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Brands Partner With NBA To Create Innovative Gaming Activations

April 9, 2021 by CCN Reporter

As March Madness drew to a close, many basketball fans inevitably turned back to the NBA, with playoffs set to begin May 22. The full-speed ahead re-emergence of professional sports, after a very different 2020 that saw many leagues play abbreviated seasons, has many brands looking for opportunities to capitalize on fan excitement. Burger King and Mountain Dew are hoping to reach fans with gaming partnerships that leverage the growth of console and mobile gaming over the last year. By tapping into heads-down gamers and consumers who enjoy casual mobile gaming, brands and advertisers can reach users that are typically ad-averse with fun, engaging partnerships and activations.

Burger King Leverages Popularity Of Gaming In New Promotion

A recent activation between Burger King Spain and NBA 2K21, a basketball simulation video game, lets gamers try different shots from “the menu court” for a chance to win several popular Burger King menu items. The bigger and better the meal item, the more complicated the shot. “Players who complete a shot from an item marker can post a video to Twitter tagging Burger King and NBA2K with the hashtag #BKMenuCourt to redeem the real-world equivalent of the product,” reported Peter Adams for Marketing Dive. Video game usage was way up in 2020, with Sony’s Game & Network Services segment seeing “revenue increased 40% [year over year] to 883.2 billion yen ($8.4 billion), partly driven by PS5 sales.”

Digital activations that integrate brand promotions and partnerships allow brands to capture the attention of gamers who aren’t watching linear TV, but are spending hours and hours on gaming platforms and devices. Brands are increasingly trying different ways to reach gamers with less intrusive, but still effective advertising. DigiDay reports, “Branded characters. One-off events. Programmatic ads. Marketers are finding more ways to get their brands into games — big picture, gaming has gone mainstream. And, while [gaming is] still somewhat under the radar for brand marketers, it’s becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing forms of media for the young, affluent, ad-averse people they’re keen to reach.”

Mobile Game From Mountain Dew Challenges Fans To Shoot With Pelicans Star Zion Williamson

A new mobile game from Mountain Dew lets players use their phones to help NBA star Zion Williamson shoot the ball. In the game called “Zion Shoots. You Score.” players “control a digital avatar of Williamson whose shots are guided by swiping a smartphone screen or tilting a smartphone with motion controls enabled. The stronger the swipe or tilt, the harder Williamson shoots the ball, with a meter reading the shot’s power level on the side of the screen,” reported Adams for Marketing Dive. The game was created in collaboration with New Orleans Pelicans’ star Williamson, who has a five-year endorsement deal with Pepsi-owned Mountain Dew.

“Zion Shoots. You Score.” is available at MTNDew.live through May 25, and, while users can play the game as guests, signing up through social media accounts is encouraged, offering Mountain Dew future engagement opportunities with users. The mobile game can also be accessed by scanning point-of-sale QR codes at certain store locations that, when scanned, activate the game for users. “People are naturally used to utilizing QR codes, they’re used to having their phones in their hands and they’re used to engaging them. Simplicity was the key here,” said Chauncey Hamlett, vice president and chief marketing officer for PepsiCo Beverages North America’s South Division. Casual gaming on mobile is growing in popularity, with mobile games generating $86.3 billion in revenues last year. And, overall, mobile remains a critical touchpoint for advertisers looking to reach younger audiences. “Authenticity is key here, and this kind of mobile-forward approach is something that we love about [Zion Shoots. You Score.],” added Hamlett.

Multichannel strategies that include gaming and strategic partnerships can help brands access hard to reach audiences. For brands, gaming and gamified activations that align with ecommerce strategies and include promotions and targeted advertising, are likely to play a major part in future digital marketing campaigns and technology strategies. This is particularly true at a time when personalization is so important to younger consumers and brands are looking to make connections and build loyalty. Gaming allows consumers to feel they are part of the action, increasing affinity for brands and allowing for future outreach and engagement.

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Facebook says personal data of 530 million users ‘scraped’ by hackers in 2019 leak

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

Social media giant Facebook on April 6 said that the hackers “scraped” personal data of at least half-billion users in 2019 by taking the advantage of a feature that was designed to help people easily discover their friends using contact lists. Over the weekend, valuable information of over 530 million Facebook users was shared at a hacker forum which prompted Mark Zuckerberg-led company to explain the turn of events while also calling on people to remain vigilant about the privacy settings.

Facebook issued a statement on April 6 following a Business Insider report about the personal data of social media users being available in an unsecured database. Facebook product management director Mike Clark said in a post, “It is important to understand that malicious actors obtained this data not through hacking our systems but by scraping it from our platform prior to September 2019.” He further noted that scraping is a “common tactic” which is usually carried out due to automated software.

“The methods used to obtain this data set were previously reported in 2019. This is another example of the ongoing, adversarial relationship technology companies have with fraudsters who intentionally break platform policies to scrape internet services, said Clark.

“As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists. But since there’s still confusion about this data and what we’ve done, we wanted to provide more details here,” he added.

What kind of data was leaked?

The data scrapped in the 2019 hacking included phone numbers, birth dates, and email addresses along with some data that appeared to be current, stated in several US media reports. The stolen data, however, did not include any passwords or financial data, claimed Facebook. “All 533,000,000 Facebook records were just leaked for free,” Alon Gal, chief technology officer at the Hudson Rock cybercrime intelligence firm, said Saturday on Twitter while criticising Facebook’s “absolute negligence.”

“Bad actors will certainly use the information for social engineering, scamming, hacking and marketing,” Gal said on Twitter while Clark in the blog post urged the users of the social network to keep a tab of their privacy settings to control the outflow of information. Clark said, “While we addressed the issue identified in 2019, it’s always good for everyone to make sure that their settings align with what they want to be sharing publicly.”

Image credits: Unsplash/Pixabay

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Building Brand Reputation on Social Audio Apps like Clubhouse

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

In case you live under a rock, missed the memo, or don’t have an iPhone, the iOS-only social audio app Clubhouse is making waves.

Clubhouse just celebrated its one-year anniversary, while closing in on 13 million downloads just from the Apple App Store. According to eMarketer, 2% of US adults are now using Clubhouse in some form or fashion, which trails the other, major social apps, but is still significant growth in such a short space of time.

Clubhouse usage and adoption could also be set to see a big increase once it opens up to Android users, which has been rumored to be coming in May.

But Clubhouse is also not the only audio social player in town.

Twitter is working to enable all users to host their own audio Space in the app by April, which is already in testing on Android devices, while LinkedIn is also experimenting with new features to help its users become more influential on the platform. It’s also developing its own social audio experience, while Facebook, too, is testing the waters on the audio social front.

Industry analyst, Jeremiah Owyang is tracking this space closely and has documented almost 36 social audio apps in the market today. As with most social media networks, I expect there to be major consolidation in the next 12 to 18 months. We’ll see who is left standing – but it can’t be denied that social audio is just getting started.

There are many opportunities for brands to participate and use social audio apps to engage with customers, and tell brand stories. At the same time, there are risks whether brands participate or not.

The Opportunities for Brand Engagement

There are a few different ways that brands can utilize social audio for marketing and communications programs. This will certainly evolve over time as more apps come to market and build new functionality.

Brand Sponsorships

I’ve already seen a few rooms that have been sponsored by brands. In March, influencer marketing platform, Izea sponsored a room called “The Value of Influencer Platforms” hosted by Lissette Calveiro who is also an influencer herself. Currently there isn’t functionality built into Clubhouse that will facilitate money exchange between influencers and brands but I’m sure it’s a high priority for them. Clubhouse has begun a new experiment on Creator Payments.

Display Ads

Currently, there are no ads in Clubhouse, but it would make sense to do this. Imagine that users would have to watch a video, or sign-up for a newsletter before entering a room that’s just started. For B2B brands, this would also be an opportunity to generate leads, just like you would sponsoring a technology convention and having a booth.

Executive Thought Leadership

Clubhouse is all about sharing knowledge, educating others and learning. This presents a huge opportunity for brands that have executives who are experts in their space and want to grow their influence across the social media ecosystem. I’ve already seen several executives from leading technology companies hosting and participating in rooms and building their influence.

Employee Advocacy

Similar to executives, employees who have expertise in certain areas can grow their influence, build relevance and share knowledge. I’m not saying that employees should be spamming rooms with branded messages either. It’s about thought leadership, and providing value to the larger conversation and community. The brand association itself can make an impact to the business.

The Challenges for Brands and Social Audio

Currently, there’s no way to track conversations happening in audio rooms, for a variety of reasons.

The current search feature within Clubhouse only enables you to explore people and clubs based on the keywords you’re searching for. In fact, the only way to keep track of room topics or conversations is to listen in directly or monitor other social media platforms in case someone shares information about the room there.

The other day I was looking through the data and noticed a very critical tweet of someone highlighting the lack of diversity in a panel conversation that happened in Clubhouse three weeks prior. They also mentioned the company name within the tweet, and it appeared as though that they thought it was sponsored or hosted by the company.

I know the head of marketing there and sent him an email flagging the issue. He had no idea this room ever happened, and to this day, he still doesn’t know what the room was about or who any of the speakers were.

There are a few things to unpack here.

First, anyone can start a room at any time, and say anything, about any brand or person. And even the brands that have sophisticated monitoring and social listening programs still can’t capture what’s being said in the app. Even if you had teams of employees in and out of the app, it quickly becomes an issue of scale.

The good news here is that Clubhouse has unique URLs for rooms, clubs and now users’ profiles. Most social intelligence platforms can scrape websites to pull data, but unfortunately, Clubhouse only publishes the first few sentences of the room, club or profile. This is not very useful in a time of crisis, but at least it’s a start.

A crisis or issue can be caused by many factors. Disgruntled employees who are upset with management, their pay, their coworkers or their benefits. Customers who have a negative experience with a brand. And of course, the everyday trolls who have nothing better to do but stir up trouble.

There is a bright side to this. As of today, there’s no record of any room or the conversation within a room once it’s over. In other words, it won’t show up 2-3 weeks later in the Google search results. The caveat here is if someone blogs about the experience or tweets about it, as I highlighted in the example above.

I’ve been tracking social audio analytics since January and have compiled several Clubhouse insights that might be useful.

The key takeaway is that brands of all sizes, and across all sectors, must develop a plan before jumping headfirst into a new bright and shiny object. Yes, social audio is hot and dominating headlines globally, but having a well thought out plan will help ensure a successful marketing program, as well as a response plan when something bad happens.

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Overly Curated Social Media Feeds Are Officially A Thing Of The Past

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

Filters ain’t it!

Oversaturated filters were the OG trend to enter the ghosts of shocking social media trends past when Instagram first became a thing. Since then, we have been bombarded dog filters, toxic face editing tools, face tuning and filters with names like Retro Cam, Caramel Latte and Vintage Vibes. Yea, we’re ready for the real deal now, dudes.

That’s why it’s super refreshing to see people doing away with it all and saying, “Screw it, I’mma aggressively post non-filtered pics cos I am a QUEEN.”

Yep, non-filtered Insta posts sing in unison with the body acceptance movement. To be filter-free is liberating yourself from all the years of feeling uncomfortable hiding yourself.

Instagram

No more stylised pics, pls

No one is pretending anymore that their life is photo perfect because, frankly, no one’s life is.

So, a trend dominating your friends, siblings and even your fave celeb accounts is posting the pictures that would usually get sent to the bin.

It doesn’t even need to make sense – it can be blurry or even awkward looking, and it will pass the vibe check.

This progression makes a lot of sense since perfectly-curated-social-media-fatigue is real.

Hot tip: Maintaining a perfectly curated grid is pretty boring but recklessly throwing up some half-arsed snap of yourself without a second thought is thrilling.

Instagram

Instagram.

Instagram

A screenshot of your iPhone gallery

This one is the epitome of ‘yes, give us nothing, girl’, but our nosy habits can’t help but get sucked into knowing such an intimate thing about a person.

We all know that an iPhone gallery is no man’s land, with potentially damning results if in the wrong hands.

However, posting a screenshot of your gallery isn’t meant to be a risk on your life but rather a curated frame of your fav moments over the past week or month.

It is a little bit vulnerable and also a little bit of a flex.

Instagram

Snapchat emoji streaks

Dating as a teen is all about getting snapped an emoji from that cutie in geography.

This trend plays out when you exchange your snap with Mr Geo, and after a few weeks of sending pics of the ground to each other, Mr Geo ups the ante by sending a snap with an emoji. This is when things get interesting, and the emoji snap streak takes complete form.

The back and forth goes on for as long as you and your snap partner can keep up a solid emoji game, and you can know for sure that he is totally into you.

Cause you know what they say, it’s totally on when a boy stops snapping you the floor and sends that cute lil mushroom emoji!

The one rule: DO NOT LOSE THAT STREAK!

(Snapchat)

Self-deprecating humour on TikTok

TikTok is reclaiming the power of our mediocrity and finding the humour in our shortcomings.

There are TikTokers out there making fun of themselves for getting rejected, being ‘ugly’ (but never boring), and many are candidly putting out on the internet their most embarrassing moments, like sending an unfinished email to their dentist that reads “, I am afraid.”

If you aren’t the butt of your own joke on TikTok, then don’t be afraid to do it – peak content awaits…

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Hackers target people looking for jobs with malware scam

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

LinkedIn is a social and business networking website that people use to connect with potential employers, clients and improve their industry connections. In short, LinkedIn is the social media of the business world. Many potential employers look for employees on LinkedIn and people looking for jobs often browse through LinkedIn looking for job opportunities. A new hacker group has started targeting LinkedIn users who are looking for jobs with phishing malware. Read on to know more about this LinkedIn scam, and how you can protect yourself against it.

Hacker Group Targets LinkedIn Users with Sophisticated Phishing Scam

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck the corporate world pretty hard. Unemployment rates are historically high across the world. In a situation like this, countless unemployed people are turning to LinkedIn looking for potential job opportunities. These people who are just looking to find a job and earn a living are now being target with a sophisticated phishing job scam. As per a report by the cybersecurity firm eSentire, a hacker group known as ‘Golden Chickens’ have been sending fake job offer and opportunities to people looking for jobs.

The hackers are sending malware ZIP files in the form of a personal direct message (DM) to people looking for jobs and they are doing this with customised messages for each individual. For example, if you have the post of ‘Accountant’ in your employment history, you will get a message with a ZIP file saying, ‘Application for Account Position’. With specific messages like this, people are highly likely to click through to the ZIP file which contains malware known as ‘more_eggs’.

Once the unsuspecting LinkedIn users download the ZIP file and try to open it on their computers, the Malware is automatically installed on their PCs/laptops. The ‘more_eggs’ malware is used by hackers as a backdoor into the victims’ computers. The malware lays dormant in the computer, undetectable by antivirus, until the time the hackers give the malware an instruction. This malware is capable of downloading other virus and malware (such as banking malware) onto the users’ computer, as well as sending sensitive data such as username and passwords for different websites to the hackers.

How to Protect Yourself from the LinkedIn Phishing Scam

The malware is usually delivered in the form of a direct message in the form of ‘ZIP file’. If the hackers have your email id, they might even send you a fake job offer through your email with the link to the ‘ZIP file’. Anytime you get a suspicious email or message with a ZIP file offering a job, immediately delete the email/message and do not click on the ZIP file. If you end up click on the ZIP the malware will be downloaded on your computer. So, it’s best if you delete the message along with the ZIP so it has no way of infecting your computer.

Image Source: Unsplash

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Twitter launches emoji for #MilkTeaAlliance as movement fans anti-China wave

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

Social media giant Twitter on April 8 launched an emoji for the ‘Milk Tea Alliance’ which is a global online pro-democracy movement uniting anti-China campaigners in Hong Kong and Taiwan with those in Thailand, Myanmar. Marking the first anniversary of the movement, Twitter’s emoji launch was welcomed by several activists. The emoji consists of a white cup set against a background of three colours that represent the different shades of milk tea in Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

ð§µToday we are launching an emoji for the #MilkTeaAlliance, an online solidarity alliance first started in April 2020 as a Twitter meme which has grown into a global pro-democracy movement led by activists and concerned citizens in ðð°ð¹ðð¹ð¼ð²ð² and around the world.

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) April 8, 2021

To celebrate the first anniversary of the #MilkTeaAlliance, we designed an emoji featuring 3 different types of milk tea colours from regions where the Alliance first formed online. It automatically appears when you Tweet any of the hashtags belowð pic.twitter.com/QiIBBbKfQc

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) April 8, 2021

Basically, the Milk Tea Alliance budded from a Twitter war that struck after Chinese nationalists accused a young Thai actor and his girlfriend of supporting democracy in Hong Kong and independence in a self-ruled democratic island, Taiwan. The pro-democracy online movement is named after a shared love for sweet tea drinks in all three places battling pro-Beijing influence.

In February, the use of the hashtag again sprang on social media following the military coup in Myanmar with demonstrators in the Southeast Asian country using the hashtag and rallying regional support. Apart from Milk Tea Alliance, Twitter has previously shown its support to other social movements with emojis for #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.

Twitter in a statement said, “To celebrate the first anniversary of the #MilkTeaAlliance, we designed an emoji featuring 3 different types of milk tea colours from regions where the Alliance first formed online.”

“We have seen more than 11 million Tweets featuring the #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag over the past year. Conversations peaked when it first appeared in April 2020, and again in February 2021 when the coup took place in MyanmarFlag of Myanmar,” it added.

Activists hail Twitter for the move

Prominent activist including Joshua Wong, who became one of the many faces to lead Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. One internet user wrote, “Thank you Twitter for supporting Myanmar.” Since Myanmar military has even imposed overnight internet shutdowns and mobile data restrictions to intensify its clampdown on anti-junta protesters. Myanmar forces have even ordered the local telecom service providers to block access to social media sites which demonstrators are now accessing with the help of reportedly foreign SIM cards.

“We strongly believe that having access to the free and #OpenInternet is an essential right and remain a staunch defender and advocate of free expression and condemn #InternetShutdowns,” Twitter said in its announcement of the new emoji.

Image credits: AP/Unsplash

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Brightening Up Your Daily Dose of News

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

ORLANDO, Fla., April 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — With so much doom and gloom crowding screens and news feeds, it’s vital that consumers have an outlet for alternative news stories that are sure to bring a smile to their faces.

The Brightly News team comprises a small, tight-knit group of developers who all share the same goal: to temper what news people consume and provide them some relief from all the negativities found on some of the most popular news sources.

Brightly News is a news curation site that tracks down and identifies trending news stories and brings them right to your inbox and social media news feeds.

“It’s necessary to be informed about current events, but it’s equally important to balance what we consume. As someone who regularly reads the news, I know how so much negativity can affect my mood. But here’s the thing, not all news is bad, and there’s a lot of good in the world. The Brightly News team created our website to offer consumers a space to take a break from negativity and see the brighter sides of life, which we believe is essential for mental health,” said Joe Sikes.

Brightly News had its soft launch in February 2021. The team has employed innovative technology–such as machine learning–to analyze over 140,000 news stories to bring readers a daily dose of good news for a change.

Each day, our innovative technology analyzes approximately 5,000–10,000 articles, with only the top 3-4% of that content making it through to the Brightly News website for readers. Additionally, members of the team hand pick top stories to be featured as the “Editors’ Choice” on the Brightly News Morning Vibes email and social media accounts.

The Brightly News team is excited to enter the news curation space–which involves identifying trending stories and sharing them with an audience eager to consume them. While technology plays a significant part in helping the team analyze articles, it’s the team’s thirst for information and positive news stories that have them picking the best of the best.

The Brightly news team is excited to use their talents to spread positivity and bring positive news to those tired of the same old doom and gloom.

About Brightly News: Brightly News is a news curation site that tracks down and identifies trending news stories and brings them right to your inbox and social media news feeds. What sets them apart from other curation sites is that their focus is on bringing positive content to the forefront of the news cycle to give readers some reprieve from the negative news that seems to make up most of the news presented to readers.

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Instagram adds ‘let’s get vaccinated’ stickers to promote COVID-19 vaccine drive worldwide

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

The social media giant Facebook seems to have big plans in order to support the ongoing worldwide vaccine drive. This time, the social media giant is all set to roll out COVID-19 vaccine profile frames for Facebook as well as awareness stickers for Instagram. In their blog post, Facebook mentioned that these stickers can have a major impact on people’s attitudes. This initiative is in collaboration with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Instagram Stickers for COVID-19 vaccine: Let’s Get Vaccinated

Facebook-owned Instagram has created stickers with the caption “Let’s get vaccinated” and “I got my COVID-19 vaccine” so that they can be used to spread awareness of the vaccine programme and can be used by the ones who have been vaccinated. Their stories will be compressed into a news feed called “Vaccinate” that will be highlighted in the story segment on the app. These stickers are also available in a few other languages including Spanish. These stickers are currently available in the US, the UK and India among others.

Users who wish to access the profile frames can do so by simply visiting the Facebook Profile pic Frames site i.e. www.facebook.com/profilepicframes. Thereafter, they can select the appropriate frame from the menu among a list of other frames and then save it for future use. For Instagram users, awareness stickers can be found on stories by simply tapping on the sticker smiley that is available on the right-hand corner.

At this time, when almost everybody is glued to social media and are open to trying out trends produced on it, stickers are a wonderful way to dispense information regarding the vaccine drive. This is especially true today for people who continue to be uncertain about taking the vaccine as misleading rumours regarding them flood the news. Moreover, this initiative will also help track how many people have got vaccinated although that is not the main purpose of it. To top it up a notch, Facebook has also partnered up with renowned personalities like American Greek author Arianna Huffington to promote the profile frames and stickers.

Image Source: Shutterstock

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US school’s students cheer for cafeteria manager who passed US citizenship test: Watch

April 8, 2021 by CCN Reporter

A video that has surfaced on the internet shows students and staff members of Deer Creek Prairie Vale Elementary School in Edmond in Oklahoma cheering for their cafeteria manager, who passed her test to become a US citizen. The wholesome video is melting the hearts of netizens all over social media. Uploaded on the official Facebook handle of the school, the video shows everyone giving a huge shoutout to Ms Yanet. The video has now gone viral on social media.

The nearly two minutes long video begins with everybody standing in the school corridor with smiles on their faces as they are clapping for Yanet. Everyone can be seen wearing masks and adhering to the social distancing norms. Further, into the video, Yanet enters the corridor and everyone starts clapping more loudly. Students in the video can be heard saying ‘USA’ as Yanet completes her walk in the corridor holding a USA flag. The woman can be seen getting extremely emotional in the video. “A HUGE SHOUTOUT to Ms. Yanet, our sweet cafeteria manager, who passed her test to become a US citizen!!! HOORAY!!!”, read the caption of the video. Let’s have a look at the video.

Netizens congratulate

Since uploaded, the wholesome video has managed to gather over 400 reactions. The video has over 200 shares. Netizens took over the comment section after watching the video. One Facebook user wrote, “How exciting!! Congratulations, Ms. Yanet! I’m crying such happy tears for you!”. Another person wrote, “Omggggg I absolutely LOVE THIS! Felicidades, Mrs. Yanet! One person can make a huge difference, and what these amazing students have learned today is something that goes beyond any textbook. My heart is so happy for you all! What a CELEBRATION ! Thank you for sharing this wonderful and amazing news and video!!!”. In the comment section, netizens can be seen congratulating the woman.

(Image Credits: Facebook/@prairievale)

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How to Effectively Use YouTube to Grow Brand Awareness

April 7, 2021 by CCN Reporter

You have a channel ready on YouTube. Now it is time to concentrate on building your presence on the platform. The only way to establish your brand through a YouTube channel is ensuring you have organic growth in your audience and its engagement. This is why getting views is not enough. You need active viewers for your channel. You need YouTube subscribers who will view, comment on, like/dislike and share your videos. In other words, you need your viewers to convert into YouTube subscribers for the long term.

How Can YouTube Subscribers Enable You to Build Brand Awareness?

Your subscriber count is important in building brand awareness as:

It acts as a gauge for visitors to estimate the trust value and credibility of your channel. If more people follow you, it usually means that your content is appealing and people want to view it. Your subscriber count is a testimony of the quality of your channel’s videos.
It allows you to monetize your content. According to the YouTube Partner Program requirements, if you have at least 1,000 subscribers, you can monetize your account. As Google owns YouTube, Google AdSense is used in this program. Although the nature of revenue earned varies according to your selections, it goes without saying that the more views you generate on these ads, the more money you get out of the partnership.
Organic subscribers affect the channel’s metrics and analytics in a manner that optimizes YouTube’s potential for building your brand awareness. Active subscribers affect your channel’s visibility on the platform by increasing the subscribers’ Subscribers to Views Ratio for your content.

How Can You Increase Brand Awareness Using YouTube?

The use of the video channel platform can be optimized to grow brand awareness in several other ways. Here are a few sure techniques you can use YouTube to your advantage:

Keep Your Content Keyword Optimized

Although it is a video platform, social site, and advertising place all at once, as a platform YouTube operates more as a search engine than a social networking site. Just as you would keep your other web content SEO optimized for easy discovery on multiple search engines, keep your channel’s content optimized by keywords too. Use apps to analyze keywords that work well. If you have the budget, consider investing in services that do the groundwork for you. Viewers usually click on videos after they pop up on their search for a specific kind of video.

At the same time, remember to keep your keywords relevant. Misleading keywords will end you getting your content reported and disliked. This would have a negative impact on your brand.

Create a Memorable Presentation Format or Persona and Stick to It

Give your content a visually recognizable image makeover that viewers can associate with your brand even before they see the entirety of your content. This could be a trademark opening music, the use of a color scheme, or an identifiable voice-over. You could also use mascots, acting persona, a genre of presentation as your identification mark. In other words, to stand out from the crowd, you must make an effort to give your brand its charisma. You will lose out on viewers and subscribers if your channel is “boring”. Remember, entertainment and engagement go hand in hand on YouTube. People watch what they find exciting and often re-watch it for the same reason.

Experiment with Your Titles

How you caption your content can also end up directing viewer opinion. In addition to optimized keywords, you must give your content titles that stand out. You could use popular and trending captions like “how to do/use (something)”, “top 5 (something)”, or you can create your own trend. Whether you are posting a tutorial, review, or an opinion piece, be prepared to find thousands of others already out there doing something similar. You have to figure out how to present your content as unique, and how you caption your content is part of this planning.

Ask yourself what makes your company unique and why it should be favored over its broad audience. Finding your USP is vital to the process of brand building, which holds for your YouTube marketing strategy. Once you figure out your unique selling proposition, you will be able to create content that genuinely draws your target audience to your channel. There can be no better way of building brand awareness than finding followers who vouch for your authenticity and supports you because your content speaks to them.

A brand that is upon the pedestal and impersonal is likely to draw very few YouTube viewers and subscribers. Make your brand approachable and people-friendly. Be available for quick responses on comments, follow back subscribers to show you are as interested in their content as they are in yours. Keep interactions friendly and genuine.

You can do this while keeping your content relevant to the intent of your business. Make yourself likable, and you will find viewers warming up to your content too.

Collaborate with Fellow YouTubers

Growing your presence is a hard task. It needs patience and effort. Consider collaborating with users of the platform to help each other grow their brands. You could tie up with affiliate businesses, supplementary businesses, or influencers to reach out to a wider audience. Chances are you will be able to gain subscribers from such collaborations as well as fare higher in searches on the platform. Established brands and influencers already have a large target reach. Moreover, you can benefit from their keyword-optimized presence on the platform.

Organize Giveaways, Shoutouts, and Acknowledgements

You could do this individually or in collaboration with other YouTubers. Sponsor a reward for certain activities or offer your gratitude to your followers publicly. Although the system of giving away freebies works slightly (differently) than it does on social media channels, it utilizes the same principle of audience engagement. Display testimonials and endorsements, especially if they come from the popular persona, to prove your credibility as a brand.

Periodically create content honoring your loyal customers. Interview them, use their feedback as a source or material for your content or create a montage of their photographs. Connecting to your audience is important for building brand presence.

Cross-Promote Your Videos

Simulcast your videos on other platforms and post links to fresh content on your social media handles. You can also use a mailing list to direct viewers to your channel. YouTube videos do not need a YouTube account on the part of viewers so anyone can watch them. Build your brand up by cross-posting on all avenues available to you virtually. This will highly affect your Likes to Views Ratio and Views to Comment Ratios as well.

Plan out Your Story Telling Strategy

Videos are a powerful form of narrative. Find out what kind of stories work for your brand. Would creating content that leaves cliff-hangers be a beneficial storytelling format for you? Would you prefer posting stand-alone videos? Perhaps micro-stories that cross-reference each other are more suited to your brand.

Identifying how you want to publish your content dramatically impacts how you are building your presence on YouTube. Often YouTubers sign off one video with a pointer to another one in their playlist so the audience can stay on their channel for a longer viewing experience.

This develops an interest in your content, in addition to brand recognition. Your viewers are likely to return to your content and even turn subscribers if they find your videos resonating with them.

Make Use of YouTube’s Features

YouTube gives you several tools to optimize the platform to your advantage. Use them and augment them to give yourself the best experience on this platform to create a niche for your brand.

Be Consistent but Leave Room for Flexibility

You must be regular with your posting schedule and give YouTube your time and effort. Subscribers come to your channel with expectations of regular uploads of fresh content. Play around with formats, and revisit already covered content if you need to but plan your presence on the channel ahead of time to keep audience interest alive. Use a scheduling tool or app, if necessary, to maintain a posting schedule. Building up visibility requires frequent engagement with the site as a user yourself. The number of your uploads plays a significant role here. You need to figure out how often your content downloads. Also, research at what time posting content yields the best results for you.

At the same time, do not forget to review your goals and target achievements. Be open to trying out fresh creative ways to bring engagement and visibility to your content without losing focus on original goals. Building brand presence required you to hold your ground to stand out as well as to go with the flow. Finding a delicate balance between the two requires concentration.

Should You Use Paid Strategies?

Paid Subscribers – As you can see, having a decent number of subscribers is essential for your YouTube channel. In order to make this happen, several users turn to buy YouTube subscribers. New YouTubers are especially tempted to do this as they feel lost in the number of channels already existing in their field. While this hack works to give your channel a subscriber count boost, you must be wary of how you are going about buying subscribers and, more importantly, from which services. You must remember:

An inauthentic and abrupt rise in your subscribers’ count can result in your account getting suspended or banned. Never invest in an instant increase of subscribers, especially if you are purchasing a large number of subscribers.
Moreover, inorganic bots don’t create engagement. The mere increase in YouTube subscribers will not result in the desired change in the channel’s algorithms, and your channel will fare no better in YouTube’s searches. Ensure you are making purchases from trusted services that guarantee real subscribers for your YouTube channel.

YouTube Ads – In an effort to get instant conversions, many companies use YouTube Advertising to lure subscribers. This, technically, does not amount to buying YouTube subscribers, though the purchasing of organic AdSense views can result in gaining more followers. This is an indirect means of paying to increase one’s subscribers to build brand awareness as well as to increase the channel’s monetizing potential.

YouTube Influencers – Another indirect method of paying to increase subscribers is to buy them jointly with influencers as part of your marketing strategy. Usually, such joint contracts result in an organic increase in subscribers for both parties involved.

Summing Up

In conclusion, YouTube can be effectively used to grow your online presence. Discover what works best for you to increase your visibility on this platform, and you will soon find your brand grow popular and well recognized.

Originally Appeared Here