Tags containing: "audience"

A numbers game: Audience and measurement dominate publishers’ social distribution strategy

March 16, 2017 Ron Miller—Independent Technology Journalist

Today’s myriad content delivery channels and platforms pose formidable challenges in terms of content strategy. Building an audience and understanding the value of that audience tops the list of issues for many publishers. That’s where social strategy and audience development come into play.

Audience development and social strategy teams vary in size and composition. However, almost uniformly, they are charged with attracting an audience via social media. Sometimes that means simply building brand awareness. However, most of the time, the goal is to attract audiences to content on a website or in an app—regardless of where the consumer may have discovered the content in the first place.

But even trying to figure out exactly where and how to publicize content has become tricky with so many social media channels to choose from. Media outlets work hard to keep up with the latest ones, while leveraging their limited resources efficiently. It’s often a balancing act, and it’s not always easy to figure out where your audience is going next.

Team Building

When it comes to audience development teams, managers aren’t necessarily looking for someone who has a big presence on social media. Instead, they are looking for a broader set of skills that fits in with the overall objectives of the particular media outlet. That means understanding the content and what will get people to engage with it.

Raju Narisetti, CEO of Univision’s Gizmodo Media Group sees the audience builder’s job in fairly basic terms. It is essential that they “Have a keen sense of our brands’ sensibility that can then be translated and reflected in that site’s social presence, understanding of how to engage and grow audiences, and a willingness to try new approaches.”

Ryan Kellet, director of audience for the Washington Post social media team, says he generally doesn’t care how overtly active someone may be on social media. He’s not looking for the person with the most followers. “For the audience development team within the newsroom, I only hire journalists, not marketers. If you are a marketer, that’s not what I’m looking for,” he said.

Finding the Audience

The teams work differently across outlets, but (unsurprisingly) the job is generally focused on driving traffic to the content and building brand awareness. The real trick is deciding how to divide up the work across the team and where to publicize the content for the best results.

Helen Havlak, who is engagement editor at The Verge, where she oversees audience growth and distribution strategy, says her social media team uses an on-call system. The editor on call is responsible for reviewing every article before it goes out, checking the headline, the image and even the URL, making sure it’s all putting the article in the best social media light. When not on call, the other editors check analytics, plan social coverage for future events, create Snapchat or Instagram stories and run engagement experiments. Havlak says this keeps everyone involved. And, because the job always varies, it also keeps anyone from getting bored doing just one thing.

The other issue is trying to decide how to allocate people to new social media platforms as they emerge. Narisetti says that at Gizmodo Media they have to make sure a new platform is right for them before even trying it, and they don’t jump at every new shiny thing that comes along. “There isn’t an inherent, defensible first-mover advantage of jumping feet-first onto a new platform when existing ones are still ripe for mining.” He says it comes down mostly to how to best allocate a limited set of resources.

A Numbers Game

Of course, the advantage of using social media platforms to build audience is precisely that you can measure the impact of your work. But even that isn’t always as simple as it sounds.

The Washington Post’s Kellet believes that what you’re measuring is specific to each platform. “We try to be as smart as we can. If you start doing platform comparing at the same time, you can get an apples-to-oranges situation. What does a view mean in the context of a particular platform? You want to be careful when comparing across platforms,” he said.

The Verge team looks at metrics differently. “When comparing across channels, we boil everything down to a “content view” so we can easily look at Facebook Instant Article views, Flipboard flips, Instagram Story views, newsletter opens, etc. in one place. However, because that doesn’t account for the relative ‘value’ of different channels, we also look at engagement metrics like time on page and minutes watched,” Havlak explained.

Narisetti says for him, it’s pretty simple. It’s about “growing engaged social audiences [and] bringing audiences back to our own platform.”

These teams work with content creators, and ideally the individuals who make up the team have a deep sense of the content, allowing them to distribute it appropriately across platforms. Gone are the days, where you threw out some content and hoped for the best. Media outlets have very clear strategies for building audience and dedicated teams to help them achieve their goals.

Innovation | Video

Condé Nast looks ahead, with a focus on the future of digital

December 7, 2016 DCN

Changes are afoot at two well-known Condé Nast brands. In November, the iconic publishing brand announced that Teen Vogue would be going (almost) all-digital. Then, on December 1, Self followed suit. The changes seem to confirm what many of us already think: Digital is mainstream while print is becoming more and more niche.

Traffic to TeenVogue.com more than doubled from 2015 to 2016. And according to Condé Nast’s announcement, “Multiplatform unique visitors increased 147% YoY and mobile traffic more than doubled with an increase of 207% YoY, the biggest increases within the competitive set, and video viewers grew 222% YoY (comScore, September 2016).” These are exactly the kinds of stats you would expect to see from a publication whose audience skews young. So it is no surprise that the company, decided to invest “in Teen Vogue’s digital, video and social content and introduced a larger collectible quarterly print format.”

But the logic behind the transition toward “a new content and distribution strategy that will transform Self into a digital, video and socially-led brand” may not be as immediately self-evident. The regular print production of Self will end in February 2017 (though the Chinese version will go on in print), and continue with “special print editions around health and wellness-related moments throughout the year.”

For this brand, though, the emphasis on digital isn’t about the audience. Fred Santarpia, CDO, Condé Nast, says the Self content lends itself well to the digital format. He says the kind of service oriented content these readers crave—like, for instance, tips and tools to live a healthier lifestyle—plays really well in video format and on social channels. In other words, the content is very shareable.

While the announcement of the official change in strategy is still new, Self has been undergoing a transformation all year long. It got a shiny new website, and began betting big on video content. “Like Hearst Magazines, which led the way here, Conde [Nast] is rationalizing its costs, its brands and its audiences,” says Ken Doctor, author of Newsonomics: Twelve Trends That Will Shape the News You Get. “I expect it to be increasingly rigorous in this movement, under new CEO Bob Sauerberg. That means harder looks at how and where the audiences and advertisers are moving, and adjusting print/digital priority and staffing, accordingly.”

“The fact that Self is pointing to its digital success, especially in video and social, reflects a much stronger position CN has staked in these channels,” says Steve Smith, editorial director of events at MediaPost. “It’s Condé Nast Entertainment network of video across brands has achieved strong growth in recent years, and social presence is helping to drive that even further.”

One of the many notable changes to Condé Nast’s approach to these particular titles is that the company hasn’t entirely killed the print editions. “The move symbolizes the broadest change of our times. Digital has become mass, through social as well as direct, and print has become niche,” says Doctor. “Though print advertising’s free fall in 2016 has been astounding to behold, there are still tens of billions in print advertising. Niche—several to quarterly issues a year—allows publishers to re-introduce a bit of scarcity (always good for sales) and significantly reduce costs. That’s akin to another trend we’ll see within five years: Sunday-only print newspapers, based on the same niche/scarcity/better audience targeting principles.”

Santarpia echoes these sentiments, saying, “Our mission as a company, is to deliver great content wherever audiences are seeking it…and that includes the print platform.” And, as Smith points out, “…newsstand sales of bookazine style specialty issues can still do quite well for publishers – with higher cover prices, longer shelf lives, and still-lucrative print ad sales.”

But the new emphasis on digital for these brands means new opportunities for advertisers. “What you’ll see us really lean into is branded content in a very big way,” says Santarpia. Because branded content so often takes the form of video and is distributed socially, it will be a good fit for these brands.

So what does all of this mean for Condé Nast’s other brands? “I would emphasize that as a company we continue to invest a great deal of resource into our digital business,” says Santarpia. He notes that audiences shouldn’t expect “a legacy digital business.” Rather, he says Condé Nast is “…building the infrastructure and hiring the talent to create great content and deliver it in a premium way.” And that means a focus on new platforms and in new form factors.

Industry-Research | Perspectives

Everyone talks about audience engagement. But what does it really mean?

December 6, 2016 Clare Carr, Vice President of Marketing—Parse.ly

In this year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Project report, “Journalism, Media and Technology Predictions 2016,” Author Nic Newman said that this will be the year of audience engagement—with more than half of all respondents in his study acknowledging that improving audience engagement would be the highest of their priorities in 2016.

And true to this prediction, online media has seen a rise in the title of Audience Engagement Editor. Sites want to know how long readers have engaged with their articles. And above all else, the question remains how to harness this engagement and turn it into results: action, loyalty, monetization.

But what do we mean when we talk about audience engagement? And possibly more important: Do we all mean the same thing?

Digital publishers’ current approach to measuring engagement
Parse.ly surveyed thousands of digital media professionals, asking them to share their definitions of “audience engagement.”

From the 130 plus responses, we learned a majority of digital publishers are measuring audience engagement. Nearly 77% of survey respondents considered the ways their organizations measure engagement to be average or better.

Perhaps one reason that digital publishers are so confident in how they are measuring audience engagement is that they have more access than ever to analytics that can help them to better understand their audience. While some publications have a clear sense of how to use this data to help meet their goals, other media outlets are struggling because they don’t have a universal sense of what goals they are trying to reach.

That’s one reason that there’s no common definition for “audience engagement” among publishers—or even within organizations. Over half of the survey respondents said that their organizations don’t have an agreed upon definition.

These two findings seem to be at odds. How can publishers be active and confident in their measurement methods but unsure of what exactly they’re measuring?

Do we need a common definition for audience engagement?
One explanation could be that many publishers have access to analytics tools but aren’t necessarily setting a common goal for which metrics to measure.

The survey results showed that many publishers considered shares and engaged time to be the best representations of engagement. Rather than settling on one “golden” metric for defining audience engagement though, many publishers combined multiple metrics, such as “page views per visitor” or “shares plus comments.”

Furthermore, while only 28% of digital publishers considered “offline impact” a representation of engagement, many respondents (when asked to share anecdotes that represented particularly good examples of audience engagement) talked about audience engagement as a personal relationship or interaction with readers.

Take a look:

“Personal replies that make me smile or think.”
“A two-way relationship with the people in our community.”
“To interact in any way with the content or the author — write a comment, answer a poll, follow the author, share, etc.”
“When our audience responds with a question, especially.”

Getting on the Same Page About Audience Engagement
A recent audience engagement webinar with panelists from Hearken, MediaShift, and Parse.ly touched on the importance of settling on a common definition within an organization, whether that definition involves one metric or many.

Parse.ly CEO Sachin Kamdar explained, “It’s probably important that you talk with everyone at your organization around how you want to define engagement. But tied into that…is you’ve got to be able to measure it, too.”

He continued, “So, picking the right metrics—and again, that might be a multitude of metrics that are important to you—can help you align your goals of engagement with how you can measure and that can lead towards success.”

Clare Vice President of Marketing at Parse.ly, which partners with digital publishers to provide clear audience insights through an intuitive analytics platform. She writes and speaks about all the ways companies can use digital analytics to improve their operations and reach their audience goals. Prior to joining Parse.ly, Clare spent five years on the publishing side as the Director of Marketing and Online Operations at Greentech Media. Previous to that, she did digital marketing and business development at ThePoint.com, the precursor to Groupon, and Venus Zine. Originally from Ohio, she graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Environmental Sciences.

Innovation | Perspectives

The Power of Intent in Next Gen Digital Media

August 3, 2015 DCN

Consumers today have an unprecedented amount of choice — where they get information, where they shop, what device they use. This gives marketers infinite options on the places they can go to target eyeballs, demographics and customers and, paired with advertising technology. And it’s rendering certain publisher brands almost irrelevant.

Never before has it been so important to truly differentiate yourself as a publisher. It’s no secret that many companies’ whose main offering is journalism are struggling to avoid becoming the next Internet failure. Old school publishers’ sustenance was connecting eyeballs to marketers. This is what paid for content. Many “new media” companies are, more or less, still leaning on this value proposition. And despite funding and adoration, just producing traffic isn’t sustainable.

The New Digital Order
To succeed in the new digital world, you need content that’s unique, provides value to consumers, and you need a unique business model. If you’re creating marginally valuable content for readers, you can’t get marketers to pay you because you’re not attracting valuable eyeballs that are meaningfully differentiated, or the audience is easily found in many other places. And if the marketer spend doesn’t cover content costs and at least a portion of general overhead, you cannot be a profitable business.

As the Internet has brought attention to the performance of marketing, both online and offline, marketers look for scale. But they’re increasingly looking for down-funnel reach — targeted audiences to serve ads and promotions to — and they expect results.

There are a few different camps of publisher monetizing strategies arising. One is with the BuzzFeeds of the world : general news and entertainment entities taking the public by storm. They have unique models and content styles that incorporate multiple formats and delivery mechanisms, user generated content, mobile and more to drive down the traditionally heavyweight costs of good content generation—and they attract huge audiences. They monetize those audiences mostly with native ads and with ad inventory that programmatic ad tech vendors use to target users based on their online behavior.

Another camp is with a certain set of publishers, who, rather than continuing the publishing tradition centered on building an audience first and foremost, create direct revenue streams by building platforms that attract and support contextual purchase intent. This group includes Forbes.com, which works with a third party Sharethrough to create Content Cards, a tool that allows publishers to create and sell ads directly to advertisers.

Still, the overwhelming mentality in this industry is “I’m a publisher and I build audience,” and then I’ll sell access to that audience to marketers. But we, as publishers, aren’t limited to that. We can figure out ways of doing things differently and diversifying. If we don’t, we won’t be able to build sustainable and thriving businesses — or, worse, we’ll cease to exist.

A Service-Oriented Approach to Publishing & Brand Development
All the most important web companies are solving a problem. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. At its core, it’s incredibly utilitarian. It does this with its search engine, but also across other mediums — video on YouTube, hot air balloons that provide Internet access to remote areas in Project Loon and via health-tracking contact lenses. At their core, these are all about connecting people to information.

As Jerry Dischler, vice president of product management for AdWords at Google has said, “Our mission has always been to connect people with what they are looking for in the exact moment they are looking. These are moments that matter to consumers, to marketers and to us at Google because they are when decisions are being made and preferences shaped.”

So why don’t more publishers take this approach and focus on the problem they can solve for readers and, then, how they solve it? Rather than being constricted to the old model—“I’m a publisher and I build audience”—modern digital publishing companies have the capability, like Google, to bring content, services and different tools together to solve a single problem. If you’re not doing this to some degree, you’re just old media reformatted.

There is yet another crop of digital publishers emerging who actually are doing this — combining the traditional publishing model with a service-oriented approach. Houzz blends photos, content and connections to actual home professionals to help people redesign homes. Yelp combines user reviews and local advertising to help people find businesses and restaurants. TripAdvisor merges reviews, forums and on-site booking to help people plan travel. At Purch, we do something similar to help people make complex buying decisions, especially technology-related, by connecting product reviews, user recommendations, e-commerce, and mobile-based in-store shopping.

We — and others that focus on solving a specific problem — are in a new category of “publishing,” marrying content, commerce and community, in respective industries, to genuinely hit consumers’ expectations and serve their needs.

The model is no longer primarily about content, but about supporting the entire experience and the job that needs to get done — bringing all of the assets you possibly can to the user’s problem. We, like Google, are utilitarian at our core. We, as a category, are disrupting specific verticals where consumers seek out information to make a decision — whether to buy a new smartphone or to rewire their home to make it ‘smart.’ We’re oriented around a task and recognize that consumers’ expectations have evolved.

Expert editorial content, promotions, user-generated content and reviews, mobile apps, online storefronts, and even ads, all comprise the service-orientated approach to publishing. The big difference is that the service-oriented approach doesn’t just throw ads onto the pages, but instead considers how to bring them into a full-circle environment to service the consumer.

This enables a vibrant publishing model with a diversified revenue stream where advertising is a minority piece of the pie. By extending to offerings beyond content, you’re not just competing for digital advertising dollars, but also lead generation, brand marketing, affiliate and CPA budgets. What’s so compelling about this business model is the notion that we’re reaching consumers when they are making their final decision — it’s a very clear value proposition for a marketer.

And when this model, or better yet consumer environment, is well-designed and constructed around solving a problem — like Houzz, TripAdvisor, and others including Purch, are — all of the activities under the umbrella, including advertising, become helpful, rather than burdensome to consumers. When you get this dynamic working, you’ll see performance that’s off the charts. Service-oriented publishers are able to bring exponential value to marketers and build a healthy business while still serving, and holding above all else, the user.

It’s also worth saying that a service-oriented approach doesn’t necessarily mean that a publisher should abandon all content that doesn’t help someone make a decision. There’s still value in content that generally informs, entertains, and enlightens its audience, but it simply can’t be the cornerstone of this type of business model.

Not Just “New Media” In Name, But in Practice
Publishers used to deliver information consumers were seeking out in a very one-dimensional way, restricting their ability to build great, lasting businesses in today’s multi-channel digital age. But today, look at all of the tools we have to do this. In fact, Google’s ability to meet its mission is largely fueled by the publisher community. It is simply a very convenient mechanism to direct a consumer to what they are looking for when they need it most.

The byproduct of this problem-solving and service-oriented model may still look like digital publishing, but in actuality it uses content, data, advertising technology, tools, services and apps to help consumers make decisions — at scale, in whatever way works for them at a personal level. Like Google, service-oriented publishers can and have found a connective tissue between all these mechanisms. The problem lies at the center and each of these tools and services are attached to it horizontally, allowing us to meet the today’s consumer expectations.

It’s a tumultuous time for publishers, but an exciting one, too, and it’s only the first inning of the game for Purch and our peers. Every additional step toward this model, and expanding it to keep up with what’s to come, creates new, unprecedented ways to create lasting value to consumers, marketers and the industry.

Greg Mason (@gmason @PurchGroup) joined Purch, formerly TechMedia Network, as Chief Executive Officer in 2012, bringing over twenty years of product development and innovation in technology media and digital publishing. Prior to joining Purch, Greg served as Executive Vice President of Consumer Services at WebMD. Prior to WebMD, he spent eleven years with CBS Interactive and CNET Networks where he held a variety of global operational roles, culminating in the leadership of the entire technology and news portfolio. Before his time at CNET, Greg spent a combined eleven years with Ziff Davis and International Data Group (IDG) in various publisher, sales, and sales management roles.

Innovation

Univision Builds a “Billennial” MCN to Make the Most of Social Stars’ Influence

July 31, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

U.S. teens are bigger fans of YouTube stars than they are the best-known celebrities in film, TV and music so it is no surprise that media companies and brands are experimenting with ways to bridge the gap and incorporate these new media phenomena into the mainstream mix. Disney took the acquisition route when it purchased Maker Studios last year, however Univision decided to build its own multi-channel network (MCN) of content creators from platforms such as YouTube and Vine. The new Univision Creator Network is also an effort to build Univision Communications’ connection with bilingual millennials or “billennials.”

There are many roads you can take to reach this demographic, according to Steven Benanav, VP of Content Partnerships and GM of Flama at Univision Communications (UCI). “But working with the digital talent is a very direct path,” he says. “They’ve already got their audience and fan base and they know what these fans love.” Benanav says that he can see why younger audiences are so enamored with digital stars, “Because of the medium they are able to form relationships and connections with their fans that celebrities haven’t been able to do in the past; there are no walls between them.”

The creators that Univision will be working with boast a significant audience: 118 million video views per month for the dozen or so creators signed at launch. And while those numbers say a lot, Benanav got a first-hand view of the passion their audiences feel for them at VidCon, when they announced the launch of the Creator Network. “I can only say that it was what I imagine Beatlemania to have been like. Their fans go crazy for them.”

And even though they all already have great audience reach and connection, Benanav says these successful digital stars are excited about the possibilities offered by partnering with Univision. “For a lot of them, the Univision brand is really powerful; it is a brand they’ve grown up with and they have a sense of pride in being part of the Univision network.”

That brand affinity isn’t the only appeal—there are also the additional resources Univision offers including access to Univision studios in Los Angeles and New York City; access to a massive music library; an ecosystem that will extend the creators’ brand across TV, digital, radio and live events; and, of course, revenue opportunities that will benefit UCI, the creators, and brands alike.

Benanav notes that they see the network as a “sharable backbone” and that any group within Univision—including Flama, Fusion and El Rey now has access to this digital talent to develop new and different products that are authentic for them and their audiences. It also “quickly expands the reach we’re able to deliver to sponsors,” Benanav points out.

UCI advertising partners will have access to the Univision Creator Network to expand their marketing efforts through branded content integrations across the creators’ networks and applicable Univision properties. While there has been a learning curve as UCI’s sales approach increasingly focuses on developing larger packages that leverage the breadth of its network. To that end, The Univision Creator Network has a point person dedicated to supporting the sales and marketing side to educate, inform, and foster growth of the opportunities it presents.

Given that millennials now outnumber baby boomers in the population and that Latinos will account for more than 80% of the growth in the population of 18- to 29-year-olds over the next few years, UCI’s “billennial” focus makes sense. Benanav says that he loves seeing the company go in this new direction. “It is a really exciting, smart and bold move that extends our reach and helps us find a new and bigger audience.”

Industry-Research

How Kids’ Media Palate Changes as They Age

March 6, 2015 DCN

A Nielsen analysis found that as young viewers cognitively and developmentally change, so too do their cross-platform habits.

According to Nielsen, kids’ media consumption across age ranges is akin to transitioning from strained peas to silverware—with distinct differences in taste, viewing and listening preference, and even who they’re viewing with.

For example, while more than 95% of all kids (2-17) prefer to watch traditional television over 20 hours a week—with Hispanic kids averaging about a half-hour more—the analysis found that older kids and teens go online on computers more, as about 29% of teens 14 to 17 years old were online via computer for at least one minute in March 2014.

Read the Nielsen post: Grow and Tell: As Children Age from Toddlers to Teens, Their Media Palate Changes

Industry-Research | Video

Digital Dominates Millennial Content Consumption

March 4, 2015 Research Team

DEFY Media has announced findings from its third annual ACUMEN Report: Constant Content. The report, conducted in partnership with Hunter Qualitative and KnoWhy Research, focused on teens and young adult Millennials to examine their content consumption.

According to the report, digital dominates their content consumption with 13-24 viewers revealing a considerable 11.3 hours weekly watching “free” online video and 10.8 hours of subscription online video weekly – nearly twice the time reported for free online TV offerings from broadcast and cable networks (6.4 hours) or 8.3 for regularly scheduled TV. And, while 96% of those surveyed say they watch online video, only 57% watch free online TV and 56% watch recorded TV with no differences across the age range.

This segment also finds online personalities to be the most relatable and influential. For the millennial set, YouTubers are the today’s role models. Among the younger 13-17 segment, 32% responded they are more likely to look up to a YouTube personality over traditional celebrities, while the older 18-24 set reported a slightly higher affinity towards TV and movie stars (36% vs. 26% for YouTubers).

Perspectives

Tweets Can’t be Measured by Clicks Alone

February 26, 2015 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

How are we to judge social juggernauts such as Twitter anyway? If we go by Wall Street, the longtime microblogging service is a miserable failure for having “just” 288 million active users at the end of 2014. While most publishers would give their left arm for that kind of massive engagement, Twitter is judged by a different standard: Facebook and its billion-plus user base. Twitter is damned if they do (grow users without revenues) or damned if they don’t (grow revenues without users).

And even when Twitter turns around its business, nearly doubling revenues in its most recent quarter to $479 million — with a profit to boot (if you don’t count one-time stock expenses) — there’s still grousing by some journalists who say Twitter isn’t driving enough referral traffic to their stories.

The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson recently did an in-depth analysis of his engagement on Twitter by looking at the stats surrounding what he thought was an enticing tweet. He found, disappointingly, that only one percent of the people who saw that tweet actually clicked on the link, even though it received more than 1,200 retweets and had upwards of 155,260 impressions. The link, of course, was to Thompson’s story on The Atlantic’s site. As he put it, “So, 99 percent of my labor on Twitter went to Twitter, and 1 percent went to The Atlantic. That’s not a very good deal for our boss!”

Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile tweeted the moral of Thompson’s story: that there is “effectively no correlation between social shares and people actually reading.”

However it’s important to remember that the frustration with Twitter engagement and branding is different for different users. Journalists interact with and use Twitter in one way, brands and publishers another. Building a brand or following, or attracting the influence of “tastemakers” who could help a tweet reach a wider audience, is strategic for both groups. So even if Thompson’s tweet had a poor click-through rate, no one can deny the power of those tweet impressions. He also offered up the kind of tweet that’s useful for people on the go or those who aren’t necessarily interested in reading the whole article (as upsetting as it probably is to most writers, sometimes a headline fills the reader’s need).

Thompson tweeted: “Almost every major patent concept from the 1930s was in chemistry. Today, all software.” And he included a visual to illustrate his point.

Almost every major patent concept from the 1930s was in chemistry. Today, all software. http://t.co/I5TamvQHdQ pic.twitter.com/QHNDFAyNRl

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) February 9, 2015

Arguably, that is a pretty satisfying tweet all on its own.

But brands are pretty happy getting engagement on Twitter without clickthroughs. Digiday’s John McDermott responded to Thompson’s story by noting that a Simply Measured report found that “engagement with tweets from [top] brands increased by 85 percent in the last three months of 2014.” Plus, out of the Top 100 brands, the volume of tweets increased by 11% and follower counts were up 38% — all likely due to the more prominent engagement buttons on Twitter.

Perhaps anticipating letdown at its poor user growth, Twitter announced a slew of new offerings ahead of its fourth quarter earnings. Users can now take advantage of group messaging, utilize a new in-site video recording service up to 30 seconds (compared with Vine’s six-second loop), observe the tweets they may have missed while they were away, and — for new or potential users — get insight into top tweets on the revamped Twitter homepage.

Twitter also recently announced that Twitter ads would be featured outside of Twitter for the first time, on Flipboard and Yahoo Japan. The new partnership effectively helps Twitter make money off of non-users. Although it’s tough to say now how effective this collaboration might be (don’t forget Twitter will have to split the revenue), it’s positive news on the advertising business front.

Maybe it’s time we just face the facts: Twitter is not another Facebook, nor should it strive to be. It’s a great communication platform for reporters, publishers, brands and anyone who wants to help shape the conversation about what’s happening now (or on TV). Even if USA Today’s “For the Win” blog has dropped the Twitter share button on its stories, that doesn’t mean they won’t be present on Twitter. It just means that the value of a tweet is more than a tally of clickthroughs.

Perspectives | Video

Get a Good Picture of Your Video Audience

December 1, 2014 DCN

Over the past several years, there has been a rush to create ever more digital video content by those you’d expect—traditional broadcast companies such as A+E Networks and NBCUniversal and multiplatform companies like Bloomberg and ESPN—as well as a slew of “print-” or “text-based” companies such as Conde Nast and Business Insider. Yet with companies rushing headlong to heed the siren song of booming digital video viewership and ever-increasing demand for video advertising, it is so good to read a level-headed evaluation of video audiences by way of Chartbeat Chief Data Scientist, Josh Schwartz.

He writes:

There’s significant momentum for publishers toward increasing the production of video content, on account of both the strength of video as a medium for storytelling and high video CPMs as advertisers begin to move their TV spends online (see the Chicago Tribune’s coverage for one example). An increase in video content across the board, of course, means that it’s all the more important that we have a sense of which parts of our audience we can hope to reach with video…

When visitors land on a text-based article, in almost all circumstances they read some portion of the article’s content… With video consumption, though, the situation is entirely different: Excepting sites that automatically start videos when a visitor lands on the page, there’s massive attrition between the act of visiting a page with video on it and the act of actually pressing play. Of course, if someone doesn’t even play a video, the quality of the content is moot – we can’t possibly hope to win them over with a video that isn’t watched – so our first goal must be to identify and understand who the best candidates are for pressing play.

His piece “Video Production Is on the Rise – But Who’s Watching?” PBS Media Shift is well worth a read for those making a move into, or seeking to optimize their investment in, digital video.

Innovation | Perspectives

Q&A: Gabriel Lewis, EVP Development & Strategy Maker Studios, on Media for Millennials

November 20, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: Do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand affinity/loyalty with them?

A: Brand loyalty for millennials is less a rule, and more of an ongoing dialogue. They’re the most media-savvy generation, having been raised in an ever-expanding ecosystem of platforms and content that gets more and more niche and targeted. As these choices become greater, brand affinity becomes more valuable for consistency of voice and identity (and identification, i.e. “this represents who I am, my values, etc.”), but the flip side is that it’s easier to move on when and if a brand betrays their trust. It’s also the first generation to be raised in an environment where direct feedback to brands is very, very public. Millennials aren’t just consumers, they’re participants… and they expect to be treated with an appropriate level of respect in that conversation.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

A: At Maker, our core business is short-form content, and there continues to be a trend for shorter and more snackable digital video. The length of the average online video dropped 27% in the past year from 5.1 to 3.7 minutes. Once you start factoring in mobile video consumption—something 98% of millennials do every day—it’s inevitable this trend will continue for a large segment of digital content.

This leads to a broader conversation around producing the appropriate content for the platform it will live on. User behavior varies from platform to platform, and more than ever it’s important for content creators to have a distribution strategy in mind before going too far down a path developing the actual content. Just taking it across four typical distribution paths–TV, OTT, Web, Mobile–will yield a different approach to how the content is developed and produced. Within each of those distribution paths there’s also an additional layer of UX that will inevitably dictate how audiences interact with that content; the key is to be as far upstream and as aware of your goals as possible.

One of the most important questions any content creator can ask before starting any project is: “what does success look like?” It seems pretty basic, but I’ve oftentimes found myself in conversations with marketers or producers who start with the love of an idea or strategic approach and then try to force it into the proper lane to find success, as opposed to starting with a goal, e.g., audience, brand affinity, engagement, conversion, etc., and then developing their content and distribution strategy accordingly.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

A: While the word has become a bit commoditized, I would say authenticity is paramount. More specifically, having a clear perspective, being transparent, and fostering meaningful dialogue are assets for attracting and retaining millennial consumers. The explosive growth of social media among millennials is indicative of this dialogue-driven culture shift. Audiences can now connect directly with brands and creators that resonate with them. The elimination of gatekeepers and the continuing evolution of audience expectations are quickly relegating legacy approaches to content creation (and marketing) obsolete.

Digital platforms have opened up a world of opportunity to create content that leverages data and direct feedback. While programming has always been both art and science, at this point the science is getting more and more robust, and the artistry needs to start adapting accordingly.

Gabriel Lewis serves as Executive Vice President of Development and Strategy at Maker Studios, leading the company’s development of original content across platforms and strategic programming partnerships. Maker is the world’s largest network of short-form online video bringing together a diverse community of YouTube creators and global franchises as part of The Walt Disney Company. The company is home to the biggest digital stars and leading programming such as the hugely popular online series “Epic Rap Battles of History.” Prior to Maker, Gabriel served as Head of AOL On Originals, overseeing creative development, production, marketing and strategy for AOL’s original series and branded entertainment initiatives. Gabriel also served as Vice President of AOL Studios, where he co-created and launched the award-winning live streaming network “HuffPost Live.” Prior to AOL, he worked as a writer and producer for a variety of television and film projects. Gabriel is a graduate of Ithaca College and holds a B.S. in Communications.

Innovation

Q&A: Philippe von Borries, Co-founder and CEO Refinery 29, on Media for Millennials

October 31, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: In your opinion and experience, do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand loyalty with them?

Millennials do have loyalty, but the challenge is in building it. Brands–whether they’re a publisher, beauty brand or tech company–need to be aware of a millennials’ aspirations to live mindful lives. They need to understand the values of millennials and inform his or her needs. In our case, our audience wants content that appeals to her passions, her goal-driven sensibility, and that ultimately empowers her expression. Brands need to make their message experiential and craft it around her personal life – it is all about being relatable and driving purpose.

Above all else, millennial women are passionate. While their mothers might have loyally read Vogue or always used Dove soap, when millennial women find a brand they love, they don’t just buy it, they talk about it, post it, save it, share it. They become a spokesperson for that brand, not just a consumer.

Research shows 70% of millennial consumers want to hear about brands from a trusted source. 82% agree that they only share brands that they are truly passionate, so building that affinity is critical.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

Absolutely. At its core, Refinery29 aims to inspire our audience to live more stylish, well-informed, and creative lives. But, there’s nothing one-dimensional or unilateral about our approach. Millennial women are (obviously) multi-faceted and their interests reflect that. Refinery29 reflects that as well. At any given moment, you could find a hair braiding tutorial next to an interview with Chelsea Clinton, alongside a comprehensive guide to fall shopping and a thought piece on hashtag activism or an essay by Sandra Fluke. We know our audience thinks about and cares about style and creativity just as much as they care about entertainment, feminism, and technology. And you can best understand this on our mobile feed, where you see all of our content, across all of these categories and more, living in harmony in one continuous feed.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

For us, it is all about user engagement. We want our audience to interact with our content in a meaningful way—and we want to get in there (in the comments on the site, on every possible social platform, and in person as well) to create real dialogue with them. It’s not about relentlessly scaling your audience, but about finding the right audience that really cares about what you are producing.

Millennial-minded women take a deliberate and thoughtful approach to their daily lives, and we approach our content in this way as well—not least of all because a large chunk of our editors and writers are millennial women. It’s this approach to engaging and inspiring our audience that has led us to become the largest independent style and lifestyle site in the US.

Philippe von Borries is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Refinery29. He founded the company with his friend Justin Stefano from a kitchen in Brooklyn in 2005 with a mission to inspire people to lead smart, stylish and creative lives. Philippe oversees Refinery29’s content, product and marketing teams and drives the strategic direction of its content strategy which has been the driving force for the company’s growth. Philippe got his start in digital media working at The Globalist, a DC-based international affairs startup. He graduated with a degree in history from Columbia University.

Innovation

Q&A: Jonathan Hunt, VP, Global Marketing and Partnerships, Vox Media on Media for Millennials

October 16, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: In your opinion and experience, do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand affinity/loyalty with them?

A: Yes and no. Above all else, young people (and frankly everyone) value quality and honesty. If another media brand can come along and offer a superior product then they have an opportunity to usurp loyalty. The fact is we live in a time when we’re getting our information from hundreds of different sources — publishers, social feeds, mobile apps, our friends and family and coworkers — all day every day. This is referred to as an Attention Economy. So more so now than ever qualities like utility, entertainment, honesty, and personality can easily trump loyalty.

But what happens when you consistently provide premium, honest stories to your readers? You can create loyalty. It’s easier said than done, but that’s our approach to every aspect of our business and why we’ve been on an explosive growth trajectory.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

A: We have to, but again I wouldn’t say this is relative to Millennials only–it’s a fundamental shift in how we all discover and share content, it just so happens that young people are quicker to experiment and adopt new ways of getting what they want when they want. At Vox Media, we’re platform and content agnostic. We’re not precious when it comes to how we get in front of as many people as possible; this is how we’ve been able to scale so quickly. So you may experience a Vox Media brand through one of our responsive sites, or on Tumblr, or as a video or a cinemagraph, through Xbox or Yahoo, or on a partner’s mobile app. As long as I can reach you and give you a reason to care about what we have to say, I know I have a better chance of getting you to experience our brand through other more premium experiences that impact our P&L.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

A: This is a question with no single answer. You want to cater to consumption habits (you going to them vs. them always coming to you); content formats (speaking to them through the types of content they create and share themselves); and providing them stories or news that have utility, are unique and entertaining, aren’t pandering, and don’t attempt to frame your brand as something that it’s not. This is the smartest generation ever, and they know it, so the best litmus test when building something for this audience is to ask yourself, “Who cares?” If you can’t answer that question unequivocally then there’s a good chance the answer is, “No one.”

Jonathan Hunt is the Global VP of Marketing at Vox Media where he leads audience development and distribution, co-sales partnerships, paid media strategy, and comms. Prior to Vox, he was the Global Marketing Director at VICE Media.