Five on Friday: Marketing Trends, Twitter Bots and Top Jobs
Featuring Pew Research Center, Ann Handley, Digiday and Hubspot
Source: Bigstock Photo
TGIF. You made it to the end of the week! Woo hoo. Kick back, relax and take a few minutes to skim our weekly Five on Friday. In this week’s edition, we bring you top subscription jobs, Pew Research Center shares the latest research on Twitter bots, Ann Handley talks about the trend toward long-form content, Digiday reports on news publishers seeing an influx of subscriptions from an interest in local politics, and Hubspot shares top marketing design trends for 2018.
We’re looking for a data-driven leader who can do it all – keep our content pertinent and timely for our audience, crunch website analytics, herd freelancers, and grow and develop your writing and editing team. This job-like all digital media-is as much about data and analytics as it is about crafting story ideas. We operate at high volume, and need a quick-thinking leader who can make sure we’re deploying our resources optimally. Read more here.
This role will be responsible for identifying and standing up new retention and winback programs across the Office 365 consumer subscription, testing aggressively, leaning into traction from these tests, and prioritizing areas to scale marketing efforts. To do so, the successful candidate will partner closely with channel owners and internal stakeholders on the marketing and product teams. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of cogent and thoughtful prioritization, working closely with technical teams to deliver results, as well as the ability to tell our story to external partners and executive stakeholders. Read more here.
Want to change the way people watch TV? We are seeking an experienced Content Acquisition Manager to expand the selection of video content available for Amazon’s customers on Prime Video Channels. Prime Video Channels is seeking a strategic, results-oriented analyst and deal maker as a member of the Prime Video Channels content acquisition team. The role will focus on ongoing partner management, renewals and amendments of existing deals, and analyses to support video content selection. Read more here.
Adobe is seeking a Sr. Manager to join the Creative Cloud Business Strategy team within Adobe’s Digital Media business Unit. In this role, you will be a part of the team that has driven business decisions that have helped in Adobe’s business model transformation (from selling perpetual software to a subscription business). The Business Strategy team is responsible to define future growth strategy for Creative Cloud and owns identification, sizing and prioritization of growth opportunities, and builds business cases and provides strategic insights and recommendations to drive future growth based on research, analysis, and financial modeling. Read more here.
Four Sigmatic is looking for a Retention Marketing Manager to join our fast growing international team. You will be responsible for product subscription business as well as managing retention marketing and engagement programs. This is a remote position with the option of working out of our offices in Santa Monica, California or Manhattan, New York. However, you must be based in the United States. Read more here.
The Growing Use of Twitter Bots
Source: Twitter
According to a recent study, Pew Research Center estimates that two-thirds of tweets to popular websites are posted by bots, not people. While the study acknowledges can be useful in answering questions in real time and providing automatic updates, they are increasingly being used to alter opinions on everything from consumer goods and sports to reviews and politics. Here are some highlights from that study, conducted last summer:
Of all tweeted links, 66 percent were believed to have been shared by bots
Of tweets from news and current event websites, 66 percent were made by suspected bots. Eighty-nine percent of tweets from news aggregators are from bots.
Five hundred of the most active bot accounts were responsible for 22 percent of tweeted links to news and current event sites during the study period. Five hundred of the most-active human users only generated 6 percent of tweeted links to those same outlets.
Ann Handley: The Marketing Trend Toward Long-Form Content
Source: Bigstock Photo
Is snackable, one-and-done content dead? Not quite, but in a recent blog post, Ann Handley explores the trend toward long-form content, and she backs up her position with examples and statistics. Why are more marketers moving to long-form? Handley says there are two reasons for that:
Shorter content is often part of a bigger picture or a longer story, so writers and bloggers are taking a deeper dive into subject matter and getting greater engagement from readers.
Quality content, which Handley points out is subjective, requires thought, effort and hard work to differentiate itself from all the noise content competes with.
‘We seek meaning and crave connection,’ Handley writes. ‘That means marketing needs to slow down and think about substance and context. We also need to focus on the meaning baked into the experience we are giving our audiences.’
Publishers Find Subscription Success with Local Political Coverage
Political advertising revenue isn’t the only way for newspapers to make money on local politics. According to Digiday, newspapers are seeing subscription success by developing products around politics. Here are a few examples cited by Max Willens for Digiday in ‘News Publishers See Subscription Dollars in Local Politics.’
Since launching local state coverage in 2014, Politico Pro has grown its staff from 20 to nearly 50. Politico Pro offers in-depth coverage in 15 major policy areas including campaigns, defense, education, energy, finance, health care and tax.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia is a subscription newsletter and paywalled content centered around state elections, the local economy, health care, immigration, PolitiFact content and state legislation tracking.
In 2016, The Texas Tribune launched The Blast newsletter, a premium daily newsletter.
News & Observer publishes NC Insider, a state government news service.
‘By aiming squarely at lobbyists and local business leaders, these products deliver a loyal audience that’s willing to spend big bucks for a product of sufficient quality,’ Willens writes.
In its seventh annual Creative Trends Report, Shutterstock reports on the top marketing design trends for 2018. Hubspot summarized the top 11 trends at a high level in a recent blog post. Here are the top five:
Fantasy: Think unicorns, mermaids and centaurs.
New Minimalism: Bold, vibrant colors, fluid styles, continuous lines and neon circles are hot right now.
Space: Galactic beauty and the solar system are very trendy this year.
Natural Luxury: Whether subtle or dramatic, geologic beauty (e.g., marble, agate) is the design du jour.
Punchy Pastels: Shutterstock reports that candy colors, baby pinks and blues and other pastels are part of the designer’s color palette in 2018.
Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Editorial Director, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, premium content, and reports. Dana is also a writer, editor, marketer and communications professional. Her work has appeared in AARP Bulletin, The Seattle Times, Seattle Business, 425 Business, 425 Magazine, South Sound Magazine, Northwest Travel and more. Her specialties include business writing, community news, senior issues, travel and, of course, subscriptions!
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