Content Marketing How-To Advice, Case Studies and Samples

MIT: Facebook Still Has Large, Untapped Opportunity In Social Advertising

By Christine Dunn | Published: February 3, 2012

Photo Credit: Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com

Facebook, which this week filed for an initial public offering that could value the social network at as much as $100 billion, has only just started to recognize the untapped potential of social advertising, fueled by its own technology, according to research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Catherine Tucker. Read More »

Posted in Breaking News | Tagged Facebook, social advertising, Social Media | Leave a comment

Author: Christine Dunn

Christine Dunn has almost two decades of experience writing about finance and business issues. As founder and president of Savoir Media, she works with companies and executives on developing strategic, integrated media and marketing programs. Prior to starting her award-winning company, she worked at Bloomberg News, where she served as Boston Bureau Chief and ran industry coverage for several national teams of reporters, including consumer/retail, mutual funds and education. She also authors "Dollar for Dollar," the personal finance blog on The Boston Globe's Boston.com website. Follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/ChristineODunn or on Twitter @ChristineODunn.

4 Critical Steps to Seducing Your Customer with Passionate Storytelling

By Ann Meany | Published: February 3, 2012

Yes, chocolate is great, but central to the mystique of Valentine’s Day is the power and importance of the cleverly written word. No other holiday relies quite so heavily on the seductive spell of language. Whether it’s a poem, a greeting in a card, or even a short message — such as an email, a tweet, or a candy heart phrase — content reigns supreme when it comes to Valentine’s Day.

The same elements that make a Valentine’s Day message successful can work for content marketers, as well. Even a message on a piece of candy could teach us something.

Posted in Creating Content, How-To | Tagged Audience, Blogging | 5 Comments

Author: Ann Meany

Ann is managing editor at Brandpoint, a content marketing company offering content creation, SEO, social media and distribution services that build exposure, credibility and brand awareness for corporate and agency clients. You can follow Ann on Twitter @AnnKMeany or join the Brandpoint Community on Twitter @brandcontent and Facebook.

The Essential Guide to Meta Descriptions that Will Get You Found Online

By Brad Shorr | Published: February 2, 2012

If you think meta descriptions are no longer important, this post may change your mind. In fact, with the rise of social media, they are more valuable than ever.

Meta descriptions are little snippets of text (about 155 characters) that appear in search engine results and with links shared on social media and bookmarking sites. Although they have very little pure SEO value, meta descriptions are still important for communicating your brand message and for conversions — i.e., getting people to click on your links.

Posted in Getting Started, How-To, SEO | Tagged Blogging, Facebook, Google, SEO, Social Media, Video, Web Content, YouTube | 11 Comments

Author: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr is Director of Content & Social Media for Straight North, a Chicago marketing agency. Specializing in B2B, the agency has clients in niche industries such as cold weather clothing and truck tracking software. Brad is an experienced content strategist, respected blogger, and SEO copywriter. Connect with him on Twitter @bradshorr.

The Essential Playbook for Winning the Content Marketing Super Bowl

By Barry Feldman | Published: February 1, 2012

Ah, the sounds of padded bodies colliding; the tension of “third and long;” the pain of the untimely turnover. At this time of year, football rules.

After 16 games and a January jammed with nail-biting playoff battles, two teams remain to face off in the biggest brouhaha in all of sport. Behold the undefeated ruler of the media universe: the Super Bowl.

What does this have to do with content marketing?

Posted in Creating Content, How-To, Managing the Process | Tagged Audience, Blogging, eBook, Facebook, Google, linkedin, Social Media, Twitter, Webinars | 4 Comments

Author: Barry Feldman

Barry Feldman is a freelance copywriter, creative director, and content marketing creator and consultant. He specializes in persuasion and engagement. If you would like a piece of his mind, visit Feldman Creative and his blog, The Point. You can follow him on Twitter @FeldmanCreative.

Amy Porterfield Shares Some Facebook Techniques that Really Work!

By Patricia Redsicker | Published: January 31, 2012

Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies

It’s estimated that in just a few short months, Facebook will have 1 billion users. With those kinds of numbers, it’s hard to believe that the company didn’t even exist 10 years ago!

Despite its global popularity, Facebook is a tough nut to crack for marketers and small business owners, who have expressed their frustration with the numerous changes that it has undergone. But as it is such a compelling platform that can drive high engagement, they have no choice but to figure out ways to make it work for their goals.

Recently I spoke with someone who knows a lot about how Facebook works: Amy Porterfield. She is a Facebook marketing expert and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. During our talk, Amy offered some excellent Facebook techniques that really work. Here are some of the important themes we discussed:

Posted in How-To, Interviews, Social Media | Tagged Engagement, Facebook, Social Media | 1 Comment

Author: Patricia Redsicker

Patricia Redsicker is owner and principal at WordView Editing a copywriting and social media consultancy in the Baltimore area. Patricia works with entrepreneurs to help them create and publish compelling content that attracts and retains customers. She has over fifteen years of corporate experience working with Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young, SmithKline Beecham, SAP and Chase Manhattan Mortgage Group and others. You may follow her on Twitter at @predsicker.

Bluefin Labs Aims to Make Social TV an Advertising and Marketing Standard by 2013

By Christine Dunn | Published: January 30, 2012

Bluefin Labs is pioneering a new concept in marketing and advertising analytics that the company says will be a mainstream practice for businesses by 2013: Social TV.

The company captures the video and audio streams of shows broadcast by the major networks as well as cable, and then analyzes the Twitter feeds to see what the audience is saying about them as they’re watching. By monitoring all three sources of information, Bluefin can analyze what TV networks are pushing to consumers, and, in turn, what their audiences are watching and saying back. It helps anyone that uses television advertising to measure not only how big the audience is that they’re reaching, but how much reach they’ve earned through Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bluefin recently raised $12 million in a Series B round led by Time Warner Investments and with participation from new investor SoftBank Capital and return investors Redpoint Ventures and Lerer Ventures.

“Everyone has audience-size data,” said Tom Thai, Bluefin’s VP of Marketing. “The ones that have access to Social TV data are incorporating [the information] into their pitch that they’re not only delivering the audience size, they’re delivering social engagement.”

Generating Brand Buzz: The Celebrity Twist

As one example, Thai pointed to a commercial campaign that Best Buy Co. launched during the Superbowl last year about its electronics buyback program. The Super Bowl ad featured Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne talking about the program, with Osbourne quipping, “What’s a Bieber” during the ad.

An analysis of Twitter conversations about the ad showed that viewers were talking about the stars, about Ozzy, and about Ozzy’s quote, but only intermittently talking about the Best Buy brand. The buyback program was never mentioned, Thai said.

Best Buy then came out with a second ad that featured a father and his daughter. The father, after purchasing a 3-D TV, was called a “silly head” by his daughter for not getting the “latest” 4-D TV. While this ad didn’t achieve the same volume of conversations, the Best Buy brand and its buyback program were more widely discussed.

Companies can “start incorporating this feedback from the social channel to make business decisions faster,” Thai said.

Not Just Live Event Feedback

The use of Bluefin’s technology may seem obvious to companies looking for feedback on ads during reality TV events such as the voting that takes place during American Idol, or other major live broadcasts such as sporting events, political events such as the GOP debates, or the Oscars. But Thai says not to dismiss its usefulness for traditional programming as well.

“What we are seeing is that people tweet about all shows on TV across the board,” Thai said. “At this very moment, leading companies are looking at data over the course of an entire TV season and trying to observe all the things the data says – examining certain shows, sports vs. reality vs. comedy.”

At the start of the television season last September, TV networks on both the broadcast and cable side were paying close attention to the audience responses to new shows. The Bluefin analyses helped them understand what elements people were responding to.

“Any show on TV, whether big or small – X Factor, Extreme Couponing or The Biggest Loser – there will be material amounts of people who use Twitter to comment on what they’re watching,” Thai said.

Bluefin’s clients are a mix of networks, marketing firms and agencies, including CBS, Fox and Discovery Communications. The $12 million in new funds will be used to expand Bluefin’s sales and service staff in addition to bolstering R&D, Thai said.

TV image via Shutterstock.

Posted in Breaking News | Tagged bluefin labs, Facebook, marketing analytics, social TV, Twitter | Leave a comment

Author: Christine Dunn

3 Simple Strategies to Tame Your Video Content Budget

By Michael Kolowich | Published: January 30, 2012

Online video works. It brings your message to life. You love it; your prospects love it; even the bean counters love it, simply because it gets results. In fact, a recent Ad-ology study, 2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast, found that 45 percent of small businesses planned to increase resources for online video (double last year’s number). And Interactive Media Strategies reports that bigger companies plan to grow business video spending by 30 percent.

Every message begs for a video. Every product. Every offer. Online visitors expect video. And since messages, offers, and products change constantly, you need to keep churning out updates before your precious online video assets go stale.

Posted in How-To, Video | Tagged Target Audience, Video | 9 Comments

Author: Michael Kolowich

A 20-year pioneer in online content, Michael Kolowich is CEO and founder of KnowledgeVision, a platform for creating interactive video marketing assets from PowerPoint presentations. A former Emmy-winning TV news reporter, he went on to be Chief Marketing Officer at Lotus, founded ZDNet and NewsEdge, led AT&T's new media initiatives, and was CEO of Individual Incorporated, the first internet content IPO. You can follow him on Twitter @MichaelKolowich.

How to Counter the 5 Most Common White Paper Promotion Mistakes

By Mitt Ray | Published: January 27, 2012

If you’re looking to use white papers to help your business generate leads, writing the actual paper is just the first step. A white paper will only generate leads if it’s read by the right people. So after you finish writing, you’ll need to make an extra effort to promote it in order to draw potential readers in and, eventually, convert them into clients.

Below are six of the most common mistakes content marketers make when promoting their white papers, and some simple ways to counter them:

Posted in How-To, White Papers | Tagged Audience, Facebook, Google, linkedin, Social Media, Twitter, White Papers | 9 Comments

Author: Mitt Ray

Mitt Ray is the Director of imittcopy where he provides white paper writing and marketing services. He is an expert white paper writer. He blogs about white papers on “The White Paper Blog.” He is the author of the book White Paper Marketing. He is also the CEO of Social Marketing Writing. You can follow him on Twitter @MittRay.

7 Ways to Bring Your Community into the Content Creation Process

By Georgy Cohen | Published: January 26, 2012

Content is a critical interface between ourselves and our community. It helps us achieve organizational objectives, reinforce our brand, and communicate key messages.

We, as community managers and content marketers, are well-positioned to create relevant, useful, and interesting content that serves both our audience’s needs and our goals. We live and breathe those goals, and we know our brand identity almost as well as we know ourselves.

But just because we can do it all on our own, does that mean we should? The truth is, our brand belongs to our community as much as it belongs to us, if not more so. That identity is not a decree that gets passed down; it is shared and, more to the point, it is co-created. While we shape and communicate it, they are out there living it.

Posted in Creating Content, How-To, Social Media | Tagged Audience, Content Creation | 4 Comments

Author: Georgy Cohen

Georgy Cohen is founder and principal at Crosstown Digital Communications, a firm committed to helping organizations more effectively tell their stories online. Previously, she was manager of web content and strategy at Tufts University. Georgy is also co-founder of Meet Content, a blog and resource that aims to empower higher education to create and sustain web content that works. You can follow her on Twitter @radiofreegeorgy.

Creating Content that Serves its Civic Duty

By Manya Chylinski | Published: January 25, 2012

Have you ever tried to get information from a government website about Read More »

Posted in How-To, Webinars | Tagged Audience, Blogging, Social Media, Target Audience, Web Content | 1 Comment

Author: Manya Chylinski

Manya Chylinski is a marketing consultant and writer helping B2B companies create compelling content and share thought leadership and success stories. Founder of Alley424 Communications, Manya has experience in a variety of industries including technology, higher education, financial services, government, and consulting. Read about content marketing and writing on her blog: On Words and Business.