The idea of creating original content to draw in an audience is nothing new. In fact, businesses have pushed out various forms of this type of content marketing for decades.

However, change is on the horizon. Many big players are already capitalizing and practicing a new style of content marketing, and some do it so effectively that you may not have even noticed.

It’s called brand journalism, and it uses social media to build influence, improve search results, and spread ideas and excitement about a particular industry.

via A 5-step guide to starting a brand journalism program | Articles | Main.

Mike Hayes, assistant digital marketing manager at Ben & Jerry’s, a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever, is responsible for overseeing digital marketing programs in the US, which include the company’s social media platforms for both its packaged and retail businesses, including 300 scoop shops. He spoke with eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin about the ice cream brand’s involvement on Instagram and Pinterest and opportunities to bond with consumers via social media.

eMarketer: Can you tell me about your involvement in Instagram and Pinterest?

Mike Hayes: We’re on both Instagram and Pinterest. We’ve been on Instagram for about 14 months and are up to about 70,000 followers now. It’s an awesome community. People love indulging in our products and sharing pictures of themselves eating our products.

via An Enviable Problem: How to Craft Fans’ Photo Posts into Marketing Fodder – eMarketer.

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have ushered in visual marketing as the breakout trend for 2012. When it comes to their products, businesses are learning to show, not tell, and visual content sites are fueling our desire for beautiful photography and sensational design. Two years ago, marketers were spreading the maxim that “content is king,” but now, it seems, “a picture really is worth a thousand words.”

“Blogs were one of the earliest forms of social networking where people were writing 1,000 words,” says Dr. William J. Ward, Social Media professor at Syracuse University. “When we moved to status updates on Facebook, our posts became shorter. Then micro-blogs like Twitter came along and shortened our updates to 140 characters. Now we are even skipping words altogether and moving towards more visual communication with social-sharing sites like Pinterest.”

via The Rise Of Visual Social Media | Fast Company.

Dads today are more involved in raising their kids and managing the household than most typical dads of earlier generations. However, many contemporary dads also have an exaggerated sense of how much they really do, according to a new eMarketer report, “How Dads Are Different: Playing a New Role, But Only Up to a Point.” Nonetheless, they are sensitive to their role being undervalued, including by advertisers.

via Dads Stake Out Their Role in the Household and Online – eMarketer.

The percentage of individuals in India who use the internet will remain a small 8.9% this year, according to eMarketer estimates. But given that India holds a population of 1.2 billion people, that fraction translates to a significant number of people going online—107.3 million, to be precise. And consumers in India show no signs of slowing their migration online, according to the August 2012 comScore report, “The Rise of India’s Digital Consumer and What It Means for the Future.”

via No Sign of Slowing Web Uptake in India – eMarketer.

While 33% of companies say that social media marketing (SMM) is “very much part of our search activity,” a much larger 58% of agencies report the same, according to [download page] a September 2012 report from Econsultancy. Some 60% of companies treat social media and search engine marketing (SEM) separately, compared to 35% of agencies. And, while the percentage of companies that treat SMM as integral to SEM is unchanged from 2010, the percentage of agencies that treats social as integral to search has risen 10% points in those 2 years.

via Agencies Bullish on Relationship Between Social and Search.

46% of adult American internet users post original photos or videos online that they have created, and 41% repost photos or videos on sites designed for sharing images, according to [download page] September 2012 findings from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Pew calls the first group “creators,” and the second group “curators.”

Women are slightly more likely to be creators than men (48% vs. 45%), as data from “Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online” reveals, and younger Americans are far more likely than older Americans to post their original photos and videos online. The percentage of respondents in each age group who are creators is lowest in the 65+ bracket (29%), followed by the 50-64 demo (28%). By contrast, roughly half of 30-49-year-olds do so, as do about 7 in 10 of the 18-29 group.

via Almost Half Of Online Americans Share Original Photos, Videos On SocNets.

Budgets for social media marketing are on the rise, with both B2B and B2C marketers proving they have generated leads and sales from their social outreach.In its “State of Digital Marketing 2012 Report,” Webmarketing123 found that 52% of US B2C marketers and 41% of US B2B marketers planned to increase their social marketing budgets in 2013, while an additional 46% of B2C and 56% of B2B marketers will keep them the same.

via Social Media Proves Value, Gets Budgets – eMarketer.

14% of American smartphone owners who have scanned or texted for product information while in-store say they made an unplanned purchase as a result, according to [download page] a September 2012 report from Vibes. Yet, an almost equal proportion (15%) report being dissuaded from making a purchase. Still, a plurality say that the product information they accessed made them feel better about the purchase they planned to make. Only 13% said the information had no impact on their decision.

via In-Store Product Research Influences Most Smartphone Owners’ Decisions.

The leading reason mobile phone users unsubscribe from mobile marketing updates is message overload, according to [download page] a September 2012 report from Vibes. Asked their top reasons for unsubscribing from updates, 69% of mobile phone users and 86% of “showroomers” pointed to too many messages or updates. (Vibes describes a showroom shopper as one who uses a store’s physical location as a showroom for products instead of a place of business.)

via Message Overload Causes Mobile Users to Unsubscribe From Updates.