Strategic Public Relations

Apple, Facebook & Google: An Emerging Trend Index

When it comes to your top technology, business or general news sources, I can probably assume The Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times are on your list. And in less than five years, I'm willing to bet Apple, Facebook or Google are also on your list...if they aren't already.

The three brands are in a three-way competition for the ultimate prize: audience. As they compete for consumer attention, the news is just one way they're trying to become ingrained in your daily habits. In the process, they are driving much of the technological changes that, in turn, shape consumer media habits*.

In fact, to stay current with many of the trends impacting consumer habits, you might focus on just Apple, Facebook and Google as a more mainstream source for emerging trends. 

Click here for the rest of the story at Media Is Power.


*Jim Cramer points to Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (FANG) as four of the most popular and best-performing tech stocks in recent memory. While Apple could surely be added to that list (FAANG), this is not a look at the brands' economic impact per se.    

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.

 

3 Lessons Brands Can Learn From Facebook Manipulating Consumers

Facebook  research has found that the emotions of others on your news feed can affect your mood. The social network did not inform users their news feeds were being manipulated as part of this study. And users are expressing outrage over the study's ethics.

Should Facebook have done things differently? Are the outraged consumers justified in their ire? To borrow a famous, and vague, Facebook relationship status: "it's complicated." But this news does hold lessons for brands.

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

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

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.

http://www.blogdash.com/full_profile/?claim_code=515c108c4b63418f7e54354b9bccd736

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.

The Six Ingredients for Snackable Content

Can you define snackable content?

Many marketers asked the same question will use the infamous quote: “I know it when I see it.”

This is because the definition of snackable content lacks clearly defined parameters. This can give the term a subjective meaning. Even I’ll define it here in simple terms.

“Content is snackable when it is designed
for simple and flexible audience consumption.”

The content’s overall design makes it easier to consume, the audience more likely to consume it and it extends from the story and includes how the content is transmitted and shared.

As many as six different factors can make content snackable. And while all six aren’t required for content to be considered snacakable, they are all part of the broader content experience.

For more of this article, click here to visit Media is Power.