Custom publishing has changed significantly since Rex created Hammock Inc. 19 years ago. While the “custom” part remains, “custom content” rather than “custom publishing” is a more accurate way to describe what we do and the work we create for our clients. Custom content is published in print, online, on websites or via social media. The platforms and the methods of distribution and syndication are varied based on the goals of our clients.
Forrest Gump famously compared life to a box of chocolates, in that “you never know what you’re going to get.” Social media can be a little like that, but fortunately you can measure its effectiveness and fine-tune your approach to, ahem, sweeten the results.
At a recent Social Media Breakfast in Seattle Katie Paine, from KD Paine & Partners, outlined to a packed house a 7-step program to determine the ROI on social media.
As reported on the University of Washington “Web Tools for the Digital World” site, measuring social media effectiveness isn’t all that different from measuring other media.
As with other media, you need to define your goals, your audiences, your benchmarks and your metrics. Make your messages credible and closely track responses. Encourage word of mouth. Learn from mistakes and adapt – social media will tell you much more quickly than other forms whether you’re on track.
Above all, remember that social media is not a magical cure for deeper problems with a brand or business. If you choose to use it, you must see it as part of a suite of tactics to help fulfill your long-term strategy.
The first step in successful content marketing is to ensure your website is set up properly. Good Plum has a list of several common mistakes businesses make with their websites, including:
Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 reminds us about the challenge facing companies that embrace social media face—the social media policy.
He points to a couple of different organizations (different, as in, one university, one corporation and one nonprofit) to show how a policy can help or hinder a company’s efforts to use social media for marketing. The policy is important, no doubt, but it shouldn’t scare off employees from tweeting or mention the company on Facebook.
Joe has some great insight on what an effective social media policy should look like.
While social media can be credited with numerous positive contributions to society, sometimes that sphere can feel impolite and harsh to folks diving in. Applying a little more politeness and a lot more dependability to your content marketing efforts can go a long way toward building trust and ensuring your success. Take a lesson from Grandma.
This week the Custom Content Council (CCC) along with its magazine ContentWise released their 10th annual “Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Content Marketing in America for 2010.” In addition to covering print media usage and spending, this year the study included questions about marketers’ use of digital media as part of their content marketing efforts. Here are some of the highlights from the report:
This post appeared recently on the eminently snarky and cynical website Overheard in the Newsroom: “Social media editor: “I’m too busy. I can’t use my brain.”
If your organization has leapt into social media, the people responsible for that may well feel that way. But it’s something they have to do every day, because a day online is like a month (or more) in more traditional marketing.
It’s also important to take the time to analyze your social media’s effectiveness – if for no other reason than to justify your efforts. Just make sure you use meaningful metrics, and understand what those metrics can and cannot say about their success.
For example, if you or others at your group blog, notes Galen De Young at ProteusB2B, business bloggers need to look beyond metrics such as numbers of visitors or RSS subscribers.
“In my opinion, one of the best ways to gauge the success of a B2B blog is to analyze how much traffic it’s generating, and to analyze how hard those blog pages are working for you,” De Young writes.
Those measurements include how people found your site, where people land on your site and how much time they spend there, he notes.
At Hammock, we call that a Content Marketing Intelligence Report or CMIR, and it’s what we do for every client at the start of a relationship and at regular intervals thereafter. That’s how we measure up.
Thanks to those from around the country who have reached out with concern about how we may have been affected by what will forevermore be known in Nashville as the Flood of 2010. While some infrastructure challenges in our building caused many of us to work virtually on Monday, we are fortunate that no one who works at Hammock-Nashville has been forced out of their homes like so many of our neighbors in the area. As I wrote today on my blog, Nashvillians will pull together to journey through the devastation and loss we’re currently experiencing.
For those who have asked how you can contribute to the flood recovery efforts, let me make two suggestions. While there are many groups that are worthy of your support (a great list of them can be found on this post at Nashvillest.com), there are two groups that many of us at Hammock have worked with personally in the past — and even during the past 24 hours.
Either group will put your contribution to work immediately:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, the Community Foundation is coordinating contributions to the Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund and Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund.
This just in: All proceeds from the sale of this T-shirt go to the Community Foundation.
Hands on Nashville: On behalf of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, Hands on Nashville is coordinating the volunteer efforts.
Over the weekend, Nashville experienced massive flooding due to unprecedented torrential rain. Our office building’s management is working to address issues related to some flooding in the elevator shafts, so the building is closed for the day. All Hammock employees have the ability to work remotely and you should be able to reach them using their regular direct numbers or through our main number 615-690-3400. All employees are safe, but many have neighbors in need, so we’ll also be reaching out to those friends and neighbors today, as well. Thank you to the many kind expressions of concern over the weekend. And for those who would like to help, please contribute to this fund set up by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.