#run fb ads and stuff and like she does put in a lot of work i don't mind paying her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inkskinned · 4 months

Text

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

#spilled ink #warm up #“why did u tag it warm up” bc i wrote it off the cuff while drinkin coffee lol #btw the 30 dollar buy in for the dog walking is bc they pay the organizer a small pittance so she can #run fb ads and stuff and like she does put in a lot of work i don't mind paying her #but that's exactly what im fucking talking about like.#ppl can't afford to volunteer their time anymore and we all understand it!!! everything costs money for everyone!#like we didn't have to use to say ''do you mind paying me back for the stuff we ate''#we used to be able to afford to feed our friends once in a while!!!

47K notes · View notes

aaronshunga-blog · 6 years

Text

Q and A with TOMMI MUSTURI

Recently following my trip to Europe, I collected a few comic books from artists in various countries. Mr. Tommi Musturi operates out of Finland, and has published a weird, whimsical series of wordless comics featuring a ghostly vaguely homer simpson-esque character and his adventures known as “Samuel.” This is the 2nd installment, and I decided to correspond via email a Q and A. He responded with some very thoughtful answers and I’m happy to share them with you here.

-Aaron Shunga

1. I grew up reading Moomintroll by Tove Janson as a kid. I notice a mysterious, fantastic quality in both her work and yours. What do you think the connection is here if any?

I suppose every Finnish kid has some connection with the Moomins. When I grew up I read the Moomin novels illustrated by Tove. My sister who is nine years younger grew up along the 90s Japanese animation and the generations after that were suddenly surrounded by all the merchandise, a new comic magazine drawn in the style of the 90s animation and so on.

It took until I was adult I really started to read the Moomin comics. They were originally made for adults and I remember trying to read them as a kid was kind of tricky. They were also all black and white which was of course lame in eyes of a 10-yo. The Moomin comic appeared (and appears) in several newspapers around Finland so it was familiar as well. However, an early 80s magazine version of the stories with covers taken from the late 70s puppet animation (I think it was made in Poland) existed for few years. I’ve been collecting those on my adult age. Didn’t know it existed back it was getting released.

What I still prefer are the actual novels. Beside being an artist, Tove was a great writer as well. The novels are more surreal and irrational as well. The atmosphere is really stong in all of them.

The comic version of Moomintroll is of course all great stuff as well. Notice that big part of Moomin comics were actually drawn by Tove’s brother Lars. I think for Tove’s career it was essential that she had such great people around her helping with things here and there. In the end she wanted to be a painter, not a comic artist. That’s kind of sad though but maybe presents the times and the fact that comics were seen merely as ‘cartoons for kids’ or something immoral. There was indeed a nice recent exhibition of her paintings in Finland just couple of years ago. It was not that bad but I still prefer the writings, comic & illustration work she made.

Anyway, there’s a Moomin museum in my current hometown Tampere and they present quite a wide variety of original art as well. I must say it’s some of the best drawing work I’ve ever seen. I could watch those small detailed pieces again and again and I think most of the people who visit the place feel the same. It’s inspiring of course. Especially her use of light and shadow. Sometimes there are almost no outlines at all. The forms appear in depth.

So, I think Moomins somehow come in our 'mother’s milk’ over here. I can’t really say that they inspired me to do this or that. However, I see things I share with Tove – there is sort of melancholic level that’s always present there below the surface, the taste of life is something I also aim at (meaning I tend to go through a variety of emotions in my work), she respects nature as well and there’s this sort of simplicity in it all, though the content is kinda complex.

However, if you at some point try to draw the Moomintroll you’ll notice how damn difficult it is.

2. One drawing that stands out to me in the book is an old man with a word balloon full of gestural abstract ink brush strokes. I feel that this is an aesthetic choice others try to enforce upon you. What is your opinion on Jackson Pollock and Gary Panter?

That image was indeed based on an idea that some people tell their views too late. So I present Samuel as this old alcoholic guy without any friends shouting alone in his dirty apartment. There is no one to listen to what he says so the language might as well something abstract. He could basicly say anything, have any opinion and there is no effect to the world around him. What makes this merely meta notation on Samuel’s comics in general is the fact that Samuel has been a mute comic until now. So, this was the first time the guy spoke out. Of course, Samuel as a character does not want to end up like that so the image of the old guy is merely a possible future. I think Samuel in general is much stronger indeed. Though he does not speak (or have any expressions on his face) his acts are usually statements to the world around him.

I’ve actually drawn now another image where Samuel speaks. There’s a small ad I did for Kuti magazine (a free Finnish comics newspaper, with English subtitles so get it!) with Samuel standing on Trump’s cut-off head and speaking to the reader. So maybe he’ll speak from now on but only in advertisements. This’d be perfect 'sell-out’. We all love capitalism and will do anything for it, won’t we?

In this 2nd book ('Simply Samuel’ that is) I’ve pictured several moments of Samuel’s possible life. So along this 'image of him as old’ I’ve drawn him as semen, showing how her mother and father met, how he gets younger and goes back to his mother’s vagina etc. It’s sort of play with time which this 2nd book does a lot. Sometimes time goes backwards. I’m fooling with the reader as I like that kind of stuff as a reader as well. It keeps you awake.

What comes to Pollock and Panter. Well, good artists of course. I indeed did a study on Pollock in art school. That’s like 20 years ago. I like his works but it’s of course bit out-dated these days. I wouldn’t have wanted to know him as a person. What comes to Gary, he is of course been an inpiration for long time. I used to run the publishing house Huuda Huuda (we quite a year ago in December 2016) and we ended up releasing a book from Gary in Finnish. Or actually it was two books as we made this big-size doublebook (that one can read from both ends) with both Jimbo’s Inferno and Purgatory. This was quite a project indeed and took us +one year to produce. The first translator gave up with Purgatory but the 2nd (Teemu Manninen, a Finnish poet) made great job with it. I spent two months lettering it all by hand. It was one of the most painful lettering jobs I’ve ever done. I think there was a tear in my eye at some point. Anyway, the book turned out great and I think the version of Purgatory is still the only translation of it. I remember that Gary emailed me after the project something like “I thought you couldn’t do it” which was the best complement I could’ve got.

What I like in Gary’s work is that is sort of 'a mash-up’ of different styles. I think 'style’ is merely a capitalistic tool and if you’re doing art you should try to stay far from it or put it all through a mincer.

3. Compared to your last book, there is much more violence and action. What led you to this decision? You have several scenes in which Samuel dies, via car crash or by fists.

In Samuel’s case it’s obvious that he can die whenever I want. I’ve always had this idea that the his novels are sort of 'longplays of a computer game’. So basicly he may die at any point and then I start from scratch in the next story. This is kind of reliefing thing for myself as an artist though I don’t really 'like’ to kill or torture him. It just happens. I like dark humour of course as that’s the key thing to stay sane 2017.

Anyway, I myself also noticed that this 2nd book of his is much more violent compared to the 1st one that’s overall mood was merely 'beautiful and melancholic’. I did not have any plans to do this so it all just happened. I’ve tried to analyze myself why it came out like this and the only thing I could think of is that it presents the vibes of the times. It is no secret I’ve felt utterly frustrated with what mankind is doing for the world that’s raising them. It think this frustration and pure anger somehow came visible in this new book. What comes to action, this 2nd book is more complex and has TWICE the amount of ideas in it compared to the 1st book. It’s more fragmented and complex in away as well. So, there’s more going on compared to the 1st book that was merely really calm in it’s storytelling. I might go back to that if I do a 3rd book.

4. There are instructional elements to your story, as if one were reading a manual on how to build a hobo guitar or bake artisinal bread. This reminds me of Chris Ware. What are your opinions on his work?

I’ve never read that much of Ware indeed I must say. I’ve got some 90s Acme magazines, some big Quimby-book and Jimmy Corrigan but I haven’t really read what he has done the past ten years. It’s good stuff of course but I think I respect him more because of his experiments with storytelling than because the actual content. He is one of the greatest contemporary comic artists of course, there’s no doubt. When it comes to his info comics I think I’ve seen this kind

stuff in early American comics & kids’ magazines. Silly Symphonies used to have the same kind of cut & paste parts. So I suppose his idea to use info comics came from there.

Anyway, in general I don’t read that much comics these days. I think most of comics are not very good indeed. I get couple of meters (in shelf-space) of comics every year that I try to go through though. However, if I had to choose in-between of a comic or a novel I’d choose the latter. Literature is inspiring. If there are maybe tens of important comic books ever made, in literature there are thousands.

Anyway, going back to my own drawing… when I was a teen I think I aimed to simplify what I did on paper. I liked Didier Comés and Charles Burns for example, both having very clear images. We had a really good comic store in Tampere during early 90s, with a mailorder of course (I lived on the countryside with my parents back then) so I bought a lot of stuff that FB and D&Q put out, along with lots of material from France and Belgium (like Freon & Amok releases, some Atak’s early stuff, Reprodukt’s releases etc). Anyway, when I was around 18-yo my drawings were very close to what my graphic novel The Book of Hope looks like – very clear line, simplified colours and so on. When I went to art school I indeed tried to 'destroy’ this style that I was already bored with. So I started to experiment with lots of different styles, equipment, techniques and sizes and even went to something that was more realistic. When I used these maybe more realistic styles with comics they never really worked that well. At some points (after few years and lots of work made) I came to a conclusion that in comic narration the art should be somehow simplified – it’s kind of unseperataple part of the comic storytelling. So, I went back to this simplified old style and started to work on The Book of Hope. Later I developed this mathematic thin & clear line for Samuel. Both of these works look very oldschool in a way. This is a trick of course as the content is much more complex than it appears. So, the reason I ended up in these styles was merely a result of experimenting and going through it all and process what I had done.

The info comics I’ve included in the recent Samuel book (there was some in the 1st book as well, originally published 2009) are actually inspired by a Finnish book from 1930s – Kodin taitosanakirja ('The Home Dictionary of Skills’). That’s a book that was sold even after wartime, there are tens of updated editions of it. The idea of this (thick!) book is simply: to tell how you should do things that are essential for life. So, basicly there are 'simple instructions’ on how to build a house (!), a boat, make porridge, rye bread and so on. It’s such a rich book so full of information that I keep on going back to it every now and then. Most of the things you wonder about can be found from it indeed. Anyway, what I like the most in this case is the basic idea of the book. That is what inspired me to add info comics in Samuel’s book as well. I didn’t want them to be just any funny informative comics but instructions that give value for life. First there was an idea to make a seperate big book with only these instructions but in the end I thought it might work better if I mix them with illustrations and more normal comics. In general I like diy-culture, repairing broken stuff and so on. It’s a view on life in all: you can do most of it by yourself. That’s could also be a motto for Samuel.

4. I notice in general the very clean, almost vector like aesthetic. Do you find yourself at peace with technology?

I did live pretty much nerdish childhood; Got my first computer (Commodore 64) when I was 9-yo, collected lots of different things etc. Anyway, I gave up playing games quite early and got involved with sub culture called 'demoscene’. It’s sort of audivisual culture where people create things together in small 'groups’. I ended up making graphics while some others in our group (that’s called 'Extend’ and it still exists) made musich and code. So I basicly learnt to draw on computer (pixel by pixle back then, with a joystick, it was mid-80s) before on paper. My relationship with computers and technology is kind of natural I think. For art it’s one tool next to a brush, lightbox, canvas etc. However, I prefer working on paper most of my time. Never owned a tablet or even tried one. The basic advice ’d be that one should always know what he or she is about to do when turning on the computer. You can easily see it in art if somebody is just trying out things in Photoshop without much knowing where to aim at. Working on paper means you do more mistakes and mistakes are indeed the key thing to learn something new. You should look at the mistake and think how you could use it. When drawing straight on computer people can try to get 'the perfect line’ as long as they want – even a crappy artist can aim at something out of his or hers artistic cababilities and reach it. However, the bad thing with this is that it is usually not his or hers image that was the target but an idea of something someone had made – a specific technique or some image from subconscious. I mean: if you’re not aware of what you’re doing, this all usually leads to the actual result that they had in mind. With my own work I like to change the plan on the way all the time so the result is more an individual than the plan. I think it’s better to learn to live with the mistakes than trying to avoid them.

With Samuel and The Book of Hope I did all the colouring on computer. But for example in Samuel you can see 'a shadow’ layer on all the colours. This shadow was indeed as well done on paper so I basicly have always two originals for each Samuel page. The originals of the shadows look often like childish Sin City. In both books the colouring is bright and simple, kind of 'dead’ as well. In Samuel’s case the colours are important part of the actual storytelling. It’s really veeery slow process indeed and I don’t know why I do it like I do it. Well, maybe it’s ok not to reason everything.

5. There is a scene when Samuel enters a cave, and a panorama from above at three quarter degrees reveals a dungeon full of peril. Is this a reference to videogames, of the fantasy RPG genre? Do you think videogames influence your work?

As told before, there has been sort of idea of Samuel’s life 'as a game’ but that’s pretty much it. I stopped playing computer & video games early 90s to focus on doing stuff with the machines. I was also aware I could easily develope an addiction with games so it was better to focus on something else. Anyway, I still go back to that idea of a game every now and then when starting a new Samuel episode. It’s kind of liberating as 'with the new life’ you can start everything from the beginning. This doesn’t apply for OUR real lives of course, so I’m on a bit thin ice here.

This specific spread in the recent Samuel book was intended to be 'a labyrinth of daily routines’. The whole episode is kind of melancholic, Samuel is not doing much, just wandering around, throwing some stones, collecting fruits. On top of a hill he finds this cave and goes in just to find a labyrinth full of dangers, requirements, responsibilities, pressure etc. He manages to get through it (with minor damage) and gets out to find this paradise like environment again. I suppose this is a good example on how I use symbolism in Samuel’s stories and in all my comics indeed. The simple idea of this piece is of course that sometimes our lives are struggled (that’s part of a life, probable) and once you get through the struggles you will find something better. Very simple, spiced with small nuances in action.

What comes to games, I do actually like to play in general. I did sports for fun when I was a kid and teen. Started to play street basketball again couple of years ago… that’s more for fun as well. Anyway, we’ve tried some oldschool stuff recently. Indeed we made our own playing card game with my fiancee Tiina. It’s called 'Little Red Ridinghood’ and it’s indeed one of the best 2-player card games (with the normal pack) I’ve played. Suppose we should spread it around at some point. A year ago we indeed started to play the original Dungeons & Dragons again (after +20 years) which is kind of entertaining and educating because the world around the characters is so strong and evil one can die basicly any moment. I haven’t (yet) found much inspiration for my comics in it though. During summer we usually take some dices along when going in the forest or on the lake, play some Yatzy or stuff. I like the simplicity in that. Also playing Othello or Go with stones. Anyway, I never even tried PS or Xbox or something recent. Don’t have a smart phone either. There’s some lousy golf game in my crappy phone. It’s kind of entertaining though. What I like in “playing” in general is that it still very much the same experience as when you were a kid. So, I think all the adults should play all the time indeed. That’d make the world much better place already.

#tommi musturi #comics #finland #samuel

1 note · View note

tsurvivorbelize · 5 years

Text

S88E1: “Her Name Is Actually Emily” - Kyle

The premiere of Tumblr Survivor 88: Belize takes 18 new castaways to the heart of the jungle and start their journey to become the newest Sole Survivor.

This episode covers DAYS 1 & 2.

Honestly? I’m kinda loving this game. Everyone on my tribe seems really cool, and we’re seemingly working together well. Normally I enjoy some drama and getting my hands dirty a bit early on but based on first impressions with this tribe? I don’t think I’d mind if we all got our to merge- then again it’s just day 1, by day 10 I’ll probably be begging for a swap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efa-NmW_vnQ&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/RR37pTsKF-w

I'm already getting shady and good vibes .I'm worried already but I hope things can get better

I’m super excited, idk how I feel about my tribe...idk I feel like not many people I will connect with but imma have to fake it until I make it

So I just spent the past few hours talking to everyone on the tribe and nearly forgot we had a challenge 🤷‍♂️. So yeah, I don’t think anyone is going to peg me as the brains of any operation, and I’m starting to think maybe I need to be assigned the “Very easy” puzzle. That’s not because I forgot we had a challenge though, that’s just because I’m stupid.

So at this point there is 3 people in my tribe who already know each other! At this the 3 left in the tribe could join forces and force a tie, which I find very risky at this point, or we could just suck those 3 ass and try to be in the majority alliance with them.

Good afternoon (although the time right now is 7am in Belize so I guess good morning) from the lovely Minanha tribe, and holy shit. I know Survivors are based around luck, but lucking out on having two guys I've known for about 5-6 years on my tribe as immediate easy allies is fantastic. Spike, I met through Minecraft UHCs years ago, where I teamed with him in one of my first games and it was great, and Adam I met through an SMP server run by somebody you guys may all know, Bodhi/Goldcap, and then I basically introduced Adam to a bunch of my other friend groups. Through this, there's a beautiful time to be had for this tribe and I'm just infinitely hoping that Adam and Spike don't stab me in the spine.

Hey so first day or 2 in tribe has been good, I like everyone! It helps I know Katy and Spike but also like I don't want that to put a target on our backs, and it'd be unfair to just work with those I already know, I will do but if needed I can be ruthless. Hopefully we win this challenge and then see what happens, if it goes to tribal well, that's when it gets interesting.

Spike and Axe have both accidentally said racial slurs without realising they'd said racial slurs because they'd never heard of them before and they made them both by just combining my name with Spike's name. Oh no. This tribe is fucked and we're all gonna die.

https://youtu.be/xUvO_y05KNQ

MY FRIENDS ARE FIGHTING ABOUT BRIE LARSON NOOOOOOOOOO.

https://youtu.be/HlsfD_JvUrs

When the hosts make a comment about adding hosts to alliance chats, and you then assume it means that alliances have sprouted.......then you realize you had three people ask you to work together, but alliances typically consist of 3 or more people and include a chat with those people......... Then you realize that means the probability of people disliking you is high and you’ve solidified your first boot status 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Okay so my tribe is a pretty decent I guess. Brien Weber isnt the kind of girl I like to be honest. He betrayed me and I voted him out my last org so this should be fun! Emily talks like a robot too btw? My closest ally is definitely Kyle. We have a lot in common and he thinks i'm cute so it's easy to flirt with him to get on my side. Taylor and Scott arent bad either. I'm building my relationship to them- maybe they could potentially turn into future allies for me :)

I think im gonna vote matt cause he doesn't talk much

https://youtu.be/VIheM4S1IHw

- I can’t believe I looked at Cas’ photo and thought he was an old white woman....my bad

- Aaron is really starting to turn me off. He’s acting crazy about voting off David. I mean I’m finna do it so I’m not a target but I got my eye on him.

https://youtu.be/1qEEEchOOqM

- So a few of my friends decided to take a trek into these temples and came back out with punishments and disappointment. However my lucky self came out with a no vote pass to give away to someone else. So if someone gets testy and decides to be shady as shit, then I'll gladly revoke their voting privileges! :D

- I really like my tribe. I'm getting really close with some people too! Like Jarret, he's like my best friend in the game right now and always makes me laugh. Then Brien is my drinking buddy, Olivia, I mean Emily is my fellow Michigander, Taylor is my comedy bud, and Scott is my strategy co-conspirator.

- Okay, I keep telling everyone I'm not tired, but I'm fucking tired. Being social is exhausting. I should let everyone hate me and not give a shit if I'm honest.

https://youtu.be/TWCyhqBxyG8

https://youtu.be/gWjLMsOGjvs

- So, as luck would have it, I'm the only person on my tribe who got 3 points from that puzzle challenge, but even that was real close against Brien from No Vaxx or whatever that tribe is called. I wasn't sure what kind of scores to expect from anybody in this game, as I'm used to people who tryhard the fuck out of challenges rather than just submit a semi-good score, and honestly... these scores still don't tell me much whatsoever. Probably just that I shouldn't underestimate the girl who can do a puzzle in 10 seconds.

- Veni, who is my host chat friend I've invited in, has raised a hilarious point as well. In every Survivor I've ever played, whether Minecraft or Discord or Twitter, I've never been perceived as a challenge threat before. The closest I ever got was when I stayed awake for 40 hours to win immunity at merge. But with my score here, and being the only person to get 3 points on my tribe... what if I finally, after being shit in other Survivor challenges for years, end up being a challenge threat? Crikey crikey.

https://youtu.be/wWNdip6Vxpc

- Skype's auto-responses make me wanna end it.

- My previous 2 or so confessionals have been submitted as Day 2, I apologise profusely, but anyway... I wanna take a confessional to comment on the guys in the tribe I don't know from outside the game. Christian, Pietro & Gevonte. I've only just managed to speak to Gevonte today, she's been very much busy and inactive but hey, she's here now and very fun to speak to. We've spoken a fair bit about the differences between FB & Discord Survivors, since neither of us have played Tumblr Survivors before (I think???), and with her inactivity I thought she was a sure fire easy first boot for the tribe, but now I'm not so sure. Pietro is a darling as well, and seems to be pretty much the exact same as a mutual me, Axe, Spike & Veni all have called Kaz, who's also from Brazil. Speaks very much the same as Pietro does, they both have the same mannerisms and same level of likeability and ease to speak to, and I think Pietro is a fun ally as well. And then there's Christian. Don't get me wrong, Christian is also very pleasant, very kind and clearly a lovely person to interact with, but when I compare them to my interactions for the first time with Gevonte or Pietro, they're much more... I guess the optimal word would be awkward to speak to. Maybe they're just not good with new people, maybe it's me and my Asperger's being weird, or maybe there's just not good chemistry between us, but I do value Christian, but at this point, based off nothing else because there's nothing else to base it off, I'd choose Christian as the tribe's goat, and the tribe's easy boot moving forward. Then again, I could just back stab Spike ^w^

I’m very concerned for Olivia. Everyone has now been in the talks of alliances, and her name is the only one that hasn’t been mentioned, and that’s not even because her name is actually Emily. They just haven’t brought her up. She’s such a sweetie though, so I really hope she gets some free time to do some more talking.

- Okay let’s chat. My tribe...pretty lame. David is basically inactive. Cas has the personality of cardboard so far. Jay is actually cool. AARON IS THE MOST. He’s constantly sending me voice messages which idk why it irritates me but it does. Just message me dude. And he is so paranoid! He thinks everybody is always trying to cheat. Idk...where I come people play for fun and don’t aggressively cheat or maybe that’s just me. He’s pressed about not being able to talk cross tribal (dumb). AND he aggressively wants David out because he’s worried since David knows Madison he might log on to her phone or she might leak info to help him cheat. Boy bye. I’m not going to do anything about him yet because the beauty of being in a new community is I can play dumb like idk what I’m doing and I’m really trying to capitalize and act wholesome. Yikes when the confessional comes out 😅. But oh well. I’m just going to let Aaron explain how to play to me and coast through until I can reach Gevonte who will be my for real ride or die.

- Madison is pretty.

Tumblr Survivor: Belize, condragulations, you are the winner.

So it's been almost a full round and.... I'm only JUST now talking to most of my tribe lmfaoo. Skype is so weird. Just it being on a different platform makes socializing weird for me. Because I have to remember skype exists. On top of that, everyone else on the tribe seems not all that talkative in and of itself. Granted I know I wasnt tosking all that much either, but since we're safe I need to spend the next few days making connections or else I'm just gonna be another nameless flop. And I've done TOO much of that on FB as it is!

Day 2 and everyone has gone mad already, talking about drag queens and other pop culture stuff.

https://youtu.be/uYl2b48z5GA

https://youtu.be/da7YR2Uz08A

Why does Christian keep asking me about my toilet?

#episode #confessionals

0 notes

coachjukeboxx · 7 years

Text

I’m a pregnant roller derby athlete  Part Three: A new role

Being pregnant this season was obviously a shock to my normal role in roller derby, but it has not stopped me! I’m feeling really fulfilled in stepping into other roles within the team. While nothing quite beats getting to smash people on track, it means so much to still contribute and be valued within the team. It’s a big part of why I’m involved in roller derby in the first place, so getting to continue on being part of the team is pretty rad. LRG has a policy for pregnant or long term injured skaters which works out really well if you’re looking to stay involved. Basically our team selections happen 2x a year. If your injury/pregnancy is going to put you out for longer than one selection, you can ask to be considered as skater 21 (or 22,23, and so on). If they select you in this role, it means that you still continue to function as a member of the team, you’re just not on the charter. If you return in the middle of a selection period, you are still considered for the roster, you just won’t be added to the charter unless you actually make a game roster. It’s a really nice system- very understanding of real life happening. It means a lot to continue to be on my team’s forums, fb chats, and so on... it’ keeps me in the loop as well as having my support network easily accessible. I coach within LRG and on the international team, have bench coached SDRD, and was captain the past 2 years on Brawling, so it was a natural transition for me to help out in these areas while pregnant. Luckily enough, in the past year the WFTDA has allowed more people to be present on the bench, which means that I can actually assist in these roles despite the fact that we already have staff in those areas.

Obviously that won’t be true for everyone so it’s not so easy to just “make up” your own role. You have to look at what the team needs, what your skill set is, and try to help out and stay involved. I’m lucky that I have experience in those areas of the game already, but if I didn’t I certainly wouldn’t force it upon the team to use me in that way. There has to be a lot of give an take when it comes to finding out how to work with the team. Being part of the bench requires a certain skillset and it’s important to recognize that the team’s needs trump your own need to feel involved. It’s important, that with any role you make take on within the team, that there is trust and need there, otherwise you might just end up stepping on toes. That being said, there are a million sort of support roles you can try to learn that won’t need the same sort of trust and experience - footage watching, stats analysis, being sunshiney cheerleader, filming at training, travel arrangements, or any sort of general support you can give so that teammates can focus on skating.

Anywho, my role has evolved over the course of the season, so I think the easiest way will be to talk about it chronologically.

Anarchy in the UK These were the some of the first games since I’d been on Brawling that I wasn’t getting to play in (I did have to sit out of one champs game due to a separated shoulder). But this was different, this was the start of a long term thing. We had games against a number of European opponents for Anarchy and I wondered how I would do mentally with having to sit on the sidelines. Some of my teammates made sure I was out on the track with them <3 which certainly helped.

As for the not skating part, I did surprisingly well. I really only found it frustrating to not skate when we didn’t play so well, or when the pace got quick. I LOVE to skate fast and do crazy stuff on my wheels, so when that happened, I had big pangs of missing being out there. Luckily, Esther Arocha has stepped it up a notch and started to play ALOT like I did (but in her totally own bitching way). Totally pulling of high speed stuff, and jamming like a blocker when she needed to, and then of course putting her shoulder into people’s hearts. It was a joy to watch her not have to bridge other people and be the one making plays. She made it easier on me not being out there for the time being. Getting to watch all my teammates kick some ass from the best seat in the house was really cool.

As for being on the bench, my role at Anarchy was slightly tricky. This was the first trial run, and so I was to have no interaction with the players, only other bench staff. I can be longwinded at times, and so we were super cautious to have me jump in and give feedback to players. I def know this about myself, so it has always been in the back of my head when stepping into this role - it made it difficult to feel like I was being useful. I SEE SO MUCH I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY. While I felt at times I was full of information, this was a really good exercise for me. I was useful at passing along info at halftime and between games, but left it up to Balls and Kev to interact with the players and pass along info that I had given that was actually relevant. What I learned during this tourney, was I noticed EVERYTHING. Not just the stuff we could fix in this moment and adapt to, but the stuff we needed to train. Having to wait to talk to players was really good until I learned that lesson more thoroughly. Some stuff just isn’t useful to relay because it has to get trained. Walking away from that weekend I had a much better understanding of which type of info was good to pass along on the bench. I also came away having been a part of the experience, while looking so fancy with Lexi on the bench. Both newly preggo :) and supporting the team... that was pretty special.

Brawling Tour in Portland Fast forward to June... by this point we had a few things shake up on the team. Balls was out for champs because of my due date and decided it was time to step down from leadership. Kev stepped into the bench role and Freya came on as our lineup staff. We also had some other inquiries to join our team, and so we brought on Coach Lime from Canada for a trial run on tour. With so many new faces in leadership, and on the team, we all had to adapt quickly. Leadership used their support staff quite smartly, and opened up the forum for ideas from the skaters as well. This was a transformative tour for Brawling, and it was incredible to see the growth from everyone on the team, skating or not. It’s one of those moments and situations that can really break your season, and I’m happy to say that we have only become a better version of the team we were months prior.

I went home to WI first before coming out to the west coast, so I missed the Rat city weekend. We had lost, we had plenty of moments where we didn’t play very well that first game. But...we learned, and we did what Brawling does best - we were problem solvers. This very much tied into my role on the bench. My role for this tour was to give all the info that would be useful to the players. Basically, passing along things as I see trends, just like I typically did when I was playing. The big change now, was that I was very fluidly passing along that info to relevant parties in time for them to use it. My goal was not to do the thinking for the newer bench staff, but for them to learn the type of things to look for and to know the details that I knew about the players. I think we managed to do just that. It was a pretty seamless transition taking this new role where I was unrestricted. I was able to drop off info I noticed to kev and freya, let them use that info as they see fit... and then making the choice myself if there was a tactical/strategy change to pass it along to the players directly. Often times it’s really easy to see what you’re doing well when playing, but it’s harder to see what the opposition is doing or changing. I was able to facilitate other people to do their jobs more easily by offering consulting if they needed it. The other thing that was really great, was just being there... with my team, in the mix. We all felt all of the game. We were a part of prep and each play and the strategy. It felt so great and gratifying to give any sort of extra useful info to the team, especially in real time.

Playoffs and Beyond Now as we head into the rest of the season I fully intend to continue in this role, supporting in coaching at training and on the bench as needed.I’m still skating and listening to my body, but in general, whatever I can do to help the team, is my main priority in this time. Flexing my strategy brain and keeping intimately involved this whole season has kept me sane in so many ways. I obviously won’t be able to make it to champs because I’ll be at my OWN champs - birth champs. But I’ve got my ticket booked for Malmo and am pretty stoked to get to help out and attend playoffs. Now I just have to hope there aren’t too many stoppages in play during the half, because that’s about all my bladder can handle these days. Tune in next time for something completely different - not sure which is up next.. but I know I want to chat about pelvic floors and body changes, hypnobirthing, and eventually the birth and aftermath!

#pregnant athlete #rollerderby #jukeboxx #londonrollergirls

3 notes · View notes

wz2sseo · 7 years

Text

The 21 Best PPC Marketing Articles of the Year

It’s the end of the year since we know it, and we are feeling nice. Why? Since this past year we examine — and also fell in love with — a few truly amazing articles about everything PPC.

In actuality, what you are going to read are my picks for the 21 greatest PPC marketing articles that were published around the net at 2016. These articles are the unicorns that was able to stick out from a sea of donkey articles.

Here’s a look back at the best of the best content this season on paid search, remarketing, conversion rate optimization, and paid societal.

Paid Investigation, Case Studies & Research

When Google changed its design before this year, PPC marketers freaked out and warned the end was near to all of us. Spoiler alert: it was not, as I showed in this article. CTRs and traffic raised while CPCs stayed inactive.

Takeaway: Do not worry whenever Google makes a change to AdWords or even the SERPs. Patiently collect and analyze your information so that you are able to react sensibly.

Speaking of gathering and analyzing information, the brilliant Frederick Vallaeys of all Optmyzer surveyed 1.2 million advertisements after AdWords started rolling out Expanded Text Advertisements (ETAs). He wished to figure out what all of the finest performing ETAs had in common.

Takeaway: Just as I guessed, it is time to break up with dynamic keyword insertion (DKI)! In addition, don’t be concerned too much about headline length; worry more about writing good headlines (emotional triggers FTW!) .

We can not leave the subject of ETAs prior checking with Mark Irvine (maybe not once, not twice, but THRICE). To start with, our main data scientist seemed at aggregated info from WordStream client accounts to evaluate the operation of Bing ETAs, that appear like AdWords ETAs. And the winner was… Bing Advertisements:

Takeaway: Many advertisers receive higher CTRs and lower prices from Bing Ads than they perform on AdWords. So don’t forget about Bing.

Next up, Irvine wished to observe the way the change from yellow to green advertisement labels was impacting CTR. What he discovered after looking at nearly 3,000 WordStream client accounts: the number and caliber of advertisement clicks had improved substantially.

Takeaway: Evaluation in times of doubt. You’ll almost always discover the solution you seek in your own data.

Our Mark Irvine trilogy concludes with a look at click-through rates, cost-per-click, conversion rates, and also cost-per-action through industry. Truly awesome stuff here:

Takeaway: Unless you are a unicorn, there is always room to boost your PPC campaigns. Use these benchmarks to figure out if you are on the low end or around average for the industry — and even if so, strive to exceed these benchmarks and turn into a unicorn.

This article by Frederik Hyldig highlighted some hidden jewels in AdWords Editor that deep PPC marketers must check out. Shortcodes for more intelligent bulk headers, concealing empty types from the navigation, and duplicate ads or keywords in their various advertisement groups are specific worth a browse.

Takeaway: AdWords Editor has numerous amazingly useful characteristics, however not all of these are obvious. Consistently be educating yourself about the tools that you use so it’s possible to make something which’s already good even that far better.

Do you know how to mass modify broad game modified keywords? Or just having one keyword per ad group can improve your Quality Score? Or just how to enable call-only campaigns? Otherwise, you are going to want to check out this useful article from Todd Saunders.

Takeaway: Since Saunders puts it, using those hacks will “maintain your balances lean, just targeted and much better optimized to drive high-quality results”

Remarketing & RLSA

In this really exciting article, Johnathan Dane stocks 33 types of remarketing campaigns and also the way to make the most of those. He covers so many awesome types of remarketing: from CRM, to hunt, to content, to phone app retargeting.

Takeaway: Remarketing is a remarkably powerful tool and, when done right, can outperform any other marketing channel.

Larry Kim (hi — that’s me !) Says you should break up with unbranded vanilla search advertisements and only conduct RLSA. Why? RLSA attracts you those who’ll click through at twice the speed, for half the prices, and convert triple the speed. Indeed, you would be better off using the power of interpersonal media advertisements to begin making individuals aware of and familiar with your brand.

Takeaway: RLSA campaigns have huge potential when combined with a viral marketing plan. Dramatically increasing the size of the cookie pools will give you the power you will need to get the most out of RLSA.

Most PPC plans concentrate on the purchase stage of the conversion funnel. But inside this excellent edition of Whiteboard Friday, Samantha Noble shares a few excellent suggestions about how you are able to use paid media at the dedication and advocacy phases.

Takeaway: Get more lifetime value from your present clients with the assistance of remarketing listings (to bid on competition names, provide unique reductions, and also cross-sell or upsell). It’s much cheaper than acquiring new clients.

Speaking about the funnel, Maddie Cary does a terrific job of breaking down all of the remarketing viewers you should be targeting by the point they’re at right now, whether it’s research, awareness, intent, activity, or dedication.

Takeaway: PPC does not stop with a conversion. Go past acquiring new clients and discover ways utilizing PPC to create continued loyalty and lifetime earnings from the customer base.

Landing Pages & CRO

Boosting lead creation by 9x and conversion speed by 290 percent? Yes, please. Andy Beohar shows us how he assisted one client by subsequent PPC optimization and landing page best practices.

Takeaway: Never settle for average. You could always turn your PPC donkeys into charming unicorns in case you do the work

Jacob Baadsgaard asks an essential question: are you tracking each one of your conversions. After looking at over 2,000 accounts he found that 42 percent of all advertisers didn’t monitor any conversions — and only half of those advertisers that have been tracking conversions were only tracking some of potential conversion activities. All these advertisers don’t have any idea whether their efforts are unicorns or total donkeys.

Takeaway: Establish conversion tracking (duh!) .

Most CRO efforts focus on on-page elements. But really, if you would like to dramatically increase conversions, you are better off doing exactly what I do: focus on raising brand awareness and making your offer far more convincing.

Takeaway: Start biasing people toward your brand utilizing social media advertisements, remarketing, RLSA, and movie advertisements. In terms of the offer, it must be vastly different and much more favorable from what the competitors are offering. If you’re able to get people excited enough to click on your offer, then they’re more likely to convert!

Why do your Facebook conversions higher compared to Google Analytics? Just, the way Facebook and Google report sales differ. But Cassie Oumedian describes how you can close the gap within this useful post.

Takeaway: Figure out just how Facebook and Google Analytics monitor and report conversions so you don’t wind up comparing apples and bananas. (P.S., PPC Hero stone — thanks for all the awesome PPC content this season!)

Facebook Advertisements

Facebook advertisement targeting is both extensive and complex. There’s a lot to know if you truly want achieve your intended audience. Luckily, WordStream placed together a heroic infographic (reported on by Danny Goodwin) to help you do just that.

Takeaway: Use this infographic as a list or cheat sheet when you are planning your FB promotion plan.

If you would like more engagement and brand remember, then Facebook video advertisements are one method to receive it (and to get cheap!) — as long as you are posting content that is memorable. Mari Smith shares advice on how it is possible to make more attention-grabbing Facebook video advertisements.

Takeaway: You will never know that one of the Facebook videos will wind up a unicorn, so be certain any videos you do upload possess a terrific headline, fantastic visuals, a few character, and a powerful offer.

Facebook advertisements have to be relevant; you should use text on images; it is better to show people rather than goods or objects; smiling girls are better than unhappy men; using your logo is awful; and super simple images work best. Truth or fiction? This article shows some surprising truths.

Takeaway: Do research, testing everything, and collect actual data. Never suppose that “best practices” will work for you.

Is there a way it’s possible to make a Facebook effort that does not die after a while? Totally — along with Jon Loomer stocks a method you can implement within this wonderful article.

Takeaway: By creating a few intelligent website custom viewers, and targeting these viewers at the ideal time periods, you are able to do magical things to help promote your product.

Twitter Advertisements

Is Twitter a successful channel for affecting the lead-to-customer conversion speed? To learn, Lauren Mattos ran an interesting experiment splitting a record of leads to two classes: one who saw remarketing advertisements on Twitter, and also one who didn’t. She discovered that the former group converted into clients 64 percent greater compared to the latter group.

Takeaway: Twitter remarketing works. There are many reasons to adore remarketing — much more conversions and leads, higher visitor involvement, and enhanced brand remember, to list a few. (Also, check out my article on the way to run a Twitter lead generation campaign.)

What makes for a successful Twitter Ad? Andrew Tate examined almost 8,000 advertisements to answer that query, looking at elements like text length, use of words, numbers and hashtags, and sentiment.

Takeaway: 90 percent of the tweets within this study included an image, but the majority of images people view on Twitter are dull donkeys. Be certain that you utilize an image that stands out. Function as the unicorn!

What was your favourite PPC marketing article from 2016?

from SEO Consultants – wz2s.net http://wz2s.net/the-21-best-ppc-marketing-articles-of-the-year/

0 notes

zacdhaenkeau · 7 years

Text

Facebook Ad Expert Mari Smith Reveals Missed Opportunities (And What’s on the Horizon)

Facebook has over 1.28 billion daily active users.

To have more than a billion prospects in one place, literally at your fingertips, is a marketer’s dream (thanks, Mark Zuckerberg!). But turning those prospects into customers… well that’s another story.

As marketers, we know that a stellar Facebook campaign is made up of a lot more than clever copy, snazzy design and a hefty PPC budget. In a constantly changing environment of new features, products and ad units, it can be tricky to stay ahead of the pack — let alone stand out.

Facebook’s granular targeting makes it more possible than ever to reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time. But only marketers who are committed to making connections with real people and then maintaining those relationships will come out on top.

If there’s one person that knows this best, it’s Mari Smith.

Named Forbes’ #4 “Top Social Media Power Influencer,” Mari is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders and educators in the world of marketing. Her knowledge of Facebook runs so deep that she was personally hired by the folks at Facebook to teach SMBs throughout the US at the Boost Your Business series of events.

Mari’s speaking at our Call to Action Conference this June, and here’s a quick word from the Facebook Queen herself.

PSST: Blog readers get 15% off tickets to Call to Action Conference until May 25th — just use promo code “blogsentme” at checkout

Despite her packed schedule, Mari recently took the time to sit down with Unbounce Marketing Educator Christie Pike to reveal some of her best kept Facebook advertising secrets. In this interview you’ll get Mari’s actionable tips and insights into:

Some of the biggest missed opportunities for marketers advertising on Facebook.

Companies that are crushing it in the social advertising space and what you can learn from them.

The next big thing on the horizon that Facebook marketers should be preparing for and investing in.

Christie Pike: You’ve been active on Facebook long enough to see its evolution from social media network to a performance tool not unlike AdWords. How has this changed the way that marketers run Facebook campaigns?

Mari Smith: The main thing to consider is the enormous amount of data that Facebook gathers, not only on the platform itself but in partnership with data companies. So every time you use your credit card, every time you make a purchase, surveys that you complete, any information that’s out there is moved into a kind of personal dossier that then gets matched with your Facebook ID. Because of all of this, people get scared and freaked out, Big Brother and all that, but it’s all anonymized and encrypted, so from a user standpoint I always say, “caveat emptor”, just recognize that in today’s day and age of privacy, everything is out there.

From a marketer’s or advertiser’s standpoint, it’s an unprecedented time that we’re in. It’s a paradigm shift in terms of being able to reach the exact person that you want with Facebook’s granular targeting. Down to zip code, down to propensity to possibly make a certain purchase, from going on a cruise in the next six months, buying a BMW in the next three months, income, the number of kids you have, what you do for a career — all of this is just extraordinary.

So, we really do have to think of Facebook as a platform in which to get our message, our products and our services in front of our target market, but done so in a very relationship-oriented way. I think the businesses that are really standing out are the ones that can make us laugh or cry or go “awwww” and tear at the heartstrings — you know, create something that has viral shareability as opposed to how some business send a message that says “Hey, sign up for our stuff,” “Buy our stuff.” It’s a cold market, you know.

CP: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen on the ad platform itself?

MS: I would say that a big change is in terms of ad units, which initially were just a link and some basic visuals, but over the years they have a much, much, much more visual emphasis. I especially love the carousel ads you can swipe. I think Amazon is one of the best at doing retargeted multi-product ads. I remember seeing one of its ads that had about 32 cards on the carousel that you could swipe and I asked myself, “How did they know I like all this stuff!?”

And then what they call slideshow, which is really just images made into a video, but definitely the prevalence of video is key. One of Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite words is “immersive,” and so the introduction of more immersive type of content like canvas ads has huge importance in the current ad space.

I worked directly with a video creation company, and they shared a great case study from Brussels Airlines that pull up a canvas ad advertising flights to Mumbai in India. They got something like 27 times more time on site after doing this beautiful canvas ad, whereas their previous Facebook campaigns led to an average of three seconds on site. The reason behind this was because back in the day, ads were just a link with a tiny wee thumbnail, and then they got bigger and turned into GIFs, slideshows, animations, interactive content and full-screen content.

So, between (1) the ad products (2) the placement and (3) the targeting, I would say those are the three key areas where there are the biggest changes. Placement being whether it’s Instagram, mobile news only or if it’s right rail (which still has its place), but users are in mobile more than anything else.

CP: Who is doing Facebook advertising particularly well? What do you like about their ad campaigns? Can you provide some examples?

MS: My favorite video ad that I include in almost every single one of my presentations is by a fun company called Chatbooks. It’s a simple app (a subscription service) that takes your Instagram and Facebook photos and prints them in a book format, it’s really clever.

They worked with a really good PR/creative agency and hired a professional actress/comedian. From there, they created this three minute and forty-second ad. The ad was first put out on their Facebook page, which had just over 100,000 fans (now over 200, 000). And when I last checked, that video ad had 69 million views and almost 500,000 shares.

This is what I love to teach — when you can craft your content to be visually appealing (ideally video). When people are engaged with it they’ll share it with others.

When you craft your content to be visually appealing, people are engaged + will share with others. Click To Tweet

I’ve never found a better example than Chatbooks. In fact, I originally saw it in my News Feed as a shared organic post by a friend of mine, and after I watched the full three minutes and forty seconds, I was ready to sign up and buy the subscription!

Another great example is from our friend Rand Fishkin from Moz, who I know is speaking at CTA Conference this year.

Rand is doing these really great video ads called Whiteboard Fridays. I see the most recent one from April has over 4,600 views and 15 shares.

Whiteboard Fridays. Image source: Moz.

It’s so good because it’s educational and it’s the kind of video ad that you can stop and watch or at least save and watch later. It’s really cool what he’s doing because he’s not saying, “Hey everybody, sign up for Moz, see what we can do for you!” Instead, he’s like, “Hey here’s some education on SEO,” and it’s the kind of stuff that people will stop and save and consume.

One last shout out to my good friend Ezra Firestone and his company called Smart Marketer. He does really amazing stuff with video ads and lead gen.

CP: Unbounce cofounder Oli Gardner estimates that 98% of AdWords campaign traffic is not being sent to a dedicated landing page. If you had to guess, what percentage of Facebook marketers do you think are sending their traffic to mobile optimized landing pages? Do you see this as a missed opportunity?

MS: I would have said it’s probably a lot lower. My guess is that 65% is going to a dedicated landing page on Facebook — I get the sense that Facebook advertisers, for the most part, are a little more savvy. They realize you can’t spend all this money and have a captive audience and then just send them away to figure it out for themselves.

But to Oli’s point, I do see a missed an opportunity — especially when marketers are not really thoroughly checking and having a small test group. It’s important to invest a small amount — about $60 – $100 dollars — towards some A/B testing to see which ad gets better conversions. Doing the pixel and tracking the standard events, all of these components are key.

The second part is mobile optimized websites/landing pages. If someone’s clicking through and it’s too wide for the phone, or the pop-up appears and you can’t find the ‘X’ on it — it takes less than a second and they’re outta there.

CP: Are you seeing good examples of Facebook campaign landing pages?

MS: I think my good friends over at AdEspresso – they were recently acquired by Hootsuite, a fellow Vancouver company — they’re doing some really good stuff. I love their blog. In fact, they quote you there.

I’d have to think really hard to narrow down a specific landing page example, but in terms of components, or landing page elements, less is always more, something simple that’s really congruent with the ad itself.

Drive FB ad traffic to a landing page that’s simple & consistent with your ad. Less = more. Click To Tweet

The job of an ad and the job of an email is to get people to a landing page, and the job of a landing page is to convert, whether I’m asking for your email or I’m asking for you to make a purchase. And the beautiful thing about Facebook pixels is if someone doesn’t decide right then and there, you’re able to do some retargeting campaigns to refine further.

CP: Are there certain verticals that are more successful with Facebook advertising than others?

MS: I was just speaking at Marketo’s conference last week and they are, as you know, almost exclusively B2B, and so my talk was very geared towards the B2B audience.

I think Facebook has a reputation for being known to perform better for B2C, but I always like to say that businesses are running as “people to people.”

In terms of verticals, it’s probably easier to say what verticals are more difficult to reach, which are the highly regulated ones like insurance or finance — but otherwise with every conceivable small business and niche or industry there’s a market that can can take advantage of generating leads on Facebook.

CP: When we talk Facebook ads, what are some missed opportunities?

MS: This comes back to the subject that’s close to my heart, which is really that relationship component: customer care, really engaging well when people are actually commenting and engaging on your ad.

I think what happens — especially with marketers that do the dark ads — is these ads can be very effective and you can be really selective in who you’re reaching without populating your wall, but then what often happens is out of sight, out of mind. I’ve seen many major household brands where people are posting negative comments on the ad. There’s spam, people are asking questions about their products, and nobody is responding or acknowledging. I see that as a massive missed opportunity.

I think that’s one of the best investments that companies can make is having trained, qualified, passionate social customer care moderators. I always like to say that technology is moving at warp speed and it’s hard to keep up — but human beings, we’re not changing that much, and we want to know that we’re important, that we matter.

CP: What’s on the horizon?

MS: Right around the corner is Facebook television and that’s launching next month. Mark Zuckerberg is absolutely adamant that they’re not a media company, but just watch — just watch that space, they’re absolutely moving into that.

In the United States, the TV advertising industry is worth about $70 billion — it’s over $200 billion globally. And so Facebook now has licensed/paid for original content to be aired on video. And remember, they also have that app that they brought out not long ago that you can stream through your Apple TV or Amazon Fire.

So what’s coming next month are full one-hour shows that are highly professionally produced and then also small episodes — three to 30 minutes that will refresh every 24 hours, from what I’ve read.

For advertisers and marketers, we have to be thinking about quality video ads because that’s where Facebook’s next monetization horizon is (monetizing this digital streaming video with mid-roll ads). They swear they’re not going to do pre-roll, so let’s hope they stick to that.

Think quality Facebook video ads — for @MariSmith, that’s next on FB’s monetization horizon. Click To Tweet

It’s all about being in that frame of mind — somebody’s watching a show they’re really engaged in and all of a sudden, just like television, it interrupts and your ad comes in. So when it comes to video, it’s about how can you make it quirky, or fun, or entertaining, or emotional — I don’t think those things will ever go away as long as we’re human.

At the F8 conference, within the first 30 seconds Zuckerberg was talking about camera, and camera platform and developing for the camera. I saw some really cool augmented ads by Nike, and they were incredible.

Facebook is also really pushing live and they’re also deploying a lot of resources to combat fake news. They also announced two weeks ago that they’re they’re going to hire 3,000 more employees to make a team of 7,500 employees dedicated to watching for fake news plus anything untoward happening on Facebook live.

Really the key is for businesses and marketers is really education. I can’t stress that strongly enough. That’s why I just I love that you guys are doing this conference — you can’t get enough quality education.

PSST: Catch more from Facebook Queen Mari Smith at the Call to Action Conference this June. Blog readers get 15% off tickets until May 25th — just use promo code “blogsentme” at checkout.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://unbounce.com/call-to-action/mari-smith-interview/

0 notes

maxslogic25 · 7 years