Archive for May, 2012

We’ve emphasized the importance of brands crafting narratives that define their voice for a long time. Most marketers have, at the very least, begun the transition from creating traditional brand awareness to becoming storytellers. In a world increasingly driven by digital, this means treating content creation as its own function, telling the brand’s story through a distinct voice via original content. And a key characteristic of creating a distinct voice is authenticity. (more…)

This article originally appeared on May 18, 2012 in PR Week

Digital and social media practices in most companies have reached a level of maturity that go well beyond experimentation. And with this maturity comes an expectation among most executive leaders that some economic analysis is warranted. (more…)

General Motors’ decision this week to pull its Facebook advertising is inconsequential in the overall scheme of its mammoth advertising/marketing budget. It has been reported that GM’s Facebook budget is $10 million of its nearly $2 billion spend in 2011. (more…)

Story telling is something that is universal. We’ve all been conditioned to hear stories a certain way and communicating in the digital age has not changed this. Even in social media, people are still looking for the victim, the villain, the hero and the moral of the story. The best stories have the “X factor.” They combine facts with just the right amount of emotion to create colorful, multidimensional messages that resonate across media. Our new video explores this very concept. (more…)

Social media managers at top companies may be “de-optimizing” content and making it less engaging.  This is because they often prioritize metrics provided by social sites such as “likes” or “comments” rather than business metrics that align w

ith overall business objectives. Currently, Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm prioritizes “shares” in determining which content to display in users’ newsfeeds. The newsfeed is the dominant way users see and interact with content on Facebook.  So, optimizing content for shareability makes sense because it increases the chances that future content will be visible to more fans. However, there are a few other considerations that should also be balanced when considering which content to post. (more…)