Content (is) Queen

Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25 (NOT)

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:07:52 -0400

Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25 (NOT):

Read this. It’s hilarious. And annoying. Make sure you don’t skip the comments section.

Creating good content that’s relevant for key audiences...

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:33:00 -0400

Creating good content that’s relevant for key audiences makes a ton of sense. I love that more companies are creating communications programs that are not about the hard-sell. One of my favorites continues to be P&G’s Sponsor of Moms campaign that it kicked off in 2010 during the Olympics. As a mom, I can hardly control the waterworks when watching the videos, including the one above. If P&G wants to speak to me (busy mother with three kids under the age of 8), these videos certainly are a powerful way to do it. What’s even better for P&G is that I connected with its Sponsor of Moms site via a link on a Facebook friend’s wall. I doubt seriously that friend would have shared a commercial for a cleaning product. Consumers love the mom content and are sharing it. How much better can it get?

WSJ: Meeting Killers

wilbertnewsstrategies — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:43:06 -0400

WSJ: Meeting Killers:

I can trace my distaste for meetings back to my sorority days in college. There was always the girl who WOULD NOT SHUT UP. In my career, I have avoided jobs that required lots of time in conference rooms (why would anyone willingly go from being a newspaper reporter to a line editor??). A story in today’s WSJ breaks down all the personalities that make meetings so distasteful. For me, the ramblers are the most painful!

WSJ tells the Facebook story via Facebook timeline

wilbertnewsstrategies — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:14:47 -0400

WSJ tells the Facebook story via Facebook timeline

No. 1 Rule for Content Marketing

wilbertnewsstrategies — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:14:00 -0400

My No. 1 rule for good writing: Be interesting.

Sure, I’m a bit obsessed with grammar and admit I loved diagramming sentences in middle school. I keep an AP Stylebook on my desk. I get a thrill from printing out copy, going through it with a pencil and crossing out redundancies.

But all this nerdy copy-editing stuff is secondary to the first rule. After all, if the basic story is not compelling to the intended audience, who cares if your subject and verb agree? O.K., I care, but you get what I’m saying.

The “be interesting” rule is particularly important for my PR peeps to remember these days, as the popularity of content marketing increases.

Also sometimes called corporate journalism or branded media, content marketing is when companies create their own content to build their brands and drive web traffic. Content marketing can include blogs, white papers, web copy, byliners (placed in traditional media) and even social media communication such as Facebook posts and Pinterest boards.

Companies are jumping on the content bandwagon because traditional advertising is become less effective, the black-and-white lines of “real journalism” have faded and people care less about the source of information, as long as it is relevant to their lives.

However, too many companies fail to create content that is useful or interesting. A blog that reads like a bunch of press releases touting the company’s minor successes and community involvement is boring.

Too many PR people begin the content marketing process by thinking about what messages they want to get across. Instead, they need to think more like journalists and strive to write something that is newsy, surprising, helpful and/or thought provoking.

Because what’s the point of good writing if nobody reads it?

Facebook Timeline Not Great For All Businesses

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:53:53 -0400

Facebook Timeline Not Great For All Businesses

newsweek: Ask a Copy Editor! Ever have a grammatical question...

wilbertnewsstrategies — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:50:26 -0400

newsweek:

Ask a Copy Editor!

Ever have a grammatical question you want an expert’s view on? Do you wake up at night ~~wandering~~ wondering if you used that semicolon correctly? Have you found youself chewing on a pencil over single ~~vs.~~ versus double quotation marks? Wonder whether “Etch a Sketch” is hyphenated or not?

Have no fear! We’re launching a new segment here on the nwktumblr called Ask a Copy Editor! It’s exactly what it sounds like! Use Tumblr’s Ask box to submit any and all of your titillating copy/grammar/spelling questions. We’ll pass them on to Newbeast’s expert copy editors and they’ll do ~~there~~ their best to answer all of them right here on our Tumblr. So have at it!

Submit a question for a copy editor

ShortFormBlog: Pinterest reels in Facebook's former money-making mastermind

wilbertnewsstrategies — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:48:52 -0400

ShortFormBlog: Pinterest reels in Facebook's former money-making mastermind:

shortformblog:

A big get that could make Pinterest more valuable: Tim Kendall has joined the Pinterest team, according to an exclusive interview with CEO Ben Silbermann published by Fortune this morning. As the former Director of Monetization for Facebook, Kendall was responsible for creating the vast…

Sh!t Marketers Say

wilbertnewsstrategies — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:56:00 -0400

Sh!t Marketers Say

Creative Loafing Downsizes

wilbertnewsstrategies — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:53:58 -0400

Creative Loafing Downsizes:

I remember when media organizations in Atlanta were pretty snarky about each other’s troubles. When I was a reporter at the Atlanta Business Chronicle, management would try to generate staff spirit by talking about how our circulation numbers were up and the AJC’s were (slowly) declining. What a difference a decade makes. Now, everyone’s numbers are (rapidly) declining, staffs are shrinking and quality is inevitably suffering. I am guessing reporters all over town were sad yesterday when hearing CL’s news. I know I was. And I’m just a PR person.

"The key thing about good content is that it requires that you think about it first and foremost from..."

wilbertnewsstrategies — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:59:30 -0500

“The key thing about good content is that it requires that you think about it first and foremost from the point of view of the consumer and what they want to hear, rather than from the point of view of the brand and what it wants to say. That is a major shift in perspective for many marketers and one that some aren’t capable of making. It often requires talking about your category or the subject you’re expert in rather than the characteristics of your company or brand.”

- Jonah Bloom, executive director of content strategy, KBS+ Content Labs, from today’s Co.Create virtual panel. (via fastcompany)

shortformblog: A nice reminder of how awesome Google Elections...

wilbertnewsstrategies — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:54:07 -0500

shortformblog:

A nice reminder of how awesome Google Elections is. Some interesting geographical trends here: Romney doing well so far on the coasts, Santorum mostly solid in the Midwest, and Gingrich has a pocket in the Deep South. (BTW, CNN’s calling Massachusetts for Romney.)

Best Instagram photos

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:25:16 -0500

Best Instagram photos

Love this pic by John Spink on AJC.com today!

wilbertnewsstrategies — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:01:02 -0500

Love this pic by John Spink on AJC.com today!

Love these! Happy Valentine’s Day! fastcompany: Shown...

wilbertnewsstrategies — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:59:48 -0500

Love these! Happy Valentine’s Day!

fastcompany:

Shown here: love notes from Jimmy Hendrix, Henry VII, Gerald Ford, Frida Kahlo, Charlie Parker.

12 Hand-Written Love Letters From Famous People, From Henry VIII To Michael Jordan

I Love East Cobb: A Video/Social Media Program

wilbertnewsstrategies — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:19:00 -0500

I Love East Cobb: A Video/Social Media Program:

Check out a Valentine-themed social media program we created for open-air shopping center Paper Mill Village. It’s all about showing love for the local community and connecting the shopping center’s brand with the passion residents feel for East Cobb.

Photo

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:36:16 -0500

Pinterest: The Value for Brands

wilbertnewsstrategies — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:09:52 -0500

Expect to see loads of Pinterest pins popping up across the Internet, as more brands try to leverage the white-hot social network. Pinterest – which allows people to “pin” pictures, recipes and quotations they like to virtual bulletin boards — has been around for several years but has only recently gotten big.

Pinterest got about 11 million visits per week in December, almost 40 times what it posted six months earlier, according to Experian Hitwise.

I recently signed up for Pinterest, started following all my Facebook friends as well as some heavy users Pinterest suggested. I almost immediately began thinking whether Pinterest makes sense for brands. I can’t help it, I own a PR firm, so it’s not gonna take long for my brain to go to: How can this beautiful platform add value for my clients?

So, first, from a user standpoint, what’s the attraction when many people are experiencing social media fatigue (and blowing off Google Plus because they already are over-committed)?My friends tell me Pinterest is different, quieter, doesn’t require too much of a socializing commitment (i.e. the introvert’s social media platform) and offers a nice break during the day. It’s particularly addictive for visual people — fashionistas, designers, artists, crafters, cooks, etc.

People like to browse and quietly pin pretty things. My mother used to rip pages from magazines and put them in folders — one folder was for interior decorating inspiration, one was for recipes, one was “ideas for the kids.” Pinterest is the digital equivalent, with a sharing component.

Not a lot of companies/brands are playing on Pinterest yet. With the growth numbers, it’s only a matter of time. I predict the successful Pinterest brands will play in at least one of two ways. They will set up their own Pinterest boards — and the key here is to set up something different than what’s already on your website — or they’ll add Pinterest pins to their websites to remind people to pin stuff. Both strategies, if properly executed, will result in consumers advocating for the brand via Pinterest.

I checked out what some early-adopter brands are trying and considered what’s working and what’s not. I commend Nordstrom for being an early adopter, but its boards are not that compelling. “Dresses I Love,” which I started following because I love dresses, feels like Nordstrom.com. There is nothing new on Pinterest.

Bergdorf Goodman has great names for its boards including “Shoes (that make us swoon).” Many of the boards cut across traditional retail categories and, unlike Nordstrom, also include pictures that don’t highlight products. For instance, there’s one dedicated to the color red that has Bergdorf dresses and shoes and also a pretty red front door and a cool shot of London phone booths. Similarly, Whole Foods has boards dedicated to recipes and products and also one for awesome kitchens. Again, I appreciate it is not so blatantly pushing its products the whole time.

I like what High Point Market in North Carolina is trying. The team there recruited style setters to capture images of their favorite finds at the interiors market and post them on their own High Point boards.

The Seattle Seahawks is on Pinterest, hardly a brand you’d expect to find there. So far, it has just 49 followers. I like the “Great Seahawks pics” board but the one dedicated to jerseys and other Seahawks merchandise is cheesy.

I’d love to hear what you think is working, what’s terrible, what’s somewhere in between. Also, does anyone see a meaningful play for B2B?

Other brands worth checking out include Etsy (which is perfect for Pinterest!), Real Simple, Cabot Cheese, Bon Appetite, HGTV, Land’s End, BHLDN and Klout.

"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."

wilbertnewsstrategies — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:05 -0500

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

- Henry Kissinger

Likes are kinda lame

wilbertnewsstrategies — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:49:00 -0500

Just read an interesting stat. EdgeRank Checker says the average comment on a Facebook post attracts more than four times as many click-throughs as the average “like.” A “like” gets an average of 3.103 click-throughs, while a comment generates 14.678 click-throughs.