Every organization has a story. But unless your brand is a household name, it’s unlikely that everyone is as familiar with your social enterprise as you’d like.
A common misconception is that telling a compelling story starts with highly-produced video or another cost-prohibitive visual medium. The good news is that isn’t always the case thanks to many new advances in technology for social enterprise. These advances are readily available and make getting the word out about your organization a lot easier.
Google AdWords Extensions
In a previous blog post, we took you through a basic overview of how Google AdWords works. In short, AdWords allows your organization to purchase keywords in Google to help your stakeholders find your organization through search. When a potential customer searches with a keyword you’ve purchased, your ad spend will boost your organization’s chances of appearing higher up on the page.
There’s a world of information we could cover about how to use Google AdWords as technology for social enterprise, but today we’re going to focus on how you can use new advancements in ad extensions to tell your organization’s story. Ad extension options include:
Location Extensions
Have you ever scored a last minute mobile deal at a store you were currently in? It was a nice surprise for you, and it’s likely that this “coincidence” had a lot to do with Google. Location extensions target potential customers within a certain radius and provide useful location-based information––like GPS or a “Call” button––in the hopes they convert customers. To set up location extensions, all you have to do is check the “Extend my ads with location information” box when creating your ads.
App Extensions
With app extensions, you can connect your mobile app to your ads to give consumers an opportunity to download that app directly from Google Search. Search results will show users a link to download your app along with your text ad, and there’s no additional cost associated with this extension. Starting in November 2017, Google will also offer advertisers the opportunity to easily promote their apps across Google’s network with the Universal App campaign.
Review Extensions
Review extensions give your social enterprise the opportunity to highlight your best reviews directly in your text ad. You can either paraphrase the quote or keep it as is and, according to Google, including these reviews can boost clickthrough rate by up to 10 percent.
Data Visualization Technology for Social Enterprise
Data visualization is another storytelling technology for social enterprise that has surged in popularity over the last few years. One major reason for this is that downloadable software tools like Tableau have made these visualizations more attainable by catering to those that may be short on time or not quite as tech savvy as they’d like to be. Now, anyone with data and an Excel sheet can be a visual data storyteller.
Data visualizations come in a lot of shapes and sizes, but the most common visualizations typically show:
- Month-over-month change
- Geographical comparisons
- Annual highlights
Many of our clients who are considering experimenting with data visualization for the first time think they lack the tools or resources to compile captivating data. We recommend starting with what you know, and there’s no one you should know better than the stakeholders that propel your mission forward. You can survey those stakeholders to gather compelling information that shines a light on your market.
One of our clients, Nonprofit HR, has become a market expert doing just that. As the leading human resources firm focused exclusively on nonprofit organizations, Nonprofit HR has access to the opinions and expertise of leaders in the nonprofit sector. These relationships allowed them to launch their annual Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey, which has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes and the Huffington Post. Data visualization technology for social enterprise enables Nonprofit HR to transform that same survey data into interactive graphics with just the touch of a button.
The Future of Storytelling: Augmented Reality
Now that you are more familiar with technology for social enterprise, let’s take a look into the marketing crystal ball to discover what comes next. The announcement of Apple’s iPhone X has piqued many marketers’ interest in augmented reality (AR)––a technology that integrates virtual reality with your actual surroundings. AR itself is certainly not new, but Apple’s new product is making this technology readily available to the masses. Think Snapchat filters, but on a much larger scale, extending to apps and web content.
Currently, AR is used almost exclusively for gaming, but it’s only a matter of time before brands leverage this in other ways. Natural opportunities we see are:
- The ability to expand reach with younger demographics
- Experiential PR campaigns
- Extensions of company app capabilities
If you are interested in using AR as part of your social enterprise’s 2018 narrative, don’t hesitate to get started. Brands who are early to adopt AR as a tactic will be frontrunners in the AR movement and will be best positioned to stand out among their competitors in the new year.
Remember, regardless of your organization’s capacity, there are easily accessible options to expand your reach and get your story out there.
