This week: What Google Hummingbird means for your content, championing content in your team, top tips from Upworthy and keeping it simple with Gerry McGovern…
What Google Hummingbird means for your content
Obviously, with Google deploying their Hummingbird update last month, everyone is talking about how it will impact content. Here’s my top three articles explaining what this means for SEO and content marketing strategies:
Keywords, and #Hashtags, and Hummingbird! Oh My!
Google Hummingbird, and what it means for Online Marketers & SEO
Google Hummingbird: A Mobile Content Marketing Strategy Just Became Essential
Content Marketing show 2013
It’s just been announced that this year’s Content Marketing Show 2013 will take place on November 8th. If you visit the CMS website you’ll be able to view the videos from last year – and they rock! I’ve picked out two of my favourites below:
How to Grow Social Media Communities – Luke Lewis
Buzzfeed Editor Luke Lewis talks about how they produce content by capitalising on trending topics and feedback they receive via social media. Also, he details some very specific tips for using Twitter. A very creative organization and super-nimble. I’m pretty confident that one day Buzzfeed will rule the world.
Developing an Editorial Mindset in a non-editorial business – Dan Fielder
Equally invaluable, Sticky Content’s Dan Fielder talks about generating content in companies who wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves as publishers. According to Dan, It’s all about creating an creative environment in your business where ideas flow. When it comes to originality, it just doesn’t matter where those ideas come from – the intern is just as valuable as the CEO. Big *High Five* on that last comment Dan.
Getting Your Team Content Strategy Savvy
And following the same theme, more advice on how to create a ‘content first’ environment in your business – this time from Gather Content.
The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014
I’m a great fan of Jayson DeMers and he has some great tips for 2014. I totally agree with his first point:
“Throughout 2014, I believe businesses will increasingly be able to explain what content marketing is, how it aligns with their larger business goals, and why it’s important. ‘Content marketing’ won’t just be a catch-all phrase used interchangeably with ‘marketing collateral’, but will have distinct importance within organizations.”
Ford Retail Group: bringing customer experience into the boardroom
An interesting insight into how digital has had an impact on the car industry. Two quotes that are astonishing: ‘87% of new-car buyers and 85% of used-car buyers use the web for research’ and ‘the average number of visits to a dealership before making a purchase has come down from 8 to somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8.’
All this means that the car industry is paying more attention to content marketing to build the brand/consumer relationship. On average, it takes the average consumer 4.2 months to make a their final purchasing decision – so it’s no longer about the hard sell.
64 Google+ Content Strategies [Infographic]
A useful guide from Copyblogger on how to optimise your content for Google +.
Tweets Provide New Way to Gauge TV Audiences
Another US report that shows that the TV programmes that are popular on Twitter don’t always correlate with actual TV viewing figures.
The need to simplify menus and links – Gerry McGovern
As you all know, I’m a bit of a Gerry McGovern fan and in his recent blog posting this week he gets back to basics – talking about one of my favourite topics – simplicity and navigation.
It’s hard to believe I used to be a singer/guitarist in a rock band, huh?
No model survives first contact with real content
And now for a bit of theory. Content architect Cleve Gibbon talks about the limitations of content strategy. It always needs to be shipped before it can be improved via user feedback/interaction. ‘No model survives first contact with real content’. How true.
Reminds me of a Gerry McGovern quote:
“The worst way to design a website is to have five smart people in a room drinking lattes. The longer you leave them in the room the worse the design becomes. The next worst way is to have 15 customers in a room drinking lattes. What people say they do and what they actually do are rarely the same thing.”
7 Surprising Content Lessons From the World’s Fastest Growing Media Company
A great article from Kwasi Studios looking at some of the ways Upworthy tease us into their content. A must read for anyone looking at how to increase engagement on their own website through social media.
Six Lessons from Buzzfeed on creating native ads people want to share
Have you heard? It’s all over with display advertising – the future is bespoke (or ‘native’) advertising. Find out how Buzzfeed are attracting advertisers and preserving the distinction between sales and editorial.
FT shows the way forward for printed media’s transition
Big news this week – the FT are scaling back to one print edition. They released this statement:
“the 1970s-style newspaper publishing process – making incremental changes to multiple editions through the night – is dead. In future, our print product will derive from the web offering – not vice versa. “
Why the Daily Mail invested in tablet publishing as well as MailOnline
I‘ve previously mentioned I’m a fan of the Mail Plus app and here’s more information on their strategy. I loved this quote:
“The majority of MailOnline users especially internationally wouldn’t make any association with the print product at all…The average age of a Mail newspaper reader is 58; for the website it’s closer to half that.”
And lastly, let’s look again at wonderful infographic looking at how people consume content throughout the day (courtesy of Orm London).
PS, on that 10.30pm-11pm slot – I am totally that person trying to get to sleep whilst my wife checks her Facebook and BBC News headlines ‘just one last time’…
Psst…Have you discovered Timing+ yet? Helps you to find out the best time to post from your Google+ account. Free tool….
And I just had to include this rather bizarre collab between Snoop Lion and Kate Upton. Who says you can’t sell out?
I’d love to hear your views on any of the content strategy links above so please get involved in the comments below!
Steven Wilson-Beales
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