CONTENT IS KING! I enjoy reading titles with actionable, real-world tactics and extracting elements for creatives occupying digital space, particularly filmmakers. I’d like to share my review on the fourth edition of Lisa Buyers’ Social PR Secrets: How to Optimize, Socialize and Publicize Your Brand. I recently devoured the Kindle edition of this field guide on public relations, social media and digital marketing. I recommend checking out, it’s an easy read with strategies for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Social PR Secrets packs 32 chapters, yet remains a relatively simple and quick read with short, easily-digestible chapters. Buyers personalizes each chapter and often details her experience while offering examples and leaning on associated subject matter experts. She provides historical context, the current state and best practices. She also outlines tools such as Xtensio.com and Hubspot to create free persona profiles, tools like Paper.Li and Scoop.It for content curation tailored to your audience and ScribeContent.com for content optimization, search engine visibility and social sharing.
From the standpoint of a creative filmmaker who blends art with digital media, below are several excerpts from Social PR Secrets that are poised to assist with the development of an online strategy:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Awesome content lasts forever
- Stay fresh, find inspiration
- Create materials and content that addresses the needs of your audience
- Think like your audience, create a persona profile for your audience
Another key takeaway that I felt was important to point out for creatives is to “Skip self-promotion and find your passion points.” For instance, Red Bull rarely talks about their drink, rather, it details the passion that connects the brand to their audience and living life to the extreme. For another example, I recall a recent ad slot by Bumble app starring Serena Williams. The commercial never referenced what the product is, rather, it details an ideology – one that supports women taking the first move in work, love and life. The message resonated with me, and prompted me to research the company. It is important not to get so caught up in the act of promoting your services and accomplishments that you overshadow what the brand represents.
CONTENT CREATION CHECKLIST
- Make sure your message is REAL and AUTHENTIC
- Use VISUALS to illustrate your message
- Ensure the content has a CLEAR VALUE PROPOSITION
- Offer a clear next step or CALL TO ACTION
TYPES OF CONTENT TO DRIVE MORE TRAFFIC (50 different types listed in Ch. 4)
Video, How-To, Email Campaigns, Events, Promotions, Live Chats, Guides, Infographics, Blog Posts, Interactive Content, Interviews, Tweets, Photo Galleries
Personally, I love that Social PR Secrets offers a comprehensive list of free graphic and image sources. I also like that Buyers’ chapters are broken down by subject and platform. The book has a list of bullets in almost every chapter making the material visually scannable, which makes for great reference document. I finished reading the book, but will definitely revisit. In short, I recommend this book (especially the digital version for search-ability and hyperlinks) and encourage you to check it out.
BibbyFame Digital, LLC: Photo, Film & Interactive Media 
Hello there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting sick and tired of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
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Hello! My recommendation would largely depend on what you plan to use the site for. I use several platforms and I like different ones for different reasons. I created multimedia stories and HTML narratives using WIX. For photographers and filmmakers, particularly those with image heavy sites that don’t plan to use a blog function, WIX has some really sleek templates; albeit slower load times, harder to monetize and very ad-heavy for the free version. For beautiful and easy to customize templates, check Squarespace and Wix. For easy social media integration, look at EzyWebs. If you do a lot of mobile editing, check out Weebly. WordPress is the biggest and has the most plug-in options, still arguably the best for blogging and SEO indexing. Perhaps you can look into avenues to thwart hackers. Thanks for the comment, see you around!
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