TechCrunch and Mashable Get Articles on Twitter Trend Badly Wrong

by Mark Nagurski on July 2, 2009

in Blogging, Content Marketing, Microblogging / Twitter, social media

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British actress Mollie Sugden, most famous for her role in ’70s comedy Are You Being Served, sadly died yesterday.

In typical Twitter fashion (mostly) British fans set up a hashtag – #mrsslocombespussy in reference to the show’s running double entrendre – as a tribute, and it quickly became one of the most popular topics on the site. Even celebs like Jonathan Ross got in on the act.

Unfortunately the joke was lost on Twitter’s filters – and both TechCrunch and Mashable picked up on the fact as evidence of spam invading the trending topics. TechCrunch even suggested that someone may have hacked Twitter and added the cat synonym to an innocent topic.

Personally I think it’s hilarious and both sites quickly updated their posts to reflect the huge list of comments (my own included) setting them straight.

But the whole thing does raise some interesting questions:

Accuracy on the Web (and anywhere else for that matter)

A lot of commenters pointed out that a simple Google search before publishing the post would have revealed that the hashtag was not spam. Both sites are hugely influential so a little more care in researching the topic would certainly be expected.

But should we hold blogs to the same editorial standards that we expect for traditional media sources (which are certainly not immune to the odd gaffe themselves)? You could look at this as an inherent flaw in web journalism but the speed at which it was corrected by the community also demonstrates the web’s ability to self-edit.

My opinion would be that consumers of media are becoming increasingly savvy about the accuracy of online content and will seek out trusted sources – trust gained through accurate reporting and reputation.

Again, if Mashable, TechCrunch or any other source were repeatedly shown to be inaccurate or hasty in their content, their reputation would suffer. If you’re a content creator it’s something worth bearing in mind.

Mea Culpa – What to Do When You Get it Wrong

When you get something wrong it’s important to own up – and fix it quick. Both Mashable and TechCrunch made updates within a few minutes (good) but I would’ve preferred to see an update at the top of the post  simply stating ‘we wuz wrong’ (better).

Lost in Translation

Obviously neither author got the joke. It’s also worth remembering that not everyone reading your content will have the same cultural references or knowledge as you.

Genies and Bottles

No mater how quickly the posts were corrected by commenters, both will have been retweeted, copied and scraped across the web. This may not be true of every blogger but it is worth remembering that there are no ‘take backs’ online.

Where is the Line Between Viral Marketing and ‘Gaming’ Social Media?

So what kinds of topics are OK to appear in Twiter’s trending topics? After updating the post, TechCrunch author Robin Wauters wrote:

Still amazes me how stuff like that gets in the top list of trending topics. It shouldn’t.

But as several commenters pointed asked, why shouldn’t it? Memes and viral themes have always been part of the web, why is this one any less relevant? And this one’s actually real news.

More to the point, companies have begun to make use of hashtags to create ‘viral’ style campaigns on Twitter. Current top of the trending topic charts Moonfruit, is encouraging Twitterers to retweet the hashtag #moonfruit to potentially win a MacBook in a similar campaign to one recently run by Squarespace.

Should commercial efforts like these be viewed as ‘gaming’ the results or simply good social media marketing?

In practical terms, the execution of the idea has been great and has no doubt helped raise awareness of, and traffic to, Moonfruit. Everybody loves free stuff and the whole process has been very transparent – so Moonfruit have gone about it the right way and have received the tacit seal of approval from the Twitter community and commentators as a result.

But what would happen if McDonald’s started doing it with a competition to win free Big Macs – would they be as warmly received?

One concern may be that if too many brands try to do the same – which of course they will – trending topics will be reduced to trending competitions.

My take? Moonfruit has been around for a while and are engaged in social media – and so this campaign is viewed as less a cynical marketing exercise and more a fun exercise and a chance to win free stuff.

In other words, they’re working within the goodwill that they’ve built up in the social media space. If you were to simply show up and start something along these lines – without putting in the effort to build a reputation first – then it would likely be considered spam.

Unfortunately, I think is exactly what a lot of brands will try to do.

What are your thoughts on any of these points?



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How to be a Content Marketing Heavyweight

by Mark Nagurski on June 29, 2009

in Blogging, Content Marketing

content needs weight - scale image

Your Content Has to Have Weight

High School science class was some time ago but if I remember correctly weight is a function of mass (and gravity). Mass, in turn, is a function of both size and density.

Something can be very large but not very dense – like a cloud – and so have very little weight to it. Likewise, something can be very dense but be too small to have much weight – like a pebble.

To get the maximum value from your content online you need both size and density – you need weight.

Density in this sense represents the quality or better yet, the substantiveness of the content you create. It should have real value and deliver benefits to the people who consume it.

If it does, they’ll be more likely to respond to it in ways that help your business; subscribe to your feed or newsletter, request a quote or consultation or simply share your content with others. If it doesn’t, you’ll be more featherweight than heavyweight.

You need density to get found and make it worthwhile being found.

Size on the other hand refers simply to the quantity of material you create. It is possible to create just one great piece of content which will continue to drive traffic and build your reputation for years to come. Possible, but not likely.

Even in very simple terms, creating 10 blog posts that each deliver 20 visitors a week – every week – is much easier than producing a single post that delivers 200 week in and week out. Having a large body of work also creates more ‘in roads’ into your business, allows you to cover more topics and appeal to a wider market. Greater size, in short, means easier to find.

You need size to reap the benefits of content marketing.

Creating Your Own Gravity

gravity

Weight matters. To extend the metaphor a little, if content has enough weight it can even go so far as to create its own gravity – pulling in interest, interactions and a veritable galaxy of satellite contributions feeding off the buzz your content produces.

Techcrunch, Mashable, Problogger – they all have weight. Each one produces content worth reading. Each one produces a lot of fresh content worth reading and has a huge ‘back catalog’. And consequently, each one draws in readers and the content they create spawns dozens of comments and reactionary blog posts. They have weight and gravity.

Weight Matters but …

Of course, there’s not a lot new in this. Quantity and quality have always been part of the marketing equation and are equally true of content marketing – or even the media itself.

But while it might not be new, it is worth remembering – especially if you’re planning your own content marketing efforts. Creating the odd half-hearted blog post a week will do little to grow your reputation online – it must be consistent, high quality and frequent enough to create size worth noticing.

Are you, or your organisation, prepared to produce regular, high-quality editorial? Most business, by nature, simply aren’t set up to do this. Becoming a content marketing heavyweight needs planning, an allocation of resources and a long-term commitment.

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How Much Should You Be Paying for Content?

by Mark Nagurski on June 23, 2009

in Content Marketing

OK, before we even get started I’ll declare my self-interest in this one. I write content for clients and, as such, am keen to ensure that I’m fairly rewarded for my work.

But I also commission content for both client projects and my own. And while I’ll always push for a good deal, I also want to ensure that the end-result is of discernably high quality and that the writers I hire are willing and motivated to put the effort in.

So how much should written content cost?

I recently bumped into a job listing on a freelancers website that, if I’m reading it correctly, was hoping to attract bids for 350 word articles at around $1 each.

Assuming that you could – at a push – create an article in 30 minutes (that being itself an indication of the quality), you’d still be working for $2 an hour. You may think that this is an exception but it is quite common to see bids in the region of $5-$20 per 500 word articles on freelancing websites.

Hopefully anyone reading this blog will appreciate the difference between the poorly written filler content that can be bought at that price and the engaging, professional content that you need to effectively build an audience online or off.

Hopefully.

But still, how much should you be paying if you choose to outsource some or all of your content creation needs? There are certainly cutprice providers but by the same token there are bloggers who charge upwards of £100 ($150+) per post.

How I Price Content

My approach – on both sides of the fence – is to weigh up the amount of work that should go into creating good content and the value of that content to the business commissioning it.

Here are a few things that I consider when commissioning writers – and when quoting for projects: [click to continue…]

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Are Content Marketers Making A Mistake With Opt-in Content?

by Mark Nagurski on June 15, 2009

in Content Marketing

“Everything that becomes digital will become free. There will be a free version, either you will be competing with free or giving it away for free and selling something else. If it is not zero today, it will be zero tomorrow.”

As you can tell from the quote above (as reported on Techcrunch) Chris Anderson, Wired Editor-in-Chief and author of The Long Tail, likes the word ‘free’.

His latest book is entitled Free: The Future of a Radical Price and his speech at Wired’s Disruptive By Design conference touched on what free means for the media industry.

His take is that media companies should combine both free and paid-for content but, and it’s a big but, that the most popular content on the site should be the free stuff and the nichiest niche stuff should be paid for. The idea is to maximise advertising revenues and ‘pass-along’ potential with free content and charge a premium for the niche.

In other words: “The head of the curve will be free and the tail of the curve will be paid.”

But What If You’re Not Charging Anything Anyway?

Most business who are using content to help market their businesses don’t charge anyway – they give it all away for free through blogs, whitepapers and a variety of other methods.

But while there may be no price tag attatched, this content isn’t always as free as it might be.

Intuitively, businesses see content as an effective way to build their marketing databases. So, when they go to the effort of creating a detailed whitepaper or cracking ebook it makes sense for them to ask for an email address in return.

This unfortunately makes it much less likely that people will help share that information via social media – or even be bothered to access it themselves in the first place. An email address might not seem like a cost, but it’s enough to stop otherwise interested readers from engaging with your content.

In the same way that Anderson proposes that media companies make their best stuff free – and only charge for the niche – content marketers should consider whether they’re locking away their best content behind unnecessary barriers.

Further Reading: David Meerman Scott is a big proponent of ’signup free’ content – a tactic he’s used to build his own substantial following via free ebooks.

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