1. Social publishing Chapter 6
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2. Chapter Objectives Discuss the distribution of social media content
Distinguish between the different types of social media content
Explain how marketers develop and organize social media content
Discuss how marketers use search engine optimization and social media optimization to meet marketing objectives
Describe methods of promoting social media content
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3. The Social Publishing Zone
The social publishing zone includes those channels that allow people and organizations to publish content including
Blogs – websites that host regularly updated content
Microblogs – like blogs except content is limited to short bursts of text (Twitter)
Media sharing sites – websites designed for video- sharing, photo-sharing, audio-sharing, and document sharing
Click here to read Technorati’s state of the Blogosphere
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4. Publishing Content
Content The unit of value in a social community, akin to the dollar in our economy.
Content may include opinions, catchphrases, information, fashion photos, advice, art, or photos from that wild party last week. Although an externally created piece of content like a movie may be the catalyst for a community to form (such as a Twilight blog), these collectives are not just sophisticated versions of fan clubs devoted to performers or works of art.
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5. Publishing Content

6. Types of Content
Content appears in a variety of different formats such as: • Blog posts and feature articles • Microblog posts • Press releases • White papers, case studies, and ebooks • Newsletters • Videos • Webinars and presentations • Podcasts • Photos
Content can be any of these and more. Increasingly, however, we see more content that is multilayered; it offers several applications based on a meme or a piece of factual information.
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7. Channels of Content Distribution
Blogs. Blogs have been around for more than a decade. They began as simple online logs posted in reverse chronological order, and developed into a widely used publishing venue for individual and corporate use.
Media Sharing Sites. Media sharing sites enable individuals and organizations to publish content online. Media sharing sites are earned media because their environments are not directly controlled by the person or organization posting the content.
For example, Saab maintains a corporate hub for its social media content called the Saab Newsroom, but video content is shared on its YouTube channel, photos are shared on its Flickr photostream, news is shared on its Twitter feed, and Saab iPhone apps are distributed via iTunes. User-generated content is shared on the Saab Facebook page. Reviews, covered in Chapter 8, are also a form of content that can be published using media sharing sites.
Click here to visit Saab’s social media hub
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8. Content Producers: What Is “Authentic?”
Content can take so many forms that it’s sometimes difficult to categorize.
An editorial message is objective and unbiased; the source expresses an opinion or provides information and does not intend to carry out the agenda of an organization.
A commercial message such as an advertisement makes it clear that the intent is to persuade the reader or viewer to change an attitude or behavior
Other traditional content providers adapt to the new media environment as they shift from delivering their messages on a printed page (or, as some new media people like to say, “dead trees”) to mobile applications. Gourmet is set to become the first mobile magazine. It closed operations late in 2009 due to declining subscriptions and ad revenues. Gourmet Live instead delivers articles to foodies on their mobile phones. But, unlike the old dead tree delivery system, this content is also social—subscribers can interact, share, and play games within the application.
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9. Content Producers: What Is “Authentic?” - continued
Today we are witnessing an explosion of consumer- generated content (CGM) Two types of content: * Organic content – content a person feels intrinsically motivated to prepare and share * Incentivized content – content that is encouraged by the offer of an incentive
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10. Content Producers: What Is “Authentic?” - continued
Consumer-solicited media (CSM) – invited but non-compensated citizen advertising
Sponsored conversations – paid consumer content
Click here to see how bloggers work as spokesbloggers
Counterfeit conversations – content planted by an organization that masquerades as original material an actual consumer posted
What’s more, even the seemingly independent blogger can shift from noncommercial to sponsored content. If a blogger accepts Google AdWords on his or her site so that Google places ads there, or takes freebies or payment to blog about specific topics, that content shifts from editorial to commercial. For example, Walmart established ElevenMoms, a group of independent bloggers who receive free samples and then review the products. These women post on other topics as well, but these sponsored reviews live alongside the other content in their blogs.
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11. Developing and Organizing Marketing Content
We characterize content in terms of its originality and substance according to a value ladder.
Flagship content – authority-building content. Seminal pieces of work that shape the way people think
Pillar content – typically educational content that readers use over time, save, and share
Authority-building content – original content that positions the sponsoring entity as a authority
Filler content – information that people copy from other sources
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13. Social Publishing Strategies
There is a twofold goal for social publishing:
To increase the exposure to the brand’s message
To use the content to drive traffic to the brand’s owned media
Just as traditional media plans vary considerably in terms of complexity and sophistication, so too do social publishing strategies. Marketers must determine what content to publish and where and then develop a strategy to maximize exposure to the content through search engine rankings and social sharing. In fact, we can identify two types of optimization that an organization can use (either individually or in combination) with on-site and off-site optimization tactics. Table 6.2 summarizes these levels.
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14. Social Publishing Strategies
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of modifying content, site characteristics, and content connections to achieve improved search engine rankings.
Social media optimization (SMO) is a process that makes it more likely for content on a specific social media platform to be more visible and linkable in online communities.
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15. Level 1: Social Publishing and Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the key tool used for search engine marketing (SEM).
SEM refers to a form of online marketing that promotes websites by increasing the visibility of the site’s URL in search engine results, both organic and sponsored.
The first level focuses on ways the brand can increase exposure to its online content and drive site traffic by publishing related components of the content across several social sites. These placements include links back to the targeted site. This cross-promotion to the branded content is accomplished with owned media and the placement of related content on media sharing sites (earned media).
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16. How People Use Search Results
A search results list will lead off with sponsored (paid) links
The next search results will be organic – sites that do not pay, but are based on the search engine’s model for delivering results
Eye-tracking studies clearly that most search engine users view only a very limited number of search results. When typical respondents look at a search page, their eyes travel across the top of the search result, return to the left of the screen, and then travel down to the last item shown on the screen without scrolling. On most screens, this means that every user will view the first three search results, but they may or may not scroll down. Search engine marketers call this space on the screen where listings are virtually guaranteed to be viewed the “golden triangle.”17 So the real value—the sweet spot—is in earning a list rank that is on the first page, and preferably one of the top three listings ranked. How can a source enhance the probability that its listing will appear near the top? For many organizations, this is (literally) the million dollar question! And that’s exactly the point of
search engine optimization.
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17. How Search Engines Work
Search listings are produced by search engines using indexed data and an algorithm that determines a listing’s relevance to the search query.
Web crawlers (spiders or bots) are automated web programs that gather information from sites that form the search engine’s entries.
Indexed data include tags and keywords taken from site content.
Click here to see how some of the Search Engine Optimizers work
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18. On-Site Optimization
The primary on-site variables are keywords embedded in the page’s tags, title, URL, and content.
Meta tag – code imbedded in a web page
Title tag – An HTML tag that defines the title of a page
Heading tag – An HTML tag that sections and describes content
Title – The headline
URL – The website address
On-site, coders try to optimize certain site characteristics (called on-site indicators) that the search bots and the engine index. In plain English this means they tinker with elements of the site to make indexing more efficient and ensure that the web crawlers will classify the site the way the developers intend. The primary on-site variables are keywords embedded in the page’s tags, title, URL, and content. Keywords tell the bot what information to gather and specify the relevant topic. The bot will collect this information for the search engine to use in indexing. The keywords explain to the search engine when to deliver your site as a search result. Consequently, choosing the right keywords is critical to ensuring a site shows up in relevant searches. Once you have selected your keywords, you will work them into the areas crawled by the bots—the site’s tags, title, URL, and body copy (or content).
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19. Off-Site Optimization
These off-site indicators include the number of links to a website from other sites, the credibility of those sites, the type of site promoting the link, and the link text (anchor text) these sites use.
Link – the building blocks of social publishing. Two approaches:
Publish related content and links across other sites
To encourage other, unaffiliated sites to link to the brand’s content
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20. Level 2: Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization (SMO) employs tactics to increase the likelihood that others will share and promote content.
SMO seeks to leverage the network effect to spread endorsements of a brand with links to the brand’s content.
This is accomplished through on-site and off-site tactics
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22. On-Site Tactics
Many on-site tactics can be used to encourage endorsements and sharing. Including the title, share tools, RSS feeds, the social media press release, microblogs, and social news and bookmarking sites.
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23. Title
Linkbaiting is the careful crafting of a title that markets the content.
Resource hook – content written with the intent to be helpful to the target audience
Contrary hook – refutes an accepted belief
Humor hook – show that the content will entertain
Giveaway hook – promises something for free
Research hook – offers a claim about something of interest
We choose a hook that increases the likelihood that the intended audience will click. Hooks are used to position the content for the target audience.
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24. Share Tools
Share tools are plug-ins that appear as clickable icons on a website and enable the viewer to bookmark or share the page with others.
Plug-ins are third-party applications that “plug in” to a main site to add some form of functionality. In this case, the functionality is the ability to easily share the site’s content with external sites. Many social media sites offer their own site-specific plug-in (Facebook has a Like plug-in; Delicious has a bookmarking plug-in; Twitter offers a Tweet This button, Digg has a Smart Digg button) or a site may wish to utilize a multi-share tool such as Share This or Sexy Bookmarks.
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25. RSS Feeds
RSS feed is a tool to automatically feed new published content to subscribers.
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26. The Social Media Press Release
The social media press release should have an optimized title, good keywords and tags, links to the main site landing page, RSS feed options, share buttons, and embeddable multimedia content that can be shared on several networks, in addition to the typical press release content.
A press release is an announcement public relations professionals issue to the news media to let the public know of company developments. For social media marketers, a release is also a key tool, but a social media press release is structured a bit differently.
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28. Microblogs Microblogs share headlines (Twitter is an example)
Microblog posts can be useful for reminder communications and ensuring top-of-mind awareness, but they can also provide valuable links, direct traffic, and build credibility and reputation.
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29. Social News and Bookmarking Sites
Social news communities share and promote online news.
Social bookmarking sites save your bookmarks online so they are always available wherever you have online access.
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30. Planning a Social News Campaign
Choosing the communities to seed and target can be difficult.
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31. Planning a Social News Campaign continued
Consider this list of community characteristics when evaluating the desirability of a community target:
What is the community’s focus (general news, specific topics)?
How many active users are involved in the community
How active are the top users on the site?
How many comments on average are generated for each new submission?
How many votes are required to earn front page status on the site?
Are stories on the site’s front page recent? How rapid is story turnover?
Are there limitations for branded content in the community’s Terms of Service?
What have others said about the social news site?
Microblog posts can be useful for reminder communications and ensuring top-of-mind awareness, but they can also provide valuable links, direct traffic, and build credibility and reputation.
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