“Information is pre-digested experience. Experience is messy, wasteful, and takes time.” - Chris Dede, Harvard
Viewing entries tagged
Information
If access to information makes you smarter.
If being smarter and better informed allows for better or faster decision making and better utilization of resources.
If better decisions, lead to better outcomes or results.
And better outcomes lead to the creation of wealth
Then, LinkNYC, with its broad distribution of broadband internet to the streets of New York, might be the largest wealth creation experiment in recent history.
"A person who won't read has not advantage over one who can't read." - Mark Twain
Stay curious, my friends.
I had a neighbor recently diagnosed with breast cancer and as the community has risen up around her to provide her encouragement, gifts, meals, and shuttling-children-to-soccer services, it has got me thinking about tests.
Tests in school are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your mastery (or lack there of) of a subject. Your grade on a well-written test should tell you where you are relative to the standard set by the course and perhaps relative to your peers in the same field of study.
Medical tests are different. They test for the presence of something or the degree of something. Not against some standard (a good score is always 100), but against a backdrop of normal ranges. They can show progress, just like school tests, but interpreting them can be a challenge.
But both type of tests strike fear into our hearts. Being measured is hard. But is it better to avoid the test? Is it ever better not to know?
I certainly am thankful that my friend’s test results indicated that she could take action to rid herself of cancer and she is taking those actions. Had she not had the test, she would not have known to take action and the cancer might have taken her.
And without grades on tests throughout a semester, your grade at the end of the course would be a surprise, and perhaps an unpleasant one. As I was reminded by my children's teachers, tests early in the school year are meant to provide direction and insight. And without constant feedback, you might not know what to focus your study time on and you might not seek out the help or assistance that you need to master a concept or skill.
In marketing, there has been a huge push for measurement and metrics in the past decade. Online advertising has made it possible for even smaller companies or smaller marketing budgets to rely on metrics to help them make investment decisions. Advertising is measured in clicks and conversions. Events can be measured by attendance and a follow-on marketing automation lead nurturing program. Even digital signage can be measured with sensors and cameras to deliver metrics like impressions, dwell time, and even basic demographic information. Goals can be set. Campaigns measured against those goals. The value of the campaign taken all the way from the lead to the sale.
And I have seen marketers both embrace and reject this kind of analysis and the impact it has on their decision making. Some use the metrics to validate experiments, to test variants, and to invest in what has been working. To let the data lead them. Others use it as a source of insight, but choose not to reduce their decision to a scientific equation. To recognize that there are some things that can’t yet be measured. As in medicine and in education, there is both art and science in marketing.
John Wanamaker, the pioneering retail merchant of the turn of the 20th century, is claimed to have said “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” Despite all the progress, I still feel like that is true. Although I do believe that our probability of success is higher than 50/50 with today’s toolkits, there is still an art to the process of reaching people in a way that affects their thinking and their actions. And throughout, more relevant insight and data can provide confidence. And just like the healing processes in our bodies or in our ability to learn something new, that confidence can make all the difference!
This article was first published on LinkedIn Pulse.
Recently I heard NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speak about how professional basketball coverage is perishable. Even though games can be streamed days after they are actually played, they rarely are.
Silver said that years ago, games that were played in Los Angeles on Thursday would be played in prime time internationally on Friday, with local commenters creating new wrap-around context for the game, because the final score wasn’t already known globally. That is simply no longer the case.
With the internet, fan apps and feeds, and social media properties, basketball fans can get real-time updates and know the score as the baskets are made. The internet has, once again, revolutionized an industry.
Silver did mention something they have done to fight this trend and keep their content relevant for viewers long after the final score has been posted. He called it “packaging for permanence.” The edited video of game highlights and the coverage of the slam dunk challenge are examples of this.
This same principle and practice can be applied to event-based content for your company. After all, trade shows, product announcements, and grand opening coverage can be just as perishable as a basketball game.
Here are some ways that content marketers can follow the NBA’s lead and package for permanence:
Take photos and videos from the event and use them for general marketing
With all of the preparation that goes into events, companies are often looking their best on event day. Don’t let the moment slip away without making the most of it. Capitalize on your hard work and capture as many photos and videos as you can for later use in your marketing materials.
- Tip: When you post your photos to social media, be sure to include your company logo as a watermark – this will increase brand recognition and provide extra information for viewers who might come across your photo without other context.
Create an infographic (think scoreboard) of the highlights of the event
Want to communicate with your customers and stakeholders quickly and effectively about the event? Use infographics. If your event’s results aren’t quantifiable, you can create a text-based infographic. If you had an event that produced data, use it for an attractive graph or chart that shows the success of your company.
- Tip: If you don’t have a top-notch in-house graphic designer, this is a good time to contract with a gifted expert who can bring the creativity that will make your graphic compelling.
Publish an event recap and send it to customers
Write a news report about the event. Capture the highlights in writing, add some photos, include the infographic if you made one, and send the recap out to your customers and post it online.
- Tip: Less is more. Don’t give in to the temptation to write down all the details or list all the attendees. Keep the newsletter short and sweet and only include the real highlights.
Create a recap video and post it on the company Facebook, Twitter and website so that customers who weren’t there can have an idea of what went on
There are bound to be amazing moments at your live event. Don’t let them perish on the spot. Capture them on video and repackage that video as a recap, a comedy video of a funny moment, a bit of wisdom if something wise was shared at your event, etc.
Each shorter video can be shared on your company’s social media channels and emailed out to customers and stakeholders.
- Tip: If you have enough content to make several short videos, do it. You will get more views, and different clips will appeal to different viewers.
In the world of instant information where events are over as soon as they are over, it is still possible to capture them and extend their shelf life. Plan to package permanence for content marketing success.
This article was posted by The Business Journals.
It has long been said that if you really want to learn something, you should teach it. But research shows that the same can be said for tweeting. When NeuroInsights ran focus groups with consumers who were shown programming and told they would need to tweet about it, paid more attention and retained the information better than those in the control group. So, instead of “pay attention, it might be on the test” perhaps we should say “pay attention, it might be in a tweet.”