Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

...One has to look no further than the pages of a USA Today to see just how the charticle has taken its rightful place as a journalistic vehicle for today’s time and attention-starved news consumers. A few minutes with quick visual coupled with scannable text and we know just about everything going on in the world.In fact, some writing sites even advise would-be writers to skip the feature article and submit a quick-impact charticle for consideration.

What is a Charticle?

Charticles – as defined by Omaha World-Herald Deputy Presentation Editor Josh Crutchmer – are combinations of text, images and graphics that take the place of a full article. They are often used by bloggers and journalists alike to express one big idea with a bit of narrative provided by the supporting text that follows or sets up the big visual or chart that’s usually the feature in the post. In many cases, the chart featured in the charticle could likely stand on its own, as in, the data is typically that compelling. Moreover, that’s also what makes it worth writing about. The charticle is singular in focus and offers a great opportunity for expressing a succinct thought leadership point of view on a relevant bit of data....

CIPR State of the Profession 2012/13: View the results in full here: http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/state-of-the-pr-profession-2013

When we think of traditional news gatherers, we might conjure up the image of an obstreperous character brazenly hassling a slimy official for the real story -- or hovering paparazzi harassing a poor celebrity innocently shopping for handbags...

...Today, your jaded, hard-drinking, courtroom-loitering newsman could just as well be represented on the silver-screen by an enthusiastic bookworm-like computer geek. This is thanks to a new form of reporting known as "data journalism." Data journalism crept into modern media through the back door. You may not even have noticed. ...Even if it's not neatly stored in databases, it's often regurgitated into paper-based or PDF reports that can be accessed, sometimes through Freedom of Information Act requests. The data can then be cleaned, scanned, and converted into organized databases. Then it can be sorted into usable intelligence about a particular subject, limited only by the analyst's -- or data journalist's -- creativity....

Most companies have been brought up on a diet of pushing ads in front of people to sell their stuff. On a social web it is about engaging through content first.

...Content’s role in this is about creating such great value whether that is entertainment or education that it engages your customers and prospects....

Here are 5 Infographics that share some valuable insights into how the content marketing game plays out on the world wide web....