Importance of Video in Social Engagement

This week, Skribe features Kimberlee Morrison, a freelance writer and editor, as well as a regular contributor to AdWeek’s Social Times. She has more than a decade of experience with topical expertise in business, technology, entrepreneurship and social media. Today, Kimberlee talks about video playing an important role in social engagement.

Marketers still face significant challenges when it comes to measuring return on investment on social media. Still, each of the social networks analyzed in the ‘Simply Measured State of Social 2016′ report is experiencing some manner of growth and expansion. Let’s take a look at how the established players like Twitter and Facebook are changing, and how your marketing strategy should evolve.

It might seem that Facebook is the primary destination for marketers, but it doesn’t have complete saturation among the Interbrand 100. 97 percent of brands use the site and 93 percent post content monthly, down 1 percent compared with last year.

Brands seem to have missed the message from users that video is what they want. Facebook videos are generating more than 8 billion views per month, yet videos are the least-posted type of content among marketers. Facebook Live is one way to create rich video content that also lasts beyond its original broadcast while also jump-starting a video marketing campaign.

Twitter has managed to captivate marketers, with 100 percent of the Interbrand 100 represented and 99 percent posting monthly. Twitter’s current and future success largely relies on the short format and the one-to-one relationship between brand and user.

Given the relationships Twitter creates, influencers can become an important key for deep audience engagement. Twitter has stated that 47 percent of users make purchases because of influencer suggestions, and people trust influencers more than brands in general.

The real story of the last year in social marketing is the continued move to video as a core aspect of both networks and marketing campaigns. Twitter recently increased the time limit on Vines, and users have already proven that they’ll engage heavily with video content on the platform. Facebook has become the most preferred network for video sharing, and YouTube has increased watch time by 50 percent year-over-year for the past three years.

Established social platforms have shifted their attention to video because video is what users are engaging with most often, according to the report. However, newer, more agile, services like Snapchat are leading the way in innovation.

The full report for ‘Simply Measured State of Social 2016’ can be downloaded here.

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Former Senior Assistant Editor at Forbes India, Shutapa Paul has joined Newsd – a new age information, curation, and dissemination platform as Editor-in-Chief. She had her previous stints with The Week as Special Correspondent, The New Indian Express as Special Correspondent, India Today as Principal Correspondent, HT Mint as Staff Writer, NewsX as Correspondent, NDTV Profit as Reporter, and NDTV Profit as Output Editor/Reporter. New Delhi based avid traveler can be reached @ShutapaPaul.

» Soumyajit Majumder starts his new innings with The Times of India as Copy Editor. He previously worked with Press Trust of India as Journalist covering government policies, national politics, economic trends, social issues and local civic affairs. He was also associated with The Times of India as Intern, and The Telegraph as Student Reporter. New Delhi based blogger at ‘Soumyajit’ can be reached @thesoumyajit.

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Congrats to Vivek Kumar for joining Lexicon Public Relations & Corporate Consultants as CEO. He had his previous innings with Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation as Communications Lead, Edelman as Senior Account Director, Adfactors PR as Head – Servicing: Technology & Professional Services, 20:20 Media as General Manager (West). Connect with this New Delhi based tech fanatic @thevivekkumar.

» Former Senior Correspondent at Best Media Info, Aanchal Kohli now joins Famous Innovations as Corporate Communications Manager. She had earlier worked with Adgully as Journalist and Fourth Estate newspaper as Desk Editor and Reporter. Mumbaikar Aanchal can be reached @aanchalkohli.

#PMSpeaksToArnab

PM NaMo’s debut on the small screen was the talk of the town yesterday. #PMSpeaksToArnab was trending and twitterati took jabs at Kejriwal and other journalists who lost the opportunity of being the first private news channel to interview Modi as PM. Modi in his interview with Arnab Goswami on Times Now, spoke about his plans to restart media outreach to generate goodwill for his government, and also explained why he needed to travel and engage with world leaders. » As New Delhi looks to strengthen diplomatic ties with Dhaka, AIR gears up to launch ‘Akashvani Maitree’ next month. The Bengali radio service, aimed primarily at Bangladeshis, comes after five months of prep by the AIR Kolkata station. Bangladesh Betar (public radio) is also expected to contribute content to the 16-hours-a-day service. Initially Akashvani Maitree will have entertainment programmes and three news bulletins, including one from Dhaka. » ETV news network recently launched News 18 Assam/NorthEast channel in Assam. To be aired in 8 states of the north-east, the channel will feature entertainment and sports news, and bulletins in both Assamese and English. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal were present at the launch program in Guwahati. » VICE teams up with TOI to bring VICE to India. With a bureau and production hub in Mumbai, the partnership will also launch VICELAND as a paid TV channel in the market. » #Brexit, Britain’s big decision to leave the European Union might not be understood by all. BBC World News and BBC.com bring in special programming to help its viewers around the world make sense of the result. Check details of the coverage plan here.

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Christin Mathew Philip starts his new innings with The New Indian Express as Principal Correspondent. He was previously associated with The Times of India since 2011 as Trainee, Correspondent, Senior Correspondent, and later as Principal Correspondent. Connect with Bangalore based Christin @ChristinMP_TNIE. » Anand Vardhan makes a move to Zee Media. He previously worked with Sahara News Network as Output Head and Dainik Hindustan as Senior Correspondent.

‘Responsibly Digital’

Social Media Day, celebrated on June 30th, turns 7 this Thursday. It was launched by Mashable in 2010 to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. Exploring the theme ‘Responsibly Digital’, Ahmedabad is going to host the celebrations in India for fourth time in a row. Presented by Shivalik group, this year’s ‘Social Media Day’ will be hosted at Novotel Hotel. See full story here. » On the 77th birth anniversary of the iconic music maestro R D Burman, award-winning senior entertainment journalist and author Chaitanya Padukone launched his latest book “R.D.BurMania -Panchamemoirs”. Padukone, who shared a close bond with R D Burman had started his career with an interview of Burman. Read more here.  » Mumbai welcomed a new retro music station ‘Redtro 106.Chaar’ on June 23. Under the banner of Red FM network, which has geographical presence across 48 cities in India, this is the first radio station with the newly-acquired Phase III license. Redtro 106.Chaar with the tagline ‘Phir Bajao’ seeks to give a modern twist to the classic retro and focus on the music of the 90s. » Congratulations to Rajiv Mishra for joining ETV, TV 18 as Group Business Head. Having more than 22 years of experience, Mishra was previously associated with Samsung as Vice President and Head – Media, Corporate Communications, CSR and Spokesperson. He has also worked with various media organizations like Hindustan Times Group, Star TV, Zee TV, Reliance Infocomm Limited, TV Asia of USA, News 24 (BAG Films and Media), and India News, among others.

Reimagining the News

Today, Podium shines the spotlight on Ipsita Agarwal. Founder of Synopted News – an online newsroom where publishers & marketers create content, Ipsita started her writing career for a national daily, The Times of India, as a student journalist and also did her internship for the same in 2008. Singapore based Ipsita also worked with Label Magazine as Deputy Editor. We feature her post on Medium where she talks about reimagining news products and services for the modern reader.

The news industry has changed more in the last decade than it did in the centuries since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1436. The business model from the print age has been copy-pasted to digital and found lacking. Now, publishers are left with two options: become content writers for third party platforms, or reimagine the news products and services for readers of today. This is a newbie’s take on what option two could look like.

Where we stand
When I started a news company in 2013, it was common knowledge that the baton had been passed on from print to digital. Technology was probably the biggest driver for change in news at the time. Legacy publishers raced to become responsive, while new entrants experimented with content and monetisation formats with varying degrees of success.

Today, the most startling change in news isn’t in the tech that supports it, but in its distribution. More and more power has been pried from the hands of publishers and put into platforms like Facebook, Apple and Google.

Compare the user experience on a news publisher and a platform such as Facebook. One has been designed to serve the same commodity, information, to an unknown mass of people, disregarding the differences in their prior knowledge, reading habits and interests. The other is designed to mould to the needs of a specific person by learning their behaviour and likes over time.

Platforms cater to individuals. Publishers broadcast to a mass audience.

It can’t come as a surprise to anyone if readers prefer the experience on platforms over publishers. It can be frightening though, and for good reason. Publishers are left at the mercy of the platforms that are friendly and accepting of publishers’ monetisation strategies today, but may not be tomorrow. Publishers run the risk of being reduced to content creators, diminishing their editorial responsibility and independence as journalists in the process.

That leaves publishers, new entrants and legacy brands alike, with two options: continue on the way things are going now. Or learn to think not as publishers, but designers of news experiences suited to the readers of today.

The transition from a “mass” media to “one-on-one” journalism is probably the biggest publishers will make, and it starts with some customer research.

Back to the basics
Elon Musk recently popularized the idea of “first principles”. The technique of stripping a problem “down to the most fundamental truths, and then reason up from there” isn’t new, it traces its roots all the way back to Aristotle.

In this technique, you take a complex problem, remove existing assumptions about it, and focus on its core concept. This way, instead of saying “we should do x this way because it’s always been done like that in the past”, we think about the problem “x” was trying to solve in the first place.

In the case of online publishing, perhaps start by questioning the purpose of journalism itself.

Read the full article on Medium here.

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Trainee Correspondent cum Sub Editor at The Indian Express, Pooja Khati now gets promoted to Features Correspondent. She covers art and culture with specialization in films and documentaries and also handles the production of the ‘TALK’ page (The Indian Express). Previously, she was an Editorial Intern at WWF-India in 2011. Blogger at ‘poojakhati7’ tweets @poojakhati7.

» Priyanka Bhadani makes a move to The Week as Senior Correspondent covering films, theatre and television. She also tracks culture, cuisines, and history.  Previously with Star India as Senior Executive (Content), The Indian Express as Senior Sub-Editor, Indiantelevision.com as Senior Sub-Editor cum Reporter, and Deccan Chronicle / Asian Age as Senior Sub-Editor. This Mumbai based avid traveler can be reached @priyankak3.

 

 

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Divya Narayan embarks on a new endeavor joining Ruder Finn as Branch Head (Bangalore) and Account Director. She had her previous stints with Edelman as Account Director, LinOpinion – GolinHarris as Associate Communications Director, Underwriters Laboratories as Manager – Marketing Communications, and Weber Shandwick as Account Head. Connect with Bangalore based Divya @diviaviator.

» Sandeep Deb Varman starts his new innings with 20:20 MSL as Senior Account Manager. He was earlier with Cheetah Mobile as Marketing Manager, Genesis Burson-Marsteller as Senior Associate and later as Senior Consulting Associate, Deluxe Digital Studios as a Scripting Specialist, and Capgemini as Consultant. Reach out to this Bangalore based communication consultant @S_DV.

Living With Technology

Snapchat to launch Real Life, an online magazine which will feature essays and narratives about living with technology, on June 27th. Having complete editorial independence from Snapchat, Real Life will focus on “how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices”. The online magazine will have social theorist Nathan Jurgenson as Editor-in-Chief. » After The Indian Express and Outlook exposed the story of the ‘Essar tapes’ leak on Friday June 17th, only a handful of newspapers and TV channels gave it due coverage. The Essar tapes indicate corruption in houses of the most powerful, the allegedly tapped conversations are said to involve politicians like Jaswant Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Mulayam Singh Yadav, industrialists Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Subroto Roy, and many more. Read Newslaundry’s detailed report on media’s subdued reactions here. » Zee ties up with DISH and Sling TV to expand its presence in the US market. The ZEE channel tally available in the US goes up from 10 to 37, with a combined reach of 52 million homes. Zee’s premium on-demand library will also be exclusively available on DISH and Sling TV. The new channels will be available in varied languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Odia, Rajasthani and Urdu. » After tracing the history of Asia’s oldest newspaper – Mumbai Samachar, The Hoot explores the story of Asia’s second oldest newspaper – Jam-e-Jamshed in their special series ‘Living Legends’. » Aiming to strengthen education in the state, Punjab Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema announced the government’s plans to launch Vidya TV soon. A dedicated educational channel, mostly for the benefit of school students preparing for competitive exams, Vidya TV will present recorded lectures by experts, initially focusing on Class X and XII students. The channel is likely to be launched in a month’s time, said the minister.