When the Novelty of Livestream Video Wears Off
Live-stream video is hot, but does will people stomach poorly created content long term?
quality
When the Last Pillars Fall
An editor tells reporters to invest less time and copy in their stories. Another is fired for failing to force her reporters to work with sponsors. The changes at Reuters and the New York Times are not encouraging moments for quality journalism.
The Quality Boom
Content publishers realize the need to produce complete stories with multiple types of media assets. That means quality producers will be in demand.
Instagram Video Highlights YouTube Weaknesses
YouTube may have the most to lose from Facebook’s response to Vine, 15 second format videos on Instagram.
Normally, I don’t blog about the day-to-day battle between socnets. The evolution is tiresome, and is best covered by trade pubs/blogs with reporter teams. However, in this case there are several macro trends in play that have not been well discussed.
The following issues spell trouble for YouTube (and Google as a whole):
Read More »Instagram Video Highlights YouTube Weaknesses
The Content Quality Problem Here and There
More brands and people continue filling the channels with their blogs, infographics, white paper, etc. As a result, we’re experiencing a deluge of content, most of it suffering from over-messaged, self-important corporate sales talk, or worse, shoddy workmanship.
There’s no better example of this issue than our own marketing space where the effort to produce consistent content creates an ever increasing level of drivel. In fact, there’s so much “me, too” content, getting beyond a headline skim requires some real shake-up in the social media marketplace or a dramatic post.
When readers find themselves inundated with ever increasing quantities of the same, creators find themselves producing content with diminishing value. The situation devolves to the point where content becomes spam.
We all know what happens to spam. It doesn’t get read, it’s unsubscribed from, deleted, and relegated to the annals of digital indexing somewhere deep in Google.
Read More »The Content Quality Problem Here and There
Google Author Rank and the Have Nots
Image by Mukumbura
The rush to become officially integrated into the Google Author Rank system or has begun. It’s unfortunate, because Google Authorship forces weighted search rankings that favor popularity and SEO skills over substance.
If content creators want to optimize our chances of being read, what choice do we have but to implement the system? Our search results depend on it.
There have been many blogs about how to implement Google’s Author Rank system, but this isn’t one of them.
Murky Mastheads
There’s an old saying in politics that perception is reality (attributed to Lee Atwater). If you want an example, look no further than blogs written under the guise of venerable mastheads like Forbes, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review.
Consider the perception of journalistic excellence these mastheads possess — and yes, even new media outlets like Techcrunch, Mashable, and others. What these branded blogs deliver often strays from the greatness they promise. Yet people consider these blogs authoritative for some reason.
With so much chum and hubris floated to succeed in the attention economy, what we get is not what is perceived.
Read More »Murky Mastheads
4 Ways to Improve Content
Image by Markaud Sometimes blog content doesn’t resonate as well as one would like. It can be hard to pinpoint why. There’s an editorial mission in place, regular posts are published everyday, and you seem to be talking about what… Read More »4 Ways to Improve Content