Learn: what the biggest skills gap in marketing is
Learn: why Google's giving up on comments on blogs
Learn: whether or not you should use vertical instead of horizontal video

The Content Marketing Quickie brings you a quick and fun look at the latest happenings in content - delivered with fun and snarky commentary by Mike Stiles and Brand Content Studios.

 

Here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of March 4, 2019

 

-The good news when the Internet came along was, the people had a voice. The bad news was, people had a voice. And none other than Google has decided eh, we don’t so much want to hear what people have to say. Frankly that content’s usually just crap and it’s too much trouble to manage. So, at least for their Webmaster Central Blog, they’re cutting off comments. You’ll see that’s becoming typical on publisher sites too. Ever read an article that was actually good and made you care and you couldn’t wait to say what you thought only to find…oh, there’s no way to comment. They don’t want to hear from me. Then you feel hurt and censored until you realize later you never read comments, and no one would have read yours. So how do you monitor and moderate user generated content so it’s worth a damn? Cause that’s what some sites count on, hey the public will make our content for us and we’ll get rich. But you aren’t Facebook or YouTube, and even those guys are getting held accountable for what the public puts on their platforms. Making UGC safe and good takes enormous time and effort. Google’s one of the biggest companies with the best tech and the most resources in all the land, and they just told us, it’s not worth it. And to prove it, if your UGC is a problem, it’s Google that will bust you. AdSense rules say even the user comments on your site can’t violate their hate speech policies, whatever that is today, and if they do, no ads for you!

 

-If you see a video director or cinematographer and they have kind of a hurt, betrayed look behind their eyes, you can assume one thing has at least a little to do with it. Vertical video. Brands are embracing it, and if what CMSWire reports is true, it gets better engagement. So here’s the thinking, hey, people hold their phones vertically 94% of the time, cause they have to pop their bubbles or whatever. And they like to hold with one hand, swipe and tap with the other. And most shoot their own videos vertically. So let’s ignore all of cinematic history and the natural tendency for the human eye to move left and right, and say brand videos should now be vertical. Some say it’s the “best watching experience” because vertical takes up the whole screen, you know, kinda like horizontal used to do before apps stopped letting you turn your phone and watch a horizontal video full screen, which I’ve always been able to do with one hand, but I guess I’m some kind of freaking magician. MuteSix CEO Steve Weiss says you video creators should adapt and make eyes move up and down and make the narrative work in vertical spaces. Krista Neher of Boot Camp Digital says you can even turn a horizontal video into a vertical by slapping a header and footer on it with titles or captions. Still, some platforms like LinkedIn won’t even take vertical video. Well this is like a Coke or Pepsi argument, Coke wins by the way. Depending on your brand, what the vibe is, what the length is, what the platform is, maybe vertical’s the way to go. But for other things, like professional looking, cinematic, emotive storytelling of deeper substance, don’t let anyone make you think horizontal is passe. No one’s racing to make vertical versions of Star Wars and The Godfather. The only thing we know for sure is, for users and app developers…apparently the thought of turning phones 90 degrees is just too mind blowing to handle.

https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/how-vertical-video-is-changing-content-marketing/

 

-If you look at the job postings for marketing, you may have noticed that companies are keeping the dream alive. They want one modestly paid person to be an experienced master in about 13 marketing specialties and show provable results. So, good with all that. But it makes you think, if you had to hang your hat on just one digital skill that will serve you well in the future, what would that skill be? You don’t have to wonder. Because you listen to the Content Marketing Quickie, you’ll know what to skills to master. First of all, Econsultancy says 90% of marketers admit there are skills missing on their team. The skill they think will be most important in the future is data analysis and measurement. 30% said that and only 11% say their operation is expert at it. Next at 20% came content marketing. Of course, that’s a wide collection of skills under one term too, but they’re mostly looking for expertise with video content and personalization. Not gonna lie, I wasn’t sorry to hear that considering what we do at Brand Content Studios. The 3rd-most important skill is a familiar one, because it’s been a talent gap for years, it’s user experience. Only 8% consider their team experts at it. Now beyond that stuff, there are those touchy feely soft skills, which 93.9% of marketers feel are just as important. Tops on that list at 70% was the ability to embrace change. Then comes critical thinking at 67% and working with others at 66%. Lateral thinking also made the list at 58%. Now get out there and future proof yourselves you crazy kids.

https://www.marketingcharts.com/business-of-marketing/staffing-107533

 

That’s the Content Marketing Quickie for this week. If you thought it was worth the time and it got you thinking about something, do subscribe so you don’t forget about it, which you will cause we know you’re busy. And we’ll see what happens next week.