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Advertising vs. Content marketing
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Social, Strategy February 23rd, 2012
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Source: Buddy MediaQuick question – what’s the difference between advertising and content marketing?
According to Wikipedia:
- Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience to continue or take some new action… the desired result is to drive consumer behaviour with respect to a commercial offering.
- Content marketing - an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases.
At all of the events I attended during Social Media Week, there seemed to be a growing divide between those on team advertising and those on team content. It’s an important discussion, and one that should be had by any organization that wants to remain relevant to today’s Internet users. The ‘average’ web user in 2012 is technologically savvy, resourceful and unwilling to like or follow something for the sake of winning a contest. Their loyalty is conditional – they want to be engaged and included in discussions about the things that matter to them.
From the advertiser’s perspective, this new breed of Internet users calls for an emphasis on social design. Social experiences will be put first and foremost in campaigns, with complete digital integration being a must. After all, in order to succeed, marketers need to be where their target consumer is, and that person is online.
For content creators, instead, this is a call for more authenticity. Quality content is the stuff that talks with consumers and not just at them; it’s the stuff that doesn’t have to go viral to be considered successful because it will continue to resonate with its audience more than any cat video ever will. For companies serious about putting fans first, the focus should be on generating interest-centred content that will spur user engagement and build credibility (à la Red Bull – they recently made Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list) as opposed to advertiser’s brand-centred content.
Tags: 50 Most Innovative Companies, Advertising, Content marketing, Content Strategy, Facebook, Fast Company, Red Bull, Red Bull Media House, SMW, smwTO, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Week, Social Media Week Toronto, Twitter
Twitter comes alive at tweet2hold
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Culture, Social February 16th, 2012
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Have you ever wondered what all the information floating around the Internet looks like? What your seemingly endless Twitter feed would resemble if it were put to paper?One of my first stops during Social Media Week was the tweet2hold interactive installation. Its creators, Toronto media collective The Brototypes, used a combination of technology, graphic design and paper to turn tweets into origami birds. The emotional character of the tweet determined the size, shape and colour of each bird.
It’s definitely cool to see – a seemingly endless stream of tweets transformed into a flock of origami birds. But there was more to it than folded paper. There was something about these birds that made me curious about the message they carried. The fact that someone bothered to take a tweet, put it to paper and make it into something permanent means it must be important, right?
I had the opportunity to chat with Dylan Reibling of The Brototypes as he folded birds. Ironically enough, we ended up discussing the perks of paper. Citing Yoko Ono’s wish trees as inspiration, he told me how tweet2hold was meant to be a physical manifestation of digital data. A fan of the tangible, he questioned society’s rush to dematerialize everything… I couldn’t help but agree with him – a hand-written card will beat a text or a tweet any day.
There’s no doubt that the medium has a definite impact on the message. Scroll through HootSuite and it’s only a matter of time until your eyes glaze over. It’s not because everyone you follow is boring – well it could be – but more so the information overload. Everything becomes noise, the attention-worthy bits of information get lost in cyberspace amidst a bunch of what I ate for dinner tweets. Digital information is great and all, but there is something undeniably appealing about an object you can hold in your hands.
Want to participate? Include #smwTO in your tweets.
Tags: CFC Media Lab, Interactive Art, SMW, smwTO, Social Media Week, Social Media Week Toronto, The Brototypes, tweet2hold, Twitter, txt2hold
But who are you really?
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Culture, Social, User Experience February 15th, 2012
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Real-time offers. Hyperpersonalization. Geolocalization. After attending the Everyone is Someone Else event, part of Social Media Week in Toronto, it’s clear that the future of Internet experiences will be built around the user.
The panel of speakers reminded us that it was not that long ago that the Internet was thought of as the Wild West. With avatars and screen names to hide behind, people were free to say and do as they pleased. They could go on rants in forums, illegally download movies and join whichever embarrassing fan club they pleased – all with no real world repercussions.
But then we got social.
The arrival of social media caused a shift in our online behaviour. How? By making us register with our real names. And just like that we became more than a screen name – we had names, friends and families, jobs and community affiliations.
As the Internet filled up with real people an interesting thing happened – we all got really self-conscious. Contradictory I know. Here we are posting our lives for all to see on the Internet, but at the same time it’s the most orchestrated dog and pony show you’ve ever seen. Choosing a display picture? You better be laughing in it. Checking-in? Make sure it’s somewhere fun. Liking a brand page? Cool companies only.
The way in which we cultivate our online persona – highlighting our best traits, hiding the bad – can easily give way to a jaded worldview. Social networks have become an online Disney World where the sun shines every day, but once in a while, it might not be such a bad thing if there was a cloud in the sky.
Tags: Facebook, Online identity, SMW, smwTO, Social Media, Social Media Week, User Name
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