Content Strategy
I’m testing slideshow plugins. Here’s the first one, Soliloquy Lite Responsive Slider:
So far, so good. Really easy to use and can add links and captions. Best of all, it’s responsive.
The only thing I don’t like is that the captions are over the navigational buttons.
Always use a permanent email address (e.g., gmail) to set up your blog.
Because if you use your work email, and then you change jobs, you can’t log in to your own damned blog.
And that’s a PITA.
I will be lecturing tomorrow on the value of photos, video, & music in social media at NYU’s Digital Social Media Marketing & Execution Summer Intensive.
Students are required to tweet, so see what they say at #NYUSMI all week!
I have been frustrated recently with the tendency to refer to content types as “content.” Images, videos, text, PDFs, Flash files — these aren’t content; they’re content delivery mechanisms.
Content is an idea made consumable. Ideas evolve into creations which are then delivered via a variety of asset types. These assets are not what’s important; they’re just the vehicle to deliver the idea.
If you write a brilliant article on the debt ceiling, the article isn’t the content; your thoughts and ideas put into words is the content.
If you have a photo gallery on Flickr of owls with stupid expressions on their faces, the gallery isn’t content. The photos aren’t content. The content is the concept: the idea of curating the photos, captioning them, and creating a new way of looking at them.
So when we are creating a content strategy, let’s not focus on what assets there are, but let’s look at the ideas. Are we delivering the right ideas to the right people at the right time and place?
What do you think Content is?
Tags: assets, content, content strategy, content types, ideas
Writing, even for prestigious publications, has never been the most lucrative job. But at least when Condé Nast pays writers a buck a word for a magazine article, they’re holding it to a very high editorial standard. Writers eager for bylines will accept the low rates to build their portfolios, hoping the day will come when they can command the big bucks.
Unfortunately, content farms have lowered the pay — and the standards. Content farms churn out poorly written, sometimes nearly unintelligible garbage. To lure readers to view ads and to build search traffic to sites (thus making them more attractive to advertisers), companies like Demand Media pay writers as little as 3 cents a word to churn out keyword-stuffed garbage. A recent New York Times article, Google’s War on Nonsense, describes the nasty practice, and Google’s new efforts to fight it via the “Panda” algorithm, a newly-implemented technology that pushes the worst offenders to the bottom of the search results.
But writers now have a secret weapon of their own: the rel=author tag. As Jen Dennis recently blogged, the rel=author tag means authors can actually claim credit for what they write. The byline once again regains power, as Google rewards good authors by elevating their personal page rank, or “AuthorRank.” The writer’s authority will come from the byline, not from the traffic to the site where it resides. In turn, a site’s search results will improve when it features quality writing from a highly ranked author — thereby motivating sites to use good quality content.
This might just be the antidote to content-farm crap and .03-a-word post generation.
Reputation management services have been getting a lot of attention. A recent New York Times article featured these companies, who use a variety of ingenious techniques to help counteract negative attention online. Certainly when others are posting things about you or your business that you can’t control, a service like this can be helpful. One bad review can rise to the top and undermine your reputation.
But another key to reputation management is being proactive about controlling your content in the first place. A good content strategy should include a plan for social media. The challenge is to balance the dichotomy of the essential spontaneity and immediacy of social media with the need for planning and controlling the content you release.
The elements of content strategy for social media include the creation of a content calendar, rules of engagement, and editorial guidelines.
A Content Calendar plans your content distribution in advance, to account for seasonal content, new products or services being offered, and key announcements. It is a living document that by definition will change to respond to relevant news, current events, memes, and changes. But planning ahead determines you’ll always have appropriate content ready, and allows advance planning for releasing that content.
Social Media Guidelines are the golden rules by which all your social media posts are governed. This is particularly important for those for whom multiple people are posting via blogs, Twitter, or other channels. For a small company or a single individual, these guidelines can be simple, outlining which topics are appropriate, whether it’s acceptable to mention competitors or endorse vendors, talking about current projects, and so on. For a larger company, it might include legal restrictions (consult with the company’s legal team), privacy policies, and rules around the protection of intellectual property. It is important, however, to not be too restrictive with these guidelines, as it undermines the essence of social media — the individual conversation. IBM was a pioneer in creating social media guidelines, creating a wiki in which employees could discuss and contribute to the rules and guidelines for social media. Together, IBM’s employees created a guide to posting that serves as a model for others and continues to evolve with evolving social media channels.
Editorial Guidelines are a more creative exercise. You have identified the content you want to distribute via social media, but have you thought about how to present it? Your voice is important. It should reflect your brand strategy, but also recognize the forum in which you are speaking. Don’t try to be hip and cool on Twitter if your brand isn’t hip and cool. But don’t embarrass yourself with a lack of understanding of the medium. (For example, don’t tweet every day with a promo for your latest product.)
Social Media requires planning, just like any other communications channel. Make sure you have a content strategy in place before you start participating.
Tags: content strategy, Editorial, Facebook, guidelines, reputation management, social media
We frequently discuss how we will reward users when we reach a certain number of Facebook fans. Coupons are always welcome for consumer goods, and everyone loves a prize, but there have to be more inventive (and less logistically challenging) ways to get people excited about getting your numbers up.
Piggly Wiggly, the supermarket chain, came up with a great idea: users voted on what type of dance Mr. Pig, their mascot, would perform on their Facebook page on the day they hit 25,000 fans. Voters got excited, numbers got boosted, and now, you and I can enjoy watching Mr. Pig do the “Single Ladies” dance. Not to be missed…
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100476193630990
Tags: Facebook, incentives, social media
In an interesting follow-up to yesterday’s Twitter story, emarketer reports the results of a study showing, among other things,
“Users indicated that more responsive brands would benefit from greater loyalty and purchasing. Almost 60% of respondents said they would be more likely to follow a brand that answered them, and 64% said they would be more likely to make a purchase from that brand.”
Also of note is the finding that many users Tweet questions to their followers without actually addressing the message to a brand, yet still appreciate answers from the brand.
Read the article here.
Recently, I had a bad customer experience with Fresh Direct. (Shocked? So was I.) A charge of $64 appeared on my charge card with no explanation (and needless to say, no groceries). When I called to complain, the person on the phone could not effectively explain the charge, insisting it was for “free” delivery. I pointed out that $64 is not, in fact, free. We went back and forth for quite a while, and although the customer service rep eventually agreed to refund my money, I felt ripped off. (I believe I used the word “fraud” at some point.)
So I turned to the contemporary venter’s platform of choice: Twitter. It’s a great way to let off steam; 140 characters of outrage sent out into the world, with an @ tag pointing a finger at the deserving target.
My first tweet went like this:
@FreshDirect charged a $64 “auto-renewal fee” — but no delivery! What a scam!
A few moments later, I added,
@FreshDirect has lost this customer for life with this ridiculous scam of a “recurring charge” for nothing! #fraud
I wondered if @FreshDirect would respond. It took a few days, but soon enough, I got a boilerplate message along the lines of “Let us make it right! Please DM us so we can help.”I ignored it. My vitriol had been spent, I was over it, I was over them. I was done with @FreshDirect.
And then I got a phone call. Fresh Direct customer service called me to apologize. The woman I spoke to had apparently listened to the recordings of my conversations with their phone support person, and agreed with me that the representative had not done a good job communicating with me. She listened to me, apologized sincerely, and offered to make it up to me with a gift credit to my account.
I realized as we spoke that it was Twitter that had led to the phone call. The likelihood of my call being the one that was “monitored for training purposes” was slim; she picked me out to listen to because my angry Tweets had gotten someone’s attention. What is particularly interesting about this is that I don’t have any personal information other than my name attached to my Twitter account. That means someone looked at my Twitter account to find out my real name, and then looked up my phone number in their customer database, and then called me.
Big brother? Or good customer service? On the one hand, I am slightly creeped out that they tracked me down that way. On the other, I recognize that our digital lives become more integrated every day. I don’t try to hide my identity across my various channels; in fact, I make it a point to promote myself this way. So why should I be surprised that someone was able to connect the dots?
The truth is, in the end, it was a great customer experience. I felt validated, appeased, and appreciated. Two weeks after I vowed they’d lost a customer for life, I was placing an order, using the credit that soothed my irritation. And not only had they regained a customer, they regained my good will, and the word-of-mouth that comes with it.
@Freshdirect, thank you for making things right! Was really angry; customer svc reached out to me (!) and apologized for my bad experience.
We tell our stories now in the digital world, good and bad, but the smart company knows how to use the digital to make it personal.
Now I’m off to go order some of that great half-baked bread…
The average Facebook user creates 90 pieces of content each month. And more than 30 billion pieces of content — web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc. — are shared each month via Facebook.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could use some of this content for your brand?
There is an abundance of content created by people who are your brand advocates. Use it!
Statistics courtesy of Facebook.com
Tags: content strategy, conversation, Facebook, linkedin, SEO, socialmedia, user-generated content
