future Archives - Itechment

Blogging Platforms Market Outlooks, Future Forecasts, Key Players, and Competitive Analysis 2019-2025

Industry Overview of Blogging Platforms Market

The global Blogging Platforms market research report studies market overview defining; definition, types, applications latest trends to identify the revenues and the progress of the market over the forecast period. The report offers the preventive and premeditated management along with emphasizes the summary of the global Blogging Platforms market along with classifications and market chain structures. It also highlights authorized statistics of the global Blogging Platforms market.

The key players covered in this study : :
WordPress.org
Wix
WordPress.com
Blogger
Tumblr
Medium
Squarespace
Joomla
Ghost
Weebly

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into :
Cloud-based
On-premises

Market segment by Application, split into :
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Large Enterprises
Personal

The fundamental purpose of this Blogging Platforms market report is to provide a correct and strategic analysis of the Profile Projectors industry. The report scrutinizes each segment and sub-segments presents before you a 360-degree view of the said market.It provides a deep insight into the industry parameters by accessing the market growth, consumption volume, the upcoming market trends, and the different prices variation for the forecast year.

The research methodology of the market involves both primary as well as secondary research data sources. It commits different factors affecting Blogging Platforms industry such as market environment, various policies of the government, past data and market trends, technological advancements, upcoming innovations, market risk factors, market restraints, and challenges in the industry.

The study objectives of this report are:
To study and forecast the market size of in global market.
To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.
To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.
To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.
To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.

Important Questions Covered in this Report:
1. What will the market size be in 2025?
2. What are the key factors driving the global market?
3. What are the challenges to market growth?
4. Who are the key players in the market?
5. What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players?
6. What will be the growth rate in 2025?
7. Which strategies are used by top players ?

For compiling the report, data has been derived from a number of paid and unpaid sources such as presentations, white papers, journals, and press releases. It offers in-depth information obtained through extensive primary and secondary research methods. The information has been further assessed using various effective analytical tools. Therefore, the report provides a 360-degree view of market.

At last, It includes the methodical description of the various factors such as the Blogging Platforms market growth and a detailed information about the different company’s revenue, growth, technological developments, production and the various other strategic developments.

[“source=marketindustrynews”]

Is distance learning the future of education?

Online learning was once frowned upon and thought to disturb the normal learning process students were accustomed to in the classrooms, but with the impact technology has on the life of every individual nowadays, that’s not the case anymore.

Online courses can help students reach the depth of different subjects without having to take an excessive number of classes in a semester as they can do it at their own pace in a familiar environment and with all the help they would get in a normal study group.

Numerous studies have been conducted over the years, to determine whether online learning is more effective than face-to-face courses or should it only be used as an additional method, in parallel with conventional classes.

The results were varied and while some students did better with online classes, others reported their grades were significantly worse. In 2017, a study showed that online classes are a poor option for students who did not have an advanced knowledge of the subject and the dropout ratio was bigger. However, other studies showed that online courses are the best option for students who have a more challenging life such as working full time or raising a kid.

Research conducted on students from rural schools that lack specialised and advanced courses for those more advanced than their peers, shows that online courses can be an excellent addition to conventional studying. The study showed that students who took the online courses did better than those who stuck to the curriculum.

Online teaching has no geographic boundaries
Another advantage that has been brought up when discussing online classes is the cultural diversity and the chances students have to connect with either colleagues or teachers from all over the world. Students have more time to discuss and exchange opinions with other individuals from different cultures, without the pressure of a ticking clock.

Coming in contact with people with a different background can have a huge impact on individuals, as they learn to communicate and listen to different opinions. This increases their opportunity to familiarize themselves with the way other communities see things, an experience they would not have in a classroom.
For instance, an individual from Cyprus can choose to take an online chemistry tuition form a teacher in Singapore, an option that would not normally be available in a conventional classroom.

A way of reaching the masses
Studies have shown that distant learning benefits those less fortunate, who have limited access to education. Whether we are talking about rural communities or individuals who have difficulties attending regular classes due to various reasons regarding time, distance or particular situations at home, online courses come to their help. Children from less developed communities, who have limited access to resources like textbooks or attend schools who suffer from a deficit of personnel now have the opportunity to fathom the subjects they are interested in. They can this way prepare for higher education without feeling they are missing out on vital information.

What do professors think?
While most studies and discussions about distance learning focus on the students, it’s worth knowing what opinions do teachers and counselors have about it. Teachers who embraced the idea of online tutoring want to remind others that learning communities can also be found online. They say the process is much more complex than just downloading 100 pages of content and uploading their final paper at the end of the course. Communication plays a huge role in effective teaching and the online community knows it.
Other professionals say that online teaching helped them enhance their teaching abilities. They learned how to construct their courses and now have a better understanding of the education system and their institution policy, skills they did not develop with just working in a classroom and following a strict curriculum.

What will the future bring?
It is becoming more and more obvious that online education is going to continue to change and adapt to suit our needs and lifestyle. But what direction is it taking and how will it look in the future, as special education apps are no news and courses are already available everywhere? Will it one day replace the conventional classroom?

Researchers say that online learning is going to be based more on projects than papers, as technology nowadays makes it really simple for students to present and broadcast their projects with the use of a mobile phone.
While online education will not replace classroom education anytime soon, there are many reasons why they should work together, to compensate one another. Teachers should be more open to the idea of bringing their teaching into the present day and adapt to the ever-changing needs of students.

[“source=cyprus”]

The Future of Digital Marketing

It is easy to forget that there used to be a time when companies had to print out pamphlets or rent a billboard space to achieve retention. But like most things in our life, technology has changed the way we manage our business.

A good example would be how we choose our company name. We once had to ask the trade and industry office if the name we like has been taken already. Now, we make sure it isn’t taken online first. So we research domain ownership with WHOIS Lookup, and then purchase the domain name even before we register it in government offices.

Indeed, we have made advertising and marketing to our customers more dynamic and creative. Inadvertently, we have also found a way to influence their buying behaviour. Now, all that needs to be done is to improve our digital marketing strategies to continue adapting to buying trends and customer needs.

Tell a story

Stories about people overcoming challenges, those who are fighting for causes, and experiences which allows us to view life from a different perspective. These are not only inspirational messages relevant to these troubling times, but it helps build a connection between you and your target consumers.

Take the latest Gillette advertisement; it explores toxic masculinity and the problematic culture it perpetuates. Not only was Gillette able to show what their stand is in the matter, but they have helped redefine the image of what a man should be.

Strategies like this, when done well, can encourage an emotional connection with your brand. The worst thing you can do with this is to pander to your audience who will instantly know if you are just bandwagoning.

Encourage reviews

A study made by BrightLocal showed that people trust online reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations. Make sure you have the right avenues set up so that your customers can leave reviews on pages where it matters, like your social media platforms. It is an effective way to get to a demographic that you would not have otherwise reached on your own.

Authentic marketing

Choosing a persona to endorse your products is not just about who is the more popular celebrity anymore. It is about who can talk about our products authentically and endorse it to their fan base genuinely. This is why influencer marketing has become quite a popular strategy for companies. Hiring Instagram and Youtube influencers to advertise a product by using, demoing or talking about it in their content.

The key here is choosing the right influencer to market your brand. There should not be a disconnect between what you offer and the persona that is endorsing your product. So if you are a company like Audible, for instance, you have to reach out to creators who are known for reviewing books or any media or those who do commentary videos. In short, make sure your product is relevant to their brand as a creator.

The buying behaviour does not follow a funnel anymore, most see it as a wheel already. We do not just care about what our customers think before they make a purchase, but we want to know how we can involve them in improving our system before, during, and after the buying process.

Technology has allowed us to adapt to the changing playing field. We can now easily see trends that can influence our sales and reach out to a potential pool of customers. Keep these strategies in mind the next time you and your team are meeting up for your 2019 online marketing meeting, and you might win the top-of-mind game.

[“source=t2conline”]

Contribute to a podcast on the future of education

Submit your questions and ideas to our panel of experts who will discuss what can be learnt from different approaches to education

In Britain, schools admissions policies are being looked into amid worries that summer-born children are falling behind in the classroom. Dave Thompson/PA Wire

In Britain, schools admissions policies are being looked into amid worries that summer-born children are falling behind in the classroom. Dave Thompson/PA Wire Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

Join our panel of education experts to examine what can be done to improve education, and make systems more equal. Whether you’re a teacher, student, academic, social worker, policymaker, parent, and wherever you are in the world, we want to hear from you.

Alex Beard, author of Natural Born Learners, and one of our panellists for this podcast, says:

“Most schools today are not teaching kids how to learn. We lack a common understanding of what education is and what purpose it serves. We set national targets and arrange institutions and organise people so that they can deliver on those targets. This managerial thinking has been around for 100 years. But by standardising things in this way across classrooms, you undermine the efforts of educators.”

In an increasingly interdependent world, it’s vital that we strive to understand not just what it is that makes other societies tick, but how others – be they British, Japanese, German or Argentinian – endeavour to solve the same problems that we all share. In this month’s podcast, we will be focusing on the issue of education, and how we as a global community can improve standards of education for children of all nationalities, genders, ethnicities and economic backgrounds.

What are the techniques and methods we can all use to reform education models? How far are they needed, and how far can they stretch? Wendy Kopp explains the extent of the issue in her article ‘It’ll take a village to reform global education’:

“More than 60 percent of primary school children in low- and middle- income countries do not reach a minimum proficiency in reading and math. We’re even further from ensuring the world’s children gain the competencies and dispositions necessary to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.”

One thing is clear: the learning crisis is severe. But the conversation on education still needs to shift towards an understanding that this is a crisis that needs fixing – we know where we want to get to, but we don’t yet know how to get there. Of course, what works in one country might not work entirely in another, but recognising that there are other ways to do things might be a good place to start.

What are the common issues we all face? What approaches have you seen implemented, or helped to implement, and what beneficial changes have been brought about in the systems you work in?

On a macro level, should we be trying new methods to engage leaders? Are there aspects of schools and teaching that you believe are outdated? Are there any good alternatives to excessive tests and exams? How can we plan long term or indeed collaboratively within education? How can we better prepare our children for life in the modern world? How can we incentivise more people to teach, and have the space to adopt more creative techniques in their teaching? Looking more locally, what can communities do to change how schools are run in their area – to create a level playing field for children and improve access for those from poorer backgrounds?

As Beard eloquently puts it: “In general, I think people don’t fundamentally understand what it means to learn – and to teach. Most policymakers don’t, and I certainly don’t think that people outside of education really do. Our society imagines that teaching means standing at the front of a classroom and talking about ideas. If we want to begin to create a better system, we all need a much deeper understanding of the nature of learning: the science of learning.”

How to take part

To contribute, you can fill in our encrypted form below. Or you can send an email to [email protected], including your question or comment, your name, and a phone number so we can call you to make a recording. We’ll feature some of your responses in our podcast.

[“source=theguardian”]

Is Virtual Currency The Future Of Online Marketing?

Virtual currency holds lots of promise. Is it the future of online marketing though?

In 2006, TIME Magazine awarded the coveted “Person Of the Year” cover to us, the consumer of information on the Internet. The cover read, “You control the information age. Welcome to your world.”

The thought was nice but over the past decade plus not much has changed about the way content is created, distributed and monetized online. One man says that consumers are actually not in control at all. In fact he feels, and many might agree, that when it comes to consuming content on the Internet, the audiences are getting more than just short changed, they are getting completely taken advantage of.

Audiences hold all the value to content publishers online. They are the magnets that attract advertising revenue, which makes content creation possible. And most importantly, audiences purchase the products and services online that make advertisers profitable. Everyone is financially benefiting from audiences, except the audience.

All’s Not Fair In Online Marketing

Ivan Jiang is one man who believes this is not the most fair of conditions shall we say so he created the platform Merculet, which is a combination of content distribution network, advertising platform, and payment platform. It uses Blockchain technology to transform the way merchants, advertisers, producers, and consumers interact and benefit from their co-existence. Merchants are essentially any enterprise looking to increase sales or engagement.

By acquiring virtual currency from the platform, they can then invest that currency into advertising. The advertisers can they strategically align themselves with content creators to generate the most effective and targeted visibility for the merchants they represent.

Various metrics can be used by advertisers to optimize the placements of their ads and also help choose the content producers they partner with. Most importantly, content consumers, based on various actions that can range from watching a show, to sitting through an entire commercial without skipping ahead, to filling out a lead form, are rewarded using virtual currency that allows them to purchase products and services from merchants on the platform.

Merchants and content creators benefit the most from understanding and monetizing the behaviors of the consumers of the content they are creating or sponsoring. According to Jiang, it will not be long into the future before consumers, realizing the value of their views, are going to begin expecting to be treated as members of a community, and rewarded for their participation in the process. This is a pretty unprecedented concept that could someday make rewarding audiences with virtual currency the expectation and standard in entertainment.

Consumers Like It But What About Advertisers?

This all seems great for the consumer, but will merchants and advertisers get on board? According to Jiang, who has secured deals with content exchanges that could potentially garner hundreds of millions of views, the benefits to advertisers is in the detailed ability to track and learn about audiences. Merculet has created a measurement system that can scientifically identify the value of each user and their attention that they refer to as the User Attention Value Assessment System.

After determining each user’s score based on their actions, engagement, and historical behavior, advertisers will issue virtual currency rewards in proportion to that consumer’s level of benefit to the overall eco-system.

Modern innovations in Blockchain technology have expedited the possibility of bringing these types of platforms to life. Every transaction can be recorded and verified with complete transparency to every party involved from merchant to end viewer.

Rewarding Experiences

Users’ rewards are determined and awarded based on a logical and transparent system. Content creators are rewarded or creating content that generated profitable audiences.

Advertisers can transparently show merchants how successful their advertising placements were with audiences and optimize advertising placements to improve outcomes. Merchants profits because everyone is incentivized and compensated for their engagement.

Jiang says that although other similar projects of this magnitude typically have project cycles that could take five or even as much as ten years to implement, Mercult is prepared to deliver a sizable impact on the content industry in the coming year. He credits his leadership team, comprised of former members of leading tech companies like SAP and HP, and relationships with content distribution networks that reach nearly one billion consumers.

Being someone who’s lifestyle encompasses spending nearly all waking hours connected to a device with a screen interacting with businesses online, it does sound pretty nice to finally be compensated for my time. Most audiences might agree.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

Let’s Get Emotional: The Future Of Online Marketing

Throughout 2017, marketers focused on the opportunities virtual and augmented reality pose within the industry. While they are trends to watch, there is a new type of technology garnering a lot of attention.

Emotion analytics can identify and analyze the full human emotional spectrum including mood, attitude and emotional personality. At BusySeed, we prefer to use a mixture of both manual strategies and software to track emotional engagement. Whenever a client’s post goes viral, we do extensive research on why certain posts can be more successful than others. We then repeat these strategies in all future posts. When customers leave behind reviews on social platforms like Facebook or Yelp, we analyze sentiment by using technologies similar to IBM Watson’s API. The combination of these two methods helps us develop the most successful and emotionally engaging campaign.

Paired with existing data and technologies, we will be able to create a marketing strategy that is more precise and effective than ever before. Companies like Affectiva analyze facial expressions while others like Beyond Verbal analyze emotion in speech. Of course, emotion can be present within written mediums, so companies like Clarabridgeoffer natural language processing services.

Why focus on emotions?

Scientists have uncovered that humans feel first and think second. When confronted with sensory information, the emotional section of the brain can process the information in one-fifth of the time the cognitive section requires.

Emotions also have a large impact on brand loyalty, according to the Tempkin Group. In a 2016 study, they found that when individuals have a positive emotional association with a specific brand, they are 8.4 times more likely to trust the company, 7.1 times more likely to purchase more and 6.6 times more likely to forgive a company’s mistake. Nielsen released a study in 2016 which revealed that ads with an above average emotional response from consumers caused a 23% increase in sales compared to average advertisements.The Harvard Business Reviewhas also stated that a positive emotional bond with a company is more important to consumers than customer satisfaction.

Emotions can boost an ad’s virality online. Unruly, a video ad tech company, reported that 2015’s most shared ad was Google Android’s “Friends Furever” campaign. Oliver Smith, EMEA MD of Unruly, noted that the use of animals in adverts evokes “strong feelings of warmth and well-being.” He explained that emotional intensity is one of the deciding factors for video virality.

When starting an emotionally driven marketing campaign, a shift in focus is necessary. Consumers are no longer just consumers — they’re individuals with similar emotions. Businesses need to promote an experience and a feeling rather than a single product. The emotions a business chooses to feature in a new campaign need to fit within the brand so it seems like a natural extension of the marketing strategy. Try to think of emotions other than just happiness, sadness or anger. For small businesses, pride and passion for their local area can be enough for a very strong campaign.

How can emotion analytics help?

By scientifically measuring the emotional reactions to different campaigns or individual advertisements, you can identify and repeat the successful elements in future campaigns. If something doesn’t work, you can use data to figure out what should be improved to create the best ad possible.

Look to the future.

The big question is the ethics of the entire situation. Emotions are personal, so under what circumstances should brands or advertising agencies have the right to access and analyze them? This question can only be answered over the course of time.

While the mainstream use of emotion analytics software may be a ways away, it is important to implement emotional content in all future marketing strategies.

Consumers who are emotionally connected to a brand are worth two times more to a business than the average highly satisfied customer. They will trust the brand more, make more purchases while exhibiting lower price sensitivity and follow different communication channels more intently. An emotional connection with consumers is the secret to a powerful marketing strategy and considerable financial gain.

[“Source-forbes”]

Financial education stalls, threatening kids’ future economic health

Jeffrey Coolidge | Getty Images

Financial education in schools has come to a halt in recent years.

Only 17 states require high school students to take a class in personal finance — a number that hasn’t budged in the past four years, according to the newly released 2018 Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools.

More than half of states still don’t require high school students to take an economics course, it found. And since 2014, the number of states that require students to be tested on economics concepts has stayed flat at 16.

“The majority of U.S. states are failing our students by declining to offer these fundamental courses which are critical to their financial stability and security later in life,” said Nan J. Morrison, president and CEO of the Council for Economic Education, which produced the report using data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Click on the map below to see how each state fares.

Another recent report, by Champlain College, surveyed states’ effectiveness at producing financially literate high school graduates. Only five states received an A — Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia — and 30 percent of states were graded either D or F.

Personal finance lessons are more important than ever for students, said Annamaria Lusardi, academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center. She pointed to the fact that student loan debt in the country has soared to $1.48 trillion.

“In high school, students decide where to go to college and how to finance their education,” Lusardi said.

To be sure, there are many efforts to bring up money in the classroom.

Ohio, ranked as the fourth-worst state in financial literacy, introduced a bill in 2016 to provide more than $300,000 to Smart Ohio, a program that trains teachers in economics. Some 75,000 students are expected to benefit from it by 2021.

A group of students from Lexington, Massachusetts, started “Project Finance” to push for more schools to teach students about money. Last year, the Council for Economic Education requested the state board of education review its standards for financial literacy for implementation.

Yet not everyone agrees that personal finance courses are the most successful way to improve students’ finances.

A 2015 study in the Journal of Human Resources found that mathematics classes were actually more effective in training students to participate in financial markets, invest their income, manage their credit and avoid foreclosures.

Kids and money 4:43 PM ET Fri, 17 Nov 2017 | 03:44

But there is also research that makes a case for teaching students about personal finances. A 2014 Federal Reserve report found students exposed to personal finance education had credit scores that were 7 to 29 points higher than those of students who didn’t have such classes.

Morrison said that math classes only become more effective when they’re integrated with personal finance.

“It makes the math real,” she said. “Every kid is interested in money.”

To combat the slow-down in financial literacy for students:

Push for financial learning at your child’s school

“Parents can be super effective in creating change in their schools,” said Morrison. “Go to your school and say, ‘Hey, how do we go about getting this integrated?'”

Parents should ask for a required class on financial literacy — just like literature or geography — as opposed to an elective or after-school lesson.

“This is not a class where we’re teaching the common wisdom of the man on the street,” Lusardi said. “It’s a scientific class.”

Websites like econedlink.org offer resources for parents and educators, such as video lessons on the federal budget and unemployment.

Take on a teaching role, too

“If the school doesn’t do it, they have to do it,” Lusardi said, speaking about parents.

Yet about 70 percent of parents say they’re reluctant to talk about money with their children, according to a T. Rowe Price survey. Morrison said children can only benefit from financial conversationsand hands-on experience, though.

“It’s not scary,” she said. “It gives your kids a sense of ownership.”

Parents should talk to their children about planning for the future and caring about money, Lusardi said, as well as all of the standards for financial literacy put out by the Council for Economic Education.

These lessons will benefit them in the end.

“If you teach your children about financial literacy, they don’t have to come back to live in your basement after college,” Lusardi said.

[“Source-cnbc”]

How Blockchain Is Creating a New Future for Digital Marketing

Advertising today is a multi-billion-dollar industry. And, according to market research company Forrester, digital marketing expenditures in the United States are on pace to reach levels near $120 billion by 2021. No wonder: Every day, companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon collect information about consumers nonstrop.

Related: Just What the Heck Is Blockchain? Watch This Explainer Video.

However, nearly 50 percent of all ad traffic is being generated by bots. Brands are paying huge amounts of money to reach potential customers. But this doesn’t give them any guarantee that those ads will increase sales.

What’s intriguing is that this scenario could well change once businesses have the ability to target individual customers directly.

Already, a number of technological advancements, like blockchain and smart contracts, are innovating the digital marketing industry to do just that.

I’m bullish on blockchain as an underlying technology that’s going to spur disruption in more ways than we can think or dream. That’s partly why I’m building an augmented reality platform that integrates cryptocurrency and rewards users for viewing augmented reality (AR) experiences. But, mine is just one simple use case.

What’s yours? Let’s look at how your business could utilize these innovations to more effectively market itself.

Direct-to-consumer digital marketing

Blockchain, the revolutionary technology that has recently taken the advertising industry by storm, allows information to be stored and distributed, but not to be changed or copied.

Because blockchain is a decentralized system, data stored this way has a high level of security. This technology is going to disrupt and overhaul the online advertising industry because it will negate the need for middle men. Currently, businesses run Google or Facebook ads, and both platforms make money off these ads. But blockchain companies, like BitClave, are focusing on search-data privacy, giving users full control over their data.

BitClave’s search engine uses Ethereum blockchain technology and eliminates the need for ad service people, creating a direct connection between consumers and businesses. This is the hallmark of blockchain technology: It eliminates the need for middle men in all transactions.

When users perform a search, they can select the amount of data they want to be released to advertisers. Then, unlike what happens with other digital marketing services, users can be compensated for their data. So, instead of an intermediary selling your data to advertisers, you’re selling it to them directly — yourself.

Cross-promotional B2B contracts

Smart contracts assist in helping you exchange money, shares or anything of value in a conflict-free and transparent manner and letting you avoid additional players, like lawyers. These computer programmed contracts operate on blockchain technology that facilitates, verifies and executes the terms of an irrevocable contract that can only be replaced by a brand new contract.

Related: Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Anymore

These contracts will make B2B cross-promotional marketing much more efficient, especially in the age of influencers and bloggers, who use platforms such as Instagram and YouTube to cultivate personal brands.

Digital marketing with this group of influencers can be fruitful but has its challenges since there is no third party regulating the terms of the agreement and each individual determines his or her own costs.

Smart contracts can automatically enforce obligations from all parties involved, to ensure that payments are made only after the terms are met. For example, if a blogger never publishes an article or social media post about a brand, the smart contract that’s in place won’t release the blogger’s payment. Each contractual milestone has to be met in order for the next step of the process to take place.

“Digital marketing fuels the engine of global ecommerce today, and as such, it should rely on the most advanced and secure backbone, rather than the security risk-prone technologies of yesterday,” Roger Haenni, cofounder of the blockchain-based data storage company Datum,, told Forbes last month.

Blockchain allows for a “new class” of services with smart-contract technology. This technology helps businesses focus on commerce and protect themselves, Haenni said.

Transparency in contracts and with consumers

Companies can use blockchain to show consumers whom they are selling their data to. And, since this information cannot be changed or copied, companies that use this technology to store their data can rest assured that their information will not be tampered with.

Related: Where Is Social Media Headed in 2018 and Beyond?

The transparent nature of blockchain data can also make consumers feel at ease because companies cannot manipulate their data. This tells consumers that the data and information they are viewing is factual and accurate. And that is something consumers want.

Source:-entrepreneur

Is machine learning the future of marketing?

What will the future of marketing hold? Will it be entirely automated by smart AIs that fully understand human nuance? Probably not. Will it be entirely manual and managed only by individual people without the aid of technology? Definitely not.

As we’ll discuss shortly, the top influencers in marketing put their heads together on this very topic, and the results may surprise you. In any case, it’s safe to say that marketing probably isn’t going back to the old days of billboards, newspapers, and radio spots. The numbers don’t lie: the future of marketing is definitely digital.

The digital marketing space continues to grow: Online sales have doubled in the past five years, and more than two-third of adults in the U.S. shop online monthly. Revenue for online advertising recently surpassed that of television for the first time in history, and growth of traditional advertising such as TV and print are projected to stay flat while newspaper advertising continues to decline.

What all of this means is that marketers need to develop effective strategies to realize the opportunities digital provides. However, there are several factors that can either help or hinder your digital marketing efforts, and they all revolve around data and the customer journey.

Too much data, too few answers

Marketers must always strive to understand the needs of their customers, so digital marketing is driven by customer data. The good news is that there’s a wealth of data in every online search and click that can reveal insights about consumer behavior and demographics. Ideally, marketers would use this information to drive customer engagement that leads to increased revenues.

The problem is that data isn’t an easy-to-use solution to marketing challenges in and of itself; it needs to be collected, managed, and interpreted correctly for it to have any value at all. Even valuable data can go to waste when it isn’t integrated properly, and most marketing leaders spend up to half their budget on data analytics that ultimately lead to no company-wide improvements.

Data is also often mismanaged because of a lack of central ownership. This leads to significant digital skills gaps that are projected to cost businesses $3.3 billion by 2020 considering that much of the data marketers collect gets mismanaged and thus becomes irrelevant, redundant, or obsolete.

It’s always a bad investment when businesses spend money on data that goes nowhere. There needs to be a method to solve data management problems so marketers can realize the benefits of using data for digital marketing.

Customers are in control of their own journey

Back in the day, advertising was a one-way street: Businesses sent advertising messages to customers to drive sales through one-way channels such as billboards, print, and broadcast. There was no dialogue between companies and consumers. People didn’t have the internet to allow them to find the best possible deal, nor did they have powerful social networks to let them know about others’ brand experiences. Nowadays, most of the buying process is customer-controlled.

In addition, consumers are growing intolerant of annoying and irrelevant advertising, and pop-ups and other unwelcome messages are now getting blocked with increasing frequency. In fact, 11 percent of global consumers now use ad blocking software, up 30 percent since last year. Google Chrome will soon have a built-in ad filter feature, as well. The use of ineffective online marketing communications isn’t just wasteful, it can also be toxic to your brand as consumers become annoyed and shut you out completely.

As a result, marketers now need to ensure that they’re reaching the right customer at the right time with the right message to drive brand engagement. Otherwise, they risk annoying or upsetting their customers, thus leading to brand abandonment.

Machine learning helps you use data to serve empowered consumers

In a perfect world, marketers would use insights from data to engage with empowered consumers and help them make smart purchasing decisions through digital marketing. However, the challenge marketers face is managing massive amounts of information to serve a fickle market that will punish them harshly if they make a mistake.

As brilliant as marketers are – and must be in these challenging times – it’s difficult to downright impossible for individuals to put their arms around the millions of data points that constantly stream in from their digital marketing campaigns every nanosecond. Thus, an automated process called machine learning is necessary to take all the data you collect, organize it, manage it, and use it to predict the best ways to reach people with messages to galvanize buying behavior most effectively.

Machine learning means using predictive analytics and intelligent automation to formulate data-driven predictions. It allows marketers to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. In a recent survey of top marketing influencers, 97 percent said that the future of marketing will actually be a combination smart people armed with machine learning – in other words, that machine learning is the future of marketing. Some of the use cases for machine learning include:

Chatbots and Voice Assistants – The increasing use of conversational chatbots and voice assistants from Google, Amazon and Facebook highlights the importance of being able to intelligently create a relevant and engagingly conversational user experience based on empirical data.
User Engagement – The use of machine learning to build predictive analytics models, such as those created by Urban Airship and Microsoft Azure, can determine potential points of customer churn and proactively help businesses retain customers.
Natural Language Processing – Machine learning can be used to optimize bidding in digital advertising, mitigating data scarcity with highly accurate predictive models based on semantically similar keyword groups, such as the model used by QuanticMind.

The rise of digital marketing presents many challenges and opportunities for marketers. Those who manage data effectively to communicate with consumers appropriately will have an advantage over those who don’t. Machine learning offers marketers the ability to fully realize the benefits of digital marketing, build real user engagement rather than being filtered out…and ultimately grow their business and revenues by always being where their customers are.

[“Source-thenextweb”]

Tencent Sees Video Games, More Ads in Snapchat’s Future

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings said on Thursday it could help Snapchat owner Snap publish video games and improve ad sales after acquiring a 12 percent stake in the US social media network.

Snap’s disclosure in a US regulatory filing that Tencent had recently bought 145.8 million of its shares on the open market set off a wave of speculation among investors about the relationship between the firms.

Shares in Snap closed at $12.91 on Wednesday, down 14.6 percent, as investors pummelled the company for slow user growth and treated Tencent’s move as an investment rather than the precursor to an acquisition.

Tencent’s shares do not have voting power and it will not have a board seat, but the two companies broadly believe in cooperation that goes beyond passive investing, according to Snap’s filing on Wednesday. Tencent on Thursday described a potentially close relationship.

“The investment enables Tencent to explore cooperation opportunities with the company on mobile games publishing and newsfeed as well as to share its financial returns from the growth of its businesses and monetization in the future,” it said in an emailed statement. It also referred to the potential for “newsfeed ads”.

Games and a newsfeed have not been a part of Snapchat, although the company on Tuesday said it was planning a redesign.

Analysts say Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, has benefited from its social media apps for the phenomenal popularity of its smartphone games such as Honour of Kings, and will need the help of local social networks in promoting its games in overseas markets.

The Snapchat app, though, is banned in China, where non-Chinese social media networks are generally restricted, although some videos originating in China were visible on the network on Wednesday presumably because of technological workarounds.

US investment analysts said they did not expect a change in that regard.

It is unlikely that Snap “would ever be allowed to establish a foothold in China even if their relationship with Tencent were deeper,” Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York, said in a report to clients.

The companies operate on different scales. Tencent’s holdings include messaging apps QQ and WeChat, both ubiquitous in China, and its market capitalization of $469 billion is among the largest in the world. Snap’s is $15 billion.

While Snapchat focuses on sharing pictures and video between friends, WeChat offers payment processing and more. Tencent said that it expected Snapchat to continue to grow, particularly in “affluent Western markets” such as the United States and Europe.

“The China market is in some ways more advanced in social media and messaging than the U.S. is,” said Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon, a website that writes about China and California’s Silicon Valley.

“Tencent might have teams come in and work with them,” Fannin said.

Snap declined to comment beyond a filing in which it said the California company was inspired by Tencent’s creativity and entrepreneurial spirit and grateful to continue a productive relationship.

Snap has an office in Shenzhen, China, where Tencent has its headquarters, to assist in the manufacture of Spectacles, Snap’s sunglasses that have a built-in camera.

Tencent has aspirations to assume a global role in technology and may be buying shares with that strategy in mind, said Lindsay Conner, a Los Angeles lawyer who has represented Chinese companies in the United States.

“They often invest in companies to have a seat at the table, to understand businesses better, to see where the leading edge is between technology and content, and to have an insight into technology they should adopt or license,” he said.

Tencent first became an investor in Snap in 2013. The total size of its investment has not been disclosed. Although Snap’s shares began to trade publicly in March in the hottest debut of a U.S. tech stock in years, results since then have sent Snap shares down below its IPO price of $17.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]