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Stuart O'Brien

Twitterati shows mixed feelings towards Meta Verified
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Diverse perspectives among Twitter influencers around Meta’s user verification initiative surged dramatically in the third week of February.

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has launched a paid subscription bundle “Meta Verified” starting at $11.99 a month that includes account verification with impersonation protections and access to increased visibility and support.

And according to GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform there has been a mixed response among Twitter Influencers following the announcement.

Smitarani Tripathy, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Some influencers opine that the service is needed to filter fake accounts, as Meta is actually verifying and not just charging for the badge. They prefer the steps taken by Meta to verify over Twitter and slams the SMS verification of Twitter.

“Meanwhile, some influencers say this new change may also give rise to verified scammers. Influencers have also found it expensive for users as the company wants to monetize its new features.  At the same time, some influencers expect the remaining social media platforms to launch verification subscriptions.”

Below are a few of the most popular influencer opinions captured by the GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform:

  1. Ross Gerber, CEO at Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management:

“Meta is offering customer service with their subscription service along with verification. This is well needed on instagram as it’s filled with fraud and fake accounts… and so many ‘influencers’ who can now be verified. Nor are they charging the people already verified. $META”

  1. Ari Paul, Founder of BlockTower Capital:

“Worth noting how unrelated this is to twitter’s program.  Meta is actually doing verification, not just charging for a badge.  And comes with service.”

  1. Mark Gruman, Chief Correspondent at Bloomberg LP:

“Twitter, Facebook etc should charge all they want for verification, extra features, fewer ads, new icons, better customer support etc. Completely reasonable. But charging for things like SMS authentication and for preventing platform problems like bot impersonators isn’t right.”

  1. Rachel Tobac, CEO at SocialProof Security:

“If we’re going to do paid verification at all, I’m glad Meta has required 2FA for it.

This ensures that an additional step is required upon sign in and reduces account takeover. Would love to see additional education on likely scams to steal pw/MFA for these types of accounts.”

  1. Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder CoinDCX:

“After Twitter Blue, #MarkZuckerberg launches Meta Verified badges! Wondering if this is actually thought out for adding real value to the audience or more for generating revenues. Also worried that this strategy may give rise to verified scammers!  Will have to wait and watch”

  1. Ben Parr, Co-Founder at Octane AI:

“Meta is rolling out the ability to pay for verification on Instagram. It will change the entire ecosystem around verification as a status symbol. Will the idea of verified accounts as being important symbols fade away? Check marks mean nothing anymore.”

  1. Ken Yeung, Co-Host and Producer at The Created Economy:

“Will #YouTube, #TikTok and #LinkedIn soon follow suit and launch a verification subscription offering like Twitter and Meta?”

Discover the secrets of the metaverse, social media strategy and conversational AI this May
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We have a great lineup of speakers at the Digital Marketing Solutions Summit, which is taking place in May at the Hilton London Canary Wharf Hotel.

Confirm your free place here.

The day consists of connecting with like-minded peers, benchmarking new suppliers for your upcoming projects based on your interests and needs, as well as a seat at all of our industry seminars, which include:

Why You Should Care About the Metaverse

What’s the metaverse and why it is already here
• Evolution of the communication – from print to metaverse
• Types of realities: Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR)
• Use cases. How you could be using this technology
• Case study

Presented by Bianca Spada, Social Media Lead, Meta Reality Labs

Creating a Social Media Strategy in a Forever Changing Digital World!

• Learn the 7-step strategy formula to social media success
• Learn how to keep up to date with the new features and platforms and how you can implement them into your strategy
• Learn how to set targets against industry benchmarks and measure your progress
• Learn how to integrate short form video content into your strategy and its importance
• Make the most of the organic growth on Facebook “right now”

Presented by: Zoe Cairns, Social Media Consultant/Trainer/Speaker, Zoe Cairns

Attendance is completely free of charge, including all meals, refreshments.

To reserve your place, click here.

Alternatively, please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Forum Events & Media recognised for networking event excellence
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Forum Events & Media Limited, home of the Digital Marketing Solutions Summit, eCommerce Forum, Print & Digital Innovations Summit, has been named as the leading provider of Business Networking Events – UK for 2022 at the Business Concept B2B Awards.

The Business Concept launched the B2B Events Awards in 2021 to champion those involved in the B2B Event Management Sector who expedite Business to Business relationships in the UK and all over the world.

The Awards especially seek to recognise excellence in an industry that adapted so quickly in difficult circumstances during the pandemic, highlighting that “those involved in the B2B Sector are pioneers and delighted to embrace change”.

The B2B Events Awards cover all types of online and in person events and recognise those with the highest standards. To see the full list of winners and more information about the awards, visit https://www.thebusinessconcept.com/issues/b2b-event-awards-2022/.

Awards Co-Ordinator Laura O’Carroll, said: “I am proud to present our brand new B2B Event Awards programme this year. This arena is absolutely critical for business development, brand awareness, and the forging of strong relationships around the globe. I am also excited to see where our winners go to next within their careers. Congratulations!”

Sarah Beall, Managing Director at Forum Events & Media, said: “I’m so proud of our team and the for running such successful high-end events for their industry sectors, which cover everthing from Facilities Management and Security to eCommerce and Payments technology. To be awarded for the high standards of our face-to-face events is an amazing achievement and we are humbled to be recognised by our peers.”

Forum Events & Media continues to grow in 2023 with the launch of a new Dusiness Development department, which will look to strengthen the existing portfolio of events and also branch out into new sectors. All the company’s hybrid events comprise highly-focused pre-agreed meetings powered by bespoke matchmaking software that brings professionals together one-to-one, in addition to offering interactive seminars and valuable networking opportunities.

The format over one or two full working days ensures delegates will meet with credible solution providers who will be able to talk through requirements, concerns and obstacles, offering the best advice as well cost saving products.

For more information visit www.forumevents.co.uk.

ChatGPT, WebAssembly, and Serverless will spur app modernisation this year
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DevOps will be a dominant driver in the cloud computing arena in 2023, as enterprises advance their app modernisation strategies using the likes of ChatGPT and other AI-driven tech.

This prediction came about as part of research by GlobalData Technology Analyst Charlotte Dunlap, who notes that significant innovations in sophisticated application architectures will usher in new serverless deployment integrations with various cloud services, abstracting complicated configuration requirements.

Dunlap said: “Ground-breaking new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot achievements based on large language models (such as ChatGPT) will ease developers’ cumbersome coding requirements by automating the writing/converting of scripting, particularly programming languages developers are unfamiliar with.

GlobalData reveals that increased AI/automation advancements and accessibility will significantly escalate in 2023, playing a greater role in easing next-generation app development capabilities among developers and DevOps teams.

Dunlap added: “A primary example that highlights 2023 AI/automation innovations is the recent release of ChatGPT, version 3.5. The Natural Language Processing (NLP) model, developed by OpenAI, is trained on a massive amount of text data, so it’s able to generate human-like text and response. In addition to using the prototype AI chatbot to outright create new code without having to know any programming languages, a major use case will be in improving the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) of apps targeting customer service to provide more human-like responses to user-inputs. Such technology advancements will result in a newfound prioritization of DevOps among enterprises, based on a new wave of developer technologies, which significantly remove obstructions hindering deployment of modern apps.”

Additionally, over the next 12 months, developers will have access to integrated serverless app deployment options through key services including database management and app development tools, paving the way for serverless computing to be paired with event-driven architectures.

Dunlap conlcuded: “Since its rollout a few years ago, serverless computing hasn’t lived up to expectations due to the problematic underlying architecture. However, in recent months, providers have worked through some of those issues, including abstracting scalability configuration requirements.

Furthermore, game-changing developer tools, including WebAssembly, will leverage traditional web browser technology to create new uses with containers and Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS). The new technology is able to provide more robust cloud management of apps at scale on the same cloud infrastructure.’’

Third of marketing budgets spent on operational excellence, but results inconsistent
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Thirty-one per cent of marketing budgets are spent on the pursuit of operational excellence, despite having inconsistent impact on overall organisational performance.

Gartner surveyed over 400 marketing operations (MarOps) leaders between August and October 2022 to find that 94% of marketing organisations are formally pursuing operational excellence (e.g., improving processes, building new capabilities). This indicates an acceleration of investment since 2020, when only 49% of marketing organizations surveyed had a dedicated MarOps leader.

However, the survey found that 72% of operational excellence pursuits don’t actually demonstrate characteristics that align with success, putting enterprise growth and marketing transformation at risk.

“CMOs are under pressure to make every dollar count,” said Michael McCune, Senior Director, Advisory in the Gartner Marketing practice. “However, their teams are spending a large proportion of their budgets pursuing change and improvements in ways that aren’t effective.

“‘Business-as-usual’ marketing activities do have to change, but CMOs shouldn’t divert funds away from activities such as advertising and trade shows that could have a more significant impact on marketing’s overall remit to drive growth.”

Strong pursuits of operational excellence complement the day-to-day management of marketing’s work and are associated with characteristics such as automated workflows, effective use of Agile methods and persistent effort over multiple years.

Organizations with strong pursuits were 43% more likely to report exceeding their operational performance goals compared to organizations without strong pursuits, but at a greater cost: They spend 45% more than average and dedicate 18% of their staff to achieve MarOps excellence, compared to the average 5% of staff dedicated to all other pursuits.

“Marketing organisations can’t blindly or ineffectively invest in improvement at the expense of business as usual unless it shows results, given the tight economic and labor markets,” said McCune. “They need to lay a better foundation for that investment and can look to strong pursuits for guidance.”

In order to maximize the impact of future MarOps investments, Gartner says marketing leaders should:

  • Communicate to stakeholders that pursuits of operational excellence will not have a persistently high cost. A new pursuit likely has many opportunities to drive improvements, but it should not be a cost dragged on marketing over the long term. As improvement occurs, resource requirements for continuous improvement should diminish.
  • Seek resolution of known critical gaps. CMOs often know about systemic problems, but lack resources to address them at the start of operational excellence efforts. Make sure to have a dedicated team working to resolve one or some of the known critical gaps so that investment in the pursuit has early payoffs.
  • Ensure that MarOps efforts don’t duplicate enterprise initiatives. Alignment with operational excellence pursuits in sales and service functions is always a good idea, but CMOs should avoid neglecting the enterprise-wide efforts of other functions such as finance and HR that may lighten marketing’s lift over time.

Retailers not seizing 1st party data capture opportunities
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Almost two fifths of retailers employed no form of data capture during online buying journeys, impacting their ability to market effectively.

In-depth research of 99 UK ecommerce brands in its 2023 WunderkIndex Report, which analysed on-site shopping journeys and customer engagement – across both email and text channels – over a 6-month period.

With 37% of the brands audited not seeking data capture, either when a customer first comes to the site, after browsing the site for several minutes, or at the point of exiting the website, retailers could be leaving valuable first-party data on the table. This risks impacting their marketing list growth and future revenue opportunities through email engagement, meaning they are potentially missing out on an estimated 6-10% additional digital revenue.

By the end of 2020, CPC (cost per click) across social media platforms had risen by between 20 – 60% YOY (year-on-year).  Yet, despite these rising costs, some of the conventional paid media platforms used by brands to acquire customers, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, were seeing a 30% decline in conversions.

This prompted many brands to question the ROI of being overly reliant on ‘rented’ audiences on 3rd party channels, especially with the planned third-party cookie cull by Google, set to take place in 2024, added into the mix.

This makes 1st party data now even more mission-critical to drive long-term engagement, revenues, and customer lifetime value (CLV) through cost-efficient owned channels – as well as to deliver ROI on marketing pounds, particularly given the continuing economic headwinds.

The WunderkIndex report also reveals common shortcomings in retailers’ data capture capabilities, with 93% of the websites surveyed failing to include explicit checkbox consent in on-site capture experiences, falling short of GDPR-led permissioning best practice.

Of the retailers audited with capture capabilities, 86% prompted visitors for an email address but just 6% were set up to capture mobile numbers, missing out on customer engagement opportunities via text – a rapidly growing and high-converting marketing channel.  A recent Wunderkind survey of over 2,000 UK consumers found that, while 84% agree that email is still the most convenient channel for communicating with retailers when shopping online, a third (32%) say they now find text just as convenient – an increase of +6 percentage points year-on-year.

Looking specifically at value exchanges offered for customer data opt-ins, discounting was the most common, offered by 40% of brands, followed by newsletter subscription (32%) and other perks such as VIP events, sales access, and exclusive content (17%).  This mirrors consumer demand for money-saving benefits, such as immediate discounting (58%) and free shipping (56%), topping Wunderkind’s recent shopper poll as their preferred value exchange mechanism when choosing to opt in.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, General Manager at Wunderkind International, said: “We’re seeing a seismic shift, not only in marketing channel performance but also in consumer behaviour, prompted in part by channel adoption but also driven by cost-of-living consumer behaviours, where the concept of value and that of value exchange are evolving.  And that calls for a change in marketing strategy – balancing the scales and pivoting to maximising value from owned audiences and channels will be absolutely critical in 2023, as retailers work harder to win conversions from increasingly cautious shoppers.  By owning and optimising 1st party data, brands can ensure ROI on marketing spend, while at the same time providing a better and more personalised customer experience.”

Do you specialise in Email Marketing? We want to hear from you!
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Each month on Digital Marketing Briefing we’re shining the spotlight on different parts of the print and marketing sectors – and in March we’ll be focussing on Email Marketing solutions.

It’s all part of our ‘Recommended’ editorial feature, designed to help marketing industry professionals find the best products and services available today.

So, if you specialise in Email Marketing and would like to be included as part of this exciting new shop window, we’d love to hear from you – for more info, contact Kerry Naumburger on k.naumburger@forumevents.co.uk.

Mar – Email Marketing
April – Digital Printing
May – Social Media
Jun – Brand Monitoring
July – Web Analytics
Aug – Conversion Rate Optimisation
Sept – Digital Signage
Oct – Brochure Printing
Nov – Creative & Design
Dec – Online Strategy
Jan 2024 – Content Management
Feb 2024 – Lead Generation & Tracking

Internet users ‘becoming more discerning’ globally
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New data shows that the typical internet user globally has reduced their average daily internet use by 20 minutes over the past twelve months to 6 hours 37 minutes, equating to a year-on-year reduction of almost 5 percent.

Meltwater and We Are Social’s Digital 2023 report also indicates that time spent on social platforms has increased to more than 2½ hours per day — 40 minutes more than time spent watching broadcast and cable TV.

Analysis of the data suggests that people are looking for more purposeful internet use, with a focus on quality over quantity. The daily usage rate is a return to 2019 levels, before the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the world’s digital behaviours.

The 465 page report also shows that social platforms are claiming an ever greater share of the world’s search activity. 16- to 34-year-olds are now more likely to visit a social network when looking for information about brands than they are to use a search engine (48 percent vs. 45 percent), and half of the world’s social media users say that they actively visit social platforms to learn more about brands and see their content.

While the rise of TikTok search has already caught the attention of the media, the latest data suggest that Instagram is social media users’ preferred destination when researching things.

The growing importance of social media is reflected in global advertising spend, with investment in social media ads more than doubling since the outbreak of COVID-19,  to reach an estimated US $226 billion in 2022.

Additional headlines in Digital 2023, which looks at social media, internet, mobile and ecommerce trends globally, include:

  • There are 5.16 billion internet users in the world today, and 4.76 billion social media users.
  • Average daily mobile time has increased by seven minutes per day over the past year, and the typical Android user now spends more than five hours per day using their smartphone, however:
  • Computers still account for more than half of the time that people in North America and Europe spend using the internet.
  • Ownership of cryptocurrencies is in decline: the share of internet users who own at least one form of digital currency fell by three percent between July and October.
  • TikTok tops the global list of social media platforms when it comes to time spent per user on Android devices, followed by YouTube and Facebook.

Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, Chief Strategy Officer at Meltwater said: “”Brands that want to be competitive today need to stay ahead of trends, searching for and identifying them, in order to understand their impact on any given industry. Consumers continue to spend more and more time on social media, and it’s clear that social will play an even more important role in the customer journey as users turn to platforms like TikTok and Instagram to guide their decision-making process. With more than 5 billion internet users today, it’s becoming more crucial than ever that brands deliver relevant, impactful, and purposeful content to capture attention and create value across digital channels.”

Nathan McDonald, Group CEO and co-founder at We Are Social added: “Social media’s influence on how we live our lives continues to grow. From shopping to connecting, entertaining to searching, it’s inextricably linked to our habits both on and offline. It’s interesting to see internet use becoming more discerning – while being online is still incredibly important in our everyday lives, people rightly want to make sure it’s time well spent. Marketers and creators will have to work even harder to attract and retain people’s attention in 2023 – it’s never been more important to understand online culture in order to reach people in a relevant way.”

Marketing industry urged to implement continuous learning cultures
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The DMA is calling on senior management teams across the UK to introduce continuous learning cultures within their marketing organisations.

This follows today’s publication of findings from our UK-wide pilot into micro-upskilling, revealing it offers additional learner benefits compared to traditional training methods, but it must be spearheaded from the very top to reach its full potential.

In late 2022, around 150 learners across 16 multinational organisations, charities, SMEs, and agencies took part in trialling micro-upskilling over a 6–10-week period. Organisations such as Experian, RSPCA, Golden Charter, Visit Scotland, PETA, and The Dragonfly Agency were involved.

The DMA’s pilot is an integral part of its wider campaign to move the marketing industry a step closer towards reducing industry-wide skills gaps and talent shortages – to fuel future growth in the UK’s digital economy through continuous staff development.

The main objective was for participating learners to commit as little as one hour a week to flexible, bitesized e-learning and professional development. Following the pilot programme, learners took part in a survey to help the DMA better understand their experiences of micro-upskilling as an alternative learning approach.

There were key benefits identified by talent:

  • 52% of learners felt more engaged with upskilling due to the micro-upskilling pilot
  • 46% developed new skills through micro-upskilling that they wouldn’t have previously been able to
  • 39% of learners stated they found micro-upskilling better than their previous learning experiences
  • 67% believe micro-upskilling has made their organisation more engaged with their skills development

“Direction, support and structure are essential building blocks of a learning culture yet are also the main barriers to professional development,” said Rachel Aldighieri, MD of the DMA. “Our micro-upskilling pilot findings are really encouraging – demonstrating to businesses how they can develop these building blocks to supercharge skills acquisition in the short term, while instilling long-term learning habits across their organisation that benefits the employee and employer.”

A key challenge affecting 60% of learners was finding time to upskill. In addition, 55% also stated they had too many competing priorities. These were the most stated challenges by quite a margin, so senior leaders must bear this in mind when implementing micro-upskilling.

Because of these reasons, 35% managed to do micro-upskilling ‘most weeks’ throughout the pilot, with 39% only able to do it ‘some weeks’. 26% even stated that they were unable to ‘do it very often’.

Evidently, micro-upskilling opportunities are highly desirable to staff – so much so that 90% of learners stated that they would like to continue micro-upskilling with their respective organisations.

Aldighieri explained: “In the current economic climate, financial and time constraints mean that traditional training approaches are harder to implement, yet it is critical that our industry doesn’t neglect skills development and the growth of our teams. Micro-upskilling provides an effective and productive way of investing in our people and, in turn, plugging skills gaps to drive business growth.”

63% of learners stated they would feel more confident and positive about their career if micro-upskilling was permanent at their organisation – 33% would be more likely to stay with them.

Aldighieri added: “The fact that the majority of participating talent mentioned that if micro-upskilling became permanent it would boost their career confidence as well as their organisational loyalty, suggests it has a huge role to play as an alternative learning method in our industry – supporting traditional approaches such as training days.”

Micro-upskilling is clearly an important step in the right direction for facilitating meaningful change, so the DMA will now expand its commitment to it.

“The DMA will now work with our wider community to introduce micro-upskilling as a key element of membership. A pledge will be introduced requesting member organisations to commit an hour a week to all staff’s L&D in our new People Pillar of the DMA Code. We aim to make continuous learning synonymous with the DMA community, so our marketers are regularly enhancing their skillsets and helping to drive responsible business growth,” concluded Aldighieri.

Print and Digital Innovations Summit: Now in it’s 25th successful year – Register today!
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The Print and Digital Innovations Summit returns this May for its 25th Anniversary where we will continue in our aim to support the print and digital sector with a unique platform to help create long-lasting and mutually beneficial business connections.

10th May 2023
Hilton London Canary Wharf

The Summit is designed to connect senior professionals, like yourselves, with product and service suppliers, for 1-2-1 meetings & networking.

Your place is entirely free of charge and includes: A personalised itinerary of pre-qualified 1-2-1 meetings, the opportunity to network with industry peers during coffee breaks and lunch, the opportunity to attend interactive seminars with topical speakers, a place at the networking evening dinner, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments throughout the event.

Click here to register!

For further information, feel free to contact us today!