Instagram Hearts Visual Content Marketing (7 Charts) - Posted by Heidi Cohen on February 28, 2013 in Content Marketing, Social Media |

Instagram: Social content marketing every marketer needsInstagram is worth more than a thousand shares based on Simply Measured research. 

As content marketing fuel, Instagram provides social media gold. Users share almost 60% of their images on Twitter and 100% on Facebook. This translates to twenty-two tweets and 274 Facebook interactions per photo according to Simply Measured.

Brand engagement on Instagram increased by about a third among the top 100 brands in the last quarter according to Simply Measured. The top eight brands on Instagram accounted for 80% of the engagement on the social platform. What’s important for marketers to understand is that the top brands are increasing their engagement by about a fifth, a dramatic amount. In part this is attributable to being early adopters on this platform...

Just being there? Our word "engagement" has almost become as meaningless as the number of impressions we gave the good folks when their banners were loaded (below the fold) back in the olden days.

Certainly, no negatives! Being there is important and these so-called social engagements, these likes, follows, friendings and pinnings are all important, even at the most basic completive level. But where is the measure of the brand uplift or a true measure of the "business" engagement, ie the wondrous sound of the cash register going cha-ching?

Without this, where is the meaning in all of this. Truly, isn't the measure of a half billion people (maybe) seeing our ad/msg/image on Facebook; our posts to Twitter; our pins on Pinterest our my pics on Instagram really only a measure of the potential business upside to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram? - Emphasis on "potential".

Collecting hot bodies and keeping them warm is a must do todo on all our todo lists, herding these bodies across our clients threshold, vital... (cue the salesman... TBC)

So, here we go again… I've lost count of the accounts I've opened and abandoned since Twitter came along (when was that again, the early '90s?). I'll admit, a lot of things eventually, but firstly, I've always kinda, sorta hated Twitter. It remains the antithesis to what I believe this medium could be and runs counter to a rule of mine: "If you can't add to it, don't share it". 

At times this "hatred" has taken a participatory form in which I'd actively tweet my despisal of Twitter over Twitter; for the most part I've simply, and quite likely foolishly ignored it. Please don't misinterpret this; I have never dismissed it.

Given another rule of mine, that I can't truly say I "hate" anything until I feel I truly know it inside or out… Indeed, I have opened and abandoned numerous accounts, many of my own, some for others. I'm quite aware of the magic powers of Twitter; how one can monitor, define & circle and capture an audience of the like mind. I do know how it can become the "top of the funnel" that leads to that one good engagement; and how it can keep a hot-body, warm. BUT, Over these moments, these many moments when I've used this tool or that, followed both logical and the illogic of the system… there has been great learning; with all things some positive learning, along with some very good spankings. With respect to one-way, It long ago became the back-bone of my must-read feed… But, I've yet to have that ah-ha moment with the damned thing, (admission #2).

I have many a trusted pal, and hundreds of close-to-my-heart colleagues who with bold faces have looked me in straight in the eye and told me, "its the only damned social tool worth its salt out there; couldn't live without it…" I scratch my head. I know of one friend, who abandoned all else and has focussed solely on his Twitter account for well over five years now - Where'd that land him; eh, 283,282 followers. Followers who, appear to hang on each and every most-one of his tweets. And… there in lay the rub. And a harsh rub at that.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda… spent more time on Twitter? At least kept one account going contiguously since, er, those halcyon days of the early, was it the 90s'? Sure, none of us give a rat's damn about our personal numbers, right (?) but coulda-I have one of those spinky "K's" like the ones my pals here have after their 10.2K, 20.7K, 30.5K followers? ...if I'd only paid more consistent attention? (side note… just picking up Twitter again recently has done wonders for the ol' K rating on that other service we don't give a crap about, personally)… Certainly, how can I not sometimes feel like my pants are down around my ankles, worse that I may have missed that mystic-moment when followers were everywhere to be had… oh well. It's not really about that (and I DO mean and know that).

So… here we go again. This time, here's to only hoping I get my own ah-ha moment (any help on this would be accepted most graciously). Once again, I've signed on to test some tools, paid up the folks over at hootsuite, interlocked and linked and all systems go. In the end, I'm just shaking the dust off, re-learning and staying on top of it for YOU (yes you, you wondrously loveable trusty client of mine). This time though, I hope it I'm not left with that same nagging doubt, (admission #3), that empty feeling that I always seem to get after opening and abandoning a Twitter account... that suspicion that, it may just be one big waste of time.

Stay tuned… I have no clue what Part Two will be about, this time. @GordonGower

Brushin' the dust off some of the old tools in the toolkit; exploring some new ones.

"Don’t wait. The time is now. Here are 20 tips to help you humanize your brand starting today. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to do these things. Start now and start somewhere. Perfection is the enemy of good. Embrace imperfect perfection."

All good points here in this article ...really. I'll key in on this mix:

7. Stop the interruption marketing.
3. Think like a human. Focus on relationships.
18. Encourage your employees to be social.
1. Start from the inside out.

I can only assume you grow weary of my constant badgering over current content marketing practices; but that's not going to stop me. There is no problem with content as long as it is relevant, NOT to you, but to your customers...

The rest is... the continually missed opportunity.

It's likely your employees, not you or you ADagency who directly "own" the relationship with your customers. That person, those people who interact with your customers on the floor, at the counter in the isles, in the boardroom on the phone and... here. Nothing better than a happy handshake, a warm smile and a knowing answer offered as a solution. It may not always beat price, but it will be remembered long after the sale on isle 6 is over.

...simple, not easy.

http://socialmediatoday.com/pammoore/1242011/talk-human-me-20-tips-humanize-your-brand

From time to time I may come off sounding negative about the practice of content marketing. It has it's place; perhaps even a more important place if you are marketing content. Anyhoo... some thoughts on how this content is met by those folks you are marketing to... http://communicateskills.com/2013/01/28/read-write-do/

I hope to read this book one day. Ya, right... book reading has about as big a chance as book writing these days what with all this needing to be reading bits and bites all day in and day out, moment to moment... briefs... BUT.

I'd like to pick this book up one day in hopes of finding a little evidence, some back-up ideas that support the notion that I honestly believe that we're on the wrong track, at least off-track a bit. That we're still missing the point after all these years of marketing and trying to sell our stuff on these so-called pages. Hey, maybe I'll pop into Pages and read the first few pages to see if reading it cover to cover would help support these notions... oh right, Pages closed its doors; last of the favorite little local bookstores I once, adored, but in reality, no longer need.

It would appear there are folks at Netflix, who know me. At least they've realized that I have no time nor interest in sitting around week after week watching the same shit slowly turn itself out... on schedule.

They've figured out that I can be suckered in by the "long arch" plot line; that this arch doesn't need be just the carrier on which rides this weeks goofy self-solving 43 minute plot line, but rather the whole point of the program.

Certainly, the folks at HBO & Showtime figured the latter out ages ago; adapted it from shows our housewives had been watching for ages; but Netflix put that together with the former and has now dished up two juicy chunks, two full servings, totally whole eight and thirteen course meals... and I have gorged myself, ferociously.

My interest is piqued though. Where's the money in this? Are these shows packing the house; are they merely the admissions ticket, the PR bit in the acquisition marketing plan? Is it all about new eyeballs and more hungry bingers like myself?

That both the "originals' held my interest for mere hours compressed into what amounted to four and half days of solid viewing (breathless with respect to the last one); this certainly doesn't fit any retention model I can think of... Of course I can't wait for season's two, but I could just as easily save the $8/M cancel, hang out on the tubes and sign back up for that month they've finished, release and served up seasons 2... $8 buck a throw?

So, I'm left assuming that one day I'll stumble across a good read on this; like FB's purchase of instagram, it took five different explanations read over three weeks to figure out, they were both right... sound reasons. AND, maybe this is all that. Maybe it's the long arch served up whole. Perhaps it's not the elevator pitched proposal for the quick hit, but the notion of the multiparted-totaly in motion all at once ideas and implementations...

Eh... we'll wait and see where that thinking leads... (and find better vehicles to help me poop on the pile of stupid, small ideas we're swimming in these days).

In the meantime. Lillehammer was great... House of Cards was for me, a can't "put it down for a second, un-not-watchable masterpiece". Let the Emmy-heads and the Academy of Oscar nuts flush out their boring 20th Century nonsense. HBO & Showtime laid the good groundwork... These are great stories, well written and presented in semi-familiar format that suited me and the mere moments I have left to be used on entertainment... just fine.

Netflix certainly does seems to know me; sure, I'm hard pressed to believe they can build a sound business model around little old me and my habits, but they certainly do have me by the balls. (there's money in that?) xo-GG