SHIFT Archives: The Best of Q1 Content 2017

As each year comes to a close, we like to sneak a peek into the SHIFT archives to see our content hits and misses. When devising a content strategy for a new year, it’s important to take note of what worked (and why) to plan what’s to come next year. Want to see how to do this for your blog? Here’s how.

Our top posts from the first quarter of 2017 focused on career advice, fake news and social media. 

CAREER ADVICE FROM A TOP WOMAN IN PR

One of our first orders of business in 2017 was to pop the champagne in honor of our managing partner, Amy Lyons, who was named a Top Woman in PR by PR News! To commemorate her stellar win, Amy shared career advice for millennials, those looking to grow within a company, and advice for her 20-year-old self. Congrats again, Amy!

FAKE NEWS: A DATA-DRIVEN ANALYSIS

Ahh, fake news. What would 2017 have been without fake news? The term skyrocketed on Google Trends, as did the number of stories about fake news per week. We knew that people were deeply concerned about fake news, and the news media had given us no shortage of coverage about it.

However, the real impact of fake news goes beyond its existence. How do people react to it? What makes it so potent? We examined thousands of news stories from 2016, from fake sites and credible news outlets, to benchmark the impact of fake news on our behaviors with machine learning technology.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORLD 2017 RECAP

Our VP of Marketing Tech, Chris Penn, was honored to speak not once, but twice at Social Media Marketing World 2017 (SMMW17), a fantastic event thrown annually by Social Media Examiner. He observed that content is on everyone’s minds, chat bots are hot, and that yes, the story still matters.

As marketers, we must re-learn the art of storytelling that fits any channel, any medium, any technology. At the end of every smartphone, tablet, laptop, or VR headset is another human being we want to persuade, and stories are one of the best, most reliable ways to do so.

Emily Mong
Senior Marketing Analyst

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