2014 Marketing Resolution: Break Through The Digital Clutter

Image from: IMI

As users’ newsfeeds become overcrowded and saturated we must evaluate the best ways to be seen and heard, online. Below, you can find some key tips from a series of articles and ebooks that we can explore when creating and amplifying compelling content:

1. Get into the mindset of a publisher by looking for content that supports our niche, and then give users a fresh perspective on it.
• Likeminded brands are posting similar content so anything produced needs to be cool and captivating.
2. Add muscle by including multimedia elements to create richer content.
• Provide a balance of snackable and long-form content.
•  Magazine-style narratives and multimedia experiences provide long-form experiences rather than the quick-hit meme. Ensure how the multimedia content will be viewed on mobile and within search
3. Leverage paid and organic SEO so content can be found.
• Answer the specific needs of niche audiences but the only way it will be read is if it’s found, paid media is one piece of that puzzle.
• The other piece of the puzzle is crafting content with SEO and content marketing in mind.

Curating content that fans can get excited about paired with the right paid media strategy and SEO, will help marketers garner impressions and lengthening reach.  As we move into a new year, we will see brands and companies continue to test new tactics and initiatives.

For detailed articles and information on breaking through the clutter, please see the ebook and articles below:

How to Make Content That Stands Out

What Makes Content Stand Out? Hint: originality is key

9 Steps to Creating Good Content for Your Brand

Twitter & TV: New Study by SocialGuide

According to Nielsen, there is a large overlap of users who Tweet about both, brands and TV.  This insight is significant for better understanding how we can reach people who will amplify our message and allow our dollars to work even harder.  The infographic below helps identify some key learnings from this study.

For quick reference, key data points include:

• 73% of people who Tweet about brands also Tweet about TV
• Of this total, the Tweets mostly discuss brands in the following industries:
• 74% discuss Consumer Electronics
• 48% discuss Restaurants
• 29% discuss Food
• 27% discuss Beverages

Social Media Increasingly Important to B2B Marketers

A recent study from International Data Group suggests that social media is increasingly becoming an important part of marketing for B2Bs. When surveying IT buyers, a reported 86% of them used social media in their purchase decision process, indicating they will soon look to social as the most important source for consuming content to inform their buying decisions. As this need grows, social’s prominence in campaign communication plans for B2B marketers will likely increase as well.

Note that 89% of those surveyed preferred to see educational content from vendors on social over promotional content, signifying that social is not yet the place to close on sales. Given this, B2Bs can use social platforms to influence the buyer by:

• Providing countdowns/updates on new releases
•  Offering sneak peeks on new products
• Providing an incentive for consumers to interact with you
• Providing a venue for customer interaction with the brand

While social media may not be the strongest place for sales conversions, B2Bs are aware that social needs to be integrated with overall campaign efforts.

For full details, please visit the article links below:
Social Media Increasingly Important for B-to-B Marketers: Study
Using Social Media to Educate Consumers

Facebook Launches Trending

Similar to Twitter’s Trends list, Facebook, too, launched a Trending feed. Located to the right of the News Feed, users will now be able to see trending topics and conversations that are popular across their individual Facebook, at any given time.

Image from Facebook Newsroom.

Features include:

• Personalized, clickable, topics spanning your interests, and top trends across the Facebook platform
• Snackable, at-a-glance headlines providing more information on each trend
• Upon click-through, view of trend-related content by users' friends, pages they follow and public posts 

This aggregate of trending topics aims to enhance the platform’s stance as a source of news and encourages users to share more content publicly.

As this list is engineered to populate with content users are interested in, along with their friends, this may provide ad opportunities, similar to the evolution on Twitter. 

As Facebook rolls out this update, you can learn more about the feature and how it’ll look on your Facebook, here. 

Creating Custom Content for Each Social Platform

In order to have a high performance, multi-platform social media campaign, Brands must do their best to understand each social platform and how its audience consumes media in order to provide rich, engaging content.

While there is no fool proof formula, this infographic developed by My Clever Agency provides tips on how to make the most effective social posts.
A few highlights include:

• Facebook: Use simple imagery posts that can be easily seen on mobile devises as 70% of fans view posts on their phones 
• Twitter: Retweet relevant content for your audience and be sure to leave 20 characters so people can add content
• Pinterest: Images that do not have a human face are shared 23% more while images with red or orange get double the repins
• Google+: Use full sized images to make posts stand out on the page compared to thumbnails
• Although not mentioned, using “Auto-Awesome” (a tool from Google that enhances images) on photos also helps increase engagement
• Instagram: Reply to people who have liked/commented to drive two way conversations
• Vine: Use popular hashtags such as #loop and #howto to gain the most engagement
• Tumblr: Like and reblog posts to interact and ensure visibility throughout the site