Thanks for the heads up. Good luck with it!

- Greg

I have been working with brands and blogs and have set up http://www.handpickedmedia.co.uk to connect the 2 with integrity and transparency I do believe it can work. As long as brands allow the blogs to write their own interesting content around the product, using briefs and guidelines to make sure it has value, I think it works.

I’ve called it a Digitorial = digital media + advertorial, we are running with it!

Thanks. I’m glad you liked it.

- Greg

Well written and great information,
Thanks,
Social Media Sean
http://www.socialmediasean.com
http://www.facebook.com/socialmediasean

Thanks for the kind words. I hope to see you back.

- Greg

That’s a very good question and I think it’s at least partly in the eye of the beholder, so I don’t think there is a precise definition.

However a brand is a promise that is signified by visual cues. When a sports story is in the New York times, it is intended differently and perceived differently than it would be in Sports Illustrated, largely because the brand promise is different.

This is actually amazingly powerful. I didn’t know how powerful until I had the occasion to look at what some focus groups said about the news section on our market leading general interest portal. While they gave it high marks for design and usability, they gave it low marks for content, which they felt was “yellow journalism” and not very serious. They much preferred the articles on the leading news site.

What they didn’t know was that we also owned the market leading news site and were, in fact, syndicating the articles onto the portal. The users were making a distinction that didn’t exist. They were the same articles written by the same journalists!

Social media content is unbranded. It is about the community as a whole, rather than a specific promise about content.

- Greg

Thanks for your post. I’m curious as to how you define “branded content”. Do you define it “produced by professionals and distributed by corporations” as your first paragraph states? Also, what sites do you consider to be “branded content” sites? …any site that is owned and run by a business or organization rather than an individual or network of individuals? Or do you see it as sites who’s product is their content – like publishers, analysts, and broadcasters? Where do you categorize businesses who create content to help drive sales – like podcasts, webinars, testimonial videos, online demos, product sell sheets and brochures — that companies post on their web site. Would you also consider that “branded content”.

Chris

Good luck and Happy New Year!

- Greg

Thanks
Debbie