The contestants were UC Berkeley students from various disciplines (plus one or two alumna) and the awards were made by a panel of judges. According to Kuan-Ju Wu, a professor at the Jacobs Institute, the team were encouraged to look at current technology — “at signals from the space” — and then imagine what the future might be like.

Why we care. No, none of this needs to be in your marketing budget for 2024. One thing to understand, though, is that this contest got underway before everyone was talking about generative AI and ChatGPT. Which goes to show that there are many other concepts out there that could significantly change the internet and our relationship with it. Imagine how some of these concepts could play into marketing strategies…one day. “In this society, it’s really hard to determine how fast those ideas could become (reality),” he told us.

And the prize goes to…

Here are the winners in each of five categories.

Community choice and best technical concept: Web decentralization

According to the winning team, the future of the internet is about “creating systems where end-users get closer to the design process. Websites are no longer a form of presenting but also a tool for us to personalize our digital world and experience.”

As Wu described it: “Everyone has their building blocks to create their digital version of their own realm. In this future, it is all connected; they can share, they can transform data. It’s a combination of the new web and Minecraft. They use Minecraft a lot as an analogy.”

Dig deeper: Metaverse, Web 3.0 and NFTs: What marketers need to know

Best inclusive focus: Thought-to-thought

Two teams won awards based around brain computer interface (see the fifth award below) — probably, thought Wu, because there had been a recent conference on the topic. This involves a developing, real world technology aimed at using signals from the brain directly to engage with computers or other external devices.

Wu admits this project was “pretty wild” and one of the most speculative in the contest. “What interests me is that they touch on some ethical elements in this idea, because when you’re sharing your thoughts with other people, you have to build up a trust relationship. You’re enabling people to read your mind.”

Best social impact: Finding heart in Woven cities

Perhaps the cutest element here is the small (and frankly, stealable) robot dreamt up by two architecture students and a computer science student interested in public health. “Basically, the robot is just an agent, just a platform, like a repository for your idea or thought,” said Wu. It can be seen as a mobile billboard.

The robot would roam freely so encounters with it would be spontaneous. The genesis of the idea lay in the isolation of the COVID era and anxiety about speaking with strangers. (Woven City is an imaginary community.)

Most Actionable: Interspace

“Interspace is between intraspace and outer space,” explained Wu. The team were reflecting on the current state of social media that encourages individuals to present an outer face to the world, quite separate from the inner space of their own thoughts and feelings or relationships with close friends and family members.

“Those two spaces can mingle,” said Wu. The final concept was a wristband (inspired by the Tamagotchi device) that easily allows users to toggle between their inner self and outer brand when engaging with others.

Best blue sky: Brain computer interfaces

Being able to detect brain actvity like alpha waves — that’s old technology, Wu said. “I think the newer one will allow you to have a more sophisticated understanding of the signals from the brain and to analyze them.”

The vision here includes the revolutionizing of content creation as well as support for people who are impeded in the use of a normal mouse and keyboard, for example by neurodegenerative disease.

What will digital content look like in the future?

Brandon Watts, a senior manager at Storyblok, explained how this first collaboration with the Jacobs Institute came about. As a headless CMS, Storyblok can send content to all kinds of existing devices and channels. “One of the things we’re most interested in is what type of content platforms are going to exist in the future,” Watts said, “and of course we can speculate all day long, but we thought this was a cool opportunity to partner with Berkeley and get students on the ground to make an educated guess about where things might go.”

The concepts may seem ambitious but there’s always a content management element, Watts explained, because the content needs to be stored and somehow delivered. “With Storyblok, it doesn’t matter what platform it is — it’s all API-driven — so we could be communicating through a robot as easily as through a brain computer interface or anything like that.”

The main takeaway? The future could be much more personal and much more inclusive. “Instead of companies blasting out content on a billion different channels, these visions were all very one-to-one. What does that content journey look like?’

The post Beyond boundaries: The future of digital content appeared first on MarTech.

Why we care. This wasn’t a cost-saving move by Microsoft. It could easily have afforded the $42,000+/month Twitter wants for its API. This is a further indication of Twitter’s declining relevance to marketers. What advertisers want most in an advertising platform is the one thing Twitter’s mercurial owner Elon Musk has never been able to provide: stability. 

Dig deeper: Twitter’s demise would cost marketers an important, useful channel

What is happening. The action means users can’t access their Twitter account through Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center’s social media management tool. They also won’t be able to view their past tweets and engagement on the Microsoft Advertising platform. Users will still be able to manage and create content for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

When it happened. Microsoft’s announcement came the day after Musk made another attempt to lure back advertisers.  

“We’re trying to achieve here a sensible middle ground, or we’re trying to satisfy a range of things, which is how to ensure the public has their voice,” Musk said at an industry event in Florida, “but also that you’re able to serve your brands and improve the perception of your brands, and your sales as well.”

Almost 90% of Twitter’s revenue in 2021 came from advertising. In the first quarter of this year, 61 of the platform’s 100 biggest advertisers reduced their spending by at least 80%; 37 of them appear to have spent nothing, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Musk responds. In response, Musk threatened to sue Microsoft, claiming the tech giant illegally used Twitter data to train its AI. 

Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and therefore responsible for deciding what data it was trained on. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but sold off his stake several years later. As of today, there are no indications that a lawsuit has been filed.

The post Microsoft ad platforms end support of Twitter tomorrow appeared first on MarTech.

Since it’s not as fresh as some peers, marketers may wonder whether LinkedIn can still bring a worthwhile ROI. However, like other marketing tools, what you get from the site greatly depends on what you put into it.

Consider the following questions to determine whether you’re taking full advantage of how LinkedIn content can boost your B2B marketing.

Key takeaways:

• Though LinkedIn is business-focused, your content on the medium needs to have personality and help you build a community.
• LinkedIn is ideal for establishing credibility and linking to your content and website.
• Remember to appeal visually with scroll-stopping images and attention-grabbing videos.
• You can also use LinkedIn to test and refine your ideas and gain audience feedback.

Dig deeper: SEO guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for more connections, better leads

Are you focusing on community?

Though the site is for professionals, your LinkedIn page shouldn’t be all business. Like your other marketing efforts, infuse your personal and company pages with personality. 

No one wants to partner with a faceless, bland company. As one marketing expert said, you should create “high-five content.” 

Ask yourself before you post a comment, article or video: Will this put a smile on someone’s face or get an emphatic head nod? 

Concern for community and social responsibility is at the forefront of purchasing, partnering and investing decisions. Don’t be afraid to warm hearts or show where you stand on social issues. 

Above all, people are looking to solve problems. Discuss them in a way that shows you empathize with your core audience’s challenges. 

Even a simple meme or GIF can communicate, “Hey, I know what you’re going through.” When your target audience starts thinking about who can help them solve that problem, you’ll be one of the first names that come to mind.

Is your content consistent and visual?

You’re not the only one out there trying to capture attention on LinkedIn. Our own research on how often you should post shows that consistent effort is necessary to attract eyes and ears.

Use scroll-stopping visuals that make readers pause an extra second on your posts. A picture is still worth a thousand words, so embrace visualizations and infographics. 

You can also start to build a connection with ideal prospects by making your company come to life with images and videos of your team. Show what they do for similar clients in your target market. 

Testimonials and brief case studies are other power tools. These endorsements make your company feel like a teammate that others want in their corner, too.

Most importantly, use tech tools to maintain a consistent schedule for posting. Sporadic messaging does little to establish your professionalism, while regular posts position you as an authority and an active organization that gets things done.

Are you targeting the right audience?

Other social media platforms may have a more extensive reach overall, but LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to help you tailor your message to better-qualified leads. 

Master using the Campaign Manager to understand how your content performs with different groups. You may learn that you’re focusing on the wrong audience or lack a genuine focus on the right groups.

As you study your results, determine why you’re getting your current level of engagement and how to concentrate on high-quality leads.

Are you establishing credibility with thought leadership?

Content marketing has better long-term results than straight advertising because it builds credibility. As companies look for more suitable ways of solving challenges, valuable content makes you a name they trust and a thought leader.

Those likes and comments on LinkedIn offer an easy way to show that other people approve of you. Such responses are public social proof that’s harder to demonstrate on your own website. 

Design information that teaches your prospects and motivates engagement, whether a like, comment or click. Of course, you want to get people to your site, so always link back to the content on your web pages to boost your SEO.

You become even more trustworthy when your team members post valuable articles and make insightful comments. Your ideal prospects will see you as an organization of skilled professionals that they can trust.

Are you experimenting with and improving your content?

Remember, your goal shouldn’t be to go viral. You should laser-focus on your niche to build an engaged fanbase.

When you experiment, expect to make a few missteps. Social media provides the optimal method for testing smaller posts and ideas to finding out what hits.

The key point is to be active on the platform. Set specific goals, create an actionable plan, implement your ideas, measure the ROI, refine your strategy and repeat.

Are you taking steps to use Linkedin as a catalyst for your B2B marketing?

LinkedIn shouldn’t be the only aspect of your B2B marketing, but you shouldn’t neglect it either. As you devise or refine your LinkedIn marketing strategy, determine how you can incorporate these suggestions into your plan of attack.

The post 6 tips for optimizing LinkedIn content for B2B marketing appeared first on MarTech.

“Once brand marketers began to truly adopt TikTok, the two became inseparable,” says Kyle Wong, chief strategy officer of customer experience platform provider Emplifi. “The platform offers brands a way to show a side of themselves that isn’t possible on the more traditional platforms. Now that TikTok has officially become an important piece of a brand’s overall strategy, marketers and users would be the ones taking a hit if a ban were implemented.”

Why we care. Public concern about data protection is real and substantial. An Ipsos poll last year found 84% of Americans at least somewhat concerned about the safety and privacy of the personal data that they provide on the internet. 

Several states, including California, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado and Utah, passed privacy protection laws and many others are considering doing so. Each of these means a different set of requirements digital marketers must follow. A national law would eliminate this problem and make it easier for consumers to know exactly what protection they have.

The argument for a ban. Those who want to ban TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, say it poses a national security risk. They are concerned China’s government, which wields a lot of power over the nation’s businesses, could exploit user data to spy on American users and feed them misinformation. 

The ban was first proposed by President Trump, and President Biden supports a ban if TikTok’s Chinese owners don’t sell their stake in the company. A number of members of Congress from both parties support it, as do some current and former national officials. However, Congress — like the public at large — remains divided on the issue.

The argument against a ban. Excluding TikTok executives, those who oppose the ban mostly agree with the charges made against the company. However, they believe banning TikTok wouldn’t solve the real problem.

Dig deeper: 5 reasons why marketers should consider TikTok for B2B

“Nearly all social media platforms and other online businesses collect a lot of personal data from their users,” The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Adam Schwartz and David Greene recently wrote. “TikTok raises special concerns, given the surveillance and censorship practices of its home country, China. Still, the best solution to these problems is not to single-out one business or country for a ban. Rather, we must enact comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation. By reducing the massive stores of personal data collected by all businesses, TikTok included, we will reduce opportunities for all governments, China included, to buy or steal this data.”

Everyone else is doing it. In short, they say the real problem with TikTok is it is behaving like every other social media platform. It’s not an unreasonable accusation. Consider, among the things the company has been criticized for is spreading misinformation on climate change, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, the neurodevelopmental disorder ADHD and eating disorders. Facebook and YouTube have been criticized for doing exactly the same.

Support for national privacy law. Last year, a federal data protection act with substantial bipartisan support died in Congress because it was opposed by then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). It looked likely to stay that way as the incoming GOP majority in the House of Representatives said nothing about it before, during or after the election. TikTok has given it new life.

It isn’t impossible that Congress would ban a popular, profitable private business, but it is far from a sure thing. As noted previously, while the ban has bipartisan support, it also has bipartisan opposition. There’s also the substantial number of users and businesses on TikTok to be considered.

“One important element in this conversation needs to be around the users,” says Emplifi’s Wong. “With nearly 87 million US-based users on TikTok, it’s clear the platform and its innovative content format hold appeal to users and brands are running as fast as they can to tap into that buzz.”

Compromise candidate. There are indications that a data protection law could succeed as a compromise. Consider what Rep. Cathay McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said last week.

“Whether it’s TikTok, Big Tech, or other data brokers to restrict the amount of data that they’re collecting to begin with,” she said on CNN. “We need to ensure that individuals have the right to know what their profile might be or to be alerted if their information, their personal data is being accessed or transferred to another country like China.”

The post The fight over banning TikTok could result in something good for marketers appeared first on MarTech.

Dig deeper: How Haleon built social media intelligence in-house

What are they. Reminder Ads is designed to “help advertisers build awareness, anticipation, and consideration for upcoming moments.” Consumers who opt in will get three reminders about a marketing event: One day before, 15 minutes before and at the time it happens. The Meta-owned company says this comes after a successful test run in partnership with the cable network Starz. 

Now in search. Instagram is currently testing putting ads in search results “to reach people actively searching for businesses, products and content.” It is likely these ads will be highlighted in a way that differentiates them from the marketing content which currently appears in search results.

Why we care. Meta is floundering fiscally, but more ads on Instagram may be counterproductive. The company is facing a weak ad market and pressure from TikTok. On the plus side, Instagram is still providing marketers with the best ROI – more than twice that of TikTok. However, TikTok’s average revenue per user was $46.86 last year, seven times more than Instagram. Also, TikTok’s users spend an average of 89 minutes a day on the site, three times that of Instagram users.

Finally, there is the very real risk of oversaturation. Remember MySpace? It was doing great until News Corp. bought it in 2006 and put ads everywhere. Instagram already has ads on the Explore page, Explore feeds, Reels, Stories, user profiles and plenty more when you open its app. Let’s hope more ad inventory doesn’t mean less ad viewers.

The post Instagram unveils two new advertising channels appeared first on MarTech.

Scheduled posts. Marketers can now schedule the specific date and time for posts to run on their organization’s LinkedIn page. The new capability allows users to schedule content within the LinkedIn platform, instead of depending on a third-party marketing or publishing tool.

Posts can be scheduled up to three months in advance, and all scheduled posts can be viewed and managed within the platform.

Live audio-only conversations. LinkedIn Audio Events, another new feature, allows users to host live conversations without video. The host announces the event and LinkedIn users can RSVP ahead of time, all in-platform.

Audio Events are structured informally, with a speaker on the “stage.” Other virtual attendees can raise their hand and be invited to join the stage and speak, if they choose.

LinkedIn already has a LinkedIn Live product for video events, but users need a third-party broadcasting tool to use it. There are no charges for events products, but LinkedIn requires creators and orgs to have 150 or more followers to their Page in order to host an event.

Dig deeper: How to personalize your brand on LinkedIn

Posting new jobs automatically. LinkedIn has also introduced an opt-in to post new job posts automatically on Pages.

If this option is chosen, LinkedIn will share one new job per day as a pre-scheduled post on the organization’s Page.

Following for Pages. Pages used by organizations can now follow other pages, in the way that individual LinkedIn users can follow others.

Why we care. Social media scheduling tools have long been a part of the digital marketer’s stack at larger and more mature organizations. LinkedIn is making it easier to schedule content and post jobs in-platform with a smaller budget and content staff. The new Audio Events give B2B marketers an added opportunity to share industry views and exchange ideas in a more casual way, hitting a middle ground between a written article and a professional video talk.

The post LinkedIn releases new Pages features for B2B marketers appeared first on MarTech.

“Our goal is to empower organizations across the ecosystem to execute data collaboration at scale, without the need for ongoing technical resources or the need to move the data,” said Matt Kilmartin, Habu co-founder and CEO, in a company release.

Why we care. Marketers are looking to data clean rooms as a way to enrich their data and boost ad campaign performance in an increasingly regulated digital ecosystem where data is precious. Interoperability increases the opportunities marketers have to build clean rooms with publishers and other digital media partners.

“Data clean rooms come in very handy to help us broaden the ways we use data beyond just a one-to-one kind of transaction,” said Roku’s head of ad platforms, Youssef Ben-Youseff, in the release.

Dig deeper: Why we care about data clean rooms

Data and intelligence tools. Habu’s improved platform allows clean room owners to work more effectively with business intelligence derived from the data clean room. Reports and analytics dashboard environments generated from the clean room can now be templatized and packaged.

Also, an improved Question Builder in the new version of Habu now makes it easier to author new clean room use cases and templates.

New integrations. Enhancements to the platform include a new simplified integration with Facebook. Marketers can now add Habu to their Facebook Ads/Advanced Analytics account.

Additionally, enhancements to integrations with TikTok and Twitter reduce rate-limit disruptions and other errors, taking away the need for ongoing manual support on those social platforms.

Amazon Marketing Cloud. Last fall, Habu became a certified Amazon Marketing Cloud partner. This opened up the Habu platform to marketers using Amazon Ads who want to expand their campaign through the marketing cloud and use Habu’s intelligence tools.

Using a library of plain English queries and visualizations, the no-code and low-code Habu tools allow marketers to enrich data and gain intelligence with little to no experience in data science.

Dig deeper: Amazon announces AWS Clean Rooms

The post Habu releases new data clean room enhancements appeared first on MarTech.

What it does. The new product combines Digimind’s AI Sense with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. AI Sense monitors social media, blogs, reviews, podcasts and more, to detect key events about any brand or topic. It then determines important metrics, such as reach, brand impact and key mentions. This is sent to ChatGPT, which will analyze and summarize it in plain English in real time.

Dig deeper: How Haleon built social media intelligence in-house

“It is as if each user gets full access to two dedicated analysts: one data scientist, and one business analyst 24/24, 7/7,” Paul Vivant, Digimind CEO, said in a statement. “This saves hours of analysis and allows our clients to react much faster by having an instant brief on the situation.”

Why we care. You don’t have to look any further than the Twitter-fueled run on Silicon Valley Bank to see how a social media wave can swamp a business. The toughest part of monitoring online conversations is separating wheat and chaff. How do you know what matters and what’s just someone blowing off steam. And how long can you afford to wait for an accessible summary of what’s going on? If this solution does what it promises, it will be a big step forward on this.

The post Digimind’s new product combines two AI engines to monitor and analyze social media appeared first on MarTech.

Haleon was created last year out of a joint venture between GSK’s and Pfizer’s consumer products, which include Advil, Excedrin, Robitussin, Tums and other household brands.

The company assembled an in-house team to use social media intelligence, or “social intelligence” — tools and strategies to understand what customers are saying about brands and how to leverage that intelligence to boost marketing efforts.

Dig deeper: Social media marketing guide for brands

Defining social media intelligence

First, Haleon had to define social media intelligence. It can mean different things in different organizations, so it’s important for each business to establish goals and benefits derived from social intelligence operations.

“Social intelligence is folding in all these different data sources and really trying to figure out what this data is actually going to do and what [it] tell us,” said Danny Gardner, analytics manager U.S. and North America social intelligence lead for Haleon, at The MarTech Conference.

Gardner and his team consider social intelligence as a more sophisticated version of social media monitoring and listening. Instead of just tracking different topics that consumers are talking about on social platforms, social intelligence draws insights from this data and ties the insights to marketing actions.

“Why does the business want to have social intelligence?” Gardner asked. “At its core, it’s insights. We’re able to act on this data and get to insights faster than any other team in the company.”

Brands that gather social intelligence have access to consumer opinions about their own products and also the competition. They also gain feedback about marketing campaigns and can learn more about their target audience.

Another benefit of social media intelligence is finding out where consumers say they are purchasing products. For Haleon, knowing if customers are talking about buying Advil at a Costco or through an online retailer helps the company develop an ecommerce strategy.

If consumers are speaking negatively about a brand on social, knowing this can help the brand execute a crisis management strategy, said Gardner.

Four social media intelligence categories

Social media is a vast space, and listening to it intelligently means having clear categories or “buckets” for the data.

Gardner and his team established four main buckets of data they wanted to gather through social channels. They wanted to analyze and gain insights from social conversions that related to their own portfolio of brands, competitor brands, broader topics related to using these products, and “macro and cultural” trends.

“There are a lot of trends that go on and things that happen in society that we’ve realized our consumers care a lot more about than our brands, and rightfully so,” said Gardner. “And so we took it upon ourselves years ago to build this into our remit.”

Building and scaling social media

Although Haleon only went live as an organization in 2022, their marketing strategy, including their approach to social intelligence, has been years in the making.

Here’s a timeline of the steps they took to implementing social intelligence tools and strategies.

“There was this large discovery phase around what data is available, how can we get to it, what does data mining look like, what vendors exist and what are their capabilities,” Gardner explained. “It was actually a couple years before I was hired that they started building the case that, hey, we actually think we might be able to do this in-house.”

Haleon also debated the pros and cons of building versus buying their solution, and eventually wound up settling on a suite of social intelligence tools developed by Meltwater.

Piloting social media intelligence during the pandemic

Just as Haleon was ready to test pilot some of their social media intelligence capabilities, the world changed. During the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers upped their use of digital channels to purchase products and self-educate.

“We came out of our 12 month pilot, and at the end of the tunnel was COVID-19,” said Gardner. “And so this definitely accelerated the demand and interest for what social listening was and really catapulted us into the limelight…Social media was kind of the go-to for questions [consumers] didn’t have answers to.”

He added, “So at the time this is actually what inspired this macro trend tracking capability and we now know we can do this pretty well around our brands.”

As a result, Haleon has a better understanding of how consumers feel about their roster of brands. And they can join the conversation on larger issues in a way that’s relevant to their customers.

Register for The MarTech Conference here.

The post How Haleon built social media intelligence in-house appeared first on MarTech.

53% of marketers expect TikTok to deliver the biggest growth in 2023, according to Reuters’ State of Marketing 2023 report. Trailing behind were the Metaverse and LinkedIn (15%), other platforms (9%), Instagram (6%) and Facebook (2%). Interestingly, despite having 368 million monthly active users globally and under new management, the report did not mention Twitter.

TikTok is well-known for viral videos (remember the longboarder sipping cranberry juice and lip-synching “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac?), ad campaigns and creator marketing activations. They also release new functionality for their users and advertisers every other week.

Let’s explore why B2B marketers may want to rethink TikTok as a viable option.

1. TikTok is a storytelling engine

Video content has been the number one consumed media globally for several years. TikTok has tapped into this trend, allowing marketers and brands to tell their stories and capture consumer attention.

Creating video content isn’t a novel concept. We have been doing this for years. But data suggests marketers invested more in video content creation in 2022. What this tells me is that video production quality will be a focus.

Video content humanizes brands and stimulates several senses at once, which helps buyers retain information. Creating videos that effectively tell a story keeps consumers engaged and entertained while providing valuable brand messaging.

TikTok is a video-first platform built for mobile, giving it huge advantages over other networks. Legacy platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter struggle with attracting younger audiences who crave video.

2. TikTok makes content discoverability easy

For years, “Google” has been virtually synonymous with discoverability for consumers and ad buyers. It’s become a verb in our vocabulary. And while many still use Google as their gateway into the web, young people are turning to TikTok.

Google knows this. Just last year, a Google exec cited an internal report that 40% of young people use TikTok when looking for a place for lunch. Curious, I asked my daughter the same question about her TikTok usage; she agreed.

TikTok recognizes this and is building additional functionality to make content discovery easier. Last summer, they expanded the video descriptions from 300 to 2,200 characters.

It’s now common to see TikTok videos appear in Google results. As competition between these two companies grows, it will be interesting to see how long Google will index TikTok videos.

Dig deeper: TikTok is setting the ground rules for social media

3. TikTok isn’t just for young people

A common misconception among B2B marketers is that TikTok is just for young people. That may have been true a few years ago, but as TikTok users have aged with the platform.

About 60% of TikTok users in the U.S. are under 30, accounting for Gen Z and younger millennials. The other 40% are older: 16% between 30-39 years old, 13.9% are between 40-49 years old, and 7.1% are 50 and up.

As older millennials are in their mid-30s and almost 40, they have also been promoted to managers and directors, and are leading teams. Many are responsible for buying decisions at large companies. A 2015 Google report (yes, eight years ago) showed that nearly half of all B2B buyers are millennials. That number has undoubtedly gone up.

4. TikTok is ripe for B2B

The first thing you see when you log into TikTok is the For You page (FYP). You might see a funny video, dance routine, makeup tutorial, cleaning hack or recipe.

But TikTok adapts as you use it. The feed will change and become more relevant by optimizing your profile with relevant keywords and engaging with B2B creators and other technology brands.

Technology and B2B content already exist in the platform. For example, a quick search for the #DigitalTransformation hashtag yielded 14.5 million views, #InfoSec with 138,000 views and #WomenInTech with 572,000 views. And B2B brands like Adobe, Sage and Shopify are succeeding on the platform.

The time is now for B2B and technology brands to integrate TikTok into their long-term marketing and digital strategy.

5. Brands have creative freedom

At the outset, social media was just a community. There was no advertising or it was primitive. There were no influencers or creators. Instead, people with common interests talked to each other about what mattered.

While the concept of a community still exists today, most apps like TikTok and Instagram are now media platforms. As a result, brands have the creative freedom to launch campaigns, activate creators and buy ads throughout the network as they see fit.

One of the best things about brand marketing on TikTok is its creative freedom. Unlike other social media platforms, there aren’t strict rules or guidelines about creating ads or launching campaigns. 

You can be as creative as you want when creating videos or running ads on the platform, giving you plenty of creative expression to experiment and find what works best for your business. There’s no 20% rule of text on images. If you buy media on Facebook, you know exactly what I mean.

TikTok hasn’t ignored measuring campaign performance and tracking ROI. It’s analytics provide insights into user engagement, ad performance and more. It’s become increasingly easy for marketers to measure and optimize campaigns in real time.

Also, TikTok has doubled down on innovation by consistently releasing new features for advertisers. They recently added four new options to their Promote advertising tool. This lets advertisers syndicate content quickly and easily to:

• Drive more visits to your TikTok page.
• Get more messages from potential customers.
• Boost other creators’ content.
• Target audience by location.

Don’t overlook TikTok

24% of marketers said that strengthening brand identity was a top priority for 2023, followed by increasing brand awareness (19%) and brand interaction in social media (6%).

Many might take this as an opportunity to invest more money in creative advertising within the platforms where they feel comfortable. If you’re a B2B company, perhaps it’s LinkedIn. If you’re a consumer brand, maybe you’re still finding value on Facebook and Instagram.

I would challenge you to think outside the box and consider using TikTok to reach new audiences, strengthen your brand identity and increase awareness. You might be surprised at the results. 

TikTok’s influence on buying behavior is significantly higher than other social media channels, with 15% of users willing to take action after viewing an ad on TikTok. Also, 49% of users say they use TikTok as a source for discovering something new.

So, what are you waiting for?

The post 5 reasons why marketers should consider TikTok for B2B appeared first on MarTech.