Category Archives: digital media

January 9, 2013 · 11:09 am

Ghost Writers In The Sky

OK, first off, I know that the title of the screed today is NOT the name of the song – as you’ll see it’s an attempt at humor.  Second, it really isn’t “in the sky” – more like “in the cloud” given the subject today, which is content creation.

Words have a power all their own

(Photo credit: Lynne Hand)

When you spend a minute or two here on the screed, you’re getting something produced by me.  I write every word (OK, other than those I grab from press releases but I usually let you know when I’m doing that).  That hands-on approach isn’t necessarily the norm, and as the strategy of content marketing has become a bigger deal, ghost writing – specifically ghost blogging – has grown with it.

You might think that as someone who spends some time each work day trying to produce content that I might have an issue with those folks who hire ghost bloggers.  You’d be wrong if you thought that – I believe it’s an excellent thing for many companies to do.  I can spend a few hundred words here writing about content marketing but if you really want an explanation contact me and I’m happy to spend a few minutes explaining it.  Better yet –  hire me to do it for you! In any event, not everyone can write well and very few can create content on a regular basis (try to blog 300-500 words every day for a few weeks and let me know if you can).  Along with it being great content the piece needs to be written in a way that’s SEO-friendly so it’s discoverable by the audience you’re trying to reach.

Here is the caveat – you can’t lose authenticity   When I do content for someone, I have  a conversation with them about the topic we’re trying to cover.  That topic can be generated by something going on at the company – a new product, for example – or it can be based on a discovery in the web analytics – the brand is getting a lot of traffic from people searching for “X” so let’s write about that.  It’s their thinking and their ideas – I’m just putting their words down on paper.  That’s why I don’t really have an issue with ghost writers – the good ones are doing transcription more than they’re putting words into people’s (or brands’) mouths.  Besides, how many books written by CEOs, sports figures, or politicians are ghost written?  Nearly all.

What do you think?  Let me know – or hire someone to write the comment for you!

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January 7, 2013 · 11:15 am

Take My Money…PLEASE!

Another week, another horror tale from the world of stupid online corporate tricks.

att-003

(Photo credit: wuji9981)

Today we bring you the sad and somewhat horrifying story of the phone company that won’t take your money.  Trust me – I wish I could report that it was out of some philanthropic urge it had to give us all a break.  Not so.  Instead, it’s (yet another) example of how letting programmers, lawyers, and designers do things without input from the real world can spell disaster.

Here at Ritter Media World Headquarters we have a land line as our primary business phone.  It’s from AT&T (yep, them again) and on the bill is also my internet service.  Generally I send them an electronic check once a month but that takes a couple of days to get to them from the bank (a great topic for another post – why the hell should they hold the money for two business days?).  As sometimes happens, the bill got buried in a pile of paper and rather than be late I thought I’d go right to the ATT website and pay the bill directly via credit card.

That was what I thought I’d do.  Unfortunately, after spending 20 minutes on the website, I still couldn’t figure out how to link primary account (it’s the only landline account) to my email and I couldn’t pay the bill.  I tried linking it my ATT Wireless accounts – neither of those worked.  I tried the ATT email they assigned me (but never use) – that didn’t work.  I finally gave up and called them – no time on hold, one layer of menus, type in the credit card, done.

Obviously ATT is a lot more experienced with phones than they are with websites.  Paying via the telephone was a snap.  If someone like me – who is on the web almost 12 hours a day and breathes digital – can’t figure out how to use the web service portal, imagine how someone who can barely send a text will feel.  There are a couple of points here.  First, I wonder how many “civilians” ATT put on the site to test navigation and usability?  Did they give them 3 or 4 tasks – like pay your bill! – and observe them?  Second, stories such as this are why there is still a long way to go with a large segment of the population with respect to making them accept technology into their lives.

Have a horror story to share?  We’re listening!

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January 3, 2013 · 11:41 am

The Social Media Team

One of the areas that will continue to grow this year is corporate use of social media. I know – big, bold prediction on my part. In any event, it was because of this that I read the recent release of data from Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. You can read the study called “Structuring A Social Media Team” here.  The research asked a couple of thousand respondents about how their company uses social media and how they’re structured to support those efforts.  The results are not particularly surprising.  In fact, I find them a bit alarming.  Let’s see what you think.

  • Sixty-five percent of respondents do social media on top of their other duties. For those who do social media exclusively, nearly eighty-three percent work on teams of three or fewer.
  • Sixty-nine percent are dissatisfied or only “somewhat satisfied” with how they measure social media. Only thirty-one percent are satisfied or very satisfied. And many say they lack the time to track data or aren’t even sure what to measure.
  • Only thirteen percent describe their efforts as advanced. Slightly more than half agreed with the statement, “We keep our heads above water, but not by much.”
  • “Ownership” of social media is murky, and the question may even become passé as numerous departments within organizations jump in.

So most organizations don’t have an employee who focuses exclusively on social media. It appears from the data that it’s an added responsibility for someone who is assisted by interns. While as a manager I understand the “efficiency” of this, I’m not sure I’d trust what is becoming my organizations public face to someone who is doing it as an afterthought.  Think about some of the social media disasters we’ve seen – how often is an intern involved?  The fact that marketing, PR, and other departments all lay claim to a piece of these efforts makes it a difficult task to get goals clearly defined too.

I’m not quite sure what to say about the lack of measurement   I don’t believe in doing anything in business without some method of accountability and not having any idea about what to track much less how to track it is disturbing.  Only thirty-one percent of firms report measuring sales while everyone else seems focused on “likes” and followers – a measure of quantity, not necessarily quality or response.  the lack of time and/or manpower is also cited (by nearly 2/3) as the main reasons why there isn’t more and better measurement.

It’s a pretty comprehensive study and if you use social media for business you might give it a read.  Then hit the comments to let us know what you think.

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