Archive for March, 2011
Three Little Marketing Ideas with Big Reach
Mar 10th
By Sidneyeve Matrix, Contributing {grow} Columnist
In response to information overload and an ever-increasing knowledge acceleration, your readers and customers are becoming more adept at info-grazing, skimming, filtering flak, personalizing streams, and giving messages the glance-bounce treatment. Only really awesome content has a chance at capturing eyeballs in our attention economy. But awesomeness isn’t enough. Truly impactful messaging must be all-hook and glance-aware by design.
The challenge is to create info-bits that are intriguing, portable, instantly accessible, and easily shareable. In other words, to distribute big value while thinking small.
There’s more to say about the logic behind microcontent communication strategy, but let’s jump into a quick roundup of three miniformats suitable for content that is purpose-built to sample, and, if it’s awesome enough, to share:
1. Infographics.
Is there anything hotter than infographics right now? Data visualizations captured mainstream public attention in 2010 and in 2011 we’re seeing less scientized and more entertaining, high-concept, user-friendly, mobile-optimized examples being shared across social networks. Great infographics are visually appealing, self-explanatory, and promote visual understandings of complex processes and trends.
There are many great how-tos on designing infographics and roundups of free tools. If you’re a tech or corporate trainer, The New York Times has a page on teaching and learning with infographics. Need help with color? Check out this infographic on the relationship between colors and purchase behavior. How much research needs to go into an infographic? Here’s my favorite 60 second video answering that question by flowcapping one artist’s process:
Flowcapping: Visualizing One Trillion Dollars from Jess Bachman on Vimeo.
All-hook microcontent helps users decide quickly if the message is relevant. And what’s better, if it looks to be status-update-worthy, they can share it, quickly. If mobile audiences have a moment of microboredom while trapped in a lineup or waitroom, your bite-sized content is at hand for a few minutes of info-snacking.
2. Flip Book.
To drive downloads of your promotional material, experiment with designing and distributing some information-light and image-heavy e-flyers and brochures. Stunningly beautiful high-res images and typography inspire emotional engagement, which is one of the key factors of virality. To find superfabulous no- and low-cost royalty-free and creative-commons images, my top sources are Stock.xchng and Flickr.
When designing a flip-book think “magazine style” and aim for a graphics-forward, low-text layout before posting it on Slideshare or a social publishing site like Scribd. Need inspiration? Browse the truly excellent ePublications on Issuu (free) digital newsstand. Then create and upload yours.
You don’t need to be a graphic designer to do this. Start by repurposing the best parts of a slide deck from a recent in-house or client presentation, shifting blocks of text to make way for statement images. Need design inspiration? My go-to resource for information design is Nancy Duarte [@nancyduarte]‘s site.
Minicontent like flip-books and infographics leave the full-text, background, bigger-picture, infodense, heavy cognitive lifting as an opt-in. Shrinking the size and amplifying the awesomeness of messaging makes business sense in a micromesaging environment where so much of our daily communication happens via texting and status-updates.
3. Branded App.
We’re in the midst of the app revolution and it will only be accelerated with the coming wave of tablets in 2011. Trying to negotiate what’s new and noteworthy in any of the app stores is a challenge, and new developers are seriously challenged to get their creations noticed. Ever thought of approaching an app-designer whose very cool but as-yet relatively unfamous calendar, time-tracker, list-maker, mind-mapper, or photo-editor creation is buried deep in the appstack? Maybe they’d be interested in modifying a white label version, ready for rebranding to distribute to your clients?
Or, instead of working directly with a designer there are many services to support customized smartphone and tablet app configuration/distribution/management.
The question is, what kinds of apps would add value for your on-the-go audience? Which features and functions would encourage sustained engagement? Not sure what features you want? Mess around with these easy prototype tools for PowerPoint and Keynote.
As the time-starved among us know, having relevant, mobile-friendly content available instantly ups the chances of engagement. If the continuous partial attention of the masses is all content creators and publishers among us can hope for, then we’d best ensure that we truly get the importance of thinking small.
How are you thinking small in your content marketing strategy?
Sidneyeve Matrix is Assistant Professor of Media at Queen’s University, consults at MatrixMediaFX and blogs at CyberPop.
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On Twitter, no one can hear you scream
Mar 8th
I had the strangest call from Charlie Sheen yesterday.
“OK man, I’ve got 2 MILLION freaking people following me on Twitter and my Klout score still sucks. Ya gotta help me!”
“Charlie,” I calmly replied, “Klout scores really don’t tell you much of anything. Don’t worry about it.”
“But Mark,” he stammered, “This is all about WINNING my friend. And I am NOT WINNING if I have a Klout score lower than you. That is just pathetic. My tiger blood is raging here. What do I do???”
Sadly, this type of celebrity Twitter rant has become (yawn) routine for me. And every bit of that conversation is absolutely true, except the part about Charlie Sheen calling me.
Well, I do get requests from folks asking for Twitter help every day … usually to re-tweet a notable blog post or perhaps in support of a charity. I’m glad to help where I can but I’ll let you in on a little secret: It doesn’t work.
Some people look at the number of followers I have and a relatively high Klout score and imagine that I can be their gateway to social influence. I’ve been around long enough to know that these factors do not translate into influence at all. Even when I ask people to take action on something I really believe in, typically very little action occurs. This is not a matter of being humble or gracious. It is simply the truth. When I tweet something, it rarely results in tangible action.
Sorry, there is little true influence on Twitter
This phenomenon was also noted in Tom Webster’s fine Brand Savant blog. (It seems like I am quoting him a lot lately!) In an extraordinary measure, he personally contacted every Klout-infested A-list blogger he could think of to help him with a New Zealand earthquake charity appeal.
Tom calculated that the “reach” of his message easily exceeding 600,000. Out of that number, his appeal received 389 clicks and 10 submissions to his cause. Tom admits there were some complications that could have depressed the number but he pithily states that this conversion rate — compliments of some of the world’s greatest Twitter “influencers” — was significantly lower than what would be expected from a random pop-up ad.
In a post on the Networked Nature of Twitter by Megan Garber, she reported that actress Alyssa Milano — with a Klout score of 84 — sent out a tweet to her nearly 1.2 million followers: a link to the Amazon page of a book called Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks & How They Shape Our Lives.
Can you imagine the influence of a tweet from one of Twitter’s biggest stars? Wouldn’t that really help the author’s career?! Well, the impact was zero. Literally zero. Not one additional book sale resulted from the tweet.
I’ve also had my blog posts tweeted by Alyssa and other Twitterati, and while it definitely sends a short-term spike in page views, it has never resulted in any measurable difference in new blog subscribers. In fact, after Guy Kawasaki tweeted my post five times in 24 hours, my blog reader subscriptions went down.
For those swooning over Twitter-derived influence scores like Klout, this should be a wake-up call. It’s true. On Twitter, no one can hear you scream.
But blogs are another matter …
Marketers should be looking for influence in blog communities. That is where the real magic is happening. Tom Webster made an insightful point in his post — The people who finally took action on his request were strong connections nurtured through his blog-oriented relationships.
I have had the same experience. I KNOW I can move my blog community to action and they can move me to action, too. The connections built through a blog community are extremely strong compared to the weak ties on Twitter.
Curiously, blog activity is not accounted for on most of the popular social scoring measures. In fact, Klout is only looking at those weak Twitter ties right now. One measure that seems to at least take a crack at blog influence is Post Rank. Post Rank is one of the milestones used by AdAge to rate the world’s marketing blogs. What does it really measure? Nobody knows for sure … it is certainly an amalgam of tweets, comments and other forms of online engagement taking place between the blogger and the community. I actually hired a CPA to try to de-tangle the formula for this article and she couldn’t do it!
Nevertheless, if you buy into the notion that blogs nurture strong connections that lead to influence, wouldn’t this elevate a measure like Top Rank ahead of something like Klout?
I think REAL influence is taking place in the smaller, stronger groups found in passionate blog communities. I plucked out the top-rated bloggers via Post Rank and yeah, these people certainly exhibit thought leadership and influence on their communities and beyond.
By explanation — most blogs on the AdAge Power 150 are run by companies, have a staff of bloggers, or aggregated content. I left them off. So while Brian Clark is most associated with Copyblogger, his name is left off because the site is populated by a staff of writers.
Another observation as I looked at this list — there were a few names I did not recognize. How do those names stack up for you?
Any way, something to think about. Does this make sense to you? Are you forming strong ties in blog communities, on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere? What form of online engagement influences YOU?
Steal this blog: Why the economics of blogging are broken
Mar 4th
Imagine you have composed a beautiful song. This song is a culmination of years of music lessons, performing, and experimentation. You love your song. You’re proud of your song.
Then unexpectedly, your hear your composition in a television commercial. You didn’t even know about this — let alone have compensation for it! Then you hear your song covered by another artist — just ripped off! They won’t even acknowledge that it’s your song and THEY’RE making money from it. Suddenly, your song is everywhere. There is no way to stop it. Your work is lost, hopelessly spread over the world forever. It makes you feel like you never want to write a song again.
This is what life is like as a creative individual on the Internet.
Content is ripped off wholesale. There is an expectation that any type of creative output is free and should be freely distributed.
As the popularity of my blog has grown, so has the popularity of ripping it off. In the past month, my blog posts have been:
- Reproduced in their entirety on other blogs without attribution of any kind.
- Used as promotional content on other people’s revenue-producing websites, blogs and eNewsletters
- Taken in their entirety to populate SEO scam sites.
This is not unusual. It happens all the time to any blogger of note. It’s sickening and depressing. It’s the dark side of “viral.”
The economics of the Internet are broken
This “content harvesting” I’m describe occurs with art, music, movies, games, software … any creative output on the social web. So I’m not alone with this problem but that doesn’t make it right.
There is no way to stop it. I’ve tried addressing individual occurrences and it’s like playing a global game of social media Wack-a-Mole. And I’m sure for every one rip-off I learn about there are 10 that I don’t.
For more than 15 years — really since the dawn of Napster – people have been creating an Internet culture of entitlement. If it’s on the web, it is fair game for free use and distribution, no matter the implications for the creator.
There have been promises of new revenue models falling into place to support these artists but it hasn’t happened, and I don’t think it will. Any form of protection like Creative Commons is essentially toothless.
Taking a stand
I can’t address this widespread problem, but I can take a stand in my own little piece of the web. So I am making two changes on {grow} in response to this issue.
First, I am featuring a modest amount of advertising on the side column of this blog. This will never seep into the editorial portion of the blog. You will never see affiliate links or sponsored posts. These are organizations I believe in, and in some cases, the ads (like for Amachi or Habitat for Humanity) are posted at no charge. It is a small way to support good work.
I am a consultant and teacher. The only thing I have to sell is my time. While there are indirect benefits of blogging, having some modest direct income will help justify spending more time on content and comments. It will make it a better blog!
Ending guest post slavery
I will use advertising revenue to pay four contributing writers. If you haven’t noticed them yet, they are:
- Sidney Eve Matrix – Culture and technology professor at Queens University and a blogging inspiration
- Stanford Smith — Blogging intellect and the sweetest writer on the web
- Neicole Crepeau — Ex-Microsoft-er who sees the social web in an entirely different and humanistic way.
- Srinivas Rao– He’s interviewed 130 bloggers. “Nuff said.
They are among the best writers and diverse thinkers on the social web. Period.
And while exposure on {grow} will undoubtedly help their own blogs and businesses, it is time to break this cycle of slave labor expectations of guest bloggers. It is unfair and wrong to build and monetize a community or business on the free labor of others.
I’ve thought about these issues a lot and I think it is time to take a stand against this destructive “free” mentality in a positive way. I also hope I am accomplishing this in a manner that builds on the integrity of the blog, my deep respect for this community, and an urgent desire to provide the most insanely great content on the social web.
It’s an experiment. Let’s see if it works.
As always, I would cherish your thoughts on these issues in the comment section.
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Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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Six ideas to get your blog out of the fog
Mar 6th
65 comments
We have an extraordinary opportunity today! Thanks to Christina Pappas, a blogger with Zmags.com, we’re going to dissect her blog as a case study! Christina came to me with this familiar question:
I joined my company in September of 2010 and one of my “missions” was to start and maintain a consistent blogging schedule. I am posting regularly (at least 1x per day) and am sticking to themes that my audience would relate to. But I cannot reach two goals: getting subscribers and getting comments. We have 2,500 customers and only 170 blog subscribers. Why such a big disconnect? Why am I creating great content for no results?
OK, let’s start digging into the problem! What do you do when your blog is in the fog?
I’m a data guy so first let’s look at the some numbers. Here are the page views of the blog B.C. (Before Christina) and A.C. (After Christina):
There are two obvious trends we can observe. Christina has had a dramatic impact on this blog, and something really weird happened in December to cause a big drop.
What happened over the holidays? The company has no idea. I have seen that kind of crazy data from Feedburner before but usually Google Analytics is pretty solid. Any opinions?
Let’s look at the blog itself.
The blog design is clean, attractive, and easy to navigate. The content is relevant, timely and well-written. The headlines are strong and Christina generally punctuates her text with sub-headings and graphics to capture attention and add visual appeal. Overall, this is a strong blog.
How is Christina promoting the blog? In a conversation with me she reported that she is:
The company has also retained an outside company to try to advise her on ideas to drive more readership and comments. The consultant recommends she take two steps:
1) Cut the number of posts she is writing from five to two and spend the extra time promoting the blog.
2) Create specific industry-specific customer “personas” and tailor posts to each persona over a period of time.
OK, the blog doctor is IN DA HOUSE! (Where is my theme music?) What should Christina do?
1) Exercise patience — First, let’s put this in perspective. Christina has increased page views on the blog by more than 100 percent and subscriptions by 28 percent in four months. Take a bow, young lady! Building a company blog is painstaking work. Be patient and tell your management not to panic. It will be OK. You’re on the right track. If you’re still stalled six months from now we can review, but for now, let’s stay the course … with a few tweaks!
2) Goals and strategy — Everything starts with strategy. All we know is that the goal is to increase comments and readership … but why? Goals should reflect the target behavior you are trying to change or influence. So I have to ask — why is getting a comment a goal? How does that move the needle for your company?
Getting comments on a company blog is extremely difficult. For example, GE has one of the best B2B blogs in the world, with dozens of people contributing to it. They get about two comments a month. So I think you need to seriously re-evaluate whether “comments” is a realistic and desirable goal. The engagement may be taking place outside of the blog.
Remember that there are many important business benefits of blogging even if you have very few comments. Don’t overlook SEO benefits, PR opportunities and other valuable benefits of your content.
3) Where are your customers? As I look at your blog, there is very little that has to do with direct customers here. Where are the articles about your customers? Case studies? Successes? Best practices? Pictures?
When I was a young PR guy, my boss made me work the midnight shift at our plant for two weeks. Why? Because I was writing a newsletter, those were my “customers,” and I had to understand them. I think Christina should follow some sales people around on calls for a week, maybe two. If that’s not practical, talk to them on the phone. Find out what the customers love, what they hate. What do the WANT to read about? What questions do they have? Answer them in blog posts. Just asking your customers about the blog will make them INTERESTED in your blog!
One of the best way to get customers to engaged is to feature them IN your blog. Make your blog a customer celebration.
4) Where are your employees? Don’t overlook the opportunity to get employees engaged and excited about your blog. Feature them too. Also, it’s time for Christina to ask for their help. There is this issue called social validation that I discuss at length in a post called Building Social Media Momentum. In short, customers are more likely to join in on engagement and comments if they see they’re not all alone on your blog. Ask your fellow employees to support you and “prime the pump” with tweets and comments.
5) Where are you? There are two conditions that usually drive comments on corporate blogs 1) involving customers and 2) having a single, strong personality write the blog. Christina is doing a good job with the content but is not putting much of her personality into it. I recommend putting Christina’s picture out there on the blog some place. Let people know who is behind the blog. That should make a difference with engagement!
6) Where’s the sizzle? The blog has the beef but it needs a little sizzle. What can Zmags do to shake it up and grab attention? How about a contest? A blog-only special? Video? Humor? A celebrity guest blogger that your customers would recognize?
Now, about those consultants. The quality of the company blog is solid. Christina seems to be handling the 4-5 posts a week easily but dropping back to 3-4 would not hurt much. Personally I would scrap the persona idea at this stage. Just talk to your customers. Get to know them. That’s a lot more fun and effective than following a script.
Well, that’s my take on it. What does the community think? What would you do if you were Christina? What did I miss?
Many thanks to Christina Pappas and the management of Zmags for allowing me to dissect their blog with no strings attached. Christina submitted this question through MLT Creative’s blogging seminar.