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Social Content Marketing Talk and Master Class in Gothenburg

January 26, 2016 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr, Social Content Marketing keynote, KNTNT — Niklas Myhr keynote on Social Content Marketing at KNTNT

Enjoyed quite the whirlwind day yesterday when I paid a visit to Gothenburg on Sweden’s “left coast” and had a busy program together with my good friends and hospitable local hosts Pia and Thomas of KNTNT. Under the heading Social Content Marketing, I spoke to a full house of 180 attendees for a breakfast talk and then taught a full-day Content Marketing Master Class to a high-caliber group of marketing communications managers, consultants, and executives.

Digital Success Principles with Frida Boisen

I was also very pleased that we were able to bring in two intriguing guest appearances. Leading Swedish social media expert Frida Boisen shared perspectives on how content can catch fire on social media and she particularly stressed the importance of bringing in the emotional element of communication for people to care. This and more can be found in her best-selling book Digital Succé, check it out 🙂

Content Marketing Success with Mark W Schaefer

Mark Schaefer, Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Gothenburg, Niklas Myhr — Mark Schaefer guest in Content Marketing Master Class

In the afternoon Swedish time, international content marketing thought leader Mark W. Schaefer joined us for a virtual session from Knoxville, Tennessee, during which he shared the thesis he presents in his groundbreaking book The Content Code. He stressed the importance of nurturing your so-called Alpha Audience, the relatively few followers you have who are regularly sharing your content. In fact, Mark Schaefer suggests that may be doomed if you do not start worrying more about taking good care of these ambassadors as their trust and ambassadorship may be the most valuable asset you have as competition for attention will only get worse. He cited an estimate that by year 2020, the amount of content will go up another five times from today's already crowded web.

Social Media Marketing vs. Content Marketing

KNTNT Radio podcast, Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Niklas Myhr — KNTNT Radio podcast interview by Thomas Barregren and Pia Tegborg

It is not surprising that it is challenging to discuss the interrelationship between social media marketing and content marketing as both terms are relatively undefined and are also undergoing changes in terms of how they are understood over time. That being said, social media marketing encompasses communications across a wide variety of social networks and stresses the interactive nature of communications amongst a group of people whereas content marketing takes as its point of departure a piece of content that should fulfill a number of criteria such as adding value and driving profitable customer action, albeit indirectly. This is the definition of content marketing that I used in my presentation:

“Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

– Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketers becoming Professors

One aspect of content marketing that many struggle with is the extent to which they can talk about their own products and solutions in their content. While I am not going so far as saying that you are not allowed to mention your own product in your content marketing, the most effective content marketers seem to stay away from it to the largest extent possible. As a marketing professor, I have noted how content marketers are communicating and behaving more and more as professors these days as they are adding value to prospective and existing customers by teaching them ways to solve their problems irrespective of specific product purchases. It is best illustrated by the quote by Jon Ferrara of Nimble when he said:

If you teach people to fish, they’ll figure out you sell fishing poles.

– Jon Ferrara

During the day, I covered four areas in which social media marketing and content marketing are interdependent and discussed how each can benefit from the other:

Social Content Marketing

Listening on Social Media for Content Marketing Ideas. What are the questions they ask on social media? On what platforms do they search for information? What are their frustrations?
Connecting to an audience suitable to your business using relevant content. By offering content that is particularly valuable to your target market, you can both attract the right type of audience to connect with you and identify themselves such as giving you their email address at the same time as you may even repel the wrong type of audience that sees little interest in the content that you offer.
With recent Chapman University grad Filip Westlander, his girlfriend Josefine Berglund, and my cousin Per Ericson

Engaging. How can you get your followers to not only consume but also share your content on their social media platforms?
Creating. How can you motivate your followers to contribute their content for you to use on your platforms?

So, have you wondered about the relationship between social media marketing and content marketing? I am curious to learn about your thoughts and experiences so please let me know in the comments below!

Frida Boisen guest in Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — Frida Boisen's guest lecture during my Content Marketing Master Class

The Myhr Family, Piteå, Sweden, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — The Myhr Family back in the Piteå days (me with blue pants)

With KNTNT team Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Fabian Sörqvist — Thanks to the KNTNT team of Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, and Fabian Sörqvist

The Science of Haters with Jay Baer

March 28, 2015 by Niklas Myhr 4 Comments

In his closing keynote at the Social Media Marketing World 2015, Jay Baer stressed how important it is to embrace your critics and “Hug Your Haters” by responding to every complaint on every channel basically all the time. By doing so, companies can significantly increase sentiment metrics such as customer advocacy and conversely, if you fail to do so, customer advocacy will go down according to recent research on “The Science of Haters” that he has conducted in partnership with Tom Webster at Edison Research. He even went so far as saying that “answering complaints can have massive financial impact on your business.”

Niklas Myhr and Jay Baer at Social Media Marketing World 2015 — Giving Jay Baer a good luck hug before his keynote 🙂

Reasons why companies do not respond to all complaints range from an unwillingness to dignify complaints to an inability to manage a large number of complaints or even find them in the first place. Still, Jay Baer suggests that with top management commitment and sufficient resources allocated, a company can, and should, respond to all complaints. He used KLM as a case study and mentioned that when the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano wreaked havoc on flights a few years back, their CEO committed to responding to every complaint. Now they have a full 150 full-time employees dedicated to responding to online mentions across all channels.

An interesting distinction made by Jay Baer was the one he made between so-called onstage versus offstage haters. Offstage haters are those who complain about an experience through a private channel first and herein lies the opportunity for companies to help them out before they go public with their displeasure. Offstage haters skew towards an older demographic and they don't complain as frequently as others and when they do so, they tend to do it from a computer, not from a mobile device.

Onstage haters, on the other hand, are younger, more mobile and tend to also complain more frequently. When they do so, they go to public channels first and expect not only the company to respond, but also that others will see and perhaps chime in on the conversation about the brand. For onstage haters, it is important to have an audience that is watching the duel between the complainant and the company and that is why many review sites are humorous, colorful, and bold.

“Hating is a spectator sport.”

– Jay Baer

White Castle 2 Star Review — This is a 2 star review! How would their 1 star reviews look like?

One benefit of taking complaints seriously is that these can serve as an early detection system by which you can learn about customer sentiments that may become a bigger issue for more people down the road unless you do something about it. Jay Baer also pointed out that most complaints have at least some kernel of truth in them and studied carefully, complaints can provide extraordinary insights.

On another note, Jay Baer brought up Warby Parker as an example of a company that not only responds to complaints but has as its goal to respond to every question posted online. That is, being responsive doesn't have to focus solely on the negative remarks.

In sum, Jay Baer pointed out that having haters is not the problem, ignoring them is. Instead, by choosing to embrace haters, companies have a great opportunity to build customer advocacy.

Jay Baer closing keynote audience — Enthusiastic audience about to enjoy Jay Baer's closing keynote

Consider getting the Virtual Pass to Social Media Marketing World 2015 which should provide a rich library of materials for the year to come, cannot recommend it enough!

Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are so-called “affiliate links” but please note that I only recommend products or services that I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.

Intern, Go Make that Viral Video, please!

March 17, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr and Jonah Berger at Chapman University

Yesterday, I asked my students to name some videos they thought of as “viral,” that is, something that had been shared extensively. We also discussed some of the factors that they had in common and recurring themes centered around humor, cuteness (read: cats/dogs), and emotional appeal. Here's one of the videos we looked at in class (also boosted by a $4+ million Super Bowl ad spot…):

Just remember that identifying common traits among videos that became successful does not necessarily tell you why they became successful unless you also consider all the videos that had similar characteristics but did not become viral. Otherwise, your analysis will be subject to the so-called “survivor bias.” Jonah Berger points this out in his excellent book Contagious: Why Things Catch On and strikes home the point with the statement:

“But these ‘theories' ignore the fact that many funny or cute videos never take off. Sure, some cat clips get millions of views, but those are the outliers, not the norm. Most get less than a few dozen.”

Perhaps in another blog post, I will discuss Jonah Berger's take on viral marketing in more detail and I also hope that he remembers from his visit to Chapman University that he has promised me a podcast interview 🙂 In the meantime, I highly recommend you get his book Contagious yourself and learn more about the six factors that Jonah Berger argues are scientifically established as positively contributing towards a higher likelihood of something going viral:

Social currency
Triggers
Emotion
Public
Practical value
Stories

4 Keys to Preparing a Successful Keynote Presentation

March 7, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr The Social Media Professor Professional Speaker In recent years, I have been invited to speak on developments in social media and digital marketing in front of many audiences outside my regular classrooms. I very much enjoy these opportunities and it also forces me to stay up-to-date to be relevant out there in the “real world” which I believe benefits my regular students as well. By interacting with audiences not only during a talk but also before and after taking the stage, I develop new relationships and get a chance to learn from their experiences and insights in their industries and professions.

One of the keys to a successful keynote presentation is obviously how you prepare before the actual event and so far I have been fortunate to rate amongst the best speakers at various events and even as the best one out of 75 speakers at the Swedish Web Days in 2013. In this blog post, I will highlight a few pointers that have worked out for me:

Interview the organizers in depth. The first step is to schedule a session with the organizers to ask them about their agenda and their objectives with the event to ensure that your talk falls in line with the overall theme and their possible change agenda if it is a company-specific event. During this conversation you should also take the opportunity to ask as many questions as you can about the expected audience such as where they come from, what companies they work for, what headaches they have, how old they are, what they are likely familiar with related to your topic, etc. One of the easiest things which is yet appreciated is to customize your presentation to at least talk about the location or the company you're at, such as if you have any prior experiences with them. This can often be light-hearted and you can reference events such as when I went to Gothenburg to attend a David Bowie concert.
Learn about the industry and context of the audience on your own via contacts and online research. I have been exposed to a big variety of contexts as I have spoken for companies big and small, to for-profit companies, to non-profit organizations, to government agencies, to city governments, to executives, to marketing professionals, to small business owners, to Swedish moms, etc. While audiences share some characteristics across the board in terms of what they want out of a keynote presentation, they can also vary widely in some respects.
Learn about the other speakers. Another thing that you can do is to ask and inquire about the other speakers on the program to understand more than what is often publicly available on an event website. Then you can learn how your presentation fits in the overall scheme of things. You can check out the other speakers on YouTube, their blogs, books, etc., in order to ensure that you maximize the value that you provide in your part while building upon what the participants will learn from the others. You can also ask the organizers if they have seeded any particular talking points to the other speakers that may be different from the ones that you have been assigned.
Network with the other speakers. Potentially you could also reach out to the other speakers beforehand and express an interest in seeing them in connection with the event. You could simply network with them beforehand via social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Also, some organizers of big events invite speakers to informal dinners or get-togethers the night before the event and this is usually both enjoyable and a great opportunity to network with professional speakers that may help you land your next gig. Just remember to try to help them first 🙂 This can also make you relax a little bit because the next day when you get up on stage, you could have some new friends on your side that could have been more intimidating to have in the room had you not gotten a chance to speak with them beforehand.

Good luck with your own speaking and please let me know if you have any other tips!

The Content Marketing Make-or-Buy Decision

March 5, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

This week's student question from Alex Garrett:

I really enjoyed your lecture today and had one question in particular. It seems to me that when a company chooses to build a content marketing strategy, they're now entering a market in which they might not know much about; such as writing, blogging, social media, etc. Are there companies that specialize in selling content to these businesses whose resources are already spread thin?

My answer:

Hi Alex! Regarding your question, the short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it may not be a new “market” per se that they are entering, rather they would be serving their very own market with useful information, insights, resources, etc, but in a new way, focusing on the problems and needs of their customers rather than directly offering them your product or service to resolve those problems.

Furthermore, the delivery or distribution of content marketing often involves new media that the company perhaps could be unaccustomed to and perhaps it is not the right thing for every company to become experts in managing say a YouTube channel. For this part, there definitely is a plethora of firms serving companies to help them package and distribute various bits and pieces of content pieces that is deemed relevant to the overall content marketing strategy.

Some firms also outsource the origination of relevant ideas for content marketing and this is the area in which a company risks losing its authenticity. The content could become too bland and boilerplate if it is literally created or written by someone without in-depth experience and insights about the lives of the target market. You need insights into the needs of the customers that you are aiming to serve.

A combination of the two can be the ideal when a company takes an active part of the content creation and ideation process in close collaboration with an outside partner. Once the content is created, the media part involving distribution through various channels can be outsourced more readily.

Then again, when consumers respond to different content pieces with quieries, they would expect knowledgeable answers in conversations that follow that may again require the involvement of the company behind the content marketing efforts, not its external partner unless the latter has been properly initiated and trained.

Overall, I foresee a still growing opportunity in helping companies with various functions related to content marketing and I am looking forward to seeing the emergence of your very own content marketing agency one day!

How Mitch Jackson Wins Social Media Friends and Influences Juries

March 2, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Mitch Jackson, California Lawyer of the Year 2013, of the law firm JacksonandWilson.com, and founder/CEO of Human.Social shared perspectives on engaging and building relationships with clients, friends, and communities to my students and these are some of the knowledge bombs that he shared:

In 1996, he realized the importance of the web as a lady called his law practice after seeing his URL in the Yellow Pages and apparently that impressed her enough even though she never used a computer! You need to learn how different clients prefer to communicate. Once he won over a client as the previous lawyer just left voicemails to someone who only communicated via text.
The famous Cochran Law firm wasn't responsive to inquiries by a client of theirs and when Mitch's firm proved more attentive, they took over the case eventually resulting in a $5,500,000 jury verdict for wrongful death.
You need to be good at what you are doing but all other things being equal, building social platforms and being a social business as described by Brian Solis in What's the Future of Business, allowing people to connect is often the determinant of who gets the order.
Mobile technology creates business opportunities for companies big and small to connect and build relationships globally. Peter Diamandis new book Abundance talks about how those who change their mindset can tap into an increasingly connected world.
Bob Burg's book of turning Adversaries into Allies is the best people skills book Mitch Jackson knows and junior lawyers he mentors first need to read this book and let Mitch know what they got out of it before he spends time with them.
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Sales and Service lays out how you can succeed on social platforms with a focus on service and genuine helpfulness. Mitch is also featured in the book in a whole chapter dedicated to so-called newsjacking. Newsjacking is the idea of interjecting yourself and your business into hot current news stories and Mitch can attest to it working very well. Thanks to his prompt commentary on hot news topics, he has landed press, TV, and social media coverage eventually resulting in more business for his firm. To succeed in newsjacking, Mitch cautions that you should have at least something partially relevant to add to the conversation based either on your experience or perspectives. Mitch also always tries to take the high road on divisive issues by maintaining a positive and constructive tone.
Mitch's six communication principles for success on and off social media are inspired by Dale Carnegie's classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People:
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile. Check yourself, deflect, reflect, and select your options regarding when to take action. Take smart actions and don't dwell on bad decisions you made, keep smiling.
3. Remember and use other people's names. Mentioning people's names works online as well to separate yourself from the noise. He uses Nimble which pulls in from connected social media feeds what you are talking about and up to this week. To “Nimble” someone is often more specific than when you Google somebody.
4. Be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves. Listen 60-70% of the time, ask open-ended questions, and let people speak.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interest. Phrase and categorize things in their best interest. Ask questions about their goals and constraints so you can best help them.
6. Sincerely make the other person feel important. People do business with people they enjoy being around and making them feel that you care is a great way to develop rapport.

Mitch's final advice to students. Learn how to say no in a respectful manner and start building an online platform today! Do you believe that these principles apply also in your life or career? Please share in the comments!

Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links” but I only recommend products or services I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.