Learn what branded vids won mothers' hearts, which topics engage most on Twitter and Facebook (and how to take advantage of them), what's new with social platforms, and how one brand used a compulsive (and sometimes annoying) Instagram trend to boost its own renown. It's all a hop, a skip, and a skim away!
The world's toughest job. Just in time for Mother's Day, Card Store's "World's Toughest Job" topped the viral charts with over 20 million views. The video depicts people interviewing for what appears to be the toughest—if not most unreasonable—job in all the universe. Wait for the twist! (We're sure you can guess what it is.) P&G's emotional, production-rich "Thank You Mom" came in second. Share one with your nearest matriarch for bonus points.
Will Insta for food. Frozen veggie brand Birds Eye took advantage of an Instagram trend—the shooting and sharing of food—to give foodies an incentive to share its goodies. UK-based users can visit its pop-up store, The Picture House, to try two of its newest dishes. They're encouraged to share shots on Instagram: Dinner includes a tutorial from Marie Marte, an Instagram food photographer extraordinaire. Best of all? Once you've Instagrammed dinner, you get it for free.
Facebook vs. Twitter: what engages fans? Klout's done research on what gets people engaged on Facebook and Twitter. Top engagers on both are music and TV; software takes No. 3 on Twitter, while holidays are preferred on Facebook. Less engaging topics include electric cars, business news, and concerts. Also find out how influencers take advantage of those subjects.
Speaking of Twitter and Facebook, a Digiday article points to how both are courting small businesses with educational efforts (Twitter) and high-precision ad targeting (Facebook). Guess which platform small businesses prefer? Facebook: 57.9% of BIA/Kelsey study respondents use it to advertise (newspapers come second at 43.2%).
Quiet on the set. Twitter's added the ability to mute voices that you'd prefer to hear less from. Muting users means you'll no longer see their tweets in your timeline or receive notifications about them. They'll still be able to favorite, reply to and retweet your tweets, but you won't see that activity on your feed. To mute, visit the person's profile page, click on the gear-shaped icon, and hit "mute." In the following example, the gear icon is a person icon; but whichever button you have, it's in the same place and has the same options:
Choosing a content calendar: Your go-to guide. Buffer's got a handy-dandy guide on how to produce a content calendar to organize social media efforts. In addition to tips on how to plan your calendar (what to include, how far ahead you should plan, etc.), we love their depiction of a hyper-visual outlook that provides a birds-eye view of what's coming up.
How to scale your content marketing. Marketing Land provides three strategies: high article-posting frequency, social media breadth, and social media concentration. Whichever scenario you choose, tips are provided for ensuring success. The article wraps with a table summarizing each strategy, when to use it, the benefits, and the downsides (if you're pressed for time, scroll straight down to that).
Where are ad dollars headed? To online video, the WSJ proclaims! In March, 88 million people watched online video daily, up 14% from the previous year, per comScore. eMarketer says TV investment will outspend digital until 2018, when TV ad spend will slip to 36.1% and digital, overall, will hit 36.4%. It's a tight race. Plus, video content is touted as high-quality and better at audience measurement, making marketers more comfortable with the shift. It also helps that YouTube and Xbox have launched their own "upfront"-style programming presentations, making the move seem more natural.
Lions goes live. Looking to build some creativity clout? Cannes Lions, the world's biggest festival of creativity and advertising, is fast approaching. And for the entire week it takes place, it'll be streaming one great session each day on its YouTube channel, as well as specials like "Through the Line," a series that provides behind-the-scenes access to creatives at Cannes. Check out the rules and find out how to vote for your favorite sessions.
Linkbait for awareness. The Waterford Whispers News spread a titillating (and much-shared) headline and photo across social networks, building on buzz around Beyonce's sister Solange for mysteriously attacking Jay-Z in a hotel elevator:
When users clicked on the link, they got an eyeful of photos about the 200+ Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, news that's sparked a social revolution of its own: #BringBackOurGirls. Amusingly, the photos are still captioned with exclamations-ridden hype about Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Point made, Waterford! While most brands would get flack for this kind of trick, people touted this as a reminder of what it takes to get others to care about issues bigger than an elevator face-off between glitterati.
How to score the mom blogger set. Coca-Cola, Zone and Tara Cain produced a gorgeous presentation on how to appeal to mom bloggers, one of the most desirable markets in the online set. The deck explains how mom bloggers can help you scale challenges, how Coca-Cola approaches them, and what moms expect from brands.
Coca-Cola / Zone / Tara Cain from Zone
We'll wrap with a throwback that also springs forward. In a head-bopping TED Talk, artist/hit producer Mark Ronson took 15 TED Talks, and TED's distinctive music, to make music on the fly. He followed this demo with an inspired speech about how "sampling"—taking something old and incorporating it into something new—facilitates the evolution of music we love. This also goes for great advertising, social content, and even our favorite shows: The most effective stuff samples from culture to create something that manages to be both new and resonant. Humans need both to find the courage to change. Isn't that beautiful?
