Content Marketing Today

Written by Brianne Carlon

A good goal for headlines is to evoke emotion in some way. Whether it is amusement, curiosity, joy or sorrow, intriguing a reader is the biggest responsibility of a headline. And there have been some good ones over the past few years: 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

Here is an overview of the changes and how brands can take advantage of some of the new features.

Cover Photo and Profile Image
Obviously one of the biggest changes that we all knew was coming was the cover photo. No more photo strip across the top. You now have one large image to showcase your page. This image must be a minimum of 399 pixels across to be used as the cover photo. But you can have a photo cover designed to take advantage of the extra space you get. The cover photo maximum dimensions are 850 pixels by 315 pixels. Read More

Home pages. If you have a website, you have one of these bad boys.

And no matter whether you’re selling real estate or racoon prevention (that’s really the entire spectrum there, right?) there are certain things that your home page MUST do if you hope to sell your product or service. Read More

Articles published during breakfast and lunch yield more views on average.

Last month, Skyword’s clients, including The Wall Street Journal, IBM, Everyday Health, and Education.com, used our content production platform to produce more than 13,000 pieces of original content for their Web and social properties. Read More

Written by Lee Odden

I’ve had people learn that I’ve recently written a book called Optimize and they ask what it’s about. I say it’s about optimizing customer discovery and engagement with content. The response I usually get is something like, “Oh, cool. I thought it was about SEO.”

Well, in a way optimizing content and customer experiences is SEO. That’s because what most of the better SEOs practice today is really more about the promise of marketing: attracting, engaging and inspiring customers to buy.

Whether it’s Google, Social Networks, Online News Media, Digital Assets or any other channel/format for content – best practices optimization is in effect for smart companies that want an advantage. 

2005 Called, It Wants Its SEO Back. If your SEO is still overwhelmingly focused on massive keyword lists, ranking reports and directory/social bookmarking style link building then you’re stuck in 2005. It’s time to evolve with an optimized state of mind. Read More

We Got Coverage and Kudos from David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, and All Top

Yesterday, we discussed how Sasha Baron: successfully newsjacked the Oscars with his successful Red Carpet stunt. Posing as the Dictator, he spilled the alleged ashes of the late North Korean dictator Kim ill Jung on  Ryan Seacrest.   Although we loved the stunt for its own sake, we also hoped that we might pull off a bit of newsjacking ourselves. And, it worked, albeit on a more modest scale.

Because it was a hot Hollywood story, the Red Carpet stunt got all kinds of attention on TV, online, and in print--with lots of YouTube coverage.   So, I decided to see if we could inject ourselves however modestly into that same story.

Grab a hot story that conveys a key concept to maximize  the reach of your important message

If I had been writing a basic, just the facts, ma'am, story that described what newsjacking was and why it might be useful for public relations and marketing professionals,  I doubt that much would've happened. Regular readers of our blog would have benefited. But, I probably would not have generated much attention or additional readership.

Because I was able to inject a real-time element  into our story that incorporated both a hot concept--news jacking--as well as a hot event--the Oscars, we achieved a level of visibility that would've been otherwise impossible.  Read More

Sasha Baron Cohen Grabs the Spotlight with Only a Beard, a Uniform, 2 Pretty 'Security Guards', and the 'Ashes' of Kim Il Jung.

Every year the American Academy Awards attracts tens of millions of viewers, no matter how boring the 3+ hour television event might be.  In 2012, the ceremony itself may have been even more irrelevant than usual, featuring movies that hardly anybody saw and hosted by an aging Billy Crystal most of whose jokes were as creaky as the ceremony itself.

But, never mind, because the real story of the  Oscars in 2012 was the brilliant Newsjacking of the event by Sasha Baron Cohen who grabbed zillions of dollars of free publicity for his upcoming movie, The Dictator (which will never win an Oscar, but who cares?).

Comic Genius Becomes PR Genius, Too

Cohen displayed not just comic genius, but PR genius well. He may not have read David Meerman Scott's great book, Newsjacking, but he could well have been a case study. The basic concept is that, in these days of 24-hour news cycles and real-time public relations, marketing pros can  newsjack an event  by finding a way to do something that is highly newsworthy and is somehow connected to that event. 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