There is literally an entire global Internet’s worth of content. 
As digital marketers, our job is to burst through the clutter and stand out, like the Kool-Aid Man smashing a wall and screaming, “Oh Yeah!”
But, statistically, the odds aren’t good, right?
There is so much new content every minute of every day, including:
- 100,000 Tweets
- 685,000 Facebook posts
- 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube
And countless blog posts, websites, news articles and more.
So how do you make your content stand out?
There is no perfect formula for success, but there are things you can do to give your messaging a fighting chance.
1) Be Awesome.
Seriously, there is no more important factor to online success than an awesome piece of content.
Take the Canadian band Walk Off The Earth. They formed in 2006 and had some level of success, but not much recognition.
In 2012, they uploaded to YouTube a cover of a well-known song (something they frequently did). This song, “Somebody That I Used To Know” was a chart-topper at the time, which would have given their version traction by itself.
However, in this video, the five members of the band teamed together to play ONE guitar. It’s simply…awesome. It gained 127 million views in four months and increased their global profile exponentially.
2) Be Timely.
The faster you can respond to the situation, the better.
We saw this during the Super Bowl as several brands saw content spikes during the power outage because they addressed the issue in a fun way, like Oreo and Tide.
I’m not sure more cookies or detergent were sold because of these cheeky responses to the power outage, but they definitely left an impression on the web.
3) Be Visual.
When I’m at a bookstore, I wander around, somewhat aimlessly, to see what catches my eye.
The Internet works similarly. Whether it’s websites or social media timelines, users surf, scroll and peruse.
Catchy visuals stand out and make people stop in their figurative tracks.
CBS’ hit, but aging, show How I Met Your Mother, has adopted this season what I’m calling “infocards” to promote their episodes.
These have an image from the episode, with a headline or quote, plus tune-in and logo information:
Some of the infocards even have a hashtag to help direct social conversation. Even without the hashtags, the card is a perfectly-complete marketing tool that fans can share to promote the show. It gives you a sense of what the episode will be about, what network to watch and when to tune in.
What other advice do you have for supercharging your digital content?
(Mar…
