I feel like I've got a pretty good presence online through Instagram and Facebook. I just keep it simple.
Successful publication is all about the mix. What Buzzfeed discovered was that people like cat pictures. We can pretend to be embarrassed about that as a species, but it is actually a truth. So Buzzfeed publishes a lot of cat pictures. But they use the money from cat pictures to build an exceptional newsroom that publishes stories that far fewer people want to read, but it is very important journalism.
People aren't buying records like they used to, so it's nice to try to figure out a way to make them do it. I would enjoy the same thing to own an old movie house, to try to trick people to come in - like having 3-D or Smell-o-Vision or Vibra-Vision or something. Mcguffins to get people interested.
Advertisers realize that Gen Y is the largest purchasing cohort. Also, that you're going to have to accept some different modes of thinking if you're going to get to them.
To the casual observer, the Dropbox demo video looked like a normal product demonstration, but we put in about a dozen Easter eggs that were tailored for the Digg audience. References to Tay Zonday and 'Chocolate Rain' and allusions to 'Office Space' and 'XKCD.' It was a tongue-in-cheek nod to that crowd, and it kicked off a chain reaction.
You can't really tell what the audience wants but you can tell what will keep everybodies attention in the same place.
The social-media landscape changes incredibly fast, so you have to be open-minded and nimble to keep up with it.
When you're trying to bust through the noise on social media, you do have to be overt and loud.
The thing that I'm most passionate about, I'm writing a book called 'Jab Jab Jab Jab Jab Right Hook,' and it really focuses on how to story-tell in a noisy, ADD world.
I don't really have a strategy for social media. I think that's my strategy is that I don't have a strategy.
Entertainment works by withholding content with the purpose of increasing its value. And, when you think about it, those two are just vastly different approaches, but they can be bridged.
For those in the conservative movement to think that you're going to change minds only by preaching to the choir, you don't understand how media works. So that's probably the most potent weapon out there is to go fight the fire, go towards the fire.
Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.
As long as we continue to invest in good content that increases excitement about and understanding of science, we're on the right side of this fight, and I have no problem at all stealing from the toolbox of the clickbaiters.
I've been super impressed with what BuzzFeed has done on Facebook with inspiring list posts and on Twitter with political scoops, but YouTube is a giant social platform that has its own quirks and oddities and will require some new approaches.
When we were a quiet, little-noticed channel telling stories from Russia, our audience was negligible. When we started being really provocative... our audience started to grow.
There are several key pieces to keeping audiences engaged, and the evolution of that. One of them, mostly importantly really, is to have a brand that has purpose and value.
That's tangent, but I like the strategizing and thinking about how things are going to fall and thinking of different ways to engage with fans. Ultimately, the goal is for the music to be heard by as many people as possible.
The way to get a man interested and to hold his interest was to talk about himself, and then gradually lead the conversation around yourself—and keep it there.
there are two ways of speaking an audience will always like: one is, to tell them what they don't understand; and the other is, to tell them what they're used to.
I like the feeling of keeping people off-balance and having the audience not knowing where I'm coming from or keeping that mysterious.
You have to know your crowd. And adjust accordingly.
Whatever claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete.
Jabs are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers by making them laugh, snicker, ponder, play a game, feel appreciated, or escape; right hooks are calls to action that benefit your businesses.
The business of the English commander-in-chief being first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.
