Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Score goals with Google during the World Cup (part 3 of 5)

Welcome to the third part of our World Cup series. Today, we’ll focus on taking your content viral through social media.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil won't just be about soccer. It’ll also be about interactions across social media. This event will see millions of people interact and share content on multiple social channels, driving the potential for your content to ‘go viral’. With this in mind, publishers should think about adapting their editorial coverage around the World Cup to generate audience buzz. Some fun examples could include discussing top ranked players or incredible game moments. 73%* of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. So it’s essential that content on your site is easy to share and that you’ve got a strategy in place for engagement and distribution of content through your social media channels.

Users not only like to read the latest updates regarding the World Cup, but also share interesting content, comment, and interact with other users. Additionally, sports are a leading topic on many social media platforms. Sports audiences often account for some of the most engaged and passionate fans on social media. To engage your audience further, explore using Google+ Sign In  and some of our other Google+ features that will help you take your content viral.

If you’re planning to create specific content for the World Cup, don’t forget to build out a content strategy for your social media channels. Use these channels to spread your content and engagement. For instance, try hashtags and make sure they’re relevant for the season and not just promoting your site or business. Using well established hashtags can help users discover your content faster and can also allow your content to contribute to ongoing discussions. Here’s a couple of examples of some of the most popular hashtags used with World Cup content:

  • #worldcup
  • #worldcup2014
  • #fifa
  • #brazil
  • #football
  • #brazil2014
  • #soccer
  • #brasil2014

Video is another potential channel for you to create and share unique content on your site. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube**. That's almost an hour for every person in the world. With that much content being consumed, think about using YouTube or Google+ Hangouts On Air to distribute your content and to engage your users. For example, you could create a daily 90 second clip that highlights the best, worst and funniest moments from the various games.

In our fourth blog post tomorrow, we’ll talk about your strategy for reaching users across devices.

* Source - http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/
** Source - http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

Posted by Chris Jones - Audience Development Specialist
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