Where’s Waldo got you stumped? Take a break from Google Maps’ adorable April Fool’s game and read up on the latest in content marketing. This week, we’ve got shifting marketer priorities, creating URLs for longevity, takeaways from the Intelligent Content Conference and why customer privacy should be your concern.
LinkedIn Goes All-In on B2B Video
One of our favorite B2B social marketing websites is finally adding video to its sponsored content options.
If you don’t understand why this is a big deal, remember that LinkedIn is amazing and video is awesome (per the company, LinkedIn members spend more time engaging with video than static content). Also, the website gives you the option to include a call-to-action just beneath your video, making it easier to get those quality leads we all love.
You can also now create Company Page videos to share your news, events, products and culture. Based on LinkedIn’s beta program, these videos are five times more likely to start conversations than other forms of content. Not only are these snippets good at engaging your audience, but they’re also a nice method of attracting new talent. After all, who can resist wanting to work in your office after they’ve watched a cool video tour?
To learn more about LinkedIn’s new video offers, check out the company’s blog post.
How, When & Why Durable URLs Can Help SEO
Earlier this week, Search Engine Journal Writer Stephen Watts described the benefits of what he calls “durable URLs” – i.e., a consistent URL that can be updated with fresh content over time. This allows the page to continue ranking for its original keywords but maintain its organic search status as time goes on and the industry or information changes.
Watts provided the example of a web page optimized for the search term “it conferences.”
Keeping this page updated with the latest conference information will ensure it maintains a high rank among search results, while maintaining certain core keywords preserves its search rank.
This, as Watts said, turns the page into a living document.
Check out the full article, which contains advice for creating the resource names and determining when to choose a durable or disposable URL.
Chatbots, AI, and Context: Top Takeaways From Intelligent Content Conference
The Intelligent Content Conference hosted by the Content Marketing Institute is over, but that doesn’t mean you missed ou. CMI has a helpful recap post listing the top three takeaways from the annual event.
The first subject at hand was chatbots. I’ll admit, I’ve been skeptical of these little automated robots (despite their ability to improve the customer experience), but this post brought me around. During ICC 2018, speaker Gavin Austin explained that chatbots are a content channel in and of themselves.
Interesting, no? Chatbots aren’t just a tool for customer interaction; they’re a new way of delivering information. Even better, they can be easily programmed to reuse content without copy and pasting text. Marketers can develop models that enable chatbots to refer back to existing content (frequently asked questions, common answers and universal statements) but still include personalization elements.
The second takeaway is one every marketer needs to get on board with: Artificial intelligence is here, and those who don’t accept this fact will quickly be left behind.
Now, this doesn’t mean you need a computer to write your content, but you should be using marketing technology like MarketMuse, SEMrush or BrightEdge to help during the creation process. These tools save you time by analyzing your topic of choice and deciding what information to cover, keywords to include and length to write.
The third and final takeaway is short and sweet: Great content will do nothing if delivered in the wrong context. Good words need the right audience, place, time and format to be successful.
Read the full recap here, and let us know about your experience if you attended!
Privacy by Design is About to Become law: Is Your Organization Ready?
With the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal still fresh in the news, now is the perfect time for brands to evaluate their stance on consumer privacy. This is especially true for businesses with European customers, as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation will go into effect May 25. If you haven’t taken a hard look at what your company does with the data it reviews and collects, now is the time to do so.
CMSWire contributor Bryta Schulz argues that Privacy by Design, a concept wherein businesses acknowledge privacy issues and concerns when creating their digital strategies and offerings, should be used by any business, regardless of whether they might incur the EU’s expensive fines. Doing so gives companies a strategic advantage in terms of customer satisfaction, network security and reduced impact if a breach occurs.
Read the full post, and share your company’s privacy strategies or concerns below.
Got all that? We’ll have more next week, so don’t forget to check in!
