Last week marked the second annual BlogWorld and New Media expo in New York City as bloggers, podcasters and communicators gathered from across the globe.
While it’s impossible to convey the depth and breadth of the content covered across the three days of forums, presentations and keynote addresses, I wanted to share some takeaways from just a few of the sessions I had the opportunity to attend.
I hope these takeaways prove helpful in your blogging, business and social media endeavours.
Thanks to Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin and all the speakers and attendees for a terrific three days.
When we think optimisation, many of us immediately think of SEO. While SEO is a core component of optimisation, Lee encouraged attendees to think of optimisation as a strategic state of mind to be applied to content marketing in a holistic fashion. That is, understanding your customers and their problems and solutions to strategically plan and implement content for each stage of the buying cycle.
To find out more, you can check out Lee’s new book ‘OPTIMIZE’ here.
2. Blogging Mistakes to Avoid – Marcus Sheridan (aka The Sales Lion)
I’d heard a lot about Marcus Sheridan prior to this conference – and his presentation and thoughts didn’t disappoint. Among the biggest blogging mistakes Marcus encouraged the audience to avoid were: failing to think like your customer/consumer, lack of focus on the key metrics for your brand and business, being afraid to take on the big players, focusing on bragging (as opposed to blogging), favouring witty titles over those that are SEO friendly, using ‘lack of time’ as an excuse, failing to see employees as content producers, and not embracing content as a sales tool.
I also recommend watching Marcus’ story here, where he also offers a free inbound marketing ebook with over 200 pages of practical advice.
At the heart of Corbett’s presentation were these three steps to produce killer content:
Cultivate creativity,
Experiment, and
Remix popular content.
That is, keep doing the work of blogging and embracing your creative side (it often takes years).
Challenge yourself every day to produce different forms of content and learn from others to utilise and work with content forms that resonate with your audience.
To use Corbett’s metaphor of the cinema box office, we all now have the opportunity to create Little Miss Sunshine – a small budget film that, through killer content, took all the big players by surprise at the box office.
Try to map out and experiment with content that will make you the Little Miss Sunshine of your industry.
Chris’ first practical piece of advice was that blogging is a marathon – learn how to pen your thoughts in short and sharp bursts to maintain focus and manage your blogging time among all your work and life commitments.
Channel your passion and be sure to practice, practice, practice. As Chris said, “practice replaces talent” – and practice is the reward for all your ongoing efforts.
Through all of that, never forget to connect with others and draw them back to you, and try hard to be brave.
It takes a lot to put yourself out there as an individual and/or business – be brave every day.
The key takeaway from Chuck’s presentation is that brands need to tailor concise communication for mobile.
Current exponential growth in mobile and smart-phone adoption is greater than the initial growth of the internet – with mobile technologies evolving to become increasingly consumer centric.
However, while brands need to understand and keep up to date with consumer behaviour across the third screen – the real value is in the content, not the technology.
That is, the technology is only as useful as the content that is able to break through the noise of the mobile space. Oh, and one thing Chuck made clear – an app is not a mobile strategy.
If you’d like to read more of Chuck’s work you can check out and purchase his book here.
One of my favourite blogs is Jay Baer’s Convice & Convert. At BlogWorld, Jay gave the audience a behind-the-scenes overview of the stages of evolution the blog has gone through over the years to get to where it is now, and offered these golden pieces of advice to step-up your blogging:
Be patient,
Be somebody’s favourite blog,
You are a publisher – add value to your audience and have something to say,
Embrace variety in the content you create, curate and share,
Be a YOUtility in striving to help others,
Include calls to action,
Optimise,
Measure behaviour, and
Be shareable.
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What do you think?
Did you have the opportunity to attend BlogWorld? What did you take away from the conference?
Did any of the thoughts from the above sessions resonate with your current personal or business activities?
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia recently launched its new brand position: 'Can'
Despite being half a world away, I’ve been paying attention to the big re-brand of Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA) that seems to be the talk of the media and communications town in Australia at present – the biggest re-brand in the banking sector since NAB’s ‘Break up’ campaign.
Following a teaser campaign around the word ‘Can’t’, the CBA unveiled its new brand position of ‘Can’; a campaign including print and TV advertising, social media across its Facebook and Twitter accounts, a dedicated website, a mobile banking app called ‘Kaching’ (previously launched), and a pretty cool augmented reality app launched in conjunction with News Limited newspapers.
Certainly a busy week for the organisation after last week being named as one of the top 100 global brands in the 2012 Millward Brown BrandZ report.
A selection of the new ‘Can’ TV advertisements. The ‘ode to can’ commercial featuring Toni Collette is currently unavailable, but can be viewed on the CBA Facebook page.
Given the scope of the re-brand and the allocation of transmedia resources to bring it to life, I believe there are some early observations for marketing and communication professionals from the interview – even at this early stage.
1. ‘Traditional’ media are far from dead.
Yes, we’ve all read the posts from doomsayers claiming that the end is near for our beloved TV and print media. While traditional media are undergoing their own unique evolution and expansion into the social and digital spheres, dollars and creative strategy are still being utilised in the traditional spaces as part of integrated, cross-platform campaigns.
2. Hit all the touch-points.
Connected consumers want to engage in their platform of preference, and on their terms – and brands need to plan and execute their outreach and engagement accordingly. It was great to see CBA CEO Ian Narev blog about the new brand position and share it across the bank’s social channels. Communication is now transmedia – and you don’t have to be a traditional media monolith or gatekeeper to produce stories and play in the space.
3. Tell a story (or multiple stories).
Again, we’ve all read the posts about the importance of storytelling. It’s nice to see a brand the size of CBA come out and put “lifestage stories being told through Facebook” (Mumbrella quote) as part of its strategy. In a recent episode of his Six Pixels of Separation podcast, Mitch Joel interviewed Jonathan Salem Baskin about the importance of truth in marketing. In short, people relate to people – and I hope the CBA takes the opportunity to tell some real stories that add to the TV commercials that outline the products, services and calls to action that encompass ‘Can’.
4. Don’t be afraid to innovate (and measure).
While not all businesses will have the budget of CBA, the CBA/News Limited/Explore Engage collaboration is an interesting example of exploring new media innovation in the context of current media trends (in this case, second screen experiences) to reinforce and drive home a brand message and integrate with the traditional, social and mobile marketing and communication strategy and tactics.
That is, CBA ‘Can’ bring the newspaper to life, literally! More than that, it can measure just how much its consumers use this piece of innovation. As Scott mentions in the interview – hardcore innovation and ROI is no longer a gimmick – it has arrived.
Again, while we’re yet to see the figures and results of this piece of innovation, it’s worth observing how this progresses, and thinking about how your own brand can leverage innovation and trends to communicate your story and message, and measure accordingly.
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So, while it’s still early days for Commonwealth Bank and ‘Can’, there’s plenty for marketers and communicators to keep their collective eyes on as this brand positioning evolves and the results start to come through.
I look forward to seeing the team at CBA prove to Australia that they ‘Can’.
What do you think?
Have you been paying attention to the launch of ‘Can’? If so, what do you think of CBA’s efforts to date? What have you taken from the positioning so far?
Last week I attended a meetup for Creative Village NYC, featuring presentations from VYou and Squidoo (more to come on VYou in a later post).
While I’m sure that you’ve all read a number of ‘top tips for social media’, I really like this list presented by Squidoo’s VP of Partnerships, Lauryn Ballesteros, on how to do social media and business well.
Although each individual step/tip involved in the below requires its own planning, research, integration and execution with the others, I think it’s a great list to keep saved and front of mind when planning and evaluating social media and communication activities.
So, without further ado, here are Lauryn’s five ways to do social media well – I hope you find them of great use.
Thanks to Lauryn and the teams at Squidoo and Creative Village NYC for the great event.
1. Be generous.
Provide value to your community on an ongoing basis – not just during a single ‘push’ or campaign.
2. You need to have a story.
Use social platforms to tell your brand’s story. This is the heart and soul of the brand, and what it represents.
3. Be strategic in your use of platforms.
Each channel has its own codes, engagement and audience. Research where your audience is, and the content they are engaging with to develop and execute your social media activities. The platforms you utilise need to have ease of access, use and reach.
4 + 5. Trust and Authenticity (Lauryn grouped these two together)
To succeed in the social space, brands needs to show themselves to be both trustworthy and authentic not only in the content they share, but the manner in which they engage and communicate with the community.
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What do you think?
Would you add any tips to the above list for doing social media well (or not so well)?
CSR & social media continue to integrate themselves within business.
I was lucky enough to attend a panel discussion put on by IABC New York last week: ‘Transforming CSR & Sustainability into‘Marketable’ Enterprise Strategy ’(full event summary available here).
Although I never studied CSR as a discipline, it’s an area that captured my attention since I began living with my brother during his time as a student in Property and Sustainable Development.
In particular, I became interested in how organisations incorporate and communicate CSR and sustainability to their stakeholders (I was lucky enough to write a research paper on it during my Masters study).
One point the panel agreed upon is that CSR needs to, and is slowly being incorporated across every component of business – from community engagement to supply chain management.
Interestingly, moderator Johan Havens likened it to the ongoing evolution and integration of social media in businesses – a point that really got me wondering – what are the parallels between the integration of sustainability and social media within business?
Taking a few of the key points made during the panel discussion, here’s some similarities I came across.
1. CSR Benchmarking is critical for each sector and niche of business to compare performance and strive for improvement.
The same can be said for social media and communication. As new channels, media, campaigns and community management efforts evolve, businesses and communicators need to learn how to measure their efforts. While a universal benchmark for sectors may not be possible given business’ individual objectives, it is only through setting and measuring results that organisations will achieve goals and further develop their efforts.
2. CSR performance is a continuum, with new innovation driving products, processes and engagement that redefines the standard.
I would argue that trail-blazers in social media marketing and communications are doing the same. Every day there are new case studies as brands and organisations develop ways to combine and utilise the spectrum of available media and technology to re-define what is achievable and push other communicators to grow and meet their individual business objectives.
3. CSR needs to find ways to contribute and tie itself to the wider business objectives of the whole company. That is, connect the dots between where the company is going (or wishes to go), and what CSR can achieve as part of that vision.
As the concepts of the connected consumer and social business come to the fore, social media too must break out of the silo and tie itself to the objectives of the organisation, and establish itself as capable of transforming and improving business processes and results both internally and externally to meet a wider vision.
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We are at an exciting time for both fields as they integrate further within business – and that’s without even discussing the intersection of CSR, Sustainability and social media (we’ll save that for another time).
From the CSR standpoint, it’s encouraging to see so much innovation, and companies adopting the view shared by Grant Smith of Edelman Melbourne in this post:
“CSR is no longer a strategic investment. It has to be done simply because it’s the right thing to do.”
Thanks to the team at IABC New York for hosting the event, and to the panelists for their insights.
If you’d like to find out more, I recommend visiting each of the panelists individually at the following:
Are there other similarities between the integration of each field in business? Do you have other favourite resources in the CSR and Sustainability space?
One thing I was prepared for when I returned to New York recently was queuing – especially at restaurants and cafés.
Out in Brooklyn last weekend, some friends and I managed to score a spot at a popular local café with a wait time of an hour or more (yes, there was a crowd of people patiently queuing with take-away coffees outside), while right across the street another venue sat half-full on a bright and warm Easter Sunday.
Why? The popular venue had a better product (and no doubt better word-of-mouth marketing to go with it).
The same can be said for brands, organisations, consumers and content.
Just as consumers are happy to wait out on the pavement for a spot to sit and a good meal, so too are fans happy to subscribe to brands online, and interact with and share content they deem of value.
After reading this post from Jay Baer earlier in the week about the make up of users’ facebook news feeds and Americans’ distaste for receiving brand promotions in social media (according to this study from Exact Target they prefer good ole email), I started unsubscribing to a number of brands that were blasting away with the promotions.
Much like we all have a magic number for the amount of social networks we can maintain engagement with (hat tip Scott Monty), I believe we also have a limit to the number of brands whose content we wish to queue for and welcome into our news feeds – and we don’t need to wait an hour in line to join or unsubscribe.
The good news is that in general, I feel that the current content being produced by a lot of brands is falling short of what fans would like to see and genuinely engage with or share.
Why is that good news?
While it may sound pretty negative, I believe it equals opportunity for brands to step up to the plate and provide value in their online marketing and communication.
Doing a bit of an audit of the brands I follow, subscribe to and share, I identified only one brand that I would actually rave about, and whose content I actually look forward to receiving in my feeds.
That said, there’s still plenty of room for more brands to capture my attention and to be added to my list.
Just like I’ll always be happy to wait for a great café or restaurant, I’ll look forward to new content from those brands that I know care and are in tune with what consumers find of value in these online spaces (hint: it’s not coupons).
The question is: Is your content worth queuing for?
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What do you think?
Are the brands you follow producing content you deem of value? How many brands would you actually rave about when it comes to content marketing effort? Or am I being too harsh here as brands begin to learn these new channels and develop their ongoing content marketing strategies?
Last week marked the second annual BlogWorld and New Media expo in New York City as bloggers, podcasters and communicators gathered from across the globe.
