Category: Technology

By Ramairo Davis

Thud. Banging your head on the table. It’s dubbed thought leadership. But why aren’t your thoughts leading? It can’t be as long-winded as a novel yet not as objective as a news article. Scrunch! That’s the third idea in the bin.

You’re not alone!

Forever nudging the copywriters to have a look at my ‘revised’ version and dodging their subsequent stares, I committed myself to master this medium.

Barricaded in my very own Batcave, dimly-lit lamps and two or three empty coffee mugs, I began to crack the Da Vinci Code.

The world’s largest rush hour

Generally, people are very busy, so we want to catch them when they have a few minutes to spare. Whether it is on the train, at lunchtime etc.

If you imagine London’s congestion multiplied by 100,000, it would still fall short of the amount of traffic on the internet. Thus, the internet is the noisiest market known to man. All bloggers are fishermen. And all fishermen need bait.

As the profession suggests, you should be a master of the (inter-)‘net’ and ‘hooks’. And titling is the bloggers’ best weapon.

Frame your titles in ways which let the reader know the value the blog provides, as simply as possible. Jargon? Implied concepts? Don’t! Your audience needs to be ‘spoon-fed’ why your blog is the ‘right’ distraction. Your headtitle needs to lay out exactly what they will get in a clever catchy way. Think about why you bothered to read this blog.

Once you have them ‘hooked’, you need to keep them. Include quirky yet relevant subtitles to segment different sections. Make them bold (it sticks out better when scrolling). It’s a subtle reminder of the value your blog provides. A combination of carefully worded and chosen titles can make all the difference.

Respect the Scroll

Whether it be a click, drag, slide or roll, the ability of web surfers to scroll up and down changes the reading experience fundamentally.

Under gleaming screen light, scrolling transforms human beings into goldfish. Well, just their memory. Their retention span becomes thin and their patience thinner.

People read books but skim blogs. The scroll bar gets through content more quickly than turning pages. And, sadly, online content is consumed in an almost narcotic fashion. We want our fix. Anything that seems too dense loses our interest and won’t survive the scroll bar.

Keep to the point. Use condensed paragraphs and sentences: five lines per paragraph should be the maximum. If you can’t make the point in that way then you need to think again – maybe this isn’t suited to a blog post after all.

Add your own flavour

When someone reads your blog, they devoted some precious seconds in order to read it, so be brave enough to add in your own opinion and flair. The reader chose you for a reason. The reader is hoping you’ll succeed, to prove they didn’t waste their time.

It’s tempting to stay on the fence, in fear of saying something stupid because you’re the newbie. But you still have experiences and opinions. Share them. And someone will doubtless review it before it goes public!

Summary

Blogs bank on the unfortunate ‘goldfish’ in us, surfing the net looking for something relevant and entertaining. It’s called the ‘net’ for a reason. Become the best fisherman by tailoring your repertoire with the medium and audience in mind. With these tips, you may be ready to set up shop in the world’s largest rush hour. Just remember to respect the scroll.

Written by Zoe Poxon

Influencer marketing is all the rage among brands and PR professionals. In a recent study, which elicited responses from marketers across a range of industries, 86% used influencer marketing in 2016, 94% of whom found it effective. It’s a new tactic and there’s still mystery surrounding it. So, what exactly is it – and should you be doing it?

Here’s how it could help your business.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencers are specialists, or celebrities, that have built and retained trust and two-way communication with their followers. Influencer marketing taps into this already established and engaged audience to promote a product or service. Usually, the best campaigns are those where the influencer creates their own unique content to support the brand and its goals.
From health and fitness to stock marketing, social media is swamped with influencers that we try to emulate. And they’re so easy to find – there’s no need to search beyond the standard social media channels. If you need to, they’re probably not worth following.

Is it worth your time?

For this haircare company, one selfie post from Kylie Jenner enabled the brand to reach her 96.7M Instagram followers, generating more than 1.9M engagements:

This comms trick doesn’t just work on the A-list celebrity scales. If you’ve got interesting and relevant content, it’s worth taking the time to find the right influencers to get your story in front of your audience.

Whilst there is some debate over how to measure the success of influencer campaigns, they can have a higher ROI than traditional media campaigns. Take the Budweiser #GiveADamn campaign during the Super Bowl 50. 50 influencer posts across Instagram and Twitter reached 107M people and cost 13x less than Budweiser’s 30 second TV ad (it reached 114M people, at a cost of $5M).

What are the benefits?

There are obvious tangible benefits including follower engagement, driving traffic, and the creation of more authentic content. But let’s not forget that word of mouth recommendations are more important than ever, and social media makes great content essential and relevant.

With the rise of ad blocker usage (and the fast forward button on our TVs), it’s easy to avoid traditional advertising. This, plus the fact that consumers are shifting their attention to digital platforms, makes influencer marketing a very relevant and effective social media strategy.

What does influencer marketing mean for B2B?

It’s unlikely that the Jenners would share our content, but we can relate to other major influencers in our sectors. Martin Lewis has a huge impact in the energy market – all it takes is one mention on This Morning for a company’s sales to rocket. Similarly, a mention from Ashton Kutcher would certainly spark interest in technology. The tech investor has put money into Airbnb, Spotify and Uber, to name a few.

When we generate compelling and engaging content, we might reach out to journalists or thought leaders in our respective sectors to share or put a unique spin on our stories. We might also use Google Hangouts or conduct a poll, which are great ways to gain valuable audience insights. We can then use findings as the basis for creative content, or a broader marketing approach.

How can influencer marketing supercharge your comms?

1. Influencers are already talking to your target audience – they have done the ground work by creating an audience (follower base) for you
2. They have built credibility and trust – followers will be genuinely interested in what an influencer has to say
3. They are everywhere – every industry has influencers, you just need to use the right tools to find them

Traditional PR channels still have high value. But if you’re looking to really amplify your digital comms; engage the influencers that have already won the hearts and minds of the people that would genuinely listen to your message.

To understand how influencers can support your marketing goals, please get in touch.