The New New Rules of Marketing and PR

Either write something worth reading or
do something worth writing about.

— Benjamin Franklin

David Meerman Scott galvanized marketers a decade ago with The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

The book still makes everyone's list of "all-time favorites."

Scott's advice was premised on a sudden realization: gatekeepers had grown irrelevant.

If marketers only thought and acted like journalists, and exploited the popularity of websites and social media channels, their messages could "go direct" to customers.

Revolutionary thinking in the day.

But times change, the tragedy of the commons is inescapable, and rules wear out.

Content Shock is now Public Enemy Number 1.

The new new rules of marketing and PR are:

1. Don't create content. Create content customers want.
   
   
2. Don't create buzz. Create products that create buzz.

Road Rage

Travelogues are all the rage among itchy-footed Millennials, so travel marketers are heading there.

Brett Tollman says his company, The Travel Corporation, will turn to travelogues to break from the pack of tour operators.

The company will rely also on social media influencers to tell those tales.

All told, the company hopes to romance 16.2 million Millennials in 2016.

To that end, one of its brands, Contiki Travel, rolled out Roadtrip 2016 on YouTube in May.

Although peers remain the top source of recommendations, Tollman thinks meandering Millennials will start to shop for destinations based on branded mobile channels—provided the storytelling there is good.

The travelogues on those channels, if compelling, will not only pique Millennials' interest, but build loyalty to the sponsoring tour operators.

Where's the Thought in Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is to leadership as fast food is to food.

While the stuff served daily through most B2B marketers' Tweets, videos, blog posts and e-books looks tasty and can be consumed quickly, it isn't particularly satisfying. Or good for you.

Although there are thousands of exceptions, most B2B marketers rush out junk, contributing to the deafening "content shock" Mark Schaefer describes.

Plainly, simply, thought leadership shouldn't be advertising. It's supposed to be content that's authentic and that articulates leading-edge thinking, not your marketing department's  social media strategy.

And thought leadership shouldn't be about media. It's supposed to focus on thought, not LinkedIn or Meerkat or Snapchat.

B2B marketers are hacking the system when they publish non-nutritional content, however carefully it's dressed to resemble food for thought.

Ironically, every B2B marketer could contribute thought leadership, if only she trusted the few thoughtful individuals inside her organization—and they trusted themselves. Sadly, neither do.

"Thought leaders focus on crafting ideas, not audience reaction and reach," says digital marketer Walter Adamson in Firebrand. 

He's 100% right. Thought leaders don't lean on vapid videos and tricked up infographics to entreat customers. They rely instead, TEDishly, on "ideas worth sharing."

"Being a thought leader means putting your own personal thoughts out there in whatever form appeals to you," Adamson says. "It’s not about the medium. It’s about the message and it’s about filling in the white spaces which teams of content producers don’t even know exist."

Want Social Media Success? Hang out on the Stoop.

When I was a kid, the park was where we went to find our friends, but the stoop was where the good stuff happened.

That's where the stories were swapped, the jokes told, the dreams dreamed, the plans made.

Marketers frame their social media strategies around showing up at parks—i.e., "platforms"—when they should be hanging out on stoops.

"Customer engagement will occur where your fans want it to happen, not where you want it to happen," Mark Schaefer says.

You won't form a successful social media strategy by chasing trendy platforms, because customers "will naturally migrate to wherever they want to be."

Schaefer wonders whether we're asking the right question when we ask "Should we be on Snapchat?" or "Should we be on Facebook Live?"

"Maybe it doesn’t matter if we’re on Snapchat or Facebook Live" he says.

"What matters most is where our customers want to be found, where they want to engage."

A Nation of Videots

A Facebook exec recently predicted her platform would be "all video" in five years.

Her prediction should neither surprise nor disturb you in the least bit.

The social platforms like Facebook are becoming gargantuan public access TV stations. Think Wayne's World meets Warhol's World. Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, because every schmo will have a show.

Face the fact: we are a nation of videots. 

It's why we retweet videos more than text messages; why the appearance of the word “video” in an email's subject line boosts opens; why YouTube is the second most-used search engine; and why Facebook is going "all video."

Mindset, not media, determines what's expressed, as Aldous Huxley said 80 years ago. We like only what we can like; what we're psychologically capable of liking; what we're conditioned to like. 

"The Zeitgeist is just professor Pavlov on a cosmic scale."

We like video.

That's why every marketer had better climb on the video bandwagon. And if you're not convinced, chew on these findings from Animato:

• 96% of customers find videos help purchase decisions
• 77% think companies that market with videos are more engaging
• 71% say those videos give them a positive impression of the company
• 58% consider companies that market with videos are more trustworthy

2 Monkeys Wrote 50 Headlines: See Which Worked Best

When it comes to novel ideas, less isn't more, Adam Grant says in Originals.

"Many people fail to achieve originality because they generate a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection," Grant says.

But originality take tonnage.

"Quantity is the most predictable path to quality," Grants says.

He cites the case of two copywriters employed by Upwworthy.

Each wrote headlines for a video depicting monkeys receiving food as a reward.

Some were good. One was gold.

The headline "Remember Planet of the Apes? It's Closer than Your Think," for example, drew 8,000 viewers.

The headline "2 Monkeys Were Paid Unequally: See What Happens Next" drew 500,000.

Upworthy in fact has a house rule: You must write 25 headlines.

You need to unearth tons of debris to discover a diamond.

"It's only after we've ruled out the obvious that we have the greatest freedom to consider the more remote possibilities," Grant says.

The first twenty-four headlines may be lousy, but the twenty-fifth "will be a gift from the headline gods."

Pandemonium? Blame the Media.

Presidential politics rides a wayward bus.

It's named Media.

Media revolutions drive voters away from party élites, as historian Jill Lepore says in her article about populism in The New Yorker.

Lepore looks back at party upheavals of the early 19th century.

Although slavery was the big issue, the rise of populism was driven by revolutions in media:

• In the 1830s, advances in printing brought down the cost of a newspaper to a penny;

• In the 1840s, newspapers began to get news by telegraph;

• In the 1850s, newspapers began to include illustrations based on photographs.

"For a while, party élites lost control, until the system reached equilibrium in the form of a relatively stable contest between Democrats and a new party, the Republicans," Lepore says.

Then came the 1890s, when occurred another populist revolt, "which took place during another acceleration in the speed of communication, brought about by the telephone, the Linotype, and halftone printing, technologies that allowed daily newspapers and illustrated magazines, in particular, to carry political news faster, and to more readers, than ever before."

In the same decade, color printing appeared, which gave rise a nationwide "poster craze." Campaign posters papered every wall of every building, in every city; and every candidate "ran as an outsider."

Oddly enough, the 20th century was saner. 

Although voters saw the introduction of phonograph records, radio, weekly magazines, movies and TV, media's power to propel populists waned. 

"Despite the upheavals of the Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, and Vietnam, the era of national newsmagazines, newsreels, and network broadcasting was a period of remarkable party stability."

But with the advent of mobile phones and the Internet, populism is again heating up.

"The American party system is not only a creation of the press; it is dependent on it," Lepore says. 

"It is currently fashionable, indispensable, even, to malign the press, whether liberal or conservative. But when the press is in the throes of change, so is the party system. And the national weal had better watch out. 

"It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that the accelerating and atomizing forces of this latest communications revolution will bring about the end of the party system and the beginning of a new and wobblier political institution. 

"With our phones in our hands and our eyes on our phones, each of us is a reporter, each a photographer, unedited and ill judged, chatting, snapping, tweeting, and posting, yikking and yakking. 

"At some point, does each of us become a party of one?"

When is Advertising a Waste?

Marketing maestro Edward Segal contributed today's post. Edward helps REALTOR® associations generate publicity about their activities and shows their leaders, staff and members how to deliver effective presentations.

John Wanamaker, a merchandising pioneer in the 19th and early 20th centuries, said, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Many people still regard advertising as the best way to help position, promote, and sell their products, services, or expertise. After all, if you have enough money, you can say whatever you want, wherever you want, and for as long as you want, to anybody you want. And in today’s competitive marketplace, there are advertising opportunities that simply did not exist a few years ago, such as Facebook.

The trouble with advertising, however, is that unless you are careful, some or all the money you spend on it can be wasted. 

But how can you guarantee every penny of your advertising budget is well spent?

Check your ego

Think you can do it yourself? 

Do not let your ego get in the way of your advertising success. 

The reality is that there is a lot involved in successful advertising, ranging from strategy and creativity to messaging and placement, and you need to know what you are doing every step of the way. Put another way, would you ask a lawyer to perform brain survey on you? Of course not. So why would you believe that you can do your own advertising if you’ve never done it before, or well?

No one cares about your product

You think everyone in the world will want to buy whatever you are selling. Face it: just because you may be in love with what you are promoting does not mean that anyone else will be, or will even care about it. A marketing professional can help ensure that you are reaching the right audience for the right reasons and in right way.

Money pits abound

Here are other major potential budget-wasting mistakes to avoid. You:

• Do not have a clear marketing message or effective marketing strategy.
• Do not know your niche in the marketplace, or who your target market is. 
• Have not weighed the pros and cons of the different advertising outlets. 
• Don’t know whether a particular advertising medium is the best one to use in order to communicate your message, or if that medium will even reach your target audience.
• Do not know how often you will have to advertise in order to have an impact.
• Do not know much money will you have to spend in order to be effective.
• Do not experiment or test market your messages or strategy before launching your campaign.
• Pull your advertising before you have given it enough time to work.

Until you have taken steps to avoid these fundamental mistakes, it might make sense to place your advertising plans on hold, and consult a competent marketing professional.

Perhaps if John Wannamker had followed the advice above, half of what he spent on advertising would not have been wasted.

Why Monkey with Your Brand?

Mathematician Émile Borel said a century ago, if you provided an infinite number of monkeys typewriters, eventually they'd produce Hamlet.

Today he might say, if you provided them smartphones, eventually they'd produce The Godfather.

Despite having limited time and money, marketers seem convinced amateurs can produce broadcast-quality videos.

Why do they monkey with their brands?

In his blog, Prathap Suthan, chief creative officer at agency Bang In The Middle, warns marketers of their folly.

"There are billions of sadly made films finding their way into the great social sewer. They comprise all kinds of trash. Including films made by big brands which they conveniently call web films. 

"Hello, your audience doesn’t realize the difference between a film made for the web versus television. For people, including all of us reading us, it’s a film. Most are badly made. Some are downright ugly. Very few are beautiful, and therefore shareable. 

"Now the thing is, take your eyes off quality and finesse, and you have a sad film representing your company, product, or brand. A social film has to be equivalent to a regular TV film. It’s not just a web film anymore. 

"Save yourself from the gutter and the clutter. Bad content is arsenic. It will eat your brand from inside."

My Marketing Prediction for 2016

Lacking results, B2B marketers will quit more social media networks than they join.

YEAR-END NOTE: To mark a change in direction, I'm giving Copy Points a new name today, Goodly. I hope you'll keep following my blog, for more good stuff. Happy 2016!

Government Communicators: Turn Citizens into Fans

Award-winning video producer Ann Ramsey contributed today's post. She is a senior producer at the US Department of Health & Human Services in Washington, DC.  

Government communicators spend their time educating citizens about what their departments do.

Video, distributed through broadcast media and public-facing government Web sites, has long played a starring role in those efforts.

But citizens today, as they consume video at unprecedented rates, expect it to be served on social media platforms such as YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter.

With forethought and creativity, government communicators can use video to join the social media conversation—without breaking the bank or running roughshod over internal guidelines. Here's how:

Learn from peers. Organizations such as Federal Communicators Network, the National Association of Government Communicators, and the National Press Club will help you plan video strategies. Scanning the YouTube channels of agencies with goals similar to yours will also help. Government channels are listed in the GSA Social Media Registry.

Look around you. Government communicators can develop video content by cultivating in-house officials who come across well on camera (often, presence is better than pedigree). If an agency hosts an important forum, it’s a good idea to videotape it and amplify the link. At almost any event, an area can be set up for interviewing participants. If videotaping isn’t possible, audio-taping and photography are good alternatives.

Use inside help. Government communicators are smart to consider in-house video production, before hiring a PR firm. Many government departments already have TV studios with plenty of capacity. If your agency doesn't have one, take a look at sister agencies. In-house producers can save taxpayers' money.

Channel your videos. YouTube goes out of its way to help government agencies. For example, if asked, YouTube won't run ads on their channels. Government communicators should get in touch with Google to learn more.

Tailor the length. Video content on FaceBook and Twitter needs to be "snackable"—10-20 seconds long. Longer content belongs on dedicated video platforms, such as YouTube or iTunes.

Stay current. Keeping abreast of production trends helps government communicators create successful videos. Hot video trends are motion graphics, film-like shooting styles, and true-to-life testimonials. Audio and video podcasting are also surging in popularity.

Do it right. It behooves government communicators to preserve standards of quality and integrity on social media. When inviting public response, introduce only substantive topics, rather than “name this dog” sorts of trivia.

Mind the store. Comments, shares, and average length-per-view will give you an idea of audience engagement and are useful to track. Curating incoming comments allows urgent questions to be re-directed, and inappropriate comments to be deleted. Dated video material is best removed and archived.

Get found. The public turns to government for many urgent matters. Bizarre hashtags or “click-bait” naming strategies only stand in its way. Many highly viewed government YouTube videos sport transparent titles, such as “What are the Symptoms of the Flu?” Clear tags and titles take full advantage of how the public actually uses search engines.

Reach your viewers. YouTube’s built-in analytics reveal viewer demographics you can use to guide future outreach. Viewers should always be encouraged to subscribe to an agency’s channel, so new content will reach them. Stakeholders and partners can help you amplify a message to specific audiences.

Let it grow. Steady addition of new video episodes builds viewership. It often takes variations on a theme before results emerge. Experimenting with different versions, styles and platforms is well worthwhile.

Social Spam Surging

Spammers are frantically spreading their muck across the social media networks, according to a study by Nextgate.

Spam increased by more than 350% on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn during the first six months of 2013.

Facebook and YouTube host considerably more spam than the other social networks, according to the study.

We're immune to the spam that floods our email in-boxes, but social spam is insidious, because it's much more difficult to detect.

And there's another reason spammers love it.

Where spam delivered as an email reaches one victim at the time, spam delivered as a post on a social media network can reach thousands.

5 Scary Social Media Trends

Pity the corporation. In an obdurately unfriendly world, it has to maximize shareholder value.

A little thing like a broken guitar can bust millions in market cap. And batter a reputation as well.

Blame it on social media.

"Social media and the technology behind it—Web 2.0—has forever changed how corporations 'manage' reputation," writes Ogilvy PR's John H. Bell in Corporate Reputation in the "Social Age."

The danger, Bell says, lies in "the explosion of consumer-generated media found in more than 150 million blogs, social networks, consumer opinion sites, video and picture sharing networks, and worldwide message boards."

Five big trends affect how corporations manage their reputations today, Bell believes.

Hypertransparency. With 150 million active social media users, there are "thousands of forensic accountants, social watchdogs and activists watching your company," Bell writes.

Viral crises. When a crisis hits, the word spreads quickly, "often with the accompaniment of YouTube videos."

Demand for dialogue. One-way messaging—news releases, robotic spokesmen, TV ads and customer-service scripts—are out. Conversation is in.

Louder brand detractors and employees. Social media well arms the corporate critic. "It doesn’t take a Goliath to become a formidable adversary for a corporate brand," Bell says.

Uncontrollable brand fans. Even happy customers can blacken your name with their online antics. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Marketers must be authentic and transparent, Bell says, because "conversation is competing and often winning as a communication channel online."

Don't Make These 4 Deadly Video Mistakes

Writing for Intuit’s Small Business Blog, videomaker C.J. Bruce warns marketers of four deadly Web video mistakes.

 

Not producing a video. "Using video for your business is no longer optional," Bruce writes. The availability of prosumer gear removes the age-old excuse "video is too expensive."

 

Producing a video. One video "isn't a content strategy," Bruce says. "After all, you wouldn’t send just one email, put up just one blog post, or have a TV commercial air just once." Bruce suggests producing a series of videos and releasing them weekly through the span of a quarter.

 

Believing you'll go viral. The chances your video will go viral are slim. "You need to have a plan for your videos that includes marketing them with social media and SEO tactics," Bruce says. Be sure to put your videos on your Website and send the link to your email list. Also consider placing ads on Google.

 

Counting views. Engagement is more important than viewership. Put in place systems to track YouTube likes, shares, comments and viewing times after your video goes live.

B2B Marketers: Attract Big Dogs with Web Video

They gripe when employees do it.

But 73% of C-level executives watch Web videos during the workday, says MagnetVideo's David Rose.

That's big news for marketers.

Web videos work especially well when you want to draw the top dogs to your booth at a tradeshow, according to Rose.

One of his clients, QuantiSense, used a Web video to boost traffic at the National Retail Federation's Annual Expo.

Traffic increased 218%.

Before the show, QuantiSense shot a one-minute video and built a show-specific landing page to house it. The firm then blasted promotional emails to prospective attendees, and shared links to the landing page on social media outposts. The firm also posted the video on YouTube, grabbing organic Google search traffic by including the term "NRF 2012" in the video's title, description, tags and closed captioning.

During the show, the firm placed a 60-foot high banner outside the entrance to the exhibit hall. The banner featured a QR code that, when snapped, automatically launched the video. QuantiSense also played the video on large monitors inside its booth.

After the show, QuantiSense blasted followup emails to all visitors that included a link to the landing page. There was no escaping that video!

Why Get with YouTube?

Are you hoarding videos on your Website, hoping someone will find them?

Fuhgeddaboudit.

Get with YouTube.

YouTube's search engine will deliver new leads, according to Julie Perry, vice president, BLASTmedia. That's because:

• YouTube includes your video in viewers' searches for related topics, including famous people and products.
• Like Amazon, YouTube recommends videos whenever viewers log on. So It's easy to get in front of the ones who are interested in your products.
• YouTube sends weekly emails to viewers who subscribe to your channel. So whenever you upload a new video, they'll find out. 

Many marketers don't realize the power or popularity of YouTube's search engine (second only to Google's), according to Perry.

"There are so many opportunities there for being discovered," she says. "It’s really the way of Web 2.0. You want to be where you can be findable if people want to discover you."

And—because Google owns YouTube—search results on the leading search engine will turn up your videos on YouTube much faster than they will from anyplace else. 

Especially your Website.