Why Nobody Cares About Your Content (And What to do About It)

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Glenn Allsopp, the founder and principal of viral marketing and social media firm ViperChill. This article, which addresses issues surrounding the types of content that generate attention (and those that don't!), first appeared on Copyblogger, and most recently on Ragan.com.

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A few weeks ago I decided to open up my coaching services for one day only.

The results of this 24-hour period were gut-wrenching…for my clients.

In this round of consulting I noticed a lot of my clients were — like so many online — focusing their content on precisely the wrong thing.

They wanted to make money by helping people — but in the harsh light of d

ay, their websites painted a very different story.

Results from my consulting questionnaire, the domain names used and content on their sites, made it clear that my clients were consistently focusing on o

ne thing…themselves.

My feedback? Nobody cares about you.

Now let me show you where your focus should be …

The Cold Hard Truth Must Be Faced Directly

I softened the advice to my clients by telling them that nobody cares about me either.

At least not until I give my readers something to care about.

A concern many of them had, which does make some logical sense, was that if they didn’t focus their site content around themselves, they wouldn’t be able to build their personal brand effectively.

I threw out an example based on my own experiences of building multiple successful blogs, all of which didn’t include much personal branding in the content.

On ViperChill, for instance, around 400 people per month land there by searching for variations on my name, Glen Allsopp. I say variations, because a lot of people like to call me Glenn, but that’s a rant for another day.

My full name is only found in one place on that site.

It does not appear in my posts, it’s not in my comments, and it’s not in the sidebar. It doesn’t actually appear on any static page on my site. I may have mentioned it a couple of times, but it’s hidden in the post content.

As a matter of fact, the most common instances of my full name are on other websites in things like interviews, guest posts, and reviews of products I’ve created.

The only reason I get interviewed and attract people who want to promote my products, is because people like what I have to say in the first place. They trust me. They know I can help them with their problems. Then they want to know more about me.

Your readers care about themselves first and foremost, not about you.

They only start to care about you when you give them value that they keep coming back for. In time, they become curious about who is behind all that amazing value, and that’s how you start to build your personal brand.

Since you want to build your personal brand, but attract readers at the same time, there are two things I strongly recommend that you do…

Be Personal (But Not Too Personal)

There are literally more than 100 million active blogs out there, so it’s not that easy to get noticed and in turn create a lasting connection with your audience.

As a lot of blogging advice will rightly tell you, being personal in your posts and activity online is one of the best ways for your readers to learn more about you, and engage in the content you’re consistently putting out there.

It’s no coincidence that I know quite a bit about some of the biggest content creators online.

I know that Brian has been an attorney, a real estate broker, and an ezine marketer back in the day.

I know that Darren Rowse (I don’t even have to tell you his website, another case in point) lives in Australia with his wife V.

I know that Sonia has a young son and rocks an awesome pink hairdo.

I don’t know these things because they go on and on about them. I know them because I love the content that they write, and in time, through a series of articles I follow, get to know a little more about each of them.

Drip, drip, drip.

Being hooked on the value they consistently provide to me is the only reason I have come to learn more about each of them.

Put The Focus Back On Your Reader

I’ve done a lot of split-testing lately, and have an example which proves my point even further.

I set-up a squeeze page which promoted a free eBook I’ve created, and varied a number of headlines. Two of them being:

• Discover How This Very Blog Gained over 10,000 Subscribers In Just 12 Months
• Discover How You Can Grow Your Blog to Over 10,000 Subscribers in Just 12 Months

Can you guess which one resulted in the most conversions?

The second headline outperformed the first by a huge margin. The reason being that the first headline put the emphasis on me, and the second put the emphasis on the reader.

The Only Reason People Read Any Blog I Because Of The Value That They Get From It

If Brian and Sonia started putting out content here which mostly focused on their personal lives, I’m sure they would quickly find their audience engagement levels decreasing.

It’s the Copyblogger core philosophy of creating content that benefits readers…week-in and week-out … that keeps the subscriber numbers growing.

Don’t automatically assume that you need to talk about yourself all day and plaster your site with personal interests and ongoings in order to build up your brand.

From my own experience, and with examples taken from some of the biggest blogs online, being personal — but subtle about it — is usually a far better route to take.

© Copyright 2006-2011. Copyblogger Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Repurposing Good Content: 5 Non-PR Uses For Press Releases

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. For both corporate and agency PR practitioners, Kennedy offers some excellent and timely advice on how to maximize the utility and reach of the most common deliverable found in PR campaigns: the press release.

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It may seem like a bit of an oxymoron, but press releases don’t just have to be for public relations (PR) anymore. There are, in fact, several uses for that great little story you just wrote besides sending it out to endless news desks and tired reporters. Try these five suggestions out before you resort to using your press release to wrap fish!

1. Turn it Into a Blog Post
The press release is already practically in a blog format, why not go ahead and throw it up on the company blog? If you don’t have one set up, use it as your first blog post! Readers of your press release expect you know what you’re talking about, considering it’s your business; use that same expertise in relating that info to the endless flow of readers on the Internet!

Alternatively, split the press release into multiple blog posts for extra mileage. Find five solid pieces of information you can expound on and turn them into their own individual posts.

If the tone of the press release isn’t quite conversational enough for your blog, do a quick rewrite to bring it up to speed. Also, make sure to update it to include up to date information if you happened to write it a few days or weeks prior – things might have changed in the interim. Of course, you also can’t forget to…

2. Use It As SEO Bait
Reconfigure your blog post to incorporate keywords to bring your website up in its Google ranking. This is called search engine optimization, and should be done to get people to read your blog and, more importantly, visit your website and buy all your products!

Find some other blogs and websites that cover some of the same ground as your blog does and link to them. Eventually you can strike up a relationship and they will help you with your SEO efforts by linking back to your website.

3. Integrate It Into Your Sales Kit
You wrote the press release as a sort of pitch for readers to come to your business, so why not incorporate it into your sales kit? Bringing in new clients and new customers works roughly the same way; convince them that you’re a company worth dealing with and your products or services are something to spend money on. Reconstruct your press release to be more of a direct sales pitch as the original incarnation was (presumably) more neutral. You might even change your sales kit to reflect information in the press release.

4. Start A Social Media Program
Tear that press release apart and find info you can use for a Twitter and Facebook series. Were you using it to announce the specifics of your new product? Spread your posts about all the juicy details across a series of social media posts to create a sense of excitement with your customers. Ask your followers and friends questions about what they would like your product to feature and what they might like to see in future releases. You might be surprised when they state some of the new features you’ve already implemented! And then, of course, you can focus on them for the release, pleasing your customers and making them feel heard all in one fell swoop!

5. Write Your Own Feature Story
Forget submitting the release to news agencies; just write your own feature story with your press release! Use your own writing expertise or hire a writer to take the info in your release to craft a story fit for newspapers or magazines and query them to publishers yourself. This way, you skip the whole process of relying on a tired, grumpy journalist to notice your press release among the huge pile in their inbox.

Send your story out to several possible places for printing – don’t just send it to your local newspaper, also consider trade magazines that deal in the same topics your business does. (Of course, be careful not to anger editors who frown on simultaneous submission.) If your business is releasing a new brand of pet food, send it out to the animal and pet magazines of the world and see what happens!

Make sure, however, that there is no conflict of interest with the story you’re submitting. Does your magazine have a deal to advertise in one pet magazine? Then it probably isn’t the best idea to submit it to their competitors.

© 1998-2010 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Crowded House: How Marketers Can Use Crowdsourcing For Maximum Impact

Outside of social media and viral marketing, crowdsourcing has arguably become one of THE hottest communications techniques in recent years to be used by marketers for greater engagement of, and interaction with, target audiences of all varieties. But for the uninitiated, what is crowdsourcing, and how is it being used today by businesses? Let's explore further...

Crowdsourcing: Origin and Definition
For starters, the term "crowdsourcing" was first coined by Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, in his seminal feature story, "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," in the June, 2006 issue of the publication. It is a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing." Howe still writes for the magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. He also continues to cover the phenomenon on his blog, Crowdsourcing.com, and he wrote a book, Crowdsourcing: Why The Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, on the subject which was released in September, 2008. According to Howe, crowdsourcing is defined as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee; it could also be an external third party, such as a PR firm or advertising agency), and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. In his article, Howe explains that because technological advances have allowed for cheap consumer electronics, the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished. As a result, brands are now able to take advantage of the talent and real-time input of the public for all sorts of different marketing and product development programs.

How Does Crowdsourcing Work?
Essentially, crowdsourcing acts as a distributed problem-solving and production technique. In a typical crowdsourcing scenario, an issue is broadcast to a known or unknown group of people requesting solutions and/or input on the topic. Individuals, also known as the crowd, then form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions to the requesting company. Going one step further, the crowd can also potentially sort through all the proposed solutions, and pinpoint the most appropriate ones. In the end, these best solutions are owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place — the crowdsourcer — and the winning individuals in the crowd are usually, but not always, rewarded with prizes or some other form of recognition.


The Four Main Crowdsourcing Strategies
According to Howe, there are four primary crowdsourcing strategies:

• Crowdfunding: An open call to raise funds for a specific business, individual, cause, or non-profit organization.
• Crowdcreation: An open call requesting individuals to join a crowd interested in the requester's mission, products, or services.
• Crowdvoting: An open call for the crowd to vote for a specific choice.
• Crowd Wisdom: An open call to solicit the collective opinion of a crowd, rather than a single expert, to answer a question.

The Benefits of Crowdsourcing
As explained by Howe in his book, and as reinforced by many to today's top marketing experts and social media strategist, crowdsourcing offers the following benefits:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payments are based on results, or not offered at all.
• The organization can tap a wide range of talent than might not be present in its own organization.
• By listening to the crowd, organizations obtain direct insight into their customers' desires.
• The community may feel a direct connection with the brand of the crowdsourcer, the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Real-World Examples from Today's Marketers
With the advent and global popularity of social networks, much of today's crowdsourcing is orchestrated through major social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, many companies also request input from their respective crowds through their corporate Websites, e-mail newsletters, direct mail pieces, print and online advertisements, and other forms of marketing communication — or in many cases, most or all of the above, to obtain the absolute widest range of feedback from all possible sources. From the marketer's perspective, the more feedback from a brand's multiple target audiences, the better. Marketers can then analyze all of the input and solutions from the crowd, and strategically use that information to best solve the problem.

As mentioned at the beginning, in addition to tapping into the talents and expertise of the crowd, crowdsourcing has become a very popular, low-risk communication channel for directly interacting with and engaging target audiences, and convincing customers that their feedback is both useful and highly valued. Years ago, this high level of engagement was very difficult to create and maintain, but through the aforementioned technology-based vehicles, it is easy and natural in society today.

In terms of real-world examples, here are some excellent recent instances of crowdsourcing at work:

• Gap: Last month, when Gap introduced its new brand identity without consumer input, there was so much negative pushback from long-time Gap shoppers about the visual presence that the company ultimately pulled it down and went back to its original design.
• Procter & Gamble: The company employs more than 9,000 scientists and researchers in corporate R&D, but still have many problems they cannot solve. Employees now post these issues on a dedicated crowdsourcing Website called InnoCentive, and offer large cash rewards to more than 90,000 “solvers” who make up this network of backyard scientists.
• TopCoder: A software development house for outsourced projects. What separates TopCoder from its competitors is that the work is crowdsourced to a community of over 180,000 members from over 200 countries in a competition format.
• Wikipedia: Technically, the globally-popular online encyclopedia is a crowdsourcing-driven initiative.

In many instances, the crowdsourcing initiative is not as extensive or comprehensive as these examples. It could be as simple as a restaurant chain such as Denny's, Red Robin, or California Pizza Kitchen asking its respective crowds to submit ideas for a brand-new healthy menu item. Or a consumer brand, such as Johnson & Johnson or Kraft, asking for the crowd's input on a list of potential names for a new product to be introduced next year. Or a technology company, such as HP or Apple, requesting opinions from its consumer base on choices for a new celebrity spokesperson. And the list goes on and on. Anything that marketers can think of, where consumer or user input would be valuable, is fair game for crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing isn't going away any time soon. In fact, it will become far more prevalent as additional companies realize how extensively they can leverage the collective minds and expertise of their respective customers. So, the next time your business needs some form of creative or strategic direction, ask the crowd. You'll be pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of the input.

This Season, Social Is The New Black

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Philippe Guegan, vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel, a New York-based social media and branded content agency that takes brands from Content To Commerce, and appearing recently in MediaPost's Social Media Insider. It is an excellent, well-articulated commentary in which Guegan explains how the rise and prevalance of social media closely mirrors the explosive proliferation of digital marketing several years ago, and why social is fast becoming less about experimentation and more about regular production. It's definitely worth spending a few minutes to read...
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Fashion victim, fashionista: these are words not easily applied to me. However, I have learned one valuable lesson over the years by observing an industry that's always on the lookout for the next big thing: if you wait long enough, past trends and patterns will make a comeback.

This is exactly to the case with social media right now. As all things social start to mature, the same evolution that took place in the digital marketing industry only a few years ago is emerging: social is fast becoming less about experimentation, and more about regular production. In fact, production is the key word in many ways, which I'll come back to a bit later.

In recent months, a noticeable shift has taken place among the clients and prospects we've talked with at our agency. They fall roughly into three categories: those still experimenting with social media, those using social media consistently as a tactical add-on to their marketing activities, and those trying to make social a more central, strategic component of their marketing efforts.

As we approach 2011 budget deadlines, more and more marketers are trying to switch gears and move from using social as a tactical add-on to making it a core component in their overall efforts. Small, medium and large companies want to know how they can streamline, automate, budget, and measure social media and social marketing. How can it move from a series of handcrafted singular projects to a more consistent, more repeatable, more predictable undertaking?

We have clear answers to that. The key challenge remains implementation.

Marketing integration may have been the Holy Grail for advertisers over the last 15 years, yet the agency world became increasingly fragmented during that period of time. Many agencies that initially dismissed digital as a peripheral activity are now bent on not making the same mistake again with social.

Agencies rightfully see social as central to the future of marketing and work to develop in this space as fast as they can. Yet each agency, each discipline, looks at social through a very narrow lens that only puts the emphasis on their original core competencies. And, this is what really spells trouble for marketers.

Back to the issue of production, as mentioned earlier: It is tempting to draw parallels between social content production/earned media on one hand, and advertising production/paid media on the other hand. However, the comparison can be misleading in many ways. There are at least five key differences in social that every marketer should bear in mind:

1) Forget one-size-fits-all messages targeting "lowest common denominator" audience. Recognize that fragmentation is here to stay, and embrace it at every step.

2) Frequency and freshness of content matter more than production values. Increase your execution capability and move to rapid-fire, low-cost production cycles.

3) Campaigns have a limited shelf life, but quality content is a valuable and reusable asset. Build your library for the long term and ensure that you will be able to do "reruns."

4) Stop thinking (and budgeting around) campaign flights and push marketing. Start thinking about ongoing engagement. Audiences can no longer be turned on and off on demand.

5) In a genuine two-way, real-time conversation, it is hard to separate the production arm from the distribution arm. Your brain is connected to your mouth for a reason.

Larger creative and media agencies have legacy economic models built around scale and size that make it difficult to adapt and operate profitably in a world of exponentially fragmented audiences and touch points. When it comes to social, the question is not whether "they get it," but whether they can evolve to become as fast and nimble as marketers need them to be. Even Web agencies, in spite of their digital DNA, can sometimes struggle with things like video production or labor-intensive, low-tech conversational engagement.

The long-predicted new marketing paradigm is finally here. Marketers need to start thinking, behaving and organizing themselves as content producers who treat engage consumers as audiences, instead of fully outsourcing this function to external publishers. Content is still king, after all.

A new species of agencies is emerging to deliver solutions that meet this new paradigm Built from the ground up to meet the new realities of turnkey content production and distribution, agencies with a studio mindset and roots in video program production and distribution can create a competitive edge from a creative, execution and dissemination standpoint.

It's official: Social is now well beyond a passing marketing fad. Amid this environment, marketers find it increasingly challenging to differentiate brands, products and messages. The push for a constant flow of newness is becoming a key operational requirement -- just like in the fashion industry. One thing is certain: social is the new black.

Philippe Guegan is vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel. Philippe previously spent more than 15 years planning, implementing and measuring digital and integrated marketing programs at several marketing agencies.

© 2010 Media Post Communications. All rights reserved.

Fantasy Football Reaches Marketing Fever Pitch As 2010 NFL Season Nears

With just under two weeks to go until the aggressively-promoted official start of the 2010 National Football League (NFL) season, and with exactly one week until my own fantasy football league's draft in Las Vegas, these two converging forces prompted me to be contemplate exactly HOW ubiquitous fantasy sports has become over the past two decades, and more specifically, HOW extensively the fantasy football genre has grown in recent years. Simply stated, fantasy football is BOTH an integrated marketing and content development success story whose sports, societal, and cultural significance cannot be ignored or underrated. Having said that, let's look at this sports phenomenon more closely.

Frankly, ever-expanding interest in fantasy football, and the subsequent explosion in print, online, broadcast, and social media content over the past 10 years, can be attributed to the tremendous investments by media companies, and a host of smaller providers, to produce and distribue intelligent information, products, and online vehicles which cater to insightful, discerning participants clamoring for higher-quality information that can be consumerd across multiple technology platforms. If that sounds like a mouthful, you're right...it is...but it is absolutely true. And there would be no supply for any of these products without sufficient demand, of which there is plenty. Without question, fantasy football is not just big business; it's GINORMOUS business.

According to the latest estimates and consumer research from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), a professional organization formed in 1997 to serve as the authorized voice for and official advocate of the industry, there are approximately 30 million fantasy sports participants currently in the United States and Canada. More impressively, those individuals spend almost $4 billion annually on league registration and transaction fees, print and online magazine subscriptions, software applications, "insider" scounting reports, and other related products and services. Of those nearly 30 million individuals, approximately 85%, or about 23 million, play fantasy football, with total spending alone in the fantasy football arena estimated to be between $800 million and $1 billion each year. The numbers, which are staggering, represent a doubling of the market since 2005 which saw only 12 million fantasy football players enter leagues around the country.

Beyond the sheer size of this audience and its impressive annual purchasing power, the real catalyst behind fantasy football's growth, and the vast amount of marketing dollars invested in the category, is its highly-desirable consumer demographics. As outlined by both the FTSA and The Fantasy Football Times, a popular Web site offering player news and analysis, consider the following consumer behavior statistics:

~ The typical participant spends a minimum of $200 per year on fantasy football.
~ On average, fantasy football players devote at least 30 minutes per day, and 3-4 hours per week, managing their teams. Somes estimated claim the weekly total is much as nine hours.
~ The core age group is 12-48, with 25-34 containing the greatest number of players.
~ Average fantasy football players' household income from $60-100,000 per year.
~ Gender breakdown: 93% male, although the number of females is growing.
~ Ethnicity: 91% white.
~ Age: 13% are teenagers.
~ Education: 70% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
~ Football Fanatics: 50% claim to be diehard football fans.

What does all this mean? The profile of fantasy football players represents a group that has been historically, and notoriously, been a very difficult one to reach. As a result, high-profile consumer brands such as General Motors, SprintNextel, Verizon, Goodyear, and Papa John's are dumping millions of dollars into advertising, promotional, and social media support for fantasy football products such as TV shows, scouting magazines, Web sites, and online games. The attraction is best summed by Chris Russo, senior vice president of new media and publishing for the NFL, in this great piece from 2005 in USA Today: "It's the most attentive audience that you're going to get. These people aren't just spending five minutes on the Web site. They're going on the Web site and spending an hour and a half."

And the marketing implications for fantasy football now go much further, especially with the explosion of social media platforms and their usage by consumers. In a MediaPost op-ed which generated a ton of attention just prior to the start of last year's NFL season, Catalyst President and Managing Director Cory Treffiletti wrote:

Without a doubt, fantasy football is the most perfect example of integrated marketing in existence today. It marries the best of online marketing and social media with real-world events and that most basic of human traits: pure, unbridled competitiveness.

While marketers and sports sites are thrilled with fantasy football players' dedication to the category, other businesses — where the fantasy players work — may be less happy. Almost two-thirds of fantasy football players say they check their fantasy teams online during work, FSTA says. According to new estimates from outplacement company Challenger Gray & Christmas, it costs companies nationwide over $250 million for every 10 minutes of the workday that employees spend on fantasy football.

Finally, if you ever wondered how the magical world of fantasy sports got its start, I highly recommend viewing ESPN's documentary on the genre, entitled "Silly Little Game, which innovative filmmakers Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen developed for the network's critically-acclaimed "30 For 30" series. You can also view this well-reviewed installment of the series below:

Oh, and more thing: please wish me luck next week at my draft in Vegas. I am drafting eighth out of 14 teams, which is not a very strong draft position. I'll need all the help I can get!

Tweetup Added To Oxford Dictionary Of English

As reported last week by the Daily Telegraph (U.K.) and other media outlets, Oxford University Press announced some significant and interesting additions, including "tweetup," to the just-released third edition of its Oxford Dictionary of English. The inclusion is yet another in a series of social media terms, such as "defriend," "tweet," and "microblogging," that have been added to the dictionary in the past 24 months as social media platforms have become more prominent and popular around the world.

Formerly named the New Oxford Dictionary of English, the Oxford Dictionary Of English is a single-volume English language dictionary first published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. This dictionary is not based on the lengthier and more comprehensive Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and therefore, should not be mistaken for a new or updated version of the OED. Instead it is a completely new dictionary which strives to represent, as faithfully as possible, the current usage of English words. At present, the Oxford Dictionary Of English is the largest single-volume English-language dictionary published by Oxford University Press.

According to the dictionary, "tweetup" has a very simple definition: a meeting arranged through Twitter.

Other newcomers this year include cheeseball (lacking taste or style); turducken (a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey); vuvuzela, the long horn seen and heard throughout this year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa; wardrobe malfunction (when someone exposes an intimate part of their body after clothing slips); bromance (a close but non-sexual relationship between two men); and frenemy (a person that one is friendly with despite a fundamental dislike).

The implication? As technology and social media become more globally pervasive, we will continue to see words and phrases from these areas be more integrated into every-day conversation and writing, and ultimately become an ingrained part of language in the English-speaking world.