2 apps that can turn your smartphone into a broadcast studio

Karl Hodge at the Content Strategist reports:

Tools like Vyclone, a social video editing and publishing platform for crowdsourced video. Up to four streams can be used as the raw material for automatically assembled coverage of a chosen event. The applications for journalism are clear — enabling a small team armed with iPhones to capture multiple angles of a story as it unfolds. 

Then there’s Bambuser, available for iOS, Android and Windows phones. It’s an app that enables you to stream video live, direct from your mobile device. Outside broadcasting has never been easier.

Why the writer is the star of content marketing

Bryan Clark at Copyblogger says the future of content marketing belongs to the writer:

Google made talented writers more important with the Panda and Penguin updates. Instead of weak content and “unnatural” link building, now sites need strong content that attracts links organically. 

But it hasn’t stopped there. Now who creates the content, and who does the linking out matters – which is why Google wants to know who you are via your Google+ authorship profile. What’s been dubbed Author Rank has the potential to be the biggest algorithmic signal for SEO since the hyperlink itself. 

The days of lame anonymous content are over. Even better, rock star writers with demonstrated success and strong social followings will command the highest compensation and equity positions. 

Think about that.

First rule of content: Be the show

James O'Brien at Mashable writes about the Red Bull content strategy:

The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return. Instead of the commercial, be the show. Instead of the banner ad, be the feature story. The value returned is often that people associate good things with — and return to engage with — the brand.

4 ways you can succeed with a mobile landing page

Greg Hickman at Copyblogger says:

Landing pages are critical in your marketing funnel. That means they need to work well in a mobile environment. 

If your customers can get to your landing page from an email, your mobile responsive website, or an SMS (as mentioned earlier), you’ll want to take a few steps to make your mobile landing pages a success.

• Create a clear call to action. You thought a clear call to action was critical on a normal landing page? It’s a must on a mobile device. Screen real estate is limited, and people navigate with one eye and one thumb. Make it clear and un-missable.

• Be thumb-friendly. For most devices, the ideal clickable area is 44×44 pixels. You’ll want to add padding to your links, and make sure you have some negative space between those links to avoid mis-clicks. (All the more reason to follow the best practice of having no irrelevant links on landing pages.)

• Use simple forms. Keep your forms to as few fields as possible. Simple is sexy. Long forms equal lower conversion, and that’s even more true on mobile devices.

• Test, test, test. What works on desktop won’t always work on mobile, so be sure to test your landing pages with your end goal always in mind.

The MoPR Manifesto

Let's start with a basic truth: Most journalists have total contempt for publicists, and publicists are sick of pitching stories.

Here's the good news: There's an unprecedented opportunity to make both sides happy.

Publicists no longer need journalists to tell their clients' stories to the public. We can bypass them entirely and talk directly to the stakeholders who matter most to our clients.

Behind this opportunity are three significant developments.

One is the emergence of social media. Another is the near ubiquity of smartphones and tablets. The final is the development of personal communication technology that allow just about anyone to write a story, snap a photo, shoot and edit a video, or make an audio recording -- on the fly and with very little training.

All of this is readily available to any publicist. But access is just the first step.

To exploit this opportunity, we must master a wide range of media. We must write well. We must learn to take great photos. We must shoot great video and edit it in compelling ways.

Above all, we must master the art of storytelling. We must combine text, audio and images into stories that our clients' audiences will embrace and share.

The press release is dead. Long live the mobile publicist.

12 virtues that can make your content more shareable

Monica Romeri at Social Media Today identifies 12 characteristics of content that folks are likely to share:

1.  It covers real-time, relevant issues or news. 

2.  It includes captivating images. 

3.  Highly shared titles are actionable, concise, clear, descriptive, authoritative and intriguing. 

4.  It includes compelling and illustrative infographics. 

5.  Highly shared content has breadth and depth.  

6.  It shares fresh, original thinking. 

7.  It covers topics blowing up in the news a la newsjacking. 

8.  Highly shared content is not solely focused on pushing products or services. 

9.  It is free of spelling errors, typos and grammatical and editing flaws. 

10.  It is visually interesting and presented in an organized fashion. 

11.  It showcases industry-relevant thought leadership. 

12.  Highly shared content may come from a trusted and credible source.

Simple tip to improve your writing: Use more periods.

Writers love commas.

They allow us to start in one place, meander freely through a series of connected concepts, wrap our prose around a metaphor or two, and arrive safely at a conclusion.

Unfortunately, they also allow us to abuse our readers, stumbling from one unrelated idea to another, ignoring the need for transitions, droning on and on, and utterly losing and confusing our audiences.

There is a simple solution to improve your writing. Use more periods.

Embrace the concise. Next time you are thinking about one more comma, go with a period.

4 ways to create URLs that attract Google to your online content

If you want Google to find your content, it helps to create a URL that is easy for the search engine to recognize and catalogue.

That means you should:

1. Use words in the URL that tell the search engine about the content.
2. Keep your URLs brief and to the point; trim any extraneous information.
3. Avoid including generic information like page numbers or session IDs.
4. Avoid using too much keyword information in the URL; one keyword or phrase is probably enough.

Think of it this way: If you can recite the URL from memory a day after you created it, then it's a cinch for Google to find it. If you can't, then you are making it too hard for Google to find your content.

Is brand journalism 'real' journalism?

When properly executed, you bet your ass. And I say that with 20 years in the "real" news biz.

There are a lot of doubters. Most of them are hard-core journalists who are still slaving in a dying industry. (OK, it's not really dying, per se. But it's definitely changing from a corporate model to an entrepreneurial model, and few journalists are making the transition comfortably.)

I've got news for the news snobs: For the last 70 years or so, you've been doing exactly what brand journalists are doing. That is, making a living generating timely, useful, interesting stories in the service of a corporate client.

Newspapers, radio stations and TV stations are owned by corporations, not collectives. It's time to stop pretending you are on higher ground.

To be successful, brand journalists must tell stories that engage, entertain and inform their audiences. How is covering the news generated by a brand any different than covering any other beat?

"But brand journalists must submit their stories for corporate approval," the doubters say. 

OK, so how many reporters don't have to submit their stories for editing from a higher-up who works (gasp) for a corporation?

Stories are stories. Journalism is journalism. Get over it.

KitCam: It's a lot of camera for just $1.99

Here's a new camera app I'm playing with. It's called KitCam, and it offers some interesting advantages over Hipstamatic, Instragram, Magic Hour and other such apps. The app comes with a wide range of lens and film choices. It handles video and time-lapse and tilt shift and even multi-exposure. It connects you to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Dropbox, Instagram and more. And almost all of it comes with the basic $1.99 package.

Here's a video introduction:



Give it a try and let me know what you think.

5 ways to use Pinterest to make your content better

Mallory Jean Tenore at Poynter says reporters and editors are using Pinterest to:

1. Highlight feature content by connecting it to topical Pinterest boards.
2. Resurface old but quality content to give it a new life.
3. Respond to news events by posting in-house and crowd-sourced content.
4. Showcase images from local attractions and events.
5. Reach new audiences by creating a visual index of their content.

For detailed examples, read her post.

3 ways to pique interest with a great title

Roger C. Parker at the Content Marketing Institute says:

• Metaphors make titles easier to understand and remember by giving readers a mental picture or point of comparison for the subject you’re talking about. Jay Conrad Levinson’s “Guerrilla Marketing” communicates its promise of describing unconventional ways to achieve success, by likening the marketing tactics to tactics used in guerrilla warfare. Another metaphor-based series is the “Chicken Soup for the…” series, which communicates a warm, nurturing feeling by referencing the meal that mothers and grandmothers have traditionally served to their family members who need some TLC when they’re under the weather.
• Alliteration, or rhymed consonants, also makes titles easier to remember. Examples include Cliff Atkinson’s “Beyond Bullet Points,” Dr. Frank Luntz’s “Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear,” and Lynne Felder’s “Writing for the Web: Creating Compelling Web Content Using Words, Pictures, and Sound.”
• Curiosity can be aroused by unexpected words or contradictory terms, which can help set your content apart from “duller” treatments of the same topic. An example is David Chilton’s “The Wealthy Barber.” The contradiction between “wealth” and “barber” compels readers to find out “how” and “why” barbers can become wealthy.

Visit CMI to download Parker's 10-point checklist for creating titles that will sell your content to your audiences.

5 ways to use social media to improve your content journalism

From Alice Brennan at Forbes:

1. Develop a voice. You don’t mess around with your logo, so be focused in creating a pitch-perfect social media presence.
2. Embrace the nuances. Consumers are smart, so branded content should be subtle.
3. Be seen at all the right parties. Where your content is published matters. Be sure to research the sites and outlets your customers frequent and respect.
4. Get it out there. This is where social media is your best friend. Get a real distribution plan for your branded content and execute it well— in some cases, you may even want to consider using a content distribution platform.
5. Tailor content to the social media platform. For example, post photos on Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram; promote text on Facebook and news on Twitter.