Brands can learn social media and content lessons from ISIS argues NATO advisor
Matejic
Brands have a lot to learn around the content space from terrorist organisation ISIS, argues a NATO social media advisor.
Speaking at the PRIA National Conference in Hobart Nicole Matejic, the CEO of Social Monster, said the way ISIS, or DAESH as they are known in Arabic, had identified a gap in the media market and had used social media to connect with audiences offered a key lesson for brands not properly utilising social media.
“If you can get your SEO right, whether we’re talking about war or a crisis, the first thing people will see when they Google you is your three top pieces of content. It is easy to do,” she said. “It’s a sure win for information dominance.”
Matejic dismissed the PR industry’s preoccupation with engagement when it comes to content.
“When you’re putting out a campaign, don’t think about engagement think about conversion. I’m not interested in how many Facebook likes, or comments you got,” she said.
“I’m interested in how many people watched that video or how many people clicked that link and visited your website and what they did after that? How long did they stay? Did they buy something? Where is your conversions?
“Otherwise all of this is for naught. It’s just another piece of content on their scrolling feed.”
She said it’s important to remember the goal of entering the content space.
“Governments are in the business of staying in power. Terrorists like to sell an ideology and terrorise people. The media is in the business of selling news – the media is in it for profit, it’s not a non-profit exercise. And citizens are in the business of surivival.”
“You need to start telling stories for your own brands or clients or somebody else will. They will walk into that information vacuum because no one else is there.
“It’s how Daesh have actually created this whole media empire because nobody was there. They saw a gap in the media landscape and they just took it.
“If you’ve got a client or you’re working for a company that has no media footprint, it’s really easy for someone to impersonate them or exploit them or their competitor to go and own that complete landscape.”
In light of the rise of social media and how brands and media companies can use it to distribute a message, Matejic suggested the death of the media release is imminent.
“It’s on its way out,” she said. “In a content environment, if I can serve up to you a video and it gives a corporate statement, does the media then spend the time on it and give it to a journalist or do they just grab that content and suddenly your video is front page news?”
Miranda Ward
Linkedin
Isis are thinfluencers. And disruptors. For sure.
Doesn’t Mumbrella have a content marketing summit? I think I read a thing or thousand about that on this site.
Keynote speaker bro.
Plus you can substitute anyone. After all, they are all in balaclavas.
User ID not verified.
This is sick. It floats the implicit aggression and manipulation of some content marketing right to the surface, openly casting creatives as terrorists and consumers as citizens who must defend themselves against corporate ideologies. How can that be an acceptable business model? Of course, I understand the speaker and Mumbrella are not endorsing ISIS or terrorism, but by making the claim that “brands can learn social media and content lessons from ISIS”, you are contributing to a world in which we deliberately manipulate and step on people to achieve objectives that do not benefit them.
User ID not verified.
I agree with Charlotte above I think this is sick also, but to me it almost sounds like they are legitimizing a terrorist group, surely there are better examples they could have used.
User ID not verified.
surely there are more appriopriate exponents of digital marketing that we could be modelling ourselves upon.
User ID not verified.
I get that ISIS and other terrorist organizations use social media in clever ways, but saying that is something to aspire to is offensive and gross.
User ID not verified.
“It’s how Daesh have actually created this whole media empire because nobody was there. They saw a gap in the media landscape and they just took it.”
Yeah right, the media landscape has this huge gap for “terrorists org’s” so Daesh stepped.
in to dominate. Perhaps the other terrorist groups fly under the radar by choice.
User ID not verified.
I guess we should just count our blessings that she didn’t refer to guerrilla marketing
User ID not verified.
Agree with the above comments. Why is ISIS being used as an example for brands to utilise social media?
Very inappropriate.
User ID not verified.
It’s presentations & stories like this that give marketers a bad name. Major judgement fail all round.
User ID not verified.
Why is this parallel inappropriate? She has brilliantly used the most extreme model to make her point. If none of you do that in your presentations, then you clearly are not very good….
User ID not verified.
Seriously! Are you serious? #pathetic.
User ID not verified.
C’mon guys – you’re freaking out like it’s 1935. It doesnt seem to me that ISIS has done anything out of the ordinary, except make interesting videos where other terrorist groups (eg the Irish) didnt.
When was the last time you saw a cool IRA video?
That said, ISIS stand out because they stand out. Assad doesnt, and he butchering more people than ISIS can ever hope to do, but he’s not doing videos about his ‘government’ like the Chinese Communists just did with their latest 5 year plan.
Activist groups in Australia who organised things in the 2000’s (like Reclaim The Streets) used (when I was involved) a more organic cell structure in organising and planning, which didnt rely on heirarchical structures of top-down decision making. Which is lovely as they are all about consensus and free association. Now, I heard that Al Queda does the same, or did anyway, which is why traditional leader focused organisations like intelligence couldnt get a hold of them.
But RTS ≠ Al Queda, and mentioning how Al Queda organises does not mean I endorse bad plane flying in city environments.
Its just how they do things, and if this talk of ‘breaking down silo/ innovative thinking’ goes any further, you are either using strategies enacted by inner-city dole-bludging lefty activists or non-Christian terrorists who get off on death in the name of somethingsomething.
User ID not verified.
It’s easy to viral and create talkability and click through when you have released a video that’s beheading 23 people on a beach. Why do you show us how it’s done with a toilet paper launch.
Ivan Malat is also good at PR
User ID not verified.
And that’s why NATO has been able to do anything in the Middle East region.
User ID not verified.