BuzzFeed’s Native Advertising is OMG WIN!

Posted by Jon Thomas, 13 Dec 2012

OMG. This may have been my hardest assignment yet. 

BuzzFeed is killing it on the interwebs lately (WIN), and not just because it creates some of the most shareable content around. It’s “killing it softly,” so to speak, monetizing its wildly successful site by partnering with brands to create branded content that people actually consume, enjoy and share with their audiences.

But why was this a difficult assignment? To write about BuzzFeed means one has to peruse BuzzFeed. And when one peruses BuzzFeed, time is sucked into a vortex while one reads journalistic masterpieces like “40 Reasons Honey Boo Boo Became a National Treasure in 2012” and “12 Days of Grumpy Cat Christmas.” Minutes quickly become hours, and deadlines come and go. But Grumpy Cat doesn’t care.

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4 Great Ways to Leverage User-Generated Content

Posted by Paige Beaumont, 05 Sep 2012

Great user-generated content (UGC) should not exist in a vacuum—it should be reused, when and where appropriate, to bring color and authenticity to a brand’s marketing.

As brands expand their social-media footprints, many have also (smartly) placed more emphasis on engaging with their fans. As a result, they’ve begun proudly featuring selected consumer contributions in print, TV and online advertising. Dedicated fans often create a gold mine of content that’s just waiting to be explored, and in due course, brands have begun to dip into this resource. It’s the easiest and most direct way to build relationships with customers, because their passion for their favorite brands makes them happy to respond and share their stories—messages that are infinitely more compelling than what the brand might say.

Here are some great ways to use freely made consumer-generated content from social channels to great effect.

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4 Lame Excuses for Not Creating Content

Posted by Jon Thomas, 29 Aug 2012

Content marketing is all the rage, and brands of all shapes and sizes are focusing more time, effort and budget dollars on creating entertaining, useful and relevant content that audiences will want to share. Some brands, however, still stand at the water’s edge, not so sure an always-on commitment to social media and content creation is right for them. 

Even the most successful marketing efforts have their detractors and doubters, who hold tight to the traditional methods: interruption and overexposure of their brands. They cling to the past and continue to invest in telemarketing, direct mail and pricey television spots and billboards. Even the London Olympics, which were praised as the most tech-savvy and social-media-supported games ever, were heavily supplemented (or, rather, dominated) by traditional advertising.

While those methods have their place, it’s about time we set the record straight and started to challenge those who insist that content marketing isn’t yet an established brand communication strategy.

Here are some of the reasons brands are abstaining from content and why they’re on the wrong side of history.

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7 Ways to Increase Fan Engagement on Facebook Through Media

Posted by Jon Thomas, 18 Jul 2012

There’s no secret—all community managers want their Facebook communities to thrive. Comments and shares are the currency of social media. The question plaguing community managers every day is “How do I generate more engagement on my Facebook posts?”

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Four Examples of Successful Long-Form Branded Content

Posted by Jon Thomas, 18 Apr 2012

Time. We only wish we had more in the day, right? As technology has evolved over the years, the speed of our lives has increased exponentially. Interconnectivity has reduced our capability to stand tasks that demand a great deal of time, and the “normal” nine-to-five is simply no longer the norm. We get to work early; we work late. While in bed at night, we fight the urge to close our eyelids, instead opting to write one more blog post or send one more email.

So when it comes to advertising, it’s almost laughable to think that audiences would ever have the time for long-form content—no less long-form branded content. Maybe a 30-second spot could slip by, but audiences would never find 20 minutes to watch a sponsored video and then spend another 10 sharing it with their networks, simply because they loved it, right?

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Do likes really matter??

Why There’s More to Facebook Pages than ‘Likes’

Posted by Katie Edmondson, 22 Mar 2012

The most successful brands on Facebook Pages aren't the ones you'd think. If I told you that Coca-Cola’s Facebook Page has an engagement rate of less than one percent, would you believe me? Well, it’s true. After calculating the ratio of Coke’s total Likes to total engagement (“Talking About This”), the Page clocks in at a meager score of 0.7%.

But this is not unusually low for Facebook Pages; in fact, it’s quite average. Most brands are very successful in generating Likes but fail to keep their fans talking. When it comes to real success for a brand on Facebook, in the end, engagement numbers mean a lot more than total Likes—a number that often speaks more to the size of the brand’s media buy and not to the quality of their content. As such, Talking About This is actually a far more valuable metric and tool than total Likes are. Here’s why.

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5 Exceptional Branded iPad Applications Win Postie Awards!

Posted by Jon Thomas, 10 Nov 2011

As the Oscars are seemingly falling apart with the departure of Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy, subsequently, heading for ze hills, there’s probably no sense in even watching it at all. So what’s an award-show lover to do? Don’t worry, we’ve got the Posties!

You’ll see the Posties evolve into something really big and über important in the coming months, but for its first incarnation, we thought we’d take a look at a space that’s near and dear to our hearts and award some of the best and brightest branded iPad applications.

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Three Secrets to Successful Branded Viral Marketing

Posted by Jon Thomas, 02 Nov 2011

Like the search for the Holy Grail, viral marketing success has been an elusive treasure. While we see a new wave of viral content every day, there’s no clear path toward creating the next big thing. If there were, I’d be teaching my cat ninja skills (maybe I already am) and filming my twin babies talking to each other while watching the money pour in.

As difficult as it is to create viral media, it’s even harder when it’s branded. Audiences typically wouldn’t dare be caught propagating viral content produced by a brand. It’s sort of like inviting your parents to your party: They may be perfectly fine people with a great sense of humor, but just the fact that they’re, well, parents makes them inherently uncool. So what's a brand to do?

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The Post-Advertising Summit marketing conference in New York October 21

Story To Host World’s First Post-Advertising Summit!

Posted by Keith Blanchard, 29 Sep 2011

After three years of charting the emerging Post-Advertising world right here with you guys, we decided to throw our very own real world event: The Post-Advertising Summit! (March 29th, at New York’s Cult Studios. Details here). In other words, we're throwing a party...and you're all invited!

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5 Big Ideas for Content Marketing

5 Big Ideas for Content Marketing

Posted by Jon Thomas, 22 Aug 2011

This post originally appeared in our August issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

Most marketing agencies approach their content with the standard brush. They take a look at the latest tools and trends, and pull together a few tips here and there. That subtle approach is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this difficult economy, that’s no longer good enough. Desperate times call for bold strokes. That's why we at Story Worldwide have decided to put our money where our mouth is — we're not only outlining five key ideas for the future of content marketing, we’re currently investing in them.

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