Content Marketing Today

Rethink Your Content Marketing by Aiming at Billions of Buyers on the Move

For those of us who been around computing since the early days of PCs, the consumer move to mobile devices and away from desktop and even laptop computers is astonishing--and maybe a little terrifying.

Smartphones Soar

First, smartphones such as the Blackberry, Nokia, and iPhone entered the picture. But, as recently as 2007 total smartphone sales were only 122 million. Alex Cocotas of BI Intelligence predicts that annual smartphone sales will hit 1.5 billion units by 2016. That's 10X growth in less than 10 years.

Tablets Triumph

In the first year of its existence, 1981, the IBM PC sold 100,000 units. Most of those buyers were geeks or leading-edge business users. Apple's new iPad sold 3 million units in its first weekend and more than 50 million units since the introduction of the first iPad just 2 years ago. Read More

Written by Nick Bilton on the NYT Bits Blog.

Google and Facebook are being left behind in the shift toward mobile, and the amenities available to their employees might offer some explanation for a slow transition.

Google and Facebook, young and successful companies that they are, risk being left behind as technology shifts from PCs and Web browsers to mobile devices.

This month, when Google showcased a new design for Google Plus, the company’s social network, it was as if mobile phones and tablets were still a glimmer in some future inventor’s eye. The made-over Web site was beautifully designed, but the smartphone app and mobile site were completely ignored. During the site’s redesign, a Google spokeswoman told me, “Today, the mobile experience will not change.” Read More

Written by Geoffry James. 

Facebook's latest $1 billion acquisition smacks of a desperation that LinkedIn consistently manages to avoid.

With all due respect to Facebook, paying $1 billion for Instagram smacks of desperation.

It's as if CEO Mark Zuckerberg is terrified of becoming irrelevant and is willing to spend insane amounts of money in order for Facebook remain on the forefront of cool.

Read more at Inc.com: Full coverage of the Facebook-Instagram deal
That's a hopeless quest, though. Facebook may be many things, but it's not cool any longer. It lost that imprimatur back when it allowed corporate pages (yes, even yours) and advertising.

Where Is the Love? Read More

Great Video from AT&T Illustrating the Contents of Their New Research

As the study indicates, inexpensive, modern grassroots marketing techniques -- both online and offline -- have grown to be among the most popular for small businesses in the past several years likely due to ease of use and general affordability. Read More

The new Facebook Business Page is not only a visual transformation of the site, it is a game changer for the marketing function.

The fact that Facebook will automatically transition existing business pages to the new format over the next thirty days means that marketers will have no choice but to evolve from the static "tabs" mindset to a "Timeline" mindset based on continually fresh, engaging, and authentic content.

Read More

In November, we told you the latest forecast – that social network advertising would top $10 billion by 2013 and that Facebook was on its way to pull in over $5.5 billion this year in ad revenues. A new survey from ad buyers suggest that those figures are too modest, that the demand for social media ad buys could blow away all previous predictions. Here’s the data that caught our eye, courtesy of the Advertiser Perceptions survey as reported in Ad Age. Here’s how Ad Age broke it down: Read More

With digital ad revenue projected to overtake all other platforms by 2016, it is the key to the financial future of news. Are news organizations transitioning their legacy advertisers to online platforms?

Between 2011 and 2015, revenue from digital advertising in the United States is expected to grow by 40% and to overtake all other platforms by 2016.
Yet how much of that growth will go to underwrite news remains in doubt and throws into question the financial future of journalism as audience continue to migrate online. What will happen pivots in part on whether the news industry can move into the more lucrative areas of digital advertising, particularly using consumer data to target ads, persuading major legacy advertisers to also advertise online and moving into new revenue areas. Read More

What is it that women seem to love and understand and guys don't? (about Pinterest, of course)

Perhaps, it's Pinterest's self-description which doesn't make it sound like a guy thing:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Check out this great Slideshare presentation  from 6S Marketing to understand what's going on with Pinterest? Read More

Social media marketing is a trend, not a fad.  Moreover, it's a terrific extension of your content marketing strategy.

What’s clear from current research is that when we evaluate social media, we are not talking about the marketing longevity equivalent of the hula hoop or the Lambada. Social media marketing is here to stay.  If you are not already active in venues such as a business blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Slideshare, and YouTube, you should be asking yourself whether it's way past time to jump in with both virtual feet. The answer to the question is yes with an important caveat… …Before making the commitment to one or many possible social media outlets, it is vital to determine whether:

• you understand the target audience that you intend to reach
• you have something valuable to communicate to that target audience
• you have someone with the time, skill, and enthusiasm to execute a consistent social media program--either inside or outside your organization
• you will make the time to listen and respond to your social media audience.

There is nothing sadder than a business blog whose most recent post was a year ago. And, there is nothing less impressive than a Facebook fan page with only a few fans and hardly any messages to or from those fans. Yes, social media can be an extremely effective marketing tool. But, you will need to make a serious company commitment to ensure that it is effective for your organization. Read More