The Guardian’s new ‘follow’ the writer functionality

Follow a Guardian writerI might be way behind the times, but today I spotted an interesting new piece of Beta functionality on the Guardian website.

You are now able to ‘follow’ a writer, and notification of their latest articles will be emailed to you as soon as they go live.

I’m sure there must be others, but the only writer I could find this against initially was Hadley Freeman.

In an age of seemingly instantaneous updates on Twitter, there’s something deliciously ‘retro’ about receiving an email telling you about a new live article. I’ll be intrigued to see if this is a flash in that pan, or part of a new, successful way of driving increased page views.

When did everyone become a content strategy expert?

There was a great link going round last week to a presentation called: Crap – the content marketing deluge.

The basic message behind the very clever and funny slideshow is that suddenly everyone involved in marketing has woken up to the concept of ‘content’ and how important it is to produce – thus making your (the expert in content and content strategy) job twice, or possibly 100 times as hard: to get cut-through.

‘Endorse me’

In a related area, I’ve noticed that the new ‘endorse’ feature within LinkedIn becoming more and more popular.

Members write down their supposed areas of expertise and connections ‘endorse’ that skill.

The interesting thing I’ve spotted is that almost everyone seems to have suddenly become skilled in content strategy.

Let me first point out that – although content is my day-to-day job – I don’t consider myself a major authority in content strategy.

However, my years in magazines and subsequent experience online have given me a fairly good grasp of the area.

Content bandwagon

I’m not doubting everyone I know or who have worked with previously, but it’s fairly clear – from where I’m sitting – that this is a bandwagon everyone seems to be jumping on.
Continue reading “When did everyone become a content strategy expert?”

What TV channels have to learn about hashtags

Mad Men logoLast night saw the return of Mad Men to UK TV screens on Sky Atlantic, although it had a far more limited reach than before when BBC broadcast the feted TV series.

As I was watching, I also kept an eye on my Twitter stream to swap comments with the, admittedly-few, others who were also enjoying the show.

Naturally, I appended a #madmen hashtag to any tweets, but was surprised to see that Sky was offering up a different option: #madmenonsky. I was baffled. OK, so Mad Men is showing on Sky, buy why does Sky feel the need to remind everyone of that fact?

A brief search on Twitter showed that Sky’s move bombed. Although a few people used the #MadMenonSky tag, the far more obvious #madmen was the clear winner.

Sky isn’t the first broadcaster to try and get people to use an unlikely, branded hashtag. During X Factor, ITV always try to get people to tweet and append #itvxfactor. While they do have some success, the much more obvious #xfactor always wins out.

It’s an odd attempt to commercialise tweets that shows, yet again, how many big companies fail to grasp how difficult it is to impose their own will onto the Twitterverse.

The BBC probably doesn’t have the same commercial pressures, but even they still try to shoehorn the channel onto Twitter, opting to steer tweeters towards using #bbcapprentice rather than #apprentice.

TV channels – and other brands – need to understand that Twitter is made up of individuals, not an amorphous mass. Yes, people follow the herd, but they can also smell an unnecessary commercial plug and do something to avoid using it.