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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Pluralistic: 08 Mar 2020 (Ghost flights over Europe, Patagonia joins Right to Repair, EU's R2R showdown with Apple)

Today's links

EU airspace is full of empty planes: Flight slots are use-em-or-lose-em.

European Right to Repair for phones is finally on the horizon: Will the EU finally defy Apple?

Patagonia offers tutorials and supplies to fix your clothes: Companies that guarantee their products for life have different incentives.

This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

EU airspace is full of empty planes (permalink)

In the EU, airlines that do not fly at least 80% of scheduled flights risk losing their spots to competitors, so Europe's skies are filled with largely empty "ghost planes," burning tons of fuel for no reason.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-airlines-run-empty-ghost-flights-planes-passengers-outbreak-covid-2020-3

Covid-19 has crashed aviation demand, but not flights themselves. Miraculously, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps – an otherwise useless idiot – has led on this, asking British aviation regulators to relax the 80/20 rule.

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1235614933292920832

European Right to Repair for phones is finally on the horizon (permalink)

The EU has led the world on Right to Repair, with extensive regulation mandating both easy-to-repair designs and manufacturer cooperation with the independent repair sector. But there's been one glaring omission in EU rules: smartphones. Though the official reasoning for not mandating Right to Repair for phones – which are universal and a major source of e-waste – is that the sector is too fast-moving to regulate, it's far more likely that the EU shied away because were scared to pick a fight with Apple.

Apple, after all, is the most repair-hostile manufacturer in the world. It's official reasoning on this is laughably terrible and transparent.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/33977/apple-told-congress-how-repair-should-work-we-respond

Especially when considered in light of its investor disclosures, which make it clear that the company views the tendency of customers to fix and keep their phones (rather than buying new ones) as the major threat to its profitability.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

Apple is a one-company environmental apocalypse, with the industry's worst practices for old/broken electronics. Others fix systems, re-use parts, and keep parts available. Apple literally orders its partners to shred it all and turn it into landfill.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

This has the major advantage (for Apple) of curtailing the used equipment market, which means that potential customers are herded into buying new. It also means that those new devices have a hidden drain on their value, because they have no aftermarket commercial life. It's no wonder, then, that Apple led the industry coalitions that killed all twenty state-level Right to Repair bills in 2018.

Which brings us to today, as the EU is contemplating a new set of Right to Repair rules, including rules for electronics, including – possibly – phones. The new rules will be published this week, and Apple has lobbied heavily against this outcome.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/03/right-to-repair-will-the-european-commission-have-the-guts-to-stand-up-to-apple-et-al-details-on-wednesday.html

If the new ecodesign directive covers mobile phones, the Commission will finally be addressing one of the great e-waste sources worldwide. If they do, though, expect Apple to squawk, as they did when the EU mandated a single charger for smartphones, which Apple publicly freaked out about as though it was an extinction-level event.

Patagonia offers tutorials and supplies to fix your clothes (permalink)

People buy Patagonia not just because it's long-wearing, but because it comes with what amounts to a lifetime guarantee.

https://help.patagonia.com/s/article/Ironclad-Guarantee

Companies that offer lifetime guarantees want their customers to be able to effect their own repairs and maintenance – unlike companies whose profits depend on you throwing away and replacing your purchases every 18 months.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/08/ghost-flights/#eurighttorepair

So it's delightful (but not surprising) that Patagonia have partnered with iFixit to produce detailed repair and maintenance documentation for its products.

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Patagonia_Product_Care

The official Product Repair Guide fits right in with the company's longstanding ethic and messaging (after all, these are the people who ran an anti-consumerism campaign called "Do Not Buy This Jacket!").

https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/patagonia-will-teach-you-how-repair-clothes.html

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Waxy and his mom trying to save journalism program in SoCal's Oxnard College https://waxy.org/2005/03/my_mom_fights_t/

#5yrsago Stomach-churning details of CIA waterboarding crimes https://web.archive.org/web/20100310233037/https://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/03/09/waterboarding_for_dummies/index.html?source=rss&aim=%2Fnews%2Ffeature

#5yrsago Imaginary ISIS attack on Louisiana and the twitterbots who loved it https://render.betaworks.com/media-hacking-3b1e350d619c

#1yrago The media company paid by the EU Parliament to make a video promoting a copyright law it stood to make millions from once sued a photographer for complaining that they'd ripped him off https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190307/16175941758/eu-parliament-paid-news-publisher-afp-to-create-bogus-propaganda-video-favor-eu-copyright-directive.shtml

#1yrago Thanks to audiobooks, reading's popularity still strong in America https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/25/one-in-five-americans-now-listen-to-audiobooks/

#1yrago Millions of Americans have left Facebook, led by young people aged 12-34 https://www.marketplace.org/2019/03/06/tech/exclusive-look-numbers-showing-users-leaving-facebook-by-the-millions/

#1yrago A machine-learning system that guesses whether text was produced by machine-learning systems http://gltr.io/

#1yrago Towards a general theory of "adversarial examples," the bizarre, hallucinatory motes in machine learning's all-seeing eye https://perma.cc/3ZQQ-A7MY

#1yrago Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify at a grand jury about her whistleblowing https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18256173/chelsea-manning-wikileaks-jailed-testify-refusal

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Slashdot (https://slashdot.org) and Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Hugo nominators! My story "Unauthorized Bread" is eligible in the Novella category and you can read it free on Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Upcoming appearances:

Museums and the Web: March 31-April 4 2020, Los Angeles. https://mw20.museweb.net/

LA Times Festival of Books: 18 April 2020, Los Angeles. https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/

Currently writing: I'm rewriting a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I'm also working on "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel afterwards.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Disasters Don't Have to End in Dystopias: https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/01/disasters-dont-have-to-end-in-dystopias/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a very special, s00per s33kr1t intro.

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boldlyuniquesandwich · 4 years ago

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Age Of Empires 2 For Mac Download

Age Of Empires Free Download

Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Mac Download Free

As I‘ve written in earlier blog posts, Age of Empires is my most favorite game of all time. So, you can imagine my dismay when Microsoft announced in 2008 that they were shutting down Ensemble Studios, the development studio for all the Age of Empires titles. It would appear that Microsoft has reconsidered the decision to end the Age of Empires line, as they’ve recently released two significant updates—Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

These updates improved the graphics quality and also moved to DirectX 11 as the graphics library upon which the games are based. I wrote about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Parallels Desktop in an earlier blog post, and in this post I will discuss Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: because Parallels Desktop™ for Mac moved to Apple Metal and now supports DirectX 11, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition plays great in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro. You can see this for yourself in this short video:

The Age of Empires Franchise represents the critically acclaimed, award winning Real Time Strategy (RTS) games with a legacy spanning over 20 years and nearly a dozen titles.

Download Age of Empires II HD Mac Free download free setup for Mac OS. It is Offline dmg File with Direct Download Link with the standalone Compressed file. Age of Empires II HD Mac Overview: Microsoft has as soon as once more launched one other shock on the Age of Empires II HD for Mac sequence of in style strategic video games, the model of.

Nov 29, 2018 Download Age of Empires 2 HD for Mac OS: Age of Empires 2 HD is a remastered version of the popular real-time isometric strategy game Age of Empires 2. In this game you will find a new visual design, improved gameplay, multiplayer mode and a new soundtrack.

Video1: Some short gameplay of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in Parallels Desktop

Age of Empires, the pivotal RTS that launched a 20-year legacy returns in definitive form for Windows 10 PCs. Bringing together all of the officially released content with modernized gameplay, all-new visuals and a host of other new features, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is the complete RTS package. Age of empires 2 mac free download - Age of Empires Update, Age of Empires III Update, Age of Empires, and many more programs.

Of course, the most important variable in-game performance is the specs for your Mac. The basic specs for the Mac used for Video 1 are shown in Figure 1.

Note: There does appear to be a small bug in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Its check for video memory in a Parallels Desktop virtual machine is incorrect, and you may see the dialog shown in Figure 2. Just ignore this warning as it does not appear to affect gameplay at all. (I have reported the bug to the Age of Empires team.)

The Age of Empires team has also announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV. I will test them in Parallels Desktop as soon as they are available.

Let me know in the comments about your experience with any of the Age of Empires titles or other games that you play (or want to play!) in Parallels Desktop on your Mac.

Download a free 14-day free trial to try Age of Empires and Parallels Desktop yourself to see how it works for your Mac set up!

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition completes the celebration of one of the most beloved real-time strategy franchises with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, fully enhanced audio, two new game modes, and includes all expansions and all 14 civilizations, plus two brand new civilizations – the Swedes and Inca.

Minimum System Requirements

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

OS: Windows 10 version 18362.0 or higher

Processor: Intel i3-2105 @ 3.1GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 973 with an average CPU Passmark score of 3735 or better

Memory: 8GB

Graphics: GeForce GT 430, Radeon HD 5570, or Intel HD 4400 with an average Passmark G3D Mark of 570 or better

VRAM: 2GB

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 42GB available space

Recommended

OS: Windows 10 version 18362.0 or higher

Processor: Intel i5-3300 @ 3.0GHz or AMD FX-8350 or equivalent with an average CPU Passmark score of 4100 or better

Memory: 16GB

Graphics: GeForce GTX 980 or Radeon R9 Fury or equivalent with an average Passmark G3D Mark of 9500 or better

VRAM: 4GB

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 42GB available space

Experience one of the most beloved real-time strategy franchises with the Age of Empires: Definitive Collection. This collection packs a 20-year legacy of historical adventure in definitive form with remastered 4K Ultra HD graphics, enhanced audio, all previously released expansions and featuring brand-new content in all three remastered versions of the games:

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Pre-order)

This unforgettable collection features hundreds of hours of real-time strategy fun and is an unrivaled compilation that will stand the test of time.

Age Of Empires Free Download

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is the new, lovingly remastered version of the legendary real-time strategy game straight from the pages of history! Relive the most glorious battles of history with all-new graphics, music, sound, and more.

Minimum System Requirements

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

OS: Windows 10 64bit

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64×2 5600+

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420 or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6850 or Intel® HD Graphics 3000 or better with 2 GB VRAM

DirectX®: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 30 GB available space

Recommended:

OS: Windows 10 64bit

Processor: 2.4 Ghz i5 or greater or AMD equivalent

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia® GTX 650 or AMD HD 5850 or better

DirectX®: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 30 GB available space

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is the new, lovingly remastered version of the legendary real-time strategy game straight from the pages of history! Relive the most glorious battles of history with all-new graphics, music, sound, and more.

Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Mac Download Free

Minimum System Requirements

OS: 64-bit Windows 10 version 14393.0 or higher required

Architecture: X64 required

Processor: 1.8 Ghz+ Dual Core or greater i3, i5, or i7, or AMD equivalent

Graphics: Intel HD 4000 or Greater (16 or more Execution Units), AMD or nVidia GPU scoring 500 or more on Passmark G3D Mark, DirectX 11 or higher Feature Level support

Memory: 4GB (free)

Video Memory: 1GB (free)

Storage: 17-20GB, additional 100MB free at run time

Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome (Included with Age of Empires: Definitive Edition)

The Rise of Rome adds four new civilizations and units as well as new campaigns, now fully voice-acted in English.

Age of Empires II is the sequel to the award-winning, best-selling real-time strategy game Age of Empires. Explore new maps, multiplayer scenarios, spectator mode, user-created content from the Steam Workshop and more in the HD Edition re-release and its three expansions!

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro+

Processor: 1.2GhZ CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM

Hard Drive: 2 GB Space

Direct X 9.0c Capable GPU

DirectX® 9.0

Age of Empires II HD: The Conquerors (Included with Age of Empires II HD)

The game features five new civilizations, four new campaigns, eleven new units, twenty-six new technologies, and new gameplay modes.

Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas

Released December 2016, Rise of the Rajas brings Age of Empires II HD to Southeast Asia! Four more civilizations join the fray, as well as a new map type, new units, and of course new campaigns!

Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms

Released in November 2015, The African Kingdoms adds four new civilizations, each with a fully voice-acted campaign, as well as new maps, units, and a brand-new game mode!

Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten

From the dev superstars at Forgotten Empires comes The Forgotten, introducing five civilizations, maps, and campaigns.

Immerse yourself in the award-winning strategy experience! Microsoft Studios brings you three epic Age of Empires III games in one monumental collection for the first time. Command mighty European powers looking to explore new lands in the New World; or jump eastward to Asia and determine the outcome of its struggles for power.

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro+

Processor: 1.2GhZ CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM

Hard Drive: 2 GB Space

Direct X 9.0c Capable GPU

DirectX® 9.0

Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs

Continue the saga of the Black family in an all-new campaign as they witness the birth of a new nation.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties

Three new civilizations join the fight, each with its own campaign!

Age of Mythology is back! Choose your god and take to the battlefield in this classic RTS, upgraded with full Steamworks integration and enhanced features. Use mythological creatures like Minotaurs and Cyclopes to bolster your armies' strength. Call upon the gods for assistance in flattening enemy towns with meteors or scatter opposing troops with lightning storms!

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro+

Processor: 1.2GhZ CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM

Hard Drive: 2 GB Space

Direct X 9.0c Capable GPU

DirectX® 9.0

Age of Mythology: The Titans (Included in Age of Mythology Extended Edition)

A new culture—the Atlanteans—joins the clash of truly epic proportions! With new units and an all-new campaign, you won't want to miss this titanic expansion.

Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon

Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon introduces gods and units from Chinese lore in this expansion to the epic game of mythological armies!

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tiffabaarri-blog · 6 years ago

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5 Data-Backed Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2019

2019 is here and gone are the days where generating audience engagement on social media was primarily a passive process. The always-online audiences of today want to be involved, interact, and co-create.

The brands that are successful in delivering personalized experiences to their audiences are the brands that are likely to thrive with their social media strategies in the coming year.

But in order to be able to capitalize on this and everything else social media has to offer, you have to know what's coming!

Which is exactly why today we're covering 5 data-backed social media trends you need to know to make 2019 your best year yet with social media marketing.

Let's dive in!

5 data-backed social media trends you need to know for 2019

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode #127 for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

Trend 1: In-the-moment content will win out over highly-produced content

Trend 2: AI-driven personalized customer experiences

Trend 3: Brands can no longer afford to ignore social media ads

Trend 4: Rise of social media TV and vertical videos

Trend 5: The evolution from multichannel to omnichannel marketing

Kicking off our most popular show of the year: Social Media Trends 2019.

1. In-the-moment content will win out over highly-produced content

Brian: Our number 1 trend for 2019, and by the way these 5 trends are in no particular order because we feel that they are all hugely important, is that in-the-moment content will win out over highly-produced content.

Stories and rise of ephemeral content across social networks, which I'm sure we'll see a lot more of in 2019, is capturing the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere.

Hailley: One of the key parts of that trend is that we're predicting that stories will become the primary way to share content on social media, overtaking the News Feed. Only time will tell, but we'll count on you to let us know if that prediction was right or not next year!

But this is why social media marketers have to continue to pay close attention to the rise of Stories and how it impacts how people consume content. And it's why we talk about it so much here on the show. We're witnessing a fundamental shift in media.

Brian: Mobile usage and even shorter attention spans will continue to increase the popularity of short-lived content in 2019, especially with Millennials and Generation Z'ers, who thrive on their relationships with brands being authentic and meaningful.

Which is exactly why it's crucial that social media marketers establish a solid video strategy for ephemeral content.

More and more brands will embrace this personal, authentic and in-the-moment style content vs. overly produced, pre-packed content.

Hailley: What exactly does that mean for you?

Well, this means an increased focus on the people and personalities behind your brand. Think about how you can use video, Stories and images to connect your audience with the human – maybe even, dare I say, the vulnerable – side of your business.

You can accomplish a lot of this by taking your audience behind the scenes and showing the work your business day-to-day.

If you're a coffee shop, create a story of how you brew the perfect cup.

If you're a service business, take your followers on a tour of your office or show your team working.

Brian: Overall, the key thing is to experiment.

Imagine at one end of the spectrum there's the old social media with pre-packaged, very produced content. At the other end you have in-the-moment, super raw content. For brands, there are millions of untapped miles of opportunity in the middle of those two ends to try new things.

2. AI-driven personalized customer experiences

Which, brings us to our next social media trends 2019 and that's that we'll start to see AI drive a personalized customer experiences across lots of different channels.

Hailley: From chatbots to ad optimization, platforms like Google and Facebook have been continuing to adopt artificial intelligence to enhance customer interaction.

But it remains a huge opportunity and is underutilized by many brands.

Where we're seeing this develop particularly fast is in the form of online customer service.

In 2018, the growth in AI-driven communication has been undeniable, with tools like Intercom and Drift starting to appear on websites everywhere.

Many experts predict that by 2020, more than 80% of all customer service interactions will be powered by AI bots.

Brian: Again, with the younger generations leading the charge.

Millennials are the quickest adaptors of chatbot-based customer experiences. According to Huffington Post, 60% of the millennial population already uses chatbots and 71% of Millennials have implied that they would like to try using one.

In 2019, more and more brands will strengthen their online customer service practices and even move to new platforms that may potentially offer more effective technology for customer service to thrive online, such as WhatsApp and Messenger.

Hailley: Let's talk about WhatsApp for a second because I think marketers forget that they have over a billion users.

In 2019, we should begin to see the rise of WhatsApp as a primary social customer service channel. The release of the WhatsApp business API in August 2018 will continue to be a total game-changer in the industry.

With this new API, WhatsApp allows businesses to respond to customers for free within 24 hours. This shift means businesses are now incentivized to reply to their customers faster. It puts the focus firmly on improving customer experience.

Brian: What I love about how WhatsApp is set up is that customers can talk to a business on a channel they are already using for communication (with friends and family) without being spammed with marketing messages. The power with WhatsApp really is in the consumers hands.

But in terms of personalization, given the vast amount of information being uploaded by people each day, it's become very easy to get insights into all kinds of information about your customers.

This has opened the door for enhanced personalization, and that has increased consumer expectation for the same. So in other words, consumers are coming to expect it.

Hailley: Content, products, emails, ads – all can now be based on the consumer's purchase history, clicked links, social media posts, and other behavior.

Like for example, Airbnb now sends personalized trip and activity ideas based on your upcoming trips. And Netflix offers shows to watch based on your taste. Amazon and eBay show products similar to the ones you've bought before. All of that is personalization.

Brian: It's on you as a business to figure out what personalization looks like for your company.

As long as you are respectful of personal privacy, personalization is a solid way to go for marketers to boost campaign performance in 2019.

3. Brands can no longer afford to ignore social media ads

We're already seeing a ton of businesses jump on board with social media ads. Marketers increased social ad budgets 32% in 2018 alone and produced more ads than ever before.

In fact, one of every four Facebook Pages now use paid advertising as part of their strategy. And Facebook accounts for 23% of total U.S. digital ad spending. All of those numbers are sure to increase in 2019.

Brian: What happens when we see this trend emerge is that it gets more competitive and more expensive to advertise.

To counter this, social teams should make sure they pair their ad money with equal time investment and creativity..

In other words, you won't be able to just create any old ad and have it work. You have to invest some time in creating great content. One of the easiest ways to do this is to just boost your top performing organic content.

Hailley: If you've noticed, lots of brands like Spotify, Blenders Eyeware, and others are leading the way with creative social ads that are both personalized and entertaining, rather than just banner ads squeezed into a news feed.

It's the brand awareness type ads that are really thriving. Even if you're selling your product, you can do it in a way that doesn't feel intrusive to other types of authentic content in the news feed.

Brian: Content should feel like something coming from your friends.

We wanted to give you a few tips on creating better ads.

First, you must must must, understand your target audience.

Each ad campaign should target a focused group based on interests, jobs, relevant competitors, and previous interaction with your brand.

Hailley: Next, make sure to define your goals and metrics up front.

It's important to show that social media has a positive bottom-line impact on your business.

Awareness campaigns, for example, might focus on impressions, while conversion campaigns should put more value on click-throughs.

After goals, it's all about investing in high-quality content.

With more brands competing for people's attention on social media, ordinary posts just aren't going to cut it.

Brian: At the heart of great content are compelling visuals, which are essential for clicks and high conversion rates on social media. Not every brand will have the budget for expensive equipment or a professional team, but even just learning some video basics or even hiring a freelancer can make a difference.

But one thing every brand and marketer can and should be doing is repurposing ideas from top-performing organic content.

Creating high quality social ads takes time and money. Test your ad concepts as organic posts first to see how they perform. Once you see what's working, you can adapt and repurpose your top performing organic content for ads.

Hailley: Doing that will help increase ROI of your ads right from the beginning.

And one more thing on that topic is to embrace new ad formats

Instagram Stories ads, for example, have been around since 2017. But this year Instagram gave brands the ability to use three consecutive photos or videos.

Pinterest, on the other hand, recently rolled out wide-format promoted videos.

And Facebook Messenger ads now allow brands to connect with customers directly via instant messaging.

4. Rise of social media TV and vertical videos

One of the biggest social media trends since 2018 has been the launch of IGTV by Instagram.

This along with other developments from social networks points to the rise of what we're calling “social television” lead by the vertical video format.

Hailley: I think that this fourth trend is one of the most exciting social media trends 2019 and is going to fundamentally shift the way that brands and marketers create content.

Plus, Instagram is just going to continue to grow exponentially. Other platforms will probably follow suit with their own version of vertical video and Stories.

According to data collected by Statista, more than 50% of digital videos are now viewed on mobile in vertical format. And it has been showing a general upward trend since 2013.

Brian: I hope at this point everyone is starting to realize that these trends for 2019 are all connected. Personalized experiences, advertising, and vertical videos are all a part of the overall way the social media industry is heading.

Each platform is working hard to create experiences that people want to return to every single day. Which is exactly why things like IGTV are so compelling-that content sits right there at the top of the feed, and is top of mind each time someone logs on.

Hailley: Your daily authentic content creation approach that businesses will inevitably take advantage of in 2019.

The way we see it is that savvy businesses will create content for each type of consumer:

The daily consumer that Stories really helps to attract.

The shoppers and scrollers that the News Feed is perfect for.

The power users that longer form content, like what's found on IGTV, is perfect for.

Brian: Thinking about your target audience as these types of personas and then matching your content to their intentions on social will lead to the biggest engagement.

Which, is a great transition into our 5th trend to look forward to in 2019 and that's a shift in marketing best-practices.

5. The evolution from multichannel to omnichannel marketing

Hailley: Now this one isn't solely about social media trends 2019, but social media plays a critical role in your overall marketing strategy.

If you're wondering what omnichannel marketing is and why we're talking about omnichannel, Omni is based on the Latin word Omnis, which means 'all or every' – and this obviously emphasizes the importance of reaching and interacting with customers in all channels.

Brian: There's a quote floating around out there from John Bowden, VP at Time Warner Cable, and I think he explains omnichannel marketing perfectly:

“Omnichannel is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer, orchestrating the customer experience across all channels so that it is seamless and integrated. It anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to an end point. That end point is your product or service.”

In other words, you have to think about the digital experience as a whole.

Hailley: A buyer's journey is still a mystery for the most part because there are so many touch points with your brand along the way, but what we do know, is that nobody today shops exclusively through a single medium.

Consumers of all generations buy online and in stores, they read reviews, listen to peers, do their research and it all makes up part of a bigger picture.

Brian: The best part about thinking of marketing like this is that paid ads, social, content, and email channels don't have to compete against each other for sales or customers.

You can grow your business by strategically integrating all these channels together.

So while email may not convert a customer immediately, readers might visit your website from your newsletter. Then you might then use that traffic to re-target visitors with a special offer on social media.

Hailley: Exactly and those people might read a review on Google or Amazon about your product.

But it all originated with that email. And even though the email won't get credit, you still were able to add a new customer to the list.

Which I think every business would consider a win.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

Hailley on Twitter and Hailley's Website

Brian on Twitter and Brian's Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It'd mean the world to us if you'd be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each and every episode. It's our hope that you'll join our 20,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

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simplemlmsponsoring · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/social-media-marketing/5-data-backed-social-media-trends-you-need-to-know-for-2019/

5 Data-Backed Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2019

The brands that are successful in delivering personalized experiences to their audiences are the brands that are likely to thrive with their social media strategies in the coming year.

But in order to be able to capitalize on this and everything else social media has to offer, you have to know what’s coming!

Which is exactly why today we’re covering 5 data-backed social media trends you need to know to make 2019 your best year yet with social media marketing.

Let’s dive in!

5 data-backed social media trends you need to know for 2019

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode #127 for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

Trend 1: In-the-moment content will win out over highly-produced content Trend 2: AI-driven personalized customer experiences Trend 3: Brands can no longer afford to ignore social media ads Trend 4: Rise of social media TV and vertical videos Trend 5: The evolution from multichannel to omnichannel marketing

Kicking off our most popular show of the year: Social Media Trends 2019.

1. In-the-moment content will win out over highly-produced content

Stories and rise of ephemeral content across social networks, which I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of in 2019, is capturing the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere.

Hailley: One of the key parts of that trend is that we’re predicting that stories will become the primary way to share content on social media, overtaking the News Feed. Only time will tell, but we’ll count on you to let us know if that prediction was right or not next year!

But this is why social media marketers have to continue to pay close attention to the rise of Stories and how it impacts how people consume content. And it’s why we talk about it so much here on the show. We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in media.

Brian: Mobile usage and even shorter attention spans will continue to increase the popularity of short-lived content in 2019, especially with Millennials and Generation Z’ers, who thrive on their relationships with brands being authentic and meaningful.

Which is exactly why it’s crucial that social media marketers establish a solid video strategy for ephemeral content.

More and more brands will embrace this personal, authentic and in-the-moment style content vs. overly produced, pre-packed content.

Hailley: What exactly does that mean for you?

You can accomplish a lot of this by taking your audience behind the scenes and showing the work your business day-to-day.

If you’re a coffee shop, create a story of how you brew the perfect cup.

If you’re a service business, take your followers on a tour of your office or show your team working.

Brian: Overall, the key thing is to experiment.

Imagine at one end of the spectrum there’s the old social media with pre-packaged, very produced content. At the other end you have in-the-moment, super raw content. For brands, there are millions of untapped miles of opportunity in the middle of those two ends to try new things.

2. AI-driven personalized customer experiences

Which, brings us to our next social media trends 2019 and that’s that we’ll start to see AI drive a personalized customer experiences across lots of different channels.

Hailley: From chatbots to ad optimization, platforms like Google and Facebook have been continuing to adopt artificial intelligence to enhance customer interaction.

But it remains a huge opportunity and is underutilized by many brands.

Where we’re seeing this develop particularly fast is in the form of online customer service.

In 2018, the growth in AI-driven communication has been undeniable, with tools like Intercom and Drift starting to appear on websites everywhere.

Many experts predict that by 2020, more than 80% of all customer service interactions will be powered by AI bots.

Brian: Again, with the younger generations leading the charge.

Hailley: Let’s talk about WhatsApp for a second because I think marketers forget that they have over a billion users.

But in terms of personalization, given the vast amount of information being uploaded by people each day, it’s become very easy to get insights into all kinds of information about your customers.

This has opened the door for enhanced personalization, and that has increased consumer expectation for the same. So in other words, consumers are coming to expect it.

Hailley: Content, products, emails, ads – all can now be based on the consumer’s purchase history, clicked links, social media posts, and other behavior.

Brian: It’s on you as a business to figure out what personalization looks like for your company.

As long as you are respectful of personal privacy, personalization is a solid way to go for marketers to boost campaign performance in 2019.

3. Brands can no longer afford to ignore social media ads

We’re already seeing a ton of businesses jump on board with social media ads. Marketers increased social ad budgets 32% in 2018 alone and produced more ads than ever before.

Brian: What happens when we see this trend emerge is that it gets more competitive and more expensive to advertise.

To counter this, social teams should make sure they pair their ad money with equal time investment and creativity..

In other words, you won’t be able to just create any old ad and have it work. You have to invest some time in creating great content. One of the easiest ways to do this is to just boost your top performing organic content.

Hailley: If you’ve noticed, lots of brands like Spotify, Blenders Eyeware, and others are leading the way with creative social ads that are both personalized and entertaining, rather than just banner ads squeezed into a news feed.

It’s the brand awareness type ads that are really thriving. Even if you’re selling your product, you can do it in a way that doesn’t feel intrusive to other types of authentic content in the news feed.

Brian: Content should feel like something coming from your friends.

We wanted to give you a few tips on creating better ads.

First, you must must must, understand your target audience.

Each ad campaign should target a focused group based on interests, jobs, relevant competitors, and previous interaction with your brand.

Hailley: Next, make sure to define your goals and metrics up front.

It’s important to show that social media has a positive bottom-line impact on your business.

Awareness campaigns, for example, might focus on impressions, while conversion campaigns should put more value on click-throughs.

After goals, it’s all about investing in high-quality content.

With more brands competing for people’s attention on social media, ordinary posts just aren’t going to cut it.

But one thing every brand and marketer can and should be doing is repurposing ideas from top-performing organic content.

Creating high quality social ads takes time and money. Test your ad concepts as organic posts first to see how they perform. Once you see what’s working, you can adapt and repurpose your top performing organic content for ads.

Hailley: Doing that will help increase ROI of your ads right from the beginning.

And one more thing on that topic is to embrace new ad formats

Instagram Stories ads, for example, have been around since 2017. But this year Instagram gave brands the ability to use three consecutive photos or videos.

Pinterest, on the other hand, recently rolled out wide-format promoted videos.

And Facebook Messenger ads now allow brands to connect with customers directly via instant messaging.

4. Rise of social media TV and vertical videos

One of the biggest social media trends since 2018 has been the launch of IGTV by Instagram.

This along with other developments from social networks points to the rise of what we’re calling “social television” lead by the vertical video format.

Hailley: I think that this fourth trend is one of the most exciting social media trends 2019 and is going to fundamentally shift the way that brands and marketers create content.

Plus, Instagram is just going to continue to grow exponentially. Other platforms will probably follow suit with their own version of vertical video and Stories.

According to data collected by Statista, more than 50% of digital videos are now viewed on mobile in vertical format. And it has been showing a general upward trend since 2013.

Each platform is working hard to create experiences that people want to return to every single day. Which is exactly why things like IGTV are so compelling—that content sits right there at the top of the feed, and is top of mind each time someone logs on.

Hailley: Your daily authentic content creation approach that businesses will inevitably take advantage of in 2019.

The way we see it is that savvy businesses will create content for each type of consumer:

The daily consumer that Stories really helps to attract. The shoppers and scrollers that the News Feed is perfect for. The power users that longer form content, like what’s found on IGTV, is perfect for.

Brian: Thinking about your target audience as these types of personas and then matching your content to their intentions on social will lead to the biggest engagement.

Which, is a great transition into our 5th trend to look forward to in 2019 and that’s a shift in marketing best-practices.

5. The evolution from multichannel to omnichannel marketing

Hailley: Now this one isn’t solely about social media trends 2019, but social media plays a critical role in your overall marketing strategy.

If you’re wondering what omnichannel marketing is and why we’re talking about omnichannel, Omni is based on the Latin word Omnis, which means ‘all or every’ – and this obviously emphasizes the importance of reaching and interacting with customers in all channels.

Brian: There’s a quote floating around out there from John Bowden, VP at Time Warner Cable, and I think he explains omnichannel marketing perfectly:

In other words, you have to think about the digital experience as a whole.

Hailley: A buyer’s journey is still a mystery for the most part because there are so many touch points with your brand along the way, but what we do know, is that nobody today shops exclusively through a single medium.

Consumers of all generations buy online and in stores, they read reviews, listen to peers, do their research and it all makes up part of a bigger picture.

Brian: The best part about thinking of marketing like this is that paid ads, social, content, and email channels don’t have to compete against each other for sales or customers.

You can grow your business by strategically integrating all these channels together.

So while email may..

Read more: blog.bufferapp.com

#brands #content #customer #media #more #other #social #trends #your #SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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theonyxpath · 5 years ago

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So, we’re between Kickstarters now that the V5 Cults of the Blood Gods KS is over. And what a fantastic run that was! Over 500% funded and over 2500 backers that produced three additional V5 projects as Stretch Goals!

Trail of Bone and Ashes – a collection of playable stories.

Forbidden Faiths – expanded information and additional rules for cults.

Faithful Undead – new SPCs and their cultish coteries, and LORESHEETS!

We were also able to fund TWO pay bonuses for the writers, whose text that we provided to backers really went a long way in ratcheting up everyone’s excitement. Which we feel really great about, as we do about all the fantastic commentary from backers.

All in all, it was just a delightful KS experience – a great way to start the new year.

Which brings us to the next Kickstarter we’re setting up right now, for Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition. (That’s the teaser graphic for the game up above.) After we set it up, we still need to get WW/Paradox‘s OK on the info presented, so we can’t really give a date yet.

If it isn’t obvious, this is a game set in the Chronicles of Darkness, and uses the CofD 2e rules set. (Not the Storypath System, though, which is Onyx Path‘s house system and not one we can freely mix in to WW-owned game lines).

Distant Worlds art by Seth Rutledge

One thing that came out of discussions during the Cults KS, and from meetings at MidWinter, is that as Onyx Path has evolved our business model during these past eight years, it’s not obvious why we do things as we do them.

A lot of stores that carry RPGs still aren’t aware that we are putting books into stores, and other than you fabulous folks who read this blog every week (You do read this blog every week, right? You should, most doctors I know recommend it), there are people out there in our community that also aren’t sure where and how to get our books.

KICKSTARTER

Let’s start with Kickstarter and how and why we use a crowd-funding platform. We use it primarily at this point to create a up-front buzz, and garner up-front funds, so that we can print more books than backers have pledged for, and then put those books into stores. KS helps us with getting a rough idea of the kind of interest there is out there for a project, and we can use that info in estimating (guessing) the number of books we need available for stores.

We’re certainly still learning how to estimate. Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau both went back second print runs as we ran out of copies for retailers. Not immediately, and it’s a great problem to have, but even so. We’re keeping a close eye on V5 Chicago By Night, because that has the potential to shift a lot of our thinking on these numbers for stores. Maybe not. We’ll see.

During a Kickstarter campaign, we like to use Stretch Goals to create added “support products” for the game. Usually smaller books that add to the main idea of the KS’d project. Sometimes different sort of projects, like anthologies, or working with other companies so they can create these extra projects. That way, folks don’t just KS a single book, they help us with launching a bunch of connected projects.

We advertise all over, I talk about each KS here in the weeks – usually just over four – that it runs, and we have demo and designer streams on ours and others’ Twitch channels leading up to and during the KS. Even so, some folks miss the KS, which brings us to:

BACKERKIT

Backerkit is one of a bunch of venues that sprang up to help KS creators after the Kickstarter campaign was over. I like BK and what services they offer, but other KS creators use other ones. The advantage to any of them, though, is that they provide us with more tools to get backer rewards out, and help backers and those who missed the KS, upgrade or even get the KS’d project.

Since we put up each KS’d project’s BackerKit page about a month after the KS is over, and until the KS shipping process starts at least six months later you can go there and up your pledge or “pre-order” the project, BK serves as an easy and accessible ramp towards our release. But before the release to backers, we have another stage to the project:

BACKER PDF

Once all the layout is done; text is laid into the format and illustrations and design elements are laid in, and any approvals are OK’d, then we send out links to backers so they can download the Backer PDF.

Now, this is not the final PDF. We still want our backer community involved, so we also provide a link to a sheet where interested backers can post any errata that they find. This is an important fine-tuning point in the process, so we truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to review and send us notes about the PDF.

It’s up to the dev(s) whether or not they deem any notes as things that need to be corrected, but obvious errors are usually obviously errors once someone points them out, so errata feedback has proven to improve our projects over and over again.

We use these corrected PDF files to create Final PDFs, that backers can update in their DTRPG Library, and to create the PoD printing and traditional printing files. If a book of our has been KS’d to get into stores, then it is traditionally printed and bound. That’s really the point of most of our KSs at this point: get them traditionally printed on big turn-y printing presses and bindery machines.

Why? Because traditional printing prints a “print run”, hundreds or thousands of books are printed and bound in one “run”. This is far more cost effective than Print On Demand (PoD), which prints a book and binds it after you order it. Then prints another one and binds that for the next order.

Then, once the books are done being made, they move into:

SHIPPING BACKER REWARDS

This is one of the toughest and most expensive phases of doing a Kickstarter, and one I can and have gone into great detail on in terms of the challenges KS shipping presents, but for the purposes of this post, it’s a stage that leads to:

GETTING BOOKS INTO RETAIL STORES

This is really the newest stage for us, and we continue to fine-tune our best practices. Simply put, our sales partners solicit orders from distributors and stores and then ship our books out to them. This happens after the KS Backer Reward shipments have been sent, but we don’t wait for every single shipping problem, like bad addresses or damaged shipments, to get resolved.

So, it’s usually the month after KS Backer Rewards ship. At the same time, we put the Final PDF and the PoD versions of the project live on DTRPG, for all those people in our community that can’t get to stores or prefer PDFs. And many stores do have online ordering of the traditionally printed versions, too.

This means that you can go to your Friendly Local Game Store, look for books we have KS’d on the shelves, and either pick them up there or ask your Retailer to order them for you. Please do, because they may not realize we have started to get projects into stores again.

Here’s that process in a line: KS => BackerKit => Backer PDFs errata => final files => Backer Rewards => On Sale in stores and PDF/PoDs at DTRPG.

Of course, we still create projects that we don’t KS and we don’t put into stores, so their process would be more this: Advance PDF on DTRPG => errata => final PDF and PoD at DTRPG.

Hope that all of the above helps folks find our projects out there in the gaming wilderness!

Dark Eras 2 art by Alex Sheikman

A FEW OTHER THINGS:

Still related to Kickstarters, though, we’re not done with them yet. We recently sent out the Backer PDFs for both Dark Eras 2 for Chronicles of Darkness, and They Came From Beneath the Sea! and reaction has been fantastic. Matthew, in particular, has been touched in his cold, dead, heart by the warm reception to the TCFBtS! Backer PDF as it has been his baby since he first pitched the idea to me several years ago.

In fact, we even saw Backers wearing They Came From Beneath the Sea! shirts at MidWinter just over a week ago.

At MidWinter, in case you missed it, we announced several new games I mentioned last week as well, including They Came From Beyond the Grave!, the next in the They Came From… series. This game will focus on the sort of 60s – 70s horror typified by Hammer Horror films, Roger Corman films, and the Dark Shadows TV show.

In fact, there is even a built-in, two time period, part of the game where you can also play in that pseudo Victorian or Edwardian era that those sorts of media loved to play around with. Flashbacks to an earlier life? Prologue for the 70s? Time travel? All possible with this.

We also announced Trinity Continuum: Assassins, a parallel setting for the Trinity Continuum core rulebook setting. This is really a great way to start to emphasize the strength of the Continuum concept in the Trinity Continuum. Sort of a dark mirror universe that can be separate from your core setting, or as connected as you want it to be. Stylish, deadly, and often amoral except for one thing – but expert killers nonetheless.

There was also an announcement for TC: Adventure!, which is the retooling of the original Pulp-genre game, although set about 10 years later in the 1930s. Most of my favorite pulp magazine adventures were set in that decade and into the 40s, so it made sense to me, plus, now players can find themselves with real opportunities to foil Nazis!

Although it was kind of lost amongst all the other hoopla, we are thrilled to be able to let Changeling: The Lost 2e fans know that we are also working on The Hedge for that gameline. As you might imagine, this book features an exploration of that most treacherous and terrifying barrier between our world and, well, a lot of really horrifying and/or beautiful things.

Finally, here’s a heads-up that the New Year brought a change and we have ended our Exalted 3rd monthly PDF releases so that we can create the remaining entries for both Hundred Devils Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous and get both those books finished and out on DTRPG in PDF and PoD versions.

Yugman’s Guide art by Bryan Syme

But fear not, true believer! We won’t let your craving for monthly PDF releases go unsatisfied! Instead we will be presenting sections of Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad for Scarred Lands every other month, alternating with chapters of Vigil Watch. Two different ways to learn about the Scarred Lands setting.

So there you go! Hoping the info here was helpful as you travel with us on our Onyx Path. A sometimes confusing path as we grow, but it’s still:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Next on Kickstarter, we are looking at Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition for Chronicles of Darkness!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is a deep dive into the riotous They Came From Beneath the Sea!! Check it out direct on Podbean, or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

A bumper schedule on Twitch this week with Vampire, Chronicles of Darkness, Scion, Pugmire, Aberrant, Scarred Lands, Changeling: The Lost, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, and even more Scarred Lands and Vampire besides!

As ever, subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Our YouTube channel continues filling up with content, including the Onyx Path News! Do stay subscribed to youtube.com/user/theonyxpath to catch the news when it comes out live!

And here’s Occultists Anonymous‘ latest offerings:

Episode 74: A Lonely Road The cabal performs some investigative magics in The Town, preparing to leave out on the Golden Road. The Golden Road provides dangers quickly enough… https://youtu.be/ujWouzwjenk

Episode 75: Trials & Air Miles The Rookery Cabal continues down the Golden Road after confronting the Minotaur. Further barriers stand before them that challenge more than just their bodies. https://youtu.be/qSd_gymS8FA

The Primogen launched a video handling V5 Cults of the Blood Gods right here: https://youtu.be/2JMV_VJrjwQ Do give him a subscribe!

Red Moon Roleplaying continue their actual play of Changeling: The Lost, V5 Cults of the Blood Gods, and close their chronicle of V5 Chicago by Night on their YouTube channel, Spotify, their website redmoonroleplaying.com and everywhere else good podcasts might be found!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero AND Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we will be releasing Trinity Continuum: Aeon symbols – all the Orders, Aeon, and the game logo – on shirts and other merchandise on our RedBubble store!

Conventions!

More conventions will be listed for 2020 in the weeks to come-

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Duke Rollo fiction (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

RUST (Working Title) (Scarred Lands)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Redlines

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Post-Approval Development

Scion LARP Rules (Scion)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Editing

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Mythical Denizens (Creatures of the World Bestiary) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Post-Editing Development

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – All KS art is in.

Ex3 Lunars – Art is in.

TCfBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers – LeBlanc working on finals.

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed – Finals should be in end of month, lining up layout artist.

Cults of the Blood God (KS)

Mummy 2

City of the Towered Tombs – Had to recontract this, moving along now.

Let the Streets Run Red

CtL Oak Ash and Thorn – Contracted.

Deviant

Vigil Watch – Contracted.

Legendlore (KS) – Starting to gather art needs for KS.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Artwork for KS in progress.

Scion Companion – Working on art notes for that with Meredith.

TC: Aeon Terra Firma – Getting that rolling out.

In Layout

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Travis doing the layout on this.

Pirates of Pugmire – With Aileen.

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Scion Mythical Denizens – Headed to proofing.

Contagion Chronicle – Getting files together for Josh.

Proofing

Dark Eras 2 – Backer PDF out to backers, errata coning in.

Trinity Continuum Aeon Jumpstart

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Backer PDF out to backers, errata coming in.

VtR Spilled Blood – Josh finishing.

Chicago Folio – Inputting corrections.

Wraith20 Anthology – At WW.

At Press

V5: Chicago – Shipping to backers.

Geist 2e (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition) – Shipping to fulfillment shippers.

Geist 2e Screen – Being printed.

DR:E – Shipping to fulfillment shippers.

DRE Screen – Being printed.

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Memento Mori – Awaiting errata for input.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Here in the US, today is the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday! History has underscored that MLK, Jr. was a human being, flawed like all humankind, but nevertheless he was a person trying to make the world better. And he paid the ultimate price so often paid by those who dream of such things.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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avaliveradio · 5 years ago

Text

How to get 10k Streams on Spotify

If you are new to the music biz or even if you have been at this for a while, getting music fans to play you is not easy. Sometimes I’m sure it feels like people are anti-music listeners, especially when you ask them to listen to you.

Take heart, I’ve been working with musicians for over 10 years and I’ve helped to break thousands of songs into the media. What I do know for sure is this doesn’t happen overnight for anyone and you should never give up on an awesome song.

Growing your music streams is not an easy task but it’s worth the effort. If you are an artist who is releasing music consistently, then your efforts will grow in layers. Just never give up on it or you will lose momentum and someone else will slide right into your place with your fans.

Something else you need to know is that quality content matters. If you want to get ahead more quickly, you’ve got to master taking great images that can map your journey on social media and to the press.

Press can only do great things for you if you learn to tell a great story using images, video and text. Our editing team here at AVA Live Radio can help you get all that together and create amazing feature stories for press releasing to an already built following.

I’ve also loved the power of anticipation. Campaigns perform so much better when the artist understands the power of telling the story in the moment. You end up with details that you never remember later documented and wonderful timelines of content that we press agents can pull from.

I think you’ll find that if you get in the habit of documenting what’s happening with you daily to your fans, your relationships get strong quickly and when you do have a music release ready for streaming, people will be ready to hear it.

Apply to playlist curators you know.

Inclusion into some advertised applicable Spotify Playlists can break an artist or a song in front of new music fans. It’s one of the keys to promote your music and have a stronger presence. Our curation team is always looking for new music to update our Spotify Playlists. If you have a track, a new release or an EP that’s perfect for one of them, please submit to your desired Playlist on our Submission page.

To be considered make sure you have followed our playlist, follow us on Spotify and share our playlist with a tag to @AVALiveRadio at least once. Only artists sharing our playlist will be reviewed. We get hundreds of new submissions daily, so be sure to execute this step religiously and make sure we see it if you want your application considered.

Create your own playlist

When you create your own playlist, make sure you add at least 10 qualifying songs that support your track by genre, mood and fan base. A music fan that hears your playlist wants to discover fresh music so take care in curating a solid list. You only get one chance to make a great impression so if the playlist is awesome, that fan will listen to your future recommendations as well.

Be active with your playlist on social media. Remind people when you add something fresh, celebrate the music you add to it. Be creative and manage your own personal playlists around your releases so fans can support you but also learn about music you love and that influences you. Most importantly, it allows you to trade your tracks with other musicians, share your music and increase your presence : it’s a win-win situation for everyone and best if the musicians share similar fan bases.

BUILD A MUSIC BRAND

Music success is more about brand building than anything else. It’s not enough to have one track take off, you’ve got to have an inventory to back that up or you won’t see any real traction for your hard work and advertising dollars. This includes professional looking photography and video content. Take care in all the content released from your music brand and don’t rush your posting schedule. If you don’t have anything great to share, wait until you do. Your BRAND is only as strong as your latest release.

Having a strong “Brand” image is essential, on your website, streaming sites like Spotify and especially on social media. Everything should match and look cohesive across all your pages. Remember, everything public is considered a showcase for your music and part of your brand identity.

You should also work towards getting verified on Spotify as an Artist.

CONTACT MUSIC BLOGS

Most popular music blogs are completely inaccessible to new artists who haven’t paid their dues yet. Serious music blogs need to feed their audience qualified music news and risk liquidating their reputation if they send out something from a band that doesn’t have their identity in place nor any follow up inventory. I recommend launching several releases and promoting them to music fans on social media before trying to get the attention of all the top curators.

When you do have your brand in order and an Ep or Album launched with some good fan reviews, package that up and apply for Indie Music Spin and AVA Live Radio.

A release on Indie Music Spin will gain a good track anywhere from 5k-25k streams just be posting to their website and newsletter. Typically they work with management teams and labels but you can also submit as an indie artist through the AVA Live Radio Submission page.

A featured page also on the AVA Live Radio website and newsletter can help a track spread quickly from rotation on our broadcasts and social media shares. We also have several playlists that will help you gain notice on the Spotify Algorithm. Posting through the New Music Release Radar program will gain you 10k-25k initial streams over 3 weeks and often 40k-100k streams over 8 weeks if the track is excellent and gets the attention of the other curators in our network.

Radio rotation can be applied for using our New Release Radar page. All applications must be paid in full to get on the network but we guarantee the results if your track is accepted and if you are not accepted, your credit card will not be charged. Apply here:

DEVELOP AN EMAIL LIST

Prior to your release coming out, gather your best pictures and start telling people what you are up to on social media. When you start capturing anyone’s interest ask them to get on your email list to be the first to hear your new release. Be sure to talk about your plan for the release and any milestone goals you are trying to reach. Don’t expect people to jump on board right away if they don’t know you, the average person needs to experience a new musician around 4-8 times before they decide to get on board with you. The key is to be consistent and think about what you stand for. Express your message and offer value to your subscribers. The value and personal content would be things they may miss or can’t get any other way like free downloads, video messages and perhaps Behind the scenes photos with a narrated blog post to go with it.

Find a way to reward new subscribers publicly without revealing their private emails publicly. This could be done on your newsletter or on the social media pages.

Your email list is like gold if you nurture the best and most active fans to it. It can guarantee your views, streams and sales in the future. It just takes time to build.

SHARE YOUR SPOTIFY EVERYWHERE

Don’t be shy once your spotify stream is live. Share it everywhere. Add the link to your descriptions on social, share it on your newsletter, and in messages. It takes time to gain traction so mix it up on social media. Make sure everyone knows about your launch and alternate your posts so they don’t seem repetitive. You’ve got to get creative and appreciate the fact that people need to see variety. Repetitive posts are boring and get ignored so try to get creative with the way you share your posts.

Just look at some of your favorite main stream artist and subtract out the advertising banners for the real content that gets the highest engagement with their fans.

Take a look at how Alicia Keys posts on instagram. There’s a nice mix of professional pictures, music and behind the scenes images. https://www.instagram.com/aliciakeys/

Post Malone also have a terrific social media profile filled with his personality on and off the stage. https://www.instagram.com/postmalone/

BE PATIENT

This takes time so it’s important that you look past just one month on your promotions. Building a fan base and having a hit record takes consistency and time. People need time to learn about you and they need to see you more often. Stay focused on your content production and watch for what resonates with those around you.

WORK WITH A GREAT TEAM If you apply and get invited to work with the AVA Live Radio Network, you’ll be working closely with your own media advisor who will guide you to improving all of the things I’ve listed for you on this guide. You’ll receive a full Pre-release template and release strategy that you can follow to make this easy and efficient.

You’ll also receive updated information on all results as we proceed through your promotions. This includes tracking how many thousands of streams to your spotify page that our promotions have brought to you.

PR takes time and effort to execute well but as you know, our team creates professional promotions daily for artists, management and labels all over the world. We look forward to helping you achieve great results.

We have been promoting artists for 10 years, You can Read the FEEDBACK here: https://www.avaliveradio.info/feedback

You can read through our marketing guide for some useful tips and to get to know how we work on these releases in the international press. More tips for you here.

https://www.avaliveradio.info/jaxdaily/music-marketing-guide

Jacqueline Jax

Entertainment branding and marketing speciality

ENJOY SOME OF OUR PLAYLIST BELOW.

#marketing #music streaming #spotify #music charts

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topicprinter · 5 years ago

Link

Reddit family,I've been on reddit since December 18, 2011 (had to check my personal account cake day). I've learned so much on this site and spend most of my time engaged with /r/mtb and /r/toyotatacoma.This post is intended to share our work with you so you can pull out what is helpful. It's not an academic paper so some things are probably vague. Please ask questions and make suggestions!At the request of the mods, I've taken out 99% of the links to our materials and partners we used/worked with. The rest of this message is word-for-word what I sent out to mentors, investors, and friends of the company yesterday as part of our weekly updates. Scroll to the bottom for images with data and charts.The message (with edits to be less promo):---------------------------------------We're in the 15th day of our Kickstarter campaign and are sitting a little over $82k - and we have officially surpassed the total funding of our last campaign! Tracking to this point in our last campaign, we are growing at a rate of 44%. Our plan for rest-of-campaign is to keep up cross-promotion and paid-ad activity to create steady daily pledges and to keep pressing PR, email list features, and Kickstarter-watch outlets for regular bumps. We are getting really solid organic pledges through Kickstarter, accounting for the majority of recent activity.This post is going to contain a lot of information. If you want to dive deep into how we're doing what we're doing, this'll be your day!OUR LAUNCH STRATEGY (or: how we pre-sold $27k in one day)Pre-launch content marketing:Several months ago, we identified our current audience as our most valuable asset: website customers (~400), kickstarter backers (~500), followers (~9k), and email list subscribers (~25k). Following this insight, we planned out a content-marketing strategy with the intention of taking someone from a distant follower into an eager customer, and a customer to a superfan.We started weekly lve video Q&A's on our Instagram, each with its own planned topic. We covered the people behind the brand, our values, our products, and more. These live episodes were then re-packaged into youtube videos, email list features, and social media posts to be shared with our audience. Nearly every social post and email mentioned the upcoming Kickstarter and leaking specs of the new pants. Our ambassadors helped a lot in building hype.We sent primer emails to our press and industry contacts letting them know we'd be launching soon. This included a press release, details, and images. Video and campaign pageOnline shopping is built upon trust, and nothing creates trust like a professional page and video.We teamed up with a local media company who is incredibly talented for our video - ensuring we'd come out with something high quality. We planned a four location shoot: rock climbing, commuter cycling/coffee shop, welding shop, and urban mountain bike. The idea being to showcase all the ways you could use our product.We then spent several weeks iterating and refining our campaign page. We walked through top-grossing campaigns and took cues to how they laid out the page, digital assets, and the language used. We made sure our campaign wasn't lacking any vital piece of information. Then we iterated like crazy going through it like a fine toothed comb cleaning things up, adding missing information, and correcting awkward assets/copy.The main things we took away were to use a GIF or bright image for a hero image at the top, get to the product features quickly, EXPLAIN why the features matter, most text needs to be on images, present lifestyle and detail images in groups to keep things interesting. Also we knew we needed: timeline, good FAQ, stretch goals, basicallly: what information might someone want to find. We took away that a page can be very, very long and still be effective and that our customers like details - so we went all in. We actually removed about 40% of content before launch.Early promotionEmail was our main tool at the start. I worked up seven segmented emails staggered from 9am-11am on launch day. In order of first to know: friends & family, insiders, brand ambassadors, previous backers, most-engaged email list, least-engaged email list. This allowed our most loyal fans to get the "Super Early Bird Pricing."After the emails went out, we announced loudly on our social accounts. We used our personal accounts and asked our friends and partners to share our posts. The important thing here is that we announce on Facebook, Instagram post, Instagram story, and Linkedin all at once. This "everywhere" effect is a good way to increase perception of importance.We wrote a press release, created a press kit with images and graphics, and sent out the announcement news to local and national press. We got some good syndication from this. We always get something. I like press releases!We had a great list of cross-promotion partners lined up from the start. These included other non-clothing brands in the outdoors space who we have developed relationships with as well as a couple sustainability and buy-it-for-life blogs.We exhibited at Outside Experience (put on by Outside Magazine) on our opening weekend. The early success of the campaign was a great proof-point to visitors who were receptive to our message of "Own less, live more" and "Less stuff, better stuff." This event was incredible. Plus, we collected 230 very, very warm emails.Campaign promotionWe teamed up with a Kickstarter marketing firm for live promotion. They are managing our ongoing paid-ad spend, national/international PR efforts, cross-promotions, and affiliate marketing - along with general campaign strategy. In the referrer data below, you'll see just how valuable their cross-promotion, affiliate network, and PR efforts are. We're continuing both owned and personal social media promotion, as well as email updates to our general and segmented email lists.We are currently sponsoring the an outdoor startup podcast (4 live episodes during the campaign), with ad spots at the beginning and end of the episodes. These get 5-10k downloads each and is a test project for us. Their audience has brought us dozens of customers, so we know it's highly relevant.Kickbooster is being utilized to drive affiliate links and virality. The main drivers of ongoing pledges, however, are press placements, cross-promotion, paid social ads, and organic Kickstarter.The spikes in pledges we are shooting for now come from "the grind." Consistent effort on press and partner outreach leads to consistent placements in front of new audiences. We scored another great email feature this morning (very niche and very good for us).We're continuing Livsn Live video Q&A's on Thursday nights at 8pm CST on Instagram Live. So you can visualize what I'm talking about, here is the campaign page. It's the one link we think should stay in, so you can see things in real time and also so you can make suggestions.The live campaignI promised data didn't I? OVERVIEWThe campaign as of 7/22 (all data as of 7/22)[image](https://imgur.com/pyw2TyD)Before we get too far along, I think we should acknowledge that only 1.7% of kickstarter campaigns surpass $75k. We're now in good company.[image](https://imgur.com/LBsI0kA)Here's a look at where we may end up. Kicktraq (where this chart comes from) is usually pretty optimistic. However, this is reasonable and probably a good prediction.[image](https://imgur.com/JAlrt8O)GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHICSWorldwide traffic[image](https://imgur.com/8gP0hLj)Here is the country breakdown with traffic and revenue.[image](https://imgur.com/eoqGNtE)Where in the USA. [image](https://imgur.com/gwkcuIN)By the numbers. (The state of Virginia is basically a big server farm and distorts this data, unfortunately)[image](https://imgur.com/rjxdckj)Males 25-34.[image](https://imgur.com/09LAI69)TRAFFIC AND CONVERSION DATAWhere the traffic is coming from.[image](https://imgur.com/7ZUM6FX)Here is a breakdown of that "referral" traffic above. Our email list is at the top by revenue (emaile.fnd.to). 2bc.fnd.to is the marketing firm's cross promotion efforts. I'm especially happy to see the blue results - those are due to Kickstarter's own algorithm putting in front of their audience (major reason we use KS). Note: anything with an "e" before .fnd.to is our own activity. The "e" stands for exclusion and it's a list I made to keep us from paying our marketing firm for activity we drive.[image](https://imgur.com/gC9tkMe)This one shows referral activity ranked by traffic. Paide.fnd.to is our own social media ads (not run by Funded Today). The 51msa and 51dsa are marketing firm ads. Thisiswhyimbroke.com, elevator, and newatlas are marketing firm PR placements.[image](https://imgur.com/y2sjcZD)Most popular pre-sale packages.[image](https://imgur.com/UAAO5Ab)THIS CAMPAIGN VS. OUR LAST ONEThe following are going to be two-image groups, with our last campaign on top of our current one. This is so you can see the growth of this effort vs. last time. [image](https://imgur.com/KIJtf9e)[image](https://imgur.com/vsAEuwY)LINE CHART DAILY SALESShowing growth of 44% over where we were at day 12 in the first campaign.[image](https://imgur.com/BOVHQ1D)[image](https://imgur.com/FbpLYt4)BAR CHART DAILY SALES[image](https://imgur.com/7MZBzwb)[image](https://imgur.com/uqRmP1Y)Thank you for your time. I know how valuable it is.-Andrew

#/r/startups #reddit

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mediacalling · 6 years ago