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Buzzwords, such as “native advertising,” “brand publishing,” “custom content,” “sponsored content” and “corporate journalism” are fresh industry lingo for what advertisers have been trying to do since the dawn of advertising – appeal to potential customers with content. Though the ultimate goal of content marketing has stayed the same, the agencies and mediums of delivery are vastly different. Companies are turning to web content experts to produce ads that reinforce their brands while matching the editorial voice that the site’s dedicated readers have come to expect. Upworthy — a website for viral content started in March 2012 — creates content marketing for clients. They recently created “Watch the Spread of Walmart Across the Country in One Horrifying GIF” and ran it on their site for the AFL-CIO. “Our goal in this process was not to advertise for the AFL-CIO or to promote companies,” said AFL-CIO digital strategies director Nicole Aro. “It was to instigate conversations that are happening around what … Continue reading
Posted in: Enrollment Marketing, Higher Ed Marketing, Social Media
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Facebook announced on Tuesday morning that it’s testing such ads in the News Feed with a handful of advertisers. USA Today is calling this “…a move that takes aim at massive spending budgets for television ads.” Rather than having to click or tap to play, videos will begin to play as they appear onscreen – without sound – similar to how they behave when shared by friends or verified Pages. You can read more details about how the videos will work here: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Testing-a-New-Way-for-Marketers-to-Tell-Stories-in-News-Feed Facebook has offered video ads for some time, however, the auto-play feature is new. Prices for a 15-second auto-play video ad are said to range from $1 million to $2.5 million!
Posted in: Social Media
Amber Mac outlines her ABCs of social media in the book “Power Friending.” Mac’s “Rules” chapter details authenticity, bravery and consistency as the three precepts for growing a brand socially. I agree with Mac’s three tenets, but would add a “D” for “delineate,” imploring social media purveyors to choose carefully which channels they use to spread their message before gobbling up every network in site. Now, I know the rule of thirds, this, and that The Jackson 5 probably wouldn’t have knocked “Let it Be” from number one with a song called “ABC … D.” But hear me out. Delineating your social media wants from your needs weeds out channels that don’t fit your brand, preventing spreading resources too thin. Is that expensive YouTube video of your restaurant’s world-famous bologna sandwich any better than a picture or description posted on Facebook or Twitter in a fraction of the time? Are the hours you spend posting photos of your hydrofracking hose … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media
We’ve received many calls this year from colleges and universities looking for help in enrollment marketing efforts for traditional undergraduate students. The things that worked in the past just aren’t working. When I ask them about their current enrollment marketing efforts, I often hear the same things. Many institutions continue to use search services like College Board, ACT, NRCCUA and CBSS to market to potential students for their outbound efforts through mail and email. Others pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies like RuffaloCody and Royall & Company who apply sophisticated predictive modeling to efforts for which they will charge ten of thousands of dollars. So I ask… Why continue to funds these efforts at the same level with decreasing results? The answer is always the same: “We’ve done it this way for years and it has been our highest yielding effort.” My response is always the same… “It was your highest yielding effort!” So what has changed in … Continue reading
You’re getting sloppy, SEO people! Let’s talk fundamentals. I’m sick and tired of hearing your excuses, about how the game has changed, and you’re caught standing there flat-footed like a kid who just hit his first tee ball. Shape up! I’m busting out the playbook. The following are inexcusable excuses: 1. “Search has changed dramatically and we’re still learning how to cope.” Search algorithms change all the time, each day in fact. Some changes are minor, and some are massive. You are allowed some leeway to rethink your strategy after a major algorithm change, like the Panda updates or Penguin, when those changes require a dramatic shift in link building techniques, content optimization, social messaging activities, etc. But you must not use this as a crutch, or throw your hands up in the air and blame Google. It’s like blaming the refs, people! Adjust your game plan! 2. “Demonstrable results are hard.” If you can’t show a client actual, tangible, … Continue reading
Posted in: Analytics and Metrics, Search Marketing, Social Media
Here we go again. Today, a link was being shared around our office and in my Twitter stream. It was a link to an article .Net Magazine ran Wednesday, featuring expert opinions on the content of another opinion piece it had run back in May. The upshot of the first piece is that social buttons on websites are dumb and should be done away with forthwith. The upshot of Wednesday’s piece is that some people agree with the first piece, whereas some other people do not agree with the first piece. Here, I took a screen shot of the title and byline so I could share it with you: I especially like the positioning of the social media buttons directly beneath the title, although I’m not personally a fan of treating comments so differently than social media buttons, and I furthermore find myself wanting to know how many people have tweeted, liked, plus-oned, inlinked (come on, it should be a … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media
Depending on what part of the world you call home, you probably have a different reaction to the name, “Debby.” It’s a perfectly beautiful name, and we even have a few hard-working Debbies here at Elliance. But, when a storm by the same name rolled through the Gulf of Mexico last weekend, my perspective changed. I’m from Pittsburgh. And, when I moved to Florida in 2008, the humidity and gigantic bugs were the only bad parts, really, besides missing my friends and family. Weathering my first serious tropical storm, though, made the bugs seem (almost) tolerable. The Bay area, where I live, was hit particularly hard by Tropical Storm Debby. St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Clearwater endured between 10 and 16 inches of rain over a two-day period. There was (and still is in some places) massive flooding. Winds and surf were high enough to shut down three of our four major bridges. Numerous tornadoes left millions of dollars in damage. … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Best Practices
A few weeks ago, one of the speakers at the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals conference in Chicago raised an interesting question: Is it necessary to live a “social lifestyle” personally, in order to be a social media professional? I took pages of notes at the conference, but this one idea is something I’ve come back to far more than I would have expected to. As with most interesting questions, I think the answer is yes and no. One could argue either side, and — as I am prone to do — I’ll argue both. No. Your social media manager needs to understand the media. What is the etiquette of Twitter? What do Facebook users respond to? What’s different about LinkedIn and what’s the point of a +1? But does that person need to engaged in any of these networks personally in order to gain that understanding? Not necessarily. There are plenty of resources out there with best … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media
I have to imagine that @sweden’s citizen-driven Twitter “experiment” is waking up many a marketing director’s concerns about social media—ergo their brands—in the hands of the masses. As part of its Curators of Sweden campaign, Sweden’s government-sponsored tourism agency turns the reigns of the @sweden Twitter account over to a different citizen each week. This week, Sonja Abrahamsson’s tweets have taken their followers on a magic carpet ride. Everyone from Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes weighed in on the controversy. Even Stephen Colbert riffed on it on The Colbert Report, causing over 4.7MM Twitter users to campaign for him taking over the account for a week (#artificialswedener). Because of Abrahamsson and her gaffes (or trolling?), many are calling this “experiment” a colossal failure, while a few say it is absolute brilliance. Having worked as a digital marketing consultant for many tourism directors over the years, I felt an immediate concern for the future of tourism social media efforts. … Continue reading
Photo courtesy of Google. I recently attended Google’s 3rd annual Think Education marketing summit in their New York City office. Google’s offices are packed with color and excitement, and yes, they really do have chefs who cook every day for the employees! The event was led by Google education industry experts, and attendees consisted mostly of agency and marketing reps from many higher ed institutions. So much valuable information was shared about ways prospective students (80% of which are applying online!) are finding and engaging with higher education brands that I wanted to share some of those learnings here. Search Search is very much a part of prospects’ journeys, as they research and collect information on colleges and universities. Google reported that 78% of converting prospects on education websites are, in some way, influenced by search. It’s critical for schools to ensure high organic rankings in the search results not only to allow maximum visibility for key reputation terms, but … Continue reading