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Thursday, 9 January 2014

[FeedBlitz] Online Marketing Blog - 3 new articles

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Online Marketing Blog - 3 new articles



That's A Wrap: We Came, We Blogged, We Kicked Ass at #NMX

NMX 2014 Wrap UpFlying is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me.

There's just something so breathtaking about getting to see cities from above—their lights twinkling brighter than any nightlight—and being surrounded by clouds that look so fluffy cotton candy would be jealous.

Last weekend I got to experience it all while flying to Las Vegas for NMX with my coworkers Ben Brausen and Nick Ehrenberg. Needless to say none of us were sad to watch the cold fall away and land in a balmy 50 degrees.

After being teased by our taxi driver about our short sleeves and catching a few glimpses of The Strip, we arrived at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino to learn all we could about new media, blogging, and how people achieve success in both arenas.

Throughout the three day conference there was a wide variety of speakers—some that had the whole room laughing hysterically, some dazzled with statistics, and some that offered tools and techniques to take writing and social media to new heights. We met people from all over the world—Dublin, the Philippines, Boston, LA, and even ran into a few fellow Minnesotans (who were also enjoying the weather in short sleeves).

Between conference sessions, several liveblogs, networking and adjusting to the time change, the three of us were lucky enough to explore the city. We all ordered from the In and Out Burger's secret menu (which was delicious) and meandered the strip laughing at those bundled in winter clothing while baffled by the ability to have outdoor escalators.

But, one of the highlights of our trip was getting to see the Penn and Teller magic show (Thank you Lee!). Dazzled by the inability to rationally explain their tricks we all laughed and applauded with glee (one of us may or may not have hidden so they wouldn't be chosen to go on stage…that may or may not have been me).

TopRank Staff Liveblogging NMX 2014

Our objectives for NMX included: create useful content, increase awareness of our digital marketing agency TopRank, meet potential clients and talent to join our team. Through liveblogging presentations at NMX, Nick, Ben and I did our best to create useful, shareable content for those that were unable to attend NMX while learning a few new things ourselves! We also researched new tools that could benefit our agency and clients, and, of course, networked with some amazing people!

With 18 blog posts attracting a few thousand shares in 3 days, I think we made some great progress with content creation.

TopRank's Liveblog Coverage of NMX:

Lee Odden

Photo: @LookSocialMedia

Our CEO Lee Odden gave one of the opening keynotes at NMX covering 10 lessons learned during 10 years of blogging. The room was packed, the audience chuckled, ideas were generated and the co-founder of NMX, Rick Calvert said, "If you didn't learn something from that you either aren't alive or weren't paying attention."

Lee Odden Keynote Tweets NMX

Apparently, people were paying attention and sharing. According to the site #hashtracking, during Lee’s 30 minute presentation there were over 700 tweets and retweets published!

Some of Our Favorite Quotes From Industry Thought Leaders at NMX:

  • “The online to offline connection is where the real magic happens” – @LeeOdden
  • “Snarky only gets you so far” - @SpudHilton
  • “Influence those who influence others with custom content they expect to see” – @tasalinas & @billdowns
  • “When it hits the fan it’s not the time to hide behind the fan, it’s time to do something about it” – @unmarketing
  • “When I was doing terribly, I thought I was doing fine. I was getting satisfaction from my job. That’s my definition of success” - @pennjillette
  • “If we are so self-monitoring that we only put the beautiful things about ourselves online, we disassociate ourselves from who we are” – @LynetteRadio
  • “Your brand is how others see you–not how you see yourself” – @iLuvvit
  • “Great content isn’t great until it’s discovered, consumed and acted on” – @LeeOdden
  • “The best time to leverage a disaster in your business is never. Shut up or support. You don’t leverage pain and suffering” – @unmarketing

NMX BlogWorld 2014

Recurring NMX BlogWorld Themes:

Quality over Quantity: It’s easy to create content for the sake of creating it. Now you have to take that one step further and create high-quality content. Spend time really learning what your audience likes, how they like to consume your content, and what questions are nagging at their minds. Then you’ll be in a position to be their best answer. While creating your amazing new content it’s important to write succinctly, but use a voice. Don’t be afraid to get creative and use unique metaphors and sound effects!

Presentation is (Almost) Everything: I have checked my smartphone more times today than I should in a week–and most other people do the same. Ensuring your data is presented in a way that is friendly to all devices is extremely important. Then you’ll need to add a layer of visuals—whether you paint them with words, include a vibrant image, or a short (yet creative) video. These can help convey your message in a new way, captivate readers, and compel people to read the entire piece.

Data is Important, But So Are It's Layers: There are tons of statistics out there. There are even statistics about statistics. But, no one call tell you what’s best for your brand or your audience except the people involved. What works for an audience of cat-lovers won’t necessarily work best for an audience of C-suite employees. Take data with a grain of salt. Understand where it comes from, what else there is to the story, and make sure it’s as tailored as possible. Then you’ll be able to monitor how the little tweaks you make really impact your overall reach, impressions, shares, pageviews etc.

Never Stop Evolving: What was big a year ago has now fallen by the wayside. What works today might not work a week from now. It’s important to constantly evolve. Change up your content, constantly flex your creative muscles so your audience never gets bored. Find unique ways to answer questions and represent your brand. Maybe one week you focus on social, the next you focus on your website, and the next you focus on creating a video campaign. Whatever it is, make sure you never give up or get boring.

Overall, NMX was a very well-run and organized event. It is incredible to be a part of an industry that is so dynamic, with people so passionate about finding new, creative ways to stay up-to-date and constantly create value. A big thank you goes out from TopRank Online Marketing to all of the speakers, volunteers, and NMX staff who made the conference such a success. We can't wait to be involved with NMX next year!

If you attended the NMX, what were some of the most interesting things you learned? What was your biggest takeaway?

 

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2014. | That’s A Wrap: We Came, We Blogged, We Kicked Ass at #NMX | http://www.toprankblog.com

       

How UFC Is Throwing Big Blows On Social Media

UFC NMX 2014Big sports are big business.  There are billions of dollars to be made and no sport is growing faster than the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  Millions of viewers worldwide tune in to watch fighters pummel each other.  Jackie Poriadjian SVP/Strategic Marketing/PR & Distribution for UFC and Dave Taylor sat down and discussed How The UFC Rocks Social at NMX 2014.

The Stats

Lets take a look at some of the numbers that make the UFC a true heavyweight.

  • Largest PPV Event In The World – Bigger than the WWE, professional boxing, or any other pay-per-view event out there.  The UFC is the real king of the ring when it comes to transactional viewing events.
  • Broadcast In 28 languages – That’s just as many as the BBC, the world’s largest broadcaster.  That’s the big reach their fighters wish they had.
  • 5 Billion Impressions In A Single Night – You read that right.  That’s 5 BILLION in just one night on Twitter and Facebook before UFC 168 at the end of December 2013.
  • Over 50 Billion Impressions Over The Course Of A Single Campaign – That’s just from the campaign run during the promotion of their most recent fight.  Most of us are lucky to have even 50 people talking about us.  Even compared to other big brands that number is huge.  Heck, many big brands don’t even have 50 billion impressions total, much less in a single campaign.
  • Over 1.6 Million Twitter Followers – And that number is just for their main account.  The UFC encourages their fighters to have their own accounts and many of them have a million or more followers too.  Their Twitter following isn’t just huge either.  They’re very active and very passionate.
  • Over 11.5 Million Facebook ‘Likes’ – And again that’s just their main account.  They have millions more on various other UFC accounts plus fighters with millions of their own.  They’re active, passionate, and love to talk about their favorite fighters.  And if you think that Facebook killed brand pages with their recent changes to their algorithm, think again.  A picture of Anderson Silva on crutches after breaking his leg  in the most recent fight reached 100% of their 11.5 million followers. If the timing and topic is on, you can reach everyone despite what “marketing experts” claim.
  • 500k Instagram Followers – The same day Jackie and Dave sat down to talk at NMX 2014, the UFC Instagram account hit over half a million followers and it’s not even a spot they’ve focused much effort on at this point.

Looking at those numbers, it’s easy to see that there’s a ton of social talk around the UFC and it’s fighters.  And for a brand with that much activity, they spend a relatively small $500k-1 million a year on paid social promotion.  While they do some paid social advertising, they don’t do it for their events.  Their fans do the promotion for them.

Management Of Millions

So how do they manage all of that social chatter?  An army of social media managers right?  Nope.  Just 2 people at their headquarters to deal with messaging and managing over 15 million followers.  How do they manage their fighters and their messaging?  They don’t.  While they do give their fighters some initial social training and coaching to keep them out of trouble, they let them manage it themselves and say what they want (they’re all independent contractors technically).  Should an issue come up there is the possibility they’ll send them to sensitivity training, make them do community service or impose a fine but that has been very rare.  Their biggest challenge hasn’t been the messages their fighters post but how they respond to criticisms and comments from their followers. I’m sure we’ve all had times where we’ve had to take a step back and take a couple deep breaths before responding to someone on social media.  Now try to teach that to someone who knocks people out for a living.  Fun job huh?

The UFC’s fighters take a lot of pride in the sport and want to take it to the next level.  They love interacting with their faithful fans so most are very active on Twitter and Facebook.  It’s that high level of interaction directly with their fans that has allowed the UFC to build such a large following.

Feeding The Following

So how can just 2 people create all the great content that people follow the UFC for on social media?  It’s not a 2 person effort alone.  The entire organizations has access to a central dropbox in which they can upload any content they create.  Pictures, video, and more are all put into a central database that allows their social managers to pull and post the best from their photographers, videographers, fighters, reporters, and other employees.  It’s a great way to always have tons of great stuff for your followers to consume.

A young demographic (UFC pretty much owns the male 18-34yr old demographic when it’s on) that loves social media has helped to fuel the explosive growth of the UFC and MMA.  As the brand continues to struggle to gain more mainstream acceptance (the New York Times and others for instance doesn’t generally care to cover UFC fights), the push from social media is helping to make the UFC a main event.

Do you think they have what it takes to TKO other professional sports?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2014. | How UFC Is Throwing Big Blows On Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

       

How to Make the Most of Vine's 6 Seconds #NMX

Vine, social marketing, NMXDoes your business utilize Vine for micro-content creation? The nascent video social network may not seem like a business-friendly target for social marketing, but there are several opportunities for engagement and retention within it. We may be conditioned to use Instagram or YouTube to tell longer video stories, but Vine's six-second limit forces marketers to truly be creative with their time.

What makes a good, business-centric Vine video? Spud Hilton, Martin Jones, Jon Skogmo, Josh Entman and Richard Spalding explained the key traits in an NMX panel session.

Emphasizing mobile social marketing first

Vine is inherently mobile – they may have recently added a Windows client, but its foundation stems from mobile devices. That itself presents a unique opportunity for brands. Spalding noted that content created on Vine is instantaneous, spontaneous, and quickly shareable. Add the connection with Twitter, and you have a large audience at the ready.

Long-form vs. short-form strategy

YouTube heralded the age of long-form video content, and brands have been adapting to create high-quality videos for the platform. Vine is bucking this trend, emphasizing short-form, quickly digestible content. Hilton noted that while you only have six seconds to make your point, Vine's automatic looping function allows for exposure beyond those first six seconds.

Jones noted that Vine humanizes your brand, specifically because it isn't high-quality or glossy. Content appears more spontaneous and authentic, and less forced.

Encouraging experimentation

The panel was adamant on Vine's B2C capabilities, although they were less confident about the network's viability with B2B companies. Still, Jones encouraged businesses to experiment with Vine's publishing style, as it is still a good way to convey who you are as a brand in short-form. The medium defines the message regardless.

Don't mind the quality

Many long-form online videos are expansive productions, shot in high-definition and littered with brand mentions in the endframe. You'll get none of that with Vine – and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The short timing and low quality forces brands to be creative – and in this business, creative content always triumphs over slick production.

However, there are still some best practices to follow with Vine videos – and they can help separate your Vines from the rest. Entman encouraged brands to use jump cuts during filming – taking one static six-second shot doesn't help tell a story effectively.

Know the audience

As with many new social networks, Vine's audience trends younger – these are the next generation of content creators. However, Jones noted that business owners can leverage Vine by targeting specific personas and building deeper relationships beyond a 140-character Tweet.

Re-target from other social networks

Vine isn't alone in the social universe. The whole panel encouraged attendees to utilize Vine for retargeting – helping to establish an ongoing relationship with an advocate of your brand. Retarget followers with Vines, rather than banners. A six-second video carries far more power as a retargeting tool than a static web banner.

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, there aren't many pitfalls with Vine content. While you may deal with a rogue tweet or an inappropriately timed status update, the only risk with Vine content is that no one will see it. That should just motivate you to keep trying — and let those six seconds tell a compelling story.

How do you think your business could utilize Vine? Do you view it as more of a B2C property, or is there some benefit for the B2B crowd?

Email Newsletter Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2014. | How to Make the Most of Vine's 6 Seconds #NMX | http://www.toprankblog.com

       
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