Why Instagram is clueless about video

Jenna Wortham at NYTimes.com:

Instagram is a yearbook of our most memorable moments, not because they’re the moments worth remembering, but because they’re the moments worth projecting and sharing. And that’s part of the reason the service is the success that it is today, with 130 million users who have uploaded more than six billion photos to the service in less than three years. 

Video, at least the amateurish footage I shot, is the antithesis of that fantasy. And as much as I think we’re getting more comfortable being ourselves online, there’s still a difference between the self you’re willing to share publicly and the self you’re willing to share when only a handful of people are watching. 

This is a distinction that Facebook — and now, by association, Instagram — has never seemed to understand.

Want to attract Google? Write 'epic content'

From Jayson DeMers at  Search Engine Journal: 

The days when you could publish 500-word pieces on your blog a couple times a week and achieve authority status are fading away. While high quality, shorter pieces still have value, I predict we’ll see a migration toward “super articles.” Longer pieces that are a minimum of 1,000 words and more likely upwards of 2,000 will become increasingly valuable. 

It’s what Neil Patel has called “epic content.” There’s several ways to approach this. If the best articles in your niche offer 50 ideas, your round-ups could offer 100. You could get access to experts, develop detailed tutorials, or supplement your content with high quality videos or images. The key is going to be to follow an approach that sets you apart from the most basic content in your space, and grabs people’s interest for the long-term. The focus is on depth, quality, and ultimate value to the reader.

Is your content team creating marketing tools -- or selling tools?

Brendan Cournover at the Content Marketing Institute says: 

If you ask me, a great strategy does both. Think about all the ways salespeople rely on content to sell:

• Via prospecting emails

• During live meetings and sales calls (hello PowerPoint!)

• As part of post-meeting follow-ups

• With updates for existing customers to encourage renewals

So where is the majority of this content coming from? Ideally, it’s the marketing team. One problem is that too many people still equate content marketing with being strictly “non-promotional.” It’s true that thought leadership content like this is great for attracting new audiences — but really? That’s all you’re going to use content for?

Now on Kindle: My new book for brand journalists and other content marketers, "Newscraft'

My new book is now available on Kindle.

It's called, "Newscraft: How to produce brand-journalism content that attracts customers and sells more products." You can sample the book on Amazon. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow it for free for the next 90 days. If you own an iPad or a iPhone, you can read it via a Kindle app.

I've occasionally blogged about newscraft over the last few months. This is my first attempt to pull together my thinking on it.

In a nutshell: Newscraft is a hybrid that blends traditional journalism methods, tested copywriting techniques and proven SEO strategies to create a 600-800 word story that attracts highly targeted readers (online or offline), converts readers into prospects, and helps your client to move products out the door.

Newscraft is an approach I've developed over the last two years and one that I use in my daily practice with my clients. It works as well for B2B and B2C.  It is also extremely flexible. You can use it to create web copy, flyers, brochures, video scripts, live demonstrations and more.

Check it out. It's just $2.99 (cheap).

If you read it, please send me your feedback.

The 4 rules of quality content

Cheryl Conner blogs at  Forbes:

1. Quality content is interesting and compelling (thus the reasons companies are hiring so many journalistic writers these days). Interesting writing is something journalists, by and large, know how to do.
2. Quality content contains information that people actually want to know. It inspires them. It provides value-add. It is content they are looking for, as opposed to being material marketers pummel them with. It provides them with meaningful evidence to consider as they make business and consumer decisions.
3. Equally important, quality content is material that is clear and readable. It is well written. Most of the time, that also means it’s concise.
4. Most important of all – Quality content is authentic. It is not phony, contrived, disguised or even sneaky (perhaps deftly communicated, but never hidden or sneaky) about the motives it holds.

She also offers 10 commandments for brand journalism.

Do stock photos hurt your SEO? Do original photos help?

Even Google seems unsure. The answer is: Stock photos probably don't hurt your search engine optimization and original photos probably don't help. But now that Google's has been asked, you can expect the next update to tilt the SEO bias toward original photos. For details, watch this Google Webmaster video with Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts:

Six simple secrets to designing the perfect print layout

Advertising guru David Ogilvy created the perfect print layout in the 1950s, based on years of reader research. There’s no reason to be creative. Just follow his formula, and you will be fine.

If your job is to produce a print product (such as a handout or a page in a newsletter or a magazine), start with a letter-size page in Word or InDesign.

1. A caption goes under the photo. It should either describe what is happening in the photo or quote a key point from the story. Use your caption to sell the story to the reader. “Twice as many people read them as read body copy,” Ogilvy says in “Ogilvy on Advertising.” Use a sans serif font like Helvetica, Arial or Verdana in 9 to 11 poi
2. The photo goes at the very top. The layout works best with a horizontal photo. It should be professional photo that illustrates some key concept within your story. If your client won’t hire a photographer, buy a stock photo online from iStock or another source, and build the cost into your fee to the client.
3. Next comes your headline. Other than the photo, your headline should be the most dominant item on your page. Use a standard, highly readable font like Garamond, or Times New Roman, or Cambria in a size between 30 point and 42 point.
4. If you are working with a printed page, run your copy in three columns under the headline in the same font as your headline, but in a much smaller size. Usually 9 point to 12 point works fine. If you are working on a blog post, you will have to work with the web site’s style sheet and are pretty much at the mercy of the web master. Do what you can to keep it readable.
5. Use a drop cap in the first paragraph. Ogilvy’s research shows that drop caps help draw readers into the body copy.
6. Break up your copy with very short subheads. They also increase your copy’s readability.

Those are the basics. For the details, find a copy of “Ogilvy on Advertising” and study the hell out of it.

How to use hashtags to unite your content campaign over multiple social networks

Chris Crum blogs at WebProNews: 

One of the great things about hashtag marketing is that it allows campaigns to flourish across multiple social networks, and obviously the addition of Facebook is a huge part of that. People have been using hashtags on Facebook pretty much since hashtags have been used in popular Internet culture, but now they have meaning. 

Hashtags can also of course be printed anywhere you’re running an ad in the physical world as well, and Facebook’s addition simply makes them more ubiquitous across the social web. This is becoming more the case all the time. Vine, for example, recently added hashtags, as did Flickr in its iOS app. Google recently added a new related hashtags feature to Google .

Postano Digital Marketing Manager Julie Blakley says, “Before implementing your own branded hashtag, you’ll want to think about being transparent without necessarily including your brand name, as this can discourage people from participating, as well as give brand haters more motivation to upend the hashtag’s meaning.” 

“Generic hashtags like Nike’s #makeitcount have more creative potential both for the brand and for consumers. Either way, the hashtag should be informative and concise rather than conceptual."

She provides a number of tips here. 

Why Gary Vaynerchuk is right to 'triple down' on creating content

Gary Vaynerchuk recently announced plans to "triple down" on his already copious production of online content. Critics are chirping that Gary is encouraging online clutter. But Mitch Joel offers another view in the Harvard Business Review:

Those who follow Gary Vaynerchuk respect him. They like him. They seem to want more. By creating more, he is not only appeasing his most heavy users, but he is also giving them (and even those who don't follow him) additional opportunities to find out more, share his thinking and help him spread his own gospel. Tripling down on mediocre content helps nobody. Tripling down on relevancy, being contextual and adding value will always help a brand to expand its audience. Is this hard to scale? Absolutely. Will every brand get this right? Absolutely not. Vaynerchuk and other successful content creators know the pulse of their audience. Through the years, the smartest content marketers have understood not only the pulse of their network, but how to distribute their content in a way that fits the audience. While some may rightfully see it as clutter, my guess is that Vaynerchuk (and other successful content creators) will be analyzing the results and tweaking until they uncover a formula more effective than their old one - a million times better than those with no vision, no formula and lots of worry about the clutter that they're creating.

Who benefits most from content marketing? Those who practice it

From David Murray @TMGmedia

Content marketing transforms communication from a defensive exercise in risk management to an aggressive attempt to express the company’s best. In this environment, every communication professional in the organization goes from cost-center to profit-center—metaphorically, from ground maintenance crew to fighter pilot, from place-kicker to quarterback, from proofreader to star columnist. 

As organizations begin to value talented writers—and videographers and photographers and graphic designers—it’s obviously good for talented communicators, who benefit from more pay and more freedom to take chances to convey authentic messages via compelling storytelling to connect with real human beings.How 

Which, as opposed to creating stiff and sterile corporate stuff, is what communicators like to do.

Is 'predictive search' about to make SEO obsolete?

Rachel Pasqua blogs at Search Engine Watch: 

Call it what you like – predictive, unified, aggregated – Google Now is a glimpse at the seamlessly personalized, contextually complex, nascent future of search. 

Picture a business traveler in a foreign city for work with Google Now installed on her smartphone – or, even more likely, her Google Glasses. 

The viewfinder of her glasses with built-in Now functionality will guide her seamlessly throughout her day in a unfamiliar locale, presenting visual maps and directions to her calendared meetings, flashing safety alerts, translating price tags into more familiar currency and presenting her with real-time tips on local business etiquette – all without her having to do more than blink. 

She'll be able to text, email, and post to Google simply by speaking and gazing at her surroundings as she goes about her day, more efficiently than if she had a real human assistant in tow. 

This is a blue skies vision of what's likely to come but it's fair to say that Now is truly the first virtual personal assistant worthy of the title.

50 tools to manage, measure and analyze your social media results

Blogger Pam Dyer offers an extensive list of tools, both free and fee-based:

These 50 tools distill data in ways that are relevant to your social media marketing plan, enabling you to figure out how to succeed with your audience. 

Determining which tools are right for you requires a clear definition of your objectives. Some are real-time, highly customized dashboards that enable you to manage multiple accounts, use shared work spaces, and respond on multiple social networks with one click. Others are simple, effective, and lightweight, and provide the right amount of functionality.

How to manage your social media from Twitter to Instagram in 30 minutes a day (infographic)

Atlanta-based Pardot offers a software service that automate business-to-business marketing. So it makes all the sense in the world for the company to create content that shows customers how to get more out of that service.

This is classic "how-to" journalism. What Mark Ragan calls "refrigerator journalism." What I've started to call "newscraft," which is the subject of a Kindle book I plan to release in August.

In short, newscraft is a hybrid that blends traditional journalism methods, tested copywriting techniques and modern SEO strategies to create a 600-800 word story that attracts highly targeted readers (online or offline), converts prospects into customers, and helps to move products out the door.

Or, in the case of Pardot, a really neat infographic that -- unlike all too many infographics -- is actually useful. It solves a common problem that customers face, and makes Pardot's service a key element in solving that problem. It's an outstanding example from which all brand journalists and content marketers can learn.

Also note: Pardot made it easy to share its infographic by including an embed code. Very smart.

Embedded from Pardot

3 questions to ask your clients when choosing a social media platform

Jonathan Crossfield at the Content Marketing Institute says:

Whenever a client or a manager approaches me with, “We want a Facebook page,” I die a little inside. It’s an answer to a question that hasn’t been asked. Hey, it may even be the right answer. But who’s to know until the right questions are asked, like:

• Who are you trying to reach, and how do they use this network?

• What content types are you trying to distribute? Is this network the best way to do so or are there more effective channels?

• What action do you want people to take? (Hint: “liking” your page is a pretty low goal to set. You’ve motivated a noncommittal action that took less than a second. Then what?)

The wrong network will erode resources and attention from those that already are working well for you. And once adopted, if results from the new network are disappointing, there will no doubt be pressure from above to divert more time and resources to get that plate spinning.

The only 3 things the C-Suite wants to know about your content

Joe Pulizzin at the Content Marketing Institute says:

Never show an analytics report to your CXO (In this case, CXO refers to the senior executive in charge. This could be the CEO, COO, CMO, etc.). They don’t care about all the details, and will likely end up asking questions that will simply waste your time. When it comes to your content marketing measurement and ROI, your CXO only cares about three things:

• Is the content driving sales?

• Is the content saving costs?

• Is the content making our customers happier, thus helping with retention?

If the reports you show the CXO aren’t answering these types of questions, why show them anything at all? Content marketing is all about developing content that maintains or changes a behavior. That’s your focus.

How to execute a publicity stunt so well that it becomes legitimate news

Never underestimate the news value of a really, really, REALLY well-executed PR stunt. It takes courage to fully commit to a publicity stunt. The Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson went "all in" with this one, and boy does it pay off.




So what makes this work?

1. It's visual, so TV loves it.
2. It's bigger than life -- always a key to attracting attention.
3. It starts with kids. This wouldn't be nearly so cool if it had started with engineers.

Big Data is good, but the Human Touch is better

Brian Babineau makes this point on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog: 

Marketers are in danger of forgetting they are trying to reach people. They are focusing on the science of analyzing target demographics like they are specimen in a Petri dish. 

I spoke on a panel recently, and an audience member asked how we panel members thought marketers would best take advantage of Google Glass data. Would it be through pop-up ads? Or quick video pre-rolls? And to that, I say, “Uh, what?” You mean you want to take one of the most up-close-and-personal experiences where a digital dashboard is attached to your head and use the information gathered to better target intrusive ads? Instead, stop, and think about how to have a human touch. Think about how to enhance the personal experience that the Google Glass user is uniquely having. 

So, stop telling me Big Data points about the Big Data. I don’t want to know how much there will be or how much it will grow. If you want to thrill me as a marketer, tell me about the simple insights culled from that data. Share with me the authentic notions about a target or a behavior that emerged. And surprise me by showing how the data fueled a simple, elegant marketing experience that was, at its core, very human.

A key insight for the brand journalist: Always remember, you are writing for people -- not a "target audience."

Your keywords should serve your readers, not your agenda

SEO blogger Chelsea Adams says: 

When you start looking at keyword suggestions it can be easy to fall into a high-volume drunken haze and forget that relevance means directly descriptive of your content or product — not loosely related to the idea of the content or the general needs of the target demographic. 

Don’t approach your keyword like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  If you identify a keyword phrase that doesn’t describe the topic on your landing page, but is related to your topic, or of related interest to your target demographic, create a new landing page with new content to work in that keyword phrase. Don’t try to fool humans or Google spiders by using phrases that do not exactly describe your content — use keyword research to inform content strategy! 

Think to yourself: When the user searches this query, what are they looking for? What do they want? If they find my site, will their needs be met?

She offers a useful six-point checklist for conducting keyword research. 

Why you should give away your best content to your customers

Anne Janzer is a freelance writer who specializes in B2B tech complains. She blogs at  Content Marketing for Technology: 

When I started in technology marketing, marketing saved its really ‘meaty’ materials for the sales team. Anything that included target audience, potential objections or competitive differentiators was marked with “Confidential” and included as part of sales training. You didn’t want your competitors to see what you were doing or to put potential objections into the minds of your prospects. 

Those days are gone. Today people are actively researching solutions long before your sales team ever talks with them. You still need sales training, but you also need ‘prospect training.’ Focus on the customer. That’s where content marketing comes in 

The key is to give people useful, high-value content that helps them solve their business problems. Give it away freely, without waiting for prospects to talk to your salespeople. They can find this information on their own, anyway. You can earn their trust and attention by providing value early in the sales cycle.

How to write a headline that demands attention ... in two steps

Let’s start with Rule No. 1: Make your copy looks like news, and not like traditional advertising.

People are conditioned to seek out news.  If your copy looks like advertising, they are more likely to ignore it.

The research bears this out. “If you make them look like editorial pages,” advertising icon David Ogilvy said, “you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.”

How do readers tell the difference between news and advertising? The layout says a lot. So does the choice of photos, graphics and other images.

But the most important element is the headline. Write a great news headline and you will capture your audience. Write a bad one and you will never recover.

So how do we write a great news headline?

As the creative director for Reader’s Digest, Tony Antin studied the art of headline writing for 30 years. He broke the process down into two steps.

1. What you will say.
2. How you will say it.

What you will say

• Imagine the ideal customers you want to reach. The more specific, the better.
• Now imagine that two or three of these ideal customers are discussing the problem you want to address. How can you enter that conversation? What can you show them that solves their problem? Are they likely to agree with you? Are they likely to believe you? Will they view what you offer as something they want right now?
• Focus on what is immediately meaningful to those customers. What are the specific benefits of your product that solves their problems?
• Based on all of this, write down a generic headline that will likely interest those ideal customers. If you get stuck, try using these headline templates:
  • How you can  …
  • Seven ways you can … (Try to keep your list to no more than 10 and no fewer than three.)
  • The best way for you to …
  • Everything you should know about …
  • The secret you should know about …
  • Little known ways for you to …
• The headline should make a promise that resonates with your target audience: “Read this and you will learn how to cure this particular problem that is driving you nuts.”
• Keep it simple. Just say it. Don't get fancy.
• Remember: Marketing is a triage. You can't sell everyone with one piece of copywriting. So identify the folks who are most likely to embrace your product as a solution to their problem – and sell them first.

How you will say it

• Clarity is far more important than cleverness. Focus on saying what you have to say as clearly as possible.
• Try to use no more than 16 words. Be ruthless. If you don’t need a word, cut it.
• Make one of those words a verb. A headline is a sentence, not a label.
• Work in “you” or “your.” This makes it clear that the copy is about the reader, and not the company.

If you want to know more, Copyblogger offers a great (and free) short course on writing headlines.