Strategic Public Relations

How Social Media Fuels Content Marketing -- INFOGRAPHIC

AdAge's article, "Four Areas Agencies Need to Embrace to Stay Relevant" caught my attention. It notes external collaboration is an area agencies need more of to keep up in our industry.

Internal collaboration is equally important--and almost as rare. Industry discussions around social media, public relations and content marketing provide one example. These discussions seem more focused on one discipline claiming ownership of the others than on how they can make something  better by working together.

Stop, Collaborate (& Listen)
Content marketing is certainly the beneficiary of other disciplines--including paid media, search marketing, graphic design, web/app development and social media. The above visual looks at just a handful of ways social media can improve the content marketing process.

The article notes: "Rarely do you have one company that can pull off the kind of multichannel content necessary to reach targeted online and offline audiences."

And when it comes to content marketing, this quote usually applies at the team level too.

Click here to download a larger version of the above infographic.

Can Your Content Capture the Consumers' 8-Second Attention Span?

Did you know the average consumer attention span is only eight seconds? It's no surprise in today's world. But it's alarming when you consider the average goldfish attention span is nine seconds.

It's one of the reasons I was compelled to write a guest post for the Spin Sucks blog.

Four Tips to Help You Create Content in a tl;dr World details how to get your message through this shrinking window of opportunity.

Click here to read more.

Do You Follow the 6 Content Curation Principles?

Content curation is sometimes described as a "short cut" to creating content. Well, if you're doing it right, this assumption is incorrect. It can certainly be less resource-intensive over time -- by integrating tools like PublishThis into your CMS for example. But if you think it's as simple as copying and pasting a few random links, you're mistaken.

Here are six content curation principles to consider for your editorial process. Content curation is becoming a more important part of a brand's editorial mix, for several reasons. 

Click here to visit Media Is Power for more on this topic, including an example of how my client, Gorilla Glue, is using curation as the core of its editorial strategy.

 

5 Content Marketing Tips the TV Series Finale Teaches Us

How I Met Your Mother #HIMYM ended a nine-season run with its series finale earlier this week. And of course, like most series finales, it received mixed reviews.

The critics in this instance are my content marketing colleagues. In fact #HIMYM inspired a broader discussion from which we pulled five lessons content marketers can take from the TV series finale.

Click here to visit Media Is Power for more of this article.

Nostalgia, #tbt, Quizzes & The Secret to Content Engagement

A recent BuzzFeed presentation inspired me to consider how marketers and publishers are tapping into nostalgia to push engagement online. Appealing to a consumer's sense of nostalgia is just one approach BuzzFeed recommends to crafting content readers will share with their friends.

This is not a subjective statement considering that BuzzFeed had 100 million unique visitors in January -- and half of them clicked through from shared BuzzFeed content.

The power of nostalgia is no surprise. It's always been popular; but it's taken on increased popularity in the last few years.

Online: Throwback Thursday, #tbt, and apps like Time Hop

Offline: The demand for vinyl records and the renewed popularity of Polaroid cameras have moved from the subculture and firmly taken root with a broader consumer audience.

Mash Up: Somewhere old and new are mixing together, including the 8-bit, "chiptune" music movement and a hack porting the defunct Flappy Bird to the Commodore 64.

These examples suggest there are endless opportunities to tap into the consumer appeal of the past.

Nostalgia & Content Creation?
If you're wondering how to apply nostalgia in your editorial strategy, there is no single, silver bullet answer -- per usual. It (always) goes back to how well you know your brand and your consumer. But here are some articles that will make it easier for you to tap nostalgia for deeper content engagement.

1) How the Internet Uses Nostalgia  |  The Atlantic: This story does a great job showing how the Internet has changed our sense of nostalgia. "Under the stewardship of the Internet, nostalgia has been made nimble. Our tenuous relationship with the past can now be customized and made relevant, in the manner of a marketing message. We search for a lost time. It's just that our seeking now stretches beyond our own meager memories."

2) Are Quizzes the New Lists? What BuzzFeed's Latest Viral Success Means for Publishing  |  Nieman Journalism Lab: BuzzFeed's recent quiz blitzkrieg is based on the format's popularity with readers.

"From Teen Beat to Cosmo to LiveJournal, quizzes are "reminiscent of playground games and give readers something that they relate to well enough that they share it with others. Quizzes lend themselves to mobile because people are taking them with friends or administering them to each other. In that way, they go from being digitally social to a literally social game for users."

3) What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit Research Shows  |  New York Times: Before 1999, anyone feeling homesick might have been described as suffering from a psychological disorder called nostalgia. Scientests then began researching nostalgia to show it can counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. The article also reviews other benefits and potential downsides.

4) Go Retro or Go Home: A Content Lesson from Genral Mills  |  Yahoo! Small Business: "It’s all about going back to your roots. Don’t forget the fans who have been with you from the very beginning, and do something special once in awhile that acknowledges them."

Applying Best (or Worst) Practices
For every best practice around nostalgia, I could probably point to a worst practice. And perhaps the quiz is one and the same. But instead of arguing  about quizzes, let's consider the bigger picture of what BuzzFeed is doing.

BuzzFeed uses data to spot trends, optimize their editorial approach and capitalize on consumer interest as quickly as possible. And during the "bonus round" of quizzes we're experiencing, they're probably testing and learning from other forms of content. This broader approach is critical to content creation.

#ProTip: Ask Why, Not What
The abuse or overuse of a popular industry tactic, tool or approach is nothing new. So it's important for me to note that when it comes to quizzes, nostalgia or the next shiny new topic, we shouldn't simply chase someone else's success. I can point to a few examples of brands that tried to do this on the heels of Oreo's "Super Bowl Real-Time Marketing / Out of Body Experience / omigoditwassofu(k*ngawesomewheeeee!™"

There are plenty of good reasons to consider if nostalgia fits your editorial efforts. But like everything else we do, if we can't answer WHY we're doing it, the next question becomes "should we be doing it at all?"



Image via FALL magazine