Marketers, have you ever been in an agency pitch that focuses on the tool and channel and forgets about content? Or, from the other side of the table, have you ever had a client on the brand side ask you for your Twitter/FacebookPinterest strategy –but doesn’t have anything meaningful to say?
Our industry is afflicted with shiny object syndrome, a focus on the new tools, without thinking about the content that will drive it. As we mature and the tools make it easier to share information, companies need to be extra sensitive to the content that will be shared, both that’s created by the brand, and the customer.
Altimeter’s latest report by Industry Analyst Rebecca Lieb, takes that topic head on. This report had a thorough methodology that interviewed over 50 brands, agencies, vendors, and industry experts to find out how the industry is changing. The top six findings include the following trends:
- Visual information reigns supreme, from video to images to infographics.
- Mobile and location-based marketing are the second most-cited area into which marketers want to expand content initiatives.
- Marketers must manage flow and develop the ability to respond in real-time in social channels
- Bright, shiny objects, i.e. a fixation on newer channels and technologies, can distract from foundational channels, e.g. search, written content, such as blogs, and educational content, which is often essential in B2B channels.
- Budgets must increase to accommodate content channels such as video and mobile that require larger production and development investment.
- Marketers’ confidence in and reliance of content marketing is beginning to diminish their reliance on print and broadcast advertising, as well as public relations.
Marketers Confident in Future of Online Video, Social, Mobile
Open Research: Use it, Share it, and We’ll Create More.
To learn more how companies will achieve this, read the report in the embed below. We look forward to your feedback as we track how content spreads across multiple tools, channels and mediums.
Our approach has always started platform agnostic. Â As you say, define the content, then look for the channels. Â This also allows you to adapt from channel to channel more quickly as the landscape evolves over time.
Josh thanks for the confirmation.
Content is the king, Marketing does it’s work but if you fail to write quality content, then No marketing strategy will work for you. Combination of both quality content and well planned marketing strategy can help you achieve success. Â
This isn’t only true for marketing, but also for support and service as well – which can certainly be used as a marketing driver as well, provided you buy the idea that community powers WOM which in turn is a form of marketing.
By definition; does the idea also = content. Â For example, most of the people we are meeting with are starved for a ‘long idea’ that works across their business and the channels that they are typically most comfortable with. Â On experience…the order of priority is 1. The idea 2. the content to support the idea 3. the channel. Â Surely, this is nothing new…sounds like a lesson from Mad Men 😉
By definition; does the idea also = content. Â For example, most of the people we are meeting with are starved for a ‘long idea’ that works across their business and the channels that they are typically most comfortable with. Â On experience…the order of priority is 1. The idea 2. the content to support the idea 3. the channel. Â Surely, this is nothing new…sounds like a lesson from Mad Men 😉
 Combination of both quality content and well planned marketing strategy can help you achieve success for any blogger.
I couldn’t agree more that marketers need to rebalance to focus on content… and I know  that I’m not the only strategist who has had to talk their clients out of shiny red objects or to invest in video content.
A fantastic POV on the need to focus on content for future success.
I couldn’t agree more that marketers need to rebalance to focus on content… and I know  that I’m not the only strategist who has had to talk their clients out of shiny red objects or to invest in video content.
A fantastic POV on the need to focus on content for future success.
I couldn’t agree more that marketers need to rebalance to focus on content… and I know  that I’m not the only strategist who has had to talk their clients out of shiny red objects or to invest in video content.
A fantastic POV on the need to focus on content for future success.
I couldn’t agree more that marketers need to rebalance to focus on content… and I know  that I’m not the only strategist who has had to talk their clients out of shiny red objects or to invest in video content.
A fantastic POV on the need to focus on content for future success.
I think Olivier Blanchard wrote in his blog “…We have forgotten more about the nature of social connectivity in the last 96 years than we have learned from every blog post written about Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, blogs, Tumblr, Quora and Pinterest combined (yes, including Mashable).” – That pretty much says it all. Caught in the new-shiny-thing-syndrome as you say.Â
I like the discussion. Creating or developing content with a platform in mind limits more than just creativity, it limits the ability for content to fully support the brand story that’s attempting to be told. Â
I’m student currently studying social media measurement in my PR class. I’ve been reading a lot about content marketing recently, and I couldn’t agree more with this post. When I research social media measurement, the first things that pop up are ROI and tools to measure your success. The more research I did, the more I learned that it’s about specific business goals and developed, engaging content before it’s about the channels and the tools for measuring success. You won’t get anywhere without solid content! Definitely interested in and will be researching more on this topic…
Having thin altimeter tools for business is good for business because we can easily track the progress and changes of the business if it is increasing the ROI comparing to the original cash out. First thing to learned more is all about social media measurement.
The more SEO content that you have on your site, the higher that your ranking will be on search engine results. The way to create SEO content is to make use of keywords on your webpages. Read on to learn how to create SEO content.
I’m late to the party here, Jeremiah, but as a video producer I’m happy to see #1: “Visual information reigns supreme, from video to images to infographics.” I’d love to see you guys dig into social video production and strategy, who’s doing what…I always see great marketing/PR vids but it’s often really hard to figure out who produced them. There’s so much talk about the power of video but not so much about differing approaches to production and uses, and the growth of the industry. I haven’t yet been able to find a solid list of production shops serving the social/digital PR industry…maybe it’s because they are starting to bleed over from TV and advertising land? I have certainly seen the space get professionalized fast…a year ago we shot everything on our own, now we are often paired with producers with a TV or ad background.