Strategic Public Relations

Shareable Media Get Serious About Attracting Millennials

When the Daily Show first aired, Jon Stewart was a comedian hosting a parody show on Comedy Central. Now he's a satirist for a news show that just happens to run on Comedy Central.

While Comedy Central’s Daily Show is an example of niche cable brands expanding programming to attract a bigger audience, it’s part of a more subtle, significant trend.

It’s an early example of non-traditional outlets layering in news for a new, younger segment of viewers. This trend has since moved from cable to online media properties as well.

BuzzFeed Blows Up
BuzzFeed is the most obvious example today, its YouTube partnership with CNN benefits both platforms as BuzzFeed wants more reason for visitors to stay, see and share its content.

Expanding from timely irreverence into serious news content may seem like a disconnect. But it’s looking more like a growing trend.

Vice Media Doubles Down
More recently, Vice Media doubled the size of its news operations. Known for its online and TV programming, the outlet sees millennials as an underserved audience and is investing heavily to keep their attention.

A Long-Term Approach to Audience-Building
As many digital platforms try to find the right mix to boost unique visitors, page views and time on site, we’re seeing some do a better job than others. There is an unfortunate science behind the listicles, slide shows and more visual content some platforms have become known for publishing.

These approaches reward the publisher, not the marketers, providing artificial boosts to metrics. Appealing to a broader audience by expanding content is a much more long-term, sustainable investment.

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What's the Key to Social Sharing?

In reverence of the ink-stained ‎Hermann Rorschach, Google is doing it's trademark logo morphing today. New to me is their addition of sharing tools to the homage, allowing you to share their creative effort when you rollover it (as shown in the above screen grab).

Button, Button Who's Got the (Share) Button?
Including the ability to share your content today is comparable to what print-friendly tools were to the web of 10 years ago. It's widespread but it's not second nature to include. And adding sharing tools can be executed artfully (like an inkblot), easily (like blogging platforms that have already added it for you) or poorly (like the multiple car horns Homer Simpson wanted in his concept car).

Thanks to folks like Tumblr, Wordpress and Typepad many content creators don't need to give social sharing a second thought. When they hit publish, they arm readers with the ability to share their content. But the above example, elegant in its simplicity, reminds me that we shouldn't assume our content is properly armed with the right tools.

Content, and our roles in creating it, are more broadly defined than ever before. We need to do more than simply confirm our content can be shared, we need to work with the design and development folks to make it work more intuitively acrosss platforms.

An Art & Science Mix
This requires us to balance the aesthetic and the utility behind the content environment you're creating. Google nails this combination in the above example. But in other examples, it makes more sense to add "the F" and "the T" icons to your template -- in clear view of the reader -- and call it a day.

This also means you need to make sure its not confused with your social contact icons. Pro Tip: move those from the header to the footer. And don't forget it's a balance. Tools like ShareThis are more powerful and much more aesthetically smart. But adding even one click to the sharing process can impact the level of engagement your content creates.

So while the increased importance of sharing tools may lead us to believe it's a box we've checked off...and this discussion is a waste of time...I disagree. If we could compare the analytics around Google's logo projects, before and after sharing, I'm betting it would it prove out my simple observation.