Thoughtline Bling: Links to Make a Basic Social Media Primer

Because more people are waking up to the fact that social media has the most disruptive communications potential since the printing press, and because I lead a brand publishing department at an ad agency, I'm often asked to recommend resources where people can learn the basics of social media marketing. Since I recently put this list of articles together again, and since I didn't write a proprietary word of the content, I thought I'd put it up here as a general resource for anyone needing a basic primer in Social Media Marketing. 

While there are a ton of tools out there to help people become more proficient, I think there are also some good readings to get the basics down. These are all articles. Good information on social media publishing is almost never in a book format - by the time the book is published, the social medium has shifted or the way it's used has changed. Below are some great online publications that will keep you up-to-date, plus some articles that cover the foundation.

NEWSLETTERS TO FOLLOW:

1. Social Media & Marketing Daily: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/social-media-marketing-daily/ 
2. Ad Age Digital Updates (scroll to the bottom for the sign up): http://adage.com/channel/digital/20 
3. Luxury Daily (beyond social/content, but provides and exceptional range of information on telling a robust story): https://www.luxurydaily.com/ 

The articles serve as a background primer for the state of social media and content marketing today, covering “right time/right place” storytelling. Note that this is a statement of where we are today, but that successful brands are adjusting the dial to create a culture-based platform from which all subsequent content will come.

ARTICLES TO INFORM:

1. The building blocks of a content strategy: https://hbr.org/2016/05/your-content-marketing-strategy-doesnt-have-to-be-complicated
2. On the current state of the world’s largest community, and how Facebook is impacting every industry: http://www.recode.net/2016/5/9/11610100/the-facebook-papers-part-1-the-great-unbundling 
3. On the Facebook algorithm and why you don’t see everything your friends see: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/opinion/the-real-bias-built-in-at-facebook.html
4. Most social audiences watch videos, but 85% of them do it without volume. This should inform one's approach to social video: http://digiday.com/platforms/silent-world-facebook-video/
5. This is why we should look to engagement as the key metric in identifying social content: http://gawker.com/internet-video-views-is-a-100-percent-bullshit-metric-1774349561 
6. Entrepreneur’s take on navigating authenticity and the new etiquette for businesses in social media: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/218160 
7. Entrepreneur, on the content hub and targeting: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254245 
8. A Content 101 oldie from Huffington Post, but it covers some basics: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-nagy/content-marketing-101-an-_b_4576992.html 
9. An oldie from Forbes, but still relevant in terms of what social can do (The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing): http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#1b388a1c2a4d 
10. Ad Age, on the golden rule of social & branded content: http://adage.com/article/digital/content-budgets-rise-measurement-advances/300836/ 
11. Ad Age, on the current state of getting the right content to the right audiences as a marketing best practice, and measuring results: http://adage.com/article/digital/content-budgets-rise-measurement-advances/300836/ 

 

In Other News:

I've been thinking a lot lately about what's going on in the world, and how we can move beyond just talk and get into positive action that's impactful. I do think the most powerful social movements start with a conversation, though, and nowhere is that more easy to start than in social media. I want to help as many people as possible to use these channels effectively.

In the coming weeks I'll begin compiling resources to help individuals use social media to find networks and build coalitions for social change.

Let me know if you have any Social Media 101 articles to add to the list, or if you have any to add to a "social media for social change" list.

Until then... thank you, Drake.

Thought Flashes: May 22, 2016 Week in Links

It's been one of those weird weeks where the tangled mess of politics and media rises to the surface in new and even more perplexing ways. I happened to be in Nevada for Inc's GrowCo conference while the "contested" primaries were going on (John Oliver had some great things to say about that tonight). I met some incredibly inspiring social entrepreneurs out there, but everyone on my return flight to NYC seemed abysmally upset. I guess what happens in Vegas doesn't actually stay there, after all.

Here's what caught my eye this week:

1. The social medias are ruling our lives. Still.

I mentioned this last week, but Facebook creates an echo chamber. Here's the point: your viewpoint is essentially fed back to you, making it seem like your opinion is a majority view. That's comforting if you like the safeness of your own perspective, but it's terrible for democracy when people get their information from platforms instead of newsrooms (it's also terrible for media companies). The WSJ published a really cool infographic showing the difference between red and blue social feeds, in an effort to make this reality more clear. On this note, there's a great new article that ran in the Times today with amazing resources to learn more about modern American fragmentation, including a shout to "The Righteous Mind" which breaks down the ways we try to find and do what's right. (It's an amazing book, but TED talks are here). 

In other related news, Facebook's trending topics are not news, but Facebook's algorithm makes it seem so, since many news story aren't "likeable" and therefore have a harder time surfacing. Here's everything you wanted to know about how it works. 

And speaking of Facebook, did you know that 85% of viewers watch those billions of videos without sound on? And that Facebook charges you for a "viewed video" after 3 seconds? (I wish I could make good content in under 3 seconds!) The numbers aren't as good as they seem unless you create content specifically for Facebook, which their rep teams are trying to encourage, but they also seem to be building their own ad agency, so I'm sure all will soon be revealed, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist...

In the podcast world, PRX created RadioPublic to help podcast creators reach the right audience, tapping into their substantial analytics platform. I love a good feedback loop between data, strategy, and creative, and this seems like it will help advance the audio community with data that's been greatly lacking.

Finally, Twitter is about to drop photos and links in the inclusion of the 140 character count, making life SO MUCH EASIER for anyone who is writing social copy non-stop, or who lacks an editor in their head (I fit both buckets). Rejoice!

And Medium realized that the flat managerial system of Holacracy isn't scalable.

2. But that may soon be trumped by another ruler... (#dadjokes)

The New Yorker took on what accepting Trump means to our nation. I can't bare to synthesize this just yet, but if you take nothing else from this, here's your key takeaway:

If Trump came to power, there is a decent chance that the American experiment would be over. This is not a hyperbolic prediction; it is not a hysterical prediction; it is simply a candid reading of what history tells us happens in countries with leaders like Trump. Countries don’t really recover from being taken over by unstable authoritarian nationalists of any political bent, left or right—not by Peróns or Castros or Putins or Francos or Lenins or fill in the blanks. The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal. Ask Argentinians or Chileans or Venezuelans or Russians or Italians—or Germans. The national psyche never gets over learning that its institutions are that fragile and their ability to resist a dictator that weak.

The Post also took on the topic of Trump bringing us Fascism.

...What he has tapped into is what the founders most feared when they established the democratic republic: the popular passions unleashed, the “mobocracy.”

Happy Monday?

3. High-Low comes to political journalism.

In a content business deal that's kind of like when Karl Lagerfeld did a collection for H&M, the Washington Post is collaborating with Mic to bring the youth voice together with an authority on politics. In the form of a newsletter, it will run through the election. Plus Cory Haik is leading it at CSO. She's the one who brought Snapchat to the Post, and needless to say is a total badass in the content world.

4. TV is booming, and that means diversity to some and quality-dilution to others.

That may sound counter to the principles of competition, but think of it like fashion expanding beyond tailors and couturiers, and transitioning to factories, sweatshops, and unskilled temp workers. This dramatic surge in TV production has touched nearly every aspect of the industry, from actors and showrunners to those responsible for production logistics for all of the new programming ordered from an ever-expanding roster of networks. The upside is that more voices get a shot at having their story produced because we need the content volume. But to rise above the noise, the big stars get giant contracts for their ability to draw market attention, and the lower-level actors get a budget slash, while writers content with shorter seasons that makes the work more disposable because we're already on to the next thing by the time it's on demand. Just like fashion, I tell ya!

5. Help is coming!

The Knight Foundation and Columbia University are launching the First Amendment Institute to promote free expression in the digital age. Which is awesome, until you go back and read #1.

6. These writers want to have a Paris Climate Talks for food policy, and it's pretty brilliant. Here's the idea, in a nutshell:

"Global commodity markets, while delivering broad benefits, are fickle: opaque, distorted by subsidies, and increasingly prone to price spikes and crashes. Farmers struggle to figure out what to plant, when to plant it, and how much to charge for their wares, and when prices crash, they can be left destitute. Poor consumers face the opposite problem: price spikes can mean the difference between going to bed hungry or not." 

What happened in Paris with emissions, after years of limitations and impasse, was nothing short of a miracle. Instead of countries being forced into emissions reductions, "they agreed to a global aspiration of slashing emissions and invited countries to offer their own contributions toward achieving that goal. That triggered domestic efforts within each country to develop emissions-cutting plans (some better than others) that they thought they could make work politically at home. The leaders also agreed to a global system that would monitor each country’s progress, subject it to regular international scrutiny, and require new and stronger efforts every five years." It made the whole system workable for countries like the US and BRIC countries, enabling participation on a much larger scale. And that's the whole point.

This approach lets countries participate in reaching a global goal in their own way, without a uniform policy, potentially resulting in freer markets where farmers and consumers are taken care of equally.

7. Finally, some photo-worthy events. 

Did you go to the Met to see MANUSxMACHINA yet? If you like fashion and technology, it's aces.

It's almost Memorial Day, which means it's Fleet Week in NYC. This is especially great for photographers because everyone knows how well sailors photograph. So get out there with your bikes (it's Bike Month!) and your cameras. After all, winter is coming.

Thought Sauce: May 15, 2016 week in links

Hard knocks in content marketing, lady-investor digital weaponry... and basically the week that Facebook got a wakeup call.

1. Influencer marketing is so 2014. I was just having yet another conversation about how the size of an influencer's audience is now much less relevant that the extent of their expertise. As social platforms continue to reinforce a pay-to-play model that requires brands to fork out extra money to reach not just new audiences, but the audiences who already follow them, influencers actually become much less relevant. Still good for PR on some level (possibly?) but brands are seeing diminishing returns on the extra production money required for these individuals since you can't reach their audiences without a media budget anyway. That said, the expertise of the "influencer" in content for luxury brands or for the more progressive audience has always been fairly important. People aren't stupid - they know when they are being sold to, and instead of feeling like someone's trying to dupe them into buying something, they really want a trusted voice to help guide them, or they want a unique story or experience to make their own. It seems that this reality is starting to trickle down into mass-market advertising and now youth marketing, as well.

No sooner did I finish my latest debate-meeting on this topic, than this article about the influencer market-collapse appeared in my inbox. I laughed because I actually do work in one of the converted loft spaces they mention (among other similarities), but also because I've been backing away from influencer marketing adamantly since the price-to-quality ratio became so absurdly weak. I'd rather work with great talent - experts - and audiences would rather see their work, as well. Quality content has legs. What works well is talent who knows the publishing channel well, who has a great relationship with the audience, and whose primary objective is to make great content that suits both. Popularity without talent is limited. The charlatans looking to make a quick buck are getting booted off their free ride.

That said, every social platform now seems to have its own influencer agency (accessible at a premium - like Niche for Twitter), and on the other side, independent influencer networks are now maturing into media companies. Fullscreen just rebranded as Fullscreen Media, and is offering subscription services and a branded content studio now, with the caveat that their work must create "real value" for brands. Hopefully quality becomes a key tenant in content development (and an understanding of brand briefs wouldn't hurt), because there's a lot of great emerging talent being hidden in the noise out there...

2. Internet video views is an absolute bullshit metric. The analytics are wildly unstructured to paint an astronomically large picture that just doesn't reflect reality, and it isn't rated like TV, making comparisons misleading at best. If BuzzFeed's best content-view metrics were counted as they are on TV, their NewFronts pitch (which was last week) would be laughable.

Did you know that Facebook counts a video view at 3 seconds of play, even though Facebook videos auto-play in your feed? It's really fun getting stuck in a feedback loop that tells you your view-rate is amazing, when people are really just trying to scroll away from your content as quickly as possible without missing the next post on whatever Trump did today.

Although, you might not see that on Facebook's Trending Topics...

3. This was a really interesting week at the intersection of social platforms and the world of journalism because a former Facebook "editor" came forward (via Gizmodo) to report that Facebook's editors suppress conservative trending topics. After the report, conservatives went wild, Zuck said "whoa, let's talk about this," and released a 28-page document of guidelines for the Facebook Trending Topics team, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (R-SD) demanded answers, and then the public began to realize that - holy shit - social platforms have human editors. Which means there could be editorial impartiality. As the NY Times put it:

Last week’s debate surrounding Trending Topics gave users and critics a chance to analyze the Facebook platform, which has established significant reach, in new ways. Social networks like Facebook have been widely seen as impartial systems that reflect users’ ideas, preferences and relationship back at them. But suddenly, the companies were viewed not just as tech companies, which the public is broadly endeared to, or as media companies, which are regarded with deep skepticism by much of the public, but also as something in between. 

This might not be such a big deal if Facebook wasn't the modern master of media distribution, but it is. And that implies a level of ethics in impartiality and transparency over how we get our information. A public that has access to free and unbiased information is a key component to democracy.

So the conversation is important. But the impact will also be important, and the answer is not in relying exclusively on the algorithm and voiding human guidance. Humans love an echo chamber that feeds back their own opinions and beliefs. Who doesn't like affirmation? The problem is that we tend to cluster around people who enable our beliefs, so an algorithm would reinforce the "echo chamber" because (of course) Facebook's model is built to serve you the content you're most likely to LIKE. 

As usual, Ezra Klein puts it best:

Behind the panic over echo chambers are three simple observations. First, people like news that confirms the opinions they already hold. Second, the internet makes it easier for people to find news that confirms the opinions they already hold. Third, the algorithms running in the background of Google's search engine and Facebook's News Feed are constantly trying to serve users content — which includes news — they will like, and that will mean serving them news they already agree with.

4. In other news, Google is readying for a major push into VR next week. What's cool about their approach is that they are going to make VR accessible in their existing products (think about VR in Maps or Search... so cool), but the biggest point is that they are opening the doors to VR that Facebook has not. Google is positioning their VR products to make it accessible to view AND to make. Where Facebook (Oculus) has selected apps to play its curated content, Google is pushing to build a library that can scale as YouTube did with video. The end goal from both angles is that we will interact with VR in the real world, but along the way, Google is giving amateurs a chance to participate in the revolution.

5. Speaking of the revolution, Sallie Krawcheck is leveraging her hefty resumé to bring us a robo investment tool designed specifically for women: Ellevest. For all the information, including the depressing details of women's finance that this roboadviser takes into account, see this Money article. I currently use Betterment, but will be taking this system for a test drive. I'll report back.

6. Speaking of lady cash, there appears to be one legit way for women to earn on par, or even MORE than men... HBR just published a piece reporting that "high potential women" working in organizations with diversity goals can earn anywhere from 100-120% the salaries of their male counterparts. Guess who is making a major commitment to diversity? The ad industry, starting with JWT! Line up, high potential ladies. 

7. Actually, maybe start networking? That word sends shivers down my spine, but I'd like to start enjoying it. Here are tips to make networking easier from HBR:

• Focus on learning, not schmoozing
• Identify common interests (might require some advanced research or Google-stalking)
• Think broadly about what you can give (you'll be more confident if you know you can give mentorship, advice, access, etc)
• Find a higher purpose for what you're trying to achieve for your team, clients, or community

8.  And, ladies, once you get those jobs, and you're no longer walking around in your tiara, your bridal veil, or painting your nails, you might have a use for these new emojis that show not just men, but women in professional situations. I hope they have a lady firefighter one. I have a special use for that. You know it's real when gender equality impacts emojis.

9. If you're not fashion-obsessed, don't bother reading this. But if you are, so behold! Rocket scientists are coming together to construct high heels that are actually comfortable, AND NOT HIDEOUS. They are going to be pricey, but probably cheaper than a surgery for bunions (and not much more than Jimmy Choos)! This Atlantic article explains everything from the origin story to the semiotics of heels, to the contradictions in perception of women who wear/don't wear them. 

10. The food industry is so exciting right now! Two things from this week: Whole Foods is starting a new grocery model called 365 to stay ahead of the competition. It will feature fewer, more exclusive foodie products but will keep prices down by optimizing for pre-packaged products (ie, no butchers) and using more robots. Also, Eco Practicum just finished training their third annual crop of food activists in NYC (I really wish this program was online and scalable). This is coming up as a new report emerged last week challenging the efficacy of urban farming plans, so we definitely need more people out there working through these problems.

11. Beautiful things can happen when the human touch is combined with technology, and I guess that's the theme of the week. Beyond journalism's evolution and the state of modern urban farming, the Met is hitting on a timely topic with ManusxMachina ("man and machine"), documenting the evolution of haute couture with technology. It's on through August 14.

Thought and Bothered: Links of May 8, 2016

Up this week: Trumpology, the singular approach to urban planning, an evolution in musical leadership, glorious new food trends, good content, and pigeons.

1. Who's out and who's in? This marks the first full week of a presidential campaign where Donald Trump is the only remaining candidate for the GOP. If you, like me and a lot of other people, would like to start trying to understand how this happened, let the research begin/continue. We have before us a case of tribal politics (to that end, this theory of the outgroup is so fascinating), obvious racism, unbridled PR churn, and a lack of accountability. I'm not just talking about the GOP candidates here: A free press is designed to bring fact to oration, no matter how sensational. As Nate Silver so nicely put it: "Any time a demagogic candidate wins a nomination, it suggests a potential failure of political institutions, including (but not limited to) the media." Finding the free press lacking,  Trump's win was based on exploiting republican social grievances. It's feeding into and off of public pain And, to an alarming extent, his twisting of facts has gone largely uncontested by ratings-chasing networks, but that pattern is starting to change. Let's hope that sticks.

2. And since we're talking about racism and the impacts of policy on society, no matter how well intended, I came across this article on the negative impacts of the urban planning work of Jane Jacobs. For anyone who has studied or worked in urban planning (I did), you know Jacobs as a pioneer in rebuilding communities. In school we were taught her theories and methods, we praised her results and modeled ourselves after her example in our mission to rebuild Main Street, USA and bring economic redevelopment back to urban and suburban communities. Turns out the best laid plans won't accomplish the intended results without the correct policies and laws behind them, nor without community inclusion: that's policy. Design doesn't solve all. It's half the partnership, and - as with the most fulfilling arrangements - opposites attract. She got half the equation right. It's our job to do the rest.

3. On to content. In any story, I'm always more interested in getting to the why than I am in focusing on the what. I also love stories about the creative process, and about the intention of the artist, so it should come as no surprise that I love a podcast based on musicology. If you haven't been listening to Switched On Pop, I highly recommend that you join me in this obsession. This week they are talking about Beyonce's Lemonade, and about Prince... which is also just about all I've been listening to during my vacation week, and these artists have been heavily on everyone's mind (and heavy in conversational rotation). Fun fact: after their Grammy's performance, Prince was inquiring into Beyonce's true music knowledge and was impressed that she wasn't "merely" a pop star. But he did suggest that she learn piano. And on the weekend of his death, she released Lemonade, which includes a track where she is singing and playing the piano.

4. Speaking of music... Radiohead. Last week, Twitter and Reddit collectively lost their mind when all the band's social posts from the past were deleted. Tumbleweeds rolled through Radiohead's Twitter, Facebook, and even their website (gasp!). But WHY?! Speculation ensued. They effectively built content by removing all content, priming audiences to pay attention and creating a "clean slate" for their new album, which was released last week. Radiohead is not just a band. They are a business with a surprisingly complex corporate structure, complete with a sophisticated marketing strategy that consistently gets people to pay attention. So now the Radiohead Reddit can get back to analyzing the album. I need more time.

5. Google launched a report on the latest food trends based on search, and this is infinitely interesting. This will be great for anyone experimenting with food, or working to make relevant culinary content. Fun facts:

• Jackfruit (#3 trending useful food) is a vegan pork substitute that we will all be eating soon.
• Manuka honest (#4) is all you need for a hydrating, antibacterial face mask, according to my favorite facialist, Britta. 

6. Here's some bad news: your headlines suck. But they don't have to. Here's a whole list on every tip you can imagine to write better headlines, but I'll say that I think this post applies to social media captions, as well. The second-to-last infographic wins it for me. Now I'm going to tell my team to write 25 headlines for each article. They are going to love that!

7. Point #6 matters more because Facebook is changing their algorithm again, and this time it's going to prioritize quality content. Yep, that's right. So now, not only do your headlines have to improve, but your content has to get better, too. That means a few things, which Tim Cigelske beautifully capture in the link above. In summary:

• Don't make unnecessary content. Say what you want to say, and say no more.
• Don't make each paragraph increasingly boring. Pepper the good stuff throughout.
• Get rid of your slideshows because they take effort to navigate, and that's annoying.
• Preview the good stuff upfront.
• Leave a treat at the end.

If you prefer the podcast, here it is:

8. Events! Have you ever wanted to see a pigeon ballet? Neither have I. Until now. Artist Duke Riley is conducting a performance over the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights through June 12 and his performers are 2,000 pigeons outfitted with LED lights. According to the New York Times, "Despite clouds and chilly temperatures, the birds’ performance was a revelation, a touching unity of human and animal behavior, with sky, water and the city." On that note, et tickets through the Creative Time website. Your snapchat will thank you. Wear a hat.

9. And finally, The McKittrick Hotel is doing a new interactive party series called Supercinema. The first one is a Great Gatsby theme. You come as a character inspired by the film (book), and get a night of dancing, performances, and an open bar. It's on May 21, but space is limited. Gatsby Supercinema tickets are here.

Have a great week!