by ·0 Comments

The market is definitely global now. In order to communicate, you cannot just reach out to the majority – you have to reach out to everyone.

Creation of multilingual content is on the rise now, especially due to the presence of a global marketplace. 58% of Forbes 500 companies have multilingual websites catering to the global audience they hold so dear. In order to develop an international content marketing strategy it is compulsory to have content in regional and local languages in order to engage users on a deeper level.

 


multilingual-content-marketing

English is the second language for most of the internet audience, though its the most widely used language online (Chinese is expected to overtake English as the number one language online in 2015). Continue reading

by ·1 Comment
social_business

 

Running a Content Marketing firm, one of the major issues I face is convincing the clients on why they should develop their business as a “Social Business” and the advantages from it. For those who smirk at this question, yes I smirk too. But convincing the clients on the What and Why of this detail isn’t as easy as it would seem.

So what exactly is Social Business? Ans – Any business that involves the understanding of how your customers or stakeholders connect to and understand your business, and how you mould your business strategy based on their interests, can be defined as Social Business.

 

social_businessContinue reading

by ·6 Comments
Cristiano Ronaldo Website Viva Ronaldo 2

For some people 67 Million Followers on Facebook and 23 Million on Twitter just doesn’t do it enough it seems. They then go about building their own Social Network!

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, or as humans call him – Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese and Real Madrid Footballer, has hit another goal. Not on the field this time, but rather on the internet – He has launched his very own Social Networking site.

Cristiano Ronaldo Website Viva Ronaldo

 

As W-T-F it sounds, its true. VivaRonaldo.com, is all about exclusive CR7 content, games, prizes and even a chance to meet “the man” himself. Not just launched as a campaign but rather as a Social Networking site in itself, this sure doesn’t seem a short-term hype from his PR Team. The way it has been projected and how they plan to take it forward, sure does look like its a long term deal.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo Website Viva Ronaldo 2

 

From Pre-match bets to Trivia to Live Fan Chatter when the game is on, the “Content Strategy” revolves all around Cristiano, building upon the fact that he has a sort of cult fan following. Fans can login via Facebook and stay up-to-date with the activities of their friends in this community.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo Website Viva Ronaldo 3

 

The Official Online Platofrm is developed by Viva Superstars, a joint-venture co-founded by Cristiano Ronaldo, Polaris Sports and a Portuguese-Dutch startup named bViva. They have developed this as a proprietary real-time match following platform – Live Match 4G – that allows fans in different countries and television streams to play and interact during live events.

by ·0 Comments
Mike Stelzner Social Media Examiner

Content Marketing has been my field of focus for quite some time now. Hence, when I chanced upon a tweet by Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner mentioning about a hangout with himself and Marcus Sheridan on Blogging and Content Marketing, I felt compelled to take a look.

Hangout on Content Marketing and Blogging

The hangout, embedded in Social Media Examiner’s Facebook Page, started off at 0130Hrs IST September 6/1500Hrs Eastern September 5. The audience had to put in their questions as comments. I happened to be the first one to drop in with my questions and lashed away with three of them. Due to time constrains only one was answered.

Below, I have listed out the gist of the session and a few takeaways I received. In brackets have mentioned who the quotes came from – Mike or Marcus.

  • Blogging is harder now. Quality blogging that is. Hence, to stand out and make our voice be heard we have to not just be a regular blogger but also a smart one – (Marcus)
  • One main reason why we see many bloggers get depressed after blogging for quite sometime is that they rely on the number of views, shares, re-tweets etc to measure the value of their blog. Rather than that, focus should be on lead conversion – (Marcus)

 Mike Stelzner Social Media Examiner

Q) How “exactly” do you define content marketing and differentiate it from the larger perspective of Digital Marketing. Or is it like CM just forms a subsidiary in Digital Marketing?

  • Answer varies from person to person. Digital Marketing is closer to Inbound Marketing, where Inbound Marketing consists of Content Marketing (content production) and Social Media Marketing (Content distribution and spreading the message) – (Marcus)
  • Content Marketing is using information to promote. Not comparable to using direct promotion of service/product – (Mike)
  • Digital Marketing also includes SEO, PPC Ads, advertising etc. Can be used to deliver content. If focus is on direct sale its DM and if focus is on getting the word about your content out, its CM – (Mike)
  • CM should start as teaching and informing. Direct selling is too subtle – (Marcus)

Q) How to track conversions via blog?

  • Simple Google Analytics not enough. Its not just the numbers. Find how many pages a person visited, how much time they spent, on which page they spent most time, what ratio of people visiting fill your forms and convert to direct leads etc. you need names to analyse. Not just numbers to track conversions – (Marcus)
  • Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics is pretty helpful for this – (Mike)

 Marcus The Sale Lion

Q) How to integrate storytelling? Is it important?

  • Integrate a real life experience as a story into each and every blog post. Use that story to answer the problem. This way, on comparing with a real situation, it’ll stay in the mind of the reader for a longer time – (Marcus)
  • If you don’t have a story to tell, well, you’re wrong. If you’re alive and breathing you always will have a story to tell. Identify that story – (Marcus)
  • A big part of storytelling actually includes selling yourself. Especially because you’re telling your story. But don’t be a hack. It doesn’t hurt to tell other people’s stories too. Integrate that with what you have to convey – (Marcus)
  • Define what works in your industry, integrate with your story and present the content – (Marcus)

Q) Should one be a passionate blogger or a useful one?

  • Useful. Many useful blogs don’t have passionate bloggers behind it. Usefulness brings the audience. Not passion – (Marcus)
  • Be passionate. Eventually you’ll reach there – (Mike)
  • Being passionate doesn’t pay bills! Just passion isn’t enough to be successful blogger. You need a mix of usefulness, strategy, common sense and wisdom. And remember, no matter whatever you say, 5% will find it offensive/boring. Forget about them. Focus on the rest 95% – (Marcus)

I for one, enjoyed the session thoroughly. Have already been following the Social Media Examiner Blog for a long time and they always give me a reason to go back.