Discover Los Angeles, State Farm Has Gawker Covered, Sandy Content Lessons

The Content 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:

Travel Content for Los Angeles

DiscoverLosAngeles.com launched at the end of October, and it is a hub that includes “a growing list of travel search engines, destination ratings sites, and hotel booking platforms,” reports ClickZ.

The site is extremely social and digitally accessible: Visitors and residents can select regions to look at, use the experience builder “that allows users to add any activity to ‘My LA Bucket List'” and share, in real time, to Twitter and Facebook.

“Content on the site is also carefully edited to give the digital hub a voice and personality, unlike straightforward, information-based directories,” says ClickZ. In the future, it plans to provide insider tips from locals on topics such as culture, attractions, dining, and sports.

State Farm Provides Gawker’s Emergency Website

Last Monday, Gawker’s website went down due to Sandy, and State Farm came to the rescue, according to Mashable.

Todd Wasserman reports, “The insurer is running a banner on all of Gawker’s sites — including Gawker, Gizmodo and Jezebel — stating that the backup site is ‘covered by’ State Farm, alongside a phone number where readers can call to make a storm-related claim.”

The company is using the sponsorship as a way to promote its slogan, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” while trying not to use Sandy for marketing efforts, he writes.

Sandy’s Content Lessons

Newscred’s Felicia writes about what content creators could learn from Hurricane Sandy.

For example, since there were so many false reports and fake pictures being spread around, she argues that trust mattered: “Establishing yourself as a trusted source goes a long way toward encouraging loyalty among your site’s visitors.”

Images were also key factors in telling a good story, and people were focused on content that was hyper-local.

Keeping Up With Buyers’ Knowledge

Social Media Today’s Tony Zambito argues that these days, buyers are so knowledgeable that content marketers are struggling to keep up.

He claims that “buyers today are doubling their ability each year to determine if a piece of content will be useful or not” and that “once buyers make the discernment that content is useful, they begin to assimilate it into their environment and become content curators.”

He suggests that brands research to understand consumers, develop a content strategy, and sign on the right people to create the content.

While Reuters’ Net Income Rises, Profit Declines

According to the Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters’ operating income declined by 41 percent in the third quarter, while net income at the company increased by 24 percent.

Revenue fell by 7 percent, “as growth in the company’s legal and tax and accounting divisions couldn’t fully offset declines in its core businesses serving traders and investors as many of its largest global banking clients cut costs.”

Editor of Wired Quits 

Editor in chief of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson, has resigned to “devote more time to the drone company he has been developing,” reports The New York Times.

He’s been at the company since 2001, and under his guidance, advertising dollars and circulation have grown, unlike most publications.
Researching for Content Marketing Campaigns

Beth Hayden of CopyBlogger says that in order to run a successful content marketing campaign, market research is key.

Research should be done that taps into the audiences wants and needs and helps “solve their problems and enable(s) them to live better, fuller, richer lives.” Marketers also need to be a part of the comments sections and integrate themselves within their audience, know what the audiences’ problems are, and make research part of the daily, weekly, or monthly routine.

Since market research is so difficult, she says, “It’s likely that our competitors aren’t doing it — or aren’t doing it well. And that gives us a spectacular advantage on the competition field.”