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In a very short period of time, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant have gone from tech novelty to an honorary member of the family for millions of people. With Alexa programming growing ever more refined and powerful, it seems as if there’s no end to what smart speakers can do around the house.

And now thanks to some recent upgrades, you can add “trick or treating management” and “voting assistance” to the list.

Why Alexa’s new tricks are a real treat
Alexa’s ability to respond to what’s happening in the world around us is one of its most intriguing qualities. A great recent example is Alexa’s capability for making event-driven announcements via smart cameras and doorbells. These announcements can be customized to fit almost any event, including holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions.

During Halloween, if a smart doorbell sees kids approaching, Alexa can be programmed to turn on house lights and music and either welcome trick or treaters to a home — or inform them that the candy supply has been depleted and the home is closed until next year.

Amazon released two new APIs (Doorbell Event Source and Motion Sensor) that allow developers to quickly and easily add this functionality. Once added, Alexa users can enable the announcement feature in Alexa’s Smart Home device settings section. This new integrated feature comes off the heels of Amazon’s recent purchase of Ring, the smart doorbell company.

Some Alexa devices (including the Echo Spot and Show, also allow for the enabling of two-way communication via smart camera between residents and those knocking on their doors.

How Alexa is creating more informed voters
Halloween isn’t the only example of Amazon working to make Alexa’s skills more timely and relevant. Prior to Election Day in the United States on Nov. 6, Amazon equipped Alexa with a much wider base of election data. This information included polling station locations, real-time election results, and detailed information about various local ballot measures — exactly the kind of information that voters need, but often have a hard time finding in one central location.

All of the election information delivered by Alexa is strenuously non-partisan; Amazon worked with three partners to help furnish the necessary data: RealClearPolitics for polling, the Associated Press for election results and Ballotpedia for ballot measure language and explanations. Amazon said it chose these sources because they were the most “credible and neutral” that the company could find.

Amazon assembled its own “war room” of data scientists, engineers, and other personnel to ensure the election information provided by Alexa was as accurate as possible. Given the recent electoral disinformation controversies involving Facebook and other social platforms, it’s not surprising that Amazon chose to prioritize neutrality and accuracy.

For Alexa users, the ability to access high-quality election data that’s updated in real time is a significant plus — and one more example of how Alexa programming is improving the lives of users in small but tangible ways.

Looking for a skilled Alexa programming partner?
As a digital marketing agency, we help clients maximize the reach and power of Alexa by creating skills that help deliver valuable products, services, and information to their consumers. If your business could benefit from a new, more sophisticated approach to Alexa programming, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

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Marketing/Business Media & Analytics Media Analysis & Measurement Performance Reporting

Instagram is scorching right now. No other platform has its mix of cultural cachet and daily traffic (Instagram has doubled its user base in the last two years, and posts on Instagram receive more engagement than on any other platform).  This means that it’s become a hotly-contested digital battleground for today’s brands, all of which are seeking to grow and cultivate their audience. To get the most out of Instagram, it’s imperative to understand and optimize your metrics — and partnering with a social media strategy company is often the best way to do that.

Instagram metrics: The basics

If you want to maximize the resources you devote to Instagram, skillful use of analytics is essential. By understanding these metrics, you gain deeper insight into what people truly like and respond to, plus get a better grasp on the effectiveness of your strategy. 

As a social media strategy company, we want to help you refine your approach. Let’s take a look at some basic metrics:

Impressions 

This metric shows you how often your post, profile or story has been viewed during a specified period of time. If one person views the same post three times, that counts as three impressions.

Reach

Though similar to impressions, reach only measures the number of people who have seen the content. The percentage of your followers who have seen an individual post is referred to as the “reach rate.”

Engagement

This measures all the ways someone interacts with content (likes, comments, etc.). The number of interactions divided by your follower number is your engagement rate.

Engagement-on-Reach

This metric takes the number of comments, likes etc. and divides them by reach rather than follower number. The subsequent number is your engagement-on-reach rate.

These are four of the most frequently used metrics on the platform — all of which are easily accessible when using the “view insights” button on an Instagram for Business account. Other available metrics include follower growth, website and email clicks, as well as exits and swipe away (the latter two show you how many viewers exited a story without watching all the way through or swiped to another piece of content).

When taken in total, all of these metrics provide a fairly deep window into the relative performance of your Instagram content. It’s important to view metrics such as reach and engagement for what they truly are: Not a popularity contest, but an opportunity to leverage engagement for the direct benefit of your business, ultimately creating more sales.

Using a social media strategy company to help optimize your approach

Engagement on Instagram is a staggering 15 times higher than engagement on Facebook. Instagram is also perfectly suited to brand cultivation and audience building. There is no better digital platform on which to tell your brand story and build an audience. 

Working with a digital marketing agency like BIGEYE can help you better understand and optimize your metrics, and tell your brand story in the most effective and compelling way possible. If you’re not getting the most out of the resources devoted to Instagram, we urge you to contact our social team today.

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Ecommerce businesses are different from service websites. Any website that actually has the products for purchase online, where you receive payment through a shopping cart, is an ecommerce website business. Ecommerce marketing is going to be different in terms of marketing too. Florida marketing agency might suggest a few press releases should be issued on your site. Press releases are handy tools for any web business. It tells the visitor more about your company, what you might have reached, and gets you into Google News. A creative marketing agency certainly finds these helpful when growing brand recognition.

Creative Marketing Agency Defines Ecommerce

In terms of eCommerce, you can often have a local website and then those that reach globally. Ideally, you might want to start locally with a company such as the Florida marketing agency where they understand the local Florida market. From there, you can utilize the creative marketing agency to grow your company on a national basis. With localized marketing, Florida marketing agency would target keywords such as Orlando, Florida, and other cities pinpointing where you sell. Nationally, the keywords on the site would be different.

Orlando SEO Company Tips for Ecommerce Marketing

There are certain things consumers really like to see. They include discounts and coupons. The right Florida marketing agency may tell you that always offering a discount or promotional coupon on your items will gain a better consumer following. Additionally, a creative marketing agency can help you determine the type of campaign to launch with these discounts. Building an online business is all about trust. You are asking the consumer to trust you; therefore, whenever you provide marketing you want to make certain it is something they will appreciate and something that can help them save money. Consumers quickly realize they want to prefer a site with discounts that ships quickly.

Ready to kickstart an eCommerce marketing strategy for your brand? Contact our team of experts today to get the conversation started!