Article's Content
Article's Content
Welcome to Volume 61!
What’s your favorite holiday movie?
“Home Alone” used to be one of my faves back in the days. But now, I can’t seem to get enough of Disney’s Noelle.
I particularly love the powerful blend of humor, heart, and female empowerment.
Anna Kendrick’s role in the movie reinforced the truth that you can achieve anything you set your mind to accomplish if you believe in the power within you.
If you haven’t watched the movie, you should add it to your Christmas movie playlist. You can also share your favorite movies with us. I personally would love that.
Also, add Ross’ upcoming webinar to your viewing list as well, especially if you are in the B2B SaaS space.
Ross will be sharing critical insights on the topic, “Why SaaS Marketers Should Think More Like Investors to Drive Growth” this Friday, December the 10th. You can register or learn more about the Free webinar here.
Now, here’s a peek at what’s to come in this piece:
Spotify Goes Wraps Up A Big Year
I love to listen to some inspirational music while writing. It’s like a ritual.
Before now, I relied on YouTube Music and Spotify to meet my needs. However, for a while now, Spotify and I have been going steady.
I have a good feeling we’ll be taking it to another level in the new year. That’s because Spotify wrapped 2021 with a trip down memory lane.
If you hang out on Spotify like I do, I’m pretty sure you got to see your 2021 Wrapped banner on the app. (This isn’t what mine looks like, by the way).
Everyone sure has an opinion about Spotify’s annual, story-like gesture, and as someone who took notice of it for the first time, I appreciate the thoughtfulness.
Getting a glimpse into my year-long listening habits was a delight. I had no idea I played some songs over and over again.
But the most fascinating thing was the sharing feature.
I was taking screenshots of each story to share with my community until I realized there was a share button. The button made sharing the moment with friends, family, and my network so much easier.
The reactions from my community, especially the answers from the two truths and a lie game, had me laughing hard.
The two people who guessed mine correctly got gifts. I had a blast with such a simple feature.
Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped feature offers users a look back at their year on the app, highlighting listening habits and trends across both music and podcasts.
Perhaps yours sparked some good reactions from those who saw Spotify’s auto-created images on your timeline.
The lesson here is simple: Spotify used its own user base to generate awareness for old, new, and prospective users. A viral marketing tactic that its competitors, Apple and YouTube, neglected to adopt first.
People naturally love to talk about themselves. They want to know you care, and once they do, they will sing your praises from the rooftop.
Your customers are humans with these same motivations.
Spotify simply leveraged this motivation to get its users screaming from the rooftops. While users like me shared my results, we were also promoting the brand, creating a similar desire in others to see a similar result.
Did I also mention that I didn’t just stumble on my Spotify 2021 Wrapped?
I saw a friend’s results first on Whatsapp, asked what it was, and I ran to check out mine. Spotify sure didn’t disappoint.
B2B SaaS brands can replicate this strategy to delight their customers, generate more awareness for their brand, and get more product signups. Of course, the year is almost up, but you can always make it work, if not this year, then next.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped feature offers users a look back at their year on the app, highlighting listening habits and trends across both music and podcasts.
- Spotify used its own user base to generate awareness for old, new, and prospective users.
- This is so ingrained in their brand that people look forward to it each year and competitors have failed to replicate.
TikTok Gains New Competitors
Making money doing what you love to do is every creator’s dream.
It’s great to have your efforts acknowledged, appreciated, and rewarded by loyal fans.
But that doesn’t pay the bills.
However, more social media platforms are creating opportunities for creators to earn within their platform while doing what they love to do.
For instance, last month, Twitter rolled out a Tip Feature that allows users to send their favorite creators money or bitcoin via Twitter-approved third-party platforms.
Tiktok joined the bandwagon last week. The short-form video platform rolled out a set of new features to allow creators to accept payments and gifts.
Before now, TikTok mainly allowed creators to accept gifts from fans during live streams.
Now, with the tips and video gifts features, fans can reward followers even when they are not live streaming. You can make money from videos as a creator, and your fans can also support your work, leveraging these features.
Of course, this move puts the brand in direct competition with Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms who are already way ahead in creating revenue streams for creators.
But that’s not all.
Tiktok also launched the “Creator Next” portal that organizes every one of Tiktok’s creator monetization offerings in one place.
The company is also expanding its Creator Marketplace to help businesses connect with creators for sponsored content and recommendation videos.
But there’s a catch: only creators with at least 10K followers are eligible to sign up for the creator marketplace and start collaborating with brands on various opportunities.
I believe Tiktok has a lot more to offer than the latest dances and other fun, informal content, with these new features.
B2B Marketers can leverage TikTok as a distribution channel to build brand awareness and let their authenticity and personality shine through non-traditional content.
Prospects are looking to trust first before they buy. They want to feel connected to a brand in some way before they make a decision.
You can use TikTok to share your company’s origin story, show off your employees’ pets, talk about a charity event, or something that connects you to your audience.
Of course, you can share these on LinkedIn or Twitter, but Tiktok’s informal nature and its short-form video appeal add a personal touch that can boost your ROI
It also helps to use niche hashtags to get your content in front of the right people. These hashtags, depending on how many views they have, can connect you to prospects. They boost your chances of getting discovered, just as SEO with your blog content.
In a nutshell, TikTok creates a good opportunity for B2B brands to spice up their distribution strategy, offer more value to users, and stand apart from the competition.
Distribution is just as important as the content you create.
Great, high-converting content is only beneficial if someone consumes it. The rule of the game is to create share-worthy, actionable content that targets the right audience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- TikTok rolled out a set of new features to allow creators to accept payments and gifts without live streaming.
- The company also launched the “Creator Next” portal that organizes every one of Tiktok’s creator monetization offerings in one place.
- TikTok creates a good opportunity for B2B brands to spice up their distribution strategy, offer more value to users, and stand apart from the competition.
LinkedIn Expands To Reach New Market
If you work in the B2B industry, you already know that LinkedIn is a gold mine.
The professional social network has nearly 800 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
To eliminate language barriers and make it easy for everyone to communicate and connect, the company provides support for 24 different languages, including Hindi.
With Hindi as LinkedIn’s latest addition to its language library, Hindi-speaking professionals can now learn, grow, and connect with other professionals globally.
Over 82 million users in India can now create and consume content in Hindi via LinkedIn’s mobile and desktop applications.
One great benefit for the B2B industry is the organic reach expansion.
B2B creators and marketers can use this distribution channel to reach more people in the second-largest internet market.
As people like to hear the sound of their own name, they also do like to hear others communicate in a familiar language. You can get in on the action, sharing valuable content in your audience’s language.
If you want to boost sales to users from India or any other country that speaks supported languages, all you need to do is follow LinkedIn marketing best practices.
The rules of engagement are simple:
Post valuable content regularly, at the right time of the day, in a format that resonates with your audience and optimize to target the right audience.
That’s how you secure your company’s share of the world’s second-largest internet market and other countries as well.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- LinkedIn adds Hindi to its language library to reach more people in the world’s second-largest internet market.
- B2B creators and marketers can use this distribution channel to reach more people in the second-largest internet market.
- Post valuable content regularly, at the right time of the day, in a format that resonates with your audience and optimize to target the right audience.
OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Facebook rolls out a Venmo-like feature in Messenger for splitting bills & more.
Square changes its name to Block to house the company’s products under one brand and its focus on crypto.
Twitter buys Quill, a would-be Slack competitor, to make DMs more useful.
HIRING BRILLIANT B2B MARKETERS:
BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK:
Yesterday, I had a weekly one-on-one with my manager.
She caught me off guard with a question.
She asked what my work-life balance was like.
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud. It’s not that I found her question funny. It’s just that I had been asking myself the same question all through last week.
Her question made me realize that I was a workaholic.
I find it difficult to fully switch from work mode to rest mode even while I’m on vacation or when I take a sick leave.
When I try to do that, I feel like I’m missing a part of myself. I’ve uninstalled the Slack and ClickUp App on my mobile, many times, and I always end up reinstalling.
My relationship with the people I care about is great, even though I know it could be better if I am more present.
Of course, I’m sharing because I know there are many people out there who struggle to shut down work and prioritize other equally important areas of their lives.
So, I’m throwing the question right back at you, “What’s your work-life balance like?”
Being a workaholic is not a bad thing. It only becomes a problem when it keeps you from being present in other areas of your life.
There are so many reasons to love work: the appreciation from your colleagues (like we do here in Foundation), the monetary rewards, promotion prospects, and the joy of seeing people’s lives become better because of your efforts.
But there’s an even greater reward if we combine work with being more present in other areas of our lives.
The holidays are a few weeks away, and it’s an opportunity to stay away from work and prioritize family and friends.
It’s best to take the time to connect with people and spend quality time with them.
Spend the holidays creating lasting memories. Travel to another state or country. Or just take some time for your favorite hobbies.
Hang out with old friends and family members too. Have meaningful conversations. Relive on good memories from the past. Have fun and take lots of pictures.
I’ll leave you with advice from my manager (one I intend to apply again intentionally).
During vacations, log out from your email accounts or pause your inbox.
Uninstall work-related apps from your phone and be present.
Enjoy the moment and create new memories.
You might never get such an opportunity again.
So, make the most of it.
TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:
19 of my favorite marketing threads from 2021 by Daniel Murray
IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE:
- Want To Create More Content? Focus On Repurposing
- Gong’s LinkedIn Strategy: Breaking Through Social Media Noise
- A Wise SEO Plan: How TransferWise Used A Custom CMS To Build An SEO Moat
WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK 🎧:
These round-ups are brought to you by me, Jessica O., every week ✌!
Stay up to date with all of our latest findings by subscribing to our newsletter today. Signing up also gives you early access to Ross’ Tuesday essay full of exclusive industry insights.
Quick, do it now before the next drop!
