What Do Millennials Want From Your Workplace?

As a small business owner, much of your staff is probably made up of Millennial employees. That’s why it’s important to keep these workers engaged, happy and excited to be working for you. However, that may be easier said than done, according to a new report by Deloitte.

If they had the opportunity, in the next year 25 percent of Millennials would leave their current employers to get a new job or to do something different, according to The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016. The percentage rises to 44 percent when the time frame is expanded to two years, and by the end of 2020, two out of three Millennials say they want to have moved on from their current jobs.

This isn’t just because Millennials are young and still in entry-level positions, either. A significant number are experienced employees in their 30s. In fact, 57 percent of Millennial employees who have senior positions still say they want to leave their jobs by the end of 2020.

What do Millennials Want at Work?

How can you keep valuable Millennial employees from working with “one foot out the door” as the report phrases it?

• Help them develop leadership skills. Millennials in the survey rate leadership as the most valuable skill/attribute an employee can have, but also believe that businesses aren’t doing enough to help them become good leaders. More than seven out of 10 Millennials who plan to leave their employers in the next two years say they’re not happy with the way their leadership skills are being developed at work. In contrast, the most loyal Millennial employees are more likely to say that their employers provide a great deal of training and support for those who want to take on leadership roles, and that even younger employees are actively encouraged to aim for leadership roles.


• Encourage mentorship. Millennials in the survey who have experienced mentoring say it has a positive impact on their job satisfaction. Those who plan to stay with their current employers for more than five years are twice as likely to have mentors as those who are not planning to stay that long.


• Ensure that your business makes a positive contribution to society. Nearly 90 percent of Millennials in the survey agreed with the statement, “The success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance.” In addition, more than 80 percent of Millennials believe that business has great potential to do good. You can’t fool Millennials into thinking that your business is socially responsible just with PR, image or buzz, either. You’ll need to provide high-quality products and services, good customer service and demonstrable environmental and/or social responsibility to earn their respect.


• Show them how they individually contribute to the positive impact that your business has on the world. Millennial employees look for jobs in which they can actively contribute to the positive impact a business has on society. Make sure all your employees understand the role their particular duties play in accomplishing the larger goal, no matter how removed their day-to-day tasks may seem from the big picture.


• Create a supportive, inclusive working environment. The Millennial employees in the survey who are most loyal and satisfied are more likely to say they work for companies where there is open communication, a culture of mutual support and tolerance, a strong commitment to inclusiveness and the active encouragement of creativity and idea generation among all employees.


• Help them achieve their personal goals. Millennials actually have fairly traditional personal goals: They want to enjoy work/life balance, be able to own their own homes and obtain financial security.

Millennial Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "What Do Millennials Want From Your Workplace?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Source: small business

What Do Millennials Want From Your Workplace?

As a small business owner, much of your staff is probably made up of Millennial employees. That’s why it’s important to keep these workers engaged, happy and excited to be working for you. However, that may be easier said than done, according to a new report by Deloitte.

If they had the opportunity, in the next year 25 percent of Millennials would leave their current employers to get a new job or to do something different, according to The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016. The percentage rises to 44 percent when the time frame is expanded to two years, and by the end of 2020, two out of three Millennials say they want to have moved on from their current jobs.

This isn’t just because Millennials are young and still in entry-level positions, either. A significant number are experienced employees in their 30s. In fact, 57 percent of Millennial employees who have senior positions still say they want to leave their jobs by the end of 2020.

What do Millennials Want at Work?

How can you keep valuable Millennial employees from working with “one foot out the door” as the report phrases it?

• Help them develop leadership skills. Millennials in the survey rate leadership as the most valuable skill/attribute an employee can have, but also believe that businesses aren’t doing enough to help them become good leaders. More than seven out of 10 Millennials who plan to leave their employers in the next two years say they’re not happy with the way their leadership skills are being developed at work. In contrast, the most loyal Millennial employees are more likely to say that their employers provide a great deal of training and support for those who want to take on leadership roles, and that even younger employees are actively encouraged to aim for leadership roles.


• Encourage mentorship. Millennials in the survey who have experienced mentoring say it has a positive impact on their job satisfaction. Those who plan to stay with their current employers for more than five years are twice as likely to have mentors as those who are not planning to stay that long.


• Ensure that your business makes a positive contribution to society. Nearly 90 percent of Millennials in the survey agreed with the statement, “The success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance.” In addition, more than 80 percent of Millennials believe that business has great potential to do good. You can’t fool Millennials into thinking that your business is socially responsible just with PR, image or buzz, either. You’ll need to provide high-quality products and services, good customer service and demonstrable environmental and/or social responsibility to earn their respect.


• Show them how they individually contribute to the positive impact that your business has on the world. Millennial employees look for jobs in which they can actively contribute to the positive impact a business has on society. Make sure all your employees understand the role their particular duties play in accomplishing the larger goal, no matter how removed their day-to-day tasks may seem from the big picture.


• Create a supportive, inclusive working environment. The Millennial employees in the survey who are most loyal and satisfied are more likely to say they work for companies where there is open communication, a culture of mutual support and tolerance, a strong commitment to inclusiveness and the active encouragement of creativity and idea generation among all employees.


• Help them achieve their personal goals. Millennials actually have fairly traditional personal goals: They want to enjoy work/life balance, be able to own their own homes and obtain financial security.

Millennial Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "What Do Millennials Want From Your Workplace?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Source: small business

The Difference Between Native Advertising and Content Marketing

Most of you are exposed to hundreds, maybe thousands, of ads in the span of just one day. In a world that is always switched-on and plugged-in, messages like “buy now” and “subscribe here” are difficult to escape. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many people have developed natural “adblockers” to tune out and turn off ads. In order to adapt to an oversaturated market, advertisers have come up with smarter, stealthier and subliminal ways to sneak past the defences of their target consumer — like native advertising and content marketing.

What is Native Advertising?

Native Advertising is the practice of disguising an ad via the strategic placement to make it appear “native” and non-disruptive within its environment.

CMI says “Native advertising spots must be placed with the audience in mind.”

Matt Cohen, CEO of OneSpot used the example of promoted tweets on Twitter: “Promoted tweets are native to the Twitter browsing experience. These advertisements aren’t asking you to do something other than what you’ve come to the website to do already.”

Why the Confusion?

Unfortunately, the term “Native Advertising” is often used interchangeably with “Content Marketing” — even though there are immense differences between the two practices.

In addition, both terms are incredibly buzz-worthy at the moment. Buzzwords tend to be used often by so many people that definitions can get a little muddled.

What’s the Difference?

Although native advertising isn’t as upfront and in-your-face as more traditional methods, the consumer is still being sold a product or service — and this is where content marketing differentiates itself.

While the goal of a content marketer is to ultimately increase sales, he/she accomplishes this by building a trusting, lasting relationship with their target consumer (and eventually converting them into a customer). They do so with content — content that doesn’t sell a product or service. Instead, the content offered is meant to benefit the consumer in some way, whether its purpose is to educate, entertain, etc. It’s a slow burn approach to marketing.

Additionally, the two practices differ because native advertisements, although they “fit” where they’re placed, are paid for. The only money involved in content marketing is the cost of labour that goes into creating it.

If you’re paying to put your content somewhere, it’s advertising, not marketing.

The Processes

The processes of both practices differ from each other, too. In Native Advertising, there are generally three steps:

1. Create the content.


2. Place the content in its “native” home.


3. Sell the product/service to the consumers who were directed from the native advertisement.

The steps themselves are similar for Content Marketing – but the timing is very different:

1. Create the content.


2. Publish the content.


3. Sell the product/service to people who were directed from the content.

In Native Advertising, each step comes after each other, in order and in quick succession. However, in Content Marketing steps one and two are repeated over and over again to establish an intimate connection with the potential customer.

The consumer will ideally return to the website/new content many times before thinking about the possibility of converting. A consumer likely won’t make it to step three until they have gone through the first two steps multiple times. Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz said that “At Moz it’s on average 7.5 visits (to the website) before someone takes a free trial.”

The Perfect Match

Content marketing will always take longer than native advertising, but it can be more effective depending on your goals. Nonetheless, to be a fully effective content marketer, you can take advantage of native advertising.

By paying to put your content in more locations, you can widen its reach and increase its impact. By financially sponsoring your content you can:

1. Give your audience a boost, and reach consumers you haven’t yet.


2. Extend the shelf life of your content by promoting older/repurposed pieces.

If you decide to adopt native advertising to contribute to your content marketing plan or vice versa, the practices can pair very well. Providing relevant and meaningful content to a large audience will always be beneficial to your business.

Just remember: When promoting your content on various channels, make sure you keep your buyer personas and publishing locations in mind to avoid any outrage.

Recap

If you’re paying to display your content, it’s advertising.

If the ads inform the consumer and sell your product in a subtle manner, it’s native advertising.

If you’re creating content that is published on a blog or another property that you own, and the primary goal is to inform a reader without convincing them directly to purchase, it’s content marketing.

Whichever route you decide works best for your business, don’t forget that you can make use of both strategies in order to promote your brand.

Source: B2C

Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Ask any digital marketing executive, “Is social media important for a digital marketing strategy?,” and they will respond, “Social media is INTEGRAL to all digital marketing strategies.” Social media is one of the best digital platforms to quickly propel a business forward, garner a client base, and market the business’s products or services. Here are thirteen of the biggest social media marketing mistakes. Avoid them.

Misidentifying the target audience.

A successful business understands who its target audience is. Sometimes, a business forgets that knowing its target audience also applies to social media. Only post content that is interesting and relevant to your followers. Keep in mind that your target audience on social media may be different from your target audience for other marketing campaigns.

Disconnected Strategy

A social media account that bounces from one topic to another without any sense of cohesion will be just as quick to lose followers as it was to gain them. Outlining a clear strategy ensures that the business will only post relevant content and in turn, attract the targeted audience. Side note: this means that a business must know who the target audience is.

Creating accounts on too many platforms too soon

Many businesses create all of their social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., all at once. Typically, a business will become overwhelmed and either post irrelevant content or stop posting altogether. Consumers distrust social media accounts that do not post regularly–seeing only posts from months earlier does not instill confidence. A business should keep its social media presence narrow and only branch out when it is positive that it can produce quality content.

Lacking a voice

Consumers desire connection. By finding and maintaining a voice, whether witty, sarcastic, or light-hearted, a business can connect more deeply with consumers.

Paying for fake followers

While paying for fake followers can quickly increase a business’s social standing, it won’t increase ROI or increase user engagement. In fact, most consumers recognize when a business has bought followers. Work to build authentic consumer relationships.

Posting too much about the business

By retweeting relevant content or sharing applicable articles, a business shows its followers that it is active on social media and willing to engage in authentic dialogue. Posting too much about the business is annoying and unwelcome. All good things come in moderation.

Using hashtags excessively

Nothing screams social media amateur like excessive hashtagging. Most millennials, in fact, will recognize over-hashtagging as the work of an older individual, an individual who does not relate to them. Make sure hashtags are relevant to what you hope to convey.

Oversaturating your followers’ feeds

Just like excessive hashtagging, excessive posting is a huge turn-off for followers. Posting once or twice a day is a great schedule to follow. Make use of a social media scheduler, such as Hootsuite or Buffer, to post with regularity and consistency.

Spamming

Don’t do it. Ever.

Broadcasting the same media across multiple platforms

Similar to the need to develop a voice, make sure that your content has a style that fits the platform. Each platform caters to different aspects of social media, thus each of your business’s platforms should have its own style of content. Using the same post content across platforms should be done once again, in moderation.

Forgetting to proofread

Humans hate grammatical and spelling errors. If the business can’t spell, how can it be trusted with important customer transactions? Proofread. It’s simple.

Forgetting to be social

Interacting with your followers and peer companies will go a long way. By responding to comments or tweeting something intriguing at a competitor, followers will feel a connection–a sense of camaraderie.

Misinterpreting a trend

Exploiting the right hashtag at the right moment can put your brand in the limelight. But when a business uses a trend inappropriately, it can have lasting disastrous effects. For example, DiGiorno royally screwed up in 2014 and offended many people.

Avoiding these thirteen social media marketing mistakes gives brands the potential to put their business far ahead of the rest. Good luck, and share with care. Want to learn more? Take a look at the 6 Essentials of a Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy for more tips.

Source: B2C

3 Lessons from TabTale’s Journey to Over 1 Billion Family-Friendly App Downloads

A few days ago, Venture Beat published an exciting article touting TabTale’s success in marketing itself to children and families with a powerful offering of mobile apps. These apps, designed to comply with all of the international regulations governing minors’ use of apps, bring family-friendly apps to the masses. The secret to their success?

Read below if you’re interested in learning how a small company in Tel-Aviv managed to reach 1 billion family-friendly app downloads, with 40 million monthly active users engaging with over 350 games and apps in just four years.

1. Free to Play is Incredibly Profitable

As a scrappy start-up, gaining market-share requires minimizing the barriers to entry for consumers interested in your product or service; this is business 101. It’s a pretty simple concept to grasp: users will more quickly try out a free app before paying for an app that is totally new to them.That’s why virtually every app in TabTale’s catalogue is free (at least at first).

Once the user gains some familiarity with the app’s features, it’s easy to sell in-game enhancements and a premium version that removes advertising. But, if the consumer still wants to play for free, there’s plenty of opportunity for the developer to still earn a return-on-investment through in-app advertising from partners.

Takeaway: Shift as much of the cost as possible from customers to partners and sponsors in the early stages. Then, once a customer gains confidence in the product, offer them enhancements that improve their experience. The advertising revenue will generate income at every stage, while the in-app purchases can become the instant ROI that investors demand. Note: This applies to both apps and web-based services.

2. Focus within Categories and Market Segments

If you want to build a massive gaming company, you need to start by accepting the fact that the market is incredibly diverse. There are more than 2 billion smartphones floating around the world. There are thousands of niche-audiences within that gargantuan market. Some are based on culture, others on personal interests and passions.

To reach a billion downloads, you have to create a group of teams and focus their energies on specific markets on a global scale. Or, as TabTale’s CEO, Sagi Schliesser puts it, “When TabTale was created, part of our vision was to create a global company which does not have ‘one voice’ and taste, but rather a fusion of different cultures and talents…”

The result of his team’s efforts to cater to a variety of interests meant creating more than 300 games in four years. Yeah, that’s a lot of apps targeted at virtually every type of consumer in their space.

Takeaway: Budget your resources to allow your team to diversify the company’s efforts and cater to the unique needs of the larger market, without losing focus on individual customer satisfaction. This not only reduces risk per project, but allows for each follow-up project to build off of the foundation laid by previous and concurrent product offerings.

3. Start-Up in a VC-Rich Environment

Forbes reported in 2013 that “…Israel has, per person, attracted over twice as much venture capital investment as the US and thirty times more than Europe…” That’s some serious investment activity. Can you guess where TabTale is based? Yep, Israel.

Raising capital was, of course, made easier with the fact that their CEO and Founder had a history of success at tech companies like HP Software and Sapiens. Plus, during his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces he honed his technical abilities in a variety of challenging circumstances. Schliesser’s LinkedIn profile speaks for itself.

Combining a target-rich environment with an incredible resume that includes prior start-up success is a great way to gain access to the resources a start-up needs to hit the ground running.

Takeaway: If possible, start-up in an environment that is conducive to start-ups. Eat, live and breathe the start-up lifestyle by bringing together a killer team and working in an environment full of others tackling the same challenges. Winners surround themselves with winners; what your team sees and feels when they leave the office will become the energy that they bring to their work.

If you want to create an incredible business that goes from 0 to 1 billion user interactions in four short years, remember this phrase: success leaves clues. From retailers like Amazon to app developers like Tabtale, there are opportunities to observe histories and take their experiences to your own work. Will your start-up apply these 3 keys to success, or will you be stuck learning by repeating the mistakes others have made?

Source: B2C

The Advantage Of More Companies Going Green

Going green can be a major advantage for business in many ways. First of all, you have the increase in sales. 72% of Generation Z said they would be willing to pay more for services if they came from a sustainable company. You also have the environmental advantages, as well as the advantages within your workforce. This guide is going to discuss all of them so you can make an informed decision about your green policies.

More Sales

As mentioned before, there’s a competitive advantage to companies deciding to go green. The reality is that people do consider sustainability to be a top priority for them. They want to do good in the world, and they believe they can do that through being sustainable.

Generating more sales is a priority for anyone who wants to do well in business. Display your green credentials and the evidence shows you’ll be rewarded.

It Creates More Employment Opportunities

Companies should consider the impact on their community of going green. They need to take into account the impact they’re having on the local area. It can have an effect on how you’re perceived locally and nationally. Companies that care about their local community are much more likely to gain business because they’re showing that it isn’t all about the money.

One study revealed that after investing $506 million in climate resilient properties it created over 7,500 full-time jobs. As you can see, going green can be life-changing for so many people. Making this sort of impact on the world can do so much for your brand’s image.

Boost the Morale of Your Workforce

The reality is your workforce’s morale is everything, if you want to get the best out of them. A team that doesn’t believe in what you’re doing is never going to give their jobs their all. They will do the minimum so they will not be fired.

Boosting the morale of your workforce should be considered a top priority for any CEO. Believe it or not, going green is one tool you can use to boost the morale of your workforce.

The average person wants purpose from their jobs. They want to find something worthwhile in what they’re doing. Unfortunately, not every job is going to give people that because it’s a boring job. It’s difficult to show people how they’re changing the world.

Reposition your company and dedicate some of your profits to going green. People are going to see that they’re making a difference because their company is investing in the future. Bring them into the decision-making process and watch how much their passion and enthusiasm grows.

Save Money

You can adopt green policies in a number of ways. You don’t necessarily have to start up a foundation dedicated to stopping deforestation in Brazil. It can be as simple as switching your energy suppliers and installing recycling bins inside the office. Every little bit can make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.

Most green policies can actually save you money. Use less energy and you’ll be paying less to heat and power your office every month. Over a year or two you will find that you’ve saved thousands of dollars. And the changes don’t have to be disruptive. A simple change in your habits can make all the difference.

Use it to Market Yourself

What a lot of people don’t realize is they can easily promote their brand based on their green efforts. A lot of people are receptive to green initiatives, so it can be used to improve your image. Just make sure you’re relating it back to what you actually sell and you’ll be shocked at how people respond to your campaigns.

Experiment with your green initiatives and find something your target audience is interested in. As already mentioned, the general public loves it when the companies they support invest in the world they live in.

So How Do You Get Started?

Now you know how beneficial going green can be for your company it’s time to start thinking about taking action. Getting started is easier than you think because all you have to do is begin looking at some of the options open to you. It can be as big or as small as you like. There are no limitations on what you can do and no limitations on what you can accomplish.

What do you think is the best way for your company to start going green?

Source: B2C

Top 5 Social Media Employee Advocacy Platforms to Boost Your Brand’s Reach on Social

What is an employee advocacy program?

It is an organized effort at encouraging employees to share curated content on social media.

What makes an employee advocacy program powerful?

1. It increases your social media reach by as much as 100-500X

2. When your employees share your content, social media users are more likely to consider it authentic and not blind-sight it as promotional

3. Leads developed by employee advocacy are seven times as likely to convert

4. An advocacy program is an opportunity to project your employees as industry experts (when you curate the best articles in your industry for them to share on social media)

5. An incentivized, non-work related activity is great for employee engagement

6. Brand associated content shared via multiple channels is great for brand building and recall

Moreover, implementing an employee advocacy program isn’t very hard, especially when the program is managed on an employee advocacy platform with functions that simplify the process.

The following is a list of five top employee advocacy programs that you could use to expand your company’s reach on social media.

DrumUp Employee Advocacy Platform

The most striking feature of DrumUp’s employee advocacy platform is the ease with which you can source and manage content for social media.

One of the challenges that most businesses and their marketers face is the lack of time to create excellent content.

With this platform, you could set one or more themes and discover relevant content to curate to your company content stream. You can also attach the RSS feeds of your website’s PR, news coverage or blog sections to the platform and automatically have updates posted to your company content stream (a stream that all employees you invite have access to and can schedule out of).

There’s no point running an employee advocacy program is you can’t track its progress. DrumUp’s platform does that well, and just as much as is required. The analytics section includes data per person and data per post so you can analyze which post your employees shared most and which person shared the most posts. Another important number included is ‘reach’ which tells you exactly how many feeds your post entered on social media.

The leader board also deserves special mention. It is a great way for your employees to measure their progress against their colleagues’ spurring healthy competition. Remember to reward your best player with something exciting, so your employees are motivated to keep up the effort.

Kredible

Known as the online credibility management application, Kredible has a lot to offer to the B2B sector. Focused on LinkedIn marketing, this application provides optimization of both your employees’ personal brand and your company brand.

By scouring through your employees’ online presence, the application assesses your employees’ ‘Kredible score’ considering current and past job titles, job descriptions and LinkedIn summaries.

The Kredible score is associated with an assessment of whether improvements are necessary or not, so the employees who need the edits can accordingly make them and optimize their appearance for profile visits.

After employee profiles are optimized, you can request employees to share content that you curate via their networks. The application also helps you identify relevant content based on your audience type and reports all employee activity so you track your employee advocacy program.

The application not only caters to businesses but individual employees as well. The idea is to support employees in their goals of being recruited.

According to research quoted by Kredible, 62% of HR personnel take decisions about potential hires based on what they dig up about them on social media. Social media profiles and how job candidates represent themselves online has an effect on whether they are offered a job or not.

Circulate.it

This platform was created with one simple and useful application: reaching your content to your colleagues’ inboxes.

Keeping employee advocacy aside for a second, let us consider the importance of employee knowledge updates. Providing your employees with the opportunity to update their know-how will help them make better decisions at work, and appreciate you for putting that effort.

Circulate.it is aptly named because the content you create or curate is conveniently delivered to all your employees through a daily newsletter.

The platform also lets them share content from that newsletter to the social media accounts without having to leave the page.

So Circulate.it covers both functions: employee updating and social employee advocacy. It can be accessed via social accounts as well, making it super simple to use – for management and employees both.

Newzsocial

Newzsocial adds a different perspective and functionality to the concept of employee advocacy. It was created to help businesses optimize their content marketing funnels.

The focus of this application is not simply employees but anyone you want participating in your advocacy program – marketers or influencers even.

The work flow is simple. You connect important content streams to the application (blogs, videos, whitepapers). You set specific posting rules and schedules for your participants to follow.

Rules are essential for a successful advocacy program, regardless of which platform you’re using. Guiding people on what to say and not, when to post and not can also be very beneficial to your business (based on when best to catch your target audience online).

Additionally, Newzsocial also allows you to identify, follow and engage with the most influential people of those who interact with your content – content marketing optimization.

Finally the application monitors all activity and provides an extensive look into your engagement metrics helping you identify your best performer.

The application has yet another interesting integration which is worth exploring – website analytics.

Everyonesocial

Everyonesocial is a platform aimed at creating social media engagement by continuously improving user experience.

Considering that all employees may not be up for sharing, Everyonesocial places more importance on getting employees to actually use the employee advocacy software.

The platform collects engagement data, analysis it and continually makes changes to the interface to keep users engaged.

The content curation module is great for sourcing the relevant content and claims to improve consistently by reading patterns in the types of articles most shared.

Apart from the regular employee advocacy features, this platform pays extra attention to mobile based solutions – for iOS and android both, helping you engage that group of your employees who are more likely to share from their mobile phones.

Finally, the app also offers analytics to monitor and analyze your employee advocacy efforts.

In conclusion, the most important features that you must have on an employee advocacy program: the ability to source industry content and upload original content, easy sharing with employees, easy sharing on social media, a leader board to gamify the activity and analytics to analyze your performance.

Image credit: jcomp via flickr.com

Source: B2C