Marco Derksen , founder of Marketingfacts and one of the keynote speakers at the 2013 Content Marketing & Web Editing Congress, says very aptly: “It's the end of online advertising as we know it. There is increasing digital pillarization; people only get the content they are interested in. And for that, they go to your channels less and less.
Apps like Zite and Flipboard ensure that people get updates from all kinds of (social) channels in an overview. Advertisers and organizations are no longer visible in those kinds of apps.” And people also end up directly where they need to be via search engines. That will only get worse in the coming years.” The need to get into the content stream is therefore becoming increasingly greater.
What does this mean for organizations and brands in 2014? What should we pay attention to and what can we do better? In this article you can read what the eight good intentions for the coming year should be, according to some of the speakers at the conference.
1. We are no longer afraid to make choices
This first resolution is mainly for companies that are still searching, but it actually applies to all of us. Do you have to blog as an organization? Do you absolutely need a video channel? Do you have to start Instagramming, Vining, Pinning, Facebooking, Linkedining and Twittering if your (potential) customer is all there too? “No”, says CC Chapman , author of the book ' Content Rules ': “ Play to your strengths , you don't have the money and the skills to want everything.” In other words: ask yourself: what are we good at? What type of content is present in your organization, what type of media is available? Start there. And become awesome at it. The rest will come later.
2. We will think even more ahead
Brands need to think like a publisher. You’ve probably heard that statement before. Big companies like Procter & Gamble, Red Bull and Coca Cola know it better than anyone. They’ve gone so far as to set up their own media agency. A place where more than a hundred people curate and create content for all their own digital channels day in, day out. Not (only) about the products they sell; but about the lifestyle they stand for and the topics that affect the target group. “ Red Bull even places advertisements from other brands and companies on their own website (which looks like an online magazine), ”says Marco Derksen during his keynote .
redbull_website
Thinking like a publisher also means thinking ahead. CC Chapman therefore advises you to list the most important 'landmarks' for your organization for the coming six months. Chapman: “Publishers and magazines think ahead. They are not currently concerned with tomorrow's publication, but with the edition that will be in the shops in a few weeks or months.”
So ask yourself: what are the big moments coming up in our organization, what are the product releases ? What are the popular moments that we can tap into? “Research what you need to create content around those moments, what input you need from your organization, what you need to create that content, and plan ahead,” Chapman adds.
3. We will discover and tell our story
“The best content marketing is storytelling,” Chapman believes. Those are just two buzzwords in one sentence. And as a reader of Frankwatching, you are probably already familiar with Simon Sinek's 'Golden circle' . In short, his vision is: many companies and brands focus on the what (what they sell) and should instead focus on the why : why they do what they do. In short: more companies should focus on telling their own, specific, special story in their content marketing.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia
Photo courtesy of Fotolia
According to Chapman, every organization has such a beautiful story. But it is not always easy to find that story, especially if your organization is very large. After all, it is the people who make the company what it is and there are often quite a few of them. His advice in such a case? “Ask your customers. Ask them why they are crazy about your brand, your products, your services. Ask them why they choose you. That provides input for your 'brand story', but also great content to use on your (social) channels.”
4. We will no longer create content that has to go 'viral'
Viral content is not effective in the long run. A successful content strategy requires a long breath. “It’s great when that one photo, that one blog post, that one video you made goes viral,” CC Chapman believes, “but realize that viral content is very fleeting. It doesn’t stick.”
And he has a point. If you watched such a video, do you remember what it was about a week later? Do you remember which company was behind it? Chapman: “Do people come back to your website to buy your product after seeing a great hook or funny picture? Probably not. My advice: don't go for the quick likes, be careful with the hilarious pictures. Also don't advertise ('look how good we are!'), but let your community do that. Invest in the long term, create content that moves people (conversion, traffic, sales, interaction). Don't be a one hit wonder .”
5. We move from having conversations to building relationships
Nice, a blog post of 2300 words. Cool, a video on your YouTube channel. But how do you get readers and viewers? How do you make sure your content spreads? Creating content just to collect likes and go viral, we are clearly not allowed to do that (anymore). But ultimately we do want something to happen with our content.
Mark Schaeffer , American expert in influencer marketing, puts it this way: “Your content only grows and blossoms if you water it. The challenge is to create content that moves people and also moves through networks. Achieving that is not so easy.”
And that's where the community manager comes into the picture. If you ask Marco Derksen, the web editor as we know him now, who is mainly concerned with creating and sharing content, is increasingly evolving into that. "It's not about collecting as many fans as possible (with your content). It's about getting the most involved fans." According to Derksen, it is therefore important to focus on entering into and developing real relationships with customers and fans next year. "And if you help people well on Twitter, but not elsewhere in the organization, then that is old advertising in a new guise," he believes.
People will only share your content if they like you
Building relationships is what online is increasingly about, CC Chapman agrees pakistan mobile phone number list You can create the most beautiful content, but people will only respond to it and share it if they like you and enjoy it.” Should we then become friends with our customers and fans? “Maybe,” Chapman believes, “it starts with listening and talking back. If people respond to your content, start the conversation. It doesn’t end with content, it only starts there. So get people to really like you .” In other words ; reach out to your fans, ask them what they think, start the conversation, show interest and also think about the possibilities of co-creation .
Building relationships is something you do with your fans and your customers. But that's not all. How do you, as a brand, really get the attention of the large and especially the still unknown public? "Online, you don't do that by asking a celebrity to become the figurehead of your brand, but by looking for people who have influence and power online: the influencers," says Mark Schaeffer, author of the book Return on Influence .
“The internet has democratized power and prestige. The power no longer lies with the richest and the most famous, not with the models and movie stars, but with those who know how to bind people to them by being interesting, smart, witty, relevant and valuable,” he adds. “How do they do that? Simple: by sharing good, valuable content. And you as a brand can profit from that.”
Famous socials & bloggers
Schaeffer shares the example of Calvin during the congress . Calvin is a very shy boy in the United States, who likes to help his followers in his spare time. He quickly becomes ' the nicest guy in LA ' and gathers tens of thousands of fans around him who follow his updates. His Klout score is sky high . Not much later, American companies send him products, just to test and to keep. And Audi, for example, lets him drive an Audi A8 for a week. Calvin in turn shares his experiences with those brands and products on all his (social) channels. He changes his Instagram profile picture for a week to himself with the car in question, thanks to his friends at Audi .