Why should your company outsource content?

Reason #1: Outsourcing makes you stupid.

Custom Content Spending at an All-time High

Marketers are spending more than ever on custom content like the stuff we’re producing at Learfield InterAction.

The annual study showed that spending on branded content totaled $1.8 million per company, with 51 percent of that total being spent on print publications, 27 percent on Internet media and 22 percent on categories such as video or audio, which were measured for the first time this year. 2009 spending was double that of 2008 and the highest amount since the CPC began conducting the survey in 2003.

Businesses are realizing they need to supplement their traditional marketing with content of their own, and we’re in a perfect spot to help them integrate every part of the package.

News Flash: Old People Like Facebook

You may sit in a lot of meetings with people who spout the conventional wisdom that those social networks are just for the young folks. Turns out that’s not true.

Facebook was the third most-visited destination of Internet users over 65, trailing behind Google and Windows Media Player, according to a November survey conducted by The Nielsen Company.

It’s quickly coming to the point where there is no business, no state association, no government agency that can justify ignoring social networks because “our core audience doesn’t use it.”

Using Facebook’s Viral Effect (IKEA)

Watch this video to see how IKEA took advantage of Facebook’s ability for people to quickly connect with each other.

The importance of mobile

If you want to improve the way you communicate with your customers online, you can’t ignore mobile platforms.  A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life project says people who use their mobile devices to access the Web are far more connected in general.  That means if you want to use Web tools to talk to people, you need to make it easy for them to get that information on the go.

How?  A platform like Twitter is the perfect tool for this. It allows short messages and links to more in-depth articles that people expect from your organization.  Using Facebook to reach a core group of followers can also work effectively online, thanks to Facebook’s integration with many mobile phones–especially the iPhone.

The important lesson is that you can’t ignore mobile if you want to reach the most influential of your followers online. Capitalizing on their mobility will help them spread get the information they want from you, and enable them to spread it to others more efficiently.