MackCollier.com

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: DOJ Targets Google, Twitch Thriving Under Lockdown, Burgers in the Sky

Happy Labor Day, y’all! Hope you had a great holiday weekend and are as ready for Fall as I am! The weather here has been about 10 degrees cooler than normal for the last couple weeks and looks to continue this for the rest of the month. Bring on Fall!

 

It’s been fascinating to watch how consumer behavior has changed during 2020 as we are all spending a lot more time at home. This is also altering how we consume content and the types of content we consume. This actually factored heavily into my decision to double-down on blogging, I think you will see more people spending more time reading and consuming blog content for the rest of this year and into 2021.

Another content source that’s thriving in 2020 is video-game streaming platform Twitch.

I’ve written about how content creators are leveraging Twitch in the past and will have more on this later in the week.

On a bit of a surprising note, the amount of time we are spending listening to podcasts is down slightly in 2020:

https://twitter.com/Claire_Harris82/status/1299678670622085121

This is actually quite revealing. At first blush, you would think podcast listening would go up as we are spending more time at home. But the fact that it will go down suggests that most of us listen to podcasts while driving to work.  The fact that eMarketer is projecting a rebound for podcast listening by 2022 helps support this thought.

What’s the key takeaway? If you are looking to start a podcast, 2021 could be the right to, as more of us return to offices for work, and the daily drive to and from work becomes a thing again.

 

One of the emerging stories I’ve been following the last couple of years is how the big tech/social media giants are increasingly making questionable moves from a censorship and free speech standpoint. I’ve talked before about how Twitter is confusing many of its users with inconsistent application of content policing, but sites like Facebook and YouTube have made similar moves. The reality is that as long as humans are policing content on social media sites, they need to be able to check their own internal biases toward that content, and apply rules evenly to all users. If they cannot, and a culture of bias is allowed to grow and fester at these companies, that can lead to an environment where users either leave, or worse.  I think we will see all big social media sites have few users in 5 years than they do now.

 

I love this. Burger King will be redesigning its restaurants to create more contactless options for food delivery, but also will be moving the kitchen and dining areas OVER the drive thru lanes! I think this is very innovative, Burger King is betting on the fact that people will continue to want contactless options for food payment and delivery after we move past covid, but they are also factoring in that when we do fully reopen, many will want to get out more, and putting the dining area over the drive thru lanes helps create a unique experience for dine-in customers. This will no doubt improve the mood of customers that dine in, which will also improve the mood of the BK workers.  I love this and I would be surprised if we didn’t see other fast food chains try to copy this design.

 

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day, see y’all tomorrow!

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How Twitch Streamers Are Taking Repurposing Content to the Next Level

Repurposing content means to get multiple uses out of one piece of content. For instance, it could mean writing a long blog post, then repurposing that blog post into a white paper, or a podcast episode, or an infographic. Repurposing content is especially important for companies with a smaller content team, where every piece of content needs to achieve maximum results.

For the last couple years, I’ve been watching how streamers on Twitch are building their communities. It’s been fascinating to watch these streamers leverage smart marketing tactics to create and build engagement around their streams. In fact, they really aren’t calling themselves ‘streamers’ anymore, they are now ‘content creators’. Whatever you call them, they are smart, and there’s a lot you can learn about how they are building their channels and brands, that you can apply to your own company’s content strategy.

For example, I recently started watching one streamer, excuse me…content creator, called NickMercs on Twitch. Basically, here’s what Nick does; He plays video games on Twitch most every day for about 8-10 hours a day.  So he has 8-10 hours a day of content he has created. He then takes that content, and distills it down to about 15-20 mins of the ‘best’ content (think of it as a highlight reel), then creates a new video from that content, and posts it on YouTube. Typically, the videos he posts on YouTube get 300,000-400,000 views in the first 24 hours!

This is a wonderful example of the power of repurposing content. Nick is able to monetize his Twitch content, then he takes that content and repurposes it as a shorter video for YouTube, and he can make ad revenue off it as well. So in essence, he’s found a way to monetize the same content, twice.

Now I can already hear many of you asking “That’s great, but you’re talking video games on Twitch and YouTube. How does that relate to my business and my content?”

You’re right, the odds are your business can’t create a video a day for YouTube that gets a few hundred thousand views. But what you can do is learn from what’s working for Nickmercs, and apply it to your own content creation efforts.

Nick is doing two things with his content that your business can and should replicate:

1 – He’s creating content for his audience where they are. The primary age group for Twitch viewers is around 18-24 years old and mostly male. This same audience that watches Twitch channels will often consume similar content on YouTube. So by taking his Twitch content and repurposing it into shorter YouTube videos, he’s getting a chance to reach a similar audience, but on a different platform. This is a smart content play, because if the people that watch his videos on YouTube enjoy them, he has a great chance to convert them into viewers of his Twitch channel.

You can do the same thing for your content. Whatever industry or space your content serves, there’s bound to be at least 2-3 main sites where your audience goes to get its content from. Think about how you could take your content and use it in multiple ways to reach a similar audience on different platforms. For instance, let’s say you’ve identified that your audience wants to consume content from blogs, and Twitter. You could post informative content on your blog, then turn around and have a Twitter chat around the same topic on Twitter. The end result is that one form of content helps promote and push people toward the other form of content.

2 – He’s customizing the content for each platform. On Twitch, Nick’s streams can last for several hours. But most people won’t watch an 8-hour stream on YouTube, in fact it may not even be possible to republish the Twitch stream on YouTube due to Twitch’s TOS. So what Nick does is, he changes the content from Twitch to make it more in line with what the YouTube audience wants.  He takes an 8 hour stream, and cherry-picks the ‘highlights’ or best plays, and condenses it down to a 20-min video, and posts that on YouTube. This results in content that’s better suited for YouTube, plus the content itself promotes Nick and the content he creates on Twitch. He is able to not only monetize the videos on YouTube, but he uses them to drive the YouTube audience back to his Twitch stream, and hopefully convert them to viewers or subscribers there.

Now if you think about what Nick did here, he basically took long-form content (his Twitch stream), and condensed it down and shared the ‘highlights’ as a YouTube video. So he got two very effective pieces of content from one. I like this idea of taking ‘highlights’ from your content and using that as new content or to promote other content. Think about the applications; You could take a series of blog posts about the same topic and condense them into a shorter white paper, and offer that as a freebie to newsletter subscribers. Speaking of your newsletter, you could publish an issue where you give pull quotes or highlights from multiple blog posts as a way to incite subscribers to read your blog. You could use those same pull quotes to promote the posts when you share them on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The end result for Nick is two standalone pieces of content that he can very effectively monetize, but that also work well together as one serves as promotion for the other. When you are looking at your own content, think about how you could take your long-form content and break it down into smaller pieces of new content, focuses on your ‘highlights’ or best content, and how could that content be used to build an audience for your business, but also push that audience back to your long-form content.

Now, speaking of pushing back to long-form content. There is one thing about Nick’s content strategy that I don’t like. Notice that in this example, the content he is creating and repurposing is going on two platforms that he does not own. I would much rather see the main content be on a platform that Nick owns, like a website, but I do understand that Twitch as a streaming platform is currently a much better alternative than any tech that Nick or another streamer could use on their own site. But the thing I’m always stressing to clients is to own the platforms where your content lives. Too many businesses even in 2020 feel that they don’t need a website as long as they have a brand page on Facebook.

Own your platform, own the experience. Then when the day comes that Facebook and even Twitch goes away, you’ll be ok cause you’ll still have your own platform where you can create all the content you want.

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Why is Red Bull Blogging About Video Games?

Red Bull Blogging About Video Games

I was doing some research for a new post (right) and came across this post for tips on how to win at PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, one of the hottest mobile games right now.

What’s interesting is the post was on RedBull.com.  Red Bull sells energy drinks, they don’t sell video games.

So why is Red Bull blogging about video games? There’s actually a few very good reasons why they would:

  • Red Bull’s core customer base is male millennials. Male millennials like video games, so Red Bull figures if their customers are going to be looking for content about video games anyway, why not give it to them so they can stay on RedBull.com? PUBG Mobile is one of the hottest mobile games right now, so why not create the content that its customers will be looking for?  There’s plenty of content about Fortnite as well, so Red Bull has all the video game bases covered.
  • I’ve blogged about this before, but Red Bull is involved in the events, topics and themes that are important to its customers. Red Bull’s focus on video games could be part of a larger move to develop a greater presence in the eSports space.
  • Not only has eSports seen spectacular growth over the last few years, but there’s a potential sponsorship play to be had. Emerging competitor G-Fuel has made a name for itself by sponsoring top eSports athletes, including top Twitch streamer DrDisRespect (who I blogged about here). Red Bull has been dipping its toes in the eSports space for a while, the next step could be to start sponsoring eSports athletes or streamers, and help facilitate larger events. It’s a formula that worked incredibly well for Red Bull with the X-Games.

The larger content lesson is that Red Bull is focusing on customer-centric content. This is content that really doesn’t promote the product or brand, it promotes the information that its customers want, that can also relate back to the brand. So there needs to be some synergies in place for this approach to work.  For example, Red Bull could also write an article on “What You Need to Know to Get Accepted to College”, and it probably wouldn’t work as well, because while it’s also a topic that’s important to male millennials, the brand synergy isn’t as apparent.

Go back to the 3rd bullet point above.  G-Fuel has started sponsoring eSports athletes and Twitch streamers because they claim that their energy drink keeps you sharp, and mentally focused so you can do better while playing video games. If you’re a Twitch streamer, this has real appeal to you, because if an energy drink can keep you alert and let you play video games better, it literally means more money for you in the form of subs and donations. Red Bull could be making a lot of these same pitches to streamers and perhaps they’ve already started working on securing some sponsorships in this space.

Just remember that some of the best and most effective content you can create often has nothing to do with your brand or its products and services. When you create content that’s focused on your customers and more importantly on how your brand relates to your customers, that’s content that’s top of the sales funnel and does a great job of building brand awareness.

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What Gamers on Twitch Taught Me About Building an Online Community

I regularly check Twitter's trending topics, and a few months ago I noticed that the top trending topics were "The DOC" and "Twitch is Down".

Twitch being down grabbed my curiosity, why was it down? Now my sum total knowledge of Twitch at this point was that it was 'that site where people watch other people play video games".  I'd known about the site for years, but had maybe spent 15 mins total on it.  

So I clicked the trending topics, and quickly discovered that Twitch was down because a popular gamer, DrDisRespect had returned to Twitch after a long hiatus.

And his return had crashed the site. This definitely got my attention.

DrDisRespect is one of the most popular gamers on Twitch, and the self-appointed 'Face of Twitch'. He's a very skilled gamer and perhaps an even more accomplished marketer. Brash, flamboyant and over the top, he's a sort of a cross between Seth Godin and Ric Flair. 

And make no mistake, he's popular as hell. Check out this screenshot I took from a recent gaming session. He was playing Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, a 100-person battle royale online game, which is one of the more popular games on Twitch. Think of it as Fortnite's older brother. When I took the screenshot, he'd just won a game of PUB in spectacular fashion. Note in the chatbox that he got 15 comments in one second.  

It's not uncommon for his streams to have 25,000 or more viewers. On the day in February when he crashed Twitch, he had over 300,000 concurrent viewers, a Twitch record that would later be broken by a Ninja/Drake tag-team Fortnite session that would bring over 600,000 concurrent viewers to Twitch. His streams typically last for 6-8 hours a day, Monday-Friday. Twitch users can donate to their favorite streamers, and it's not uncommon for popular gamers to make well into the 6 or even 7 figures a year.  DrDisRespect is rumored to make up to half a million a MONTH off Twitch.  

There are many other streamers that are quite popular and making a lot of money off Twitch. But what I've noticed from watching the streams the last few weeks is that almost all of the gamers on Twitch are very cordial and even helpful to each other. Even the most popular streamers go out of their way to engage their followers. It's not uncommon to see the biggest streamers taking time out from playing to give members of their chat advice on how to build their own gaming community. And I found it interesting that a lot of the advice that Twitch streamers had for building a community apply to blogs and social media communities just as easily. Here's some of the frequent advice I've seen popular Twitch streamers share about building a community:

  • Don't start out streaming with the most popular games as your stream will get lost in the shuffle. Start with a game with a smaller number of views, so your stream can be more easily seen and so you can stand out. This is the same advice new bloggers are always given: Pick a niche and own it!
  • Be consistent. Stream on the same days, at the same times, so your subscribers know when your stream will be up. Again, bloggers are given the same advice: Pick a posting schedule and stick to it. 
  • Engage your followers. Talk to them in chat, acknowledge them when they subscribe or donate. Again, same thing we tell bloggers, reply to comments and THANK people when they do comment!
  • Don't be afraid to be yourself and show some personality. I think this REALLY works for Twitch because it's typically a younger audience, but having a personality and being entertaining counts for a lot. I'll be honest, watching DrDisRespect's stream has been a bit eye-opening in this regard. I've seen several other streamers that are as good as Doc or maybe even better, but Doc goes out of his way to also be ENTERTAINING in his streams, and I think that's a big reason why he's so much more popular than other streamers who may be as good at gaming, but who aren't nearly as entertaining as Doc is. Personality and voice matters, and it really does help your content stand out. 

Another aspect that I noticed with these Twitch users is that most of them, especially the more popular ones, go out of their way to help their followers get better at playing the games they stream. The above screenshot is from Twitch user chocoTaco. He does a great job of helping his followers by taking the time to explain how to play the game, as he is streaming. He will carefully detail why he picked a certain weapon or why he went a certain route or how he beat another player. Plus, streamers like chocoTaco often play 'randoms', where they will invite their followers to play with them, they will pick a follower at random and play a game with them together. This is obviously a big thrill for the Twitch users to get to play alongside their favorite streamers. In fact, during one of DrDisRespect's streams, he mentioned that another Twitch streamer, CourageJD will often play Fortnite with his followers at random to help them get their first win at the game. You can see why this would really be a big deal for the first-time winner! 

This also speaks to a larger point; Don't focus on understanding the tools, focus on how people are USING the tools. To me, seeing how Twitch streamers are using the site and how they build community with their followers is far more valuable and interesting than the site itself. These streamers are creating value for their followers by teaching them how to become better at the games that they love playing. All they are doing is creating useful content. I've always written here that you should strive to create content that teaches your audience a skill, or how to get better at using your product. This is what these Twitch streamers are doing, and it's at the heart of why they are so popular. 

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What You Can Start Doing TODAY to Build Community Like Twitch Streamers Do 

  • Always reply to all comments, most especially positive comments you get on your blog or on other social media sites. This encourages people to continue to comment and engage with you.
  • Pick a schedule and be consistent with it. Post content at the same times, if you create content 'whenever I feel like it', then you're making it doubly hard on yourself to build a following. People need to know when they can expect a new blog post from you, or what times and days you'll be on Twitter or Facebook. 
  • Pick a smaller niche or topic, and own it. The broader your topic, the more content creators you will be competing with for attention. For example, there are millions of 'marketing' blogs out there. I specifically focus on customer engagement, customer loyalty, brand advocacy and brand ambassador programs. As a result, my content typically ranks on the first page of Google results for the term 'brand ambassador program'. By narrowly focusing on that marketing sub-topic, I've gone from competing against millions of other sites, to only a handful, for that top result on Google. 
  • Be entertaining and show your personality. This one is tricky because we've been taught that if we are trying to reach a professional audience, that our content should be professional as well. On the other hand, we're also taught that we need to find a way to make our content stand out from the crowd. Adding some personality to your content makes it different, more appealing, and helps it connect with your audience. This is the one area where I'm going to be focusing on the most in the future. 
  • Have fun! Going along with the above point, look for ways to have fun with your content creation, that's infectious and if you're having fun creating your content, your followers will probably have fun interacting with it, and you!