It was the late ‘90s at a conference in Boston’s Copley Square. A PR industry veteran pulled his chair close to mine, cocked his head, and leaned in. I was a fresh-faced 26-year-old whose blog-focused influencer campaign had been the talk of the meeting. This new approach from a Gen X kid was foreign and fascinating, if not a bit frightening, to a crowd that lived and died by traditional media relationships.
“You know, some people try their whole career to get a Silver Anvil,” he sneered, referring to the Oscars of the profession, which the campaign had just earned. “You’ve got nothing more to prove. So what will you do now?” I blurted out the only thing that came to mind, “More of the same, I guess.” Two decades and a few award-winning initiatives later, colleagues are still asking what “the same” is, imaging it to be a secret sauce of some kind. The truth is there’s little secret to capturing people’s imagination, influencing new attitudes, and guiding new behaviors. It comes down to four ingredients that apply to most every scenario, regardless of budget, geography, industry or other variables.
So when I was in Manhattan a few weeks ago for the 2018 Silver Anvils, I could only smile as an industry peer walked over to my dinner table and pointed to the gleaming statuette in front of me. “Congratulations! People work for a long time to earn one of those. Is it your first?” Giving her my thanks, I quietly admitted it was not, remaining out of earshot from others nearby when answering how many I’d won. Her jaw dropped, and she mouthed one word: “how?” With a wink, I gave the only answer I knew. “Let’s chalk it up to more of the same.” -- Mike has contributed to some of the communications industry’s most celebrated teams and programs, which have earned recognition from PRSA, PRWeek, The Holmes Report, PR News and others for innovation and results. The 2018 Silver Anvil in conjunction with CORE marks the 12th of his career.
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![]() In the race for social media engagement, compelling video and still images are quickly leaving other communication vehicles in the dust. Don’t just take our word for it. According to Cisco Visual Networking Index, global consumer Internet video traffic will account for 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2019. Taking the analysis a step further—think about this for a moment—Cisco finds for every second, a million minutes (17,000 hours) of video content will cross global IP networks by 2021. If that isn’t astounding enough, let’s look solely at Facebook. When you see someone glued to their smartphone, chances are they’re watching a Facebook video. Over 500 million (or half a billion) people are watching Facebook videos every day. And Charlie Chaplin would love this: only 7 percent of Facebook video views are clicked to play sound. More than 93 percent are viewed on auto-play while scrolling through the news feed. Most views last under 10 seconds, so the first three seconds are crucial. But there are steps you can take to optimize viewing: great images peak viewer interest, and captions—another great attention grabber—can be automatically added on Facebook. The question: How to create short, sharable videos to post on social media quickly and easily to generate maximum awareness and engagement? Here is a list of free, user-friendly video editing apps for your smartphone:
Overall, it’s never been easier to create short, compelling videos that will attract an audience, take your content marketing to the next level, and watch your social media engagement soar. By Charla Kucko |
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