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Custom Content Drives Social Media

20 Jan 2010

by James Meyers

I had a wonderful meeting yesterday with a prospective new association client that once again reinforced the fact that custom content is the key to any social media campaign.

One of the first questions we heard yesterday and often hear from other organizations is “we have a Facebook and Twitter page but we’re not getting much response so what should we do next?” Inevitably, organizations are still living under the impression that if they build it, they will come. With good intentions, but without a strategy and more importantly the resources to care and nurture for a social media campaign, the results will always be underwhelming and disappointing.

Social media is about conversation. It’s not a one-way medium for pushing marketing messages and products at anyone who will listen. This is a flawed and fatal strategy. That’s where custom content is crucial to the success of any social media campaign. Meaningful, thought-provoking and continuous content is the primer for conversation between organizations and their target audiences that leads to meaningful engagement.

Over the past few months, we have the privilege and excitement of working with several Fortune 100 clients in building a comprehensive social media strategy and then executing them on a daily, sometimes minute-by-minute basis. The results have been beyond their expectations and goals making them true believers in the power of custom content and social media.

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Posted in Advertising, Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Custom Media, Custom Publishing, Digital, Social Media, Strategy, associations | No Comments »

Ad Age Spurns Custom Publishing

5 Jan 2010

by James Meyers

Once again, traditional advertising agencies and their weekly trade magazine Advertising Age have proven that they just don’t see the marketing changes that are sweeping them into irrelevancy. This week’s issue (1/4/10) of Advertising Age focuses on “Ad Land”  and the changes and trends that will continue to negatively affect traditional agencies in 2010. Much is said about key marketing categories and traditional media channels such as direct marketing, print and television but all of it misses the point and is pretty gloomy stuff.

I applaud Ad Age’s attempted discussion about the rapid emergence of custom content as primary marketing tool. But their attitude about custom content seems to dismiss it as really only serving those who already know what they want and are ready to buy and not really about creating demand.

I couldn’t disagree more on both points. First, engaging and converting those who are ready to buy into measurable revenues is not only a mandate for marketers in this depressed economy but it will remain as a primary objective far after this recession is a distant memory. Second, as we have seen with our Fortune 500 clients, custom content does create demand. By providing value and targeted custom content to target customers, the return on marketing investment results far surpass those of traditional mass media. That is why custom media, according to a recent study, nearly doubled over the last two years while traditional media plummeted.

Advertising Age while acknowledging the growth of custom content failed to point out the phenomenal growth of custom publishing agencies over the past five years. Unlike traditional agencies, custom publishers offer a full range of strategy, creative and measurement services that are all centered on producing and distributing original, results-producing custom content through whatever delivery channel is most effective for each target customer. Custom publishers like Imagination Publishing continue to add new clients because we have added expertise to our custom content print and digital arsenal such as rich media, social networking, community management and SEO.

The shift to content agencies that understand how to create and distribute custom content to target customers has only accelerated over the past year. It’s time that traditional agencies wake up to what their marketers already know about custom content….it works!

Posted in Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Custom Media, Custom Publishing, Digital, Social Media, Strategy, User Engagement | 1 Comment »

Social Media for B-to-B Publishing

29 Apr 2009

by James Meyers

In a recent article in AMA’s Marketing News by Josh Bernoff, VP of Forrester Research, he makes a compelling case for Social Media in B-to-B marketing. A recent study by Forrester of over 1,200 information technology decision-makers at companies in North America and Europe found that 91% read blogs, watch user-generated video or read socially-created content at least once a month. This is one of the highest readings Forrester has ever seen on social media. Additionally, 55% said they were in social networks and 58% they had reacted to social content created by others by participating in discussion groups or commenting to blogs.

When asked if they used social media for business purposes the vast majority did! 69% said they had consumed social content for their jobs and 29% said they used social networking for their jobs.

This is some of the strongest evidence yet that social media is a necessity and opportunity within B-to-B marketing. At Imagination Publishing, nearly 90% of our customer base is B-2-B. Nearly every one of them has asked us to create social media programs for them. For examples, see our portfolio.

Even during the economic recession, our business at Imagination Publishing continues to grow. As a B-to-B publisher, you can have the same kind of growth opportunities!

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Posted in Content Marketing, Digital, IPUB FEATURE, Social Media, User Engagement | 1 Comment »

Chief Marketers Bullish on Custom Media

10 Mar 2009

by James Meyers

I was lucky to have an opportunity to attend a private dinner last week in California with about 25 CMOs of B2B technology and financial services companies.

Their mood about the current business environment was guarded but leaning towards optimism. I got the sense that they believed that they had turned the corner on the recession and that they’re waiting for consumer to catch up. Maybe because these CMOs are in the business of seeing the future, most of my conversations with them were about how they are positioning their companies to take advantage of the business and consumer upswing ahead. It seemed they had factored in that the recession is already near the bottom for most businesses and that there was nowhere to go but up.

As we discussed current marketing strategies, there was great interest in custom content delivered through a variety of digital platforms. I shared Imagination’s experiences with other companies in providing rich-media content, social media marketing and online community management services. The CMOs agreed that the key to retaining and growing their customers lies in providing custom content that can help them understand options, share experiences and find solutions.

They recognized that custom content–some still call it custom publishing–needs to be delivered in the channel that best fits the target audience. Delivery can be through digital text, audio, video or media such as blogs, social networking sites or virtual participation events. Marketing budgets clearly are lower, but most of the cutting has been done in traditional media vehicles such as print, broadcast and direct mail advertising.  Marketing dollars have been shifted to custom content strategies where the message and delivery is customized, controlled and exclusive.

Finally, in order to get approval, the custom media program must have the ability to generate detailed metrics that show participation, engagement and ability to generate revenues.

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Posted in Audio, Custom Media, Custom Publishing, Digital, Social Media, Strategy, Video, leadership | No Comments »

Take a Break to Recharge

18 Jul 2008

by admin

It’s been 14 years since I started Imagination so I treated myself to a four-week vacation—nothing special, just a chance to get away and unwind. If you’re like me, one week just doesn’t do it, as it typically takes three days to begin to unwind and by the fifth day I’m already starting to think about work again.

This time, I returned refreshed and recharged. It was nice to see that things ran smoothly in my absence and that I really didn’t need to be connected to everything happening in the company.

During the time off, I read two books that I’d highly recommend.

The first is Fast Strategy by Yves Doz and Mikko Kosonen. The premise of the book is that it’s no longer enough to formulate a strategy and wait a year or two until the results come in. You must be constantly alert to emerging trends and market shifts, and you must react quickly and effectively. Strategically agile companies know how to transform themselves without losing momentum. Knowing what separates the winners from the losers in the fast strategy game is both insightful and thought-provoking for any content publisher.

My second recommendation is Wikinomics by by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. For anyone concerned about or fascinated by the speed at which digital collaboration and user generated content occurs, this is a must-read. The authors show how smart firms can harness the collective capability and genius of online communities to spur innovation, growth and success. The book will challenge a publisher’s current thinking and assumptions about where content will originate and what it will look like in the 21st century.

I hope that you’ll find the time to read these two books; they were an eye-opening glimpse into the future of publishing.

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Posted in Custom Publishing, Social Media, Strategy, User Engagement | No Comments »