Digital-News on Scoop.it today

The smartphone promises a new golden age of journalism.

...Journalism, however, is holding its own. Statistics from the Times say roughly half of the people who read it now do so with their mobile devices, and that jibes with figures from the latest Pew report on the news media broadly. But if you were to assume that means people have given up reading actual articles and are just snacking instead, you'd be wrong. 

The Atlantic recently reported that a gorgeously illustrated 6,200-word story on BuzzFeed—which likewise gets about half its readers through mobile devices—not only received more than a million views, it held the attention of smartphone users for an average of more than 25 minutes. (WIRED's in-depth web offerings have also attracted audiences. A profile of a brilliant Mexican schoolgirl garnered 1.2 million views, 25 percent of them from phones, and readers spent an average of 18 minutes on it.)

Little wonder that for every fledgling enterprise like Circa, which generates slick digests of other people's journalism on the theory that that's what mobile readers want, you have formerly short-attention-span sites like BuzzFeed and Politico retooling themselves to offer serious, in-depth reporting. “Maybe we're entering into a new golden age of journalism,” venture capitalist Marc Andreessen mused in a recent blog post, “and we just haven't recognized it yet.”...

Via Jeff Domansky

Lists are everywhere and the headlines with lists are proliferating faster than rabbits imbibing unlimited amounts of Jack Daniels. Anybody and everybody is using embedded lists in their content. Or, they are writing “mea culpas” via Medium, exposing every aspect of their personal and professional lives.

Great content is somewhat list driven and we can all thank smartphones for some of this popularity. Your content is getting reduced to a small screen: so no lists, maybe no reads....

Via Jeff Domansky

Too often people overlook the visual aspect of social media, which is actually a huge part of the experience. Most people report being more engaged by social networking posts that include photos. That’s because they draw attention and can spark interest in a post that otherwise would only have the support of a headline. The more engagement, the better the chance of a conversion, whether that means clicking on a link, signing up for a newsletter or buying a product.

Here are some ideas for types of images you can use to help pump up your conversion rates from social media networks....

Via Jeff Domansky

Inbound marketers understand that business blogging is a critical part of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. But how frequently does a blogger need to publish content in order to make a true dent in their marketing results?

Furthermore, how does that vary between B2B and B2C companies, and smaller and larger businesses?  Wouldn't it be great to have some blogging benchmarks to go by?

HubSpot's new report, Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000 Businesses, provides information gathered from companies that do inbound marketing every day. We're highlighting 12 charts from that report to provide you with some valuable benchmarks for blog frequency, lead generation, and website traffic....

Via Jeff Domansky