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YouTube has a lot of creative potential. As brand representatives we can utilize the platform to visually represent the brand information in an engaging way. Taking individuals’ techniques and making content more interactive is the important focus for brands in the future. For more about this Switch Up platform’s statistics you can check out this site. & for another Switch Up you’ll have to check back here, happy creating!

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What’s the Issue with Issuu? Switch Up 5

Working on my college newspaper was great but I also spent a lot of time working on my school’s literary magazine. The development process was based around the magazine being a print publication but we realized that meant our content had an extremely short life-span and reach. We decided to find a digital platform that we could easily upload our content to without having to change file formats. During that search we found Issuu. The company defines themselves as a digital publishing platform meant for distributing, measuring and monetizing content. Most people assume Issuu is just for posting digital magazines but there is actually a variety of content and uses for the platform. For a quick overview of all the capabilities you can take a look at the short video below.

While using the app this week I had a chance to see how it worked from the consumers point of view for the first time. I used to read print magazines but lately the only time I read a digital magazine is if I see an article posted to my news-feed. If I want to read about a specific topic I would most likely just use Google. Issuu doesn’t have any social functions or any sophisticated search functions.To be honest, it doesn’t have nearly as many features and benefits that I am used to on my various media platforms. It also doesn’t have any content creation abilities and the best tracking and analysis features are only available at a premium price.

 A lot of people have begun to say that the issues with Issuu make it a bad a choice and suggest several free and interactive alternatives for digital publishing. However, with 20,000 new content uploads a day you can’t deny they must be doing something right...but who (other than my college literary magazine) actually utilizes the platform to produce that much content? 

Unfortunately, that question doesn’t have any super specific answers. Issuu is actually known for being kind of guarded with their data and the statistics available don’t offer any specific demographics for Issuu users. They did provide some information about users’ occupations and some great metrics worth any personal or corporate brand checking out.

The Issuu community can definitely be described as creative. The users overwhelmingly showed a high level of appreciation, knowledge and use of every element of design. I knew this was a platform for digital magazines but I was overwhelmed with the amount and variety of content published through them. From catalogs, brand guides and press releases to personal manifestos and comic books, Issuu had every type of content I could think of except video. While most platforms are bending over backward to add this ability I feel like Issuu’s decision to abstain from that format strengthens them and the content they do publish is easier to view, download, save and otherwise consume.  

Another unique aspect of the community was that even individuals on the site represented their work as if they were a brand (with the exception of a few school reports and slides). Individuals made their own magazines, newsletters, brand guidelines for their social media, comic books and so much more. You saw earlier that Issuu boasts 2.5 MILLION brands distributing content through their platform.Brands like GQ, Vogue, Ace Hardware and even Walmart had content, like catalogs, press releases, advertisements, employee profiles and more, published. The site had some extremely inspiring success stories about brands that went from side hustle to entrepreneur success status through the platform You had to look closely to tell if the content was from a brand of an individual unless you were specifically searching by publisher. 

So I did have a few Issues with Issuu...but I still really like it and the opportunities it could provide. Utilizing this platform could really simplify the distribution and tracking process for any size brand. The data provided about your audience, and how they are interacting with your content, could prove to be invaluable. I can see myself paying for the premium version and starting my own niche digital magazine one day. Even if that doesn’t happen, I would recommend and use the platform throughout my career to save and share any professional content I create. 

The Issues weren’t a deal breaker for me but you might have to go find out yourselves while you wait for my next Switch Up.

[mpprmk]

Newspaper! Kind of.. not really. Switch Up 4 Flipboard

If you guessed newspapers after my clue last time you would be correct; however, this might be a case of assumptions clashing with reality. After reading a Forbes article on the best news apps, I decided to download Flipboard and give it a shot.The “news” can range from serious to frivolous but it does carry all the major news outlets.The app gets its name from its style of usability, stories are presented in a “flip-deck” you can quickly sift through.

I can admit that I don’t stay as informed as I should, working on newspapers and learning about journalism did teach me the vital importance of being well informed, from multiple sources. An app like Flipboard seems to offer that in an organized way that is even kind of fun to use. I saw news stories from The New York Times and The Washington Post alongside articles by Buzzfeed and even small, local outlets. The platform allows organizations and individual users to curate digital magazines. These can be followed by other users. The advertising and marketing opportunities are immediately obvious but we’ll get to that shortly!

Before talking about how you can increase your reach, lets talk about who you would be reaching out to. The company, based out of California, has been around for 10 years and established a respectable 145 million users and 500 million downloads. In 2014, Dole Foods had over 700,000 readers.

To find out who their audience is made of I found their site designed to recruit publishers and brands to work with them and buy their services. In their own words, “Flipboard’s readership breaks down to approximately one-third Millennial, one-third Gen-X, and one-third Boomer, and is split pretty evenly between Male and Female. Our users are influential, curious, and affluent readers who invest in themselves by learning more about what they love.”

That’s still very broad but that makes sense considering the content offered is quite broad as well. The site boasts about its algorithm model of displaying content so it will be different for each user. I also noticed that the articles were only one way of displaying a brand. Articles could be advertising, some were sponsored, some of the content was entire ads. One was a popular blog and another a prominent technology company. Most individuals focused on curating content while these brands had to create and distribute it. Check out the little video I created below for examples!

One of the more surprising things I found out about the organization behind the app was its philosophy, one that I believe gives them the potential to be a truly great brand. Christel van der Boom, who leads communications at Flipboard, is quoted stating, "At its core, Flipboard is a curated content experience with journalistic principles — it is editorially guided and algorithmically generated." It’s functional and the content did appear to hold a high-level of quality despite advertisements being a bit over abundant. As a user, I really like Flipboard and will continue to use it because of the quality of content that is curated just for me with a sophisticated algorithm. Those exact same reasons apply for brand as well. The demanding level of quality will encourage a brand to achieve and retain that quality in their own content and the ability to target your audiences more specifically can be invaluable, but also probably costly. I wouldn’t say this outlet would be my first choice but it definitely has potential. 

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Out of My Comfort Zone with Periscope - Switch Up 3

Continuing my journey of switching up my media consumption habits, I have started to also consider which programs I might be interested in using for my brand(s) in the future. I still want my path to follow some sort of logical path so I moved on from Twitter to one of the companies they have acquired. Periscope is one of those brands that didn’t necessarily follow a trend, their idea came long before Facebook Live but employs many of the same ideas in a easy to use but completely different style of social media. Also, as you can see above, their opening page actually highlights their American-Immigrant roots. A political statement for a very politically inclined program. All of your sharing is done via live broadcasts. The app actually provides a lot of different options and features along the way; it can get kind of overwhelming - but never fear, there is always a blog pot that breaks down all the benefits, features and even lingo - like this one here! 

I typically use social media that i very picture and text focused. Videos feel like they can be a lot more personal and revealing than I what I would currently use on a daily basis. However, I was shocked to find such an overwhelmingly professional and mature social media environment and community! There were a few feeds that I stumbled across that weren’t quite as in line with what I observed about the community as a whole but it was intriguing to see so many live news broadcasts, announcements from brands, infinite political discussions and briefings, and even a large portion of the community that was dedicated to sharing their travels in a very tasteful way through visual and audio storytelling.

The most current data I could find, collected in 2019 but gathered in 2015 and 2016, indicated that Periscope had 10 million users, of which 75% were between the ages of 16 and 34. The same data indicated that 29% of Periscope URL’s were posted by women and, at the time, 15% of the Top Brands on the parent company Twitter were also using Periscope. From what I can see I would assume that most of that data would still be backed up today. The one major difference being that it appears many more Top Brands have started to utilize the program, even if only minimally. News and political media outlets appeared to dominate the broadcast space, with some sports teams and media as well. 

Using live video is slowly becoming more common but it is still a brave risk to take for yourself or your brand. Everything has to go right, the first time. The quality of a lot of the videos surprised me, it was a lot better than I would have expected and the same went for the content! The conversations were thoughtful and the interaction between brands and consumers appeared to be very well thought out even if filmed live. The brands actually used Periscope slightly more direct and thoughtfully than the general community - there was clearly a more defined plan, direction and agenda in the content. Also, brands usually on had 1 or 2 broadcasts up compared to dozens or more in the general communities typical user profile, the posts were much less frequent, very spread out!

Video was out of my comfort zone already and then to throw in the LIVE component it really threw me off! Now that Facebook has entered the same market I’m not 100% confident that Periscope can survive without evolving and adding some additional features or options that can push them past the current singular purpose.However, with it’s two-way capabilities the app does have a lot of potential for interacting with consumers including open dialogues, focus groups and live tutorials like Inc. suggests here!

Next week i’ll be tackling a more “old school” form of media, I used to write for it for my undergraduate school but I never truly consumed the options available to me around my city...do you know what it is?

[mpprmk]

Saying “No Thanks” to Twitter - Switch Up 2

About 8 years ago I set up a Twitter account. It was used for about a year and then quickly forgotten. For this weeks switch up I thought I would go back and give it a shot. I figured seven years could change a lot of things and I know that many of my old high-school friends continue to use the platform. While a lot had changed on Twitter, I truly think they’ve managed to make the app even worse than before.

One feature I noticed pretty early on and helped a bit was the opportunity to follow certain likes, hobbies and activities in general rather than a specific person. This did allow me more information than just what my personal circle would have provided. Similar to what I saw on Tumblr last week, the members of the community tended to be younger and use the platform much more adventurously than they would on my typical choice- Facebook. It might be because of my interests and follows but I personally noticed more male users than female. Also, the international users seemed to outnumber US based users significantly. If you follow this link -here- you’ll see the numbers seem to add up with what I personally noticed. The most common demographics on the site are males outside of the US. Also, with the CRAZY amount of promoted posts I saw, it’s not very surprising to see that over 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials *read young(ish) and rich with money to blow.*

I expected to see as many Gifs as I did but I was surprised to see how many video clips were used on Twitter. It seemed to be a very popular way to share information, jokes and everything in-between.

That being said, I was bombarded with promoted posts from different brands practically every other post. Even celebrities and other public figures who used the platform had a tendency to include a product or link of some sort that would make them money. Below you will see a few that I took a screen grab of to show all of you how bad it can be on a given day. (Ignore dates, traveling around Europe it can be hard to get apps like Twitter to refresh!)

Twitter seems to be a place where people feel comfortable enough to air any grievances and even just joke around in a rude way. Brands and public figures have even been making headlines for participating in that kind of behavior as well. It’s great for going viral but I don’t know if that will work for consumers long-term. It was a nice flashback to my high school days at first and I do feel like I could successfully navigate the platform for a future employer but I don’t think I’ll be adding Twitter to my personal daily used apps any time soon!

[mpprmk]

Switch Up - Tumblr

This week was the first time I have ever used Tumblr so I thought it might be interesting to start my posts by sharing what I have discovered on (and about) this platform first. Before using the site I had assumed Tumblr would be more like Instagram than a blogging platform. Facebook and Instagram are my usual go-to apps to communicate, keep up with different things going on and to keep updated on trends and new releases in general. 

So far I have found Tumblr to be just as great at quickly disseminating information but the way you find what you are looking for and in general the way you are exposed to different topics (rather than people) is certainly different. I was surpried to see how the platform utilizes links, gifs, images and videos along with text to drive in a point or tell a narrative. When the Tumblr community posts they are clearly doing so with more of a defined purpose than what I am used to. The community is generally younger and much more open about sharing their opinions and other thoughts and musings, political correctness, and what I would call modesty, don’t seem to be as utilized on the platform.  

One article I found about the platform from 2013 discussed how Tumblr was quickly becoming more popular than Facebook for those under 25 and considered the anti-blog, a place to semi-privately post and talk about all the inappropriate things you wouldn’t necessarily want to share on a more public Facebook profile.

While I did see a lot of that, and can wholeheartedly agree that under 25 does seem to dominate the platform I knew there was more going on than I could plainly see. After some research I found that there are other defining factors like seen below:

In my opinion these demographics strongly affect which brands decide to utilize Tumblr. Brands seeking younger consumers in more urban areas are more likely to try to pitch a new product or do any sort of branding or advertising on the platform. Many fashion brands appear to use Tumblr to give outfit ideas that highlight their products and similar tactics. Movies and TV also seemed to be popular topics to focus on and brands seem to be using the grassroots approach to reach their audience. Brands who posted appeared to have much more focused content that could easily work on multiple platforms with little to no adjustments needed, content was also more politically correct and “appropriate” compared to individuals posts.

This post about a future movie release, intended to generate or possibly evaluate the community’s interest, comes to mind. It was discussing the production plans for a new Spiderman movie and it generated a lot of comments and attention.

Overall I find Tumblr to be a useful platform with a lot of potential uses and I look forward to learning more about it, and getting better at using it.