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...Content Marketing is an important element of a company’s Marketing strategy and it is a good way to raise awareness of your brand and gain new followers, but for small businesses they need to tread carefully. Posting industry articles, sharing content and writing a blog require sweat equity and time-starved small businesses often cannot afford to dedicate their time to content Marketing. A balance needs to be reached to ensure a mixture of quality content and sales-related material is implemented into any Marketing strategy. Just don’t overuse and abuse the now cliché “Content is King” – that’s nonsense, the customer is King.LISTEN!As marketers we should be listening to what consumers want and what form of Marketing actually works rather than what we perceive to work! A recent article entitled The Digital Gap between Consumer and Marketer by Jacey Gulden on Social Media Today highlighted the gap in perceptions of consumers and Marketers. Jacey writes about the benefits that smaller businesses have when personalizing communications with consumers, which I agree with when targeting the correct target market....
We never seem to run dry examples of easily preventable crises. Last week, an article on Home and Garden TV’s website discussing Fourth of July table settings suggested that an American flag be used as a “bright and festive table runner.” Whoops…
As you probably guessed, flocks of military vets and their families, along citizens from just about every walk of life, descended on HGTV’s social media sites to rip the network a new one for its misuse of the flag.
To HGTV’s credit, it quickly deleted the article and posted an apology, but to its detriment the apology was a weak one....
After confirming his company had been the victim of a massive cyberattack, Heartland Payment Systems General Counsel Charles Kallenbach was hyperventilating....
...But going public with a breach is a delicate matter. According to a 2013 study by the Ponemon Institute, a data privacy research institute, overly quick notifications following a breach are one of the biggest cost-multipliers. In the U.S., a premature notification added as much as $37 per record to the overall cost of the breach, the study found. When a breach involves hundreds of thousands of records, that adds up.
The tremendous scrutiny associated with data breach notifications makes getting the message right critical, said Leigh Nakanishi, senior privacy and security strategist at Edelman.
“We’re seeing many more companies being transparent when they have a breach,” Nakanishi said. “Transparency is good, but it has to be done carefully.”...
So, I thought I would take another look at oft-repeated inaccurate statements I have run across since my last article and examine each one. (Caveat – like many myths, there are grains of truths to each of the following. I list them here not to embarrass anyone who has stated the views, or believes in them – but simply to look at other sides and open people up to new possibilities and ways of thinking)....
It happened with the Washington Post‘s initial PRISM story, it happened with Glenn Greenwald’s story in which he wrote that the NSA has “direct access” to servers owned by the various tech giants and, over the weekend, it happened in spectacular fashion with a bombshell article posted on CNET by chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh.The headline that dispersed through social media and political blogs like the swine flu: “NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants.”When I spotted the headline, tweeted by a reporter who I otherwise respect, my first reaction was, “Wow. Okay.”
But as I read the article, the headline became less and less accurate — a trend we’ve witnessed several times recently. In fact, McCullagh’s reporting almost entirely disintegrated under just cursory scrutiny… but not before it went viral.McCullagh reported that during a House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring FBI Director Mueller, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) revealed that the NSA, during a previous secret briefing, admitted that thousands of NSA analysts could to listen to phone calls without warrants. That was the thrust of McCullagh’s story. But the quotes were awkwardly truncated, the tic-toc of the story was unclear and there were highly speculative paragraphs that jumped to conclusions not supported by the reporting....
What's up with traditional media and what's buzzing in digital media? A very interesting analysis... It’s been a good week for old media. The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal have all done a superb job of reporting on the NSA/PRISM revelations. Unfortunately it has also been a terrible decade for them. Newspaper advertising revenue has fallen by more than half since 2007, and paywalls aren’t even coming close to covering that loss.Worse yet, nimbler competitors are doing their breakneck best to steal the audience…and they seem to be doing it well.
I recently got curious about how frequently various news sources are shared on social media, and since I couldn’t find any tool that measured quite what I wanted, I built one myself. (And I’ve spent like a hundred dollars on App Engine server costs amassing all of its data, so I hope you appreciate this.) The results were eye-opening.My handy-dandy tool, called Scanvine, tracks stories from a panoply of online sources, measures how often they’re shared, and compares and ranks them all. Guess what its leaderboard says as of this writing? None of the above are ranked in the top three. Nor the NYT, or the WSJ, or the New Yorker. Instead, third place goes to The Onion, with an average of 2000 shares per story; number two is Cracked, with 2700; and number one, at over 3000…is much-loathed BuzzFeed....
...The starting point to understanding the how mainstream media fails to accurately report the news is the consolidation of media ownership in the United States. In 1983 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. In 2002 that number had decreased to 10 companies (McChesney & Nichols, 2002). By 2004 that number had decreased to only five companies. As Nichols and McChesney state, All in all, these [few] firms control the overwhelming percentage of movies, TV shows, cable systems, cable channels, TV stations, radio stations, books, magazines, newspapers, billboards, music and TV networks that constitute the media culture that occupies one half of the average American’s life.
It is an extraordinary degree of economic and social power located in very few hands (Nichols & McChesney, It's the Media Stupid, 2000, p. 28).Five companies control the bulk of information disseminated to the American public via mainstream media. How can one have a diverse discussion of ideas if a handful of people or, in the case of the media, a handful of corporations controls the information that the public receives via mainstream media? The answer is that one cannot. Corporations have one interest in mind: Profit above all else. Financial gain is their only reason for existence. Informing the public is not the corporate media’s principal function, making money is....
PR packs power in the nutritional wholesomeness that is today's marketing smoothie. Today's hybrid PR is blended with the whole -- integrated marketing.Back in the day, public relations, advertising and marketing were firmly divided in their respective silos and disciplines. We in public relations were often referred to for real in jest as the “bastard step children” of marketing.
Often we’d sit in an integrated meeting of the disciplines and keep our traps shut until we tossed out a bit of value-added strategy into the mix while our peers across the aisle glared nicely.Today, the blended nature of marketing has public relations professionals up in arms. Some are balking at the integration of PR so cohesively into marketing. In short, these people are having an identity crisis....
By far, the best online marketing strategy is being able to seize a new opportunity before any of your competitors have a clue what’s going on. But it’s not just about setting yourself up to be the early bird.But it’s not just about setting yourself up to be the early bird.
You have to be ready to catch the worm and ride the wave of popularity at its peak.This will enable your blog, service, or product to enjoy rapid growth, and hopefully a higher level of repeat business in the long term.
...not all list posts have to suck! While there are definitely some pretty awful ones out there, you can also find quite a few very valuable, high-quality list posts floating around the internet. So let's not judge a list post by its title. I'm a firm believer that the list post does have a place in the world of high quality blog content.
And to no surprise, this post about lists posts is largely a list post itself. You can be the judge of its quality, but I stand by my beliefs.First, let's talk a little bit about common misconceptions about list posts. Then we'll dive into the characteristics of high quality ones so you can start squashing the myth that all list posts are subpar ... by writing awesome ones!...
Plenty of startups try to determine the perfect business model to take to market only to find that the market doesn’t need, want or understand what they are presenting....
... A marketing strategy is how you plan to use the resources available to you to build an ongoing case that your business, products and services are the obvious choice for a narrowly defined ideal customer. If you accept this expanded view of marketing strategy then I would suggest you answer the following questions in an attempt to measure where your strategy stands today and where it could go if your understood and integrated it fully as your business model....
Hey, lean in real close. I have a little secret to tell you. It's about how to get more customers. Ready? Stop being sketchy. Did I just blow your mind? Probably not, right? Then why are there still so many companies out there eliciting the stink eye from leads and prospects? Probably because they're doing things that come across as really untrustworthy, and they don't even know it.
You could hire a branding consultant or agency to help your company be more likeable, but I have a better idea. Before you drop a dime on that, run your company through the sketch-o-meter to see if there are any things you can cross off the list of major turnoffs. Chances are, if you're doing any of these things that tend to make people distrust companies, nixing it from your marketing repertoire will do some serious wonders for your likeability index. Take a look!...
My professional services client wasn’t having a cardiac incident… he was having a typical industry reaction to our suggested improvements for the firm’s digital marketing strategy.The main problem? Whether you are a lawyer or a management consultant, an engineer or an architect, the professional services industry remains skittish about the benefits of online marketing and “digital PR.”
To be fair, there are good reasons for that cynicism and anxiety. Professional services engagements have big ticket price tags, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll convert a $500,000 retainer or project fee based on their latest study, a shiny website or SEO strategy.So, instead, they opt for tried and true: more white papers, pricey advertorials, traditional sponsorship efforts, iffy podium appearances and (sigh) dubious award and ranking activities.It’s time for the professional services industry to stop thinking of online marketing as optional. Simply put, an integrated marketing program has the potential to add synergy and profit to rainmaking efforts. They have to feed their sales funnel…not compartmentalize it....
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On June 6, 2011, Scott Pelley took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News, his tenure following Katie Couric’s five-year run. The once-dominant newscast had fallen to third place behind NBC and ABCduring the end of Dan Rather’s reign, and Couric’s stint saw the broadcast fall to record ratings lows. While still No. 3 among the Big Three, the CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley has seen significant growth since the Texan took over after a long run at sibling 60 Minutes.
In the past year, the 6:30 PM broadcast has added 490,000 viewers, the largest annual increase for the network’s evening news in 15 years and the best among the broadcast news rivals since 2002. Overall, the CBS Evening News is up 12% in viewers since Pelley’s debut. Just before his second anniversary in the anchor chair, Deadline spoke with Pelley about the relevance of cable news and why so many mistakes are getting on the air....
If you’ve been using social media strategies to create loyal followers, you’ll have a decisive advantage when a crisis hits. Companies that have an advanced social media strategies in place will mitigate a negative event quicker and with less financial loss. Here, we are going to take a look at three areas that will help you manage a crisis with social media: tools, tactics, and tips....
It comes as no surprise that, in the aftermath of what most considered a balanced article about the Oakland Raiders in Sports Illustrated, team owner Mark Davis fired the team's public relations director.
According to reports in The San Francisco Chronicle, Davis didn't like the way S.I. '...painted him or the job done by his father, late owner Al Davis, in the previous 10 years.' So, PR Director Zak Gilbert was cut from the squad.
Chances are you have seen an Internet meme by now, especially if you spend any time on social media. Grumpy Cat rules the Internet in much the same way most cats rule their houses. Most people enjoy memes, and for a good reason.
Typical memes, by design, appeal to the 12-year-old in all of us – they are either funny, cute, raunchy…or all of the above. Better still? Memes are free and easily transferred between people online – and they hold a great deal of potential for being seen by a lot of people. Enter Internet memes for business; what marketer or business owner would turn down an opportunity to use a technique which is already so popular…and inexpensive?
Are Internet memes for business a good idea? Sure, people like memes and share them – a lot. Organizations that want to increase their online presence may find memes are effective in spreading their names and messages. On the other hand, brands may want to consider the possible negative ramifications in regards to their reputations. What may seem like a good idea at the time could result in problematic consequences when not completely thought out. Serious businesses rarely succeed by building their foundations on trendy topics....
The fictional tale about war correspondents will make you laugh till the person next to you on the subway thinks you have problems. It is also, according to writer Alexander Nazaryan, an all-too-real parody of the glory days of print journalism....In only a few years, a child will ask a parent about newspapers: What was their purpose? What did people do with them, and why?
The parent, a little flummoxed, will explain that, long before biosensitive data aggregators simply uploaded information into the neurons of our frontal cortexes, people actually read the news by holding a piece of paper in front of their noses and scanning columns of text with their eyes. There were many such newspapers, to be read in the morning, over breakfast, and in the evening, over scotch. The newspapers competed with each other by sending actual people out into the actual world to report what had taken place, was going to take place — or, even, was alleged to have taken place but didn't. On days when there was little so-called news to report, the newspapers filled their pages with stories about, say, puppies who could recite Macbeth or people who wore jeggings to work. Also, there were crosswords.
Of course, this fictional parent could give his/her fictional child Evelyn Waugh's Scoop — a fictional 1938 tale of British foreign correspondents reporting on a civil war in the fictional East African country of Ishmaelia. Fictional, yes, but to a journalist like myself, most everything about the novel is too real. Waugh was a master at mixing humor and pathos, as evidenced by his two most ambitious novels: A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. Scoop, on the other hand, is all laughter, of the sort that will make the person next to you on the subway think you have problems...
Does working in PR make me a kissing cousin to Darth Vader? After all, I used to be a reporter – I was one of the hundreds of casualties...
... This is the reason why so many reporters are choosing to go into PR. We’re in the unique position of having been on the receiving end of countless press releases and pitches. Many of my former Herald colleagues are now doing PR work for both businesses and nonprofits. Some have started PR firms of their own. So, reading a recent Buffalo News article about TV reporters joining the PR ranks made me think about how annoying it is when I’m told I’ve “gone over to the dark side.” This is not Star Wars and it’s not that simple.
First and foremost, many of us simply reached the point where we needed a little more job stability than newspaper reporting could provide. Because right now most people working in print newsrooms are enduring increased workloads – picking up the slack after all the layoffs and resignations – while having their pay slashed....
Many of today’s burgeoning brands are successful on the Web in part because of their ability to produce stellar content, content that emanates from the passion they have for producing quality products and the desire to please their fans and consumers by exceeding expectations.
As people immerse themselves in valuable content on the Web via social media, as well as reputable sites like BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and Gizmodo, brands and marketers are finding ways to bridge the gap between journalism and advertising by becoming publishers.Brand journalists combine brand storytelling with traditional forms of journalism, helping brands connect with their audience in a more personal, transparent way....
....As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.From presentations to educational content and more, you can find information and curated media on pretty much any topic you have an interest in.As a research solution, Slideshare offers analysis from some of the smartest minds on the web across all verticals. These include standard presentations, videos, multimedia and more....
If you are yet to become a busy entrepreneur you are likely wasting your time on Facebook and twitter. You might feel otherwise but I can just about guarantee you that you are not effectively working your social media marketing campaign.
Why? Work tends to fill the time allotted for work.You are not under a tight deadline, or a strict schedule, so you tend to BS, or chat, or waste time checking out silly social updates, and fritter away hours or even days on these websites.Once you get busy, well, that is another story. But you need not become busy to adopt an effective social media marketing strategy. Develop good habits now by honestly assessing whether or not you waste time on social sites....
... Sales lift, impact, and retention are just a few of the key measurements for any return-on-objective (ROO) program. (Note: I like to use ROO instead of ROI [return on investment] because it focuses content marketers on the real objectives.)
Sometimes ROO can be determined with one metric, while other times four or five are needed to show an impact on your organization’s business goals.ROO measurements come in all shapes and sizes, and usually include multiple items to give you the complete answer to your question. The important aspect to remember is you aren’t measuring just for the sake of measurement.
The tools and tactics below are used to directly determine what a project’s objectives should be. If you keep that in mind, you’ll get your ROO. Here are a few measurement initiatives to get you started...
High-quality content marketing is required to succeed in today’s competitive business world. Whether you are a large corporation, a small or big business, or an educational or non-profit organization, your website vis
itors crave captivating, information-rich, high-impact and insightful content. We are in the midst of the information age, and your prospects do a significant amount of online research comparing you to your competition. How can you stand out and get ahead? You need to deliver highly relevant and valuable information in a way that strikes a chord with your target audience.
Not all content is created equal.Strategic content marketing starts with a top-notch blog—one with a great deal of content that really hits the mark. An excellent business blog can deliver dramatically increased reach, lead generation and new business development.
According to HubSpot, companies that publish a blog attract 55% more website visitors and generate 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed web pages than companies that do not. The more frequently you publish blog content, the more website traffic and leads you are liekely to produce. Companies that publish blog content at least 20 times per month attract over five times more website traffic than those that publish content less than four times a month. In addition, companies that post blog content 20 times per month generate four times more leads than companies that do not maintain blogs.
While all this sounds great, there is a catch; these statistics are based on averages. Some companies attain phenomenal results with content marketing, and others do not despite their best efforts. Now, let us address how you can match or exceed these statistics—gaining an edge over your strongest industry competitors and winning the content marketing game....
There are 3 social media trends that you need to be aware of to guide your strategy: - The more content that flows through each network the more niche you need to be to attract your audience
- Social brands are becoming personal in order to win customers, engage employees and innovate
- Customer engagement is a priority but without communities it is just social media broadcasting
So what are you going to do about it?...
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Traditional news is competing with social media and without a paradigm shift the future looks very challenging...