Selling with Content

Content Marketing Lessons of the Top 10 Retweets of 2010

  In social media circles, retweets are great currency. If you can create content, even if it’s under 140 characters long, and retransmit it through hundreds or thousands of individual Twitter accounts, it is communication gold.

The top 10 retweets of 2010 give insight as to what magic the top performers contain. Many are from celebrities, but that alone is not the secret sauce considering the thousands of tweets from celebs that did not make the cut. 

First, let’s look at the basic nature of the content contained in the top ten tweets:  

 

• Average number of characters per tweet: 69, less than half of the 140 character limit
• Average number of words per tweet: 13, short and sweet
• Used humor: 5 of the 10
• Personally connected: 5 of 10, here the tweet only made sense if you know the person (or celebrity) involved.
• Offered wisdom: 3 of 10

So personal connection, humor, and wisdom, ruled the top tweets. Tweets about a personal mood, personal experience, real time experience, or news item, did not make the cut. 

Here are the top ten tweets of 2010:
1. Stephen Colbert: in honor of oil-soaked birds, 'Tweets' are now 'gurgles.
2. Drizzy Drake: We always ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us
3. Lil Wayne WEEZY F: aaaaaaahhhhhhmmmmm baaaaakkkkkkkkkk
4. Justin Bieber: te quiero mucho mi amor
5. Al-Qaeda: Just noticed Twitter keeps prompting me to "Add a location to your tweets". Not falling for that one.
6. joe jonas: I cry because I love Justin Bieber!!!
7. Lady Gaga: I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes. I'm on the right track, baby. I was Born This Way.
8. Kanye West: I'm sorry Taylor.
9. Rihanna: Justin Bieber just flashed me his abs in the middle of a restaurant! Wow! He actually had a lil 6 pack! Sexy,lol!
10. shitmydadsays: Don't focus on the one guy who hates you. You don't go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit.

But there were more ingredients.

Each of the top tweets, in their own unique way, captured a universal feeling, moment, idea, or bit of wisdom for many. 

Stephen Colbert used humor, but his “tweets are now gurgles” quip defined the frustration we all felt about the BP oil spill. Lady Gaga’s tweet defined her whole unique performance attitude that has mesmerize millions, while the fake Al-Qaeda tweet poked fun at Osama Bin Laden, something we all like to do.

In conclusion, be universal.  

Share humor or wisdom. Both universally appreciated.

Find a way to make a universal personal connection. You do not have to be a celebrity if you tap into a universally known person or personal experience. Few know the Tweeter behind "Shit my dad says," but everyone has a dad. Few know the identity of the fake Osama from Al-Qaeda, but everyone knows who he or she is pretending to be.

There is nothing like a good universal tweet to bring us together.
Happy Holidays!

Official list of top ten retweets from Twitter

Survey content that sells: do more black men go to jail than college?

Surveys can create powerful content that sells. They sell not by overtly asking for an order, but by creating the “persuasive facts” that decisions are based on.

Call me skeptical, but having crafted hundreds of surveys that sell, when I hear a "persuasive fact" I want to know who created it, what bias it has, and what its creators are trying to sell me.
Here is one such "fact" I've heard for years, most recently during the 2008 Presidential elections:

"There are more black men in prison than in college."

Do you believe it?

This "fact" was used by several candidates during the 2008 presidential campaign (including the guy who won) and is accepted as as true in many social discussions. But the "fact" is misleading and should not be used. It first was introduced in 2002 as part of a study created by the "Justice Policy Institute", whose stated mission is “to promote effective solutions to social problems and to be dedicated to ending society’s reliance on incarceration.” A high minded organization, but not one without a bias on the topic.

The report compared two government statistics: In 2000, there were 791,600 black men behind bars while only 603,032 were in college. The numbers dramatized the shameful condition of American black men at the time.

But using this "fact" is not appropriate for two reasons:
First off, it is no longer true:
The same government statistics released in 2005 showed 864,000 black men in college and only 802,000 in prison. Still terrible numbers, but progress had been made, and as of 2005, a small majority now go to college.

But the bigger point is that this fact misleads because it is an apples to oranges comparison. Attending college and going to jail are different life experiences that happen in different time frames. A majority of people, black or white, go to college only between ages 18 to 24, whereas the "opportunity” to go to prison can happen throughout adulthood.

The black male population of 2000 had a very high frequency of incarceration. If you compare their frequency of attending college, which would only happen in a four year window, to their frequency of attending prison, which could happen anytime during a lifetime, the comparison will skew toward prison. Just because the statistics of "going to college" and "going to prison" were gathered in the same year does not mean all comparisons between them are valid.

Take this 2007 quote from then presidential candidate, John Edwards:

“We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.”

Even as the basic statement about more young black men going to prison was accurate back in 2000, Edwards is stretching the comparison to mean things it does not.

Working with the 2005 statistics, the fact checkers at the Washington Post did an “apples to apples” comparison of just college age black men, in college and prison, finding that the number of black men in college is actually, "...five times the number of young black men in federal and state prisons and two and a half times the total number incarcerated.”

If you make the "fact" about black men an apples to apples comparison by limiting the sample to just black males of college age, the remaining fact just doesn’t sell:
"There are two and a half times more college age black males attending college, than there are in prison.”

Yawn.

Think about this: this "fact," about more black men going to jail than college was first presented almost 10 years ago by an advocacy group. The "fact" is still influencing decisions today even though it is not true anymore, and was originally based on a bias most people were not aware of.

Again, I state that surveys are the most powerful sales agents on the planet. If you are not using them to advocate your organization’s ideas and products, well, call me skeptical again.

Read the Washington Post fact check report

Read a review of the original report that shared "the fact" from the Justice Policy Institute

Read a 2007 NYT article: A black film maker tries to debunk the myth of more young black men in prison than college

Inception and selling with ideas

As a persuasive element in marketing, ideas are powerful, tangible, misunderstood, and underused. I loved the first few lines from Christopher Nolan's hit movie "Inception" because they dramatize just how influential ideas can be:  

What is the most resilient parasite?

 An idea.

 A single idea from the human mind can build cities.

 An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.

See the movie trailer:

 How do ideas actually sell? Here are the first few lines from the chapter on selling with ideas from my book "Presentations That Change Minds": 

  On March 19, 1999, Steve Forbes entered the crowded field as a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. There were nine candidates running and Forbes’ entry would made it a field of ten. The son of publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes, Steve was little known in national politics and most observers bet his only chance of winning on massive spending from his personal fortune.

But the unique advantage of personally bankrolling a campaign vanished when rival candidate Morry Taylor, a millionaire wheel magnate from Quincy, IL, spent about $1.5 million of his personal fortune on TV ads in the early days of the campaign.

Despite the odds, Forbes shot past eight of his rivals in the first few primaries to become the solid second place contender behind Bob Dole, the long-standing US Senator from Kansas.

Most credit the success of Forbes’ campaign to his ability to present new, compelling ideas that challenged his audiences. One idea, the flat tax, eventually took center stage and became almost synonymous with the Forbes campaign. USA Today reported, “Dole pokes fun at Forbes for being a one-note candidate: "You ask him about your headache, he gives you his flat tax message."
   
The story of how Steve Forbes, a virtual political unknown nationally, could enter a crowded field and have a solid shot at winning the Republican presidential nomination is the story of just how powerful an idea, skillfully delivered, can be.

The essence of using an idea to persuade is to sell an audience on a unique idea which, if accepted, gains acceptance for your candidate, product, or proposal. In short, buy my idea, buy what I am selling.

If you bought the idea of the flat tax back in 1999 you likely voted for Forbes. In the same year, if you bought the idea that the best value in computers was in buying direct from a manufacturer, you likely bought from Dell Computer. Before you start, ask, “If they buy my idea will they buy what I am selling?”
Consider these four ways an idea most often results in a sale:

1. Idea ownership. Steve Forbes “owned” the idea of the flat tax. If you wanted it as part of your future, he was the guy who could deliver and you had to vote for him.

2. Sell an idea as feature. In 2003 Seachange Technology introduced a new idea to structure video storage by using a ring pattern instead of the commonly used linear structure. If IT audiences bought the idea of the ring structure, they had to buy from Seachange, the only supplier who had it.   

3. Implementation. An ad agency recently proposed a new idea for a marketing campaign targeting senior citizens. Because the agency had extensive and unique knowledge and experience implementing programs like the one proposed, they felt confident they would get the contract if the client liked the idea.  The client might say, “OK we love the idea.  Who can make this happen?”  

4. Change that requires specific expertise. A technology company proposed using new digital technology to change the workflow at a radio stations. While many suppliers offered the equipment necessary, implementing the changes in workflow required specific expertise that only this company could provide.  

Ask yourself:

What idea can we advocate which, if accepted, generates preference for our product or service?

Have ideas been used to manipulate? 

Many times. In the 1960's Shell Oil sold the idea that an ingredient in their gasoline, platformate, gained cars extra mileage. Was it true? Yes. In the dramatic 60 second TV spot that follows Shell sells this idea. Shell correctly assumed that most Americans have little understanding of petroleum products. In the ad Shell did not mention that all brands of gasoline had platformate.

 But if you bought the idea that an ingredient in Shell gasoline extended gas mileage would you buy your gas from Shell? Many did so for many years. That's a pretty resilient parasite.    

But what was the content marketing plan?

I love this cartoon by Brady Bonus I found on the Eloqua cartoon collaborative. I don't have to ad much about the importance of having a content strategy driving social media because this cartoon says it beautifully:  

Content is still King, but audience is Ace

Wait a minute! This blog is about the power of content and its ability to persuade. Am I saying that content is no longer King? To that I say both yes and no.

Yes, content is King and publishing it is the most persuasive tool a marketer has. But publishing content is not the end goal, but a means to an end. Content that educates or entertains can attract an opted in audience of potential customers, every marketers dream.  

No, content is no longer King: many failing traditional publishers are loosing business thinking their end game is content distribution. A recent article in Time magazine documented how traditional content companies are being devalued:

“Content is rapidly being devalued. The first people to press that case are accountants. They have insisted that companies from News Corporation (NWS) to The New York Times (NYT) to Time Warner (TWX) to CBS (CBS) write-down tens of billions of dollars in assets. Cablevision (CVC) bought the large daily newspaper Newsday less than a year ago. Its accountants reduced the value of that property by 70%. That was not simply the value of the Newsday building. What they were saying is that the income from the property has been impaired, probably permanently.”

Don't fall into this trap. It is not enough just to create and distribute content as an end goal. Content has a new function on the web. Ben Elowitz, writing in PaidContent, advocates four qualities that make web content effective. What Elowitz describes is content on a mission. Once released this new breed of content travels the Web and builds an audience in its wake:

"Relevance. When users are skimming thousands of pages from a hundred sites per month, without question the most important factor is whether your content is relevant to the audience.

Make experiences, not content. In old media, the editors made the content and that was the product. Not any more.  Technology and content today are fused like peanut butter and chocolate in a Reese’s, and together they go by the name of “experience.”

P.O.V.  information is proprietary for a few minutes, and then – if it’s valuable – it spreads like a cold in a grade-school. While a minority of publishers build a business around sourcing proprietary information, the vast majority offer something far more valuable and ownable: perspective. In digital media, that is far more important, as the same information appears in hundreds of places. The Huffington Post has a paucity of proprietary reporting, and yet earned an audience of 23 million monthly U.S. users by offering points of view that are meaningful to its progressive audience, while ABC (NYSE: DIS) News has tons of original reporting but less than half the online viewers

Distribution. In the old days, content was assigned and written to appear in one place. Now, it appears everywhere—in blogs, in Facebook, in Twitter, and in search engines. This distribution ability is built-in to the content itself. The words in the writing determine whether it will show up at the top of Google or on page 10. The names you drop in the content determine whose vanity Google Alerts will be set off, beginning a chain reaction of tweet and retweet.  And the style and hook of the content and its headlines will determine its virility. Content that has no destination draw, no pass-along, and no search indexability is plain and simple dead-end content. And like a tree falling in the forest, even the most beautiful content is irrelevant if it’s unseen or unheard." 

On the web, content is the ultimate audience building tool. If you can assemble an audience of your customers or potential customers, you have a the ultimate marketing opportunity. Content is still King, but audience is Ace.

Read Ben Elowitz's excellent PaidContent article 

Read the Time article  Content, Once King, Becomes A Pauper

Of 12 words to avoid in content marketing "leader" comes first

PR guru Adam Sherk has done the content marketers a real service. He has systematically complied a list of the most overused buzz words the PR world has to offer.

Buzz words are like whiskey in the old Western movies: one shot gives the young cowboy confidence to face the villain at high noon, but after a few shots the cowboy thinks he is good enough to shoot the tail off a rattle snake, but but is actually drunk, uncoordinated, and in bodily danger. 

The danger in using these words is far greater for content marketers than for PR professionals. Content marketing only works when it is credible. When content marketing looks like a product promotion it gets ignored like a product promotion.

Says Sherk, “Leader” was the most used term by far — funny how many companies, products and services anoint themselves as “the leader” or “a leader”. And it is not surprising to see “unique” in the top five since we all think we’re special, now don’t we. I was glad to see “revolutionary” with less than 5,000 mentions. That one was overused like crazy in the 1990’s."

Here are Sherks' top 12: 

See all 98 buzz words on Sherk's blog