Trend 1: Buy influencers
According to what Robert Rose and I covered in the recent The Old Marketing Podcast, CNN bought the social media application Beme operated by YouTube famous Casey Neistat, who amassed 6 million followers on his YouTube blog. CNN is closing the app down and asking Casey and his staff to launch the new platform.
In essence, CNN is looking to reach a new audience, one they believe Neistat holds the key to. Instead of organically expanding the platform or finding an influential person within its ranks, CNN bought Neistat and his team for $25 million.
The takeaway: Influencer marketing was a hot topic in 2016. Expect an influencer-based marketing strategy to move from working in collaboration with distributors of content and creators to simply buying these influencers.
According to Joe Pulizzi, watch for influencer marketing to move away from partnership to buying.
Trend 2: Content marketing as a defense strategy
This month the company earlier month, Kellogg’s, pulled its advertisements from Breitbart.com, which has been featured in the media frequently since the election of President Donald Trump, named Steve Bannon, Breitbart’s former chairman, as his top advisor. Breitbart is a site that Bannon claimed is one of the “platform for the alt-right,” which is a particular viewpoint which Kellogg disagrees with.
Therefore, the removal of Kellogg’s advertisements from Breitbart’s website.
To stop the issue, Breitbart aggressively came following Kellogg’s with a #DumpKelloggs ‘campaign in which Alexander Marlow, Breitbart News editor-in-chief, stated that “Boycotting Breitbart News for presenting mainstream American ideas is an act of discrimination and intense prejudice.” The campaign was trending across Twitter and was taken up by all major news media.
Based on FiveThirtyEight, Breitbart.com’s traffic increased more than virtually all other media sites during the election. Whether you agree with the website or not, there’s the potential for its popularity and growth.
Kellogg’s is unable to stop this. Sure, it could make a news release and even talk to the media. It can also run ads within The Wall Street Journal or any other publication. However, Breitbart has an enormous following of followers and can attack anyone without fear of repercussions.
In the future, how will Kellogg’s respond? How can any company deal with the situation in which an organization with many customers gets after them?
Summary: This sort of action by Breitbart and other media businesses against brands will only increase in 2017. The only way for companies to fight this is to develop their own massive, loyal viewers. Find a content marketing or PR business case that is prominent in every significant business available in 2017.
It would be best to look for a #content-based marketing/PR commercial case that is front and center in large companies.
Trend 3: Revolt against social media platforms
When writing, YouTube megastar PewDiePie (aka Felix Kjellberg) has been very dissatisfied with YouTube in the last few months. In particular, PewDiePie believes that YouTube’s algorithmic adjustments have cost him traffic, reducing the revenue from his advertisements and other sponsorship opportunities.
On December. 2, during one of his videos, PewDiePie admitted that he was so upset about this issue that when he reached 50 million subscribers, the channel was set to close his channel. Naturally, PewDiePie hit 50 million subscribers and decided to continue his track (essentially just a troll on the internet). However, he continues to talk about YouTube and the algorithmic changes it has made.
The specifics don’t have any significance. The number of social media influencers and brands leveraging social media are dissatisfied with YouTube, Facebook, and many more, as well as their constant algorithm adjustments. For instance, BP has been shifting off of Facebook to post more content on LinkedIn since more and the majority of content on its Facebook content is not seen.
Summary: As I am traveling the world and talking to businesses regarding this issue, my level of frustration is at its highest. As 2017 approaches, two things will likely happen more ads through social platforms and more organic publications. A company is not required to publish organic content on every social platform and may instead opt for an owned platform (website) along with paid promotions to attract and increase the number of followers. Sharing via social media is possible; however, the brand does not require it to be on the social media platform for sharing to occur.
The argument can be made that a company doesn’t need to post organic content on social media platforms.
Trend 4: Email renaissance
As per Campaign Monitor, social media popular BuzzFeed has added over 1 million subscribers to its email list in the last twelve months. How? Find out in trend No. 3. As social media channels move towards revenue growth, Brands need more control over how they communicate with their followers and fans. Email has become the most important of all the methods to build an audience.
Other media brands are also taking note. For instance, The Washington Post has over 75 newsletters in its e-newsletter, and The New York Times has 12 staff members specializing in newsletters. Although some people believe that email is dying, The media tells us it is growing. Last but not least, our CMI/MarketingProfs B2B study revealed that email was considered the top. Number one success metric to measure the effectiveness of content marketing.
The takeaway: In 2017, we’ll witness two things. First, more companies will launch specific and pertinent e-newsletters, which will be the primary way to increase their audience. The second is that more brands will review the e-newsletters that they currently have and shift the content to “email as marketing collateral” to “truly amazing and relevant customer experiences.”
This year, more companies will be launching targeted e-newsletters, the most effective method of growing audience size, says Joe Pulizzi.
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
- How to Build Your Email List: The (Better Than) Ultimate Guide
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- Trend: Print revival
Airbnb and its publishing partner Hearst have recently revealed the debut of a new magazine in print, appropriately titled Airbnb Mag. This magazine is mailed to Airbnb homes and will feature the content created and curated by users of Airbnb. Airbnb service.
Not to be left out, the School of Doodle just released a print magazine and the VFiles.
It’s not like you’ve observed, but the use of print magazines as a strategy for content marketers has been stable for the past several years (according to the results of our study). We’ve reached the end of the decline in print as more and more marketers seek to get through the digital noise with (what is the other word?) mark.