Level up Your LinkedIn GameAmid the Great Reshuffle and all the major shakeups to our work lives over the past two years, LinkedIn has been steadily growing. According to a recent performance update from Microsoft, the business-focused social media platform has seen incredible growth, including a 34% year-over-year increase in revenue to $3.44 billion as well as record levels of user engagement, including a 22% increase in LinkedIn sessions this quarter.
While your brand likely has a presence on LinkedIn, now is a good time to assess if your team is utilizing the platform to its full potential. Consider two new features to get started in improving your LinkedIn strategy:
TL;DR: LinkedIn continues to experience record growth. Check out two of its newest features — Newsletters and Audio Rooms — and make sure you're maximizing its marketing capabilities.
Not Your Average Messaging AppIf you think of Snapchat as an app to send quick, disappearing messages to your friends, that’s only part of the story. Snapchat has done a lot of work to continuously update its platform with new features, filters, AR integrations, and tools for eCommerce. And it’s worth exploring how your brand might utilize them.
One of its newest tools is a camera drone named Pixy. For $250, the pocket-sized Pixy will take off from the palm of your hand and capture photos and videos from above. With your new content saved to your Memories, you can then use Snapchat’s editing tools to add sounds, Lenses, Filters, and more before posting to the app. Whether you’re capturing an aerial perspective of an event or giving an eye-in-the-sky tour of your new office building, this pocket drone has some interesting potential to up your Snap game.
Augmented Reality (AR) has been a fun, techy trend we've seen several brands use to engage with their audience or collect first-party data. Snapchat has been the king of AR for quite a while, with its fun face-altering Filters and the more practical AR shopping Lenses used by more than 250 million Snapchatters last year to try on AR clothing before buying.
Snapchat is now making AR creation even easier for fashion brands to join in with new AR shopping templates and an easy-to-use image processing tool. Instead of building custom content for all of the products on Snapchat, the processing tool allows them to use the photography already existing on their website to create a turnkey AR asset for Snapchatters to try on — no new content needed.
While B2B folks may not be uploading new spring collections to Snapchat, it's good to recognize AR’s potential. As it becomes more sophisticated, it opens new and unique ways to leverage it in your future marketing strategies to engage audiences in new ways.
TL;DR: Snapchat is more than just a platform to send quick pics. With more moves into AR and eCommerce, this app continues to evolve and provide more opportunities for businesses to connect with audiences.
What Lit Us Up
Issues & Ice CreamIt seems like just about everyone has a podcast these days — and not just comedians, politicians, and news organizations. A recent Marketing Brew story about podcasts from brands inspired us to dive deeper into one company’s foray into the medium.
Exhibit A: Ben & Jerry's. (arguably one of the most beloved ice cream brands) is also well-known for its dedication to social change — with a particular focus in the areas of voting rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, climate justice, and campaign finance reform. So, it might not surprise you to know the ice cream giant has released not one, but two podcasts exploring those issues. The first, “Who We Are: A Chronicle Of Racism In America,” was released in the fall of 2020. The six-episode series took a critical look at the history of racial injustice in the U.S.
The second podcast, “Into the Mix,” is currently airing, with five episodes already released. Dedicated to art, culture, and activism, host Ashley C. Ford interviews prominent cultural figures, like EGOT John Legend and artist Favianna Rodriguez, about their lives, inspirations, and how they can influence social change.
While neither of these podcasts is about ice cream, they speak volumes about the company. Instead of changing the colors of its logo for a month or posting a nicely captioned image on social media, Ben & Jerry's is putting real marketing dollars into authentically broadcasting its company values and influencing positive change in the world.
Not all businesses have the bandwidth to put together a full production podcast (or two), but we can all find ways to be purpose-driven and create content that creatively expresses what our organization stands for. By committing to diversity in hiring or creating mindful, impactful content, more brands can follow in Ben & Jerry's footsteps.
TL;DR: Known for delicious pints with a side of social activism, Ben & Jerry's has created two podcasts — not to sell ice cream, but to promote social justice. What innovative and original content that communicates your company’s values will be the cherry on top of your digital strategy?
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