4 virtues of great mobile sites (that also apply to desktop)

Jason Kosarek at HubSpot blogs:

1. Concise. Never use 5 words when it takes 3. On a mobile screen those 2 extra words take up valuable inches. And wherever your reader's coming from, nobody likes needless reading.
2. Definite Hierarchy of Needs. The most valuable information goes to the top. Always. Don’t expect your user to dig to find what they need. Make it easy for them.
3. Better Navigation. Don’t waste the most valuable part of your page with your navigation. Find a nice little UX trick like garyvanderchuck.com or contentsmagazine.com to solve it. Once you do this, the navigation also needs to be simple and easy to follow. (Hint: The navigation also needs to be good for fat thumbs).
4. Clear Content. When you use industry jargon, you're killing your website. When you beat around the bush, you're killing your website. When you convolute things your visitor cares about with things your company cares about, you're killing your website. On desktop, or mobile.

Why you should optimize your site for both search engines and mobile devices

Matthew Young writes on the Bruce Clay Inc blog:

A recent study on mobile search activity showed that 1 in 3 mobile queries are local, and after looking up local business on a smartphone, 61 percent of users called a business and 59 percent actually visited a business. 

Other telling statistics from the report include:

• 79 percent of smartphone users use their smartphones to help with shopping.
• 71 percent of smartphone users that see TV, press or online ad, do a mobile search for more information, but 79 percent of large online advertisers still do not have a mobile optimized site.

There is marketing power in these statistics and even Google is getting on board mobile SEO in a big way. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to know that if Google is an advocate, then we should be too.

Make your web site feel like a mobile site

Tobin Dalrymple at the Content Marketing Institute says: 

Mobile is an entirely new medium and it comes with a unique way for people to interact with content. It’s all about touch, swipe, and that feeling of a full-screen, laid-back experience — simulating the “couch surfing” vibe. This is why some content publishers opt for creating a social magazine-style experience, in the spirit of Flipboard, to deliver content to mobile users in the most dynamic way possible. 

The benefit of this approach is huge. Aside from providing a more familiar and enjoyable reading experience, your readers tend to view more pages, and spend far more time with your content compared with other websites that were built with click and scroll in mind.Why  

An added benefit to this approach is that marketers are given a natural way to show full-screen ads and/or call-to-action widgets. So, for instance, in between your full-screen articles, you can sneak in a white paper download CTA (call to action) or a newsletter sign-up request without interrupting the experience.

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.

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.

How to tell a story with one photo and 60 seconds of audio

Jeff Domansky at ThePRCoach.com says Fotobabble may be the Twitter of storytelling:

Fotobabble is a storytelling tool that lets you do just that using your computer or iPhone. It’s got great potential from quick and easy storytelling to curation and content marketing. I can see all kinds of creative possibilities. 

It’s easy to use. Upload a photo and add your story by recording a simple audio track on Fotobabble’s website. It’s free and with a studio quality microphone, the only limit is your imagination.

There is more than one way to be a journalist these days

That's a central theme in this brief video from PBS Off Book:

4 things that decide if your Facebook post shows up in a news feed

Josh Constine at TechCrunch says Facebook now looks at four factors to determine if any given post will show up in any given news feed:

1. If you interacted with an author’s posts before: If you Like every post by a Page that Facebook shows you, it will show you more from that Page.
2. Other people’s reactions to a specific post: If everyone else on Facebook shown a post ignores it or complains, it’s less likely to show you that post.
3. Your interaction with posts of the same type in the past: If you always Like photos, there’s a better chance you’ll see a photo posted by a Page.
4. If that specific post has received complaints by other users who have seen it, or the Page who posted it has received lots complaints in the past, you’ll be less likely to see that post. This factor became a lot more prevalent starting in September 2012,

How to create content by staging a stunt -- and covering it as news

What is Red Bull? Really, nothing more than a can of extremely caffeinated soda. How do you create content about that?

Red Bull brilliantly solves the problem by staging stunts and then covering them as if they were news. This stunt-driven content works for the Red Bull audience because it reflects the brand's soul: extreme, cool, irreverent, and sometimes just fall-down funny.

For example, here is a video based upon a simple idea: What happens if you build a massive Rube Goldberg machine (that is, a very complex contraption designed to accomplish a very simple task), and populate it with athletes from the world of extreme sports?

You get this:




OK, so not every brand has the budget to create something this grand. But stunt-driven content can work on the small scale as well. For example, this video in the "Will It Blend?" series from Blendtec:



Again, this works because it fits into the Blendtec ethos: Our blender can blend just about anything, and here's proof. This is a throwback to the old Timex commercials from the 1960s:



How much could it have cost to make that one?

The point is: You can create entertaining content with a can of soda, a blender or a wristwatch. All you need is to dream up an imaginative stunt that includes a touch of humor.

4 good reasons to buy a pancake lens

From Andrew Gibson at Picture Correct:

1. Simplicity: Pancakes are prime lenses. From an optical design point of view they are pretty simple, much like a 50mm prime lens. The Canon 40mm pancake lens has six elements, whereas zooms usually have ten to twenty elements. This translates to high image quality and lower manufacturing costs.
2. Price. Pancake lenses tend to be inexpensive. You get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of image quality.
3. Aperture. The maximum aperture of my 40mm pancake lens is f2.8. This is not especially impressive for a prime lens, but better than most zooms. If your main lens is a kit lens you will certainly appreciate the improvement.
4. Short minimum focusing distance. The 40mm pancake lens can focus on a subject within 28 centimetres of the camera. This is quite close, and you can get even closer by using extension tubes.