Ninety percent of all media interactions in the US are on a screen and 90 percent of Americans use multiple screens throughout the day, according to Uberflip’s research.

“Tablets and smartphones have quickly become a technological staple for consumers in North America,” the company says. “What’s often overlooked is how individuals are using multiple devices simultaneously and sequentially throughout their everyday media and social interactions.”

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Sam Petulla: As some savvy Content Strategist reader may have noticed, we use a different commenting system than some readers might be used to, called Urtak. At the end of an article, the system prompts a reader with specific questions, the total responses to which are displayed in pie charts, rather than allowing for open-ended discussion.

Why did we go with Urtak instead of your typical let ‘er rip comment template?

Shane Snow: There are two main reasons we use Urtak instead of comments.

Shane Snow and Sam Petulla at Contently.

First, it’s general knowledge that the majority of comments on the web are either negative/unhelpful, spam, or self-serving promos that don’t move discussion forward. The kinds of people who are motivated to comment are typically either angry or selling something – like the kinds of people who are most eager to get on the microphone at a conference.

Second, most people – and the most representative part of your audience – don’t comment at all. Because you just click yes or no buttons to answer questions, Urtak, in my experience, gets 10-100, sometimes 500 times as many responses as comments [ex: look at this post = 157 Urtak reactions, 0 comments].

So, with Urtak you kill two birds: silence the unhelpful comments and increase lean-forward responses to your content.

And since Urtak is quantifiable (everything is yes/no), you can gain pretty incredible insights that you’d miss if you had the problem some news sites have, which is too many comments for digestion or needle-in-haystack insight retrieval.

Also, you can allow community members to ask their own questions. Not a lot of people will do this, but comment bullies tend not to do it either.

Petulla: What do you think a commenting system can offer for a reader? I tend to think of them as looking for needles in haystacks. Nine times out of ten you just kind of shake your head or gloss over a comment, but then that one time you do find a link or an opinion that puts you in the back of your seat and makes you glad you looked further down the page. Is there a risk of losing this?

Snow: I can’t think of a time this has happened to me in the last year, so no. That said, there are certain sites, with certain communities, that have managed to foster good comment environments with lots of discussions that aren’t overwhelmed by hostility and the general scum of mankind.

But I can count them on one hand. AVC and Reddit (believe it or not) come to mind.

Petulla: The other cool thing about Urtak is that you see other users’ replies in an aggregate form. So you learn something about other people who read a blog, and you see how their opinions conform to your own. Do you think content strategists can learn from this type of commenting system?

Snow: Content strategists can learn more from the quantitative data output you get from Urtak than through comments. Because the average person will answer multiple questions, you end up building a data profile that can be used for cross-tabulating insights.

For example, in a recent Urtak, I discovered that 72% of my Facebook audience is under 30 years old. Cross-tabulating that with another question, “Is man-made climate change real?,” I determined that those under 30 are more likely to believe climate change is happening than those over 30 (77% of under 30 say yes, vs 67% of over 30).

You end up learning interesting things about your audience which may differ greatly from a general audience, and that can fuel future coverage and content ideas.

Petulla: I have to confess that I am a bit of a utopian when it comes to comment systems. I see most comment fields as existing in a kind of state of nature for a productive information commons, with the possibility of them all becoming gardens of earthly delights. I think eventually, we will discover the right way to reward and fend off the comments we seek and want to avoid, using the right mix of authentication, prompting and gating.

It seems like some small blogs — think Fred Wilson’s or Marginal Revolution — have pretty healthy comment sections, whereas others, think of YouTube, are playgrounds for animosity. Could you see YouTube going to a pure Urtak-based system? Or do you think some other mixture of real-name commenting and an Urtak-system would work?

Snow: Comment utopia will be achieved around the time human utopia is achieved, or around the time we ban idiots from the Internet. It can happen, but it’s usually a circular thing. You have to have motivation and payoff to want to take the time to comment in the first place.

A good community reinforces the payoff, but getting one started is tough. Fred Wilson’s blog is great, but people started commenting in the first place because they wanted to kiss up to the man with all the money. Luckily, Fred did a great job of tending his community, and now there are genuinely interesting discussions, friendships made, and so on.

It’s hard to see that happening many other places, and the motivation question is really the issue that prevents it. I have no incentive to comment on most content. A lot of times, I have no time to comment, much less worry about crafting a great response that some troll wont lambast me for. People have lots of incentives not to comment.

The problem with YouTube, aside from garbage comments (although some are hilarious), is exemplified in the extreme on Justin Bieber’s “Baby” music video. There are over 8 million comments. No human could read all of those. If YouTube used Urtak, and let users ask and answer binary questions, those 8 million comments would probably be 800 million points of data and an incredibly valuable feedback set on the content and audience.

Petulla: Recently, a number of tech blogs circulated a study saying real-name authentication does not improve the quality of comment systems. This seemed odd to me because almost all these same blogs previously preached the virtues of going to a real-name system. Should publishers think of going to this type of system if they are not ready to take the Urtak leap?

Snow: There’s one spot we use comments on The Content Strategist, and that’s on feature stories we think have a higher chance of getting a good discussion going. Note that discussions rarely last more than 2 comments deep, even on stories with tens of thousands of page views.

Real-name authentication may not improve comment-to-page-view ratios or quality of comments, but the Facebook comment system actually spreads your content when users comment. For that reason, if I were to pick a comment system and pray for comments, I’d at least use Facebook’s.

With an anonymous comment system you may get some people who are scared to comment under their real names, but those are rarely value-add comments (and I dislike sissies who won’t stand behind what they say). Whistleblowers have much more high-impact options for anonymous tipping than comment sections of websites, so I wouldn’t be afraid of hindering democracy by disabling anonymity in your comment section.

Petulla: What I think sets Urtak apart is the prompting. Often, the first or second question in an Urtak comment-box is something like: “Do you like Zombie films?” What do you think of this? Is it a time-waster? One nice thing it does is it puts you a little out of your frame of mind. When you finish an article, sometimes you get to the bottom totally fuming or totally inside your own head, and the comment box is this sort of open window where you can just vent whatever first feeling is on your mind. Then the next guy does the same thing — sometimes at you. Then the next, then the next. That seems unproductive.

A major takeaway from behavioral economics is that if you give people cues or a default setting, people’s attitudes and choices shift a lot. So if somewhere between commenting you are reminded you like Zombie films, you might be less likely to channel your rage at anonymous people on the internet. Urtak seems to be up to some of that.

Do you think open-ended comment systems can be improved somehow using this type of idea? Maybe just by using sentiment-detection? Thoughts?

Snow: I recently saw the most civil conversation about politics I’ve ever seen on Facebook. Every time the discussion got heated, the guy whose wall it was would write a funny message or say something like, “Just to keep things in perspective, guys, here’s a cat riding a dog on a trampoline.” It defused the tension, and that’s why I think random questions in Urtaks help keep people a little more rational.

Also, there’s no hedging in a yes/no question, so you end up really having to think about what you believe. I’m not sure how comment systems could apply this principle (aside from changing comments from qualitative to quantitative feedback mechanisms like Urtak), but I think content creators who use comment systems have the opportunity to foster such environments with their own prompts and by interjecting and adding to comment threads themselves.

It’s a lot of work, and it can be both infuriating and depressing to dive in and try to referee a comment thread (infuriating because people can be jerks; depressing because people can be idiots). But if you can solve the motivation-to-comment problem, being an active comment moderator can make the difference between a civil discussion and one that chases value-add commenters away.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Three key ways to effectively put together a social media contest involve having specific goals, figuring out the target audience, and offering the correct prize, says Justin Palmer, a web marketer interviewed on Mashable.

First off, followers do not equal sales. Prior to launching a contest, many marketers think that increased follower counts will lead to an increase in the number of people interested in their company, says Palmer. However, interviewer Curt Finch writes, “Followers gained from contests alone are unlikely to have much interest in the business beyond the prize.”

Secondly, marketers must know the target audience. To demonstrate that target marketing works well in contests, Finch brings up Volusion, a site that was trying to appeal to mompreneurs. It ran a contest where these mompreneurs were invited to share their stories, and the one with the best story won the prize. The site ended up gaining followers and clients because of its strategy.

Lastly, the prize must appeal to the developed audience. For example, a mountain resort prompted visitors to upload pictures of themselves onto its site to win a season pass. “This was effective because their target audience already loved the business, and it encouraged winners to return again,” says Finch.

For Twitter-focused social media contests, The Social Penguin blog suggests creating hashtags for your campaign, sending out “taster tweets” that build excitement and count down to the contest’s start, and making it easy to enter (a retweet, perhaps).

Social media contests raise visibility for brands and have the potential to increase sales when done right. Whatever social media channel your company decides to run a contest on, make sure you have clear and reachable objectives and give your audience what they actually want.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Alyson Hurt

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

So how does a brand navigate the minefield? I spent this past week at South by Southwest speaking to brands and journalists alike to get their input. What I’ve found is that, overwhelmingly, brand journalism fits into two categories of work, with unique challenges and rewards to each.

The Brand Journalist

Eloqua is a company that focuses on marketing automation for businesses. The company leans on brand journalists to develop shareable, actionable content for interested parties, customers and non-customers alike.

One of Eloqua’s journalists is Corporate Reporter Jesse Noyes. Noyes finds that his personal brand is symbiotic with that of Eloqua; people find his work through the company almost as often as they find the company through his work.
But Noyes has a big claim, and it’s one that I think is important:

“The last bastion of ad-free content is brand journalism,” Noyes says. “We are providing powerful, useful content, and in return we’re going to ask if our company can help yours. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. There’s no commitment, and you opt in to reading our work, completely free.”

Noyes tells me that social media plays dual roles in his position with Eloqua. First, it has allowed him to build his own brand, wherein he is seen as a respectable thought leader in the space in which he works. But there’s another piece that’s equally important:

“Social sharing of information is changing. People aren’t looking at the source, they’re simply sharing things that they find to be good.”

So this obviously opens the doors for brands to have content that is driven around their company’s area of operation, but that content has to be policed.

Noyes tells me it’s imperative that there be a third party between the writer and the “boss” in order to make certain the messages from both sides can find a common ground. Without that third party, it’s harder for the boss and the writer to meet their objectives without one side compromising too heavily.

The Agency Journalist

Simon Owens is an old-soul journalist in the body of a young man. He serves as the director of editorial & outreach at design agency JESS3, but also works as a freelance writer who focuses on the challenges of media and journalism.

According to Owens, agencies are pushing brands to become more journalistic themselves, but because of this, they have to be careful to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. As much as social media can help to spread a great message, it can work equally as fast when there’s a conflict that isn’t stated.

“You’ll witness an increasing blurring of the lines between journalism and advertising, to the extent that you’ll see journalists toeing an ethical fine line,” Owens says. “The waters are certainly treacherous, though navigable.”

Owens specifically relates the case of brands using freelance journalists, but I think it’s equally as applicable to those journalists who are employees of the company as well. Social media is enabling journalists and brands to continue to build trust between themselves and customers, and it’s imperative that necessary disclosures be clearly stated.

But what about the personal reputation of the journalist itself ? Does working on behalf of a brand prevent one from being able to write for a “real” media company again one day? In a word, no. As more brands behave like those real publishers, the taint disappears.

They key Noyes says, is to do what forward thinking brands are already doing with their content. “Forget about staying on message,” he says, and be transparent.

It is up to the brand journalists to create the appetite for the content that is to come. They’ll do this by creating relationships via social media or otherwise, then delivering on the promise of quality and transparency.

Social media is helping to strip away brand journalism taboos on two levels: First, it’s allowing journalists to connect with readers in more than one location, and second it’s ensuring that great work gets passed along, no matter where it came from. But that’s just what it’s doing today. The challenge is to skate to where the puck will be as the continued evolution of social opens yet more opportunities for brands and journalists alike.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Code Arachnid

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Hill says a great movie has three parts: the setup, the conflict, and the resolution.

Likewise, a good inbound marketing process has three parts, mirroring those of a movie: discovery, consideration, and decision.

If content strategists think of their customer as the hero in a movie, the analogy starts to make a lot more sense. The strategist needs to identify the customer, provide her with a resources (content) and eventually a triggering event that will cause her to act, and then stay with her through the resolution or
purchase decision.

Hill says the character’s development is important, but perhaps more imperative is the building of a story around that character. She points to IBM’s SmartCloud website as a perfect example of a story progression, showing how there is a scene built around the customer at every level of the decision-making process.

As Hill puts it, this interaction is the popcorn of the content strategy story. It’s that part that is addictive to consumers and keeps them coming back for more.

“We can’t forget our spreadsheets and sales funnels just yet, because the details have to be managed somewhere. But we’re developing new ways of creating, searching for, and consuming content every day. So the job is to create content that people crave.”

Image courtesy of Erica Swallow

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The Content Strategist is spending SXSW interviewing, reporting, and hustling for tales of content marketing. Register below for a free copy by mail, complete with exclusive interviews, analysis, and content marketing tips from the most forward-thinking brands on the web today.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

For starters, co-founder Shane Snow and Director of Community Erica Swallow will both be speaking on panels, and we’re throwing a Sunday brunch honoring the launch of the Freelance Writers Meetup.

Check out the detailed list below, and let us know if we’re missing out on any cool journo or startup events! We wouldn’t want to overlook awesomeness! With that, here’s where you can definitely find us:

1. Freelance Writers Meetup Sunday Brunch

When: Sunday, March 11 at 11:00 a.m.
Where: Paggi House (200 Lee Barton Drive)
What: Join Contently for the inaugural Freelance Writers Meetup. We’re bringing together a room full of top journalists to gather over a full Texas brunch buffet, all the mimosas you can down in two hours, and the brilliant wisdom of Ben Parr — former Mashable editor, startup entrepreneur and CNET and CBSi columnist.

To reserve your spot at our Sunday brunch, RSVP here.

2. Brand Journalism in the Real-World

When: Monday, March 12 at 9:30 a.m.
Where: Sheraton Austin (701 East 11th Street, Capitol EFGH)
What: Come see Contently’s Director of Community Erica Swallow and a panel of industry experts speak about how brands are embracing the world of journalism. MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley will sit down with Twitter’s Editorial Director Karen Wickre, Eloqua’s in-house reporter Jesse Noyes and Contently’s Director of Community Erica Swallow to discuss what adaptations need to be made in corporate environments, how to mitigate bias, and what policies you should institute to ensure the emerging practice’s integrity.

Check out the full panel details here.

3. Branded Content: We’re All Publishers Now

When: Tuesday, March 13 at 12:30 p.m.
Where: Sheraton Austin (701 East 11th Street, Creekside 1 & II)
What: Come see Contently co-founder Shane Snow and an all-star list of panelists speak about the world of brand publishing. This panel will discuss the principles of successful viral content — whether articles, infographics or videos, and how companies can apply these to branded content. And we’re talking about more than just slapping your logo on a pie chart. We’ll discuss how to get started, measure results and set goals, as well as the importance of a consistent strategy. Presenters include Hasai’s VP of Strategy and Alliances Amy Vernon, American Express’ VP of Executive Communications Aundrey Gray, RecordSetter’s Community Manager Emily Miethner, BuzzFeed’s Senior Creative Director Lindsey Weber and Contently co-founder Shane Snow.

Check out the full panel details here.

Parties, Parties, Parties!

You can’t go to SXSW without indulging in the parties that are being thrown! Expect to see at least one Contently teammate at these parties:

• Awesomest Journalism Party Ever, hosted by Hacks/Hackers and a ton of other orgs
• The Computer Blue Party, presented by Copyblogger Media
• 3rd Annual Ignite Social Media Party
• Cocktails at the St. Cecilia, hosted by General Assembly
• TechKaraoke SXSW 2012, presented by Blog World and New Media Expo
• Startup Weekend, hosted by Zaarly & Twilio
• Mashable SXSWi House 2012

This is only the beginning, friends! We’ll see you in Austin!

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The brand is a legacy, certainly — it was referenced heavily in Cary Grant and Doris Day’s That Touch of Mink 50 years ago, and is a favorite of Carrie Bradshaw’s in Sex and the City today – but not the kind of company you would expect to be on the cutting edge of technology.

The brand, though, has indeed found success in engaging digital fans — here’s how it does it and how your brand can replicate its success beyond industry lines.

Pieces in the Puzzle

Bergdorfs’ content strategy includes an active presence on multiple platforms. To start, Bergdorf’s blog is updated up to five times each day with high quality visuals often tied to internal content, such as the concepts behind the store’s latest storefront windows.

Its Tumblr nearly matches the blog in output, but is focused almost entirely on Instagram snapshots and quick images.

The ease of sharing on Tumblr comes into play for Bergdorf content — some of its posts have been re-shared more than 100 times.  Both strong content and topical influence account for this level of engagement.

Finding the Brand’s Voice

Finding the voice of a clothing brand — or any other brand for that matter — doesn’t need to be a difficult task.

It is important to note that the mind behind Bergdorf’s content is 20-something Cannon Hodge, who previously worked with the company for more than five years in trunk shows and special events. She explained in an interview, “We didn’t have a ‘This is what the voice is going to be like’ conversation.”

For Hodge, being the voice of Bergdorf is a full-time gig, beginning at 7 a.m. when she wakes up to check the brand’s channels and sometimes posting to Bergdorfs’ Twitter when she sees someone playing good music on the New York subway.

Having one person fully committed to Bergdorf’s outlets preserves the voice of the brand and also allows for its immense volume of content. Because Hodge knows the brand’s tone intimately from her time spent with the company, she is able to bring Bergdorf to a new generation of fans and potential consumers.

Going Where the Fans Are

Bergdorf bases its social activities on where its fans already are — Twitter and Facebook are the home bases, as for most large fashion brands — but the retailer isn’t afraid to branch out and try new platforms.

Bergdorf posts about 30 tweets each day, covering everything from fashion and beauty trends to office gossip and partying. Since Bergdorf only has one storefront, located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, local content makes sense. So, the occasional party or store pics don’t really alienate followers.

Bergdorf even takes risks with experimental inspiration sites like Pinterest. For example, Bergdorf has a pinboard of all things red — red shoes, lipstick and apparel from its own site, as well as other visually stimulating red items such as a case of apples.

Staying Relevant and Fresh

Bergdorf Goodman keeps its brand relevant with the digerati through its social media efforts. You can tell just by taking a look at its Twitter stream. But a deeper dive illustrates that this brand innovates quickly and adopts new social platforms into its strategy, based on how its audience is using those platforms and what type of content it can bring to the table.

Image courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

1. Have a topic people will want to read. This seems obvious, but finding the right topic can be your biggest challenge. First, figure out who your audience is; who are you trying to reach? Then, choose an issue that’s interesting to them — perhaps a common problem they’re faced with, or a case study of successful companies in your industry.
2. Be descriptive and professional. Writing a white paper is not the same as writing a blog. You need to use a business writing style and be fairly descriptive. You will probably end up writing at least ten pages to make your point.
3. Set up a great intro. Be captivating. You want to catch people right off the bat with your introduction. Pique their interest, and then tell them what they’re going to accomplish by reading your white paper. This means writing a summary of your white paper and including an organized list of topics.
4. Emphasize the value you will create. Your white paper is not a billboard for your business — it is an opportunity to create an image of expertise and insight that will help your readers. In return, they may buy from you later. First, though, you need to give them something of value, and you can only do that by filling your white paper with useful tips and information.
5. Organize your draft. Come up with a clear outline first, and then proceed to write your paper. Be sure the flow of your white paper is in line with your goals. Grab their attention, deliver value, and get them to take further action.
6. Write first, edit second. Once you have your outline put together, get your thoughts down while they are still fresh in your mind. Just start writing. Don’t worry about editing until you have completed the draft. You will have no problem going back and making everything flow well afterwards.
7. Proofread. Go back over your draft and see what needs to be done to make it read better. Ask for other people’s opinions, because they may be able to catch mistakes you overlooked. Read it out loud to ensure there are no run-on sentences or awkward phrases.
8. Follow up with how you can help. If you are selling a product or service that will help your readers, make sure to mention it at the end. You shouldn’t use the body of the white paper to sell your product or service, so make sure to use a catch that is naturally incorporated when you summarize the paper.

White papers are great tools for generating credibility. Customers respond better to informative write-ups than they do to blatant ads. The trick is to make sure your white paper is organized and well thought out so that you will create a natural and genuine interest in your services.

Image courtesy of Flickr, crafty_dame

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently