Technology like AI, neural networks, deep learning, big data, and automation aren’t new to marketers – but how they’re incorporated into a business often is.

AI shaping the future of digital marketing and branding

Marketing without social media is unthinkable today. Adverts gain businesses significant revenue through channels such as YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter – and AI and machine learning can play a part in driving a business’s success here. Just think of online ads that ‘know’ relevant interests based on prior searches.

AI is also expanding in its intricate ways every day. Take visual searches, for instance. A customer snaps a picture of a shirt they want, and the machine ‘understands’ what it’s looking at, and provides both the exact shirt, as well as similar or relevant offers. Already we’re seeing this deployed in large retail stores – but expect to see this technology develop and transform the ecommerce and customer experience.

Creating the optimal customer experience

We live in the ‘age of instant’. We demand everything now, whether it’s online shopping, watching films, and even responses from customer services.

Chatbots are making the process of automated responses to potential buyers even easier. With natural language processing, keywords can be stored and resurfaced when used, allowing related answers to be surfaced to speed up the process.

Cortana is a great example of this. Voice recognition restricts the hassle of typing out questions and saves even more valuable time. It also allows for a level of personalisation that makes customers feel so much more welcome. Using face, voice, and fingerprint recognition to log in to your account also creates seamless access into your shopping experience. With the evolution of interactive technology, it’s a no-brainer to include this type of AI into the commercial sector.

Pattern recognition is another revolutionary part of the digital transformation. With analytics recorded and processed, it allows future recommendations that are relevant to the customer.

Imagine, a virtual machine that can offer you tailored fashion advice. Or receiving automatic notifications for price drops at your local store. All based on the data you’ve already supplied.

The future of social media marketing

I find it fascinating that careers can be made from the amount of following you have on social media. 8 weeks on a reality TV show can now equate to huge sponsorship deals that can set you for life – simply in exchange for a picture with a product.

While social media platforms are free to use, in the main, companies like YouTube are also capitalising on added features for revenue, such as monthly subscriptions. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see pay-as-you-go features added to these sort of social networks in the future. That is likely to become to pay off – paid-for premium services in exchange for fewer ads, higher quality media, and all-round a more personalised experience. That’s if every social media site doesn’t monopolise into one big brand first; a huge, single site for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and the like.

Customer experience counts

With 95% of British people buying their items online, companies must adapt. The search pool for customers is massive, where billions of potential buyers are within reach. With a strong marketing campaign and smart usage of AI tools to assist this, any company or brand can achieve success.

AI is critical to expanding this incredible digital world we are all growing into. Brands will soon rely on these technologies to drive their sales, especially when shopping now lives on the internet.

There is a huge market within online marketing and branding, and whilst the majority of companies are taking advantage of this, there are many that could be doing more to boost business. As shopping becomes easier and more personalised, the response becomes more positive. And the happier the customer, the higher the revenue.

Find out more

Download the report: ‘Accelerating competitive advantage with AI’

Read our deep dive into the state of AI in the UK

Q&A panel: What will AI mean for retail in the next five years?

About the author

Tom Crawford is an Azure Specialist intern working on the Enterprise and Commercial sectors of the business. He has been with Microsoft for 3 months, on a year-long journey of continuous learning. Data and AI fascinate Tom, and chime well with his Computer Science studies at university. With that experience, he believes he’s beginning to see, first-hand, the digital transformation of the modern era.

The post Reimagining retail with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

How do those living with vision, hearing, cognitive or motor needs communicate with your brand online?

Despite the culture shift towards a more accessible online experience, few organisations are truly leading on this important issue when building their social media marketing strategy. Here are some changes you may need to make to improve your digital customer experience for all audiences…

Tip 1 – Describe your images

Many people are unaware of the option to add alt text to social media imagery. Employees attach their image, hit Send, and forget about it.

But the alt text is vital for people with accessibility issues, since it adds a text description to an image on a web page. This helps people to understand what your image is, even if they struggle with visual impairment.

Some social media publishing tools such as Sprinklr have built this feature into their platforms. It makes life as easy as possible for those publishing to sites like Facebook and Twitter. Adding alt text is an absolute must for extending the your reach of your communications and to ensure you can engage everyone, no matter their background or ability.

Tip 2 – Caption your videos

In 2006, Ofcom asked British households how many of them used subtitles. 7.5 million people said they did; 6 million of them didn’t have any hearing impairment. In the age of YouTube, where subtitles can be automatically generated and switched on with the push of a button, expect that figure to have shot up.

Given those stats, it doesn’t make sense to ignore subtitles (or ‘closed captioning’) on your videos. It creates genuinely accessible social media. Not only that, but they also help increase SEO and engagement. Accessible and optimised? It’s the social media manager’s dream.

All text should be the same size and style, while being easy to read on moving backgrounds. To make sure your text doesn’t get distorted, remember to use the correct dimensions: if you’re posting to platforms like Facebook and Instagram, 1080×1080 is the magic number; on platforms like Twitter, it’s 1024×512 to ensure subtitles are easily read.

Remember, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Tip 3 – Communicate with clear copy

It sounds simple, but when creating any social media post, remember to clearly write your text for people who may need assistance. Depending on the platform, you may not be able to affect the font size on a post. But you can still make thoughtful tweaks to your copy to make it easier to read.

Avoid blocks of text. Pop spaces between your introduction, the middle, and the final call to action. Doing so takes up more screen real-estate (and catches the eye), but also, the crystal-clear layout makes it a lot easier for you to communicate your message and for people to actually read it.

Secondly, use simple, accessible language. Don’t force people to go running for the dictionary every time you tweet – because they may not run back to you afterwards.

Tip 4 – Ask ‘How will this sound?’

Preparing an accessible social media strategy or editorial calendar is time-consuming. At times, it can even be pretty frustrating – especially if you don’t have the right content, at the right time, scheduled in the right way.

But once you’re all set, instead of rushing out your content, have you ever listened to it?

If your smartphone or tablet has a feature like iPhone’s ‘voice over’, it may be worth checking your previous posts. As you listen to each, think critically about what you hear.

Hearing your posts read aloud – or even just speaking them out-loud before they go live – might make you reconsider or innovate some of your existing workplace practices.

Tip 5 – Start learning

Accessible social media should always lead your online strategy.

Sure, it might help your reach and communicate with new audiences, but so much more important is this: it’s the right thing to do.

Changing to a culture of accessibility has the power to transform someone’s online experience, or help them develop new skills.

To help kick-start your learning, these are my favourite resources:

• Windows 10 accessibility features
• Apple accessibility features
• GOV.UK Accessibility Information
• Facebook Accessibility
• Twitter Blog: How to make images accessible for people

Find out more

Re-imagine accessibility

About the author

Tom Wakelin is Microsoft UK’s Social Media Marketing Manager, responsible for our digital communities across consumer, commercial, education and developer. Whether it’s a Facebook message, tweet, Instagram Live broadcast, or LinkedIn blog, Tom and the team are always looking for innovative ways to help tell the Microsoft story and drive excitement for our products and services. He’s always on the lookout for exciting customer stories that bring the magic of technology to life. You can follow Tom on Twitter at @Thomas_Wakelin

The post 5 ways to increase the accessibility and visibility of your social media content appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.