A couple of years ago when we launched BuzzFactory.net there were a smaller number of competitors both globally as well as locally. We were not positioning ourselves as a social media agency or a social media marketing company back then, we were simply a content marketing / inbound marketing team using our skills at creating and marketing great content to drive audiences for our customers. We evolved into social media service provider or agency since we started expanding our offering and capabilities. Of course more recently, there are a lot more digital marketing agencies many of which are competitors and I get asked “doesn’t the spurt in the number of social media marketing agencies intimidate you?”.

Truth is, of all the ones I frequently come across, the handful that scare me are the ones I find publish some really awesome content.

• Great website copy with crisp messaging that talk to you & prompt you to explore further
• Personality that comes through the writing giving you a feeling you somehow know them and can connect with what they say
• Resourceful & engaging blog posts that tell you they know what they’re talking about …knowledgeable in their field
• Smart use of graphics and video clips to help you visualize a message
• Presentations, downloadable documents, demos, case studies, photos and other well crafted resources that help you evaluate and create an opinion of them even before you’ve picked up the phone or sent and email to contact them.

Online brand perception is formed even before you make any sort of contact with anyone from within a business or organization. It’s created through your content.

Don’t Cut Corners With Content Your Online Brand Perception Depends On It

That said… here are some pointers when it comes to content and your overall online presence strategy:

1. Don’t skimp on time or money when it comes to creating your content, the new Google algorithm updates are based on rewarding sites with higher quality content that get linked to and mentioned purely because they are that good and not as a result of technical SEO gimmicks.
2. Don’t look for short cuts, cultivate a following by delivering valuable content. Don’t buy bulk blog posts (the 1$ an articles types) from providers that piece together from others content and throw in a few keywords assuring you it will help boost links and search results. They will harm your site rather than do any good. Remember it’s now about quality not quantity.
3. Make sure you inject your / your brands personality into everything you publish. Audiences on the web form impressions on who you are from what they have in front of them. A boring web web page full of factual information, statistics and data may convey information but not personality.
4. With social media conversations, make sure those that represent your online voice are doing so the way you’d like your brands voice to come across. They are your voice after all and what they say reflects on your business.
5. Be creative, don’t shy away from being vibrant or different. In a world where millions of conversations and millions of pieces get published every single day, being different helps stand out, getting noticed and carving an identity. (Hence the Pink Elephant in our logo)
6. Become obsessed with the content aspect of social media marketing, it does define how others see you online so give it the priority it deserves.

The next time you check out a website, a video, a blog post or presentation that belongs to a brand or organization, consciously think about how you’re making associations, what it tells you about them and how they come across. It’s how others perceive you from what you put out there on the web. The scales are tipped in favor of those that communicate better online!

The nuclear fission like popularity of social site Pinterest.com has taken the social web by storm. Shooting up the website rankings among the most popular sites out there today, this is one online community no brand, website or organization wants to ignore when it comes to reaching out on the web. No less than a few months ago you could have given it a miss while planning your inbound marketing and social media strategies but ignoring it now would be like ignoring Facebook, Twitter and a number of other channels put together. That’s just how influential Pinterest can be in adding to the referral traffic on your website! In the inbound marketing world, it’s a force to reckon with.

For those of you yet to get on the Pinterest bandwagon, the concept behind this game changing social networking is fairly simple: Imagine creating pin up boards for things you like whether it’s recipes, places you wish to visit, motorbikes you love or clothes that appeal to you and pinning up images / photos of the best you find on the web under each of these. For example, you find a photo of a destination that looks amazing, you can pin it up to your board of “places I like”. In true spirit of social networking you can follow others, see their boards and share your pin-up boards with others. Ultimately, where this site shines through is the visual experience it delivers and makes finding great web content fun.

Now if you’re looking to engage on Pinterest and tap into this massive social network which is rapidly becoming one of the top five sources of inbound traffic to so many sites, you need to make one major direction change in terms of the content you’re publishing to even have a chance of making waves on this social network:

Think Visually

Snappy 140 character texts like the ones on Twitter, Facebook-like status updates and well worded blog posts are not the fuel Pinterest runs on. If you’re going to be one of the sources for viral pins on Pinterest (and the site does link to sources for images pinned) then you need to think :

- Terrific appealing photos

- Graphics

- Infographics

- Visual representations

- Posters

- Designs

- (Videos too)

While the images pinned to Pinterest can be linked to the source site or page they came from, it’s the images and visual content themselves that actually draw clicks from other pinners so if your visual content doesn’t have appeal, it’s not likely to do too well on Pinterest.

Inbound marketing strategies and content creation for social media engagement and is going to have to put more focus on developing great visual content to include in publishing mix. For someone looking to develop a presence on Pinterest, you’re going to have to ask :

- Would someone be drawn to the image if seen on their feed of pins followed?

- Would they click the images you pin and share?

- Would they re-pin or share those images?

Pinterest is going to drive brands to be more creative in terms of photos, graphics, images and visual content. Put the focus on great visual content and Pinterest could do wonders for your inbound traffic and web presence!

If what drew you to this post was the alluring image of Olivia Wilde on a cover, then I’ve made my point. In fact, even if you stopped at the top of this page and spent a few seconds wondering “I wonder what this post is all about” just because the image caught your attention, that’s good enough for me as a blogger and content marketer because I now have your attention.

Attention is a valuable commodity for any blog or website since we’re all up against millions of competing blog posts, articles, videos, graphics and photos that are published every day. As a content marketer, engaging an audience with  your content to drive inbound traffic versus the myriad of other options people can click through to and consume instead …is a challenge. To stay in the running, compete and still draw online users to your site, your content needs to stand out and appeal to them and this is something magazine publishers can teach a thing or two about to bloggers and content marketers.

Magazine publishers have been battling it out for years when it comes to competing for attention, grabbing a persons attention and getting them hooked to their content. They’ve studied just about every psychological aspect of consumers and readers and incorporated decades of best practices in the way they write new content, design, structure and deliver their end product to readers. Their attention to detail is what web sites, blogs and digital content marketing media will have to strive towards in the sea of user generated content to stand out as a quality source for content as opposed to just another blog.

 Attention Grabbing Titles

The general thumb rule is people will always scan first and then read if they decide to read further. Attention grabbing titles are essential on social media sites and search engine results as they are when you scan hundreds of magazine covers on the shelf at a magazine rack before picking one up.

 Awesome Images

No doubt that fantastic quality images are the number one draw to a magazine and all the best photographers and graphics designers in the world would contribute to the publishing team in a huge way. The same holds true for web content too and being able to source and use photography, graphics and imaging in your content will set it apart as a quality content source over the plain text and boring looking pages.

Layout & Design

Another key element which web content has adopted from the traditional publishing industry and evolved is layout, typography and design. Placing images, text, advertising, using fonts well, titling, sub titling and knowing user habits is all well thought out in a great magazine as it needs to be on a web page or blog. This is something every reader will subconsciously make a note of when they are on a professional content site or a casual novice blog.

Rich Glossy High Quality Feel

Don’t you ever relate to the quality of a magazine by how glossy or high quality the cover and the paper quality is? It’s makes the images pop out and create a much richer reading experience also adding to the value of the overall publication. Now some may ask how this applies to web content …and it does. Selecting a good publishing platform and theme with a great modern look and feel CAN change a users experience and perception of a blog or web site.

 Well Thought Out & Fresh Topics

Once you have the readers attention, following through and meeting expectations is just as important to have them engaged and keep them coming back. Magazine content teams sit and brainstorm new fresh topics that could grip their audience carefully selecting the best ideas keeping readers in mind. Every piece needs to evoke some reaction whether they read it and think, “this was useful”, “this was enlightening”, “this made me laugh”, “this got me excited” or even “this made me sad”. The last reactions you want for your content is “huh…waste of time”.

Put The Target Audience First

The magazine business model that publishers have followed since they first hit news stands is “be the number one content and information resource for people in our target segment to build a reader base around the magazine”. Only then target advertisers to promote their products to our reader base and subscribers. A poorly executed web content strategy thinks more about marketing products and repetitively talks about it’s own products and gets boring. A good content marketing strategy thinks about what readers would enjoy or find useful first and the promotion is an added bonus to this. Focus on giving the audience what they want. The marketing will happen.

Would You Rather Read This?

Or this?

So if you run a blog or content site that you hope will really become a marketing asset for your brand or business, think: how would I approach it if I were a magazine publisher and depended on building a reader base regardless of what I intend to market. Do that, and things will take a turn for the better!

While we see some awesome and innovative things many companies are doing to engage with people on the web and “be social”, few still struggle with the idea of “being personable” rather than “sounding professional”. When I say “sounding professional” here I’m not referring to the true sense of the word but rather the ‘cliche’ of having to use politically correct and complicated business terms or corporate talk while interacting with online audiences. It may have been the proper way to conduct business in the formal corporate world where embossed letterheads on bonded paper were the medium of of choice but in the Social Media world…people prefer simplicity. Also, in the social media world – the people hold the power and decide what they prefer and who they like.

I remember the founder of IMG the late Mark McCormack and sales thought leader saying “All things being equal, a person would rather buy from someone they like versus someone they are indifferent to” so being like-able is a key factor in any buying process.

Nowhere is this more true than on the social web. Most people on the web have low tolerance (or attention spans) for complicated explanations, corporate jargon, advanced technical terms, business vocabulary or language they have to read over a number of times to make sense of. Social media loves and respects simplicity!

A single word best practice rule for communication, content, marketing or just about any interaction on the web to really connect with people – SIMPLIFY!

Things we like in our social web experience?

 Tweets & Short Status Updates

140 characters is a short space but it’s perfect. If you have something to say and you can put it 140 characters or less it forces you to be concise, clear and make your point quite simply. Little wonder why Facebook status updates and Twitter is so popular?

Introduction Videos That Turn Complicated Ideas Into Plain English

Gone are the long multi-page technical specification manuals or documentation that explain something complicated in even more complicated terms and language. Social media loves simple videos like the one below which can even have Grandma understand what this new age concept of CrowdFunding is all about.

Infographics

Well crafted visual representation of facts that you can absorb simply by looking at an image rather than having to read long texts of technical facts, survey results or statistics. They are simple and make their point!

Easy Registration & Calls To Action

Crisp, Short & Personal Direct Messages & Communications

Those are just some of the examples of how effective keeping things simple online can be just the way web users like it. When it Rome, do as the Romans do. When on the social web, think about what people love about their social web experience and tune your online communications accordingly.

Leaving out the unnecessary complicated bulls***t that aims to impress but no one really gets and simplifying will really connect well with online audiences and help not just get what you’re about but perhaps even grow to like you as a business. That in the online world…is a winning formula!

It’s established when it comes to social media engagement or inbound marketing strategy, “content is king”. Without it, there’s not much to talk about, share, discuss, communicate or grab people’s attention. To a step further, it’s not just any old content that will do the trick and get people flocking to one’s website, flooding the CRM’s with online requests, mob the Facebook page and achieve web marketing Utopia. If that were true, there are millions of articles, videos, songs, blog posts and images churned out every day on the web…why not just reuse what’s there?

Well, that’s just not how the social web and content marketing in general works. It works on the foundation of being able to give online audiences quality content that speaks to people and makes a connection with them one way or another. Creating great content that’s going make that kind of an impact or connection with people needs thought, dedication, effort (lots of it) and creativity because as cliche as it may sound, you got to keep it fresh! Especially in a world where millions of pieces of content are fighting for the attention of online audiences in just about every space you can think of.

To illustrate what goes into “keeping it fresh”, here’s a behind the scenes look at the making of a 2 minute web introduction video we were working on at BuzzFactory for a client recently.

The Making Of A Craft Web Video At BuzzFactory

 It all starts with several hours of prep including work bouncing ideas, creating a story board, sequencing events, creating copy, inputs from the client, graphics / drawing, printing and setting up all that’s needed to get started.

This is followed by the actual process of capturing a stop motion or 2d craft video one frame at a time which can be a tedious process which stretches some hours. At the end of this we have enough images and frames to create 2 minutes of video footage!

Then to the audio workstation to record and synchronize voice-overs, sound effects and background music..

The sound editing involves adding the sfx and layering the voices and music and adds up in terms of impact

The final editing cut gets done and several hours since the process began…the video is ready to go online!

That’s just what goes into creating a 2 minute long animated web video to communicate an offering in a more fun and engaging way that we on the web love. When it comes to coming up with a great blog post, an interesting slideshare presentation, a good downloadable PDF document, a captivating info-graphic or a facebook promo…it’s still a considerable level of effort that goes into it and this is what sets quality content apart from ‘short cut’ tactics often employed to “get traffic fast”.

Consistently providing your audience original and relevant content is not easy. But is it worth the time, resources and effort that goes into coming up with quality web content? – Hell yeah!

Historically a King would get to the top spot by succession but Kings of the social web today get there through sheer determined effort…and a spark of creativity!

]]> http://buzzfactory.net/buzzfactory-blog/content-is-king-but-who-said-being-king-is-easy/feed/ 2 http://buzzfactory.net/buzzfactory-blog/buzzfactory-goes-crowdfunding-and-searches-out-the-right-investors/ http://buzzfactory.net/buzzfactory-blog/buzzfactory-goes-crowdfunding-and-searches-out-the-right-investors/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 12:46:44 +0000 Neil Sequeira http://buzzfactory.net/?p=867 We’ve been a bootstrapped startup for nearly two years now and although a number of casual angel investment offers have come our way since the end of 2010, everything has been more about fine tuning the business model, finding our personality and space in an ever-evolving market and bringing clarity as to what BuzzFactory as a company is going to be like. This has largely contributed to keeping us away from moving out of the garage-mode and on to a more formal organization and investing in infrastructure, marketing and growing capacity.

We’re ready to kick it into the next gear

However, like all good things that take time, we’re finally ready to launch into business mode taking what we’ve learnt from the toddler years and creating a platform from which growth is the only way forward. Not to say, we plan to sell out, change direction or put on suits and change who we are as a team but we’re committed to growing what we’ve started and looking to raise a first small round of early stage angel funding. It’s time to take things to the next level and the search is on for the “right investors” to get on board on our new journey there.

It’s not about finding an investor for us. It’s about finding the RIGHT investing partners

Have you ever watched a reality show when a rock band auditions hundreds of potential new drummers or lead singers to find that certain “vibe” or “missing piece of the puzzle” ? It’s more than just finding someone who can play or sing. It’s about the chemistry, a shared vision, a sense of mutual understanding and finding the RIGHT fit to achieve what we set out to do together. Similarly, it’s not just about who has a surplus of funds to invest for us. This is a search for the RIGHT angel investor…reality show style!  So what did we do? We’ve thrown our funding request open to the crowd…

Any Angel Investors in the crowd that believe content & interaction fuels the Social Web?

There’s a perfect match for everyone out there. As die hard romantics….we believe that’s this applies to startups and investors too. Magic happens when the right startups find the right investors and things click into place. So how did we decide to go speed dating and find our perfect match? Crowdfunding! As our association with the GrowVC crowdfunding platform stands and the network it’s grown, we thought it to be fitting and setup the BuzzFactory startup profile on GrowVC and opened our funding requirement proposal to there crowd!

We Invite you to check out our Startup Page, support our crowdfunding campaign and help us find the missing piece

https://www.growvc.com/startups/36060

This is where we are on GrowVC.com

You can sign up for a free login, comment, vote for us and help us gather momentum

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BuzzFactorynet-The-Social-Media-Content-Marketing-Guys/302089203410

This is where you can find us on Facebook, follow our crowdfunding campaign and journey as a startup

The search begins….

My inbox today had a rather interesting read. I received an email from the other side of the world from someone who was looking for permission to use a photo I had shared on Flickr but couldn’t connect there since I’ve been inactive there for a while. She wrote:

I sent you a Flickr e-mail but when I noticed that you hadn’t uploaded in 2 years I figured that maybe you were no longer checking mail there. So I took the plunge to google you, you certainly are not hard to find and that is a credit to your business!

I’m no Justin Bieber by a long shot but it’s heartening to know that what we do with social media and business blogging makes it easier for others to find us and connect with us. This email could well have been a potential customer who heard about what we do through “content” that they came in contact with and then did a search to see if they could connect with us. As a business that wants to be present on the social web the question you should be asking is:

How easy or hard would it be for someone to find you and connect with you if they decided they want to connect with you and did a Google search?

a) Impossible

b) Not to0 hard with some searching

c) Easy, we come up all over in related searches

This is where the reference to the social media phenomenon Justin Bieber comes in. Now don’t get wrong. For the record I would like to say I don’t get the “Bieber fever” …in fact I’m not a fan of Justin Bieber. I have been lucky enough not to have listened to any of his songs or watch any of his performances all the way through and intend to keep it that way. To go a step further his hair bothers me as much as Donald Trump’s does and if I had a razor and had my way I would probably get a restraining order from both their respective lawyers.

However, Justin is a social media wonder. If somehow you don’t know who he is, look up the name on Google and there is no other Justin or Bieber online that dominates the web results like this web phenomenon turned super star. Millions of youtube plays for his videos and a twitter following of over 8 million! Finding Justin Bieber on the web is not a challenge. He is EVERYWHERE!

This is one of the main perks of having an active social media, business blogging and content marketing strategy in constant motion. If you’re publishing and promoting content consistently and daily, you’re growing your web footprint. The more you grow this web footprint, the easier it becomes for those who need to connect with you …find you! Now this may not be on the Justin Bieber scale of things but every action that contributes to reaching out and indexing more engaging content online, makes the process of finding you, your business and website more visible on search engines.

So unless you’re looking to stay anonymous, get the wheels of your business blogging efforts turning and ….get found!

In an early stage business the situation is very different. There isn’t a steady base of customers you can already rely on and the challenge isn’t really growing it, the challenge is to create that customer base. Social media marketing or online marketing is really about engaging people through conversation, content and building a brand through which audiences will start recognizing you through and eventually, approaching you. It’s inbound and pull based but it’s not instant and needs time to develop. Time is something in short supply in the early stages and closing customers is a priority. This should mean…. focusing completely on sales will help you go after targeted set of prospects and close customers slow and steady to build the revenue stream. However, there is a conflict in this strategy.

Given a hypothetical situation where you employee a 3 person sales team using email and telephone campaigns to pursue and close new customers, the progress over a few months is likely to appear like the blue line above. There will be a more or less steady line with some good months, some bad ones but the only way to increase sales in future is to increase the size of the sales team and invest more into sales. Great way to start business development but no long term benefits for growth.

It’s like hunting for your food. The more you need, the more hunters you need and it’s not a sustainable strategy.

Given the same situation where you employ a team of 3 for social media marketing and outreach, you are likely to see something similar to the red line. You may not see much progress over the first few months but as the ecosystem of content and buzz around your business grows, you’ll find an increasing flow of prospects towards your site which with time can be closed as customers. The process starts slow but consistently grows with the same amount of work put in every month. This means, though in the short run it may seem slow, in the long run you can grow your customer base without increasing your investment in the process. Not a great start but great future benefits perfect for high growth.

It’s like farming for your food. You cultivate a customer base by sowing content. It’s highly sustainable in the long run. As the content and buzz around your business increases each month, so does your business development.

Ideally you need both. Some amount of direct sales to kick start the customer base since you can’t completely rely on social media marketing to reap immediate results. At the same time, you need to start your social media and content marketing campaigns as early as possible so that in the later stages you don’t find yourself in a situation where your business development growth has just flat-lined because you were not thinking long term.

Our advice is start cultivating your social content farm as early as you possibly can. It’s sustainable, will grow and provide you more in time through a steady process than the hunting strategy which is effective but will make you work just as hard for every customer you intend to close and eventually, won’t work towards scaling your business. Hope that helps!

Sure….the quiet kid at the back of the class who wait’s his or her turn to speak may really end up being a brilliant student and perhaps a great friend if you get the chance to know who they are but you always know the ones who are always talking since…they are always talking.

When marketing a brand or business online you’re seeking attention. You want to be that noisy kid in class who everyone knows because you can’t be ignored. The social web is a lot like this classroom and publishing content through the blog, through the social networking sites, on twitter and other communication channels is the noise that’s going to get you noticed and have everyones attention. If you need others around to know you and know you’re around then you have you need to be talkative through online media. The difference being you’ll be required to deliver valuable content (not just heckle the teachers) in order to create more than just a ruckus in class. The more actively and frequently your media arm can publish valuable content, the more you’ll be “known” among social circles.

You know how you were always told not to be the noisy one in class? As an online marketer, it’s time to forget this and be that kid! After all…. everyone knows the noisy kid in class!

PR, especially in the online context has changed considerably. What was associated with special PR firms who create a very long term plan for cash rich businesses or individuals who had large budgets to spend over time with these firms is now….well… a lot like what we do everyday. The difference is  it need not be expensive or only for those who can afford it nor does it have to be a slow long carefully crafted image building exercise executed slowly through the press or traditional channels. It’s now a more nimble process of creating conversations over the web through easily accessible channels like blogs, social networking, free PR distribution sites, Twitter, online communities and more. You can be a global banking corporation, a rock band, a t-shirt printing business or an individual working on a web application and you can still access the same tools and practices to reach out to online audiences and create your own PR engine.

The changing face of PR as we witness it today is characterized by:

Web conversations: speaking out loud about what you’re doing, what you represent and sharing your brand or message with the millions that are connected to each other via social networks, blogs and other tools. It’s no longer about publishing “one-way” press releases or publicity pieces with a formal declaration on behalf of the business or individual once in a blue moon. It’s about being upfront and sharing your thoughts and updating audiences online through a two-way dialog.

Speed & Spontaneity: Have something on your mind? Tweet about it. Have an important deal or event which you’d like to share? Draft a quick press release and submit it to the several free press release sites out there. Need a quicker way to share it? Do a blog post and get it published and shared instantly! The long turnaround times for acting on a message that needs to go out are no longer there. What happens today can be published today and shared right away.

Low / No Costs – Accessible To All: The playing field has been leveled and the tools that really matter when it comes to building a presence or brand on the the web are those accessible to the masses. From the enterprise businesses to a one man brand blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, Slideshare….it’s all at your disposal. There are startups and small businesses that have built larger followings and created more buzz online than global enterprises and they didn’t have expensive PR firms…just a determined effort to communicate frequently with others through their content.

If there is one significant change thats noteworthy about PR today is that it’s been thrown open to the masses. You can have an active PR campaign no matter what you do and who you are…in fact ….you should!