How often do you receive spam emails? How about emails that are addressed to you, but meant for someone completely different? I’m talking about receiving personal and/or work-related emails that are meant for a person with your name, who mistakenly provided his/her friends, colleagues, and online accounts with your email address (not theirs).

Blame it on the common name (David is the 19^th most common name), but over the course of the last couple of years, I have received an email for a different David Hughes to my Gmail account on about a weekly basis. These emails are meant for a real person, with a real email address, but somehow, they have confused their email address with mine and now, I receive emails from their bosses, co-workers, friends and family, and online accounts. Seeing that this can be conflicting when personal information is shared, I have intercepted some emails by responding that the sender has the wrong David Hughes. Generally, the sender is confused and insists that they have the correct David Hughes. Several emails later they usually agree that I am not the person they are trying to reach.

However, the real issue that I have with this ongoing confusion of ‘David Hughes’ email addresses is the flood of automated emails and newsletters from accounts to which another David is subscribed. Most times I am able to unsubscribe fairly easily but occasionally I am prompted to login into “my account” with my email and password. Unfortunately, I do not have the password, which means I am forever subscribed to some business in the UK or to a Florida real estate newsletter from a local real estate agency, etc. Marking the emails as spam has only worked to an extent—I still receive the emails to my inbox every now and then, which likely confuses Google’s algorithms, as it tries to figure out who I am and what advertisements/messages to target to me over time. This could not only impact the Gmail ads I am served, but also  affect Google’s general view of my profile and the last thing I want is for them to personalize my experiences with faulty data.

After many months of receiving emails meant for another David Hughes, I have become curious: Has this oddity ever happened to anyone else? And if so, how does one deal with the personal emails that are mistakenly sent to the wrong recipient? While Google is typically adept at catching obvious spam, they have been slow to learn which emails I do not wish to see or receive–even after marking them as spam again and again. Clearly, there is a fine line between the two types of spam emails (unwanted vs. misaddressed), but I am curious if Google will eventually provide users with a function to block or eliminate improperly addressed emails.

The constant flood of personal emails to my inbox is both bothersome and humorous. No, I am not interested in Florida real estate. And yes, I am sure that this is not the David you are looking for.

Have you ever experienced this mistake? I’m interested to know! Leave your comments below.

Is instant feedback a bad thing? In the Twittersphere the rush to stand out from the crowd and the ‘prestige’ of providing instant news coverage may slake our thirst for quickly accessible reports, but if it means that nothing is ever done that’s not reactive, then does it really benefit us? And could access to such instantaneous feedback be considered unfavourable? As the lava was flowing down Pompeii high street and the Barbarians were at the gate, were the Romans too busy fiddling with their microblog feedback?

Twitter is a hub of specialist press, and is a portal to niche blogs and websites. What may seem boring to the mass market will still captivate certain groups with particular interests. It is a platform which allows users to engage quickly with like-minded people and route out interesting online communities. This, of course, places more pressure on newspapers. Everything falling under the imprint of one publication with one personality suddenly feels rather out-dated. Twitter is, essentially, a level playing field; any user can be a journalist and feel endorsed (to an extent) by retweets.

Now for the down side…

The cult of instant feedback has pervaded even modern politics; current political discourse is all about this sort of real-time-focus-grouping. The more instant the choices we have does not signify an enriched democratic process; on Twitter, the cyber-tribe that shouts loudest, wins. For this reason, ironically (as a platform for public discussion), Twitter is an unreliable gauge by which to measure democracy in action. The more instantaneous the output of views and choices of a select few noisy Twitter users quickly sets the precedent for sheep to, well, follow. Why bother voting! It cultivates ‘headline journalism’ in its crudest form.

The politics of reaction dilutes statesmanlike qualities and marks a passing of the era of conviction politicians. On a small scale, dangerously, instant feedback could construct or dismantle political agenda and politicians could become slaves to their own levels of popularity. On a larger scale, does social media reputation deflect attention away from substance? A 2012 study, reported on by USA Today, determined that 70% of President Obama’s followers… don’t really exist. Image is everything. At its worst, Twitter is fertile ground for intolerant know-it-alls or Justin Bieber screamers; either way, it is unlikely to drive political action – merely level-out as a soap-box for partisan opportunists.

In itself, the concept of immediate feedback is positive. It can be informative and garner useful results… when applied to a business. Businesses use Twitter for a variety of marketing-based reasons, but a big benefit for consumers is the direct access to make complaints. This business-consumer relationship is symbiotic in that companies can boost their own approval rating by re-invigorating the consumer experience, simply by composing a personal and direct response to individual users. The public nature of the medium, in turn, freely exhibits the company’s personal touch on a wide scale.

Putting social media to good use can quickly advance business objectives either by gathering product feedback, conducting polls or simply providing a direct route to customer support. In politics, spinmeisters that use such social media instant feedback to shape strategy are reactionary and somewhat unprincipled. Regarding online marketing, marketers are alert and resourceful to manage immediate feedback to their advantage.

I spent last week at SMX London, a gathering of European search marketers and brands, learning and contributing to the development of better search and social practices and process.

The conference was abuzz with Google news, due to Matt Cutts’ (Google web spam team lead) announcements and the Google I/O conference taking place halfway around the world. And as an active participant in Twitter, I thought it would be valuable to share some of these live tweets to give insights into the presentation themes, all in bite–sized twitter chunks!

Note: I ended up being the most prolific of twitterers according to this cool infographic from vccpcontent.

Keynote – A Key Role For The Search Professional: Company Insight Wizard

@jimsterne talked across a broad range of data topics, narrowly avoiding the term “big data” by focusing on the necessary insights to become a “Company Wizard of Data” – Jim’s insights on data management, data segmentation and data presentation got a lot of nodding heads and follow ups to answer the question; “how do I prove the worth of what I’m doing?”

Here is a select stream of my tweets during Jim’s presentation:

• Mechanics of data management is complex
• Data needs to be segmented to live together
• “You don’t have to know the question before you start storing data” – you can store and answer the questions that evolve
• How to be a great analyst? #1 Understand the problem
• HITS metrics – How Idiots Track Stuff – need better. Need specific goals with measurable results
• There are only 3 business goals 1) Make money, 2) Save money, 3) Make customers happy
• Data problem categories: 1) Repeatable, 2) To be solved, 3) Something to add to knowledge base for later
• Segment the segments. Create offers. Decide medium. Create creative. Test. Test. Test.
• Knowledge. Intelligence. Intuition. All enhanced by wine ☺

Key takeaway is no matter how you dig into the data, ultimately you’re paid for your insights and opinion. HAVE AN OPINION!

From Authorship To Authority: Why Claiming Your Identity Matters

Authorship and authority were key components of the panel I had the pleasure of presenting on. Our panel consisted of Maile Ohye from Google, a popular and spunky speaker and face of Google webmaster videos, Chelsea Blacker of Blueglass UK, Jim Boykin, an Internet Ninja, and yours truly, representing Essex lads everywhere.

Maile talked a lot around how Google is looking a “web of people” as well as a “web of things”… was certainly interesting to see and hear a Google view on web ‘connections’ as handshakes to ensure identities could gain visibility.

Of course, the whole panel worked within the backdrop of Matt Cutts’ announcement on previous Monday: “We’re [Google] doing a better job of detecting when someone is sort of an authority in a specific space…and trying to make sure that those rank a little more highly if you’re some sort of authority…”

Here is a select stream of tweets from my presentation:

• @NosHeini Connect known entities to known identities. Not only links, build authority w/ trust by creating well-identified content
• @kevgibbo Content is King – Authority Content is Kingier!
• @louisventer Credibility comes from great content
• @Tony_DWM When you make worthy content, you will gain your +1s, likes, tweets, shares
• @louisventer focus on your area of expertise
• @shahinfard Your digital footprint is important to how search engines and people see you.
• @SandeepVadgama Matt Kong Cutts (@mattcutts)
• @scotthague 5 rules for authorship 1. Claim & connect. 2. Build credibility 3.  Build your footprint 4. Follow the rules 5. Engage
• @CharlieGirl3009 Great presentation from @simmonet with gorilla Matt Cutts
• @soanders “Claim & connect all available profiles to enhance your Authorship. Now!” @simmonet with hat

Takeaway from the panelists:  Authorship will continue to be important (and perhaps become more important) for rankings, search results’ display visibility and click through rate! You can view the presentation here.
Killer Content Remains King, Queen and Ace

Next up on stage was a great mix of agency, tools, and search engine reps talking about the ever-popular topic of “Killer Content.”

It was great for a number of reasons:

1. Vincent Wehren from Bing was very transparent on key ranking factors
2. Chris Bennett gave some great case studies around “content marketing”
3. Dixon Jones from Majestic SEO had some great content marketing tips (and jokes)
4. Jonathan Stewart talked about ‘hero’ content as being key to content marketing success

@vincentwehren

• Search engines are learning, using ‘good’ content signals ie popularity – links, social signals, click signals = trust signals
• Recommending responsive as better user experience.
• Search Engines are smart. Understand content through user signals

@Dixon_Jones

• If you create something useful, might have reach and “halo effect / opportunity” of new content
• Olympics “best thing England has done since the war” – from a content standpoint
• 1) you cannot be your own advocate 2) be prepared 3) create a plan 4) engagement is key

@jonaths

• 3 types of content > 1) offsite 2) on site 3) hero
• Hero content – and timeliness (are key)

@chrisbennett

• don’t be a one hit wonder – content needs to be a process, strategy
• be multifaceted in content marketing not all about links, traffic & branding too (and more)
• Make your content interactive – Not just interactive infographics, but video, etc.
• Using content to solve internal problems too! Internal content marketing = better communications

Star of the Show was definitely Justin Sanger whose intense performance was worthy of The Globe Theatre. Good information, presented as if the end of the world depended on it.

Some Twitter reaction:

• Justin Sanger is very Andy Warhol
• marketing implications of #Facebook #Graph – search social & crm converging
• @justinsanger is aligned with engagement as “closing loop” signal of search experience & (my words) satisfaction of search query
• @danielbianchini 30% of reviews will be fake by 2014, whilst 98% of reviews are coming from 2% of Yelpers. @justinsanger
• Wow @justinsanger is intense! The end of the world is nigh. And it’s starting with search apparently #SearchArmageddon
• Awesome, a little scary, but very engaging. RT @Robert_Deans: @simmonet I love his presenting style, it’s awesome @justinsanger
• FB is still nascent – not enough “people signals” yet
• A person’s Facebook page is their curated personality – they won’t post something they are not proud of – @justinsanger
• Only 7% of WOM activity is currently happening online. Pretty small amount.  #socialmedia
• @CharlieGirl Oscar winning performance from @justinsanger
• @nmvalente Enough said by @justinsanger

For more twitter insights and fun, follow me @simmonet or Google+

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the US, and that should mean all mothers got to relax and unwind. But if the day involved constantly checking photo streams and status updates online, like most days do for the modern family, then it may not have been the case. Why? Well, a recent survey by TODAY Moms found that Pinterest is making nearly half of mothers stressed.

It seems that endless images of perfect parties, fabulous interiors and healthy meals are causing anxiety as mothers feel they cannot live up to their role in this idealised world. They feel inferior because they aren’t creative enough or crafty enough; they don’t have time to bake the perfect birthday cake or batch of cookies. Mothers are putting undue pressure on themselves to live up to being the perfect woman who makes those wonderful craft projects, wears those amazing outfits, and decorates their children’s bedrooms so fantastically, as presented to us on Pinterest.

The thing is, Pinterest isn’t the only social media network that’s responsible for a mother’s anxiety. The images people share on Facebook and Instagram often present an overly-fabulous view of life that can make all of us feel a little anxious. We are constantly faced with images of families having fun, beautiful birthday parties and fabulous weddings. You question whether you are having that much fun. Are your holidays as glamorous? Are your weekends that active or cultural? Was your wedding that fabulous? What we don’t see is the reality of what was going on at the time, and of course it’s not always as perfect as we imagine. These images are a snapshot in time and often carefully selected as the picture to appear on a social network.

The stress brought on by Pinterest can be seen as part of a larger range of anxieties arising from the use of social media, which may collectively be referred to as Social Media Anxiety Disorder (SMAD). This is not a medically recognised condition yet, although this is surely just a matter of time. There is some discussion around when the term was coined, although many attribute it to Julie Spira, author of ‘The Rules of Netiquette.’

So, how do you know whether you have SMAD? This can manifest itself in a number of ways but can largely be seen as an all-consuming and unhealthy obsession with what’s happening on social media. Have you ever posted something on Facebook only to keep checking back every 10 minutes to see how many likes or comments you have? Have you ever pinned a picture on Pinterest and worried that no-one has repinned it? Have you tweeted from your bed last thing at night before you sleep, or checked emails on your phone from your bed as soon as you wake up? If any of these sound familiar you could be suffering from Social Media Anxiety Disorder.

So what can you do if you think you have Social Media Anxiety Disorder? Here are 5 possible ways to help you switch off:

1. Take some time away from social media each day. Even if it is just for an hour or two, go offline and enjoy some time without tweets, status updates or pins.

2. Get back into the habit of sending post rather than posting online. Make the effort to send actual birthday cards, thank you notes and letters instead of messages via social media.

3. Arrange to meet up with friends for a coffee, or call them if they live far away, rather than tweeting or emailing them.

4. Read a book or a magazine. Take 10 minutes to sit in silence with a drink and read, preferably not on an electronic device!

5. Rather than playing games online with your friends invite them over for the evening and enjoy playing a game around the table with good food and drink.

There are so many ways you can get away from the all-consuming social media networks and the anxiety that can sometimes be associated with them. Keep things in perspective; realise that no-one is living the perfect Pinterest life, even if that’s what they may present online.

The Search Insider Summit (SIS) conference is an opportunity for brands and digital experts to collaborate in a relaxed atmosphere, with informative and entertaining panels, keynotes and product presentations. This year, I attended as a speaker for the panel, “Social Search Engine Optimization and Search 3.0″.

When I attend events, I don’t normally go with the expectation of learning, though I do generally return with a few nuggets of information. SIS was no exception:

1) Brands love Product Listing Ads (PLAs) – Most brands saw dramatic increases in click-throughs and sales, though some saw challenges in bid optimization and understanding of PLA ranking algorithm. Williams Sonoma brought up a specific case where a $4,000 set of pots and pans showed up for a generic search on “all clad cookware”, noting that probably wasn’t a great connection of search intent to product selection intent. Google’s panelist noted that there may be some other criteria at play.

2) Speaking of search engines, a very informative panel of Google, Yahoo & Bing folks led by BIA/Kelsey’s Rick Ducey gave great insight into some of the (current trends and) future of search, with most highlighting mobile devices as key strategies, and all talking of “context” and “intent” as being key drivers of improved relevance of results. Joan Arensman of Google drove most of the discussion, but as a fellow attendee said, based on their market share, they probably should have had 70% of the stage.

Jason Dailey of Bing and I chatted at the round table immediately following the panel presentation, discussing platforms vs. intent and how context relates to both.

3) Privacy was one of the bigger talking points.  With logged-in users, hidden (by search engines) data and ongoing legal concerns, search engine representatives agreed that privacy is a short term problem and, in the longer term, no-one will really care.  This was based on benefits being greater than any perceived privacy concerns – with the caveat of real, recognized and realistic benefits.

4) Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. It’s the year of mobile…again. At least from an advertiser standpoint. Many panels and speakers talked about how mobile means a better understanding of the immediacy of intent and a better controlled environment, as mobile  user experience is often more  focused with less buttons and choices. Michelle Evans of Ruby Tuesday restaurant group doesn’t even send mobile users to their primary website anymore because they get much better engagement and results through mobile-only experiences.

5) Big data reared it’s head many time. Leading to one of my tweets that noted:

It really was a polarizing topic with some folks noting it’s over use, others saying it’s a business necessity, and others waxing about the future *mandates* big data management, aggregation and actionable insights

—

And finally, I can’t succinctly put into words the great folks that attend and the many conversations I have with large consumer brands, data providers, tool platforms and search marketing folks. No matter how good a conference’s agenda may be the attendees are often a great source of industry, marketplace and trend insights. I spoke to Larry Kim of Wordstream – probably the smartest guy there – and Rob Garner, author of “Search and Social”,  Derek Tucker – a great marketer – of Corel, folks at Kayak, Home Depot, Havas, Performics, Resolution Media, RKG, Kenshoo and many more. Key was the desire to share knowledge, whether competitor, prospect or client, attendees were there to learn, share & support the success of online marketing. And then the sun came out.

If you didn’t make it to SIS this year, check out this video of the Social Search Engine Optimization panel. I hope to see you there next year!

Video streaming by Ustream
 
Connect with Grant on Google+Grant Simmons+

The Super Bowl, WrestleMania and last November’s US Presidential Election. What is the connection between these three major occasions, besides sweaty men rutting for victory?

Each event used the Hootsuite Command Center, an online social media measurement instrument that enables users to monitor social mentions from one large data-crunching central hub. If this inspires visions of Ed Harris looking pleased with himself in his black beret in The Truman Show, mastering a multi-screen behemoth of digital technology, then… we share identical visualizations.

Hootsuite’s launch (at the tail end of 2012) aims to propel new sources of income and drive visibility for clients. The Command Center enables users to extract the best value from their range of social media campaigns. The inevitable increase in transparency of agency work on a client’s social media platforms enforces a streamlined management of social strategy and activity. Essentially, the Command Center facilitates social media teams to control and react to all relevant online activity in real time.

Hootsuite responded to a growing trend of companies developing their own, in-house, ‘command centres’. So why is Hootsuite’s effort any better than the rest? The answer is two-fold. First, Hootsuite is the father of social media management dashboards and second, and more importantly, the new centre supports an all-inclusive approach to social media in tune with latest holistic advances to online marketing.

Business customers can access the Hootsuite Command Center as an add-on with the Hootsuite Enterprise package. Realistically, the scale of this social media dashboard will – for now – only be useful for ‘larger’ clients. The Command Center presents large scale organisations with real-time response, which is vital in order to stay ahead of the pack. The Command Center could become a focal point of communication and information sharing across different teams in the same organization; teams will be able to execute campaigns across the same social media dashboard. The convenience of the Command Center integrates market research, disaster management, and trending topics into one visually appealing panel. So will this Command Center remain exclusively practical to larger companies and agencies?

Take a look at the recent deployments of the Command Center during the Super Bowl XLVII, the US Election or the recent wrestling extravaganza, WrestleMania. They impressively compare social media presence of the contending teams, opposing candidates and competing grapplers. A casual browse of the page gives an indication of popularity (Facebook likes), relevancy (social media mentions – ‘talking about this’) and displays the appropriate organisation’s latest Tweets. Another feature exhibits current sentiment towards rival participants. It is interesting to observe that the predominant emotions of Twitter users directed to Barack Obama are (at the time of writing) ‘sadness/grief’ and ‘anger and loathing’. Perhaps the impact of fiscal profligacy and debt has started to take hold of Twitter users?

The Super Bowl and US Presidential Election campaigns have proven that Hootsuite is playing with the big boys. A dashboard that focuses on analytics which measure the impact of social media on politics and sport is the latest step in social media management. As Ben Watson, VP of Marketing at Hootsuite, remarks: ‘It is the digital equivalent of a cheering crowd leading up to the big event.  If we can keep an aggregate view of how people are talking about the Super Bowl, the committee can react better to trends’. It represents an opportunity for businesses to comprehensively measure their social ROI and provides an immediately accessible gauge for KPIs. It is likely this multi-platform Command Center will expand to monitor crises, analyse market trends (see 2012 Holiday Tracker) and cover other social events, all with the purpose of amplifying the benefits of social engagement.

After news spread about the death of Margaret Thatcher, the first female British prime minister, so did news about Cher.  Odd? Yes. Why? Frenzy broke out on twitter after an anti-Thatcher group created the  hashtag “nowthatchersdead.” Confusion was created by the misleading nature of words being strung together without capitalization or any consideration of how the hashtag would be naturally read. People misread #nowthatchersdead as “Now That Chers Dead,” creating unfathomable heartbreak among faithful Cher followers.

This miscommunication demonstrates the required strategy and care needed when creating social media marketing initiatives. Being mindful of simple elements, such as capitalizations, can be the breaking point of whether or not the twitter world thinks Cher is dead, or Margaret Thatcher. But on a larger scale, advertisers should consider how their social media marketing initiatives will be interpreted by their target audiences and attempt to foresee possible miscommunications.

Another example of social media marketing gone rogue occurred with McDonalds in January 2012. The fast food chain created the hashtag, “McDStories” to let consumers share their memories and experiences with McDonalds. Instead, negative tweets surfaced and the hashtag took a complete 180-degree turn from what McDonalds intended. Tweets such as, “I used to like McDonalds. I stopped eating McDonalds years ago because every time I ate it I felt like I was dying inside. #McDStories.” Or, “One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up #McDStories,” were flooding twitter.

The dynamic nature of social media marketing presents challenges to advertisers because, unlike other channels, the consumer can directly respond with either positive or negative feedback—an element that brands can not always influence or control. While hashtags are an effective tool for businesses to promote conversations and create buzz about their brand, it can prove easy to lose control of the intended message. Advertisers should consider how their topic might produce undesirable tweets about lunch or who died.

The takeaway: Be aware, consider multiple contexts, and use capitalization when necessary!

I’m home sick today.  A sick day at home means I’m pretty incapable of getting off the couch.  I’ve got my TV and Xbox remotes within striking distance, and my phone and iPad sitting next to my chicken noodle soup.  As I’m channel surfing I come across a show called The Talk that makes me feel even more nauseated but I’m intrigued because they’re giving away Marie Callender’s pies for Pi Day.  That’s clever, I think, it makes sense that Marie Callender’s is all over Pi Day for marketing.  Bored, I shut off the TV and see what’s happening on Twitter.  More pi. And somehow the content marketing pi seems way worse than the traditional pi(e) advertising on TV.  As I scroll through the Tweets, I can visualize the content calendars and a bunch of marketers sitting there thinking, “Hmm, what’s in between the Super Bowl and St. Patrick’s Day? Let’s look at a list of ridiculous holidays more offensive than the “Hallmark” Holidays, ok, perfect 3-14 is Pi Day!”

I was actually not too put off scrolling through the Tweets as many of them were cute or made sense.  Of course Zagat should be talking about Pi Day and I’ll give a pass to one of my favorite chefs, Susan Feniger.  Obama’s team is even in on it over on Facebook, he’s got the cleverest team out there rivaling Oreo’s marketing, so they both get a pass with their elegant pi messages. But it was Huff Post Queen Arianna Huffington who crossed the line; from then on out

I was just jaded.  Her Pi Day tweet didn’t seem to tie in with her brand; it was just a little plug for content on the Huffington Post.  In contrast, my favorite internet brain Maria Popova used Pi Day to promote an article in a similar manner, but it was a clever angle and had a bit more thought behind it. Google and Slate were similarly thoughtless and lazy.

This big pi-eating-content-marketing-contest 2013 was a good reminder that if you follow a calendar or jump on a meme bandwagon, you can’t do it thoughtlessly or you’ll risk losing your audience as they see through your heartless mechanical campaigns.  Participate creatively, and ideally make sure that the theme is in your brand’s wheelhouse.  My favorite Pi messages of the day belonged to #applenav and #guggenheim, their brands arguably had nothing to do with math or pie but a clever joke helps a spoonful of content go down.

Did you have a favorite Pi Day tweet? Any leave you scratching your head?

And now for that soup and a paperback book.

My definition of content marketing in the age of internet and social is ‘any piece of text, image or video that elicits a thought in the audience that it is subjected to’. And if the thought is positive, likeable, shareable and connects to the brand, product or service in some way then you’ve nailed content marketing.

But if you’re a self-confessed ‘lazy’, creating this kind of content might seem like hard work. Not so. To make it simple for you, I’ve devised a quick way to cover all the points of effective content that will align with your overall marketing goals:

C – Cost-effective: This is vital for making sure your content ideas don’t go in the trash when presented to management and you can report an impressive return on investment when you prepare those charts at the end of the campaign.

O – Optimised: Wouldn’t it be nice to have your content indexed by search engines and the millions of people on social media? If you optimise well it has more chance of being found.

N – New: Don’t we want to read or watch new things? If we haven’t seen it before its

more likely we would assume none of our friends have seen it and we would want to share it. Plus, search engines love new content.

T – Transformational: In the age of mobile and tablet, users are accessing the internet (and your content) from various devices, platforms and screen sizes. Moreover, you cannot choose to decide which device or platform people use to access your content: they do. So your content needs to be optimised for best performance across all possible devices, platforms and screen sizes.

E – Engaging/Entertaining/Enlightening: This is the key – connecting with the audience on an emotional level – are you making them happy/excited/intrigued?

N – Niche: It’s that age-old saying – you can engage all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot engage all the people all the time! So targeting the right audience is at the core of producing engaging content.

T – Trackable: Finally, every activity within the marketing paradigm ends with measurement of the effectiveness and achievement of set goals. So you have to publish content in a way that you can measure the success or failure of the campaign.

Having covered the marketing, strategy and theory, let’s get to the fun part of creating ‘the social content’ – the lazy way.

Creating Content on the Fly – Identifying Content Opportunities

Assuming that you have done all the brain storming and strategising to define the goals and objectives of the campaign, the question that you will find staring you in the face is how to create this ‘social content’?

You might not be successful the first few time you produce ‘social content’ but the key is to ensure you learn from each campaign and gain as much insight into your audience from how they interact with your content.

These are some ways that the lazy content marketer can identify and capitalise on the opportunities of creating ‘social content’. Some of them have been used by brands and organisations in the past, but bear in mind that doesn’t make them bullet-proof strategies for winning your audience.

The Oreo Super Bowl 2013 blackout ‘dunk in the dark’ tweet is a classic example of identifying an opportunity and acting fast, almost in real-time. While we saw brilliant captivating commercials during the Super bowl, this was the winner with 15722 Retweets, 5810 Favorites and 20,000 Likes on Facebook.

Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

 

 

1. Every employee is a brand advocate

Every company is made up of people like you, me and the ones we are trying to entertain. While everyone knows about the brand’s latest products and campaigns, how many of them know the people who built them?

Show your users what’s going on inside your office – the happy employees.

From the Mashable Instagram Channel: “Enjoying some quality time with a canine co-worker” is a classic example of engaging your audience (on mobile) and making them a part of your community.

2. Give them a sneak peek

Let your audience get a glimpse into the assembly line during the campaign creation process or new product development phase. Let them know what goes on behind the great products that you are building.

Give them the chance to build a relationship with your brand, and people behind it.

General Electrics does a wonderful job of visual story-telling on their Tumblr Blog by sharing pictures of employees doing their daily jobs working with huge machinery.

3. Involve your audience

Ask your customers what they want. From Starbucks asking its users for product ideas on My Starbucks Idea to Mountain Dew’s Dewmocracy campaign – that lasted for 3 years and saw three flavours, voted by the consumers, produced and put on the shelves – crowd-sourcing campaigns are one of the most used and most successful content-creating opportunities for brands.

It might be a small part of a larger marketing campaign or be the whole campaign itself but it is one of the best ways of creating content that has an advantageous, two-fold outcome – a compelling product that your users will love and a community of brand-happy people.

4. Actually have fun at work

Everyone likes to watch people having fun, and if your employees are having a laugh at work it proves that your brand is made up of happy people who love their job.

Sharing happy images and videos will make your customers and prospects smile, interact with your content and share with friends.

Take this awesome video by Integrity Windows with 2.5 million video views on Youtube. It’s an inexpensive video with construction workers having some fun with a measuring tape.

5. Promote an inspiring idea

People like new and fresh ideas – recycling ideas, DIY ideas, green ideas, gardening ideas, photography ideas, wedding ideas etc. We found a very nice article on the most popular boards on Pinterest, and they are all about promoting ideas with beautiful pictures.

Promoting an idea that inspires people about the things they love to do goes a long way in creating an inspiring brand image for yourself.

6. Get random

Think of the things that people love or love to talk about – celebrities, chocolate, movies, football or anything. Connect that to your brand (in a clever and positive way) and create your content – text, image or video. You never know, you might hit the jackpot with creating the next big meme of the internet. Look at the top top 50 internet memes of 2012 and figure out the why’s and how’s of their creations.

Or, just think of the emotions you would associate with your brand and ask a question, in a fun way. Coca-Cola does an amazing job with this sort of thing. They’ve taken a word that they want to associate their brand with – ‘happiness’ and created Twitter hashtags to provoke happiness-themed responses, e.g.:

7. Employ a cat

A final bonus idea that I want you to keep a secret – but please share the revenue with us when your cat does wonders for your business!

Jokes aside, cats have outnumbered any other living species (after humans of course) when it comes to video views on YouTube.

The most viewed cat video ever has more than double the video views that the Red Bull Stratos free-fall space jump received on YouTube.

Noticing a major shift in consumer habits, the Canadian advertising agency John St. is apparently opening a new ‘Catvertising’ agency! Read more on the The Next Web article.

And here’s another meme that proves my point:

So go ahead, employ a cat and film him while he is exploring your office – it could leave your managers purring with delight at the views, comments and shares it receives!

Have you ever used any lazy content ideas to engage your audience? Let us know in the comments box below.

With this in mind I thought it was a great time to have look at how this old school competition has migrated and grown in popularity thanks to online and in particular the social space.

For those of you living outside the “Home Nations,” it might be worth providing a bit of an introduction to the 6 Nations. Inaugurated in the 1880s, the Home International Championships – as it was originally named –consisted of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The addition of France in 1939 and Italy in 2000 saw the competition being renamed the 5 Nations and then the 6 Nations. The competition consists of each country playing the five other teams throughout February and March.

Come the end of January the competition is officially launched, captains named and the saturation of digital media officially starts. My first digital recollection of the 6 Nations online was via a Guinness Fantasy rugby site back in 2004, but since then the 6 Nations and its proponents have saturated all forms of digital and in particular social media.

Facebook perhaps leads the field in terms of fans (731K likes) and hosts a heated debate following each game and round of the tournament. The question posted on Facebook – “Who will be lifting the trophy March 16^th” received 1,472 comments in just two days. The social media profiles really engage the target audience with on-trend topics without over-moderating and most importantly without showing bias towards one nation over another. Here’s just one other of many engaging posts from the last week:

The fans are not always so well behaved – Brian from Scotland: “I hope England get trashed by Italy and take the spoon. Blue and green. Best teams in the world.” Oh dear.The tone on Twitter lends itself more to the traditional gentleman’s approach to the game. The banter on Twitter is led by players past and present, the retired players tending to provide more authoritative, insightful commentary versus the comedic and generally amusing commentary of current players. Old school analysis of the tournament is provided by people like Will Greenwood, who regular interact with the fellow fans:

 While Ireland’s own Brian O’Driscoll provides insights into the antics in the Irish and Leinster camps:

(Jonny Sexton is another Leinster and Irish player, of course)

What impresses me the most is how the tournament has optimised its various facets online; from the official site content to the content repurposed across social network activity. The official site is content rich, regularly updated, socially connected and appropriately linked (with a Page Rank of 5).

With the tournament kicking off in just 3 days, news items are posted to the site every hour and the country specific versions provide up to date information to fans on all team related topics – including naming the teams within minutes of the official announcements.

There’s so much more for 6 Nations fans to discover online as well – for more information check out an array of related properties:

http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/21742.php

http://www.guinness.com/en-gb/rugby/

http://www.youtube.com/user/rbs6nations01

http://vimeo.com/53070479

https://twitter.com/rbs_6_nations

I’ll be staying regularly updated thanks to all of the 6 Nations online profiles and well-oiled and optimised sites, I assume you’ll all be doing the same, right?!