What do Michigan State, Duke, Wisconsin, and Kentucky have in common other than playing in the Final Four this weekend?. Three of the four were #1 seeds in their respective regions. Yes, there were several Cinderella upsets early on and that’s why its called March Madness! My alma mater UCLA is out of it after the Sweet 16, but that doesn’t mean I still won’t be watching the Final Four this upcoming weekend with much anticipation. I ask myself every year, why do we all get so excited over this basketball tournament? And just for a minute to stay relevant to our industry, how do I bring that same excitement to the Content I post online?
Multimedia - Images & Video - rule the online space today! YouTube is the second largest search engine for a reason - People love videos. And whether its videos or images or both as the main attraction of their stories today, without it its just some well written text. Open rates are as high as 90% when a story contains multimedia. I enjoy how multimedia is used in every aspect of presentation on sites like NVIDIA and Edison International. The dominance of three of the teams playing this weekend reminds us that the top-teams, or Chalk, normally dominates in both Sports as well as in PR & Marketing. These teams not only have good players, but great fundamentals and strategies. Last Saturday night it appeared that the #1 overall team Kentucky would go down, but when it got close at the end……. they proved they had the talent and ability to make the necessary adjustments and win! Its not as hard as you think to apply these principles in PR & Marketing and win at this game. Here are what I consider the Final Four strategies of Content Marketing - the four tactics that will let you cut down the net in victory at the end of the game.
Social Media - Facebook,Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, RSS Feeds - the multitude of social channels and how they’re used in good times and bad is evidence that people love telling their story to other people! Social Media isn’t about just one game, but the whole season, so playing hard in the social space can deliver wins down the stretch. Some great examples of how to play this game are Dunkin Donuts and Forever 21.
News Releases - No, news releases aren’t dead, in fact they are more alive than ever with the enhanced capabilities of newswires and your ability to post optimized releases on your newsroom or main site. Distributing releases to online media outlets along with posting to your own website and newsroom result in higher rankings for you in Google, Yahoo, and Bing, just like American Heart Association does it. The easier you make it for journalists and followers to find your news the better the likelihood of your story playing longer in the PR game.
Blogs & Podcasts - Whether you or your CEO like to share your company’s thoughts, or your own, with your audience, a blog or podcast is an excellent way to build momentum for your brand and your expertise in your field. Keeping it fresh, relevant, and of course interesting can increase your audience and and exposure over the whole season and over time! Xerox and Regence use their blogs as solid forums for information and analysis.
Our clients win with these Final Four tactics every day. They bring their audiences to their online “home court” - the Online Newsroom - to enjoy their content, but whether that’s on a laptop or the ever increasing consumption of information on mobile devices, they have consistent fundamentals to achieve a win! If we can help you achieve those PR & Marketing wins please let us know. And whoever you’re rooting for this weekend good luck...if you’re not rooting for any of them but just want to win your bracket then good luck with that too!
