Top 10 Forms of Content Marketing

Content Marketing has rapidly become our go-to method for branding media in an environment where people want their information free and easy to access. If your company isn't using at least half of these resources or more to brand themselves, consider yourself either in the danger zone or close to it.

10. Microsites

Websites in general are the most common form of content marketing and are a given at this point. At the same time, microsites are just as important to your branding strategy. Mobile marketing thrives on microsites and gives QR codes a reason to exist. Just make sure the microsite differentiates itself from the home site and gives consumers a reason (incentive) to visit it. 

9. White Papers

The beauty of white papers is that they are known to be one of the most informative ways for an interested prospect to learn more about you. When I see a white paper with a clear focus in something I'm interested in, I am almost guaranteed to read the entire thing. The simplicity, credibility, and accessibility of white papers make them essential for any business.

8. Webinars

Although they are not for everyone, webinars are fantastic tools for reaching a wide audience very quickly and keeping those prospects. They allow real-time feedback that can still be monitored and controlled, and webinars are ultimately far less costly than conferences while delivering even more effective results and engagement.

7. Podcasts

People love podcasts and RSS feeds for the same reason they love television. Keeping up with an episodic series of interesting content is addicting and satisfying. Creating a quality podcast with a loyal following is one of the best ways to network with people who are the most likely to do business with you.

6. Email

When handled incorrectly, email and newsletters become spam and do a lot of damage (spamage?). The key is to remember that the purpose of email is to share and promote, not enforce. When handled correctly, email newsletters become your trump card for generating reaches and leads for your company. 

5. E-books

Basically, an E-book is just a longer version of a white paper. They both set out to do the same thing (inform under the pretense of providing a solution to your problem), but your decision between the two comes down to how much information you are looking to disseminate.

4. Infographics

Most people are visual, which means that your marketing strategy hinges on being just as aesthetic as it is informative. The truth is that infographics end up being one of the most persuasive forms of content marketing just because people are more likely to read through the whole thing and retain more of the information.

3. Video

People don't want to read paragraphs of text when they can just watch a video that is short, punchy, and to the point. Like infographics, people are more likely to remember more information from video, and high-quality videos lend an enormous amount of credibility to your brand, ensuring trust in what your company can deliver. 

2. Q&A Sites

The reason these sites are becoming more popular is because they are essentially a forum for problem solving. Marketers are realizing that they can find interested prospects very easily just by networking on popular sites such as Quora and LinkedIn. Before you begin answering those industry questions, however, make sure you have the sales pitch needed to handle the likely competition.

1. Blogs

Blogs lend a personal touch to an otherwise impersonal slew of communications your company has with its prospects. Unlike Q&A sites, your company's blog is indirect, in that it is attracting people to your site for content rather than a sales pitch. This makes your company stand out when it comes time for that person to look for the service you're providing, and bolsters one of the largest audiences you can accumulate online. 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Image courtesy of contentmarketingtoday.com

How Your Manager Views Social Media in the Workplace

This morning, I had a lengthy conversation with a good friend of mine who is a higher up in the banking industry. We discussed the topic that seems to be ubiquitous these days: social media. 

Specifically, we spoke on how social media has affected his workplace...negatively and positively.

On the positive side, he pointed out how channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter have allowed him to create extremely productive relationships with clients and new accounts.

"LinkedIn provides different channels for networking and ultimately allows me to connect with people I otherwise could not have." (He chose not to disclose his name)

On the flipside, he pointed out how the potential for causing distractions at work has made him and other executives wary about social media usage. Their immediate response has been to block and filter websites, but more and more companies are beginning to realize that this causes a separation in networking opportunity.

"At the end of the day, I feel that if a company has enough trust to hire an employee, they should have enough trust in the employee to do the right thing. In other words, giving them the benefit of the doubt."

While I agree to an extent, I also find it interesting to note that evaluating your employees based on production is really the measurement of whether or not they can handle the freedom to be able to check their Twitter, and as social media is becoming more integrated with our overall internet usage, is their any real way for us to monitor these distractions? 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Image Courtesty of techinasia.com 

Social Scoring is Not Obsolete

It’s just getting better.

People don’t like Klout. That’s fair. Klout contains an unknown algorithm that no one outside of the company has truly figured out, making Klout’s credibility that much more uncertain.

People don’t like uncertainty.

That said, measuring influence online has to contain some uncertainty, lest we are left with scammers who manipulate the system. I like the fact that my social score can’t be measured against someone who achieved theirs unfairly.

In the meantime, competition is rising with Klout, forcing the brand to innovate and make our social scoring something we love not just because we’re addicted to it (and we definitely are), but because sites like Klout constantly make us better at being influential. Who doesn’t love that?

If you want to beef up your Klout score the fair way, use timely.is. This nifty site schedules post by when your audience is at peak interest and gives pretty awesome statistics on the performance of your tweets or posts.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Tweeting Influence: Should You Share More Than You Consume?

What does every truly influential person have in common when it comes to, say, Twitter? If you just look at celebrities, one very obvious trait their profiles all share is that they have vastly more followers than people they follow.

What does that mean?

Well, they share more than they consume.

Sure, it’s their celebrity status that has elevated them to the point where people want to follow them because of their name, not their content, but that does not change the fact that the influential Tweeter in question is sharing content much more than they are consuming it.

In no way am I downplaying the importance of consuming content. That is how we gain the knowledge and insight that foster our creative, industrious minds. There is no reason why my retweeting an insightful article makes me any less influential, but the dirty secret is that retweets and reblogs alone do nothing to make you influential. They just make you a reference.

How else do bloggers, vloggers, and Tweeters rack up followers without being a household name? They’ve figured out how to create content that people like-that people have a demand for.

The next time you are looking for a way to bolster your own influence, whether it be online or even in the workplace, take a good look at how much you share and create, not just how much you consume.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

A Different Way to Approach Feedback and Criticism

Too often we fall into the trap of measuring the value of what we create based on others' perceptions. I do this when I write a blog post and eagerly wait to read the feedback and see what people think. I consider it success when something I create is popular and accepted.

That's doing it backwards.

If I am creating content that is inherently mine, then I shouldn't be terribly disappointed if someone else doesn't value something that isn't inherently theirs. That means I can celebrate doubly when something I write or create has been accepted and shared by someone else. It means that I'm becoming more insightful, gaining more empathy, and learning from what I've done correctly.

Once you've made something to the best of your ability, you've created good content. Use feedback  to measure how influential and insightful you are, not how good you are at what you love to do. That's what criticism is for.

Of course, your content connecting with someone else is a huge indicator of how valuable it is, but at the same time, something superficial and soulless can do the exact same thing.  

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Why People Trust TV over Online

eMarketer recently came out with new data that has cast new light into the great media battle. The findings point out just where traditional and online media stand when it comes to the attention of us consumers, and possibly more importantly, where marketers need to be devoting their time and resources.

Like any relevant study, however, there is more than one implication from the findings. One of the key findings is that people still trust TV for news more than any other news source (much more than social media updates, which were dead last) followed by newspapers and radio. 

Online media, even internet-only newsources, were next to last as far as trust, time and attention goes, but the study also points out that online media is where people prefer to research and search for recommendations for a certain product. 

My understanding so far is that we have a cycle where TV, where we put most of our time, reveals to us the brands that we could possibly by. Mainstream brands if you will. Deep down, most people judge a brand on how accepted it is, and we know that a brand that makes enough money to advertise on TV (the most expensive media buy) must be loved by a lot of people. So we put our trust in that brand.

Then we take it one step further. We now know that we like a certain brand but have not decided that we will purchase. Using the internet, either on our phones or at home, we end up searching for the best deals and find out what our friends may think (social search anyone?). From there, the odds of us purchasing said item (after putting all of that work in) are pretty high granted that the brand has made effective online channels and is being spread by positive-word-of-mouth.

The key lesson to take away from eMarketer's findings? It takes more than TV commercials to sell a brand to someone, which is great news for small businesses. Find your niche and master it. Don't waste limited resources you don't have on expensive media buys until it is financially sound to do so. Online media can, will, and constantly does get the job done as long as you, the marketer, are willing to put the work in.

Click here to take a closer look at eMarketer's study.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

 

Do You Know What Works? [Infographic]

wwinfographic.pdf Download this file

The Future of Technology Will Begin in the Workplace

A recent survey done by Pew Research indicated that people are pretty much split even in opinion when it comes to how quickly the "home of the future" will be in place. One of the main rationales for the future taking a while, as Pew puts it, is that the infrastructure required to accommodate the next big steps in technology will take quite some time to implement, and the realistic costs of incorporating advanced technology into our established "dumb" technology will be quite high.

That is why I firmly believe that the workplace will be the true testing ground for newer, smarter technologies. Take Square for instance. Paying with a mobile phone everywhere you go will be difficult to catch on at first because it needs to gain mainstream popularity in order for more businesses to catch on to the system, but businesses won't want to implement mobile payment until it's mainstream enough to be a safe investment. 

B2B, on the other hand, eliminates these fears because the function of their models is to increase efficiency, not please consumers and accommodate their expected needs. They will be the early adopters of smart systems and will have the resources to develop workspaces with these new systems in place, surely turning heads. 

Hopefully, that means the public can experience the next technology revolution by 2020 instead of 2050.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

What is Prime Strategy?

Below is Richter10.2's brand new video featuring Prime Strategy, and how it can develop new business for your company and generate the reaches (leads) that turn into real growth. Also, check out the subsequent links below the video that provide even more info on how Prime Strategy works. Enjoy!

 

Click here for more info about Prime Strategy

Prime Strategy Elevator Pitch

Prime Strategy Pitch Page

Prime Strategy Press Release (Yahoo)

Or, you can give us a call at 727-447-3600

You Can't Force Care

Too often we fall into the trap of forgetting to care about our clients. None of us would probably admit it, but the cynicism that comes along with working day in and day out can get us to a point where we stop valuing the people on which our business depends.

The remedy is to remember that the people you talk to every day are human beings with their own lives, busy schedule, goals, and ambitions. Simply having a conversation with someone you want to do business with can go a long way. It has to be more than small talk, however, because a good conversation flows organically and can't be forced.

This is because you can't force care. You either desire the best for people or you don't. The middle ground is that we sometimes get so hung up on our own problems, wants, and desires that we forget to invest in other people to remind us that there is more to our lives than producing and increasing our personal wealth. 

The next time you are having a conversation with a client, customer, prospect, or whatever applies to your situation, attempt to connect to that person in some way that makes it clear to them that you are in the business of people, not just yourself.

By the way, the inspiration for this thought comes from What Works, the new book coming soon from Robert Cornish and Wil Seabrook (Co-founders of Richter10.2 Media Group). The book is full of great content like this and will be available soon. For more info, quotes, excerpts, and a list of endorsements, check out the book's Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Research is Meaningless Without...

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a good marketing or public relations plan be put into place and fail miserably despite countless hours of research put into it. 

I've been part of teams that have spent days studying, planning, listening and digesting pages and pages of information regarding a target public, only to develop a strategy or campaign that fell short of expectations or paled in comparison to the competition.

We researched. We listened. We learned. We knew our audience, but we still didn't identify the ingredient that would capture our audience's attention. Why is that? Think on this.

If research was enough, every competing strategy would reach a stalemate. After all, if doing the work and knowing the audience was enough, how would your conclusions based on that research differ from someone else's? It seems obvious, but we often fall into the trap of believing that information begets a good strategy.

Our conclusions make all the difference. So, we've learned that baby boomers are the most prosperous generation yet but are the most prone to depression. What does that mean? Often, we skip a step when determining what our insight into a group of people means. As jaded strategists who make quick decisions every day, we often lose our acute sense of empathy that made us want to be in the business we're in, whether you're a PR rep, creative director, or even an entrepreneur.

You can know everything about your target. What they eat. Where they eat. How they eat. Where they shop at. How much money they have to spend there. That's just information that leads to guesswork. While there will never be a concrete science to perfect branding, we have something infinitely better: empathy. 

Why do they eat there? How is it different from anywhere else? Why do they shop there? The other brand has lower prices, but our brand has this and this. 

Instead, we focus on gimmicks and toys we find on social media channels that we just "know" will make our target listen...but they don't. They ignore us because they don't feel known. They feel like someone is talking at them, or worse, stalking them for a sale. 

The next time your team comes up with a strategy based on a ton of research and development, ask yourselves: why will this make them listen? If it is something as simple as: because our research shows that they like--Stop there. 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

 

 

New Infographic Highlights The Strengths of Hiring Millennials

A new infographic courtesy of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School has given employers another reason to take a close look at what millennials can contribute to the workforce. As Forbes puts it, this new research data gives us a reason to shed previous stereotypes of millennials that focus on them being apathetic. 

The research gives us new light into just how large the millennial demographic is, how many will be in the workforce and just how ambitious and diverse these young professionals are. 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

What Would a "Want" Button Mean for Facebook?

Not since the release of the "like" button have people been so energized about a new Facebook plug-in. This is probably because the "want" button could truly turn things around for the social media giant. 

After all, the major problem Facebook has come across with breaking into the stock market is the trust investors have in the company's ability to generate money, and a "want" button could finally change that. Companies have already seen the value in knowing how many people "like" their products, but actually knowing who "wants" their products could be a gamechanger.

Instead of ads just featuring a guide to "liking" the company, they could bring about the logical next step of showing interest in the product, thus cutting out the middle step and making it more appealing to the consumer, who is far too distracted to give one page his/her full attention.

This would solve a major problem with the "like" button, which doesn't distinguish between people who already own a product and those who want it in the future. This would do wonders for Facebook Insights being able to accurately track prospects and customers, and an accurate ROI system is just what Facebook needs to build a reputation as a social media marketing hub to be reckoned with.

We'll just have to see. So far, the reaction to the possibility of a "want" button is positive, but we are sure to see haters pop up in protest of the new feature (as always). I for one can only see good coming from it, granted it is executed correctly. Basically, Jon Negroni wants this.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Image credit: http://c7.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/facebook-want-button.jpg

Trouble at Work? Write this Down.

Maybe you had a bad week or a bad month. It probably hung over your head this past weekend and got you down. Well, as we start this new week and new month, commit to making a real change in your productivity.

Get out a piece of paper, preferably something large like a steno pad, and write down exactly what you need to do on a daily basis to increase your productivity this week. I strongly recommend using paper rather than an online document. 

Example: Monday - I need to make 10 calls, get to stage 2 of 3 projects, you get the idea.

These are lineups of everything you need to accomplish on a daily basis in order to boost your production, which in turn boosts your results. This works because it forces you to identify exactly what it takes for you to reach that level at work that you and your senior are expecting.

If you don't start generating results and high numbers from this methodology, then the problem is then that you are not trained in your post well enough to work unsupervised. 

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.