An Explorer's Journal to Web Content: DCOM 280

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Marketing on Snapchat

To accompany my post from earlier this week, I think it’s important to discuss snapchat and it’s value (or lack there of) to marketing.

Snapchat currently is mostly an ad-free zone. Many articles appear on google about how snapchat could be the next big marketing opportunity. According to Ted Karczewski, it’s the 3rd largest social media network with over 50% of the 18 to 24 year old smart phone using audience using it. Those numbers are huge and attractive to marketers.

But is it worth it and does it make sense? Personally, I have no interest in going on snapchat to be bombarded by ads for Coke or Microsoft. Snapchat is a fast paced environment that most people only open for short amounts of time. The content would have to be relevant and well timed.  The message would have to be simply and quickly conveyed. Also, people might get annoyed and stop using the app if their are ads. As for personal company accounts, I personally don’t see value in pictures or short videos from non video based companies. 

That being said, I do think certain brands could have success. Denny’s typically has great content that would work well on Snapchat and Bernie Sanders campaign uses it effectively. I also follow bands on snapchat. 

It’s kind of up in the air and could go either way.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Bernie Sanders Has A What?

Bernie Sanders is a revolutionary political candidate. With his own brand of liberalism, Senator Sanders has been taking the country by storm, attracting supports of all ages and backgrounds with his dialogue on economic inequalities. Something interesting about Bernie is how well he connects with the young adult vote, especially through social media. Within the past day or so Bernie has stepped up his digital presence in a way other candidates has not. What I’m saying is:

Bernie Sanders has a snapchat.

Personally, I think this is fantastic. Many young adults use snapchat a lot and it can give the young adult crowd, who may not have the time or interest in politics, a chance to hear Bernie’s message without committing to much time and energy into watching a 2 minute video or reading an article. It may not totally get his message across but it will generate  him some buzz, which honestly is the best thing for any politician.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

The Right and Social Media Post-Paris -11/14

Last night, there were a slew of ferocious bombings and attacks on Paris, France. The entire world has been grieving but it has also sparked a debate on social media regarding the status of Syrian refugees coming to America. Many politically right leaning Facebook and Twitter pages have a content strategy to either voice their opposition to refugees or to support war with the middle east. The pages’ voice is usually angry and belligerent. The content tends to be long, uneducated texts posts and ignorant photos with captions such as “We made peace with Japan in 1945. Time to make peace with Islam.” 

These people may be ignorant but they know how to run a social media strategy that capitalizes on fear and gets their point across. Many of these pages have been having successful campaign and have acquired many followers in support of a pro-war plight. This is just another example of the vast divide in the country as shown on social media.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Square of Opposition-11/11

Square of Oppositions Records is a do-it-yourself, or DIY, punk and emo record label based out of the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A former member of DIY emo band Snowing, the label is owned and run by Chris Reject, the label has a special brand of sarcasm and cockiness that make the brand truly what it is. A lot of the record label’s social media is run more like a personal blog than a business, with not only albums being put out posted but also political commentary, miscellaneous viral videos, and other random tomfoolery. His voice directly reflects the attitude of many of in the Eastern PA Punk DIY scene, which often very fun and juvenile. 

This record label has an interesting community and following that it has developed with it’s unique branding. Some of the things this record label accomplishes with so few resources are amazing, releasing 5 lps in the upcoming months. It would not be able to do these things without it’s internet marketing and unique brand.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Size Matters: Label Marketing and How It Differs by Size-11/3

When looking at the social media of record labels, it is interesting to see how company size truly can affect marketing and brand voice. After looking over a series of different size labels, it seems brand voice directly correlates to label size. For example, major labels such as Roadrunner or Atlantic tends to have a fairly serious, business seeming tone that is typical of the image of most major businesses. They are inviting and friendly but not necessarily person able. Small labels are a completely different stories. Labels such as the punk label Square of Opposition often have a very directly reflect the personality of the person running it. Often, many mid-sized labels, such as Run For Cover Records, tend to fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. 

A lot of this has to do with the following of the label. For example, many small labels have more freedom to say what they want and feel as many of their followers have more of an emotional bond with the label and are less likely to leave. Larger brands like Atlantic do not have this luxury. They must pretty much stick to the script and very much so are at the will of the consumer, as people have less of an emotional connection to their company since it is so big.

Coming up: more about labels and ideas about them.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Update: Crowdsourcing May Not Be So Good All The Time- 11/2

To continue a conversation from last week, crowdsourcing has it’s downsides to match it’s upsides. Last week, I wrote a blog post on how crowdsourcing can be beneficial to a college setting but this is not true across the board. In Carson Stanwood’s article “When Crowdsourcing Goes Bad: Consumer Content Is Not Always Your Friend,” he outlines six examples of times crowdsourcing campaigns failed miserably. Many of these examples involve organizations with controversies or negative public opinions around them, such as the NYPD and McDonald’s. In most of these campaigns, the organization was trying to improve their image and it only got worse.

This is an interesting flipside to this because so far in class and in many marketing websites, I’ve mostly discussed the positives of crowdsourcing without really exploring some of the negatives. What happens when you get unwanted results? How do you as a company rebound from that? These are all interesting topics that I will attempt to do more research and explore more in the future.

Article: http://www.channelsignal.com/fresh-signals/when-crowdsourcing-goes-bad

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Time for Some Redecorating- 10/31

For my HTML site building class, we are currently working on a project where we have to select and redesign the website of a restaurant. I decided to go with Daisy Family Restaurant, a small one-location fast food establishment located in Wind Gap, PA. Lovingly known by locals as the Daisy Bar, the website definitely has potential to help with customers. While looking at the site, the content is slightly horrifying. A lot of the content looks somewhat uncomfortably placed and the imagery looks like clip art. There are no pictures of their food whatsoever, which is a major issue considering it is their main product. One of the pages is completely blank with the exception of a title and text is not used to it’s full potential, especially on the about page. They don’t seem to have a message or even a real brand for that matter, which could explain their popularity mostly being among the older crowd who have been going to the establishment for a long time. 

A content strategy could really benefit this company. By establishing messaging and their brand, they could potentially put helpful content on their site as well as attract new customers as opposed to customers who visit the seemingly outdated website and become weary about the establishment, especially since all the pictures are of empty parking lots and chairs.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Is Crowdsourcing Really A Good Thing?- 10/29

This week while scrolling through news on lvc.edu, I passed an article about cultural appropriation. The article was written by student which took me aback, as usually staff writes the articles and most student based written content is about internships or the like. After reading that article, it got me thinking: how helpful would crowdsourcing content to be to college?

This works out for both the the student and the institution. It gives the student an opportunity to post work that looks good on them. It also helps the institution, as not only are they getting content that they don’t have to work or pay for, but they are also facilitating the image that they care about what their students have to say and promote them to be thinkers. Honestly, I think it’s a good idea that schools should explore more see where it takes them.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Cults Aren’t Always a Bad Thing - 10/22

Joe Heaney, a copywriter and “content expert, posted a post on his Tumblr titled, “5 tips on how to Build Brand Fans - And Keep Them.” The post details how building a fanbase, a group of loyal followers who care about what the brand is doing, is different from simply building an audience, or a group of people that has no emotional connection to your brand. Brands should want a fanbase, as fans are more likely to interact with the brand and help the brand reach their desired goals. The article dictates that you should study your fanbase, allow them room to not feel smothered, and give them what they want, while still retaining control of the brand’s image.

I think this is extremely important. A great example of this is Sheetz. Sheetz has a fanbase. Their followers care about them as company, so much so that they are willing to get into verbal altercations over why Sheetz is better than Wawa (I personally am neutral in this war). Their content on social media is fun, comical, and makes users care about them even more as a company. Sheetz brand has many of these followers that will go out of their way to go to Sheetz over other gas stations and it is more beneficial to their company than say just another Exxon is on the road. Exxon has an audience. Sheetz has a cult.

Article Source: http://joeheaney.tumblr.com/post/131675780898/5-tips-on-how-to-build-brand-fans-and-keep-them

[adventuresinwebcontent]

With this Article, Visitor Attraction Should Be A Breeze-10/21

“This is your one chance to get that visitor interested in what you and your business has to offer. Sad as that may seem it is unfortunately the truth.” The opening line of Darren Breeze’s article “How To Use SEO And Content Marketing To Keep Your Visitors” provides this possibly unsettling truth. The article reflects on how to attract and retain visitors to a site through content use and SEO. 

In regards to content, the article suggests that users will first scan the site and look for something that might catch their eyes, such as images or general layout, to determine if the site is easy to understand. They will also focus on the introduction, which could be a deal breaker on whether they stay on the site or not. It recommends four tips to retain attention:  write an appealing headline; write a short, concise introduction; use sub headings that are attention grabbing; and vary content in lists.

When speaking on SEO, the article suggests that using long, unique keywords is helpful and makes it more likely that your site will appear in a search engine.

Despite a lack of commas and what looks like a lack of proof reading, this article contains good content that I agree with. Really though, while a lot of what this article talks about should be common sense and it’s really unfortunate that it’s not, but I digress. 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9195479

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Hard Times are Certainly Not Hard as They Seem- 10/14

The Hard Times is a satire news site based around DYI punk culture. The site posts roughly one or two articles a day Monday through Friday. The articles are mainly making fun of various aspects of punk culture, such as jokes about controversial punk frontmen or articles related to being straight edge. Many of their articles, as well for article concepts and headlines, are crowdsourced. The writing is easy to read but occasionally contains scene jargon, without which some of the jokes wouldn’t make sense. The site also spreads its articles through various social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Traditionally just a satire site, the Hard Times has also started slightly commercializing themselves. The site also occasionally sponsors shows, as well as sells some merchandise and promotes one member’s podcast. These advertisements usually appear within articles, such as was the case in the article “Judge, Trial Show Turns Into Actual Court Hearing.” The site is popular among fans of punk and hardcore kids.

Whatever they are doing is obviously working. They seem to be increasing in popularity and have been able to work with bigger acts in their podcast. 

[adventuresinwebcontent]

3 Success Tips for Life in Marketing- 10/10

Today, I stumbled across a a graphic posted by Tumblr’s ad sales team. The GIF, generated by Elizabeth Crosta who is the VP of Public Affairs for American Express. The graphic lists “3 Success Tips for Brands on Tumblr,” which were as follows:

-”Be Authentic: Be true to who you are as a brand.”

This topic has already been covered a few times on this blog, specifically when covering Real Friends and Counterparts. Audiences pick up on authenticity like sharks do blood in the water. Therefore, it is important that when marketing a brand, the marketers are honest about the brand and its goals. I strongly stand behind this tip and agree with it.

-”Test and Learn. Don’t be afraid to try something new, learn from it and adapt”

So many brands are afraid to try new things because they might offend a certain groups but the honest truth of it is that you can please everyone. Also, it is my firm belief that people will get bored if you do the same thing forever. Maybe through testing you can find a new unique way of achieving audience interaction.

-”Be as meticulous about your images as you are about your words.” 

This one is a no brainer. If you wrote an elegant message but your image is a poorly edit image of a squirrel in a tuxedo, most people are not going to be impressed. 

While all of these are for tumblr, I think they apply to most marketing and content strategy in general. These tips are relevant to most things in the marketing world, including other social media sites as well as print based advertising. Follow these and you will be golden.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Kyle is a Pretty Cool Guy-10/7

“How to Create a Content Strategy That Actually Drives Organic Traffic” was a blog post written and published to Hubspot.com by Neil Patel(hopefully of no relation to Matthew Patel). While the article as whole is about generating organic traffic to a site, one suggestion it makes is basing content off of personae. Personae can be much more effective that a general description of users, as it allows marketers to empathize and think about the wants and needs of a specific individual, as opposed to trying to please an entire group. Taking a group focused approach can be emotionally draining, as well as a somewhat inefficient and overwhelming mindset because it is hard to please everyone and feel the feelings of many people, which can be impossible to do at once. When broken down to just one person, it is much easier to feel the feelings of one person and recognize their needs because you are focused solely on them, while still technically pleasing many people due to the persona being a stereotype of the target audience.

 For example, recently in a different class, we got a persona of a man named Kyle. After reading his profile, I felt like I knew Kyle and that we could be friends. His wants and needs were easy to understand and more easily addressed than when previously discussing the group he represented. Personas like Kyle should be used more.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/create-content-strategy-drive-organic-traffic

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Welcome to Night Vale: 10/2

Welcome to Night Vale is a bi-monthly podcast written by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor. The podcast is set up to be like a radio show and follows the dystopian town of Night Vale and all the strange happenings that go in the town. While the podcast itself is pretty amazing, the content strategy is fantastic. They use their humorous take on dystopian society and establish a very strong brand with it. The language they use is probably roughly a fourth-grade level yet inclusive of humor that is shown on the show. Posts on social media are made roughly every day. There are generally two types of posts: posts advertising tours and products and posts with a some absurd blurb, similar to something that might be said on the show. Right now, they are really pushing the new Welcome to Night Vale novel, as well as their live shows. They have a pretty strong underground following, especially among youth and young adults. Many of their fans are part of “Tumblr culture.” 

Overall, Night Vale does a very good job at keeping their fans interested and in attracting new fans. Oh. And one more thing.

All hail the glow cloud. All hail.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

Audit, Analysis, and Strategy...? But Why?- 9/29

Before this week, I was extremely confused on what the point of what the goals of our projects thus far had been. The project overview made sense: to determine the types of content the DigiCom department has and how to effectively use it. But what was the point of each individual component and why was all the extra work necessary? After achieving some clarity, this is what it seems to come down to:

Content Audit: The purpose of the content audit is to figure out exactly what content is available and usable. There was a lot of extra work required for this aspect but it was only to make life easier down the line. For example, by figuring out the page hierarchy and putting it in the audit, you’re saving time when you have to explain it in your strategy.

Content Analysis: The concept of the analysis can be tricky to understand. The content analysis is not necessarily to talk about the content you have but rather the content you may need and the environment in which that content will have to survive. If you are strictly talking about the content you already have, you have no way of determining what your needs are regarding that content or new content, and the strategy will be harder to come up with.

Content strategy: The strategy is simply your needs and the plan of action for putting content out.

[adventuresinwebcontent]

A New Resource Has Been Discovered- 9/25

After accidentally clicking the web writing tag on one of my posts, I discovered writingfortheweb.tumblr.com, a blog curated by Malcolm Davison of writingfortheweb.co.uk, dedicated to various topics related to content and business strategy, as well as web writing. Several of the posts break down topics talked about in class and explain them in simple, easy to understand ways. Posts seemed to have been made on a fairly constant basis until 2014 and were written in a professional, yet not overly sophisticated language. The posts are somewhat dry, but that could just be because of the subject matter. The posts are fairly long but informative. It seems as though the blog was not particularly popular, which could be in part why the blog tampered out as of last year. It could be a useful resource while continue to navigate through the world of content strategy and web writing. 

Site: writingfortheweb.tumblr.com

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Be Real For Real Fans-9/22

Instead of commenting on an article, I’d like to utilize this blog post to discuss how band’s utilize content strategy. As a proud member of the punk and emo scene, it often baffles me how simple things, such as the tone of the writing, can change ones perspective of bands. For example, many small bands tend to attempt to follow classic PR practices and have more professional tones. Yet, it seems a lot of times these bands are overlooked. Could this be because they don’t stand out from the pack? Possibly. Many of the scene bands that get the most interaction from fans seem to be the less formal bands. For example, a previous post on this band discussed the band Real Friends and the power of their humor. Another band that has a similar tone and good fan interaction is Counterparts. The honesty and showing that they are real people and not just a business really seems to speak to fans. Could this be the key to having a strong social media presence for bands? I don’t know but it definitely seems to stick better in this scene than formality. 

Of course, there would need to be much deeper study of this trend in order to make a decision on if there’s any relevance. It is certainly worth mentioning and possibly a topic for future blog posts.