Did you see that?
These are the stories that caught our attention this week – from a mom’s user-generated content battle to the NFL’s new Snapchat story to how the Big 12 Conference is trading in their CDs and DVDs for visual asset management with Libris.
Scroll through to get our take and check out the quotes that grabbed us. Click the links to follow a rabbit hole of interesting reads.
Roundup:
On Instagram and Other Social Media, Redefining ‘User Engagement’
The New York Times
By Sydney Ember and Rachel Abrams
User-generated content has incredible power to engage customers. It’s authentic. It’s an endorsement. But it’s tricky.
This guy is apparently happy to share this cute photo of his dog with Crocs, so he put the hashtag “CrocsOK” in the caption. Shereen Way, however, did not add the hashtag, but Crocs pulled an image of her daughter rocking crocs for a gallery of user-generated photos anyway. In On Instagram and Other Social Media, Redefining ‘User Engagement,’ Sydney Ember and Rachel Adams share her story and shine a spotlight on the blurred line between customer engagement and privacy.
“This is a new area, and we want to make sure our customers are dotting the ‘Is’ and crossing the ‘Ts,’ ” said Sharad Verma, the chief executive and co-founder of Piqora, which helps brands curate user-generated content from sites like Instagram. “It’s important for brands to be very upfront and transparent about how the photos are being used.”
NFL and Snapchat to Produce Weekly Video Content
The Wall Street Journal
By Mike Shields
The National Football League is kicking off a new view of the game with a weekly Snapchat story. The NFL is stepping up their video game in a number of ways, but what’s interesting is their unique motive in partnering with Snapchat. Blake Stuchin, the NFL’s director of digital media business development, told the Wall Street Journal in NFL and Snapchat to Produce Weekly Video Content the league is hoping to bring a new generation of fans to the games.
“We take a strategic approach to how we deploy our rights,” said Mr. Stuchin. “In this case, this is uniquely produced for Snapchat, and it should showcase what it’s really like to be at an NFL game…and one benefit of that is hopefully showing people the best way to enjoy the NFL is to get out to the stadium.”
How The Big 12 Got Smarter With Their Digital Assets
Sport Techie
By Brittany Patko
The Big 12 Conference has joined Libris to store, organize and share its 70,000+ photos. In How The Big 12 Got Smarter With Their Digital Assets, Sport Techie talks with Director of Communications at Big 12 Conference Rob Carolla about how working with Libris will speed up the conference’s photo delivery.
Now, with Libris, the Big 12 will be able to log onto a cloud-based system to access these photos in a time-efficient and organized way. Every photo will be tagged and therefore easy to search. “I could type in the student athlete’s name, Abby Smith, and it would give me every picture of Abby Smith that we have in our system. That’s really helpful,” said Carolla.
13 Examples and 5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Needs GIFs
Business 2 Community
By Austin Talbert
Austin Talbert praises GIFs for being snackable, visual “shorthand storytelling,” in 13 Examples and 5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Needs GIFs. GIFs not only catch our attention as we scroll through our newsfeeds, but they convey authenticity and make us laugh.
GIFs can make a brand seem more like a friend.
The GIF has recently established a reputation as a versatile, engaging method to connect across the social sphere. With all the major social networks now optimizing for the looping animations, brands employ the magnetism of GIFs to attract and connect with their audiences, unleashing short snippets of animation as a big part of their content marketing strategy.
How to Get More Mileage Out of Your Visual Content
Content Marketing Institute
By Matt Cooper
Not only does How to Get More Mileage Out of Your Visual Content share a fantastic example of visual storytelling – this awesome data visualization video by Neil Halloran…
The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.
… it also shows you how to maximize your content efforts by repurposing great work. If you have a thoughtful long-term content strategy (that includes a well-organized visual asset library you can tap into later), a great piece of visual content can be a gift that keeps on giving.
Remember when you were in grade school and learned about how Native Americans used every part of the buffalo? So too can you get more mileage out of your data-visualization videos and interactive sites with creative derivative content. You can continue to employ it on your social and blog channels long after the tent-pole content has launched.