Content Marketing that is not perceived as advertising

Content marketing and native advertising have been heralded as the new way for advertisers to “share” their stories about their brand on media channels. But to the consumer, it’s still perceived as advertising; nobody is fooled by the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Content marketers fall into the same advertising trap because their premise is based on the need to pitch product. They use the same media advertising tactics on publishers like SFGate.com.

The clickthrough rates (CTR) of these kinds of content marketing ploys is .18%, 1 out of 500 views, slightly more effective than the .06% CTR of banner ads. And after clickthrough, readers stayed for an average of 1 second, likely due to their realization that they accidentally clicked on an ad. They are simply ineffective.

Social media marketing has taught us that the best way to attract business is to not spam them with anything that can be construed as a pitch.

A New Definition of Content Marketing

It’s time to flip the definition of content marketing from an advertising vehicle to a customer service vehicle providing content that a brand’s customer base will value, without any hint of spamming. The best content marketing has four objectives:

1. Establish the brand as the leading authority in their ecosystem.
2. Be consistent, even ubiquitous, in messaging news and events that their customer base wants to discover.
3. Get their customer base to follow them based on their mindshare leadership.
4. Develop user engagement by becoming an influential media hub for all things about the topic and industry.

The redefined content marketing is not distributed in the form of an ad in a traditional media or mobile channel where it may be perceived with suspicion by it audience. The most authentic way to distribute content marketing is directly to a targeted opt-in user and customer base via social media.

Problem

Enterprises don’t use social media effectively. They spam their messaging to a follower base that really wants to know about the latest trends in their industry. They post inconsistently if at all. They often don’t allocate resources to maintaining social media presence and engagement. If they hire these resources, part time social media managers can cost upwards of $1,000 monthly.

Solution

Every business, nonprofit and brand will have a customized social media news feed curated to distribute relevant content and breaking news that engages their customer base.

BNN Networks has created a partnership with Right Relevance (“RR”), a technology company with a social media based curation and syndication engine that can quickly build vibrant news hubs from scratch for any topic. Our mission is to give businesses and organizations, local and national, a news voice they can use as a branding vehicle to attract their customer base with useful news, not repel them with a content pitch.

For example, BNN Networks, with RR, developed the curated Twitter feed @animalrrights as a demonstration on how a news hub chronicling animal rights issues can be built in six months with a following of over 19,000 influencers and advocates of the animal rights movement. The key to rapid uptake is detailed curation of strong content, and selection (curation) of influencers and advocates of the animal rights movement that respond to the feed.

In the @AnimalRRights example, BNN Networks can apply this curation and media development methodology to building customized news feeds for organizations with the mission of saving animals, like humane societies. The result is an informative, 24-by-7, engaging news feed documenting animal rights news that attracts and engages the exact audience humane societies want to attract.

Methodology and Value

BNN Networks builds curated news feeds for clients — businesses, nonprofits and brands — that become news and media hubs for their topic or industry

1. Content is curated from leading influencers in the client’s topic and industry. Well curated content positions that brand’s social media feeds as “breaking news” hubs for their customer base.
2. Content is automatically syndicated on social media (Twitter and Facebook page) targeting a specific set of news consumers that the client wants to attract.
3. Social media development — the building of an authentic, relevant follower base — is systematically achieved using BNN/RR algorithms that identify and assess influencers and potential customers based on content interest filters.
4. The curation, building, development and maintenance of social media feeds is programmatic and turnkey. Clients have complete access and control of their feeds.
5. The turnkey service is provided at a monthly subscription fee that dwarfs the cost of hiring a social media manager to curate, analyze, develop and maintain social media accounts.

About BNN Networks

For inquiries, contact bnnnetworks@gmail.com