Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Will There Be Hunger for Editable Tweets?” plus 4 more

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Will There Be Hunger for Editable Tweets?
Three Ways To Turn Your Content Marketing Efforts In To A Blazing Fire
Twitter and Foursquare Test Features That Keep Data Close to Home
Facebook Adds Donate Now Button to Non-Profit Pages
To Be Effective With B2B Video, Tell a Good Story

Will There Be Hunger for Editable Tweets?

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 04:30 AM PST

Twitter is rumored to be putting together a new feature that allows for tweets to be edited.

According to The Desk (you can take it for what it’s worth) three employees from Twitter have ‘leaked’ information about this feature which has Twitter execs excited.

Once a user publishes a tweet, an "edit" feature will be present for a limited amount of time (Twitter is still currently working out the length of time the feature would be available). The feature would allow a user to make "slight changes" to the contents of a tweet, such a removing a word, correcting a typo or adding one or two additional words.

An edit could only be performed once per tweet. Once the edit is made, it would be immediately visible on that user's Twitter feed. The edit would also show up on the feed of anyone who re-published the tweet using Twitter's built-in "re-tweet" feature.

Now it is important that this looks more like rumor than reality but it also makes sense. Being able to edit social media content is available even at Facebook so EVERYONE should be doing it.

Of course, the hope is that the accuracy of information spread by Twitter users would increase. I prefer to take the darker side of this and figure that this capability will somehow end up making things worse since those who are trying to monetize social media will do whatever is necessary. Because of that, the truth often takes a backseat at best.

Would you like to see this feature?

Three Ways To Turn Your Content Marketing Efforts In To A Blazing Fire

Posted: 17 Dec 2013 04:11 AM PST

In Youtility, Jay Bear wrote, "content is fire, social media is gasoline" and I truly believe that. Yes, great content that is optimized for the search engines can generate a lot of awareness and new business, but by peppering in social media marketing strategies, you can truly light that content on fire and explode your business.

A lot our clients at Stryde, rely on us for content strategy and execution. They invest a lot of money into content initiatives and in return, expect a lot back in terms of awareness and revenue. I'm sure it's the same at your agency or if you're an in-house marketer, the same in your organization.

To me, this is fantastic! Companies are finally coming around and realizing that quality content, laser targeted to fulfill the needs of their potential customers works, and generates sustainable results. The problem is, as marketers, we're not taking full advantage of this content and we're only getting about half the value out of it as we should be.

In today's post, I want to talk specifically about three things we do at Stryde to help maximize the effectiveness of each piece of content we create for our clients to get the full value out of our efforts. We refer to this as content amplification.

Paid Social Distribution

The first thing we do for worthy pieces of content is leverage paid distribution on the different social networks. These are Facebook Sponsored Posts, LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, Sponsored Tweets, +Post Ads, and StumbleUpon Paid Discovery.

The trick with paid social distribution is choosing the right networks and targeting settings to reach your target audience as well as creating ads that look and feel organic. Remember, we live in a world where people hate to be sold, so if you can create ads that are native, you can do some real damage!

Content Recommendation

The second thing we do for worthy pieces of content is leverage content recommendation engines. A few that we use are Outbrain, Taboola, and Zemanta. Each of these services allow us to inexpensively reach our target audience on big sites like the Associated Press. I'm sure you've seen them everywhere… here's a shot of what they look like:

As with paid social distribution, there are a few tricks you need to know about in order to make this effective. Strong headlines and photos are absolutely critical to encouraging the click-thru to your site. Once on your site, you need to make it as sticky as possible and work to increase page views, since most of this traffic will just bounce. If you can figure out those two things, you'll generate a lot of fantastic traffic.

Retargeting

The third thing we do for almost every piece of content is making sure that we are building our audience list in Google Adwords so we can retarget those individuals who came to the site and didn't initially engage. Retargeting is extremely inexpensive, especially for bringing blog traffic back to the site. Our goal here is to have another change of subscribing to a newsletter or taking other action on the site. It's truly a fantastic way to stretch your content further!

To wrap this thing up, I think it's important to mention that it isn't wise to just turn these things on and let them run. You constantly need to be tweaking and optimizing each component of your content amplification campaign to get the most out of it.

When done correctly, you will get more out of the investment you put into your content, you will generate more awareness, you will generate more revenue, and I'll throw this one in here… if you're an SEO, you'll generate fantastic, organic backlinks to drive up your rankings.

About The Author

Greg Shuey is a co-founder of Stryde, a customer acquisition firm that builds and executes holistic online marketing campaigns to drive leads and ROI for their clients. To learn more about Stryde, visit their website or check out their blog.

Twitter and Foursquare Test Features That Keep Data Close to Home

Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:36 PM PST

Marketers have been using geotargeting on the web to serve up appropriate ads for a long while. We’re all used to it and not at all creeped out when we’re surfing the web and see an ad for a local retailer. But with mobile, it’s different. I don’t know why but we all get a little chill when there’s talk of using cell phone geolocation technology to deliver ads and other information.

Mobile feels more personal and more immediate. Someone can track me based on my IP address but that just gets them in the neighborhood not to my house. . . . right? (I hope.) If you’re tracking my cell phone, you know exactly where I am. Exactly. And that gets scary. Admittedly, in 99.9% of cases it’s not a security threat but it still feels like one.

Along comes Foursquare whose entire business plan is based on knowing where people are at any given moment. The saving grace is that people have to choose to share their information. I’m aware that when I check-in at the local burger joint, I’m sharing my bad eating habits with the world.

Wired says Foursquare is thinking of turning the tables. They’re testing a program that delivers an ad to a user as soon as he steps in or near a specified establishment. No check-in required. Seymour walks into the Old Navy store and instantly gets a push notification with a coupon for 20% off. Hooray! A deal.

Oh, wait. How did you know I was in Old Navy. . . . . ?

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley told Wired,

"We have all these specials on Foursquare, and we can make people more aware of them. We're really good at recommending places to people, and you can imagine some of that is paid promotions at some point."

And “paid” is the point. Foursquare needs to find a way to generate more cash and fast. Earlier this year, the company opened up their ad dashboard to small businesses. Mom and Pop Pizza can now pay to push their Free Soda with Slice offer but it’s only going to show up when people are actively searching and using the app. But imagine you’re walking down the street trying to decide where to eat. A push notification from Mom and Pop might be the little push you need to choose pizza over the burger joint next door.

Foursquare senior brand partner Brian Williamson talked about the idea at a recent conference. As an example, he referenced the movie “Minority Report.”

"The power of how they could use this — to say: 'Hey, are you near my store? Here's something you should check out' — hearkens back to Minority Report, where a mannequin is physically talking to Tom Cruise as he is walking by a store. It's getting close to that. This is like the first early step of that."

Note to entrepreneurs: don’t use dark scifi films featuring government mind control and invasive technology to prove your point.

Twitter, Too

The Wall Street Journal posted a story with the same theme today. This one says Twitter is testing a timeline called “Nearby” which shows you Tweets from people in your area. Not people you know or people you follow, just people who happen to be within a few miles of you.

Twitter says they’re constantly looking for ways to create a “better experience” for users. I have been known to use the local button to search for information on strange goings-on in my neighborhood. Still, this one sounds like straight, marketing geo-targeting to me.

What do you think? Do you like the idea of mobile geo-targeting for ads or Tweets or do you think it’s too invasive?

Facebook Adds Donate Now Button to Non-Profit Pages

Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:05 PM PST

Non-profits need people to donate money in order to keep doing what they do. Facebook has a lot of people visiting on a daily basis – people who have money to spend on virtual upgrades to the latest Facebook game. So why not match up the two?

Introducing the Donate Now button:

When you click, you get a pop-up asking if you’d like to donate $10, $25 , $100, $250 or other (where you fill in your own amount.) Click next and you go here:

They’ve made the smart move to include PayPal as an option. That’s fast and easy. Or you can choose a credit card. Click “donate” and your money is headed for a good cause.

By the way. . .

I’m not suggesting that Facebook would do anything untoward with your credit card information. But they are making it easier to get your money the next time around. Since the pop-up box says “New credit / debit card”, I have to assume that any card I’d previously entered would automatically show up as an option.

This Donate Now button is designed to go along with posts in your newsfeed. There’s also a permanent donation box on the non-profit’s Page.

When you donate, you have the option of posting about it on your newsfeed. This may sound self-serving but it is a good way of bringing more people to the cause. So if you donate, please do share.

Facebook is launching with a wide variety of partners as you can see from this graphic:

I know I have a tendency to be cynical about these things but I do believe in donating to charities, so I’m behind this initiative 100%. I think this program will be especially potent during times of crisis when many people are looking for ways to donate to disaster relief efforts.

Facebook, I’m giving you a rare thumbs up for this effort. (Even keeping the credit card data because that lowers the threshold for anyone thinking about donating again.)

To Be Effective With B2B Video, Tell a Good Story

Posted: 16 Dec 2013 07:30 AM PST

Video can be a marketer’s best friend or worst enemy. Everyone is in agreement of the value of video. We are in a content crazy world (at least that’s what marketers believe although what type of content is delivered is often extremely questionable but that’s for another post) and that content machine needs to be fed.

The latest technique getting a lot of attention is the use of video. Video has been around since the beginning of the net but with the mobile experience becoming better and better there is a greater push for video than ever before.

Which brings us to just what is needed for effective video content delivery. Before I go any further I will add my two cents here by saying that having video that starts and blasts the audio before I want it to, is a fast track to me hating a product or brand. Yelling and screaming in the public square looks desperate rather than confident. Now back to our regularly scheduled information.

eMarketer reports about how B2B customers and prospects respond to video

Some insights from the eMarketer article

In many of eMarketer's interviews with market leaders over the past year, we asked about video best practices. One of the key themes? Spin a good tale.

"People in general gravitate toward visual storytelling," explained Liya Sharif, senior director of global marketing at Qualcomm. "Video is an incredible way to tell a story for either a B2B or B2C brand."

Jennifer Anaya, vice president of marketing for North America at Ingram Micro, added, "Even though this is B2B, everyone likes a good story, and everybody likes to laugh."

In other words, if you make your videos nothing more than a data dump for your product information or you ‘preach’ why buying your product is the best move then you are missing the point. Like in any sales environment, stories sell. People like to be drawn into things in a more innocent way than being told they need your product because it’s the best and it answers all the questions the prospect has.

What if you didn’t actually answer every question with your catch all video? Well, you look like a sales schmuck. I suspect most marketers don’t set out with that as their goal but a surprising number wind up there.

What are you doing with video? Are you telling a good story or simply barfing information over prospects but making it look cool in a video?

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