SIIA Information Industry Summit 2010: Content Creating Conversations - Liberty Carras, CNNMoney.com
Liberty Carras, SVP for CNNMoney.com, focused on how they are merging social media and traditional reporting as they develop engaging online content. In their "Assignment Detroit" sub-portal, CNNMoney.com is building what is in essence an evergreen in-depth documentary, filled with both breaking news and investigative reporting as well as social media input. CNNMoney.com's stimulus tracker provide interactive graphic analysis of how government expenditures have been telling a story that engages people both through their using the tool and the more than 1,200 user comments that the tool has generated. The essence of story-telling, then, is in some ways what it has been always, but with the interactivity of the Web and its ability to collect content from anyone at any location or time is turning story-telling into more of a group around a campfire than a "sage on the stage" dictation. Clean graphics are also a key, making it easier to digest information easily, shown in a redesign of one of CNNMoney.com's company information page. Amazing design also helps CNNMoney.com's advertisers to provide more enveloping and engaging messages, attracting larger online ad units.
Liberty showed the following Charles Schwab video available on YouTube, originally produced as an in-house video for their employees but that became an online ad campaign, turning compelling corporate content rapidly into high-value ad units. Finding how to put the assets together with amazing creative and compelling experiences, with great metrics, yields great results. Great examples of great Content from CNNMoney.com's "Best Places to Live" and their now-integrated Fortune "100 Best Companies" list, which integrates with Time print properties, is also an important part of a great content strategy, starting with a story and then thinking about how to execute it in great media. Having great metrics that drive your sales team and managing them with commitment is also key, Liberty noted. She provided a video demo of some Apple tablet features, what impressed me most was the alleged integration for education. Education is where Apple got its early market strength, perhaps the tablet will be where it rediscovers new mojo for educational content.
This was a great keynote; sometimes the picture of how to look like a success online is worth a thousand words.
