social media – Page 18

05/10/2013

Why Animal Memes are Marketing Gold

The concept of an animal meme is simple: take a photo of a cute or silly looking animal, add a witty caption, and then share it on the Internet. It’s been around for years, it’s over played, but yet you still read every one you come across. Let’s break down why memes work. Highly consumable and easily sharable content (an image in this case)… check. Short, easy to read text… check. A dash of humor… check. We have ourselves a winner.

Online users are gravitating more and more towards rich content. We see this through the explosion of networks such as Pinterest and Instagram, which are made up almost entirely of images and very light on text. Blogs that contain images typically resonate better with readers than those without. Social media posts which contain an image or video see high engagement rates.

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05/09/2013

How to Keep Your Prized Marketing Materials out of the Dreaded Junk Folder

Do you feel like you are in a constant battle with your Outlook inbox? Feverishly trying to respond to emails so that the daunting bold number next “Inbox” steadily inches closer to zero. Desperately sifting through emails with a cursory scan to make sure you are not neglecting your key company stakeholders. Praying that maybe, just maybe, you will learn that there is a 26-hour day coming up, giving you a whole extra 120 minutes to sort, file and compartmentalize your inbox.

You are not alone.

The entire world seems to be lost in a sea of emails. In fact, 144 billion emails are exchanged every day worldwide and of those, 68.8% are spam. Moreover, individual email volume rose 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 when compared with 2011. So not only are you drowning in the whirlpool of business critical messages, but you are also forced with having to reel in the imperative emails over the “seaweed.”

So as a marketer, how do you ensure that your corporate eNewsletters stay good and far away from the feared “deleted items” folder? By considering the following:

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05/08/2013

Martha Stewart Joins Match.com – And How It Can Help Your Business

After plugging her new book, Living the Good Long Life last week, Martha Stewart revealed to NBC’s Matt Lauer that she was looking for love on Match.com. “I’ve always been a big believer that technology, if used well, can enhance one’s life. So here I am, looking to enhance my dating life,” she writes in her online profile.

Rumors have swirled that the domestic diva is not actually looking to find her match, but rather seeking publicity to sell more copies of her newly penned book. After all, her Match.com username also happens to also be “thegoodlonglife.” Whether or not the rumors are true, she has been successful in creating a buzz.

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05/07/2013

What Happens When Marketers Rebuff Social Media…

I love when I am in the presence of a business executive who scoffs at the notion of incorporating social media into his/her corporate strategy.

“Social media is for teenagers,” they often say, convinced that the social networking world is full of narcissistic Generation Y-ers and Z-ers tweeting, Facebooking, pinning and Instagramming every inane sentiment, picture and fad.

You can imagine how their jaws drop when we at Content Boost inform these social media naysayers that in 2012, the average Facebook user was 41 years old, up from 38 years old in 2010. Moreover, in 2012, more than 65 percent of Facebook users were 35 plus years old.

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05/02/2013

Debunking Content Marketing Falsehoods – Part Two

Don’t you love when someone is positive about a fact and you prove them wrong? Like when someone swears that the capital of North Carolina is Charlotte when you know it is Raleigh. Or when your friend is confident that Tobey Maguire played Kevin in “Sin City.” He didn’t. It was Elijah Wood.

Well, we at Content Boost love dispelling content marketing myths– including two of the most egregious ones: that if you haven’t started content marketing yet it is too late to get in the game and that social media is not for your business. Don’t believe us? Have a look at part one of this series.

Today, we debunk two more misconceptions.

Fallacy: If you flood your blog or newsfeed with content, the search engine spiders will come for you and rank you.

Continue reading “Debunking Content Marketing Falsehoods – Part Two”

04/30/2013

Debunking Content Marketing Falsehoods – Part One

Some of my favorite articles are those that expose commonly circulated fallacies and pull back the curtain to reveal the truth. For example…

The lie: Artificial sweeteners are safe sugar replacements. The truth: Studies have actually found that those who use artificial sweeteners are more likely to gain weight then those who consumer caloric sweeteners.

The lie: You should stretch before you exercise to avoid injury. The truth: Conversely, researchers have found that stretching before exercising can actually slow your body down, resulting in a five percent reduction of efficiency.

When ubiquitous “truths” are circulated and then subsequently debunked, you are oftentimes left flabbergasted and befuddled—but then you realize that a world of possibilities opens up. After all, maybe you can start traipsing around in the cold with a wet head and not get sick. Perhaps your dog is not really as old as you think he is, as dogs do not age at seven years per one human year. And, maybe, just maybe,you can in fact have that ice cream sundae minutes before jumping into the pool.

Perhaps no space has more misconceptions flying, however, than the content marketing one. Marketers claim to know all the statistics and best practices for crafting a competitive content marketing strategy—numbers that often belie the potential of this new-age marketing technique and preconceived notions that often hamper success. Below, we unveil some of the biggest content marketing falsehoods. Continue reading “Debunking Content Marketing Falsehoods – Part One”