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Defining content marketing, native advertising and engagement

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Content marketing. Native advertising. Engagement.

These, my friends, are the buzzwords du jour. And there seem to be as many definitions OF them as there are letters IN them. Every publisher, every social network defines them in the context of their offer, their platform — what they are able to deliver to the advertiser.

Which is of relatively little use to the brand marketer trying to compare these disparate offerings and make decisions among them. In order to do that, you have to strip away the bells and whistles of the digital platforms and properties to get to a simple common definition of WHAT these things are. In other words, get to the apples to apples of things first, and then look at the embellishments offered by each platform/publisher.

To help us out, here are my simple definitions.

Content Marketing

Content marketing isn’t exactly new. In fact, it’s as old as the first testimonial, and I’m sure if we looked hard enough we could find that in the Bible. Not to start a religious war or anything but some might say that the Bible itself was an early form of content marketing. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Turn of the (20th) century woman’s literature.

Content marketing is storytelling used to persuade. Prior to the modern age, it was more often and obviously used for ideas, but first person testimony has been used for products since the very first marketplaces.

The digital form offers some twists that we don’t find in Paine, Genesis or turn-of-the century pamphlets for this or that medicine.

In digital, content marketing is far more overtly used for products. Sponsored content on blogs, consumer resource sites sponsored by brands, brand sponsored Pinterest boards and Facebook Pages. Even content driven advertising. Format doesn’t matter – editorial, testimonial, advertorial, advertising –as much as the simple notion that there is intrinsic value in the content. In other words, I don’t have to buy the product to get some value.

The value in the content independent of its role as a branded or brand sponsored message is what drives sharing. In the digital sphere, we can track and measure that sharing, and use that information to tweak our tale, adjust our strategy. A real-time option definitely not available to Mr. Paine. It took him years and an occasional stint in Parisian prisons to get his feedback.

Native Advertising

It’s no secret that I find this term unnecessary. It’s a buzzword in search of a unique meaning.

In some circles, it means an advertising message (of any length) delivered in the “native” format of the platform. This can be anything from a Facebook post or a tweet, to a brand logo perched on a blog post a la BuzzFeed. Even a brand-written advertorial “guest posted” in a blogger’s editorial space. The term can also be expanded to include all forms of sponsored content, even that which is not 100% controlled by the brand.

My question has always been – why do we even need the term? We have perfectly good terms — advertising, editorial, advertorial, content and sponsored content. Advertising is a message developed and controlled by a brand. Editorial is a message developed and controlled by the author or publisher. Advertorial is a blend of the two, and strictly speaking only should be applied to editorial-like content developed and controlled by the advertiser, although you will find it applied to independently written sponsored posts.

Collectively, digitally, all of these things can be considered content. Yes, even advertising. And when a brand sponsors and informs it, we call it sponsored content. So why exactly do we need the term native advertising?

I suppose underlying the rise of and desire for the term is the idea that native somehow makes it better. The thought process must be something like this: “Native. That’s like organic, right? So it MUST be better.”

Poppycock.

There’s nothing wrong with advertising. It serves its purpose in the marketing mix, as do all the other tools in the toolbox.

Engagement.

Simple right? Engagement is the measure of consumer interaction with the brand message. It’s an action – reading a blog post, retweeting or sharing a Facebook post, pinning an image.

Engagement is not exposure.

Exposure to a message is important, additive and critical. Without exposure, there is no possibility of engagement, and we know that repeated exposures increase likelihood of eventual purchase. Understanding the potential exposures to our message is the crucial base for a concrete action based model for engagement.

With advertising, we buy impressions but evaluate the success of our programs on click-through. In social, we acquire exposures (paid or earned, it really doesn’t matter) and evaluate the success based on actual consumer engagement with the message – by reading content, clicking through to a site, entering a sweepstakes, pinning an image, retweeting and so on.

This is all moving toward models that are predictive of sales, or at minimum can be used to forecast with some degree of accuracy. We aren’t there yet, and even when we are, it will never be perfect. Things that involve people never are totally predictable, but the more we understand what works to move the needle — what is effective —  the more efficient we can be with our marketing spend.

One tactic that will help in this mission is to design engagements — actions — that move the consumer along the sales funnel. For example, instead of simply collecting an opt-in email address for more information on your micro-site, develop an interactive widget that helps the consumer understand which of your products might fit her best, or provides use scenarios that she can try on for size. Whenever possible, engage your customer actively, not passively.

And that’s it for today’s vocabulary lesson. What popular industry terms and jargon do you think could stand a little deconstruction? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

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The Pinterest chapter, Part Two:Engaging with Brands on Pinterest and Sponsored Pins

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

And, now the conclusion of my multi-part “chapter” on using Pinterest as a promotional tool.

English: Red Pinterest logo
English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As you grow your influence within the Pinterest ecosystem, you may get offers for sponsored opportunities. I am not talking about “Pin It To Win It” sweepstakes. I covered why I don’t recommend them to influencers or brands in my previous post.

So what does make sense for influencers to engage with brands on Pinterest? I break it down into four basic opportunities:

  1. Creating a board for a brand on its Pinterest account. You are essentially acting as a freelancer, curating pins to align with a brand message or theme. Some brands may wish to leverage your reputation as the content curator, and others may just want your expertise. You might be curating from deep archives of brand content to create a compelling re-pinworthy board or sourcing material from the Internet, always taking care to respect copyrights. With regard to FTC disclosure, it is a board on the brand account so it is assumed to be commercial activity. The brand will likely have a branding message it wants included on or in each pin.
  2. If you are writing a sponsored post for a brand, including compelling and pinworthy images to encourage readers to pin.  These can be branded or unbranded. If you do sponsored posts, you are likely already asked to include compelling and pinworthy images to encourage readers to pin. And if you haven’t been, you will be, as it is becoming a standard ask. When your users pin images from your sponsored posts, they are not required to disclose, as they are not compensated for their action. If you pin images from your sponsored posts, you should include a disclosure statement on the pin.
  3. Creating a board for a brand on YOUR Pinterest account. If you are approached to create a board for a brand on your account, carefully evaluate the ask. Will the resulting board be interesting to your followers?  Is the brand asking you to pin all branded content or is the assignment broader, curating a board aligned with the brand message but not necessarily brand content? Both of these scenarios can be effective but it depends on the brand. The board and all the sponsored pins must include a disclosure statement, such as “Sponsored by”  on the board description and #sponsored on the pins.
  4. Pinning brand content to your boards, but not to a specific board. This is a very effective way to distribute brand content without fatiguing your Pinterest followers. It works best when the brand has a deep archive of branded content from which you can curate. A good rule of thumb: the pool of content you are curating from should be between 2 to 4 times larger than the total number of pins you have been asked to add to your Pinterest boards. In other words, if you are asked to curate 10 pins, an ideal pool should be between 20-40 pieces of content. All the pins must include a disclosure such as #sponsored. Including just the hashtag of the brand is NOT sufficient.

Some things to keep in mind:

  • Pins are entities in and of themselves, and are most often viewed independently from the boards of which they are a part. Boards are useful organizing constructs but pins are the principal discovery mechanism. Make sure each and every pin is a useful piece of discrete content, with proper attribution and disclosure.
  • Your followers do not have to retain the disclosure if they repin a sponsored pin. You were compensated and must disclose. They were not.
  • Follow the 80/20 rule here as well: 80% non promotional pins, 20% promotional, whether for your own content or sponsored.

And there you have it, in two-and-a-half parts, the Pinterest chapter that would have been. What are your tips and thoughts on the best ways to use this platform?

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The Pinterest Chapter: A Sidebar on Pin It To Win It

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

Reviewing the content for the second part of my “book chapter” on using Pinterest to promote your blog, I realized there was a great deal of content about sweepstakes and contests on Pinterest as a marketing tactic that really merited its own post. So herewith the Pin It To Win It sidebar.

Straight up, I do not recommend Pin It To Win It as an engagement tactic. There are better, more authentic and far less complicated ways for brands to engage with influencers on Pinterest, which I will outline in my next post, the “official” Part Two of my Pinterest “chapter.”

With the current functionality of the Pinterest platform, Pin It To Win It sweepstakes are complicated and ugly. Entering is usually a multi-step process. Six or more seems to be the norm: follow the brand on Pinterest, register on a website or entry form that you are participating, then create the pins (however many are required) and then go back and register the pins.

They are also a big ole tease. Pinterest is not simply broadcasting, it is long term curation. As a result, users find pins sometimes weeks and months later. Pins promoting long-over sweepstakes? Yucky.

Pinterest sweeps and contests also don’t necessarily give the brand the reach it expects. If the prize is terrific, some Pinterest powerhouses will enter but for most sweeps, entrants will be folks with more modest followings. Creating my personal pet peeve: Pinterest sweeps have spawned hundreds and hundreds of abandoned pinboards created for no other reason than to enter the sweepstakes. Pin Junkyards, if you will.

If/when the Pinterest platform can support sweepstakes and contests within the ecosystem, they could be a lot of fun. Right now though, I do not recommend them as a marketing strategy. You want to take the time to enter them? Go for it. But at the current state of play, Pinterest sweeps don’t contribute to brand building the way everyone hopes.

That said, marketers: if you absolutely must do a sweeps on Pinterest, please familiarize yourself with Pinterest’s brand guidelines for the service’s excellent recommendations.

For ease of reference, the Do’s and Don’ts for sweep and contests below are reproduced in full from Pinterest’s Brand Guidelines (http://business.pinterest.com/brand-guidelines/)

Do:

  • Remember that Pinterest is all about people discovering things that inspire them. Reward quality pinning over quantity.
  • Make it easy to get involved with clear and simple instructions.
  • Read our anti-spam measures to keep your contest fun and useful.
  • Check out our branding guidelines if you’re going to reference Pinterest in any way.

Don’t:

  • Suggest that Pinterest sponsors or endorses you or the contest.
  • Require people to pin from a selection—let them pin their own stuff.
  • Make people pin or repin your contest rules. This is a biggie.
  • Run a sweepstakes where each pin, repin, board, like or follow represents an entry.
  • Encourage spammy behavior, such as asking participants to comment.
  • Ask pinners to vote with pins, repins, boards, or likes.
  • Overdo it: contests can get old fast.
  • Require a minimum number of pins. One is plenty.

The Pinterest Chapter, Part One: Using Pinterest To Promote Your Blog

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

When I wrote Professional Blogging For Dummies in 2010, I tried to make the advice as evergreen as possible. This was challenging at times, as the For Dummies style is very example driven; in tech, this is the very definition of an “annual plant.” Where possible though  I gave guidelines that could be applied to new tools based on the simple premise that regardless of how we communicate and share with others, we are still communicating and sharing. The why and what of that doesn’t change all that much, even if the how does.

So, if you pick up a copy of my book and read the chapter on social promotion of your blog, much of the advice I give for Facebook and Twitter could very easily be extended to Pinterest. But I thought it might be helpful if I delved a bit deeper. So here is the chapter on Pinterest that I might have written if Pinterest had existed in 2010. Except not completely in For Dummies style. That’s the publisher’s IP.

English: Red Pinterest logo
English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let’s start with a baseline. My lens is that of a professional blogger. This has a few ramifications for the discussion.

First and foremost, the professional blogger has an objective for her blog. It is story telling  with a purpose.

Second, this purpose is often to monetize. Even when the surface intent is to convince, as with political, charity and cause related blogs, there is almost always a fundraising component.

So I am not looking at the social graph as a way to connect with family and friends or create a personal scrapbook. It is sharing with intent to promote your blog, grow your overall influence and achieve your professional objectives.

Initially the ethos of Pinterest was to share others’ content, not your own, and in fact, commercial (ie promotional) activity was prohibited. This changed in November 2012 when it launched business accounts so there is no reason to not use the platform to promote your own content.

You just want to do it in the “right” way — welcomed by your followers and effective for the promoted brand, whether it is you, your blog or a product.

If this were a true “For Dummies” chapter, I would have to carefully explain what Pinterest is, how it works and how to use it. But it’s not, so I am going to assume that readers are familiar with Pinterest and understand three basic things about the platform —

  • Pinterest is visual. Images are everything.
  • It’s curation of content, not broadcasting a message.
  • It’s a long-term play. Something pinned today might not get traction for days, weeks or even months.

So let’s dive right into how Pinterest can support your promotional strategy with some suggestions for maximizing your Pinterest promotion.

  1. Convert your personal Pinterest account to a business account. Per the Pinterest Terms Of Service, you MUST do this if you are planning to use your Pinterest account for commercial purposes.
  2. Make sure your blog/website images are gorgeous, high quality and tell a story visually. If an image needs a caption or title, keep it short and incorporate it in the image so it stays with the pin as it is repinned. But subtly. If your caption is larger than the image, it won’t be pinned/repinned.
  3. Use (at a minimum) the tools Pinterest provides business accounts:
    • Make it easy for people to pin your content using the Pin It button.
    • Pinterest’s analytics are pretty basic, but a little information is better than none, so use them to understand the content that people like on your site. So you can create more of it!
  4. Give your boards names that clearly identify what sort of content folks will find if they visit the board.  Most folks engage pin by pin, not by checking out boards to see what’s new, but a clear name improves your chances that someone seeing a pin might check out and follow the related pinboard. And thus see subsequent pins. Maybe even dig around in the old ones; see above, Pinterest is a long term play.
  5. Pin when your audience is online and engaging with Pinterest. A recent survey of the BlogHer community suggests weekday evenings are when our audience of digitally savvy women is most likely to be engaging with Pinterest.
  6. Follow the 80/20 rule — 80% of your pins should be promoting other people’s content, and no more than 20% promoting your own. This is a best practice for any social platform, but it also has a benefit beyond simply NOT being a shill. Fully engaging with the platform shows that you are a knowledgeable and reliable source of relevant content, and helps build your influence. Brands are increasingly looking at influence across the social graph, and not just blog readership, to determine who they want to work with for sponsored opportunities.
  7. If your blog content fits one of the new rich pin categories – recipes, products or movie reviews (as of May 2013), I’d go ahead and set it up. While it is still too early to predict the long-term impact of rich pins, it is safe to say that:
    • they clearly make it easier for Pinterest users to access some of your content without visiting your blog, but
    • they will increase the value of pins from your blog/site within the Pinterest ecosystem, which should positively impact repins, your overall influence and traffic to your blog from folks seeking out additional content like the pin they found.
  8. Experiment with third party tools that offer additional metrics and support for your pins. Right now, I am experimenting with Pingage.

Next week, Part Two: Engaging with Brands on Pinterest and Sponsored Pins

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The Marketing Economy: Why advertising still matters in a social media, word-of-mouth world

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Disclosure: I am Vice President, Influencer Marketing at BlogHer. Advertising and social media marketing programs are a significant source of revenue for my company and for the bloggers in our advertising network.

Anyone who knows me, even a little, knows how passionate I am about word-of-mouth marketing and the amazing potential of the voice of the customer (blogger or simply happy camper) to move the needle for brands. It’s part of my professional DNA, and was even before the advent of social media. Back then we called them testimonials and put them in case studies and adverts, but the principle was the same. People like to hear from real people.

My passion for tapping into real voices, real stories is one of the reasons I joined BlogHer nearly three years ago. As part of this team, I am able to help connect brands and bloggers in mutually beneficial ways more than I ever could as a solo independent consultant.

No one is more passionate than I am about the real stories about life and about brands revealed by social content every day.

But I still believe in advertising. Just as passionately.

Saying that the digital banner is “dead” or no longer relevant in today’s marketplace is premature. The banner is only dead if we let it be so, and if we do, shame on “us.” The marketing economy needs advertising  just as much as it needs public relations and word-of-mouth marketing and sponsored content and direct response and every other element of the marketing mix. For a number of reasons.

First, consumers need and want to hear directly from companies about their products. Advertising is the most efficient way to reach a lot of people at a relatively low cost; the company can deliver a consistent controlled message to exactly the audience it wants to reach. Keep in mind — it is not that consumers don’t like ads; it’s that we don’t like BAD ads.

It’s incumbent upon the industry to develop creative, compelling digital ads that help brands move the needle. Should ads use more social content? Sometimes, and the IAB has addressed this with new units like the Portait (one of the Rising Stars). But abandoning the digital banner in favor of “native advertising” (whatever that is, and more on that in a moment) is a fatal error that will destroy the balance of the marketing economy. We need both.

Here’s the thing. Whatever you call it — “native advertising” or sponsored content (my preference) — it relies on the existence of publishing vehicles, whether mainstream media sites like Mashable and Forbes, or independent publishers like the bloggers in the BlogHer Publishing Network. And without advertising revenue, these publishers will be in a world of hurt. Why? Sponsored content revenue is active revenue; the publisher has to create this content, and that costs. Time at best, and in the case of larger publishers, money too. Advertising revenue is passive, and scales easily.

Bottom line, without advertising revenue, the blogs we depend on for word-of-mouth marketing might not exist. It’s no different than the long ago print days, when I managed marketing for tech firms; our policy was that if we believed a publication was appropriate for our press releases, we would at least consider it for our advertising dollars. Sometimes we just couldn’t afford the rates but we understood that the publications we relied on, relied upon advertising to pay their bills.

It is no different for bloggers.

Before I move on to my final point about why  advertising matters in the social marketing economy, I want to address the term “native advertising.” I wholeheartedly agree with Lori Luechtefeld, the author of recent iMedia Connection article, Why “native advertising” must die. She points out that we already have terms for the acceptable activities usually bundled under the term native advertising — to whit, sponsored content and advertorial –so why do we need a new term? The third concept, the misdirection, or deliberate masking of the advertising nature of the content, is a betrayal of consumer trust. She writes:

“But that third manifestation of native advertising? The Misdirection? If marketers and publishers have coined the phrase “native advertising” with the hope of legitimizing practices like that, then we’re all in deep shit. That’s a battle that reputable publications have been fighting since the dawn of journalism, and for good reason. If you blur the line — especially intentionally — between editorial and advertising, you will lose reader trust. And then you’ll lose readers. And then it’s pretty much over.”

Not to mention, this sort of misdirection would  be a flagrant violation of the FTC Guidelines for Endorsements and Testimonials.

Finally, in the social marketing economy, we need to stop worrying about whether content is paid owned or earned. What matters is whether it is shareable. Likewise, we need to get rid of “viral” as the Holy Grail of social marketing. In the real world, viruses are BAD, and by and large, when it comes to corporate content, bad news spreads far faster than the good. What we need to focus on is creating compelling content that speaks to our consumers, not at them. That they will want to share. That’s what creates the “network effect” we are looking for when we say we want our content to go viral.

What we really want is for our customers to share our story with their friends, whether they first saw it in an ad, or on our website or Facebook page, or in sponsored content on a blog or the social graph.

Or all three.

Because isn’t that what REALLY moves the needle, when our customers are engaging with us across multiple platforms, in multiple ways. It’s not about a single click-through. It’s the cumulative effect of all the ways the consumer can engage with us in the balanced marketing economy.

Ads are part of that, and we need their storytelling just as much as we need blogs and editorial, Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, and whatever comes next.

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