Hashtags are a Waste of Time (Almost)

Instagram's CEO recently said hashtags are a waste of time, if you use them in the belief that they increase readership.

They don't; they only help Instgram "categorize" your posts.

To verify the CEO's statement, analytics firm Social Insider studied over 75 million posts published between 2021 and 2022.

The firm verified that using a lot of hashtags, indeed, is a time-waster. They don't boost readership. 

At best, the use of a few—six or so—will help make your posts "discoverable."

But piling them on is futile.

Why is that?

Instagram has changed its search engine. 

Users can now enter keywords, instead of hashtags. That means many avoid the hashtags page, preferring to look only at search results.

Should you drop hashtags altogether?

No, says Social Insider.

While readership of your post isn't improved by the use of hashtags, the inclusion of six or fewer hashtags will improve Instagram's ability to categorize your post.

Using more than six penalizes you.

But is It Scalable?

There are no accidents in life.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

I'm sick of algorithm-writers trying to manipulate me.

They suggest who I should follow (like Tomi Lahren, someone I loathe); what I should say (they autocorrect "You're my honey" to "You're my hiney"); when I should shop ("It's time to add more data"); and where I should go ("Belize awaits you!" So does Hell.).

It seems no matter where I turn, an anonymous algorithm-writer—likely to be wrong about my wants—has his grubby finger on the scale.

Even book-writers—some, anyway—are trying to manipulate me, by "click-farming" their way onto Amazon's best-seller lists.

Book-writers hire Chinese click-farms to fake Kindle downloads of their books, which Amazon counts as "sales."

A couple thousand Kindle downloads, which today would cost about $400, can put a book—even one with no previous real sales—on the top of Amazon's Top 10 charts.

The fake Kindle downloads also feed Amazon's "Books you may like," suggested purchases served by—what else?—algorithms.

Whatever became of scrupulous writers? Writers who trusted to the originality and incisiveness of their books to boost sales?

Writers of books like Being and Nothingness.

Written by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, 722-page book examines the experiences of individuals from the standpoint of radical subjectivity.

Weighing precisely one kilo when published in Paris in 1943, Being and Nothingness sprang to the top of the best-seller list, to the author's surprise.

Who were all these Parisians in the midst of the Occupation so eager to read a philosophical investigation of human existence?

They were grocers, it turned out. 

Grocers were using the book on their scales to replace the one-kilo lead weights that had been confiscated by the Nazis, to be melted down for bullets.

Long and Winding Road

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

― Vince Lombardi

My next post will represent the fifteen-hundredth to appear on Goodly. The first post appeared nearly 11 years ago.

It's been a slog.

So I can't help snickering at the news that From the Desk of Donald J. Trump is no more. Trump has shuttered his blog after less than four weeks.

"Mr. Trump had become frustrated after hearing from friends that the site was getting little traffic and making him look small and irrelevant," The New York Times said.

He should have asked other bloggers how they felt in the first month.

But that would require humility and empathy.

Trump went wrong expecting success overnight. When his blog earned few readers, his enthusiasm evaporated, almost as quickly, and he quit.

Trump wants only wins and adulatory crowds. A failure at everything, he doesn't understand success.

As Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Decade

Goodly is 10 years old.

What began as a meager stab at search engine optimization a decade ago has become a vocation—you might say, a compulsion—of mine.

With nearly 400 thousand readers, Goodly no longer serves as a device for driving website traffic, but as a way of shouting, Hey, I'm still here.

I recently launched Blog, a new venture that's going to consume my time if it's to succeed—as, I hope, it will.

Meanwhile, God willing, Goodly will continue, pandemic or no, recession or no, civil war or no, global warming or no. 

I'm still here.

The Gift of Spam

One never-ending thread throughout the posts on Goodly is the link between persuasion and clarity. So it's ironic when spammers leave comments that are less than persuasive.

Some are so odd they're worth collecting. Here are just six from the past six months:

Vivian wrote, "An ever increasing number of individuals are transforming their PCs and entomb association into an apparatus not only for simple entertainment and past time but rather as a money machine."

Puspendu wrote, "After reading this post only words came out from my mind that is 'wow.' This post has helps me to acquire some new knowledge. So thanks for sharing such a awesome post. Microwave black friday best power inverter."

Traci wrote, "The last implies that you may need to purchase another telephone and record the whole information once more. Additionally, there stay high odds of your own information being abused. Individual recordings and pictures if spilled can cause a great deal of damage."

William wrote, "A good number of home fire happen within the winter several months than all other year, when that cozy warmth to a fireplace was at its a good number of inviting. Not alone are fire a peril, space heaters can be used to heat rooms that require an special boost script proofreading."

Nancy wrote, "Having a wedding album revealed suggests that you'll decision yourself a published author; you'll not comply to it currently; however it conjointly suggests that you'll accretion the titles publicity commissioner and sales supervisor to the title of published author online paraphrase."

Baqi wrote, "Made from pork and cut to pieces and then marinated from mixtures of soy sauce, vinegar, citrus, bay leaf and some spices."

Now that sounds like Spam!

And with that, Happy Hanukkah. And have a Holly, Jolly Christmas.

Can You Overpost?

Is it possible to post on social media too often?

The answer is: yes, if your content screams, "Buy from me" (a single post like that is one too many); no, otherwise.

Remember: only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of your audience ever sees your posts.

How to Ignite More Attendees

Why are marketers pouring money into influencer marketing?

Dwell time.

Customers spend on average 19 seconds looking at a digital ad, 128 seconds looking at an influencer's content.

That's seven times the dwell time—a duration likely to rise soon with the increase in ad-blocking in the coming months.

So how can you use influencer marketing to promote your event? 

Experiential agency Legacy Marketing suggests these 10 ways:

Find the right influencers. To find thought leaders in your category, surf on social platforms using hashtags and trending topics relevant to your event.

Set reasonable expectations. Understand both the positives and negatives of the influencer's preferred social network when you establish goals.

Chill out. Let influencers do what they do. You can mention guardrails they should keep within, but don't dictate their posts.

Build a relationship. Don't treat the influencer like another vendor. Make her part of your family.

Strive for quality. Quality trumps quantity. You're better served finding an avid "micro-influencer" with 1,000 followers than a haughty generalist with 1 million.

Run contests. Engage the influencer in helping you promote contests.

Minimize brand-speak. Give the influencer talking points, but let her do the talking.

Track. Ask the influencer to use tracking tags when possible, so you can measure her efforts. Be sure she also includes a link to your website!

Be patient. Influencer marketing takes time.

Be authentic. Influencer marketing works because it’s a way to leverage a trusted voice. Don’t compromise that trust by inserting marketing messages where they're not welcome.

Fakebook

If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.

― George Orwell

While Facebook is nation's leading source of news and largest recipient of display-ad dollars, its COO, Sheryl Sandberg, insists it's not a media company.

“At our heart we're a tech company; we hire engineers," she told Axios. “We don’t hire reporters, no one’s a journalist, we don’t cover the news."

As Wired rejoined, "Facebook does not want to be viewed as a media company, which would bring a responsibility to the truth and potential accusations of bias.

"Admitting Facebook is a media company would require Facebook to take responsibility for its role in the spread of fake news, propaganda, and illegal Russian meddling in the US election."

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Facebook is a tech company.

Stating the Obvious

John Hall's new book, Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You, is getting rave notices.
There's a reason.

The author, CEO of a PR firm, has caught the wave we call influencer marketing, which he describes as a "content utopia" where your marketing messages are published and shared routinely by industry leaders.

This "top-of-mind strategy" can leapfrog your organization "from no online presence to industry domination," Hall claims.

And I'm sure the claim is true. But, for my money, Hall's book is a bust.

He spends most of the 180 pages of Top of Mind stating the obvious. Crack open the book and you'll find a lifetime supply of kindergarten lessons like these:

• "Listen to your target audience; engage and communicate with them in ways they find helpful and meaningful; and repeat."

• "Storytelling and sharing knowledge is a big part of our humanity, and we wouldn't be where we are today without it."

• "Giving someone a gift is a nice way to establish a personal connection."
  

• "The more personalized you can make your audience's experience, the more special and valued you will help them feel."
  

• "To generate trust, you need to create a relationship; for that to happen, you need to open up lines of communication that are honest, meaningful, and authentic."

The greater source of disappointment stems from Hall's goal: it isn't to show you how to leverage industry influencers, but to become one yourself.

That's simply not something most marketers need, want, or are able to do.

Most, I think, are wondering: How can I use influencer marketing to sell more flow sensors, flood insurance, or file-sharing packages?

Hall doesn't offer much specific or practical help here, though he would.

He does sandwich halfway through Top of Mind four "best practices" for executing a "top-of-mind strategy;" but they're pedestrian as can be (set goals, find content, commit to a process, publish and repurpose). And he devotes his last two chapters to "turning your team into an army of thought leaders;" but good luck with that.

Besides, how many more GaryVees does the world really need?

Save your $26.

Insider Trading

Don't get too excited about the "virability" of Twitter, if you hope to change minds.

Although six in 10 users get their news from Twitter, a new study shows retweeting is insular.

A group of psychologists at NYU analyzed 560 thousand tweets about three polarizing topics: gun control, same-sex marriage, and climate change.

They found that, while tweets which include fiery "moral and emotional language" go viral, they're rarely traded outside users' in-groups. Sharing occurs almost exclusively among users in the same ideological camps.

"The expression of emotion is key for the spread of moral and political ideas in online social networks," the study's authors say.

But emotion doesn't make an idea worth spreading.

"While using this type of language may help content proliferate within your own social or ideological group, it may find little currency among those who have a different world view,” lead researcher William Brady says.

Where Should a B2B Marketer Spend Her Money?

It's September. You're being bugged for next year's marketing budget.

Spending is an art form. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Sure, year-over-year analytics tell you which channels have produced, but—like any investment—"past performance is no guarantee of future results." We'd all still be buying full-page ads in trade magazines, if that were so.

For my money, your mix next year (ranked by percent of total spend) should look like this:

1. Events
2. Telemarketing
3. Direct mail
4. Retargeting
5. Email
6. SEO
7. PPC
8. Social

Too many channels for your paltry budget? Then work the list from the top down. You can't go wrong.

Don't be tempted to lay all your money on low-cost channels (like email and social), just because they're low cost.

A handful of proprietary events or an exhibit in a couple trade shows, done well, can generate enough leads to keep you in the black for 12 months. A well-conceived telemarketing campaign can do the same. Even a regular stream of pretty postcards can.

Chunky

Small is beautiful.

— Ernst Schumacher

Bevies of experts believe "micro-content"—marcom you mold into "bite-size, digestible chunks"—can counteract customers' growing intolerance of marketing.

I'm not so sure.

If micro means publishing crap, small isn't beautiful.

If micro means posting "rough and ready" videos, small isn't beautiful.

If micro means turning tractati into tweets, small isn't beautiful.

In all these cases, small isn't small: it's only small.

If your sole success-metric is views, micro may be fine.

But if conversions are your bag, better work at it a wee bit harder.

Conference Planners: Make Every Moment Instagramable

Planners, I pity you.

You haven't cracked Gen Y's code yet.

Now you have to wow Gen Z.

The US Census Bureau reports 74 million people belong to Gen Z. In just three years, they'll represent 40% of attendees.

Their intolerance of passivity makes the rest of us look like sheep; so does their penchant for social media activism.

And therein lies both the problem and the solution, says Skift.

No longer can you deliver your grandfather's conference and expect Gen Z to stand for it—or sit through it.

“If it’s not interactive, they’re not going to stay at the meeting,” planner Cindy Lo tells Skift. “They need to be entertained and they’re looking for those Instagramable moments.”

But if you try only to razzle-dazzle Gen Z members, Lo says, you'll fail. You have to razzle-dazzle them authentically. And you have to do it long before they'll even register.

And you have to do it long before they'll even register, because they judge a conference's real values before deciding to engage.

“Gen Z can sniff out fake so fast,” Lo says.

But how do you avoid appearing "fake?"

One way: avoid interruptive calls-to-action like "Tweet this!” in your marketing. Gen Z members understand marketing better than previous generations and abhor tacky commands.

Another: be Instagramable in your marketing. Use tons of imagery to promote your event, keep your copy short, and make both mobile-friendly. You'll not only convert more Gen Z members into attendees, you'll turn them into advocates for your brand.

10 Years a Blogger

Chris Brogan's advice—to make blogging the bedrock of your social media outreach—spurred me to start blogging 10 years ago.

In those years, I have learned to:

• Post early (8 am) and often (cadence counts).
  
  
• Niche.
  
  
• Write short. (If you value readers, don't smother them.)
  
  
• Be honest, and never surprised your most popular posts are the most heartfelt.
  
  
• Think "Progress, not perfection," but edit five times.
  
  
• Stay open for inspiration (and realize most sources are off line).
  
  
• Accept that you're not Mark Twain, Seth Godin, the Dalai Lama, or even Vito Corleone.
  
• Outpost.
  
  
• Remember Mama said there'll be days like this.
  
  
• Don't try to explain why you blog to your family.
  
  
• Get used to silence.

Admit You're a Hack

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative,
original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

— David Ogilvy

Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, wants you to believe storytelling is hack work.

"I’m absolutely on board with storytelling as a content marketing device," he says. "But just because you understand story arcs and can riff on Joseph Campbell doesn’t mean you’re now Francis Ford Coppola or William Faulkner. Content marketing is a job, not an art form."

I suspect Baer doesn't know that Faulkner, with over a dozen dependents to support, wasn't above sports writing, travel writing, and movie scriptwriting (he's credited for, among other films, The Big Sleep).

But I get Baer's point: marketing's kind of storytelling ain't art-making; it's hack work.

"I see more and more content marketers straying from this perspective," Baer says, "thinking that they are newfangled hybrid players, straddling the line between fine art and commerce. They are not.

"The only job that content marketing has is to create behaviors among target audiences that benefit the business. Content must prod behavior, or it’s a useless exercise."

Or, as my agency's website says, "“It’s not creative unless it sells."

6 Last-Ditch Ways to Sell Out Your Event

If you're not gonna go all the way, why go at all?

― Joe Namath

When events fail to sell out, resourceful producers pull out all the stops.

EventMB recommends these six last-ditch efforts:

Social media buy. Take out ads on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook that target locals (drive-ins) with an interest in your topics. Cull your database for locals to help you target the buy, and be sure to keep using free social media to chat up your event. Take advantage of past attendees' testimonials. You'll motivate fence-sitters.

Personalized email. Cull from your database locals who haven’t registered and conduct a drip-marketing campaign. Focus on locals who click through and send them additional emails that concentrate on justifying the cost of the event.

Special offer. Email registrants an offer of a referral incentive, such as "Buy two, get one free." Registrants will feel appreciated and help you. Send sponsors and exhibitors the same offer, to pass along to their customers. Sister organizations may also help you spread the word. You can also promote a contest on social media with free tickets as the prizes. Create a hashtag and ask people to vote on line. Contests, well done, are buzz-worthy.

Streamlined registration. Identify any causes of friction in your registration process and eliminate them―even if it means slaying sacred cows. Last-minute registrations are impulsive, and you don't want to deter prospects in any way. And add prominent copy like "Last chance to pre-register and save" or "Only a few seats left."

Telemarketing. The best way to spur last-minute registrations is to call locals, particularly alumni of past events who haven't registered. They know the value you deliver. (If yours is a first-time event, concentrate on locals who have some relationship with you.)

Retargeting. Retargeted ads can influence sales-resistant locals by making your event top of mind. By becoming ubiquitous, you'll sell out.

Last-ditch don'ts. EventMB warns:

• Don't offer last-minute discounts rashly; you only signal panic, cheapen your event, and train registrants to wait for deep discounts the next time round. ("Loyal attendee" discounts are okay.)
  
  
• Don't go all-serious. Play up the entertainment value of your event (remember, last-minute registrations are impulse buys).
  
  
• Don't go into hard-sell mode across all marketing channels. Concentrate on the ones above.
   
• Don't bury your calls to action in your last-ditch promotions. Big, colorful buttons work.
  
  
• Don't refrain from giving free registrations away, if the recipients are influencers who'll add to the prestige of your event.

Demand Gen Demands Focus

Lead gen (scattered) differs from demand gen (focused).

Demand gen identifies your best prospects, hooks them with content, and converts them into buyers.

It takes focus to pull it off, says Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group.

Here's Brenner's formula:

Step 1. Target your prospects and offer them premium content and giveaways through a variety of channels. Test e-books, white papers, infographics, videos, podcasts, free trials, and free apps. Test influencer marketing at this stage, as well. "With every download, sign-up or other customer action, you’ll gain insight and have a better idea of which segments are interested in what and why," Brenner says.

Step 2. Help prospects form an intimate connection with your brand. For this, try Webinars, contests, and events. "This tactic serves to invite the customer into a more committed brand-customer relationship."

Step 3. Now that you’ve identified your best quality leads, customize your marketing communications. "Hopefully, you’ve managed to collect some extra customer info along the way with survey questions and feedback requests to help firmly establish your buyer personas and clearly understand each segment’s pain points," Brenner says.

Step 4. Keep the customized content flowing. "It is the tailored, worthwhile content that will convince your vetted leads to follow you along until a purchase is made." Don't forget the continue testing different offers.

Step 5. Engage and delight your new customers through social media and email. Make sure they know about your new products, promotions, and content. "Meanwhile, your inbound marketing is working on gathering your next pool of prospects, ready to be identified, evaluated, thinned, and segmented."

Concentration is key.

"This approach does require a concentrated, ongoing effort to stay focused on your quality leads and customer retention," Brenner says. "But, as the nurturing process continues, relationships build, bonds thicken, and your pool of the highly qualified swells."

Tradeshow Malcontents

Thou art the Mars of malcontents.

— William Shakespeare

UK exhibit builder Display Wizard recently asked 100 marketers whether tradeshows have a bright future.

Their answers might disturb you: 75 said yes; 25, no.

The 25 nay-sayers cited the rising digital tide as the reason—and their nagging disappointment with organizers, who are molasses-slow to adopt new technologies.

You might, as a hard-working organizer, respond, "Sure, we're not perfect, but attendees love our event!"

Maybe, maybe not.

Late last year, the event research firm Explori found, worldwide, tradeshows earn abysmally low Net Promoter Scores from attendees (from a high of 20 in the US to a low of -6 in Asia).

To put that in context, an "average" company's Net Promoter Score ranges from 31 to 50. (The worldwide Net Promoter Score exhibitors gave tradeshows was worse: -18.)

Explori's analysts noted that attendees' low scores can't be attributed to "so-called 'hygiene factors' such as venue layout, signage or catering, but highlight far more fundamental problems." T

radeshow exhibitors aren't displaying the innovations attendees crave.

Again, as a hard-working organizer, you might say: "So what? Many thriving industries have low Net Promoter Scores."

And you'd be right: duopolistic industries (where customers have little choice) all have negative scores. (Think cable TV, for example; Comcast and Time Warner Cable both have negative Net Promoter Scores—more unhappy than happy customers.)

But the tradeshow industry isn't a duopoly.

Attendees and exhibitors have choices. They can participate only in segment-leading shows. Or only in niche shows. Or they can meet elsewhere; at virtual events or—more likely—proprietary ones.

And, as a hard-working organizer, you might say: "I'm not worried. We're used to exhibitor churn. There'll always a few malcontents."

But you should worry.

Malcontents don't just represent the portion of customers who aren't satisfied.

They represent a potential mob that can become radicalized—that can pick up the weapons of social media and declare jihad on your plush bottom line.

Please Disturb

Sadly, most "social selling" merely amplifies sleazy selling.

You see it on LinkedIn daily, as an ever-swelling spam tsunami floods your homepage.

Although they do themselves no favors, the buffoons behind the flood damage their brands more than themselves. Where they once had opportunities to drive away only handfuls of prospects in the past, now they possess a weapon of mass destruction.

It need not be that way, says LinkedIn strategist Kristina Jaramillo.

Social selling experts insist social selling is a lead-gen "volume play," Jaramillo says.

But it isn't.

Social selling's purpose should be lead qualification and nurturing.

"The focus should be on prospect development," Jaramillo says.

Simply posting about your product, your team, yourself or even your industry doesn't make you relevant to buyers.

You have to drill down to value; and, on LinkedIn, that comes in form of challenges to the status quo.

You need to publish "disruptive" content that drives changes in thoughts and actions, and, most importantly, "give prospects a reason to change," Jaramillo says.

You Can Thank Associations for National Days

July 6 is National Fried Chicken Day.

Marked merely to drive product sales—in this case, sales of chicken parts by fast-food restaurants—the hennish little holiday typifies most so-called "National Days."

National Days are PR stunts—or the vehicles thereof—that date back to the Roman Empire, when emperors declared micro holidays constantly, in order to keep the bread-and-circus-loving citizens of Rome satisfied.

Lupercalia, for example, was a micro holiday marked every February 15th. The Romans would celebrate the day by sacrificing goats, drinking lots of wine, and parading around in the nude, in hopes of banishing evil spirits.

We moderns prefer National Days that honor stuff we can buy: consumer goods like almonds, bourbon, cupcakes, eggs, hot dogs, pancakes, spreadsheets, towels, tubas, and underpants.

As of 2017, association marketers have spawned over 1,200 of this sell-ebrations, according to the National Days Calendar.

To apply for your own National Day, all you need do is submit it to the keepers of the Calendar.

"The buildup annually to a National Day is great," the application states. "News stories, increase in product sales, top of mind awareness and much more can be generated annually."

Great, that is, provided you're not a chicken.