“Alexa, play my ‘concentration’ playlist", would be something that I might say to my Amazon Echo as I prepare myself to get stuck into some background reading, data finding and thought splurging activities, if I had an Amazon Echo that is. You see, I’m rather sceptical about this development and honestly, this technology. I’m sure it has its uses and benefits for a lot of people, but personally all I find myself doing is trying to make Siri say something funny. Usually it isn’t. When that fails I’ll research some of my favourite people, but how much more can I know about Ryan Gosling?

If you’re pondering this question right now within your organisation you would be forgiven for coming to a quick conclusion that yes, a loyalty scheme is the answer- after all why wouldn’t it be? Offering your customers the chance to be rewarded for repeat custom is a win/win situation, surely? The organisation benefits from repeat sales and returning visits, whilst the customers are offered discounts/perks for their continued purchasing. Well, actually it may not be that straight forward.

Analytics are usually a polarising topic, stereotypically we have two elements- the ‘numbers people’ and then the ‘content people’. The pattern goes, as I’m sure you can guess, that the numbers people love analytics. They can’t get enough of them whilst the content people, well, they don’t even know they exist- right?

Well actually, that’s not true. So if that sounds anything remotely like what you currently experience then you need to change things up and shift those ideas. Analytics are an incredibly powerful tool and most importantly they benefit the ‘content people’ the most!

 If you love creating content or running engaging campaigns, how do you know if the imagery you designed or words you wrote are resonating with the reader? How do you know the reader is actually who you wanted the reader to be? The answer- Stone cold data. (I’m really trying hard to resist the urge to make a Stone Cold Steve Austin reference, but mainly out of fear that no one will recognise this and you’ll think that ‘bottom line’ is referring to profits or ‘3:16’ to the time.)

Instagram is quickly becoming a go-to staple for many of its users. With 600 million monthly users and 400 million daily users it’s about the time to start asking ‘are you using this incredible tool well enough?’ 52 million images are shared every day and 1.6 billion likes distributed on a daily basis. It’s time to ask, are you really doing all you can?