Social Media Roundup: December 25, 2018

Coming to Your Inbox in 2019: New and Improved Newsletter!

We're redesigning and expanding the scope and content of this newsletter starting in January. The changes begin with a new name: the Franchise Marketing Leadership Report (FMLR). This ties in with similar changes to our Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, which is now renamed the Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference (FMLC). Why, you might ask? Because of the growing leadership roles marketers are playing in their franchise organizations. You know what we're talking about!

Looking Back at 2018 and Ahead to Marketing in 2019

We're all familiar with the year-end predictions for the coming year, along with a look back at the year just ending. We're dedicating this issue to listing and briefly summarizing a selection of the many predictions on what's going and what's coming.

But before getting into all that, let's start with an entertaining look at Adweek's top 25 ads of 2018. One of our favorites was KFC's "FCK" ad, which ran in the U.K. after its stores there ran out of chicken earlier this year (yes, really). Glad to see this clocked in at #3! There's even a 2-minute video about the ad, including this startling ROI: more than 1 billion impressions after appearing only once in two national newspapers.

Now for the look back at 2018 and ahead to 2019!

Seth Godin, interviewed in the December issue of Entrepreneur magazine on big picture marketing trends for 2019. One quote of note to start you out: "Attention and trust are the two most valuable elements of our economy going forward, and big companies have a long history of just burning it, wasting it. The alternative is to be the kind of organization that markets with people instead of at them."

7 predictions for digital marketing in 2019 from Chad Politt on Social Media Today. Here are three likely to affect consumer marketers:

• The U.S. will pass a data privacy bill.
• The lines between marketing and PR will continue to blur.
• Facebook's user base in the U.S. will decline.

MarketingSherpa looks back at its most popular articles of 2018. If nothing else, this is what your peers were reading this year. Here are three of the headlines:

• Call-to-Action Optimization: 132% increase in clickthrough from changing four simple words
• Marketing 101: What is conversion?
• High-Impact Email Writing Part I: Useful Lists of Short Words, Strong Verbs, and Blah Words

Five digital marketing predictions for 2019 from Janice Chou, TrueFacet's director of digital content and social media. More details available on Forbes' website.

1. Content will be better integrated into email marketing strategies.
2. Content marketing departments will grow.
3. Content will need to be optimized for voice search.
4. Marketers will develop a thorough content marketing strategy, not just an editorial calendar.
5. Live video will hit its stride.

5 marketing trends for 2019 from John Hall, co-founder of Calendar. These were made back in June -- and still look pretty good to us. Find the full article, also on Forbes.

1. People are putting more trust in others they know and reputable content, not ads.
2. Creativity, not conformity, will set successful marketers apart.
3. Winners won't be concerned with internal barriers.
4. Understanding how your customers communicate is vital.
5. Helpfulness and authenticity will combat relationships lost through tech and automation.

Cybersecurity predictions from Adam Levin on Inc.com include the following. Find the full list of 14 predictions here.

1. Privacy and security will become marketing tools.
2. Facebook will continue to off-gas scandal and shed users.
3. Anonymized email will spread.
4. Increased legislation will make the web less "world-wide"

To wrap things up, Uberall was kind enough to send us three predictions from their VP of business development, Tehsin Daya, about what he believes will dominate location marketing technology in 2019 for franchisees and QSR:

1) "Near me" search will continue to grow in mobile.
Over the past year, near me searches have exploded -- especially on mobile. In fact, more than 80 percent of consumers have done a near me search on their mobile device. This number is staggering, and it's likely to grow in 2019. It also means that near me search is a key factor that franchisees and QSRs should pay extra close attention to moving forward. The reason is that consumers now find more stock in proximity and convenience -- even more than brand loyalty. What's more, as people opt to keep GPS and location services on when using their device, they're in a better position to take advantage of proximity-based searches. Looking ahead, near me search offers tremendous opportunity for both franchisees and QSRs that's worth paying attention to.

2) Voice adoption will grow, which will be a boon for QSRs and franchisees.
In 3 years, voice search may make up 50 percent of all searches. For QSR brands keeping up with SEO best practices, this new method of search is a game changer. It's a relief to know that many of the functional differences between voice and standard search are subtle. However, the result of performing well in voice search can mean less competition and more sales for businesses ready to take on the challenge.

Voice search is also changing the game for SEO by taking the need for screens out of the equation. Since digital assistants tend to relay only a single answer to voice search requests, the QSRs that fulfill that top answer could feasibly multiply the number of consumers visiting their locations. In the new year, expect more brands to optimize their website's keywords for voice search; to be present across more business listings and multiple search engines, maps, and apps; and to optimize search relevance with positive reviews. These three tactics will maximize findability among voice searches.

3) QSRs and franchisees will proactively monitor customer reviews.
Almost one-third of consumers believe that online reviews are important. And as people keep spending more time on their mobile devices, it's easy for them to look at reviews before deciding to spend money somewhere. Further, 65 percent of consumers believe that stores should respond directly to customer reviews. This means that QSRs and franchisees will have to spend more time checking them and responding if they want to win over potential customers. But it doesn't stop there. Customers aren't going to be satisfied with a generic response from an establishment. They're also looking for personalization to show that the franchisee or QSR really cares about them. So QSRs and franchisees will have to keep providing thoughtful responses to online customer reviews if they want to win over new customers and keep the existing ones happy.