Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Guest post by Bryan Rhoades, global content strategy, Intel

Today’s web is an endless 24/7 cycle fed by content and social actions. In this cycle, brands are realizing that content is currency and social actions are the transactions in this marketplace for eyeballs and attention. To remain relevant, not only do brands need to produce more interesting, useful and more timely content, they need to adapt to a new “social publishing model” to best feed the social graph and this hungry cycle.

I’ve listed two ways below that our brand, Intel, is tackling this content and social publishing challenge.

First, we built a new social publishing platform called “iQ” that we use to feed the graph and better integrate our owned and paid media strategies. The iQ by Intel platform leverages the social actions of our global employees to curate content that is grabbing Intel’s collective attention. In addition to original content, we source and surface content from these social actions (FB Likes, RTs, +1’s) combined with an intelligent algorithm that filters content based on social data points like recency, bit’ly clicks, shares and defiance from the norm, etc.

iQ is a blend of content flowing from the social actions of employees (referred to as “Flow” content) and original content developed by the brand (or our partners like The Creators Project and contributors, that we refer to as “Stock” content). This “Stock & Flow” approach is relatively new, but in our case borrowed from others in the industry, including the popular Percolate publishing platform. iQ blends original Stock & Flow content to produce a very timely branded storytelling platform to feed the social web and our own social properties on Facebook and Twitter. We believe this to be an effective way to get our story (and the World’s technology story) into the social graph.

Secondly, social publishing is a challenge for brands and businesses. They have not historically been structured for publishing. However, brands are excellent at producing the more traditional “Stock” content like video, TV commercials, campaigns, websites, etc. But today’s Facebook status update or ephemeral tweet requires daily and oftentimes sub-daily content. Traditional Stock content is great when you have it, but no brand is resourced for the daily TV ad or video.

At Intel, we are implementing a 3-tiered approach to content production (see “Social Content Tiers” diagram below). The top tier includes the longer-lead or more traditional content that brands have been generating for years, i.e. the videos, TV spots, the programs and partnerships that are highly produced and require greater resources. In the middle we have quicker, several times a week stories, visual graphics, blog posts and really anything interesting we can get our hands on. At the bottom is the highly frequent and ephemeral content. These are the daily and sub-daily Facebook status updates, Google+ posts and tweets from branded accounts and employees. Looking at content in this manner helps us to better manage the content pipeline. iQ manifests this process and is an engine towards output.

We launched “iQ by Intel” as a BETA in English just over a month ago. So far, we’re seeing great results in its aiding of social content publishing and feeding our social properties with content. Its “touch-friendly” design is built for the next generation of devices and its sourcing of content through curation, including direct publishing from Twitter through #iQ tweets from employees, has been successful.

Lastly, iQ and our publishing model allows us to tell our bigger technology story. Intel is an ingredient in almost every technical ecosystem on the planet. We are lucky as far as brands go that we can help tell this story, that we can follow technology to all of the beautiful places it goes, and also narrate on the challenges and obstacles facing our modern world.

Follow @bryanrhoads on Twitter

This is part of a series on brand journalism / brand publishing as told by the businesses that are paving the way. Please send me a note if you would like to tell your company’s story on its move to what Tom Foremski dubbed EC=MC, Every Company is a Media Company.

Disclosure: Intel is a client of Altimeter Group

When it comes to content creation–even in short bits and blasts on Twitter—the human touch is what will keep marketers relevant and real. A look at J.Crew, Wegmans, NASCAR, and other brands that are getting it right.

Last weekend I snagged a lounge chair at our community pool next to a friend and fellow marketer I haven’t seen in weeks. We’re both managing the demands of family and careers and rarely get a chance to catch up with each other or with our reading. I pulled out Runner’s World from my bag, she pulled out J.Crew. Before long we were swapping magazines, and, as like-minded marketers, our conversation quickly shifted gears to how J.Crew had snagged us (cynical shoppers that we are) to become advocates for its brand.

Consider the catalog–a source of poolside perusing–that is now called the J.Crew style guide. It’s less about the specs and more about the style. I had the opportunity to share a stage recently with Diego Scott, the company’s CMO. Our panel discussion was all about “moving beyond the ‘like’” to more engagement with stakeholders. He shared the story of J.Crew’s evolved thinking in this area and its recognition that the catalog is a catalyst for the brand to offer a point of view. The J.Crew created content, online and in print, shares ideas from in-the-know fashion and jewelry designers on current fabrics, cuts and fashion trends while remaining unmistakably J. Crew: polished and fresh and conversely, appropriately classic. The revamped catalog–disguised as a style guide–is an example of company-created content done right.

When it comes to generating compelling content, fashion companies may have it easy. But, every marketer can take a page from J.Crew’s guide on how to create and manage a lot of content while maintaining a consistent voice across multiple channels. And, oh yes, to generate interest in your content in ways that drive actions that benefit your company. It’s that new nuance of paid, owned and earned media singing Kumbaya together.

Help is available. At a time when it is imperative for brands to communicate 24/7, a growing number of tech and media companies make it possible to automate content creation and curation. A few keywords typed in here and there and—voila!–content. The Huffington Post, for one, offers to create web sites for brands and use algorithms to repurpose relevant HuffPo content. Meanwhile, there are tech companies that can generate articles that look as if they were penned by real writers.

Like many of my peers, we’re exploring these tools and doing so with an eye toward simplifying content management while maintaining an authentic and engaging brand voice. Algorithms can do amazing things, including suggesting topics of discussion and identifying popular issues that will resonate with a target audience. But they can’t put together a style guide, say, that motivates customers to engage regularly and meaningfully with the brand. When it comes to content creation–even in short bits and blasts on Twitter—the human touch is what will keep marketers relevant and real.

The companies that are truly winning over audiences and driving consumers are the ones that are experimenting with a balance of automated aggregation and human-directed curation. It’s a process of out-sourcing and in-sourcing.

I’ve been following Intel’s approach. It recently launched iQ, an employee-curated digital magazine created to connect with a younger audience and share with them the bigger, living brand story. Not only does the site provide original stories about tech, it also aggregates top tech stories from other sites that Intel’s audience will find interesting. Readers and employees dictate much of the moment-to-moment interaction on the site, but it is all closely watched by editor-in-chief Bryan Rhoades, who spurs conversations by judiciously placing some stories on the iQ homepage.

NASCAR, too, is experimenting in this space. A partnership with Twitter includes a site that compiles #NASCAR-related tweets from popular drivers, who send 140-character blasts from the track or wherever they may be– along with those from sports writers and other industry folks. They pull it off by using a search algorithm and human editors who understand narrative—and appropriate content.

My friends over at Wegmans (I call them my “friends” hoping the Wegman family will open a store in Fairfield County, Conn.), were among the first to the table in using relevant content to connect with consumers. In 2001, way before Twitter and Facebook and before actor Alec Baldwin proclaimed his mom’s love of Wegmans on the Late Show, the company created Menu magazine. It’s a “tuck-in-your-pool bag” food guide that is sent to consumers free of charge and features practical, balanced yet appetizing meal ideas that even the most harried of parents (that would be me) can make with the help of a Wegmans’ shopping list, of course. The company is connecting shoppers with relevant content–among the many reasons Wegmans was recently named one of 16 brands with fanatical cult followings.

Bill Gates was right in noting that content is king. Today, we are all publishers. It’s a daunting prospect. New content curation tools make automating the job easier–but easy may not always be as effective. It would be a mistake to let algorithms do the entire job for you. No one knows your audience like you do. And, keeping the human touch in the process is more real, which is really important to today’s info-overloaded consumer. This begs the question, which brands are serving up content to you poolside?

Image: Flickr user Gwen Vanhee

Apple may be considering the release of a budget-priced MacBook Air to compete against the upcoming second wave of ultrabooks, according to a new report.

Citing unnamed sources in Apple’s supply chain, tech site Digitimes is reporting that the company might introduce a MacBook Air priced at $799 in the third quarter of this year — right in time for the back-to-school season.

It’s key to note that the DigiTimes has a hit-or-miss track record for nailing predictions.

If the rumors are true, the MacBook Air could hit shelves with a price cheaper than its other models, including its latest 11-inch 64GB MacBook Air ($999), 11-inch 128GB version ($1,199) and 13-inch 128GB model ($1,299). The line also features a 256GB version that is priced at $1,599.

The launch of a less expensive MacBook Air could put ultrabooks at a huge disadvantage.

Ultrabooks – which are ultra-slim laptops typically under 0.8 inches thick – have become a hot “it” device in computing, giving on-the-go users a lightweight, full-computer alternative. However, ultrabook sales haven’t been blockbuster right out of the gate as many consumers have turned their attention to the growing tablet market.

However, it’s been reported that Dell’s XP13 ultrabook ($999) experienced strong sales that exceeded expectations since it’s launch in February. The XPS 13, which touts a 13-inch display in a compact 12-inch frame and weighs in at only 2.99 pounds, runs on Windows 7. It also features Intel Core i3 processors, but it can also be upgraded to Intel Core i7 processors.

Meanwhile, some believe that ultrabooks overall won’t achieve strong sales until the launch of Windows 8.

Will you purchase a $799 MacBook Air if the rumors are true? Let us know in the comments.

Intel sounds afraid of the future.

Speaking to PC World yesterday, Intel Product Manager Anand Kajshmanan and media spokesperson Alison Wesley set out in no uncertain terms what the Ultrabook means to Intel. It’s all hidden in the name, it seems: “Ultra’ means pinnacle, and we wanted the Ultrabook to be the pinnacle of everything that users have come to expect from their computing device.” The they went on to explain where the entire concept came from: “We did extensive research into what users’ expectations were for their mobile computing devices, and there were four things that really stood out.” You may imagine that those four things are “Apple, MacBook, Air, iPad,” given that Ultrabooks are really just Windows-powered versions of the Air, but Intel took pains to note “plethora of choice” was one of the characteristics.

If you’ve witnessed the visually intimidating array of very similar laptops on store shelves lately, you might doubt that “plethora of choice” is really what consumers lack. Intel’s team also said Ultrabooks are driving down the entry price to this category, presumably undercutting Apple’s $999 starting point. But suppliers aren’t matching Apple’s design quality or tech specs at lower prices, and Intel’s had to specially lower the price of its mobile chips. And don’t forget, the iPad starts at just $500.

Kajshmanan and Wesley danced nimbly around dissing Apple too much–Intel’s inside every single new Mac–but they said the Air is a “great choice for someone who wants to invest in the Mac operating system,” but added that, “really, with the Ultrabook, it’s about offering all those things in the same device–the great responsiveness, the great battery life–and with an operating system that people have come to love over the years, as well as all the legacy applications that they would like to run.”

In other words Windows is all they’ve known, despite the fact there’ve been arguably better alternatives around for years. Never mind that you can run Windows on a Mac, either natively or–shock horror–in a Window on OS X using software like Parallels. Sure, this costs a little because you have to actually pay Microsoft for a Windows license, but it’s still a very viable option.

Then Intel’s folks talked up a development of the Ultrabook they fully expect to grow to huge popularity soon: The clamshell touchscreen laptop. Essentially this is a half-tablet, half-notebook design where the laptop’s display hinges all the way around to become a full touchscreen “tablet” PC. Think of it as a halfway house between tablets and laptops for people who can’t let go of legacy laptop uses because of preference or some other reason, but do want to sample the tablet experience. Microsoft’s upcoming tablet-friendly Windows 8 OS may be a great incentive for this sort of design. Which is, basically, a refresh of the old “tablet PC” design that Bill Gates got all excited about a decade ago, but which never took off the ground thanks to expense and a touch-unfriendly Windows implementation.

For fun, here’s a video of one concept that shows you what this might look like–ironically on a reimagined MacBook:

Intel, despite moves toward making truly powerful mobile-friendly CPUs, agrees with us that the PC is dying. That, in fact, the laptop has, with the Ultrabook, reached its “pinnacle” of design–there’s precious few innovations left to take it in a wholly new direction, unless you sort of turn it into a tablet PC. And that’s what Intel’s worried about. Tablet PCs, currently selling by the tens of millions, are powered by ARM chips.

Image: pzAxe/Shutterstock

Via Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com