an overview of content marketing

AN OVERVIEW OF CONTENT MARKETING

An Overview of Content Marketing

ABOUT THIS CONTENT GENERAL ASSEMBLYEstablished in early 2011 as an innovative community in New York City for entrepreneurs and startup companies, General Assembly is an educational institution that transforms thinkers into creators through education in technology, business and design at ten campuses across three continents.


MAKE INFORMED DECISIONSThere is no shortage of bleeding edge tools engineered to help marketers make better sense of big data coming out of social platforms. Make sure you use them liberally to ensure content is tailor made to engage the intended audience. Then make sure the platform you’re planning to post to is one that the target audience visits and engages with regularly. Keep in mind: if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. Lastly, set content benchmarks against the category or key competitors so you can get a sense of what success looks like before the campaign begins.

BIG DATA


KNOW YOUR TOOLS» Topic of Conversation:

Listening tools like Crimson Hexagon that track volume of mentions (e.g. buzz) and sentiment (e.g. how people feel about a brand or service).

» Audience Demographics:PeekAnalytics identifies the audience behind the conversation or platform you’re studying (e.g. gender, sex, age, location, etc).

» Influencer Management:Tools like SocMetrics identify, track and activate those who are influential to your audience.

» Platform Performance:UnMetric shows owned platform performance and performance benchmarking for brands and competitors.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/

http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/

http://www.peekanalytics.com/about

http://www.peekanalytics.com/about

http://socmetrics.com/

http://socmetrics.com/

http://www.unmetric.com/

http://www.unmetric.com/


KNOW YOUR AUDIENCESocial data gives significant insights about your audience.There are two broad buckets to draw from: Conversation and Engagement

AUDIENCE

CONVERSATIONWhat’s the consumer talking about as it relates to brands, topics, etc?

ENGAGEMENTWhat’s the consumer doing? What digital and social actions are they taking around content?


LATCH ONTO EXISTING BEHAVIORSocial media marketing is about complimenting existing behavior not creating new behaviors. Understanding how your audience engages with content inside key lifestyle verticals like music and sports is important. Within these interest areas, marketers must learn what social platforms the target audience is visiting, what type of content they’re engaging with, and which cultural trends are worth latching onto (e.g. Amex creating relevance with small business owners by fostering support within the community).

ENGAGING


PUSH THE PASSION AHEAD OF THE BRANDSome brands, like Chevy’s iconic Camaro, are lucky enough to enjoy cult followings in real life that afford them massive followings on social media. For other brands, like Encyclopedia Britanica, theming a social presence around audience interests like literature is a better way to drive relevance among a particular audience.

AUDIENCE

Photo Status updates

Video Links


PHOTOS CONNECT WITH A CONSUMERNo matter the category, audience, or platform, photos monopolize engagement in most content scenarios.

ENGAGEMENT

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SEE AND HEAR EVERYTHINGSocial listening tech can do a lot more than count the number of times a brand was mentioned online. It can also monitor and identify conversation types relevant to the brand.In this case, a music-centric consumer electronics brand or publisher could pounce on conversational instances of musical passion.

TRACKING

REAL CONSUMER TWEET

POTENTIAL BRAND INTERCEPT


SUCCESSFUL CONTENT DISTRIBUTION DOESN’T ALWAYS HAPPEN THROUGH PAID MEDIA

BRAND PRESENCE

Look for innovative ways to achieve incremental scale when distributing content. Think about brand partners (and partners of partners) who might be able to help with marketing investment.For this UFC video, for instance, the brand should be distributing through sponsor owned channels in order to grab low hanging viewership fruit without reaching into their pocket for paid dollars.


DEVELOP READILY ACCESSIBLE CONTENTPosting lulls in an editorial calendar can have an adverse effect on the number of engaged users a brand is able to maintain.Social Media is about speed of content publishing. Consider a large-scale video production. By the time you have an approved budget and a shoot schedule it’s already too late — fans have lost interest. Consistent streams of ‘snackable content’, in the form of art-directed photos and eye candy, trump costly productions when it comes to turnaround time and quick wins. For example: Red Bull, in addition to producing fabulous video, also achieves tens of thousands of likes on their beautifully produced photo posts.

CONTENT


NEED MORE INFORMATION? RESOURCESInterested in learning more about Digital Marketing and other 21st-century skills? Check out General Assembly — http://generalassemb.ly

http://www.generalassemb.ly/

http://www.generalassemb.ly/