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Blog content sharing busiest on weekends, study says 0

Content writers who produce blogs and other brand content may be missing out on their audience by posting while consumers are working.

Blog writers are most likely to post their content during weekdays, mostly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to a study conducted in April by TrackMaven.

But while only 13 percent of blog content is published on Saturdays and Sundays, the content amounted for nearly a third — 32.6 percent — of total weekly shares on social media.

According to TrackMaven, at least 2 million blog posts are published daily, representing a significant component of content marketing. Blog posts help point out engagement with a company’s target audience that would in turn share its brand content.

In other words, companies can get more out of their blog content by making it available when readers have more time to read and share — on the weekends.

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We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

Samsung, others joining Google in smart glass market 0

googleglass_artGoogle will soon get company in the wearable computer eyewear market.

Samsung is preparing to roll out its “Gear Glass” around September, according to several reports. The Gear Glass will look almost identical to the Google Glass, but its design will have its display over the right eye only and include an earpiece.

The Gear Glass will run on the Tizen operating system, which Samsung is developing.

More competitors may be on the way. Sony and Epson are working on their own smart eyewear versions, while Apple, Microsoft, and LG Electronics filed for smart glass-related patent applications.

That means more opportunities to develop unique content for devices that are truly for people on the go.

News of Samsung’s entry in the wearable tech market comes as Google announced that anyone in the United States can now buy a beta version Glass device as long as the company has them in stock. Google recently said that it was expanding Glass sales to more users in advance of an expected retail launch later this year.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

 

 

 

 

A lack of engagement opportunity by retailers 0

We posted some time ago how over a quarter U.S. companies, 28 percent, do not have a mobile strategy. Here’s more proof that some companies are still lagging behind when it comes to using mobile devices as part of an overall marketing plan.

Only a small percentage of retailers are using push notifications — messages that are delivered and displayed on a mobile device — as a tool to engage their customers.

San Francisco-based mobile marketing analytics company Other Levels recently examined retailers’ use of mobile messaging tools like push notifications, in-app alerts and the rich inbox, an email-like inbox within a mobile app. In its 2014 Retail Mobile Messaging Study, Other Levels found that while 77 percent of the top online retailers have a mobile app, just 31 percent of retailers send push notifications as part of their messaging strategy.

Push notifications play a large role in driving app usage. The majority of the top 100 retailers’ apps ask users for permission to send push notifications, yet most of the companies never actually send those messages.

The report goes on to say that fewer than 2 percent of the top 500 online retailers have a mobile app with a rich inbox that can display unique customer-focused content within the app, from special offers to confirmations.

Retailers are seizing upon mobile apps to expand and enhance their brand presence and awareness. But their limited use of mobile messaging content means a lot of missed opportunities to engage customers.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

Measuring your mobile content success 0

You have a content strategy that focuses on publishing for smartphones and tablets, ensuring that your message, your brand content is accessible to people on the move.

Now, how do you know that that message is reaching that specific target audience?

contentmktg_artThere are ways to determine your company’s success in reaching mobile device users. It is possible to track your mobile marketing efforts with analytics tools that enable you to learn who is accessing your content, then use that information to target your audience more effectively.

Google Analytics is the tool that immediately comes to mind. Its mobile app analytics tool enables companies to know who’s using its app, how they use it, check brand loyalty and visit frequency, and measure its performance.

There are other tools just as useful to measure mobile impact and engagement, including Flurry, Localytics, and Clicky.

Bottom line: Analyzing the information about your mobile content efforts is essential to its overall success, regardless of what tool you use.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

Think strategy when creating video content 0

contentmktg2_artVideo content for your brand marketing campaign can be effective in promoting a product or service to the right audience. But it’s more than just coming up with clips shot on a smartphone to post on a company website, Facebok page or Twitter account. It also means creating and implementing a well conceived strategy.
Video uses sound, images and motion to present your brand message in a more personal and, when optimized for mobile devices, portable format. Done well, it attracts business by showing a potential customer what the company is all about, the services it offers, or telling its story in a shareable format.
But event the most slick production, accompanied by cutting-edge images and a contemporary musical score, can be ineffective if no thought is put into what the customer seeks to get out of the video content. Does it give the customer something new? Is is something they are willing to pass on to others?
Ponder these steps when contemplating a video content strategy:

  • Decide on your goals for the content. Ask yourself, as a content creator, what are the objectives you wish to accomplish in the video content. Is your company answering questions? Telling a story? Emphasizing the benefits of a product?
  • Choose your target audience. Tailor the message around that particular demographic.
  • Make the video content relevant. Make it engaging, memorable, informative and, yes, entertaining. A company leader droning on about the latest product may be good for the stockholders, but a turn off to the potential customer.
  • Set up a social media channel distribution strategy. Think beyond YouTube. Embed the video code on the company’s Facebook page or Twitter account for maximum exposure.
  • Encourage comments about the video content. What do people have to say? They like it or hate it, but above all, they should talk about it online.
  • Use keywords in the content that reflect your customer’s needs and inquiries. This helps search engines find your video content easier.
  • Ensure that the video content is optimized for mobile devices. The number of people using smartphones and tablets continues to grow, and people are getting their information on the move. This is a market than can no longer be avoided.

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us

Best content sharing times, and how it’s done 0

When it comes to planning a content marketing strategy, it helps to know the best times of day for getting the information to the target audience.

There are peak sharing hours for content, and they vary by subject matter and preferred sharing methods, all of which is critical for brand marketers to know when planning media campaigns where success is measured in likes, page views, shares and overall engagement.

The trends in content sharing and engagement vary by category. A restaurant promoting its latest culinary creation will find a bigger audience in the morning than in the early evening. Entertainment-related content does better on Facebook in the afternoon.

addthis_artAddThis network looked at some important trends in content sharing and customer engagement in a recently released quarterly report. The trends are notable enough for brands, advertisers, content marketing pros and publishers to consider.

Among the findings by AddThis (downloadable in a PDF format):

  • The peak time for the sharing of food-related content is 11 a.m. to noon, with nearly have of the content being shared on Pinterest. People in California, New York and Texas are the most likely to share or engage food-related content.
  • Most people who share travel-related content also do so between 11 a.m. and noon. When it comes to customer engagement of travel-related content, 26 percent do it through printing of boarding passes, reservations and itineraries, followed by the 24 percent who share on Facebook.

Knowing the best times to publish your content for sharing by others is essential. By publishing it for the target audience at the right time of the day, it ensures effective visibility for your brand message.

AddThis network also found that the sharing of sports and entertainment-related content is more concentrated to Facebook, with more than a third of users doing so from, respectively, 11 a.m. to noon and 2 to 3 p.m. Politically related content, usually of a news nature or general punditry, is most often shared between 10 and 11 a.m., with a quarter of the content shared on Facebook.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

 

Tools that help inspire content creativity 0

Acquiring and retaining customers starts and ends with good content. The better, more useful and more informative and educational the content published by a business is, the better the chances for lead generation and a growing customer base.

contentmktg_artContent can take many forms: narrative articles, blog posts, images and video shared on social media. The common thread is that when published, it plays an integral role in the experience that users have with the brands responsible for the content.

Corporate stories, reviews, tutorials, interviews white papers, calls to action – the success of this type of marketing content is whether its message resonates with the targeted audience, whether it addresses a customer’s wants and needs and brings the customer back for more.

But it all starts with an idea.

There are apps that can help fill the gap between blank slate and finished product. Here are a few of them to help inspire some content creativity:

Skitch: Marketing pros who want to get their points across using annotation, shapes and sketches will find this app useful. Start with an image, then use the toolbox of arrows, shapes and text callouts to inspire content.

Inbound Now: The marketing community’s “Kill Writer’s Block”  app creates random post titles with the key terms left blank, to give blog writers a head start in creating an effective headline.

Feedly: A timesaver for content marketing pros who can browse aggregated news published on many different subjects, from tech to cooking to design, to generate ideas.

XMind: This tool has the potential to be essential for people who brainstorm on content by allowing them to create maps and charts to clarify thinking, manage complex information and get work organized.

Are there other apps that you find useful in the content inspiration process? Feel free to let us know about them.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

Smartphone can be handy when severe weather approaches 0

The severe weather season is underway, and with it comes the likelihood that you will have to take steps to protect yourself and your family in case of a tornado, hurricane or other serious weather event.

tornado2_artYour smartphone can connect you to a source of emergency information that notifies you of severe weather events. It’s called the Wireless Emergency Alert, or WEA, and it is similar to the Emergency Alert System that broadcasters use.

The WEA is a cooperative effort between wireless service providers, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It delivers text message-like warnings to areas facing an imminent weather threat, such as tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and high winds.

A WEA-enabled phone will receive alerts based on your current location, rather than your home service area, if the phone is using a cell tower in the location you are in. These message often complement alerts issued by local agencies that are sent to your mobile device.

The WEA is also broadcast for child abduction incidents, called Amber Alerts, and for presidential bulletins regarding national emergencies. This service is offered for free by wireless carriers, and WEA messages do not count towards texting limits on your wireless plan.

WEA messages have been issued for the past two years. Most newer handsets, including smartphones, are capable of receiving these alerts. You may check with your service provider to see if your device is WEA capable.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

Android nudges past Apple’s iOS in mobile ad traffic 0

Advertising traffic on mobile devices operating on Google’s Android platform has surpassed that on iOS for the first time.

android_artA new quarterly report from San Mateo, Calif.-based Opera Mediaworks on the state of mobile advertising puts Android as the overall smart device platform, with 42.8 percent of all traffic, compared to iOS’ 38.2 percent of traffic.

The report could be a factor for content marketing pros in their decisions on which device platform is best suited for their company’s efforts to reach the most customers.

Apple’s iOS remains the revenue leader, accounting for 52 percent of total ad traffic revenue. But Android is catching up, accounting for just over 33 percent of total revenue, up from 26.72 percent last year.

As Android-operating phones continue to improve, advertisers shifted from an almost exclusive preference for the iPhone market toward the much larger number of consumers who use mobile devices with Google’s operating system.

The result, according to Opera, is a substantial growth in ad traffic not only on Android devices, but tablets running on the system as well.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.

 

 

Making emotionally connecting content 0

Every business has a story to tell, and each is looking for ways to best tell that story to existing potential customers. It’s no longer enough to boast about sales figures, or audience reach. It’s about connecting with the customer on a more emotional level.

These days, marketing content is moving beyond the factual toward establishing personal connections with the audience. Look at how Wells Fargo is expanding its audience reach with its “Wells Fargo Stories,” a Web channel dedicated to telling stories of its employees, communities and brand values. The instrument of Wells Fargo’s effort is compelling narratives that connect with the customer, and inspires brand loyalty.

Such content is designed to engage and educate an audience with a “tell, don’t sell” approach, even if it means tugging at the heartstrings, like this holiday-themed content from British retailer John Lewis two years ago:

Making that emotional connection means understanding the customer’s needs. It helps to focus on this when creating an effective marketing narrative plot that would relate to the customer’s feelings and desires. Like, say, the retailer wants to take customers on a nostalgic trip to the childhood anticipation of Christmas morning. It’s important to consider the target audience when deciding how to structure the marketing content.

Since marketing narratives are stories, they should have a beginning, a middle and an end. It should be easy to follow and to understand. The narrative should also be as unique as the product or brand. It should stand out from the competition. The John Lewis content stands out because it was emotionally engaging, so much so that the retailer’s holiday marketing content has become a seasonal event in Britain.

Tell us what you think about marketing content that makes an emotional connection. We’d like to hear it.

 

We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.