Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

When Helen Havlak, engagement editor at The Verge, looks to the future, she sees video — and Facebook. Last year, the Verge’s video views overtook its pageviews. This year, she expects the tech site to more than double the number of videos it produces this year. “Video right now is the only way to build a Facebook page,” she said. “The audience there is huge.”

Publishers are all trying to become video producers, tantalized by the prospect of lucrative video ad rates and exposure on Facebook, where publishers have a better chance of getting their content seen by posting video than they do photos and text links. Media companies uploaded 931,000 social videos to Facebook in the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 109 percent year over year, according to Tubular Labs (measuring across 2,000 media companies).

But producing video is time-consuming and expensive, which is why, for better or for worse, they’re turning to various hacks. Here’s a guide to some of the most common tactics. We’ll let you decide if they’re brilliant or despicable....

It’s been a bone of content for some time—the word “premium” as it relates to “content” and how “premium” is brandished by just about every single publisher and other players in ad tech land. I would have said “ecosystem”. Oops, I just did. Now there’s a word that’s also been beaten to death.

If all publishers offer “premium” content and all marketers want to advertise against “premium” content, does that make all content “premium”? No, of course not. Everyone has a different definition of “premium.”

In some circles, “premium” suggests that some advertising inventory is higher quality (larger, more interactive ad units, and higher CPMs on those units) and not all audiences are the same. Readers of the New York Times are different from readers of Bleacher Report. Or, maybe not. 

My elementary sense is that “premium” publishers charge higher CPMs on larger and more innovative ad units and their brand cachet, advertisers, and readers fit a certain demographic, if not psychographic profile. “Premium” also connotes “trust” and “quality” in the advertising/ad tech/publishing business—and now those two words are also loaded....

As Todd Henry wrote in The Accidental Creative, “You need to create space for your creative process to thrive rather than expect it to operate in the cracks of your frenetic schedule.”

By all means, continue learning, experimenting, and working directly on your content marketing skills, but the only way you’ll really have a prayer of churning out quality content on a consistent basis is to clean up your pre-project processes. And that means combating the six common pre-project pitfalls outlined below....

If you’re a social media marketer – you would be familiar with the feeling of working endlessly and still feeling like you have a ton of work left to do. How do you overcome this? The first step is to give yourself a break. After that, however, it’s time to start looking at ways to work smarter, rather than harder. Tools and extensions have been growing rapidly over recent years and there’s a good reason for it.

Content plays an important role in social media marketing – without good content, there’s nothing to market. You could pour hours, days or weeks into your marketing campaign, but no good content means no leads. It is the first step to connecting with your audience and most marketers don’t have the time to create the content themselves. If you’re one of these marketers, here’s a list of 8 tools that let you find and share great content and help with time management:...

Content is one of the most significant investments a company can make. While web design and vibrant videos are appealing, they don’t hold the same weight as content. This is especially true in the electronics industry, where customers are seeking fresh, insightful information before making a purchase.

The Value of Quality ContentThere’s a reason 86 percent of B2C marketers use content marketing: it works. High quality content pleases search engines and satisfies consumer demand for useful information regarding products and services.

In the consumer electronics industry, quality content is even more important because a large percentage of consumer electronics purchases are what businesses refer to as “investment purchases.” In other words, consumers aren’t buying a pack of gum from the convenience store or a t-shirt from their favorite retailer. Many electronics cost hundreds of dollars, and high-end purchases can cost thousands....