If we don't know what motivates us, we will lose our way and mindlessly run everywhere in search of answers. There can be many things around that may motivate you to work hard in your life. After all, motivation is the

Every year 5 May is celebrated as International Midwives' Day to acknowledge the contribution of midwives in childbirth. Those who don't know, midwives are women who help pregnant women in giving birth to their child. In ancient times when there were

Buddha Purnima is one of the important festivals celebrated in Hinduism and Buddhism culture. It is the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha and is the annual festival celebrated by people belonging to the Buddhist community. Every year the festival is celebrated

Bollywood actress Tara Sutaria has absolutely impressed us with her multiple talent. Her brilliant acting prowess has definitely left the audience stunned and with her melodious voice, she has won millions of hearts too. Apart from it, the diva

World Red Cross Day is observed every year on 8 May to mark the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He was born on 8 May 1828 and

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif has made numerous statements in her western outfits and there is no doubt she has left us absolutely stunned in each outfit of hers. But apart from it, she has also given us some ethnic

Mother's Day is certainly a beautiful day to honour our mothers and their love. Though there cannot be a fixed day to respect our mothers and make them feel loved, the idea is to dedicate a day to the person who

Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez loves being in style. From ethnic to western, she pulls off each attire of hers so gracefully that it doesn't even take a second for us to fall in love with her look. So far, her

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Prabhudas Lilladher is bullish on SBI Life Insurance Company has recommended buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 880 in its research report dated May 06, 2020.

Nails are one of the most neglected parts of the body. The maximum most of us do to improve their appearance is to file them and apply some polish. And if we do give them nourishment (read manicure), we consider it

The mid-life update was first unveiled in 2019 and the launch was scheduled for this year, but thanks to the coronavirus, there hasn’t been a big event or any fanfare. Instead, the company silently announced the price and put the car up for sale.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 is priced in India starting from 49,999.

Asian Paints, SBI, Tata Motors, HUL and Maruti Suzuki are top gainers while ONGC, Axis Bank, MM, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp are major losers in the Sensex.

While IPL viewers are watching different content this year, the sporting property over the years has contributed significantly to television viewership.

The court also suggested that the government should publicise the decision so that migrant workers learn about it.

The liquidity facility will help avoid a one-off event snowballing into systemic risk

The engineering to software conglomerate, which houses LT Mutual Fund under listed arm LT Finance, had put the mutual fund business on the block earlier in a renewed attempt to find a suitable buyer

How B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed in Light of COVID-19, and What Marketers and Sellers Can Do Now
82 percent of B2B buyers said they were concerned or strongly concerned about the possibility of a pandemic-sparked recession, while 30 percent have reported spending more on videoconferencing software — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in a recently-released survey examining B2B buyer shifts. eMarketer

How Bad Data Hurts B2B Companies [Infographic]
Just 33 percent of marketers say they can rely on their customer relationship management (CRM) software, and 88 percent said that bad data has a direct impact on their company's bottom line — two of the findings in a new infographic look at the effect of poor data on B2B firms. MarketingProfs

The Evolving Discussion Around COVID-19 and How Brands Have Responded [Infographic]
Brands have used Twitter the most often to mention the global health crisis, according to recently-released survey data examining how brands are using social media in crisis management planning. Social Media Today

Social Media Users Value Brands Responsive To COVID-19 Crisis
83% of social media users expect brands to address the health crisis in their ads, with 31 percent saying they appreciate brands offering products suited for remote work, 28 percent promoting social distancing, and 24 percent mentioning brand philanthropic efforts, according to newly-released survey data of interest to marketers. MediaPost

Why It Takes So Long to Apply Data-Driven Insights to Campaigns
Just 5 percent of marketers say they can immediately go from data gathering to actionable intelligence, while 31 do so later than they would like, and some 3 percent take so long that the output is irrelevant, according to new survey data. MarketingProfs

Instagram Live Streams Can Now Be Viewed on the Web
Facebook-owned Instagram has made it possible for its users to view its previously app-only Instagram Live video streams from its website, bringing marketers a new cross-promotion opportunity with the feature, the firm recently announed. Social Media Today

Twitter notifies users that it’s now sharing more data with advertisers
Twitter has notified its users that a previously available user privacy ad interaction sharing option has been shuttered for all, in a move that will bring more audience data to advertisers, the firm recently announced. The Verge

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis
The types of brand stories companies should be telling their customers include those that put solutions before sales, according to a new examination by Harvard Business School of interest to B2B marketers. Harvard Business School

Facebook Has Launched a New Tournaments Option for People to Create Their Own Gaming Events
With online gaming forecast to produce $196 billion by 2022, a recent move by social giant Facebook allowing its users to create their own private or public gaming events could bring brands new opportunities for reaching its sizable gaming audience. Social Media Today

Content Plays Various Roles in Brands’ Customer Engagement Strategies
61 percent of marketing leaders said that interactive branded content communicates brand promise and value, according to recently-released survey data from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, with 51 percent saying that it delivers thought-leadership, and 45 percent saying that interactive content helps communicate with customers, partners and prospects. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at digital transformation and organizational change by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Grinning Tim Cook Announces New iPhone Will No Longer Be Compatible With AirPods — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — Leadership and Engagement In a Time of Crisis [Podcast] — Traject
• Amie Krone — Navigating the new world of working at home — Chaska Herald
• Dell, SAP — Building A Perfect B2B Influencer Program During Imperfect Times — Forbes
• Lee Odden — Marketing During a Pandemic – Resources for Small Businesses in the Coronavirus Crisis [Roundup] — Simple Machines

Do you have your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for taking the time to join us, and we hope that you'll return again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post Digital Marketing News: Shifting B2B Buyer Behaviors, Brands Evolve Crisis Response, Bad Data’s Effect on B2B Firms, & Twitter Shares New Data With Advertisers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

The vast majority of content and industry news coverage around influencer marketing is focused on those who engage consumer audiences: Instagramers, YouTubers, and  as of late TikTokers. Of course the world of influence is not limited to consumer products and services. Influencers play an important role in businesses marketing to other businesses as well, whether it's on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

So what's the difference between B2C and B2B influencer marketing? We've covered B2B influencer marketing here in depth already with case studies, strategy and best practices, what makes a great B2B influencer, key statistics and more. After 7 plus years of focusing on B2B influencer marketing for some of the top B2B brands in the world, we've learned a few things about the practice. From that experience, I'll focus on what makes for good B2B influencer engagement as a way to understand the difference from B2C.

The most important steps for launching a B2B Influencer Marketing Program: Influence plays a role across the entire business customer lifecycle from awareness to advocacy so it follows that the best approach to collaborating with B2B influencers also spans the spectrum of customer engagement.

Regardless of the desired outcome from building brand awareness to increasing sales, best practices influencer marketing programs start with understanding the relevant topics of influence that both represent what customers care about and what the brand stands for.

It's important to look at B2B influencers as partners not just content creators or distribution channels.

Much of B2C influencer engagement is managed like an advertising buy. With B2B, it's important to look at B2B influencers as partners not just content creators or distribution channels. That means finding, engaging and activating influencers with expertise and audiences that will resonate with the objectives of the business. Using topics of influence, you can identify, qualify and recruit influencer partners to collaborate. You can certainly pay a B2B influencer, but it is most often for the craft of creation not just because they are well known.

The output of B2B influencer collaboration can be in any form that the brand is currently publishing content: text, video, visual, audio, interactive and even VR.

B2B influencers are different than B2C in that they must be subject matter experts. But it is often the case that they do not have the broad social media skills or reach as their B2C counterparts. Also, B2B influencer marketing is less about a transaction or advertising buy than it is about developing relationships with influencers that can add credibility to a brand and even advocate for purchases that have an extended sales cycles and run millions of dollars.

Successful B2B influencer relationships take time to build and require time to maintain.

Matching topically relevant influencers with content collaboration opportunities that deliver mutual value for the influencer, the audience you're after and your brand is both art and science. Successful relationships take time to build and require time to maintain. It is no different when working with B2B influencer partners, so brands should invest the time and resources to keep those relationships strong. That can mean software like the enterprise platform we use, Traackr, as well as the expertise of an influencer marketing agency that has many years of experience and established relationships with influencers in your industry.

What does effective B2B influencer marketing look like in action? Tech giant SAP wanted to raise awareness of their brand and establish thought leadership with their target audience of CTOs, CIOs, and technology managers. With B2B decision makers (and consumers in general) craving more inspiring and on-demand content, a podcast was the ideal channel to reach that target audience and spark in-depth engagement.

To Turn SAP’s vision for C-suite thought leadership into reality, they worked with TopRank Marketing to produce six episodes of Season 1, Tech Unknown Podcast. Each episode featured a long-form interview with an industry thought leader and was hosted by tech expert, Tamara McCleary. TopRank Marketing identified influencers for each episode with reach, relevance, and insight that would appeal to technology leaders.

The agency conducted live interviews with Tamara and the featured influencer guests to encourage in-depth exploration of the subject matter. The first season of the Tech Unknown podcast beat industry benchmarks for average downloads within 30 days, activated influencers that were important to the brand and the CTO/IO audience, earned millions of impressions, and opened the door for unique content repurposing opportunities.

Season 2 of the SAP Tech Unknown Podcast has now started to publish and is already breaking new performance records.  By combining an understanding of brand objectives and audience interests with the expertise and audience of specific influencers, SAP has been able to drive conversations, activate relationships and move the needle on their marketing objectives.

Where to start with B2B influencers:  In B2C, many influencers are inventory in a marketplace with detailed info on audience, performance and content creation capabilities where you can purchase services not unlike buying a sponsorship or advertising.

In B2B, there are no such marketplaces. Influencer Marketing platforms that algorithmically sort vast amounts of data are used to identify influencers that might be a match based on topical relevance, resonance with their audience and reach.

Once a B2B influencer has been identified as having the right mix of relevance, resonance and reach, B2B marketers can check to see if there is already a relationship with the influencer directly or through a first level connection. Engaging an experienced influencer that is already in your network is much different than starting a conversation with someone new.

It's also important to check to see if the B2B influencer is accustomed to “being an influencer” in terms of public speaking or writing and creating content.

Many B2C influencers are already familiar with what it means to "be" a social media influencer, but in B2B, such self assigned influencer status and behavior is less common. In B2C the goal is often transactional (drive product sales) and the brand might just present a project and have the influencer pitch a creative idea on how to implement. With B2B influencers that's possible but less likely. More often the B2B brand will have a campaign or program in mind with a narrative and structured content collaboration opportunities that influencers can take part in according to their specific areas of expertise and audience engagement.

For example, a B2B influencer program might have elements focused on top of funnel awareness, middle funnel engagement and end of funnel decision making. Each stage would involve different types of influencers (TOFU - brandividuals), (MOFU - industry experts), (BOFU - customers).

Relationship building with B2B influencers is key. A new contact will often be engaged with subtly on relevant social networks. You can look for signals that can be an open door to inviting a conversation. Then, as you engage online, you might feature the influencer in content or invite them to contribute something very easy, but that gives them great exposure. That basic interaction opens doors to more robust engagement.

If the influencer is clearly a pro and being an influencer is their business model, you can approach them directly as you would any other consultant.

B2C and B2B Influencer Marketing are different - and changing.

While there is advancing consumerization within the B2B world from software user experiences to the types of influencer content being co-created (server unboxing videos, tech "hauls") B2C and B2B influencer marketing are distinctly different. Viewing B2B influencers simply as content distribution channels or advocates for hire is a misplaced B2C-centric expectation. B2B influencers are industry experts that may or may not have advanced content creation skills. They have the attention and respect of their peers and that kind of influence is very powerful for brands that want to recapture buyer attention lost to dropping trust in brand advertising and communications.

If you have experience working with B2B and B2C influencers, what are some of the key differences you've experienced?

The post B2C vs. B2B Influencer Marketing – What’s the Difference? appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How COVID-19 Is Impacting Business Event Planning
70 percent of business event planners have changed previously-planned in-person events to virtual platforms due to the pandemic, and 47 percent expect that once it ends people will still be hesitant to travel, with 27 percent expecting a swift uptick in real-world events due to pent-up demand, according to newly-released survey data from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). MarketingProfs

Google ad sales steady after coronavirus drop; Alphabet leads tech share rally
2020 first-quarter advertising sales at Google tallied $33.8 billion, with 73 percent coming from search and 12 percent from its YouTube property, and Google's ad business accounting for some 83 percent of revenue for parent firm Alphabet, according to newly-released financial results. Reuters

Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts
Spotify will utilize its Anchor property to make it possible to convert video meeting content into podcasts, offering marketers new options for making use of a virtual hangout video content podcast conversion feature, Spotify recently announced. TechCrunch

Google’s new Podcasts Manager tool offers deeper data on listener behavior
Google has rolled out a new podcast analytics data feature — Podcasts Manager — that provides marketers an assortment of new podcast listening data, the search giant recently announced. Marketing Land

LinkedIn's up to 690 Million Members, Reports 26% Growth in User Sessions
LinkedIn (client) saw its user base increase to 690 million members — up from 675 in January — with an accompanying 26 percent increase in user sessions, and LinkedIn Live streams that increased by some 158 percent since February, according to parent firm Microsoft’s latest earnings release. Social Media Today

Advertisers Continued to Gravitate to Instagram in Q1
Advertisers moved to spend more on Instagram during the first quarter of 2020, with ad spending up 39 percent year-over-year on the platform, holding steady at 27 percent of parent company Facebook’s total ad spend, according to recently-released Merkle data. MarketingCharts

Brands Are Using More Data And Spending More On It: Study
B2B marketers are making greater use of data and spending increasingly to gather it, according to recent report data from Ascend2, showing that 47 percent use engagement data to make marketing decisions, one of several report statistics of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

Most consumers are trying new brands during social distancing, study finds
Brands are seeing newfound levels of audience interest, with an uptick in consumer interest for trying new brands that has been observed during the pandemic, with members of the Gen Z and Millennial demographic seeing the biggest increases, according to recently-released survey data. Campaign US

Marketers Ante Up for In-Game Advertising
A $3 billion in-game advertising market in the U.S. alone has attracted additional advertisers, and a new Association of National Advertisers (ANA) examination of data from eMarketer found some surprises in that most mobile gamers were over 35, with 20 percent being over 50, while the majority were female, several of the in-game advertising statistics of interest to digital marketers. ANA

Data Hub: Coronavirus and Marketing [Updated]
Digital marketing has fared better than traditional campaigns in the face of the global health crisis, according to newly-released survey data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) exploring the differences between the pandemic and the 2008 recession. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at generic advertising “in these uncertain times” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

WHO Releases New Guidelines to Avoid Being Nominated for Viral Challenges — The Hard Times

Major Relief: Microsoft Has Confirmed That The Xbox Series X Will Play Video Games — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Embracing Data — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 10 Expert Tips for Marketing During a Crisis — Oracle (client)
• Lee Odden — Klear Interviews Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing [Video] — Klear
• Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing — Pandemic Cross-Country Skiing in Duluth, Minnesota: A Personal Timeline — Lane R. Ellis

Have you got your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for taking time to join us, and we hope you will join us again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: Brands Spending More on Data, Spotify Turns Video Chats into Podcasts, & Consumers Trying More New Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Sunny days and warm weather are proving to be as challenging to manage as restaurants, hair salons and other businesses as about half of U.S. states partially reopen their economies after the coronavirus lockdown. This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many dentists and orthodontists to hang up their drills. But a father-and-son practice in Sacramento is getting ready to see patients again.

India will begin flights on Thursday to bring home some 400,000 citizens stranded overseas by travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, prompting some worries over the risk that imported infections could fuel contagion in the country.

Shell has raised the environmental stakes among major oil and gas producers with plans to dramatically reduce the carbon impact of its business.

One has been promoting environmental regulation for decades, while the other is bent on dismantling such policies. It makes for clear battle lines in the upcoming presidential election.

Sorry. A short dip in carbon emissions won’t save the planet after all. Things may even get worse, say the experts.

"Mad Mike" Hughes, a self-styled explorer and daredevil bent on proving that the earth is flat was killed over the weekend when his homemade rocket crashed in the California desert over the weekend.

When the nightclub in which she touted for business in southern Chile was shut down by the authorities as the new coronavirus spread, sex worker Camila Hormazabal was left without access to her sole source of income.

Can creative sparks fly through plexiglass? Is the water cooler chat a thing of the past?

Gains in Reliance Industries boosted Indian shares on Friday, but they ended the week sharply lower as coronavirus cases continued to spiral and markets awaited an economic stimulus.

Doctors in hazmat suits ran temperature checks on passengers at Delhi airport and bags were disinfected as the first group of Indians returned home on special flights from Singapore and the Gulf on Friday since a sweeping lockdown was imposed in March.

स्मार्टफोन निर्माता कंपनी हुआवे ने वॉइस ओवर वाईफाई (VoWiFi) फीचर लॉन्च किया है। इस फीचर की मदद से यूजर्स अपने स्मार्टफोन पर बिना सेलुलर नेटवर्क और एयरपोर्ट मोड में भी ऑडियो और वीडियो कॉल को रिसीव और डॉयल कर पाएंगे। VoWiFi सर्विस को Wi-Fi कॉलिंग भी कहा जाता है। मतलब जब स्मार्टफोन पर वाईफाई की सुविधा उपलब्ध रहेगी, उस वक्त यूजर्स इस फीचर को इनेबल करके वीडियो और ऑडियो कॉलिंग कर सकेंगे। कंपनी ने दावा किया कि यूजर्स VoWifi की मदद से फोन को एयरपोर्ट मोड में रखने पर भी वीडियो और ऑडियो कॉलिंग का लुत्फ उठा सकेंगे।

रोमिंग रेट में कमी करने में मदद मिलेगी
हुआवे के प्रवक्ता ने कहा कि भारत में खराब नेटवर्क या फिर नेटवर्क न होने पर भी यूजर्स कम्यूनिकेशन को कामयाब बनाने में सक्षम होंगे। कंपनी ने कहा कि उसकी कोशिश है कि देश के हर लोगों तक सुचारू रूप से संवाद कायम किया जा सके। Vowifi सॉल्यूशन इंटरनेशनल रोमिंग कॉल को सपोर्ट करता है। यह यूजर को विदेश में ईपीसी नेटवर्क पर घरेलू कनेक्टिविटी देता है। जो काफी महंगा पड़ता है। लेकिन vowifi की मदद से रेंटल कॉस्ट में कटौती करने में मदद मिलती है। बता दें कि VoWiFi कॉलिंग का सपोर्ट मिलने के बाद यूजर्स Huawei के सभी डिवाइस में इसका लाभ उठा सकते हैं। इस फीचर की मदद से आप बिना नेटवर्क के भी कॉलिंग कर सकेंगे।

स्मार्टफोन निर्माता कंपनी हुवावे ने भारतीय यूजर्स के लिए वॉयस ओवर वाईफाई (VoWiFi) फीचर लॉन्च किया है। VoWiFi सर्विस जिसे Wi-Fi कॉलिंग भी कहा जाता है, इसमें यूजर वाई-फाई कनेक्शन से अन्य VoWiFi सपोर्ट स्मार्टफोन यूजर से वॉयस कॉल और वीडियो कॉल कर सकेंगे। खासबात यह है कि इस फीचर के जरिए एरोप्लेन मोड समेत सेलुलर नेटवर्क उपलब्ध न होने पर भी VoWiFi कॉलिंग की जा सकेगी। यह खराब और कमजोर नेटवर्क वाली जगहों पर भी काम करेगा ताकि यूजर्स बेझिझक आपस में बातचीत कर सकें।

एचडी वीडियो कॉलिंग की सुविधा मिलेगी

• VoWiFi सर्विस उन सब्सक्राइबर्स के लिए काफी फायदेमंद साबित होगी, जिन्हें घर या ऑफिस में कमजोर नेटवर्क की शिकायत रहती है। सब्सक्राइबर्स वाई-फाई हॉटस्पॉट के अंदर नेटवर्क एक्सेस कर सकेंगे और एचडी वीडियो कॉलिंग का आनंद ले सकेंगे।
• हुवावे की VoWiFi सॉल्यूशन से कोई भी यूजर आईएमएस नेटवर्क एक्सेस कर सकेगा। यह वाई-फाई हॉटस्पॉट के इस्तेमाल से एचडी वॉयस और वीडियो सर्विसेस इस्तेमाल करता है। हुवावे का यह फीचर सभी सेलुलर टेलीकम्युनिकेशन टेक्नोलोजी कवर करता है जिसमें रेडिया एक्सेस, कोर नेटवर्क शामिल हैं।

Tesla Inc "must not reopen" its vehicle factory in the San Francisco Bay area as local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect, the local county health department said on Friday.

Gains in Reliance Industries boosted Indian shares on Friday, but they ended the week sharply lower as coronavirus cases continued to spiral and markets awaited an economic stimulus.

Doctors in hazmat suits ran temperature checks on passengers at Delhi airport and bags were disinfected as the first group of Indians returned home on special flights from Singapore and the Gulf on Friday since a sweeping lockdown was imposed in March.

FIFA's decision to temporarily allow up to five substitutions per match to help cope with potential fixture congestion was met coolly in South America on Friday.

Qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic golf tournament will be extended to June 2021 to accommodate the year-long delay caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the International Golf Federation (IGF) said on Wednesday.

English cricket is braced for losses of up to 380 million pounds if no matches are played this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Tom Harrison, CEO of The England and Wales Cricket Board.

Fox News Media, a unit of Fox Corp, said on Tuesday it has partnered with digital streaming services company Spotify Technology SA to distribute its podcast catalogue featuring more than 20 original series.

The idea of starting this centre for help came to Kolape when she along with two others saw 12-year-old Soni begging outside Gyan Prabodhini.

Local jewellers are desperately hoping that the festive season revives business and sales pick up However, a section of the industry believes that the government need to take corrective steps urgently to ensure revival.

It was on this day in 1960 that the erstwhile state of Bombay was divided on linguistic basis and two states namely Gujarat and Maharashtra came into existence.

As per industry experts, life insurance in India is still seen as a product that comes into play only when something goes wrong with its primary focus on the mortality aspect.

Ms. Sanju Verma is an Economist, Chief Spokesperson for BJP Mumbai and, Author of the Bestseller, "Truth &Dare--The Modi Dynamic".

This is the day when the state of Maharashtra came into existence. It was on this day in 1960 when the state was formed on linguistic grounds.

Thackeray said the Mumbai Police is capable of handling the situation but additional forces may be sought from the Centre if needed so that the state police force gets some respite.

Vistara has made temporary changes in its in-flight products and services to minimise the touchpoints of human contact on board by up to 80% during the post-lockdown period.

Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma were the only gainers on BSE.