, venues, conferences and platforms available to develop and share our points of view, creating engagement and relationships with our target audience.
  • You can take your readers on a journey through creative narratives that explain business value in a simple way. You have killer instincts when it comes to integrating both digital and tangible assets to unfold these stories. Whether you are crafting for a client, business or creative audience, your stories engage and dazzle.
  • You think big and your colleagues/client’s will love collaborating with you. You are able to work across a diverse group of peers, practitioners and executive leaders to capture and translate ideas into practice.
  • Developing content for the right industry is part of your DNA – you know how to construct and share stories in a way that grabs industry influencer’s attention. Keeping your fingers on the pulse of the marketplace energizes you as you think about how to syndicate the firm’s thought leadership.
  • You’re excited to grow a business from the ground up.
  • You will work seamlessly with our PR partner APEX to coordinate communications and extend reach.

What you bring to the table:

  • Can translate the expertise of multiple disciplines (e.g. human factors, brand, product, service design, business strategy, engineering, etc.) into client and marketplace relevance.
  • Fluency in digital, web and emerging technology.
  • Strong writing and copy editing skills, grounded in a marketing context. When applying, please include examples of work that showcase your creative and business writing and digital portfolio.
  • Strong presentation skills and desire to sell through your big ideas to clients.
  • Well versed in the language and needs of a robust marketing organization (agency experience an asset).
  • Strong creative mind-set with a passion for design, innovation and technology; share original and new ideas.
  • A fundamental knowledge of paid social and digital tools (Facebook and Twitter ad platforms).
  • Communicate exceptionally through words, pictures and stories and sell an idea/concept into a client
  • Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience in a marketing, publishing and writing function.
  • Understand the mechanics of communication and public relations.
  • Ability to thrive in and manage ambiguity; curious, emphatic and energetic.

Not required but really helpful:

  • Intimate knowledge and use of social channels (all of them)
  • Google Ad Words and SEO/SEM
  • Analytics and Metrics (Google, Sysomos, etc.)
  • Knowledge of Photoshop, In Design, Adobe suite of products
  • HTML and CSS
  • Video production skills

Send a resume and info on your ruckus-making habits to: gary@ruckusdigital.ca

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This week’s ruckus-makers (Feb 9 – Feb 13)

This week’s ruckus-makers (Feb 9 – Feb 13)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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– Twitter and Google got together recently and now your tweets can be found using the world’s most popular search engine. Digiday breaks down what this means for you. 

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– To promote the final season of Mad Men, AMC is making a play for show superfans and user generated content. And it actually looks like a lot of fun. See it here.

– The U.S. Navy recognized that they market to a very select target audience when creating this content. Gamifying your content is always a great way to engage an audience, making them an active participant. 

– Sticking to the theme of engaging content, Air France ran this fantastic contest on mobile to promote it’s new seating options in Asia. 

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 14/02/2015

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Weekly digital marketing update.

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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– Facebook continues to actively combat “advertising” language on the platform and reiterating that you now have to “pay to play” in order to be effective. 

– DigiDay dives deeper into the new model the social media platform has in mind for brands. 

– YouTube is starting it’s own brand and advertising revolution by revamping how we think and approach branded content.

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– Top Shop takes over London fashion week in the UK with an innovative approach to tie social #trends to purchasing decisions.

– WWF joins the fitness app game, but with a fun twist for a good cause. 

– If you think about it, when our phone is on the table and we are not using it, it’s just another ad space to utilize for marketers. Someone is catching on.

– IKEA continues it’s history of successful campaigns, this time helping you put together a perfect collection of emoticons and stay in the middle of every conversation. 

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– Katie Boland (@KathrynBoland) appeared on CBC’s Metro Morning to promote @PodCampToronto. See you there this weekend. 

– Speaking of @PodCampToronto, we will be launching our Snapchat account at the event, covering workshops, impressions and other interesting events. Be sure to follow us at: “ruckusdigital“.

– Our WTR series continues to give you a five minute inside look into the world of social media platforms. This time, we break down Pinterest for brands. 

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 21/02/2015

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