Social media sparked a revolution in marketing. As Scott Stratten remarked, brands had to move away from the traditional ‘push and pray’ method of broadcast marketing, to an approach of ‘pull and stay’.  Communication became two-way, a dialogue. Brands were given the opportunity to speak and listen to their customers in an unprecedented way. Now, the first tremors of a new revolution are being felt; audiences are moving in large numbers away from public social networks like Facebook to private group networks, such as WhatsApp.

The rise in popularity of private messaging

As MW Schaefer points out in an eye opening article in HBR, these private messaging apps are growing at a phenomenal rate; WhatsApp now has a billion users and Snapchat gains more daily checkins than Facebook. Of course, for marketers targeting a more mature demographic, the grand dames of social networking like Facebook and Twitter are still highly relevant. However, if you want to engage with young people, especially those aged 16-24, you probably need to start looking at private networks.

The challenges and opportunities for marketers

These channels create as many challenges as opportunities for marketers. On the one hand, you have the chance to create intimate, personalised relationships with customers. On the other, you have to be extremely wary of invading customer’s private realms and turning people off. The time required to manage multiple tiny messaging groups also creates a massive resourcing issue for marketers.

With these challenges in mind, it is clear that marketers will have to proceed with caution in the sphere of private messaging. I believe there will need to be a heavy focus on permission. That is to say, brands will have to work extremely hard to be invited into customer’s private worlds, rather than aggressively infiltrate them.

Building trust with users

To meet this challenge, brands will need build engagement and trust by ensuring that all their communications through these channels are highly targeted, relevant and create value for customers. Inevitably, new technologies will start to emerge that allow brands to automate the management of multiple private messaging groups.  The challenge then will be to maintain the feel of personalisation and quality of content in an automated process.

Just as the public social networks sparked the paradigm shift towards ‘pull and stay’ marketing, private messaging apps are challenging marketers to take this transformation even further. Marketers will once again have to demonstrate agility and creativity to keep up with their audiences.

Startup programmes have been around since the early 90’s and there are many success stories which have arisen from these programmes, such as Airbnb and Dropbox. Recently interest in incubators and accelerators has boomed; according to O2’s 2014 report ‘The rise of the UK accelerator and incubator ecosystem’, the number of startup incubators in the UK has increased by 110% from 2011 to 2014.

So, why the sharp increase? Will this have an effect on the future of business? A paper published by Nesta, ‘The Startup Factories, by Paul Miller and Kirsten Bound’, has a detailed review of the phenomenon. Here are some the main points:

Benefits for start-ups

The increase in applicants could be down to the success stories and media attention attracted by the schemes, but the benefits for founders are the main draw. These include:

• Access to one-on-one advice on how to develop and grow your business
• Possible investment at the time
• A strong network

Less obvious benefits range from personal and conceptual validation from the more experienced professionals; motivation from the pressure and discipline of the course, something individuals starting on their own often lack; and peer support from others attending the course.

Benefits for investors

For investors, the benefits are also great. These courses, often spanning several weeks, are a great way to meet and get a deep insight to the team behind the concept, which is vital to the success of a business. This gives them an opportunity to make informed investments, get an insight into future trends within their industry and even pinch new talent! But, more importantly to many, it is a hugely rewarding and enjoyable thing to do.

Drawbacks of the rise of the incubator

Startup founder, Ryan Carson expressed resentment at investors ‘ripping off’ startups by taking large amounts of equity in the company during incubation and acceleration. He also suggested that the quality of mentors is not always good enough to provide adequate guidance. Another concern is in the quality of the startups themselves, do these programmes not attract struggling businesses? Or are they draining established companies of all their best employees?

The Nesta report also highlights that these schemes can produce lots of small companies. These often then get absorbed into larger corporations rather than growing themselves, or if they do plan on going alone, they may saturate their respective sectors, such as technology, bottlenecking when they try to get funding.

In conclusion, these ‘factories’ are hugely beneficial to all parties, provided the quality of both investors and startups are maintained. It is also down to the organisers ensure both parties behave with integrity and responsibility to maintain their positive image. Nevertheless, with great talent and good practices these organisations can encourage and continue to empower entrepreneurs across the globe.

Conflict at work is inevitable. With the heady blend of personalities, goals and stresses that come with the modern workplace, frustrations are bound to mount from time to time. So, you may not be able to avoid conflict, but when it does flare up what is the best way to manage it?

Stanford academic Jeffrey Pfeffer has some fantastic tips on this topic. You can read his article in HBR or read my summary of his top five tips below:

1.  Stay focused on the most essential objectives.

When you feel cross or frustrated it is easy to lose sight of what you were trying to achieve when the conflict began. Try not to do this and focus on achieving your aims.

2. Don’t fight over things that don’t matter.

Choose your battles. Don’t expend time and emotional energy on things that aren’t very important.

3. Build an empathetic understanding of other’s point of view.

There are many reasons for conflict at work, and it’s usually not because the other person is being difficult for the sake of it. If you try to see things from their point of view and understand their objectives, finding a solution will be much easier.

4. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

To understand what your adversary is thinking you have to engage with them.

5. Use humour to defuse difficult situations.

If you or your team need help managing conflict and having better conversations with each other, we have a range of workshops and shirt sessions which can help build better, more collaborative workplaces.

Call Sophie on 0207 269 6990 or email sophie@makehappy.co.uk to find out more.

My name is Sophie and I am a podcast-aholic. From the twisty mysteries of Serial to the statistical ponderings of Freakonomics, I consume hours of podcasts each week. And it seems I am not the only one. As this infographic from CopyBlogger shows, podcasts have seen an astounding growth in popularity over the last decade.

For brands, podcasts represent a massive opportunity to connect with their audiences. Indeed, we have already seen Square Space and MailChimp corner the market in podcast sponsorship. However, for smaller brands, podcasts also offer a fantastic content marketing opportunity. For me, one of the most amazing things about podcasts is that there really are no barriers to entry. You don’t need to buy airtime, or invest in expensive equipment. You just need a bit of audio kit, some editing software and most importantly, great stories.

If you work for a start-up, small business or charity, the chances are that you are driven by a passion for something. So why not turn that passion into a podcast, and get your ideas out there? Maybe you run a restaurant and could podcast a simple recipe each month? Or maybe your non-profit works with young people whose stories you could share, episode by episode? It’s a great way to communicate the purpose and personalities that drive your organisation.

Of course, creating podcasts isn’t a piece of cake. It will take a lot of hard work and grit to stick to finding, researching, recording and producing content on a regular basis. This is perhaps why so few brands have managed to sustain podcasting in the long term. However, if you can find powerful, relevant stories that people want to listen to and share, the benefits for your brand could be enormous.

Image by Nikolai Kashirin