Students in Aguadulce wearing #GCAiPlanet t-shirts and holding soccer balls that GCAi donated.

Each year for the last 10 years, our friend Bradford Martin, a Partner at Morrison Mahoney LLP, has gone to Central America to help build and establish schools for children.

Sponsored by Brad’s church, Bethany Assembly of God in Agawam, MA, he and the other volunteers work with Latin American ChildCare to find schools in need of new classrooms and then make the trip down with supplies to help. So far, they have gone to Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

This year Brad went to Aguadulce, Panama, about 2.5 hours southwest of Panama City. Prior to his trip, schooling there would end for children at 5th grade due to insufficient space – they needed more classrooms. Brad and the other volunteers built 3 classrooms and 2 bathrooms in the 10 days they were there. The school previously had about 200 students.  Now, thanks in large part to Brad, the classrooms there will allow for another 100 students to get schooling and will get them to the 8th grade.

GCAi was happy to contribute to this outstanding cause. Our donation, along with others from charitable local organizations such as The Town of East Longmeadow, allowed Brad to purchase a new stove, hood, oven, refrigerator, freezer and utensils to help feed the students and community. We also sent some #GCAiPlanet t-shirts and soccer balls for the children in Aguadulce.

Eoin Kennedy

On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, many on #GCAiPlanet are focused on the Emerald Island and all things Irish. This year, we are again able to give a digital marketing spin to the “High Holiday” through the eyes of our Irish friend and peer Eoin Kennedy. This year, Eoin is going to take us to a quaint Irish village named Cong where once a year the digerati gather to talk digital marketing for about three days. Enjoy.

Technology trends are always hard to measure.  Sometimes it’s measured by published user numbers on a platform, sometimes by quasi-academic research, sometimes simply by gut feel or personal perspective. But other times a better gauge can be what people are actually talking about in the real world.

Conferences can be a good collation point for opinion, but presenters generally follow cues given by organisers which are naturally biased.  This is one of the reasons I really enjoy observing the Congregation unconference. People self-select their topics and are published in advance, and they are generally used as a catalyst to discuss other core topics.

At the end of last November’s event, I poured over the input of more than 80 attendees who hailed from six countries and 17 counties in Ireland. Attendees were a unique a mix of teachers, lecturers, communications and digital media consultants, politicians, startups, researchers, journalists, technologists, film makers, genealogists, accountants, and authors. Their comments and conversations provided me with a perspective on the direction that digital media is headed in Ireland and, perhaps, the world.

One mega trend that spawned an entire evening of conversation was Augmented and Virtual Reality. Both were of utmost interest to the attendees. In particular, attendees were interested in the grass root deployments by archaeologists who are using AR to make the past a place, and others who are using VR to recreate the world of James Joyce’s Ulysses.  This focus on AR and VR was also highly evident in presentations by media houses in other Irish conferences, which replaced the previous focus on mobile.

Although very diverse, reflecting how daily lives are now intimately touched by technology, attendees at the Congregation could be grouped into specific areas of interest, including:

• Education and Concern for Future Generations.
• People centric and impact of IT
• Content – rise, demise, storytelling and new formats/approaches
• Disruption – trying to frame and shape the brave new world
• Technical – predictive data to privacy to drones
• Tips – from Slack to apps to Twitter community building

In terms of specific digital marketing trends, there were also many discussions about Content, Mobile, Customer Experience with Wearables, and IOT.  One discussion about the migration toward messaging apps, like Snapchat and Instagram, reflected the discomfort that many older analysts feel with these platforms rather than the popularity that appears to be spreading from the U.S. through Irish millennials.

My personal crystal ball for 2016 says virtual reality will undoubtedly become more mainstream and normal, augmented reality will show its muscle in B2B, content overload will force us to rely on algorithms, and everyone will get more comfortable with data.

Eoin Kennedy is a freelance communications consultant living in the west of Ireland. Along with a two year stint as a founder of a web based start-up he spent more than 18 years in the public relations industry. Eoin is also a trainer on the Digital Marketing Diploma programme run by the Irish Times and the Digital Marketing Institute. He is a former director and Vice Chair of the Irish Internet Association and now the chair of the IIA Social Media Working group, a graduate member of the PRII and MII, a judge of the Irish Blog Awards and the IIA Net Visionary Awards.

In his spare time, he founded and now organizes an annual digital media ‘unconference’ called CongRegation.ie

On #GCAiPlanet, the 2016 forecast calls for change.

We consulted our resident meteorologist, Social Media Marketing Analyst James Garvey, to get his take on the changes we can prepare for this year. James has already seen these six trends emerging and expects them to play an even bigger role in 2016.

Watch the video of our interview with James Garvey here.

1. Radars show Customer Service functions continue to migrate to Social Media. 

“With shorter attention spans and taller expectations, many consumers will turn to brands’ social media accounts with questions, concerns, and other inquiries,” James declared. “The volume of ‘direct messages’ received by businesses will continue to increase as paid promotion becomes ubiquitous with social media marketing. Consumers will expect brands to respond rapidly, and will be penalized by the platforms if they don’t.”

2. Winds will shift from your website homepage to your Social Media accounts.

With consumers expecting more from brands on social media their consumption behavior will shift away from search and towards social (where they already are).

“This means that fewer users will engage with your homepage or website and more users will develop an impression of your brand based on your social media presence,” James added.

3. Winter Weather Advisory: Non-promoted content will become a waste of time. 

“For brands, publishing non-promoted content to their social media accounts will cease to produce any justifiable results,” James pointed out. “The continued decline in organic reach on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will hit all-time lows. Businesses will begin to further measure the return on their social media marketing efforts and many will begin integrating social media marketing into their greater marketing / branding campaigns.”

4. “Big Data” will pour in from Social platforms.

“Marketers will continue to discover the value in the big data that giants like Facebook and Google have aggregated for them,” James predicted. “Facebook’s ability to target users based on their ‘offline’ behavior will become a more widely utilized feature as brands seek to spend less on impressions, and more on actions that affect their overall sales strategy.”

5. Social Commerce will raise the barometer. 

“Pinterest was one of the first platforms to allow users to purchase products without leaving the social platform,” James noted. He alluded to a shift in consumer behavior – buyers are now more susceptible than ever to the lure of purchasing products through social media.

“The additional validation of purchasing products that have been consumed or positively reviewed by others in your network will drive trends and begin to shift retail away from static websites, and towards social platforms,” James said.

6. Hurricane “Technology” will continue to develop.

James predicted that video will become the norm on social media, with live streaming continuing to grow in popularity through early 2016.

“Video advertisements will take on 3-dimensions, allowing users to become more immersed in the experience or message the brand is trying to convey. Technologies like Oculus Rift and other virtual reality (VR) devices will grow slightly in popularity among early adopters. Larger brands will begin considering interactive VR experiences as a way to engage potential customers through social channels,” James said. “Advertising formats on social media will continue to develop based on consumer behavior, and will also begin allowing users to consume more content without navigating out of the app, or away from the platform.

About:
GCAi is an innovative Digital Marketing agency and Google Partner that uses SEO PR, Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, and Online Reputation Management to generate highly measurable results for its clients.

Global accelerator MassChallenge taps GCAi’s Digital Marketing Team for another international startups bootcamp. View photos from the bootcamp on Flickr.

The innovation economy keeps growing and is now a global phenomenon. Through MassChallenge, GCAi has had the opportunity to work with startup cohorts from Columbia, Mexico, and, recently, Morocco. Our Digital Marketing Team recently presented “The Secret Sauce of Digital Marketing” to a group of startups from Morocco, which included an accelerator, a clean tech company, a car-sharing company, and many more.

“Their enthusiasm is incredible,” noted GCAi President John Garvey. “That is the universal factor we see with all successful startups – high energy and high engagement. This group was no different, and in a lot of ways, they were more ambitious than the teams we normally encounter.” John noted that the everyday tools that US-based startups can call upon are not as available to the Moroccan startups. “They told us that Internet is not always available and that fax is used as much if not more than email. Their media is also split, with some publishing in Arabic and others in French. So, for PR purposes, you are pitching in two different languages.”

“Even though their go-to-market needs are more complicated, they still loved our digital marketing tools and tactics,” suggested Darcy Fortune, GCAi SEO PR Analyst. “I showed them a traditional press release – which they all recognized. Then I showed them our Digital Media Kits, and the cell phones all came out and they started snapping pictures.” According to Darcy, much of the conversation related to PR focused on developing relationships with media and then creating the right approach to pitching them. “The fact that we were talking about doing that through facsimile sort of blew us away. But the approach we presented is flexible and will still get results even though the dissemination method is dated from a US perspective.”

“Of course it is difficult to use Social Media Marketing if Internet is not widely available,” explained James Garvey, GCAi Social Media Marketing Analyst. “Still, many of the ventures were already using Social Media Marketing and they asked a lot of great questions about content production – especially video – and targeting.” One of the startups that attended the breakout James facilitated was a venture that was developing a way to provide free Internet access supported by advertisement. “She was looking for methods to reach marketing and advertising professionals who might be interested in placing ads within her platform that provides free Internet access to users after they watch a branded advertisement. I was impressed that this founder had developed a way to turn a difficult situation into a positive and a business.”

Data was also on the minds of these founders.  “One of the startups that I met with was interested to learn that Google Analytics provides keyword data – which search terms visitors use to get to their website,” noted Mary Shea, GCAi Vice President Digital Strategy and a Google AdWords Qualified Planner. “So, we discussed how their site’s keyword data could be used to launch a new and better targeted Search Network campaign.”  Mary also worked with another startup that was developing online video campaigns. “We determined that the geo-targeting in Morocco isn’t as advanced as it is here,” Mary explained, “Therefore their service presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach users in a very specific location.”

Ann Wylie’s latest blog post, The Release Is Dead, had us more excited than we were for the return of pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks this fall. It is nice to hear that an award-winning communications professional like Ann believes what we believe – that the traditional PR release is dead. In fact, we haven’t written one in years.

Our SEO PR approach allows us to tell stories through digital media kits (DMKs) that provide reporters with all the information and assets they need. The best part of this is that our DMKs are highly searchable and can reach targeted audiences through the web all on their own.

But DMKs are not the only method we use to receive media coverage for our brand/clients. We also target reporters and editors by crafting unique pitches. We do this in a way that puts ourselves in the reporter’s shoes. That comes naturally to our SEO PR Analyst Darcy Fortune, who spent the first few years of her career in a TV newsroom. Because she has worked on both sides of the fence, we thought Darcy might have a few tricks up her sleeve – and we were right. She revealed these six simple tips to increase media coverage for your brand:

Tip # 1: Research Reporters

“Nothing frustrates a reporter more than receiving a pitch that has absolutely nothing to do with his or her beat. It is so essential to do your background research on the reporter first,” Darcy said. “Read the reporter’s stories, follow him or her on social media, and be familiar with his or her bio. Look for something you have in common and use that to strike up a conversation or connect with the reporter,” she added.

Tip #2: Craft The Right Pitch

Subject Line: “First, capture the reporter’s attention with a subject line that will make him or her want to click. We like to refer to a topic the reporter has recently written about,” Darcy suggested.

Body: “Be brief in the body of the email but get your key points across. The reporter is probably wondering why he or she should write about your idea – this is where you need to answer that question,” Darcy advised.

Assets: “Lastly, add a line about any assets that you may have. Lines such as “interviewee at the ready” and “images or b-roll available” will usually catch the attention of a reporter,” Darcy recommended. “The more you can help out the reporter, so they don’t have to go digging for information on their own, the better your chances of getting coverage.”

Tip #3: Be Persistent

“Just like that dead traditional PR release, if you do not follow up with a reporter after your initial pitch, you should consider your pitch dead too,” Darcy quipped. “Reporters are unlikely to open your email the first time around. Remind the reporter with a simple email asking if he or she has any interest in your story. That will keep your pitch top of mind and, more importantly, top of inbox. Making a phone call is a risky move. Most reporters consider a follow-up call annoying, but if you have developed a relationship with a particular reporter, a phone call can be greatly appreciated,” she explained.

Tip #4: Be Relevant

Can your client or brand add value to anything that is happening in the news today? Darcy suggests you ask yourself this every day.

“Use those top headlines by taking a relevant topic and offering a different angle or approach to the story. But remember what you are offering and make sure you are prepared to deliver. This is something that must be done in a timely manner because the opportunity doesn’t last forever. No one likes day-old news,” Darcy said.

Tip #5: Look For News Opportunities 

“Reporters post their story ideas daily on websites such as Help A Reporter Out (HARO) or Muck Rack. Use those websites to your advantage. But watch out – they can become pretty pricey depending on your subscription,” Darcy warned.

“Another great idea is to get on reporters’ email lists. That way, reporters will be able to seek you out for expertise when they need it rather than being pestered by you. When they go fishing for comments, you will be one of the people they go to,” she said.

Tip # 6: Create A Movement Around Your Story:

“Generate some buzz around the story you want to pitch by using social media. If people are already commenting, sharing, liking, and talking about a particular subject, the media will be more likely to be interested. Besides, that’s where most of their leads come from in the first place,” Darcy explained.