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Time for an update on what bots can do. Bots are software programs that help with automating tasks. As with any technology or tool, they can be used for both good and evil. Search engine crawlers are bots that load web pages to index the content so the page shows up in search results. Other bots help automate the writing of news stories; for example about weather, stock quotes, and other news. Bots also help with cybersecurity — link checking bots open every email and click every link to check for malicious code, phishing or malware before forwarding the email on to the human recipient. And Google AdsBot checks every landing page of every ad to make sure it is live and the content matches the topic of the ad that clicks through to it.

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We interviewed more than 1,000 consumers in our 2020 Achieving Customer Amazement Study and asked about their willingness to switch brands or companies for better customer service. The response was a resounding “yes” to switching, in that 96% of customers will leave you for bad service.

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Recent reports indicate that brand advertising is in trouble. Short-term, disposable viewership is an unfortunate byproduct of the digital age. Sustainable brand-building advertising campaigns designed to create and reinforce brand loyalty will be a thing of the past.

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People want content on demand—tailored to their interests—and accessible any time they want it. On the other hand, advertisers want access to these warm bodies, putting their sights on video to do it. Below are the biggest things to look for in 2019.

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Speaking at the Cardozo School of Law on December 5, 2018, YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen made an argument that initially seemed frivolous, but actually rings with a deeper truth: “The music business used to be an audio business, and then it became an audiovisual business. Now, I think it’s going to become a visual audio business.” Cohen didn't just switch around the words “audio” and “visual” for fun: the new economics of digital music and media arguably demand it. During its heyday in the '90s, MTV provided a valuable channel for major labels to shape the visual appeal of its biggest stars, from Michael Jackson to Madonna, but nailing that video placement was always secondary to driving record sales. Overall, during the "golden age" of recorded music in the last two decades of the 20th century, videos and live tours were often treated as advertisements for albums—prioritizing the commercial performance of the audio over that of the visual.

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Drones, aerial vehicles controlled by a human with a remote control, are increasing in popularity. There are Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that mandate what you can and cannot do as a hobbyist and there are more rules if you are doing anything commercial. But businesses and entrepreneurs are finding more and more ways to use them for commercial purposes.

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At each of my last three keynote addresses, I was asked this simple question: “What do you think is going to happen with marketing next year?” There are a lot of marketing speakers and sales speakers already shouting out the trends for 2019. It’s still only summer, but people are already trying to look ahead and see what’s around the curve. And I understand why: The world is changing a mile a minute, and it’s hard to scale, differentiate yourself, and maintain trust in the ever-changing marketing world. The more you can plan ahead, the better equipped you feel to manage those changes when they happen. Here are some midyear thoughts about what you need to keep an eye out for in 2019:

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There are some words that inspire confidence when you use them. “Data” is one of those words. Throw “data-driven” in front of “decision-making” and you’ll suddenly find yourself more credible. If someone is sharing an idea, ask about “the data” and your IQ shoots up several points. I believe in data. I understand how data can identify trends, minimize risk and lead to better decisions. Data comforts me. But the fixation on data has a drawback. It leads to the belief that decisions made without data – aren’t as strong. Never mind that bad decisions, based on data, get made all the time. The concept of data-driven decisions entered the mainstream lexicon in the early 2000s. Countless successful organizations, however, existed before then. How did they make decisions? How did they get people to believe in their decisions? What if you are a new organization with little data to draw on? What if you work in the social sector where connecting data to impact is the holy grail? What if you’re an entrepreneur who thinks so different that relying on the past will stop you from creating a new future?

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The annals of magazine publishing over the last 20 years offer plenty of examples of high-powered digital change agents who failed. It’s become a truism and a cliché, like the pivot to video. It’s just really hard to build a digital business on top of an older legacy media business. So when one of those change agents succeeds, it’s worth noting, and exploring what it was that worked. In the five years since Troy Young came to Hearst as president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, he’s come to be seen within the company as having reinvented Hearst’s digital business. His portfolio includes managing the content, technology, operations, product and business development strategies for 25 digital brands in the U.S., including Cosmopolitan, Delish, Elle, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Health and Women’s Health, as well as Sweet, a collaboration with Snapchat on its Discover platform. Young also oversees Hearst Magazines’ international digital business.

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YouTubers with 7 million or more subscribers can earn up to $300,000 to partner with brands. Though it may not be viable for regular folks to gain this level of notoriety, even with just 100,000 followers, an Instagram user could earn $5,000 for a post made in partnership with a brand. If you're a regular Instagram user, there are ways for you to monetize your account. Here are a few tips to get started: Grow Your Following If you want to make money through Instagram, you need to make sure that brands would want to partner with you. This means you need to start by growing your following. Users with more than 100,000 followers have a good chance of finding brands that would partner with them. But even if you have just a few thousand followers, you could still work with brands that need micro-influencers. Use these tips to grow your following on the platform: • Create high-quality content that would appeal to people in your niche. Make sure all images are vivid and relevant to the products you wish to promote, whether it’s beauty products, fitness products or clothing. • Use relevant hashtags so people can easily discover your content and possibly even follow you. Tools like Hashtagify.me can help you discover popular hashtags to use in your posts. • Ask relevant accounts for a shout-out. You can conduct a hashtag search to find popular Instagram accounts that share content from different users in your niche. Go through their content and contact them to share your post if you notice that they regularly do shout-outs. For instance, @global.travelz is an Instagram account with more than 180,000 followers. If you look through their posts, you’ll see that they’re mostly user-curated photos related to travel. Instagram users who wish to grow their following and build a name in the travel niche could ask them to share their content. You can even observe top influencers and see what they’re doing to engage their audience, from choosing an aesthetic to posting at consistent times. Understand How Much You Should Charge Once you’re able to gain several thousand followers for your Instagram account, you need to understand how much you’re worth to brands. This helps you avoid overcharging or undercharging your clients. Some influencers may overestimate their worth and charge several thousand dollars when they’re worth only a few hundred. Others may underestimate their worth and only charge a few hundred dollars when they could charge more than $1,000 for each sponsored post. The Webfluential Influence Estimator is a useful tool to gain a better idea of how much your posts are really worth. The tool will calculate the number of followers and quality of engagement to see how much you should be charging per post. Keep in mind their free tool only calculates Twitter value. You will need to register as a Webfluential influencer to find out the worth of your Instagram posts. Find Brands To Partner With After this, you can start looking for brands that will pay you for your Instagram posts. If you have millions of followers, you’ll already have brands approaching you for partnerships, so you probably don’t need to read on. But for emerging influencers, you’ll have to do the grunt work and look for brands to partner with on your own. The good news is that there are several influencer networks and influencer marketing platforms that accept micro-influencers. If you’re a part of this network, the company will put you in touch with brands that are in need of relevant influencers. Here are a few good networks and platforms you can sign up for: • Buzzweb: If you have more than 5,000 followers, you could join Buzzweb and monetize your Instagram influence. You can use the platform to calculate your potential monthly earnings based on the size of your following. And you can apply to be a part of as many campaigns as you wish. After your post is approved, you get paid within 24 hours. • Influence.co: Influence.co extends to more than 1,000 brands across 65+ countries. You can look for ones that you wish to partner with and directly submit an application to join their campaign. If you’re still a micro-influencer, this is much better than waiting around for a brand to approach you for a partnership. • TRIBE: TRIBE is an excellent platform for influencers who only have a few thousand followers. The process of working with brands on the platform is fairly simple. You just need to find brands that you already use and are a fan of. You can then create a post for that brand and submit it for review. Once approved, you get paid within 48 hours. • TapInfluence: There’s also TapInfluence, which estimates your monthly earning potential once you create your profile. You can choose the topics and subtopics you specialize in, then set your rate. The platform then matches you with brands whose needs match your characteristics. • Fullbottle: If your content tends to get high levels of engagement, Fullbottle would be an ideal platform for you. On this platform, you don’t charge per post but, instead, get paid according to the engagement your content drives. You can bid a certain amount for every like on the Instagram post you create for a brand. The most difficult part about monetizing your Instagram account is growing your following. But the tips provided here can help you overcome this challenge. And once you have sufficient followers, you just need to connect with the right brands to start earning through Instagram.

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The world of social media changes quickly, with dozens of new platforms arriving each year and most existing companies scrambling to stay ahead of the game with new features and innovations. If history and some recently emerging trends are any indication, 2016 will be a host for a variety of new trends and changes in the social scene. Here are seven landmark social media marketing trends I predict we’ll see in 2016.

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Lately I've had this feeling about social media marketing. The feeling is that most people hate being marketed to on social media. From what the research tells us, this statement is true. According to Forrester brands are taking advantage of social more than ever--80% of the top 50 global brands actively [...]

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Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM). Isn’t this really the original social media platform? I grew up with the famous Faberge commercial that showed a woman who “told 2 friends” about the product and how “they told 2 friends … and so on … and so on”. Hasn’t WOM always been [...]

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