Disrupting Distribution

Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News, and Accelerated Mobile Pages all offer new distribution opportunities to address the limitations of today's mobile web experience.

What are these new distribution channels and how can marketers and publishers leverage them?

Transcript

1. D I S R U P T I N G D I S T R I B U T I O N G I L B A N E B O S TO N 2 0 1 6 John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
2. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane Content Management is about getting the right content to the right user at the right time
3. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane Digital Content Management is about getting the right content to the right user at the right time through the right channel in the right format on the right device, and quickly!
4. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane W H E R E D O U S E R S C O M E F R O M ? • Search - First via directories, then via Search Engines, leading to SEO and SEM • Social - First via “Portals” and “Vortals” now via Facebook, Twitter, Medium et al • Mobile - Growth in mobile devices outpacing desktops; increases in mobile-dominant and even mobile-only users
5. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane • The Mobile Web of 2016 is problematic • Responsive Web Design has won, but has had unintended consequences due to poor implementation • Growth in website page size exceeded growth in usability • Advertising and third-party scripts in particular create subpar mobile experience T H E R I S E ( A N D S LOW D OW N ) O F T H E M O B I L E W E B John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
6. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane N E W D I S T R I B U T I O N M E C H A N I S M S Facebook Instant Articles Apple News Accelerated Mobile Pages
7. FAC E B O O K I N S TA N T A R T I C L E S • Officially launched May 12, 2015 with select publishing partners. (First article June 9th). • April 2016 available to anyone. • FB Mobile apps (iPhone & Android) will render the FBIA version of any link shared by any user • Restrictions on content & format • Links out of FB load in FB web view • Allows direct-sold ads; FB takes 30% of ads they sell John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
8. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
9. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane I M P L E M E N T I N G F B I A • Multiple “styles” can be defined via FB configuration • Getting Content to Facebook: • RSS Feed of articles in “Instant Article Markup” • Instant Articles API: Post new articles to API end point • Plugins: For commonly used CMS platforms • FB recognizes the canonical url of the article, will replace it with FBIA version in Android / iPhone app when shared
10. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane F B I A I N T E R AC T I V E E L E M E N T S • Autoplay Video • Tap to Expand, Tilt to Explore • Fullscreen Snap-to-Frame • 3D Rotating Maps • Geotagging • Slideshows • Embeds • Feedback Settings
11. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane F B I A P R O C E S S N OT E S • “Publishing” Instant Articles to Facebook doesn’t actually put them in anyone’s feed - FB senses when a URL is shared whether it has an Instant Article version • Getting approval requires a minimum number of articles, validation by Facebook for content and format • Facebook “Pages Manager” app can be used to test, validate, and update articles already published - including development/preview feeds separate from production feed
12. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
13. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane F B I A R E S O U R C E S • https://www.facebook.com/instantArticles/ • https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instant-articles/ • https://wordpress.org/plugins/fb-instant-articles/ • https://instantarticles.fb.com/ • https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/get-started/ instant-articles-partners
14. A P P L E N E W S F O R M AT • Announced June 8, 2015 (after the FBIA announcement but before the first article appeared). News App launched Sept. 2015. • RSS Feeds or Apple News JSON format - now open to all content sources. • Content shows in “News” app for iOS 9 or newer, in the US, UK, and AUS John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
15. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
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18. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane P U B L I S H I N G TO A P P L E N E W S • RSS is an option, but not recommended except as transitional strategy • Apple News Format (JSON) is preferred, published via: • Web Authoring using Apple News Publisher • Apple News API (REST) • Plugins (WordPress, Drupal, Craft CMS, Squarespace)
19. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
20. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane A P P L E N E W S F O R M AT R E S O U R C E S • https://newsresources.apple.com/en/overview/ • https://developer.apple.com/library/content/ documentation/General/Conceptual/ Apple_News_Format_Ref/ • https://wordpress.org/plugins/publish-to-apple-news/ • https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/508/
21. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
22. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane AC C E L E R AT E D M O B I L E PAG E S • Announced October 2015. • Started showing in Google Mobile Search results (“Top Stories”) Feb 24, 2016. • Sept. 2016, AMP started rolling out to broader mobile search results (not just “Top Stories”) • Lots of speculation about how AMP pages impact rank (directly, or indirectly via speed) • AMP links appear in an “AMP Viewer” not directly served from your site - clicks through go to site
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24. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane A M P B E YO N D G O O G L E ? • If AMP delivers faster performance for mobile users, why not serve it to all mobile visitors? • eBay: “In the future, based on how AMP pages are performing, we may choose to have one mobile version (AMP) and serve it to all platforms" • Reddit: “AMP pages look great and load fast on desktop just like they do on mobile. . . . for many kinds of pages, we think the AMP version is the only version we’ll ever need” http://searchengineland.com/google-opens-amp-firehose-259569
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26. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane A M P R E S O U R C E S • https://www.ampproject.org/ • https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml • https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/
27. Primary Benefit ȽInteraction ȽExposure Ƚ7UDƋF Where Is Content Displayed? Facebook Mobile App (iOS, Android) iOS 9+ News App (US, UK, AUS) Google Mobile Search Results Basis Of Format HTML w/ Custom Elements Custom JSON Subset of HTML Potential Upsides Better performance in edge rank algorithm? Exposure via Editorial Features Better performance in Search algorithm John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
28. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane R E S U LT S ? • FBIA: • Mixed results - higher engagement with articles shared on mobile, but limited referral through to site & high bounce rate • Apple News: • Significant for the right targeted audiences • http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-news-is-emerging-as- a-significant-traffic-driver-for-some-news-orgs/ • AMP: • Some clients have seen clear 10-20% increases in page views by mobile users - but may vary based on your level of SEO/SEM and existing mobile traffic • http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-amp-gets-mixed-reviews-from- publishers-1477648838 John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
29. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane S H O U L D YO U U S E T H E S E ? • Is your site mobile optimized? • Use analytics to determine value of target segments: • Mobile traffic via search • Mobile traffic on iOS by content types • Mobile traffic referred by Facebook • What is the center of your digital ecosystem? Your site(s), mobile app(s), social presence? • Does reaching more people off-site lead to more traffic on-site? If so, does that mean success? If not, does that mean failure? John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
30. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane G E T T I N G S TA R T E D • Audit • Decompose pages into elements • Special attention to third-party scripts, embeds • Challanges: Ad codes, tracking codes, viewability, third- party promotional content • Develop • Prototype, beta test • Test & Tune - use the tools provided by vendors John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
31. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane
32. John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane john@10up.com @jeckman johneckman.com John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane