September 11, 2018
In digital marketing, we’re utterly brilliant at creating confusing titles and acronyms. Given the volume, you’d be forgiven for thinking industry had employed a Head of Wanky Titles. I only wish our Head honcho had created these abbreviations with the wit and humour of the late great Robin Williams in the movie Good Morning Vietnam. Clearly many of the younger readers will be thinking “never heard of it!”. Watch it. There’s a brilliant scene that mocks acronyms is a way that only Robin Williams could do.
Frustratingly, some of the loathsome titles and abbreviations have a place. Evergreen, and Always On, or AO content are three perfectly good examples of said wankyness. However they’re also key to the foundations of good Social Media. But what the heck are they, and what do they mean?
Evergreen
It’s content that stays relevant year-round. It can be posted at any time and will remain relevant. It’s content that’s not anchored to a specific time, occasion or event. You could post the content today, next month or in a month of Sunday’s time and it will still be relevant. Now, I can’t promise it will retain green leaves year round. Which does beg the question who called it evergreen content in the first place? Oh industry’s beloved Head of Wa…
So what about Always On?
Well, originally this was term given to always being connected to the internet. Then at some point in the last eight years our Head of Idiocy thought I’ll nab that as the title for everyday content.
In Social, Always On is the term attributed to daily content scheduled or published into your feeds. The content will be planned in advance and organised by themes and topics. It brings order and focus to your published content. The Always On calendar will account for a large amount of your content. You may however also have Campaign, Event or moment-based content dropped in to your AO calendars at certain times of the year. The well organised out there create gaps in their calendars ahead of time to accommodate the campaign and event content. They do so because they’re planned and forward-thinking, and they’ve given thought to when campaign content should start and when it should end.
Always On content is the backbone of your Social Media activity. It ensures your channels are Always On with your audience. Too many businesses get this wrong. It’s a basic element of Social Media. Very basic in fact, but it’s hugely important in creating meaningful communications.
So what is AO Content?
Well, on the day this was incepted, our Head of Wankyness was too lazy to say Always On Content.
As I said before, we’re utterly brilliant at creating meaningless titles or abbreviations. Occasionally though, they do have a place.