Social Marketing Revolution

How do you market your business? Do you produce engaging content as part of your strategy? According to a recent study, 78% of businesses in 2013 (that responded) do engage in content marketing.

 

If you have a blog or produce content on social networks, videos or white papers then you are engaging in content marketing!

So what is the future of content marketing? How will things change?... Take a look.…

Via Jeff Domansky, Intriguing Networks

The terms "Content Strategy" and "Content Marketing" have become blurred together, yet the two couldn't be more different. Learn what sets them apart.

Marty Note
There are two groups of content marketers. One group CONTENT MARKETS. We would put the outstanding curation skills of @Neil Ferreein this group. The other group WRITES about what content marketing SHOULD BE.

This post comes from group #2. In the abstract everything they say is correct, but in the cold light of actual content marketing they create distinctions without differences.

A website and the content marketing within it are an ant hive. Things are popping, moving and changing all the time. I love the house blue print idea. That''s rich. If you create such static plans please come compete with one of our customers.

Watch Joy Ito discuss the need to become a NOWIST (http://www.ted.com/talks/joi_ito_want_to_innovate_become_a_now_ist?language=en )and you will see how absurd attempting to blueprint something as dynamic as the web and your website's place in it is.

Now watch Eli Pariser discuss how impossible it is to reach anyone now in his Filter Bubbles TED Talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en ) and realize the implication is your marketing is PROXY marketing.

Since you can't get inside the perimeter of new customers due to filter bubbles finding, grooming and empowering brand advocates is a must. How do you map the immediate give and take between you, customers and brand perceptions?

Love this nonsense from the post:

"Content marketing, on the other hand, is typically a soft-sell sales approach to attract customers and retain them through creating and delivering relevant, meaningful content. It’s essentially a combination of sales techniques and organic marketing, all in one. The trick is disguising your efforts well enough that your customers don’t know they’re being sold, but rather feel like they are becoming better informed. In content marketing, you designate specific audiences that you want to “pitch” content to, and once they bite you work to drive profitable customer action through consistently curating content you feel will help shape their behavior to result in conversion."

WOW, that is so WRONG I don''t know where to begin. Tricking people these days is a nonstarter. Read Simon Sinek's Start With Why for a better  understanding of what is happening now and ignore, "the trick is...".

There are no TRICKS anymore. The only trick left is being YOU, sharing YOU and being open to a new YOU thanks to the NOWIST fast feedback loops your advocates will help create.

Neil was kind to this post. Follow HIM, ignore the post.

Be sure to read the great comment by @Neil Ferreetoo reinforcing my belief HE (Neil) is the #mustfollow take away from this post.

Via Neil Ferree

Posted by wrttnwrd
Forget content marketing, SEO content, and whatever else as you know them. We need to fundamentally change our approach to content.
It's not an add-on or a separate thing. It's an inseparable part of the user experience.

Via malek, massimo facchinetti

Klout is reportedly being acquired by the social marketing company Lithium Technologies. Sources tell Re/code that the deal is in the “low nine figures” for the company that help tells users how influential they are.

Via Rami Kantari, massimo facchinetti, malek

The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is constantly changing and with the rise of social media, the field has changed even more.

With this in mind, here is an infographic that compares Old SEO and New SEO with social media in mind and gives tips for sustainable and algorithm-proof SEO methods that work in 2013.

Via Lauren Moss, Alessandro Rea

Not So Much & More Than You Think
I love it when people say they are going to create LESS content of higher quality. If you knew how to do that then you would be on a beach somewhere sipping a frosty drink with little umbrellas in it.

No ONE knows what "quality" is until you've created enough content to take a hard look at the numbers. This is why I like consistency. I create content daily and don't wait for some "perfection" that I can't determine.

We don't determine QUALITY scores anymore THEY DO. To suggest otherwise is dangerous hubris and goofystupid. Listen more than you talk, create something everyday based on what you learned and when you stumble upon greatness double down.

Don't ask the wrong question in the wrong way and HOW MUCH is exactly the wrong question. Write what you believe and think. Watch your shares, engagement numbers (time on site, pages viewed) and test a new idea (always). Over time you will see patterns.

When in doubt ASK. No harm in admitting you are confused or unsure and asking your supporters for help. When THEY help YOU a magical thing happens transforming YOU and THEM into US.

Startups think about content LAST. This is a mistake. Content is tied to MONEY and money is the lubrication that keeps everything running. Startups should start wide sharing as much of what is happening TODAY as possible. This makes potential investors feel they know you before writing a check.

Sharing content creates TRUST and no one invests in people or things they don't trust. Consistency is important for Startups. Create content DAILY and when you see a chance for a schedule create one and publish it. Mondays are about X and Wednesdays about Y. Schedules create trust too.

PS
Only those NEW to Internet marketing spend a lot of time thinking and pulling their hair out about HOW something should be done. This process concern reminds me of sitting with my former catalog bosses one day. They told me they spent hours teasing out whether a hero image (largest image on a webpage is a "hero") should be this way or that.

They asked me what I thought. "It doesn't matter," I told them and their faces fell. They were used to a decision like that, the cover of a catalog, costing tens of thousands of dollars. The hero for our webpage didn't matter because we would change it in seven days (if not sooner) anyway AND I didn't have to guess.

DATA would start to flow the minute we put the image up. They were used to expensive tests that took months to resolve. I was used to inexpensive tests we did all the time, so no reason to EVEN HAVE the process conversation.

So much of this debate is of the "It doesn't matter" variety. Every moment you THNK about creating great content instead of creating SOME content and testing are a moment lost. YOU don't crate great content. You create content and THEY decide if it is great or not. Best way I know to create GREAT content is create consistently and learn as you go.

When I was a Director of Ecommerce here is something I said frequently to my team, "We are going to do SOMETHING even if it is the wrong thing". Never regretted saying it or anything we did because SOMETHING always beats NOTHING online.