Steve Rubel Lauds Media Focus on Content, Devices, Analytics
Steve Rubel routinely provides advice and insights to one of the most respected counselors in PR, Richard Edelman.
So when Rubel starts shouting, “They’re back,” people take notice.
News outlets are reclaiming their throne as trusted cultural and business influencers, following a painful cycle of decay across print, broadcast and even new media brands, maintains Rubel, whose own online presence is a Tumblr page called “The Clip Report,” in a respectful nod to the power of the Fourth Estate.
But it wasn’t just the fact that admiration for the media is building – up 20% in India, 18% in the U.S., 15% in the U.K. and 12% in India, according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer – it’s that media use of analytics to drive social media engagement is bleeding-edge when compared with common practice in PR.
“This is a plane of thinking that, I think, personally, we’re not in. We have to start to think like that. We have a lot to learn from the media as an industry,” Rubel told attendees at PRSA’s Digital Impact conference in New York.
Recent discussions with management at HGTV revealed the network established a presence on Pinterest after the social platform started contributing 10% of its traffic, said Rubel, adding that HGTV was on Pinterest six months ahead of its peers.
His advice: Dig into data on which content is shared, which platforms refer traffic, which devices are used to consume content, and other key online metrics currently informing media brands.
“It’s the psychology around news, and it’s the psychology around content, and it’s the psychology around devices,” he said, adding that extracting data will keep clients stories alive longer.
Beyond simply addressing data issues, Rubel also lauded Mashable for restructuring editorial around a corps of journalists who also function as community managers, doing both tasks equally well.
“It’s becoming much less about superstars now,” Rubel said of Mashable, long associated with just one name, Pete Cashmore.
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Published: May 7, 2012 By:
