Video Marketing Surge, Twitter’s Photo Filter, Content Budget Concerns

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Content Marketing and Video [INFOGRAPHIC]

Brainshark created an infographic that shows just how popular video has become.

In 2014, video could very well account for 50 percent of all the traffic on the internet, and every day, 100 million Americans view videos online. This is a — a 43 percent increase since 2010.

Video is the sixth most popular content marketing strategy, and 70 percent of content marketers are producing online videos. They are using video  — to sell, educate, and entertain consumers.

Twitter Announces Photo Filters

Twitter photo filters will now be available on iOS and Android phones, the company announced on Monday.

According to Mashable, Twitter’s image hosting service, which was introduced in 2011, allows users to take 4×4 photos, like Instagram, and choose between eight different filters. This news comes after Instagram dropped Twitter Cards support.

Content Marketing Budget Concerns

SiteProNews’ Nicole Beckett discusses the fact that sometimes content marketers don’t know where their money is going.

Beckett says Marketers are wasting their money when they hire a cheaper writer who makes content that sounds just like everything else out there, or when they micromanage to the point that they don’t let the content writers do their jobs. It’s also a waste to pay a top notch writer, receive great content, and not promote it around the web.

“If you want to make the most out of your content marketing budget, you have to leverage every single piece,” she says.

Time Inc.’s MyRecipes.com Offers Series of E-Cookbooks

According to Paid Content, MyRecipes.com, which is owned by Time Inc., is introducing new e-cookbooks that include recipes from Southern Living, Coastal Living, Food & Wine, Real Simple, and other Time magazines.

They will cost $3.99 per download. The first one, ““MyRecipes Best-Loved Cookies for Every Occasion,” can be purchased through iBookstore, Nook, and Kindle, and has 61 recipes. A second will be released this January and focus on snacks that are 100 calories.

What 2013 Holds for Brand Journalism

Chelsi Nakano of Business2Community writes that in 2013, authenticity is what will determine if content will be successful. 

“Content is explosive, there’s no stopping it, but it only offers real value if it’s authentic,” she says. “Be it with a blog, a tweet, or a thirty-second video spot, projecting your true voice and core story is going to have positive effects on your audience. Regardless of form, authenticity has never been and will never be just a fad.”

To be authentic, content strategies need to be headed up by in-house teams at a company who know the most about the topics.

The Art of Long-Term Story Arcs in Marketing

CopyBlogger’s Georgina Laidlaw says that in order to keep customers interested in what a company has to say, there always has to be an evolving story line.

She says that in marketing, “we create an emotional connection with readers (through story) that causes them to naturally wonder about our brand, and that entices them to come back and check out the latest installment of that brand story.”

To create long-term story arcs, marketers can produce a series of articles, use comments for spinoff stories, and curate social discussion of stories.

Getting Customers to Buy in the Morning

Kara Trivunovic of ClickZ highlights some of the ways that brands can get customers making purchases thanks to morning email marketing.

She says that brands should look at the last six months of data with email newsletters and figure out who has opened emails. Brands need to “examine the behavior of this audience” and see what content they engage with, where they spend time on the company’s website, and what motivates them.

Content in those emails should be geared towards this audience and there should be a discount for them as well.