Resources
Content Marketing: Are You Relevant?
Welcome to 2014, less than two months young and chock with its own flair: a polar vortex, the winter games, Princeton and Facebook with their public “my smarts are smarter than your smarts war”. Seems like it’s going to be eventful and full of content marketing fodder. (Yes, I had to drop that word into…
In a World… Ruled by Video & Infographics
As we recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s film debut and pondered Bob Dylan’s Super Bowl appearance (loved it, by the way), it’s a great time to reflect on the importance of video in marketing and advertising. For even (wait for it… cue the movie trailer voice) IN A WORLD… where traditional broadcast…
The Fall of Guest Blogging: Dispelling the Myth
On Monday, Matt Cutts (the head of Google’s Webspam team) took a page out of Richard Sherman’s book when he took to his religiously followed blog and in a video forcefully slammed guest blogging, declaring: “Ultimately, this is why we can’t have nice things in the SEO space: a trend starts out as authentic. Then…
Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: Google & Rap Genius
Since its inception, Google has been fighting an ongoing war against spam. Spam sites, not to be confused with everyone’s favorite canned pork shoulder, attempt to game search engine algorithms through techniques like paid linking schemes, hidden text and keyword stuffing. Practices such as these are bad for search engines because they can dilute the…
5 More Digital Trends For 2014
Customer expectations of the brands they do business with are shifting. Digital information has been invited into nearly every crevice, niche and on-demand moment of our lives. Customers, especially those of us in the 16-45 age range, have developed new and fast-evolving expectations surrounding e-commerce and digital brand interaction. Here are 5 more trends that…
Lessons from the Washington Post’s “Refuge”
There are marketing lessons within reporting on real world events. They aren’t marketing lessons so much as they are general lessons for how to make people pay attention and think—but isn’t that the point of marketing? Recently, the Washington Post ran a heartrending, beautifully human feature on Syria—specifically, the refugees and their stories. It’s possibly…
5 Digital Trends For 2014
It’s December, and 2013 is fast coming to a close. If you haven’t started thinking about 2014, it’s time. Next year is going to be another big one for digital marketing, with big, fast changes in the way people use and interact with the Internet. But don’t fret, we have you covered: #1. Converging Boundaries…
Modern-Day Marketing Is Storytelling–Be Authentic, Be Honest
What can “hygge” and “guanxi” teach marketers about storytelling? For starters: be honest; be authentic. Foreign words that don’t adequately translate to English have always fascinated me. The Danes, for example, have their hygge, which is closely related to comfort, but more accurately describes that very specific warmness/safeness/placidity you feel when you’re around a fire…
Google to penalize poor mobile performance
Mobile usage continues to rise. With 91% of U.S. adults owning mobile phones and over 60% of those being smartphones, it’s no secret that the shift to mobile search is becoming increasingly important. In response to the shift in device usage and user demand, Google announced recently that they will begin penalizing sites performing poorly…
More Native Than Native Advertising
Is there something more native than native advertising? Yesterday, I was cruising the Internet, browsing through a few of my favorite digital haunts, and I stumbled upon a Fast Company article highlighting a chair designed for public spaces (like airports) that actually shields you from the glances of passers-by. Being a bit of a privacy…
You’re Probably Doing It Wrong
“The more a piece of content looks like genuine editorial content, the more valuable it becomes.” —Felix Salmon, Reuters Felix Salmon’s quote succinctly describes the value point for native or content marketing—it’s a way for an advertiser to hold the attention of its target audience without the audience member realizing it’s being marketed to. Done…
