In this deck, I share 9 digital trends everyone is talking about TODAY (emoji marketing, anyone)--and then 9 digital trends I think everyone should have their eyes on for the year ahead.
1. ACH
9 New Digital Trends
Re-Shaping PR
Arik C. Hanson, ACH Communications
Aug. 11, 2015
FPRA
2. ACHACH
ABOUT ARIK
• 20 years agency, corporate;
#SoloPR since 2009;
@arikhanson
• Blogger, podcaster,
e-newsletter maker, board
member, event organizer
FPRA
3. ACHACH
9 Trends Everyone is Talking About
• Content marketing! Content marketing! Content
marketing!
• Instagram = so hot right now
• Facebook is now officially an advertising platform
• Mobile (for about the 9th year in a row)
• Podcasting = so hot right now
• EMOJIS are everywhere (even in news releases)
• Is Twitter dying? (Atlantic article)
• Digital brand magazines (just read Contently)
• Live social video is here—and is so freaking easy!
FPRA
13. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Consider ALL the channels media are using to
distribute when pitching
• Are you packaging the content you’re pitching for
Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook?
• Consider using social networks to tell longer stories
(more on this in a moment).
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19. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Focus on QUALITY over QUANTITY
• Advanced storytelling techniques (Google News
Lab)
• Go deep with your stories
FPRA
24. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Consider how you can syndicate blog content.
• How can you use your organization’s “super
influencers” to reach more people?
• Don’t listen to the pundits.
FPRA
27. ACHACH
Is Instagram Zero really a possibility?
“Across more than 400 campaigns measured globally
with Nielsen Brand Effect, ad recall from sponsored
posts on Instagram was 2.8x higher than Nielsen’s
norms for online advertising.”
“Now, as we look to build on this momentum, we’re
focused on three key areas: Expanding ad offerings
to include action-oriented formats, enabling more
targeting capabilities, and making it easier for
businesses large and small to buy ads on
Instagram.”
* Source: Instagram
28. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Don’t over-rely on social channels.
• Don’t over-rely on engagement metrics, either
(you may end up paying for ALL of them eventually)
FPRA
33. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Resist “Shiny Object Syndrome”
• Experiment slowly with live social video—it will
evolve.
• Stay within brand guidelines—don’t dilute your
brand for the sake of staying “on trend.”
FPRA
41. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• New breaking news model: Earned + Owned + PAID
• Blog posts = the new news release?
• Re-evaluate how you and your clients “break news”
FPRA
52. ACHACH
64% - Value traditional PR skills when
hiring senior/junior talent
20% - Value digital skills when hiring
senior/junior talent.
Digital skills don’t rank in the top 5 for
skills sought for senior-level leaders.
FPRA
53. ACHACH
What does this mean for you?
• Senior-level? Take a leadership role with digital.
• Junior-level? Help senior folks get smarter.
• In the middle—help the TEAM make progress.
FPRA
54. ACHACH
9 Trends you SHOULD be Thinking About
FPRA
• The Bite-Sized News Feed
• The impending Contentapocalypse
• Is the corporate blog still content marketing’s
“home base?”
• Instagram Zero
• Is social video really the next big thing?
• Breaking news=redefined (again)
• The next gen of wearables/VR will impact
storytelling
•IoT *will* impact PR
• The ever-widening PR/social media skills gap
Snapchat: 100M daily active users. Most access the site multiple times per day
400 million snaps per day
30% of millennials use Snapchat
Percentage of Snapchat users under 25: 71%
Percentage of Snapchat users that are marketers: 1%
Anecdotally, according to sources, millions of impressions per day per publisher.
No links—all self contained.
Swipe to advance; press and hold to send to a friend
Publishers trying to reach millennials—because, as research suggests, they’re not big on paying for news. See quote below from a recent Niemen Labs report:
“I don’t think you should pay for news,” Eric, a 22-year-old Chicagoan, said. “That’s something everybody should be informed in. Like, you’re going to charge me for information that’s going on around the world?” And then there’s 19-year-old Sam from San Francisco: “I really wouldn’t pay for any type of news because as a citizen it’s my right to know the news.”
NowThis News has been publishing stories to IG for a few years now. One of the early adopters in terms of using IG to distribute news content.
They’re not THAT small either—152K followers (compared to177K for ABCNews)
Of course, now many media outlets have followed suit (although many of the local media up in MSP continue to use it for promo purposes)
http://contently.com/strategist/2015/06/23/instagram-journalism-the-new-content-trend-shaking-up-the-media-world/?utm_source=TCSdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=instagram_journalism
Instagram journalism—a number of reporters experimenting with this like Neil Shea, a freelance writer who writers for National Geographic and other pubs
Using outtakes from his trips/assignments and building entire stories around them.
Contributor to GQ, Rolling Stone and Harpers. Also: Virginia Quarterly Review.
Even a few outlets—Virginia Quarterly Review, for example
Hours of video uploaded to YouTube each day
Number of status updates on Facebook each day
Number of tweets per day
Number of Instagram photos uploaded per day
Plus, the loads of content brands are churning out are garbage. It’s either overly self-promotional, or locks on the “real time marketing” trends—like this content.
Who’s doing content right? I like Microsoft’s “Microsoft Stories” site.
Quality – posting less (Sleep Number)
Google News Lab: Public Data Explorer, Google News Archive
677K views
4K likes
640 comments
Would he have got that traction on his corp blog? And Dave Kerpen isn’t really even that big of an “influencer?” How many people have heard of him?
You saw this post last week,right? Hank Green basically destroyed FB’s video view metric in this Medium post.
2,355 recommended it
2,365 liked it
And 80 people commented on it (including a product manager from FB)
This is a personal example—a friend of mine from Minnesota; her FB posts sometimes swell over 700 words in length and she routinely gets 100s of comments on these posts—but I wonder if this could be a potential tactic for businesses, too?
Sleep Number example—employee profile/Behind the Job Title
Do FB posts REALLY have to be so short? Don’t listen to the experts—use what works for you (and experiment).
Organic reach on Facebook for brands: 2 years ago—16%; Today—2%
Twitter CFO quoted last year as saying changes to algorithm are coming—whether people want them or not.
Twitter user numbers have reached a plateau—yet content continues to swell.
Pressure under company to keep making money.
Prepare: More testing, Use paid options (Twitter cards, Facebook retargeting/CTAs)
Periscope users shared their livestreams on Twitter 1.5 million times from March through May 22 (1,510,709, to be exact)
Meerkat livestream URLs were shared on Twitter 1,521,424 times during the same period
According to data from Nuvi
For reference there woud be 15 BILLION tweets sent during the same two-month period.
Meerkat’s total brand awareness is at 9% and Periscope’s is only at 6%.
Brands are a little skittish—big risk; brand guidelines; anytime there’s live video involved
http://contently.com/strategist/2015/07/06/the-explosive-growth-of-online-video-in-5-charts/?utm_source=TCSdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=online_video_growth
HOWEVER, brands are using Periscope and Meerkat to connect with customers and give them behind-the-scenes looks.
Or, using it with contests to gin up awareness
Blog post – featured video; responded to comments actively; this was the de facto news release; they didn’t have a separate news release
614 comments
Merchadised and shared on Facebook – 1,700 likes, 1,000 shares, 800+ comments
Even shared on Instagtram using video of their CEO—which I haven’t seen any brand do to date, especially not a big brand like walmart
900 likes, 142 comments
Merchandised pieces of the infographic on Twitter—elongating the “shelf life” of the “release”
Even used paid search to “Break” the news—maybe the first time I’ve seen a company do this in a coordinated fashion
Also used paid Twitter support to make sure the message was distributed on the platform. Used to amplify.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq1dmuUXogQ
Mtn Dew using VR and Oculus Rift to give fans the experience of snowboarding or skateboarding with their favorite boarders (in Brooklyn in 2014 and at Vail a few weeks ago at US Snowboarding Champs)
Oladipo used Glass to document his NBA Draft experience. First-person storytelling—big opportunity for brands as the tech gets better in the years ahead (Glass was recently shelved—but most think they’ll be back)
And finally, a GREAT use of VR here from Victory Motorcyles using it at a trade show in CHI to allow people to ride a bike—many for the first time.
Nearly 300 people took Victory’s Oculus Rift drive through the desert
92% of them had never tried the technology before and 63% had never even heard of it.
A key stat: 75% of the participants had never ridden a Victory motorcycle.
Shel Holtz post – Netvibes
Using data to inform storytelling
You give us data—we give you additional value.
Smart coffee roaster. London-based Ikawa
Control roasting duration, temp, and airflow for the perfect cup of coffee. (careful though—it has a $1,000+ price tag!)
Data—how you like your coffee
Recommend beans/connect you to producers
Or what about the Fitbit Surge? Tracks your runs, your daily activity. You don’t think there are stories Fitbit can use from this aggregate data?
UK’s Chartered Institute of PR 2015 State of the Profession Study
Huge skills gap. Senior people simply don’t have the depth of skills needed—even though seemingly everyone agrees they are NEEDED and VALUED by execs.
Senior—start reading more; find a “digital mentor”; admit you don’t know it all
Junior—tread lightly, but look for ways to “coach up”, not just provide information (help them UNDERSTAND)
Middle—Pass along articles; suggest team attend certain events; play facilitator