Content distribution is a rapidly evolving practice these days, with increasingly diverse ways to spread your words, images, and videos to your audience. For example, how are live streaming services (like Periscope) molding the way we’ll consume content in the future? Brands need to be on board with adapting new media, leveraging the latest software and technologies to get their content to the right people, at the right time.
We were thrilled to hear moderator Adam Naide of Cox Communications and SocialMediaToday’s Social Shake-Up panel on the topic. This write-up includes everything we learned from the speakers, as well as some additional thoughts. Enjoy!
Panel
Mark Medici, SVP of Audience Strategy at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@medici1)
Brant McLean, SVP of Brand Strategy, Central & South at BuzzFeed (@areaofrefuge)
David Nassar, VP of Communications at The Brookings Institution (@dfnssr)
Moderator
Adam Naide, Social Media & Digital Marketing Leader at Cox Communications (@adamnaide)
And, as you can see below, this panel’s content was being broadcasted to the world LIVE via Periscope. That’s just me leveraging the latest software and technologies to get their content to the right people, at the right time.
Brant’s Wisest Words:
- The world has changed into feeds and prefers to consume content in this manner.
- Facebook or Buzzfeed for their content? Where do your listicles perform best? Facebook! Brant said, “Welcome to distribution,” as this is where friends share with their friends.
- 75% of traffic from social channels = be platform agnostic!
- 50 videos/week, 300 content posts/day; huge amounts of production and aggregation at BuzzFeed.
- Alpha partner with Facebook has paid off.
- Shares:
- Identity-based: Weird Things All Couple Fight About (Replace that toilet paper role!)
- Informative-based: How to Peel a Mango (I’ve been doing it wrong for years!)
- Emotional: Brother Orange -> Quite the story.
- Obviously, GIFs. BuzzFeed does pretty well with their GIFs.
- YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest are their top three social platforms.
- Emerging platform = messaging apps (see, WhatsApp)
- BuzzFeed are included on Snapchat Discover’s platform.
Mark’s Wisest Words:
- Finding content -> Really dig deep and look around: What would be of interest? Must be able to play with Buzzfeed-types as a news aggregator.
- Different “sections” and outlets for different audiences, built into their website(s).
- Pay attention to your data! Yes. Thank you, Mark!
- Tips to consider: Demographics, geography, affinity for topics
- Organic growth + paying attention to the time of day pays off more so than paid promotions. Paid is not for them [AJC].
- Tools: Publish This (content aggregator tool) and Social Flow (monitor social conversations on Instagram/FB/Twitter, powers and works with Publish This, measures key words for relevancy, hooks into CMS, publishes content into content stream backend. Wow.)
- Can’t staff against Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools, have less hands in the office Saturdays and Sundays like normal businesses, but news doesn’t stop.
- Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are AJC’s top three platforms. These days, everyone is a photojournalist, taking hundreds of thousands of photos. Nat Geo does this implementation the best, featuring photos from the creative Nat Geo fans.
- The AJC haven’t excelled at LinkedIn yet. Looking at the Atlanta business community, LinkedIn as primary distribution channel to reach them. Smart.
- Free and paid subscribers …. want to make sure you hit targets with what they want. They are there for different purposes/content.
- Testing new story telling tactics on LinkedIn. Tough nut to crack. Behavior vastly different. Tough with original content, very specific to an audience/region/topic type.
- Still use reporter/editor/senior editor. Want to keep brand affinity, because sixth highest reach in Atlanta = huge.
- Emerging platform: none outside of what’s already been mentioned (Snapchat)
David’s Wisest Words:
- Brookings = impact-driven, not research (quantity)-driven. Content focused.
- 20 pieces original content daily.
- Focus on accessibility of content across platforms!
- Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the institute’s top three social distribution platforms.
- Tip: Change headlines for social.
- Emerging platform: Brooking’s Cafeteria Podcast. Exploring the audio-based way of distribution, widely popular among commuters.
Hope these takeaways were valuable for you.
P.S. By no means do we mean that these few bullets were in fact their “wisest words,” just memorable quotes that we had time to jot down! The Social Shake-Up was really great, and we look forward to attending many more in the future! It was great working the AIMA booth, and meeting a few of Social Media Today’s employees who put it all together, including Mary Ellen Egan and Caitlin McCulloch! Until next time, friends.
