Disrupting Distribution

D I S R U P T I N G D I S T R I B U T I O N
G I L B A N E B O S TO N 2 0 1 6
John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane

Content Management is about getting
the right content
to the right user
at the right time

Digital Content Management is about getting
the right content
to the right user
at the right time
through the right channel
in the right format
on the right device,
and quickly!

W H E R E D O U S E R S C O M E
F R O M ?
• Search - First via directories, then via Search
Engines, leading to SEO and SEM
• Social - First via “Portals” and “Vortals” now via
Facebook, Twitter, Medium et al
• Mobile - Growth in mobile devices outpacing
desktops; increases in mobile-dominant and
even mobile-only users

• The Mobile Web of 2016 is problematic
• Responsive Web Design has won, but has had
unintended consequences due to poor implementation
• Growth in website page size exceeded growth in
usability
• Advertising and third-party scripts in particular create
subpar mobile experience
T H E R I S E ( A N D S LOW D OW N ) O F
T H E M O B I L E W E B

N E W D I S T R I B U T I O N M E C H A N I S M S
Facebook
Instant
Articles
Apple
News
Accelerated
Mobile
Pages

FAC E B O O K I N S TA N T A RT I C L E S
• Officially launched May 12, 2015 with select publishing
partners. (First article June 9th).
• April 2016 available to anyone.
• FB Mobile apps (iPhone & Android) will render the FBIA
version of any link shared by any user
• Restrictions on content & format
• Links out of FB load in FB web view
• Allows direct-sold ads; FB takes 30% of ads they sell

I M P L E M E N T I N G F B I A
• Multiple “styles” can be deﬁned via FB conﬁguration
• Getting Content to Facebook:
• RSS Feed of articles in “Instant Article Markup”
• Instant Articles API: Post new articles to API end point
• Plugins: For commonly used CMS platforms
• FB recognizes the canonical url of the article, will replace
it with FBIA version in Android / iPhone app when shared

F B I A I N T E R AC T I V E E L E M E N T S
• Autoplay Video
• Tap to Expand, Tilt to
Explore
• Fullscreen Snap-to-Frame
• 3D Rotating Maps
• Geotagging
• Slideshows
• Embeds
• Feedback Settings

F B I A P R O C E S S N OT E S
• “Publishing” Instant Articles to Facebook doesn’t actually
put them in anyone’s feed - FB senses when a URL is
shared whether it has an Instant Article version
• Getting approval requires a minimum number of articles,
validation by Facebook for content and format
• Facebook “Pages Manager” app can be used to test,
validate, and update articles already published -
including development/preview feeds separate from
production feed

John Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbaneJohn Eckman • @jeckman • #gilbane

F B I A R E S O U R C E S
• https://www.facebook.com/instantArticles/
• https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instant-articles/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/fb-instant-articles/
• https://instantarticles.fb.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/get-started/
instant-articles-partners

A P P L E N E W S F O R M AT
• Announced June 8, 2015 (after the FBIA announcement
but before the ﬁrst article appeared). News App
launched Sept. 2015.
• RSS Feeds or Apple News JSON format - now open to
all content sources.
• Content shows in “News” app for iOS 9 or newer, in the
US, UK, and AUS

P U B L I S H I N G TO A P P L E N E W S
• RSS is an option, but not recommended except as
transitional strategy
• Apple News Format (JSON) is preferred, published via:
• Web Authoring using Apple News Publisher
• Apple News API (REST)
• Plugins (WordPress, Drupal, Craft CMS, Squarespace)

A P P L E N E W S F O R M AT R E S O U R C E S
• https://newsresources.apple.com/en/overview/
• https://developer.apple.com/library/content/
documentation/General/Conceptual/
Apple_News_Format_Ref/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/publish-to-apple-news/
• https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/508/

AC C E L E R AT E D M O B I L E PAG E S
• Announced October 2015.
• Started showing in Google Mobile Search results
(“Top Stories”) Feb 24, 2016.
• Sept. 2016, AMP started rolling out to broader
mobile search results (not just “Top Stories”)
• Lots of speculation about how AMP pages impact
rank (directly, or indirectly via speed)
• AMP links appear in an “AMP Viewer” not directly
served from your site - clicks through go to site

A M P B E YO N D G O O G L E ?
• If AMP delivers faster performance for mobile users, why
not serve it to all mobile visitors?
• eBay: “In the future, based on how AMP pages are
performing, we may choose to have one mobile version
(AMP) and serve it to all platforms"
• Reddit: “AMP pages look great and load fast on
desktop just like they do on mobile. . . . for many kinds
of pages, we think the AMP version is the only version
we’ll ever need”
http://searchengineland.com/google-opens-amp-firehose-259569

A M P R E S O U R C E S
• https://www.ampproject.org/
• https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/

Primary Beneﬁt Interaction Exposure
Where Is Content
Displayed?
Facebook Mobile App
(iOS, Android)
iOS 9+ News App
(US, UK, AUS)
Google Mobile Search
Results
Basis Of Format
HTML w/
Custom Elements
Custom JSON Subset of HTML
Potential Upsides
Better performance in
edge rank algorithm?
Exposure via
Editorial Features
Better performance in
Search algorithm

R E S U LT S ?
• FBIA:
• Mixed results - higher engagement with articles shared on mobile, but limited
referral through to site & high bounce rate
• Apple News:
• Signiﬁcant for the right targeted audiences
• http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-news-is-emerging-as-
a-signiﬁcant-traffic-driver-for-some-news-orgs/
• AMP:
• Some clients have seen clear 10-20% increases in page views by mobile users
- but may vary based on your level of SEO/SEM and existing mobile traffic
• http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-amp-gets-mixed-reviews-from-
publishers-1477648838

S H O U L D YO U U S E T H E S E ?
• Is your site mobile optimized?
• Use analytics to determine value of target segments:
• Mobile traffic via search
• Mobile traffic on iOS by content types
• Mobile traffic referred by Facebook
• What is the center of your digital ecosystem? Your site(s),
mobile app(s), social presence?
• Does reaching more people off-site lead to more traffic on-site?
If so, does that mean success? If not, does that mean failure?

G E T T I N G S TA R T E D
• Audit
• Decompose pages into elements
• Special attention to third-party scripts, embeds
• Challanges: Ad codes, tracking codes, viewability, third-
party promotional content
• Develop
• Prototype, beta test
• Test & Tune - use the tools provided by vendors

john@10up.com
@jeckman
johneckman.com

Disrupting Distribution

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