Which?Content is King?
Bill Gates in 1996 wrote an article titled “Content is King” in which he said “If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will.” Today in 2016, this is more relevant than ever. Brands today accept digital media as a crucial part of their strategy and content is at the heart of this. But the question remains, which content works today? If we look at how brands have evolved today, we can look at 6 great ways companies are leveraging content:
Choose the Right Platform for the Message – Every channel today serves a different purpose and the medium for your message has to be based on the objective. For example, visual brands find Instagram a great medium while brands who have long format content might prefer LinkedIn. For brands who have consistent and high frequency content, Twitter could be the best sharing platform. While most companies leverage a multitude of platforms, you must decide the most suited channels based on your campaign requirements.
Choose the right medium to deliver your content – Fact - 51% of engagement today on Twitter comes from video content while 4 billion videos are viewed everyday on YouTube. 61% of US consumers who blog, have made a purchase based on a blog post. The idea is to find the right medium to deliver your content. Along with traditional videos, images and blogs, today info-graphics, GIFs and vines are an equally great way to share content. Choose the medium which works best with your target audience. ALS may not have got 43 Million website visits in two months or $114 Million in donation if they had decided post and share images.
Join in the conversation- On February 27th 2015, #TheDress started trending on Twitter where people debated if the dress was black and blue or white and gold.
5 Lakh tweets were generated in the first one hour of the trend. Brands like Redbull, Tide and Gillette joint in by connecting their brands to this trend. Brands have to develop the ability to join in the conversation happening on various platforms by connecting their brand in a relevant way. The implication of this is that not all content can be pre-planned and you have become spontaneous to leverage conversations.
Don’t be defined by size – If you follow @Uberfacts on Twitter, you would know that the brain behind them is a 23 year old who earns 5 million dollars a year by tweeting about amazing facts. The takeaway form this is that any organization, however big or small can generate interesting content and reach out to their audience. The greatest thing about social media is its ability to amplify content which users find engaging.
Speak about Issues that affect your Target Audience – I read a great 80-20 content rule which says that 20% of the content must be about the brand, and 80% must be general interest information that contributes to lives of the target Audience. The Dove real beauty campaign is a perfect example of how a brand can take an issue that impacts their audience (self-confidence or self-worth in women in this case) and integrate their brand so well with it. Similarly Pepsi associating themselves with sporting events is a great way to connect with their TG and talk about what is important for them.
Leverage User Generated Content – Advocates are a brands greatest strength. Simply replying or re-tweeting their messages is never enough. You have to engage with them by asking them for ideas or taking their opinion on important decisions like product launches and features. The lays campaign to make audience vote for the flavor they want to save is one such idea. Burberry launched the Art of the Trench website in 2009, where users could upload and comment on pictures of people wearing Burberry products. Burberry’s ecommerce sales surged 50% year-over-year following the launch of the site.
The brands who the future will belong to will have nimble, easy to consume content which is suited to their target audience. They will not be afraid to engage with other brands and drive conversations. The idea is to humanize you brand and engage meaningfully!
References:
https://www.craigbailey.net/content-is-king-by-bill-gates/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferrooney/2014/04/16/annual-effies-survey-content-is-king/
Country Head (Director) Zambia at i engineering Group
9 年Very interesting article Tishya. I learnt and liked.
The challenge is because social media is badly conceived and underpinned by an exploitative and intrusive business model. Good luck when you SHOUT at consumers with those simplistic and irrelevant adverts. That is if they have not blocked you.
Public Relations at Retai.ly
9 年Thanks Tishya Relia for sharing. We need to know what are our customers' needs before we can engage meaningfully with them to offer better service, product or advice.
Which audience and on what fragment service? What is the right platform out of a highly fragmented landscape to get to an audience that may also be on multiple services. It is not as if these service have been designed to engage effectively on a '2-way' basis. They have not.
Teacher, Coach, Mentor, Crazy Scientist, & Health Nut
9 年The key is always knowing your audience.