Marketers now turn to social for product launches

When it comes time to launch a new product, the majority of marketers in the US, the UK, and Australia are now turning to social media.

Five by Five, a marketing communications firm that specializes in product launches, polled more than 700 marketers in these countries and found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of them consider social media to be the highest-priority medium to promote new products.

Sales promotions and email were the second and third most popular launch marketing medium, respectively.

According to Five by Five creative director Martin Flavin:

“Social media has become the most important way to generate buzz for new products and services before they appear. Shareable content and social engagement allow brands to create a groundswell of pre-launch interest in a way no other channel can match.”

Social media is now more popular a launch marketing medium than PR/press, television and direct mail.

Is social enough?

Social’s popularity among marketers for product launches isn’t just based on the fact that social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat offer access to billions of consumers around the world.

According to Five by Five, social’s popularity is also based on the fact that it’s a readily accessible medium that marketers can turn to in a pinch, which is increasingly important given that products are being conceived, built and launched much more rapidly than ever before.

In fact, two-thirds of the marketers the firm surveyed indicated that they usually have no more than six months to prep a new product launch, which can make it more difficult to execute launch strategies that rely on mediums that aren’t as accessible.

But social isn’t necessarily a perfect medium. Despite its accessibility, it can be very difficult for marketers to cut through the clutter on the most popular social channels, and attracting attention is only likely to become more difficult as marketers put the bulk of their eggs in the social media basket.

For those that are able to attract an audience and generate buzz for a new product, that buzz can also be short-lived thanks to the speed with which the social media world moves, so marketers shouldn’t expect social buzz to sustain a new product.

Instead, they’ll need to plan for a relatively quick transition to post-launch marketing, which will usually include marketing mediums other than social, including search, which as PR Week’s Robert Smith notes, has been called a more powerful medium than social by WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/30/marketers-now-turn-to-social-for-product-launches/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153868401424

10 mistakes businesses and brands make with social media

With social media reach and engagement rates having dipped so precipitously over the last year or so, paying to play is the only option for most brands now.

But what about businesses and brands that can’t afford to advertise on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like? Not everyone is willing, never mind able, to carve out the budget necessary to keep their content in front of a critical mass of relevant followers on a regular basis.

Those organizations can be particularly creative or incredibly persistent, but the most effective strategy they can embrace may be to get all hands on deck in the form of an employee advocacy program.

Of course, to go in this direction, every team member needs to be on board with their new tack, despite an abundance of reasons to be uncooperative, unknowingly or not.

Employers need their employees working together toward the same goal if this social media strategy is to be effective. And in many cases, that’s just not going to happen anytime soon without proper training, guidance, incentive and rewards.

Here are 10 BIG mistakes many businesses, brands, teams and their leaders are making with social media…

Not providing enough education

Social media isn’t rocket science, but it requires a huge leap of faith for the uninformed and uninitiated. Not only can it be daunting, it can be downright difficult for a newbie to craft even a simple tweet, never mind write a blog post or record a video.

A comprehensive, mandatory educational program is key to bringing employees up to speed.

Not providing enough incentive

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that job descriptions seem to include everything but the kitchen sink nowadays. So why not add learning social media to employees’ list of responsibilities?

Seriously. Everyone’s a marketer. Everyone’s in sales. And everyone’s on social media. Which should mean repping your employer every once in a while.

Not connecting with others

There’s power in numbers, especially when it comes to propagating content. No reach, no engagement. Don’t be afraid to suggest that team members broaden their networks, even if their roles have nothing to do with sales and marketing.

Employees shouldn’t be kept under wraps. After all, there’s a lot to be said for the multiplier effect.

Not sharing organizational content

All for one, one for all. That should be an internal team’s creed. Someone writes a white paper, everyone shares it. That’s a no-brainer if you ask me. Every employee – certainly those in marketing, advertising, PR and social media – should be sharing content created under the corporate roof.

Their personal brands should include the professional brands for whom they work.

Not producing original content

There’s a rule in group communications called 90-9-1. This rule suggests that 90% of the members simply lurk while 9% add something to the conversation and a mere 1% contribute the most. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can’t be effective on social media if you’re being anti-social. Key employees and related stakeholders should be more than encouraged to create their own content, they should be rewarded for doing so on a regular basis.

Not keeping up with changes

Call them luddites, laggards, naysayers or just plain stubborn. Whatever you call them, call them late to the party, almost too late to gain entrance.

Anyone serious about their career in this day and age who hasn’t at least started to use social media risks falling dangerously behind their colleagues, connections and competition on the job. And looked upon as being not that serious after all.

Not looking at the big picture

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people dismiss social media as a passing fad or an inconsequential trend despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. By 2018, 33% of the world’s population, or 2.44 billion people, is expected to be using social media.

Social media is the biggest revolution in mass communications since the printing press. Anyone who can’t see that by now can’t see the forest for the trees.

Not brave enough to experiment

A tendency to take risks isn’t one of the hallmarks of a corporate executive, so any fear and trepidation among this set isn’t surprising to me. But this is not the time for analysis paralysis.

Social media represents a transformative change in the way people, not just business people, communicate. Like it or not, it’s not going anywhere soon, so resistance is futile.

Not aware of their capabilities

Most employees don’t realize how easy it is share content on social media, contribute to the conversation at large and actually help move the algorithmic needle in favor of their respective organizations.

Whether they’re intimidated, confused or just plain misinformed, they think social media is difficult, complex and ineffective, while it’s actually quite the contrary. They can do it if they try.

Not leading by example

People will rarely take it upon themselves to share work-related content on their personal accounts. They’re afraid it’s irrelevant and off-putting to their audience. But if leaders are doing it themselves as an example to their teams, that’s another story altogether.

Employees will quickly see the benefits of supporting their employer’s brand if they see senior managers practicing what they preach and walking the talk on social media themselves.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/30/10-mistakes-businesses-and-brands-make-with-social-media/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153868401294

Five powerful lead generation and sales prospecting tools for small businesses

Small businesses struggle to build visibility online due to tight budgets and limited work force.

These five marketing platforms offer small businesses affordable lead generation and sales tools to provide them with some competitive advantage.

Small businesses need lots of support these days. With huge budgets being shifted online by large corporations, competing for the web presence has been harder and harder.

Luckily there are tools that offer great solutions for small businesses making their lives much easier and allowing them to be seen online.

1. Leadfeeder

One of the most pleasant discovering of this year, Leadfeeder has been my recommended tool in a couple of articles already. It is really simple to use, takes seconds to set up and works like a charm. I love the efficiency and simplicity of the tool.

Leadfeeder connects to your Google Analytics and identifies companies behind your site visits. It saves all the data and scores each identified company visit based on how much they have interacted with your site (e.g. repeat visits, how many pages they have viewed before leaving etc.)

• See which companies visited your site, which page they landed on, where they came from and how long they stayed
• See the company contact info and employees (as well as how you are connected to them on LinkedIn)
• Create filters to see company visits based on the source (for example, see company visits which were referred to your site from Twitter) to better customize your pitch
• Receive regular email alerts with the most recent company visits prompting your immediate action (the sooner you pitch, the better chances are they will remember who you are).

Basically, Leadfeeder turns your site visitors into well qualified prospects opening lots of follow-up opportunities for you.

2. Hatchbuck

Hatchbuck is a solid CRM and marketing automation system for small businesses that makes it easy to nurture prospects and drive more sales. Some of the more useful features include:

• The real-time dashboard: see customer activity on the fly. Monitor your contacts’ activity: See who’s visiting which pages.
• Dynamic tagging to organize your prospects: for example, you can assign a tag to anyone clicking a link in an email you send. This way you can start a campaign or send them another email on that topic.
• The form and link actions to follow-up on clicks, visits and online forms: for example, you can trigger actions based on clicks inside an email.
• Easy email templates that look rich and professional

Hatchbuck prides itself on having the best customer service (which customers seem to agree upon) which already makes it worth exploring. They offer free real-time demo allowing you to make up your mind if it fits your needs.

They are also quite affordable and easy to understand which makes it a perfect solution for small businesses that have limited sales budget and no in-house engineering departments.

3. DrumUp Employee Advocacy Feature

There’s one marketing opportunity most small businesses fail to be willing to benefit from: utilizing their whole teams to capture and nurture leads.

Luckily, this trend is quickly changing as we witness a few really huge companies changing their social media policies to give their teams more freedom and encourage their employees to vouch for them online.

According to Inc, a well set-up employee advocacy program is able to to result in 5x more traffic and 25% more leads.

DrumUp is a cool social media management platform giving any company all the necessary tools to organize employees’ social media activity and turn them into brand advocates.

• You can connect your blog, press or other content feeds to DrumUp. As soon as a new article is added to the feed, it is automatically broadcast to employees for them to easily share across multiple social media channels.
• Set up monthly contests to reward most active and eager employees. DrumUp offers easy and transparent leaderboard tracking for that.

4. Linkedin Sales Navigator

LinkedIn has really been pushing their Sales Navigator, a premium service that gives users greater control over the site’s features. It also provides products for sales prospecting, lead generation, B2B networking, and more.

According to their stats, signing up for the Sales Navigator increases productivity by 80%, and vastly improves sales results. Users (they claim) will be 51% more likely to meet their quotas. It includes better communication with targets, so that is at least one benefit you can find from it.

They don’t go based on teams, but instead on individual seat pricing. Each member is $79.99 per month, and it includes a premium LinkedIn profile.

Here’s a solid tutorial guiding you through Sales Navigator feature.

• Find and organize leads: use a useful search feature to find leads, save them and keep an eye on their updates
• Build B2B contacts: save companies in your account which allows you to track new leads, follow updates and receive company news so you’re well-informed before your first conversation with a prospect
• Utilize your employees’ connection: Use TeamLink to filter your search results to see bridged or team connections. If TeamLink identifies a personal connection between your prospect and a team member, you can ask a mutual connection for an introduction.

5. Cyfe

Cyfe is my go-to tool on so many levels which is almost unbelievable. I use it to track my social media channels, keep an eye on my customer service teams, monitor my site performance and more. Cyfe can be used to create a powerful lead generation.

Create a separate dashboard with one or many of the following widgets to keep an eye on different aspects of your lead generation process:

• Google Analytics real time visits
• Google Analytics most recent referrals
• Zendesk tickets
• Optin stats and recent subscribers (Many email marketing platforms are supported, others can be connected via API)
• Recent leads and prospects

Cyfe is surprisingly affordable which makes it a perfect monitoring solution for small businesses.

Are there any other tools that belong in this list? Let me know in the comments!

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/29/five-powerful-lead-generation-and-sales-prospecting-tools-for-small-businesses/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153868401144

Are you using too many questions in your headlines?

It’s been said that there are no stupid questions. But are there stupid question headlines?

People ask search engines questions all the time. People are seeking answers to all kinds of questions. They want to know the who, what, where, when, why, and how on a variety of topics.

These types of pages also tend to rank well, get shared, and attract links. For example:

• Google kills Right Hand Side Ads: what does this mean for marketers and users? Search Engine Watch (3K shares, 226 links)
• Microsoft Wants Autistic Coders. Can It Find Them And Keep Them? – Fast Company (47K shares, 93 links)
• Trump’s history of corruption is mind-boggling. So why is Clinton supposedly the corrupt one? – Washington Post (867K shares, 144 links)

But could question headlines actually hurt how your content performs in the long-term, especially in organic search?

Yes. Yes they could.

Don’t get me wrong. Question headlines aren’t bad all the time. Asking questions inspires curiosity, which can inspire your audience to click and even contribute their thoughts to the discussion.

But there are times when you should question your question headlines.

Here are six questions to consider when you’re considering using a question headline.

1) Have you actually answered the question?

Question headlines fail when you fail to provide an answer. So many publications ask big questions, but then either tend to cop out toward the end or never really answer the question in a satisfactory way.

How many times have you seen an article end with some variation of “only time will tell”?

If you’re going to ask questions from the outset, you better answer them by the time your readers reach the end of your content. Otherwise, what was the point?

2) Is your answer better than other existing content?

Chances are that a piece of content on the web has already asked and/or answered your question. Before you hit publish, type your question into your favorite search engine and see what content pops up.

Chances are also good that you can create a better piece of content. One that provides a more concise answer, or a more thorough answer, or an answer that showcases your brand’s vast expertise, or that challenges or counters the “wisdom of the crowd”.

Don’t just aim to be yet another answer – there’s enough average content on the web. Make sure your content is the best answer (and also interesting and memorable).

3) Can the question be answered with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’?

One of the most popular questions to ask in our industry is “Is SEO Dead?” These types of posts always generated tons of page views and quite a bit of outrage.

Why? Because, in the end, this question can be answered not with 1,000 or so words, but with one: NO!

But there are plenty of other examples of “yes” or “no” question headlines like this. Just check out this site, which compiles headlines that fail Betteridge’s law of headlines (which states that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no’):

• Did Facebook Really Elect Trump President? (No.)
• Hamilton’s Message to Pence: WAS IT HARASSMENT? (No – and WHY ARE YOU YELLING?)
• Do We Need to Use (and Discard) So Many Plastic BAGS EACH YEAR (No, and WHY ARE YOU YELLING?)

Asking questions that can be answered with a yes or no is pointless. So why do it?

Betteridge claims that publications use that style of headline because “they know the story is probably bullshit and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.”

Damn right.

4) Are you withholding information?

If you withhold information simply in the hopes that you’ll get more clicks and views, essentially you’re dealing in clickbait.

Rather than just throw a question mark on the end of a headline, spend some time developing an actual angle or position.

5) Is the answer unknown?

Sometimes you have a theory or some ideas that you want to share in order to get people thinking or solicit feedback.

For example:

• Where is Google heading with mobile local search?
• Penguin 4.0: what does it mean for SEO practitioners?
• What does Google AMP mean for ecommerce?

Other times you may be writing about something you’ve seen but can’t confirm with 100% certainty at publication time. For example:

• Is Google testing out green labels for PPC ads?
• Is Google manipulating autocomplete results for UK political parties?
• Is Google Testing a Knowledge Vault Update?

In these cases, question headlines are entirely appropriate. Because there is no answer.

However, just make sure that you’re not using a question-based headline as rhetorical device. The question should be important enough that it warrants asking in the first place.

6) Can you write a more compelling headline?

Question headlines can be a lazy way to make a point, according to Jonathan Allen, president of L&T Co. Also, if you’re asking a question, the reader might automatically assume there is no new information and won’t bother clicking.

“One thing that no reader wants to commit to is an unending discussion with no conclusion, so anything that looks like waffle, probably is waffle,” according to Allen. “Question-based headlines often look like a lot of waffle is going to follow.”

If you were to restate your original question-based headline as simply a headline emphasizing your core idea, you are likely to attract more attention and clicks. Why? Because you’re signaling to the reader that you have new information or arguments to which they can agree, disagree, or find out more, according to Allen.

Summary

So what’s the answer here? Question headlines aren’t by nature bad. But when done poorly, they won’t help you.

So if you’re going to use question headlines, make sure that you:

• Include keywords so readers have an idea about what they’re about to click on.
• Answer the question with your content – and answer it well.
• Aren’t using them to avoid taking a side or clear position.
• Aren’t publishing crap.

What do you think about question headlines – good, bad, or it depends?

Danny Goodwin is a content strategist at Longneck & Thunderfoot, a brand publishing company. A professional editor, writer, and ghostwriter with over 10 years of experience in marketing, he has created content for SMBs and global brands alike, spanning all things search and digital. He was formerly the editor of Search Engine Watch. Follow Danny on Twitter.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/29/are-you-using-too-many-questions-in-your-headlines/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153868401049

What is an exact match domain (EMD) and why does Google want to punish them?

In which we describe what an exact match domain (EMD) looks like, how they can manipulate search rankings and why you should avoid them.

What is an exact match domain (EMD)?

An EMD is a domain name that precisely matches a search query that will likely drive traffic to your website. For instance, if you call your website BuyCheapJeansOnline.com.

The search query ‘buy cheap jeans’ is a lucrative search term, and if you call your website this then you might assume this is a short cut to the top of a search engine results page (SERP).

But as you’ll learn, even if this works in the short term, you’ll still want to avoid doing it.

What’s the problem with EMDs?

First of all, it’s the surest sign of a spammy website if its URL exactly matches a search term. Just think of all those ‘watch movies for free’ websites that proliferate SERPs when you search for that phrase.

Even if you remove the word ‘free’ and search for ‘watch movies online’, the SERP is a wild west town full of unsavoury characters.

You have to scroll halfway down the page before you get to legitimate streaming companies like Crackle or Hulu. And Netflix barely makes a dent.

Most domains from legitimate companies will take its name from the brand name itself, with perhaps a single keyword they may hope to rank for. As long as its in the brand name. To use Graham Charlton’s example: glassesdirect.com.

EMDs have been long thought of as having an unfair advantage.

As opposed to websites that rise to the top of Google through quality content, solid architecture, trusted backlinks and assorted other white hat best practices, Exact Match Domains can just rise to the top by shoe-horning in a few tasty keywords.

Bill Slawski wrote in 2011:

“A company may attempt to “trick” the search engine into listing the company’s website more highly. For example, if the search engine gives greater weight in ranking results to words used in the domain name associated with websites, a company may attempt to trick the search engine into ranking the company’s listing more highly by including desirable search terms in the domain name associated with the company’s listing.”

It’s basically unfair to the legitimate companies, and risky for the user.

A paid-for film streaming service offering the best possible user experience and security is surely preferable to one that will download malware to your hard-drive and take you through all sorts of unsavoury black hat practices.

But as you can see from the examples above, Google hasn’t quite got it right just yet.

What is Google doing about EMDs?

In 2012, Google’s then Head of Webspam Matt Cutts announced an algorithm change meant to reduce the amount of low quality exact match domains in search results.

Cutts also tweeted, “New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin.”

However things went a bit quiet on the EMD front post 2012, until this past weekend when Search Engine Roundtable reported a few interesting tweets sent Google’s Gary Illyes on Friday.

It seems Illyes is on the hunt for spammy EMDs once again…

@gfiorelli1 @pedrodias @aleyda @pelogia It’s funny you say that! I was hunting for (bad) EMDs for the past two weeks without much luck :)

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

And is asking for assistance too…

@gfiorelli1 @aleyda @pelogia OK, I’ll go public (already asked a bunch of folk in private): if you see spammy EMDs, send them my way.

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

How do I stay on the right side of Google?

There are plenty of examples of EMDs that manage to stay high on the SERPs without fear of penalty – cheapflights.com being one of the more high profile examples.

It does this by being a legitimate non-spammy operation.

And that’s really all you need to worry about. As Illyes also stated on Friday…

@gfiorelli1 @aleyda @pelogia there is no inherent problem with EMDs. The problem is when it’s combined with other spam tactics

— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) November 25, 2016

If you’re a low quality site, with an EMD and you’re engaging in spammy tactics – then you should definitely worry.

If you’re a solid, genuine business that just happens to have a brand name that also looks like an exact match domain, but is otherwise a bastion of trustworthy internet practices – then you should be fine.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/28/what-is-an-exact-match-domain-emd-and-why-does-google-want-to-punish-them/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153809470559

Off-page PR: everything you need to know about changes to the local press

The regional press still carries great importance. Wrongly maligned in some quarters, the stats almost speak for themselves.

The 1,000 local newspapers and 1,700 associated websites across the UK attract a whopping 97 million users every month. Studies show that regional news outlets are the most trusted and attract the most effective response to adverts too.

Yet let’s not beat around the bush, the regional press is also facing up to huge challenges.

The fall of classified advertising and the growth of online news – free and convenient to access – has resulted in a dangerous drop in revenues and a significant fall in the number of people reading print editions.

Big titles have seen the number of people paying for a copy halve in less than a decade. Large publishers such as Johnston Press no longer report their sales figures and many choose to focus on their total audience.

Those twin pressures have led to some pretty drastic action. If you’ve got an interest in journalism then feel free to depress yourself by reading the NUJ’s ‘roll call of newspaper closures and job losses’ to take a look at some of the more recent cuts. Thousands of people have left local newspapers and hundreds of titles now cease to exist.

The industry has achieved great reach online but, if we’re honest, no-one has definitively found a way to make enough money from this. That search continues.

So, what does this all mean for the world of marketing?

Well, only a fool would ignore the importance of the regional press. Unsurprisingly, people still want to know about the roads, schools, courts, shops and – above all else – people around them. The ‘content’ carries a big interest, the method of delivery is still in the process of evolving.

But there’s another thing that should be considered. The challenges outlined above and cost-cutting measures that these have sparked have drastically changed the way the regional press now looks.

By failing to keep up with the latest developments you risk misunderstanding the way papers now work and missing out on the chance to pitch your PR efforts in the right way.

So, what’s different?

Group editors

Let’s start at the top by looking at editors. It used to be the case that every title had its own editor, but this is no longer the case. Over recent years, groups of titles have been clustered together into regional groups. This has left group editors in charge of a long list of titles.

This has two meanings for people in PR.

Firstly, the editor for the title you are pitching to may well not be the person who runs the news operation there on a day-to-day basis. Secondly, with a long list of titles to manage, editors may well not be the people to contact or approach with pitches.

You might well get lost amid hundreds of emails in their swamped inbox. Equally, get in their good books and you might be able to get your content to run across a number of titles.

The emergence of group editors has been accompanied by new editorial structures that also need to be better understood.

In Johnston Press, this change has been known as the ‘newsroom of the future’. In simple terms this has meant that multiple titles have had their staff grouped into teams.

Instead of every reporter covering news in their own right, this model sees one team cover the entertainment, community and feature material for all of the titles in the group and another team looking at the news.

Again, this splitting of roles is significant when it comes to knowing who to contact. It has always been important to try to land on the right person at the right time when sending a press release and by understanding who you are contacting and their exact remit you can get this right.

In short then, each title might not have its own editor and each reporter may not work for a single title.

Photographers

Many regional newspapers no longer employ photographers. These roles have diminished significantly during the cuts of recent years.

Instead, they now rely on a mixture of freelance photographers – often the people they used to employ – images taken by reporters on smartphones and pictures submitted by members of the public.

Images are just as important as ever, however. Every web story needs an image to accompany it, after all, so there is still a big demand for pictures. For people in marketing, I think this makes it even more important to send a picture alongside a press release.

In the past, a staff photographer might have been sent out to cover something in a press release you’d send. Yet now, it’s unlikely that an editor would sanction freelance spending – which is saved for sporting events and major news stories – for anything you’ll send.

That might mean you need to source your own images or maybe even attend an event you’re promoting armed with a camera. Providing a quality image will help your pitch and is more important than ever.

Web deadlines

It used to be the case that regional papers were split into ‘weeklies’ and ‘dailies’. PR people could then get used to the deadlines surrounding these – either the time of the day or day of the week the title was ‘off stone’.

This information isn’t relevant for people in digital marketing. Pretty much every regional news outlet should now be seen as a daily operation online.

Every title will have its own targets for the number of stories it has to upload each day and will look to ensure it is pushing out fresh material in the morning, at lunch time and in the evenings.

In many ways, this helps people in PR. There is a constant demand to feed the 24/7 news cycle – even at relatively small titles – and to have things to push out to social channels.

Good, well-written content that can quickly be turned around and uploaded is worth its weight in gold. Provide it and you’ll earn yourself a good reputation with a journalist.

Video

Within those web targets, journalists will be expected to produce some form of video content.

One third of all online activity is spent watching video and the regional press, like everyone else, wants to capitalise on this by offering video to its readers.

Marketers should explore ways in which they can add video content to their PR pitches and need to be aware that the regional press might well appreciate this.

Receiving a nicely edited, interesting video could save a reporter an awful lot of time and effort – earning you plenty of brownie points and even more exposure for your brand.

Workload

Speaking of which, it’s important to remember that reporters working in the regional press probably have a lot on their plate.

Ex-Derby Telegraph and Leicester Mercury editor Keith Perch says some local newspapers have lost up to 80% of their staff in the last 10 years. He presented evidence on the state of the industry to the House of Lords and told the Press Gazette how one paper went from 140 journalists in 2006 to 36 in 2016. He said that his former paper, the Derby Telegraph, went from 120 to 32 journalists in the same period.

That means that journalists have had to be selective. These smaller teams will still have to produce a print edition and maintain web targets, and we’ve already seen that reporters now often have to double as photographers.

There’s no denying that this can result in a pressured environment and might mean fewer events can be covered in person.

From a marketing perspective, this means that it is important to present material that isn’t incomplete. By presenting a comprehensive package of quotes, pictures and maybe even video you’ll ease the journalist’s workload.

You might need to attend a client’s event yourself and provide material that ensures it receives coverage. If you’re prepared to put the effort in, it will bear fruit.

It’s important to present information that is as relevant as possible for the title in question. If you’ve got local stats or a particular angle that works for one specific title, flag this up as clearly as possible.

Don’t leave someone else to have to wade through a ton of data to find what they need. This, as I’ve written before, is one of the reasons why a journalist might well say no to you.

Sub editors – the wise figures in the newsroom that ensured quality control – have largely disappeared too, meaning it’s more important than ever to be ‘right first time’. If you can assist a reporter with this, by providing clean copy that needs little or no changes, you’ll prove popular.

Physical premises

Many newspaper offices have closed down in recent years. Some have simply moved to a smaller (and less expensive) location, often with no reception area to welcome members of the public. Meanwhile, others no longer have a physical building at all, with reporters now working from home or even libraries.

Again, it’s worth bearing this mind, especially if you’re trying to set up an interview between a contact and a reporter or even if you just want to get hold of a journalist.

Bear in mind too that many of these changes have only happened in the last couple of years and, as a result, the contact details on the paper’s site might well not be up to date.

Hyperlocals

One result of the changes in the regional press is that a number of fresh news outlets have sprung up.

Hyperlocal websites and papers have been set up across the country, often – as this example in Lincolnshire shows – by the people who have left jobs with traditional publishers as cuts have been made.

The fact that many of these are set up by trained and experienced journalists means that many have already been able to quickly establish themselves as trusted news outlets in their own right.

For people in marketing, this is another reason to update the old contacts book. These hyperlocals offer another PR opportunity and shouldn’t be overlooked.

A changing picture

There have, then, been a lot of changes in the regional press in recent years. By understanding these you’ll be better placed to get your material used by this important outlet.

Bear in mind too that the change is not yet finished – with interesting developments that may see a closer tie-up between the BBC and the regional press.

For now, here are seven lessons to take on board to help improve your relations with the local press:

• The regional press has changed in structure – many titles no longer have their own editor and many reporters no longer work for just one title
• There aren’t many staff photographers on the books any more so sending images is more important than ever
• The web means that every news outlet is effectively a daily operation
• Reporters are always on the lookout for good video, text and images – see if you can feed their need
• Job cuts have added to the workload for many journalists – this makes it important to present material that doesn’t have lots of loose ends to tie up
• Many papers have moved or closed offices – you might need to update your contacts book and bear this in mind
• Hyperlocals offer new PR opportunities.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/28/off-page-pr-everything-you-need-to-know-about-changes-to-the-local-press/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153809470299

Why I Choose to Focus on One Marketing Channel at a Time

I feel like there’s an overarching maximalist mindset in marketing these days.

And it’s easy to see why.

Brands have never had more strategies to choose from.

There’s content marketing, social media, SEO, email, PPC, and influencer marketing, just to name a few.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and this doesn’t even take into account more traditional offline techniques that many companies still utilize.

In turn, I think many brands are suffering from exhaustion and fatigue.

They’re experiencing marketing overload.

I also think marketers don’t always extract the full potential from their strategies.

Before they can see one channel through to completion, they’ve already started working on three more channels.

If I’ve learned anything during my years as a marketer, it’s that simplicity is usually the key to success.

Because of that, I choose to focus on only one marketing channel at a time.

Here’s why.

I don’t spread myself too thin

You know that old saying that if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one?

I think this applies to marketing as well.

Jumping in head first and attempting to manage, say, four or five different channels can be overwhelming, and you’re unlikely to kill it at any strategy.

Even if you’re a savvy marketer who knows the ins and outs of the process, you simply can’t devote the necessary time to extract the full potential of any single channel.

Just look at the amount of time most marketers spend each week performing routine tasks:

But when you concentrate wholeheartedly on one channel, you can give it a 100% effort.

This helps you not only run your marketing campaign at a high level but also achieve the desired results faster.

Working on too many marketing channels at once is kind of like being a jack of all trades and master of none.

Placing your attention on a single channel allows you to master that channel before moving on to the next strategy.

Managing multiple channels can quickly become chaotic and stressful

Did you know that the average B2B content marketer creates 13 types of content?

You heard it right—13!

That, in and of itself, is a lot of work.

And just imagine combining that with multiple other channels at the same time.

Things would get hectic in a hurry.

Social media can be pretty intense as well. The average B2B content marketer is active on six different networks:

Even if you’re posting the same content on each network, it’s still going to be time-consuming.

I can almost guarantee you’ll feel burned out and the overall effectiveness of each channel will be marginal.

And this is going to be even worse if you’re new to marketing and/or have a small marketing team.

Or what if you’ve got a mountain of other business-related tasks on your plate?

There are just not enough hours in the day to devote to your marketing to ensure everything is operating at full capacity.

As a result, certain areas of your marketing campaign are bound to suffer.

Focusing on one marketing channel allows me to continually chip away at it and be highly effective.

I’m far less likely to become overwhelmed, and I can ensure that the specific channel I’m working on is reaching my target audience, generating leads, and leading to conversions.

In other words, it allows me to maximize my ROI without losing my mind along the way.

I ensure I get it right

Would you rather be a virtuoso at playing one musical instrument or a sub-par musician playing four or five?

I personally would prefer to be an expert at a single instrument.

I apply the same approach to marketing.

I would much rather devote the majority of my time to a single channel and completely crush it instead of working on a handful of channels and being painfully mediocre.

After all, what’s the point of spending any time whatsoever on a tactic if it’s not giving you any tangible results?

To me, it makes way more sense to give maximum effort to a single channel and make it incredibly successful rather than working on multiple channels half-heartedly.

Multitasking minimizes my impact

Working on multiple marketing channels simultaneously is a lot like multitasking because you’re constantly bouncing from one technique to another.

But numerous studies have found that multitasking isn’t as good as it may seem.

In fact, it can be quite detrimental to your efficiency and overall productivity.

A study from the University of London even “revealed that subjects who multitasked while performing brain-intensive tasks demonstrated IQ drops similar to people who are sleep-deprived or smoked marijuana.”

If you’re looking for a scientific explanation of this phenomenon, neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin offers one.

According to him,

Multitasking has been found to increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking.

The founder and chief technology officer of Wordstream, Larry Kim, even stated in an article for Observer that…

…you’re actually hurting your brain by juggling several undertakings at once.

The bottom line is that trying to focus on too many marketing channels at the same time is usually counterproductive and is only going to reduce the impact of your overall campaign.

But focusing on just one at a time allows you to be as effective and efficient as possible.

It costs less

There’s also the topic of money.

It’s been found that 89% of marketers are maintaining or increasing their inbound budgets.

Implementing only one marketing channel at a time will cost you considerably less than pursuing a multi-channel approach.

According to an article on LinkedIn,

…it has even been estimated that a single-channel marketing strategy can cost as much as one-third less than multiple-channel strategies.

If you’re dealing with a fairly small budget, utilizing several techniques may simply not be in the cards for you from a financial standpoint.

Things can get especially ugly if more than one of those techniques tank, and it’s obviously going to hurt your ROI.

When I was starting out, the financial resources were often scarce.

Focusing on one marketing channel at a time enabled me to maximize the money I funneled into my campaign.

It allows me to outperform my competitors

When it’s all said and done, the absolute most important part of any marketing campaign is its ability to target the right demographic.

And let’s be honest. Using a smorgasbord of techniques typically means that each individual technique is less likely to hit its target.

When I divvy up my time across multiple channels, I minimize the effectiveness of any single one.

For this reason, it makes it really difficult to truly stand out from the competition and thrive within my industry.

I’m not really doing anything special or excelling at any particular strategy.

But concentrating on only one channel puts me in a position for success.

Because I eat, sleep, and breathe that one channel for a period of time, it’s more likely to flourish and grow.

In some cases, I can even dominate.

That’s because most of the competition has a maximalist mindset, trying to have their hand in everything rather than focusing on—and succeeding—in one area.

A final note

Just to be clear, I’m not saying you should limit yourself to just one marketing channel.

That’s not what I’m saying at all.

In fact, I would never recommend putting all your eggs in one basket.

What I am saying is that you’re likely to reduce your marketing impact if you go overboard and spread yourself too thin—especially during the initial stages of a campaign.

For me, it makes way more sense to focus on a single channel, bring it to full capacity, and maximize its impact.

Once it’s established and stabilized, you can move on to the next channel.

In other words, simplify your efforts by working on one channel, and get it running like a well-oiled machine before moving on.

Over time, this approach should help you develop a strong marketing campaign, with no weak links but with techniques that carry their weight.

Conclusion

I know it may seem tempting to experiment with a plethora of marketing channels.

After all, you’ll want to see what sticks.

But I know this mentality has gotten me into trouble in the past, and I know it can curtail the progress of each individual channel.

For me, a more effective and practical approach is to focus on one marketing channel at a time.

Doing so allows me to:

• Manage each channel at a high level
• Minimize my stress
• Maximize my impact
• Save money
• Better reach my core audience
• Outperform primary competitors

Only once I’ve gotten a channel to where it needs to be, I move on to the next.

That way I know I’m never shortchanging a marketing channel, giving it the best possible chance to prosper.

How many marketing channels are you currently implementing?

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/jeyAmI43UN8/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153779138724

How search and email acquisition campaigns benefit both channels

Search and email are good marketing partners because they make each other more productive. Add a layer of “big data,” and you have a firm foundation for digital marketing success.

Take email acquisition, for example. Instead of just going it alone, email and search teams should partner up on PPC ads to build email acquisition.

“Email + search” not “email versus search”

Why spend a few bucks on a PPC campaign to acquire new customers through email when your website has opt-in forms all over it?

Because it can deliver a higher-quality stream of customers: people who are truly interested in your brands but might not discover them any other way.

The email address allows you address each consumer individually using data –preferences, behavior or transactions plus data you buy from a third-party provider that shows what your customers do beyond your boundaries.

Acquiring a customer’s email address is even more valuable than connecting a click-through to that customer. Plus, it’s easier than unwrapping an individual identity from cookies and other identifiers.

That’s why acquiring a large base of high-quality email addresses is so important and not something you can leave to chance.

How to set up a PPC acquisition campaign

The goal is to acquire email addresses from search customers who click on your PPC ad offering discounts, freebies or other enticements to people who opt in for your emails.

Build ads using specific keywords, such as “deals” or “coupons” for your brand. Then, build a custom landing page tied to that ad. This is the key component of this campaign. You’re selling your customers on what they’ll get in exchange for their email addresses:

• Tell customers what to expect and when, such as like daily sales alerts, weekly tips and tricks, company/brand news or whatever would appeal to your customers.
• Post a sample of your best newsletter.
• Show the benefits: VIP access to special events, special content or discounts just for subscribers, etc.
• Provide a form that collects more than just name and email address. It could be birth date, mailing address, postal code, preferences – anything that fits your brand and would let you start segmenting and targeting messages immediately.

Don’t break the budget

Start with three search campaigns keyed to terms such as “discount,” “deal,” “coupon” or whatever works for your brands. Your custom landing page can serve all three campaigns. Test it with a daily cap of maybe $50, and see what happens.

Even if only one or two people sign up every day, your experiment hasn’t failed. Adjust your campaigns based on what you’ve learned. Try different keywords, ad copy and incentives. Review your landing page. Does it reflect the language in your search ads? Use responsive design so that the page works as well on a mobile phone as it does on a desktop computer.

Benefits: higher quality customers, better data, more insights

Once you acquire enough customers this way you can start experimenting. What would happen if you were stop emailing a segment of the subscribers you acquired through search?

Hold out a random number of customers as your control group, and experiment on the rest.

Study the customers you acquire via search to see if they yield different results from people who subscribe after a conversion (purchase, download) or by opting from your homepage or some random page on your site. Track what they do. Do they buy? Browse? Click on your emails or ignore them?

This is how B2B marketers operate, by the way. By adopting their tactics, you can become more precise in your targeting, content, calls to action and analytics. In other words, when you know more about each of your customers, you market better, use resources more wisely and generate better results for your company.

Quality beats quantity

Data informs how you identify your customers and how you use that data to target them. Without accurate information, you have to work much harder. That’s why genuine email addresses are so important in this giant data universe.

Email is at the center of that universe. It holds the key to the future of advertising to identifiable consumers. Address quality has to beat quantity because quality has so much more extension, and quantity does not.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/25/how-search-and-email-acquisition-campaigns-benefit-both-channels/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153688118344

How to Start Blogging if You Fell off the Wagon a Long Time Ago

People always ask me how I’ve built up such a huge audience for my blogs.

Part of my secret sauce? I’ve been blogging for well over a decade now.

But not everyone has been blogging for years, and I get that. Some of you may have started a blog years ago but abandoned it.

I can relate. There were several times when I almost quit blogging. I was scared it wouldn’t pan out for me. And it does take time. But I stuck with it, and I’m so happy I did.

And here’s the best part: It’s not too late for you to start blogging.

I know what you’re thinking: “There are a million blogs in my niche. Why should I even try to compete with them?”

There are two main reasons. First, you bring something unique to the table. No one else has experienced everything you have. And besides, your blog should be different from your competition’s, not a carbon copy.

Second, start seeing competition as a good thing. Competition means the niche is popular and profitable. You can actually leverage that competition to get more views on your blog.

If you fell off the blogging wagon a while back, you can (and should!) jump back on. Here’s how to get (re)started.

1. Pick up where you left off

Here’s something that will relieve you: You don’t have to start from scratch.

If your old blog is still up, pay it a visit. It’s probably a barren wasteland, but you can salvage some useful scraps from it.

If you want to blog in the same niche you did before, I highly recommend repurposing content. It’s one of the easiest and most efficient ways to get extra mileage out of existing material.

If you still have access to any old material, pull it out and dust it off. Chances are it’s still relevant to your niche. Or maybe it just needs a few edits to make it shine again.

Assuming you remember (or can retrieve) your login information, you can use this blog to restart if you want. If you still own the domain name (and if you want to blog in the same niche), there’s no reason not to reuse your old blog. Edit your content, give it a redesign, and you’ll be off to the races.

But if you do opt for a shiny new blog, you can simply transfer your content over.

Either way, you’ll take advantage of what you did in the past to make the future easier.

2. Make a big comeback

You want to re-enter the blogosphere with a bang.

There are two ways you can do this.

The first approach is to jump right back into the game and start blogging regularly. If you’ve got a lot of motivation and ideas, this could be a good approach for you.

For example, you could follow in Seth Godin’s footsteps and start blogging every day.

Of course, your posts should be longer. But as an example of consistency, Seth’s blog stands head and shoulders above the rest.

But you don’t have to blog every day—you just have to blog consistently. Otherwise, there’s no point.

Decide how many posts you’ll publish per week, and get to it. You absolutely have to stick to your schedule if you want to come back on a strong note.

The second approach—and the one I wished I’d taken when I started blogging—is to stockpile your ideas before you blog. This takes a little more time, but it gives you a little more flexibility.

If you choose this, you’ll need to do two things:

First, get to writing! You’ll want to have as much content as possible when you officially start up your blog again. There’s no hard-and-fast guideline here, but about 3-4 weeks of content will give you a huge advantage.

Second, create an editorial calendar to schedule your posts. I recommend reading this post from HubSpot that shows how you can use Google Calendar to set up your editorial calendar.

Like I said, I wish I had taken this approach when I started blogging. There were many days when I was racking my brain for ideas, and a lot of them turned out to be crap.

But if you have the motivation to get out there and start right now, do it! The most important thing is to make a plan and stick to it.

3. Build (or rebuild) your audience

You may have heard this line repurposed from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

But that’s not true for blogging.

You have to build your blog and your audience.

You might have built an audience in the past. If you have, don’t be shy about leveraging that. If you know who read your blog, drop them a line about your return. You can also go through your old blog’s comments to see who was checking out your content.

And if you have an email list, that’s even better. Send out an email saying “I’m back!” More than likely, those subscribers will be glad to flock to your new blog.

In fact, getting your audience involved is one of the best things you can do at this point. Ask for feedback, and use that to improve your new blog.

The blog team at Unbounce did exactly this. They took a 2-week hiatus and asked readers to send in their thoughts:

Even a simple offer like this goes a long way in your readers’ minds. So, if you’ve still got a list floating around, use it!

But what happens if you have no audience at all?

It’s time to build one.

I’ll describe a couple of my favorite methods here, but I highly recommend you check out Quick Sprout’s Complete Guide to Building Your Blog Audience.

First, get a social media game plan. Lots of bloggers start out by relying on SEO, but the truth is that good SEO takes years to develop. Driving traffic through social media will help you out in the short run.

You can either buy ads or build your social profiles from the ground up. If you have the resources, I recommend a combination of both. Don’t rely 100% on ads—get involved with the community and share value with others. That’s how you’ll get people to visit your site in droves.

Second, use outreach. Outreach happens when you contact people asking them to share, promote, or look at your posts.

Reach out to your own network initially. Since you have personal connections, you can be somewhat informal here.

Next, reach out to the big names in your field—the influencers. But here’s the catch: In order to catch the attention of influencers, you’ll need top-notch content.

One of my favorite techniques for creating top-notch content is the Skyscraper Technique. Basically, you take an existing blog post, improve upon it, and send it to influencers. (You can read more about this on Brian Dean’s blog Backlinko.)

When you’re contacting influencers, you’ll need a solid email script. Here’s a good one to use:

Personalize this, and send it to your target influencers. If you’ve put some hard work into your post to make it an ultimate resource, you’ll likely get some responses.

4. Do your research (again)

You might have done lots of research when you started blogging. Now, you need to do more research.

You want to be at the forefront of your niche. You need to know the latest trends and ideas so you don’t fall behind.

Most importantly, take some time to size up your competition. What’s changed over the years? What types of content are your competitors posting and why?

Use this information to find your angle. You have a few options here:

• Make an existing angle better
• Add your personal experience/opinion/stories
• Combine two angles to make something new (e.g., 7 Valuable Marketing Lessons Pokémon Go Has Taught Us)

Whatever you decide, make sure your angle stands out in some way. You either need to be a super high-quality or a super unique resource (ideally, you should aim to be both).

5. Build your email list

There’s a ton of truth behind the statement “it’s all in the list.”

That’s because an email list is hands-down the best way to grow and promote your blog.

Earlier, I mentioned that if you still have an email list from an old blog, you should use it. But you can’t stop there. You have to build your list every day.

List building is a long-term process, so don’t get discouraged early on. If you keep at it, you will see the results.

The best way to start is to optimize your site for capturing emails. Yes, that means popups! You might hate them, but they work.

You can have a full-screen popup like the one Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich uses:

Or you can have a scrollbox like the one we use on Crazy Egg:

Or you can use one of my favorite tools, Hello Bar:

There are a lot of options, so look around and choose carefully.

You should also consider creating a fantastic lead magnet to get more subscribers.

But I have to emphasize something here: a good lead magnet isn’t enough. It should be so good that your subscribers would be shocked to see you giving it away.

Conclusion

Even if you gave up all hopes of creating a successful blog, it’s not too late.

In fact, blogging is easier than ever. You’ll still need to invest some serious time and money, but there are more resources available now than ever before.

If you make a plan and stick to it, you can build a huge audience like I did.

You want to know one of my secrets? I’m nobody special.

You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, right, Mr. Huge Blogger.” But it’s true. All I did was follow some simple rules that anyone can follow and use to succeed, and that includes you.

Now, it took me years to really succeed with blogging. But I didn’t do everything right when I started out. In fact, I spent years recovering from some rookie mistakes I made.

But you don’t have to fall into the same trap. You can get off to a strong start, do things the right way, and find blogging success a lot sooner.

So, if your blog is lying around collecting dust, pick it up and brush it off. You might be surprised at the results.

Are you going to start blogging again? Or for the first time?

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/_sk2Mg3_2HM/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153671538799

Five most interesting search news stories of the week

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond.

Whether you’re taking a break from Black Friday shopping mania, recovering from a post-Thanksgiving food coma, or just getting on with your normal working day because you’re in one of those boring countries that doesn’t celebrate Turkey Day (*raises hand*), we’ve got all of the most up-to-the-minute search news for your reading pleasure.

This week, Google has released some canny changes to AdWords ahead of Black Friday, introverts have a new best friend in the form of real-time Popular Times data, and we take a look at the steps Facebook has taken so far to tackle the issue of fake news.

Google releases new AdWords improvements and stats ahead of Black Friday

As retailers around the world look to cash in on the annual shopping frenzy that is Black Friday, you can be sure that Google, at least, will be raking it in. Ahead of this year’s Black Friday, Google has released additional store visits data to the AdWords location extension, allowing retailers to see exactly how far away people are from their store when they perform a search.

It also published a bumper crop of Black Friday data with shopping searches and foot traffic trends for 2016, in a move that will benefit both physical and digital retailers alike.

Christopher Ratcliff reported for Search Engine Watch this week on exactly how the AdWords improvements work, as well as some key findings from the Black Friday data.

Google adds real-time data to its Popular Times tool in Search and Maps

If, like me, you’re a hard-core hermit introvert who hates to set foot outside unless absolutely necessary, good news! Google has a function that’s tailor-made for you.

Google’s Popular Times feature in Search and Maps has always been convenient for checking when a business is typically busy, helping you to avoid the rush. But now, the feature works in real-time, allowing you to see whether a bar or restaurant is busy right at that moment so you can decide whether or not to leave the house.

Christopher Ratcliff took a closer look at the new functionality this week, including the ability to see how long people typically stay at any given location, and an improved ‘operating hours’ feature for business, service providers and restaurants within larger premises.

Google’s rich cards have expanded to restaurants and online courses

What’s that, you say? You want some more Google news? All right! How about the news that Google has now expanded its ‘rich cards’ to cover local restaurants and online courses?

Rich cards are a visual carousel of search results in ‘card’ form which appear underneath search snippets on mobile, allowing users to swipe from one result to the next.

Like rich snippets, they use schema.org structured markup to display content, making it even more important for website owners who want to stay ahead of the game to hop on the schema.org bandwagon.

From standard results to rich snippets to rich cards. Image: Google Webmasters

When rich cards first launched back in May, they were limited to film and recipe searches. Now Google has expanded their repertoire to include restaurants and online courses, as reported by Search Engine Journal’s Matt Southern. Google’s developer documents for local restaurants and online courses give instructions for website owners on the right structured data to include to trigger rich cards for their business.

Google has also added upgrades to its Structured Data Testing Tool, Search Console and AMP Testing Tool to help developers build and test their new card functionality.

Bing launches new carousel of Black Friday flyers

Not to be outdone, Google’s main rival in search has also been making improvements to its own carousel-style feature: the Black Friday flyers carousel. Jennifer Slegg reported for The SEM Post on the new look for Bing’s annual Black Friday carousel, which this year is serving ads directly from the brand advertisers instead of via Flipp, its partner of last year.

Image: The SEM Post

Bing is still showing ads above the carousel for retailers who want to target Black Friday keywords, but is limiting those to only two spots.

While the flyers themselves are eye-catching, they don’t provide a lot of useful detail to make shoppers want to click on them, and it would be interesting to see how their CTR compares to regular text ads if Bing decides to release any data. Is the visual alone enough to make people click?

Has Facebook found a way to deal with fake news?

We reported last week in our search news roundup that Google was tackling the widespread issue of fake news online by cutting off their AdSense ad revenue, and Facebook has been close behind.

Tereza Litsa took a look this week at the measures that Facebook has taken to deal with fake news on its site, and whether they are enough to deal with the real issue at heart.

She wrote,

Facebook may not be keen on accepting its responsibility as a curated media publisher (and it doesn’t see the platform as such), but it certainly needs to admit how its ambitious plan to reach more people and attract more publishers have their consequences.

The age of social media and the way publishing speed became more competitive is certainly the main reason fact checking became a luxury for many publishers, while users got addicted to an increasing content consumption (and a filter bubble that serves the relevancy they like).

Moreover, we are also experiencing a changing nature of media, with the integration of digital technology being demanding and challenging.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/11/25/five-most-interesting-search-news-stories-of-the-week/

source http://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/153639244454