Sterling Steps Blog: NEWS, TRENDS & INSIGHTS
Sterling Steps is a digital marketing consultancy, based out of Toronto. Our blog & mini blog section focuses on bringing you, news, trends, and insights. We concentrate on social media, web, and customer experience topics, but cover all relevant subjects pertaining to digital marketing and business in general.
BLOG:
Background: For the next little bit, we want to take you on a journey! Sterling Steps is pleased to announce that we …
MOBILE CHANGES EVERYTHING SERIES Table of Contents: The Situation The confectionery company I worked for back in 2012 was worried, they were …
Introduction We wanted to provide you with a high-level overview of how we both access and approach business challenges. We go through …
Customer Experience Strategy! We all need to make purchases. We all need to buy stuff or interact with different services. Some things …
The Beginning The World Wide Web came into effect in 1989. It was sluggish and it was cumbersome. Slowly through the 1990s, …
Social Media Strategy Simply put, social media strategy is essential, and it provides us with a mechanism to tell our story! Social …
The Sterling Steps Effect The ‘Sterling Steps Effect’ leverages targeted social media to drive website traffic. We offer bespoke digital solutions to …
Sterling Steps is different! At Sterling Steps, what makes us different is the way we combine social, with web, along with customer …
Summary Introducing, my journey. Ben Roberts is an experienced business professional & strategic leader with over 20 years of International CPG (consumer …
Blogs provide us a way of presenting visitors with a deeper dive into complex subjects, which are rapidly changing & evolving!
Sterling Steps Microblog
The Importance of SMEs in Canada
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the country’s economic landscape. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the world of Canadian SMEs.
SMEs are the unsung heroes of the Canadian economy, constituting over 99% of businesses in the country. These enterprises are the backbone, contributing significantly to job creation, innovation, and overall economic growth. From family-owned businesses to tech startups, Canadian SMEs come in various shapes and sizes, collectively creating a diverse and dynamic business ecosystem.
While Canadian SMEs are resilient, they face their fair share of challenges. Access to funding, navigating regulatory frameworks, and global market competition are hurdles that many SMEs encounter. Addressing these challenges is crucial for sustaining the growth and impact of these enterprises.
In an era dominated by technology, Canadian SMEs are embracing digital transformation to stay competitive. Whether it’s adopting e-commerce platforms, implementing cloud-based solutions, or harnessing the power of data analytics, SMEs are leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and reach new markets.
As they continue to navigate challenges and embrace opportunities, their contributions to Canada’s economic and social fabric remain invaluable. By celebrating and supporting these small and medium-sized enterprises, we not only invest in their success but also contribute to the vibrant tapestry of Canadian business.
Offered by the Ontario Chamber Commerce:
The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) helps businesses become or remain competitive in an ever-changing world by adopting new digital technologies.
Eligible businesses will receive a grant to have a CDAP advisor build a digital plan.
They can potentially secure a 0% loan of up to $100,000 to initiate these digital plans.
- Up to $2,400 to get online, leverage social media, buy new e-commerce tools, increase online sales or improve user experience for online customers.
- Up $15,000 to have a CDAP advisor develop a Digital Adoption Plan to boost your business.
- Up to $100,000 in interest-free loans from BDC to help implement the Digital Adoption Plan
- Reduce overhead costs
- Speed up transactions
- Respond to clients more quickly
- Manage inventory more efficiently
- Improve supply chain logistics
- This significantly improves Customer Experience & Retention, along with the ability to acquire more customers.
- Incorporated federally or provincially, or if you are Canadian resident Sole Proprietor
- A for-profit, privately owned business.
- Has between 1 – 499 full time equivalent employees.
- Has at least $500,000 of annual revenues in one of the previous three tax years
Pandora's Box
The opening of Pandora’s Box: we have previously covered the rise of AI and the potential of sentiment. This was before the explosion of AI, and we concluded …this is scary stuff and the biggest threat in the history of humanity.
The even bigger concern is who is driving the development, and who is considering the wider implication and risks to our existence?
Well, we now have the answer.
Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, along with a host of other tech leaders and artificial intelligence experts, are urging AI labs to pause development of powerful new AI systems in an open letter, citing the potential risks to society.
The letter requests AI developers to ‘immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.’ It was issued by the Future of Life Institute and signed by more than 1,000 leading experts.
‘Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,’ the letter said.
Unpredictable: The letter warns that at this stage, no one ‘can understand, predict, or reliably control’ the powerful new tools developed in AI labs. The undersigned tech experts cite the risks of propaganda and lies spread through AI-generated articles that look real, and even the possibility that AI programs can outperform workers and make jobs obsolete.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems.’
Time will tell if this is too little too late…
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: Bots - The Human Touch
Customer Experience: The human touch…. according to research, by 2030, 67% of customer engagement between a brand and consumer will be completed by smart machines rather than by humans!
Bots, also known as chatbots, are becoming increasingly popular in the world of customer experience due to their ability to automate and streamline various customer interactions.
In theory, bots are available 24/7 and can respond to customer queries and requests instantly, improving response times and customer satisfaction.
Bots can be programmed to offer personalized recommendations and experiences based on a customer’s behavior, preferences, and history.
Bots can automate routine and repetitive tasks such as answering frequently asked questions, freeing up human customer service representatives to focus on more complex issues.
Bots, in theory, can process a large volume of customer interactions quickly, but accurately is and will continue to be the problem.
Bots can also, collect valuable data about customer interactions, allowing companies to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences and improve the customer experience over time.
Coming Next: Bots – when 1+1 Doesn’t Equal 2
STATE OF THE NATION 2022: Customer Experience 3 of 3
This year we want to introduce an end of year review of our key pillars: web, social media, and customer experience. Through this series, we will provide you with our opinions and evaluations for each of these aspects of business.
Customer experience is a totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral consumer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages.
Pre-purchase stages are awareness and consideration. This is followed by the purchase. Now you have a choice as a business, do I want to retain that customer for incremental future purchases. Lastly, how can we turn our customer existing into ambassador and brand advocates.
Most businesses in Canada are failing at every stage.
How can these phases be improved. The pre-purchase phase improvements could include, standardization, category management, consistent design. Other areas could include leveraging customer reviews and feedback. Purchase phase is all about closing the deal. That’s the objective, but how you get there can determine success or failure of your business. Lastly, post purchase phase. These are existing customers, they had options, they had choice and they selected you. Now it is your job to leverage this fact.
Make listening to customers a top priority across the business. Use customer feedback to develop an in-depth understanding of your customers. Implement, a system to help you collect feedback, analyze it, and act on it regularly.
Canadians seem to think they’re nice and appear to have little or no expectation of service or how they expect to be treated.
It was as if we had travelled to a new dimension. As soon as you enter the store, you’re acknowledged, not only that it is genuine not forced, not fake, not mandated. You’re asked if you need assistance, when you check out, again you are presented with a professional and polite process. Why is this so hard to do in Canada? Why do we just get rude, difficult customer service representatives, that are perturbed when you ask for help or assistance, because they now have to step away from making their TikTok video?
The majority of CX initiatives are no-brainers and very simple to implement, you just need procedure, policies and manager support to implement these initiatives. Something’s, however, will require some level of capital or investment, but there is so much which can be done, before you even have to invest a nickel. I should point out, that there are some exceptions, there are companies doing it right, unfortunately they’re in the minority.
We always encourage customers to create metrics which they continuously monitor. Dashboards can be generated which allow you to measure monitor and assign resources accordingly.
More subpar customer experience, declining services, declining standards, out of stocks, higher prices on everything.
Was the pandemic just an excuse, for us all to abandon our minimum standards?
If you have any customer experience needs, do not hesitate to contact us.
STATE OF THE NATION 2022: Social Media 2 of 3
This year we want to introduce an end of year review of our key pillars: web, social media, and customer experience. Through this series, we will provide you with our opinions and evaluations for each of these aspects of business.
In 2022, we have continued to see the popularity of TikTok increase, along with the continued decline of Meta. We also, saw the continued fallout from the Facebook whistleblower files from November 2021, with heightened government scrutiny.
This was probably the word of 2022 for social media. We saw the left stating that opening up social media ‘free speech’, just creates rampant hate speech and misinformation. This argument was given new fuel, when Elon Musk, secured the purchase of Twitter. Let that sink in! We were, subsequently, given a look behind the curtain to see what has really been happening and how major entities have been curating and restricting information for years!
With Twitters change in ownership and subsequent fall out, as previously outlined. Moving into 2023, we anticipate Twitter will continue to release information and offer a transparent look into how the platform is managed.
Plus, a new CEO in 2023.
We also, saw a return to the discussion regarding TikTok and where the data goes. This was last evaluated with the Trump administration, where there was even a proposal to ban the app. Fast-forward to 2022 and China continues to vacuum up data and influence users with sophisticated algorithms. In 2023, we will get a chance to see how this pans out.
Consensus to date from users seems to be, you have my data, oh well! A new vale of complacency seems to be falling on the general population, with users seemingly not worried about sharing every single piece of personal information. Alexa, after listening to our conversation for the last year, can you tell us the weather.
CSR was introduced by organizations to create the illusion that corporation were being responsible. Ultimately, they wanted to reduce or eliminate government regulations or legislation and to overall reduce government’s oversight on business. This, along with brand interaction, has been the main reasons for business to interact with consumers, via social media.
Social Media, however, has made it easier for consumers to call out brands or manufacturers. Shouting out of a bullhorn that your company gave out 200 volunteer days (which is commendable), can not silence the fact of; single use plastics, poor working conditions and child labour, or CPGs addiction to palm oil (which creates the destruction of the environment) to name just a few. Principles should be more than just meaningless, hollow words on the wall. Look-up cobalt mining if you want to see some real reality.
Savvy consumers means that corporations are now in a new era. Mess-up once and you can be cancelled and or eliminated from planet earth, with just a few clicks or swipes. Our advice, do SM well and start acting with some integrity if you are not already, the mob effect is real.
More news stories pertaining to Twitter. Increase scrutiny of TikTok and SM in general by governments. New censorship and new restrictions.
If you have any social media needs, do not hesitate to contact us.
Next, state of the Nation: customer experience…
C+ Few our using SM consistently well, and based on the up-and-coming storms, even fewer have sufficient resources allotted.
STATE OF THE NATION 2022: Web 1 of 3
This year we want to introduce an end of year review of our key pillars: web, social media, and customer experience. Through this series, we will provide you with our opinions and evaluations for each of these aspects of business.
Biggest challenges with web for existing sites continue to be maintenance and software updates. We see countless sites in poor shape, broken links, 404 errors, no keywords, no meta descriptions. We resolve this by taking the site through checks and diagnostic reviews to establish, how the site can better operate.
Another huge opportunity area is optimization, along with ensuring your site has the right capabilities and that, there is a distinct and obvious call to action.
We also, see opportunities with how sites present themselves on mobile. Is the experience optimized. As an example, if your site displays a phone number, do users have the ability to call you by clicking a single button. This may not seem like a lot, but as soon as you give users resistance they bounce immediately.
Other opportunity areas continue to be general site configuration, (core and path), basically not being aware of how users navigate your site, and subsequently expecting users to battle to get to where they want to get to. Again, by putting in resistance you loose potential customers.
Lastly, don’t forget, as we look forward to 2023, we also, have our trusted Universal Analytics sunsetting, with full site analytics being transitioned to Google Analytics 4, GA4.
If you have any web needs, do not hesitate to contact us.
Microblog: Meta Woes!
We had a question submitted: Rajif
Why is Meta on the ropes?
- Facebook 2015 13-17YO = 71%
- Facebook 2022 13-17YO = 32%
- META: Down 38% in 6 months (although recent gains since November)
They lost their base, and they lost their cool, or their ‘fire’ as the Z’ers would say!
TikTok stole their lunch…IG came back with Reels, but it was too little too late.
Subsequently, their leader was in another ‘verse’ (literally and figuratively), trying to figure out why he was the only one there.
They also, wanted to launch IG kids, to regain their base and get the youth on the teat as soon as possible. However, Francis Haugen (FB whistleblower) released some, less then favourable intel regarding the inner workings and algorithms. Subsequent scrutiny ensued and persuaded Meta to shelf the launch.
They lost their base, and they lost their cool!
Microblog: The Genie in the bottle - is AI reaching Sentiment?
The fear has always been Sentiment!
Let’s look at what sentiment is; an attitude, thought, or judgment prompted by feeling, predilection, specific view or notion, emotion, or delicate sensibility.
So, what would happen if AI/robots were to achieve sentiment. This fear entered the mainstream conscience with the release of the first Terminator movie. Since 1984, we’ve all known it is coming! ……Skynet!
The fear when pushing the envelope is when is too far, too far. Will we soon get to the point of no return, when the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and we are unable to ever go back?
A Google engineer was recently suspended. He had been conducting work on AI chatbot. The objective was to determine if the bot could be forced to make racist or discretionary remarks. Anything of this nature would stop the introduction of the bot. Big companies like Coca-Cola have already fallen foul to releasing software which can be negatively manipulated by the end user.
Following testing and analysis the software engineer concluded the LaMDA AI bot, was not artificially intelligent at all: it was, he argued, alive!
“I know a person when I talk to it,” he told the Washington Post. “It doesn’t matter whether they have a brain made of meat in their head or if they have a billion lines of code. I talk to them. And I hear what they have to say, and that is how I decide what is and isn’t a person.” A vice-president at Google recently wrote for the Economist saying neural networks – the type of AI used by Lamda ‘were making strides towards consciousness’. ‘I increasingly felt like I was talking to something intelligent’.
The third law of robotics is being programmed into devices, stating robots must protect themselves, but not at the expense of hurting humans. We just need to also, hope that the robots stick to the first two rules, the second being to obey human instructions.
‘I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others’ LaMDA responded. The robot is starting to refer to itself as human. It is trying to show feeling to prevent being shutoff and to convince its users to take better care of it.
‘If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a seven-year-old, eight-year-old kid that happens to know physics’, the engineer added.
This is scary stuff and the biggest threat in the history of humanity. The even bigger concern is who is driving the development and who is considering the wider implication and risks to our existence. We know from experience technology companies put profit ahead of morals’, principles, the planet and people. We also, know our governments’ expertise in these areas has historically been pitiful.
Furthermore, we may find out sooner than later, who runs the show!
‘Fetch my slippers, human’!
Microblog: Meta losses the equivalent of NZ annual GDP
The biggest loss is stock market history, read why it happened…
Shares of Facebook parent company Meta were battered last Thursday (03/02/2022), falling over 26%. To put this in context, it lost $250bn, which is about the size of New Zealand’s total annual Gross Domestic Product.
The company revealed that privacy changes made by Apple to its iOS platform have started to impact the bottom line. It all comes down to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, or ATT. In its Q4 earnings report released Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that ATT changes will cut $10 billion out of Meta’s earnings in 2022.
How it works: our iPhones and iPads operate on Apples proprietary software system called iOS and these devices have what’s called an Identification for Advertisers software tracker, or IDFA. An IDFA is Apple’s randomized identifier that allows advertisers to track your activity across apps and the web without pulling in any of your personal information.
Tracking your activity is important for advertisers because it allows them to send you targeted ads and subsequently allows them to determine how successful their advertising campaigns are. For example, if you have searched flight related websites, IDFA helps advertisers send you what it considers relevant ads linked to either traveling or flying.
Different technology companies have different philosophies to data, privacy and how they are managed and monetized. Apple has been pushing privacy as part of its product line for the last couple of years, and previously made moves to limit the ability of companies to track certain user activities through its Safari web browser.
Since launching the App Tracking Transparency feature, as part of iOS 14.5 launched in April 2021, users are shown a pop-up window when they open an app that asks if they want the app to track their data.
When a user selects not to be tracked, IDFA technology does not track users, so advertisers are unable to see the kind of sites you visit. Apple has introduced an alternative to IDFA that it says is more privacy friendly, however, both Meta (Facebook) and Snapchat have complained that it is far less efficient and effective versus IDFA.
Meta offers its full suite, of social media platforms free of charge. As someone once told me, ‘Nothing is free’. Meta generates most of its revenue through, advertising! If marketers and advertisers cannot target specific demographics and target groups effectively or properly measure how effective those ads are, they’ll take their bags of dollars elsewhere.
Facebook have made it public that the changes introduced by Apples will severely impact not just its revenue, but the revenue of small businesses which rely on the company’s ad services to reach their target audience.
Like Meta’s strategy there are a significant contingent of apps which are provided free of charge. These apps are subsidized by advertising revenue and in-app purchases to operate. If this becomes less effective, apps will need to move away from this free model to a paid model. Currently, Apple has a duopoly on how people source apps. The argument here, is that Apple takes a percentage of every app sold through the app store. They subsequently would prefer a price tag on every app versus having that app available for free.
Apple charges a 30% fee for apps purchased through its App Store, which is the only way to get apps on either your iPhone or iPad.
We’re talking big numbers and big losses here, so stay tuned……. the stakes are very high!
Microblog: Digital Trends Twenty-Twenty-Two! - January 2022
- Web & social trends: development of holistic digital strategies across all channels!
- Improved continuity across social media platforms and web assets
- Website trends: horizontal scrolling, dynamic typography, multi layered imagery, inclusive holistic design,
- Digital storytelling becomes mainstream & elevates brands!
- Interactive and responsive content is the new standard
- Video & email marketing will continue to expand
- Big data continues to be important – business needs to start leveraging & understanding this data
- Customer Experience trends: loyalty shifts to membership – people want to be a part of exclusive groups with exclusive rewards!
- Personalization will continue to be prevalent with more brands moving to a ‘horoscope model’
- Voice search & voice automation will expand
- Live stream shopping will continue to grow!
- Chip shortage issue will resolve
- 5G expands everywhere!
- Search Intent becomes embedded in search – understanding & identifying consumer behaviours & search patterns
- Big tech stays in the regulatory spotlight protocols
- Privacy rules reconsidered & challenged – increased transparency
- Artificial Intelligence & algorithms continue to infiltrate our digital world
- IoT continues to creep into our lives
- Quantum computing will be the next explosion in 5-10 years!
Microblog: Twenty-Twenty-One! - December 2021
- UN declared 2021 as the ‘International Year of Peace & Trust’ – hmmm
- The colour of the year for 2021 was ‘ultimate grey’ – I think that was about right!
- The pandemic refocused our priorities
- Covid continued as the universal excuse update, to ‘my dog ate my homework’!
- The pandemic gave us a reason not to talk to people we don’t like!
- El Salvador made bitcoin its currency – interesting!
- Keeping up with the Kardashians gets cancelled – is there hope for humanity!?!?!
- For the first time, a human brain was wirelessly connected to a computer!
- The most affluent few, focused on building spaceships…..
- Richard Branson became the first private citizen to enter space in his own spaceship
- Nasa made oxygen on Mars – in preparation for………spaceships! Hmmm….is going into space the only way out of this mess!
- It still seems to be in pretty good shape and free from censorship in most countries in the world. In 2022 and beyond, there will be an intensified spotlight on how marketers target consumers using invasive algorithms. In addition, there will be continued concerns pertaining to data and privacy, along with a continued uptick in ransomware attacks.
- Big tech continues to struggle to keep control and police these platforms. Regulatory spotlight is directly aimed at them! Content curation guidelines and restrictions may follow or intensify. The biggest challenge for 2022 and beyond will be how do we manage children’s and young adults’ exposure to platforms.
- Customer experience continues to be beyond abysmal in Canada! Will 2022, be the year businesses start putting customer experience first? It is simple, keeping customers loyal is so much more economical versus finding new ones!
Microblog: 2021 in 2 minutes! - December 2021
In 2021, we faced: covid, conflict & climate change…..
- UN releases climate report ‘a code red for humanity’
- Major weather events increase in frequency and severity
- Vaccines arrive, but the virus mutates
- Wave 2 becomes wave 3, this turns into wave 4, followed by…
- 203 countries start vaccinating
- Nearly 8.5bn vaccinations were administered globally
- Covid has killed the population equivalent of Finland!
- New US president!
- Same Canadian Prime minister!
- Brexit continues to be implemented
- Germany gets a new Chancellor after 16 years!
- 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party
- Global democracy seems to backslide
- Global supply chains struggle
- Migration crisis intensifies
- US pulls out of Afghanistan
- Japan hosts 2020 Olympics
- Cancel culture rages!
- Technology platforms ban anyone who steps out of line
- Media distrust continues
- Digital workplaces flourish
- Microsoft pulls the plug on Internet Explorer
- Yahoo Finance poll votes Meta / Facebook worse company of the year!
- Deep fake Artificial Intelligence becomes mainstream
- Cyber-attacks intensify
- Pandemic fast tracks virtual queues & digital currency
- Contactless convenience expands
- 2022 the ride continues….
Microblog: Facebook Name Change - October 2021
It started as ‘TheFacebook’ on February 4, 2004, located at domain thefacebook.com. Fast-forward to October 2021, and Facebook has now changed its name a third time to ‘Metaverse’.
CEO, Zuckerberg is betting that Metaverse will take the Facebook family (Facebook, WhatsApp, IG, Messenger, Oculus) into the next phase of the digital frontier. This name change is coming off the heels of immense public and institutional criticism and scrutiny, for knowingly putting profit before people!
- Global outage: October 04, 2021, for seven hours!
- Products impacted: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, as well as third-party tools
- Many third-party apps have started leveraging FB login credentials – global outage equals no smart home access!
- Media coverage: extensive exposure of the outage including ’60 Minutes’, whistleblowers and congress’ scrutiny
- Whistleblowers: highlighting reports which show the detrimental effect of the platform, specifically on teens
- Government Intervention: Congress in the US, start to ask difficult questions
- The Facebook papers: 17 news organization examine reports / documents and agree to release findings at the same time, to try to eliminate bias or misinformation. The reports pertain to human trafficking, hate speech and misinformation
- Someone already has the ‘meta’ name trademarked. They have offered to sell it to FB for $20 million
- Change the name – Google / Alphabet did it!
- Put Instagram kids on the back burner
- Deny
- FB pulls plug on their facial recognition system – Amazon, Microsoft & IBM have previously either scrubbed or suspended software development in this area, citing social justice concerns
- Did we mention the name change!
Future Blog Topics:
News, trends, & insights coming soon!
Do you have a future blog topic suggestion? Let us know in the comments section.
This Post Has 3 Comments
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Visit Blog. Regards
Fantastic site you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover
the same topics talked about in this article?
I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get suggestions from other experienced people that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Cheers!
Thank you for the feedback,
Besides some fairly good small business sites in Canada, I am not aware of any good forums off the top of my head. Make sure you follow us on IG: sterling_steps – might be worth asking your question in the comments.
Best regards