Let 90s Nostalgia Rock Your Content Marketing

Let 90s Nostalgia Rock Your Content Marketing New research shows that we are more likely to spend money when were feeling nostalgic. According to the Journal of Consumer Research: Consumers that were asked to think about the past were willing to pay more for a set of products than consumers asked to think about new or future memories. Did that get your attention? Interesting results, but thats not all. Another study showed an increased willingness to give more money to others after recalling, reflecting, or writing about a nostalgic past life event. This got me thinking – how does this nostalgia effect influence your content marketing? Are readers more likely to share your content when they are feeling nostalgic? Will  they be more likely to convert? Will they be more likely to buy your product or service? The evidence seems to indicate that they  might. The first step to applying this to your content marketing is to understand what nostalgia is in the first place. What Is Nostalgia? Technically, the term  nostalgia  describes a  particular sentimentality towards  a former experience. In simpler terms, it is a positive reflection  of the past, and a powerful one at that. Nostalgia is generally  triggered by some sort of  cue  from the past. This  sentimentality is then  associated with  a period or place with happy personal memories. The term itself  was coined by a 17th-century medical student as a way to describe the anxieties displayed by  Swiss  mercenaries fighting away from home. In later years, as science has learned more about the phenomena, nostalgia  has been  widely considered  an independent and even positive emotion that people experience often. There are four commonly understood functions of nostalgia. They include, improve mood, increase social connectedness, enhance positive self-regard, and provide existential meaning. This is where things really start to get interesting for marketers. Improve Mood Nostalgia has often been found to increase one’s mood and heighten positive emotions. This reaction seems to stem from feelings of warmth or coping resulting from nostalgic reflections. In essence, the presence of nostalgic emotions give us a method for coping with things that could hinder our own happiness. This natural coping method instinctively seems to improve our mood and function. Increase Social Connectedness Interestingly, nostalgia also seems to increase our sense of social connectedness. This is a very important factor for the use of nostalgia in modern marketing. In essence, nostalgia is  triggered by a feeling of  loneliness, but counteracts such feelings with reflections of close relationships. Enhance Positive Self-Regard Nostalgia can also help us feel better about ourselves.  Researchers  found that subjects who thought of nostalgic memories showed more positive characteristics than those who thought of exciting future experiences. This research also revealed that a lack nostalgic experiences reflected a pattern of selfish and self-centered behavior. As nostalgic experiences were introduced, so was the positive  behavior. Provide Existential Meaning You may be surprised to learn that  nostalgia also helps increase one’s self-esteem and meaning in life. It does this by removing  threats to our well-being, and also by initiating a desire to deal with problems or stress.  Studies  have  found that nostalgia correlates positively with one’s sense of meaning in life. Nostalgia is a known way to boost peoples mood. It allows people to live (and re-live) something familiar,  something  they remember, a positive emotional experience. –  Gabriel Trionfi (Pinterests  user experience researcher) Nostalgia is a powerful neuropsychiatric force that  can frequently becoming a  driving force for our behavior.  Its effects can be seen in who we select to marry (we frequently marry spouses with characteristics reminiscent of those of our parents), and  our adoption of political affiliations (we may become  Democrats, Republicans, or even racists simply because our parents were). So, if it can effect these major life decisions, certainly it can also affect our purchasing and consuming behavior. And that is where nostalgia comes in for  a  content marketing pro life yourself. Examples Of  Nostalgia In Internet Marketing One of the best examples of nostalgia in internet culture is the popular photo-sharing service Instagram. These user-shared photos are soaked in nostalgia. Reminiscent of photos from old Polaroid cameras,  the photos  are frequently  wrapped in a white border. In addition, by allowing users to select from a variety of filters (including some with labels  like  1970), users are able to re-create the faded and worn appearance that is recognizable from  photos of the past. Instagram fosters a huge sense of nostalgia. Blogger David Yoon calls this fake nostalgia, and he certainly has a point – it is manufactured. But Instagrams features still do a great job of highlighting the power of nostalgia. In his piece, David points out that  our  digital photographs have lost the nostalgic feel because they did not age like more traditional photographs.   This is a good point, and it helps us understand the rise in popularity of tools like Instagram. While Instagrams nostalgia is purely manufactured, it is a harkening back to the good old days  of photography and obviously brings with it some powerful emotions. We have to wonder: would Instagram have been as popular without the throwback? Well never know, but the theory is certainly worth considering. One place we can see this theory come to light is with something called throwback Thursday, the  popular internet  practice of posting an old photo, thought, or idea on social media. Originally made popular on Instagram itself,  #TBT is now a practice that is used across the web as a way to reminisce and remember the past. It is nostalgia in action. In recent months, Facebook has also started feeding our nostalgic urges. This February, as it celebrated its  own  10 year anniversary, Facebook gave its  users the opportunity to watch a video of their history on Facebook. The short videos contained  Ã‚  15 or so of the  users  most-liked photos, statuses, and life events set to a catchy tune. While a  bit cheesy, these videos  are a great example of nostalgia in action, and reminder of the cultural significance of sites like Facebook. Other services like Timehop, have embraced the power of nostalgia in a similar way.  Promising to be a time capsule of you, Timehop allows users to see their  photos and updates from an  exact day in history (usually a year prior). Timehop promises to help you celebrate the best moments of the past with your friends. Nostalgia much? Traditional brands have been long-aware of the power of nostalgia. Recently, General Mills  went retro with several of their major cereal brands, a practice already proven to be popular by other brands like Pepsi and Mountain Dew with their throwback product line.  Krafts Macaroni Cheese line also introduced a bit of 90s nostalgia recently by bringing their product, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Vanilla Ice to the same stage. The results were fairly, nostalgic, to say the least. So, nostalgia is not necessarily a new marketing tactic, but in content marketing, I think it is often left unexplored. Can it work? Thats the question we need to ask ourselves now. How To Take Advantage of Nostalgia In Content Marketing Before we get too far, we need to set some ground rules. The folks over at Scripted have cleverly identified three conditions that should be met  before  we try to  use nostalgia in our content marketing. They are: We  must consider our  target market’s age range in order to choose a time era that demographic can identify with. We  have to choose an event, style, etc. that invokes positive memories and a sense of trust. The chosen era or event should invoke the emotions that we want  people to associate with our  brand. In other words, dont go harkening back to the roaring twenties (and expect a nostalgic reaction) if your audience is primarily comprised of skater-kids that were popping zits in the 90s. Take for example Krafts placement of Vanilla Ice and the  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These are both throwbacks to my early days as youth. I clearly remember being in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan club and I  know for sure that I owned a Vanilla Ice cassette tape at some point. These are both fond memories now that I am in my 30s. Not only that, but I am also the parent of three small children. I am a prime target for Kraft Macaroni Cheese. Well played Kraft, well played. If you dont  align your marketing and your audience properly, you are fighting an uphill battle already. Nostalgia only works if it is actually nostalgic for your readers. So,  if you dont know the demographic of your readers, you can do some digging in Google Analytics, or complete this short exercise that will help you identify your audience. Nostalgia only works in #contentmarketing if your content is  actually nostalgic for your readers.5 Ways To Apply Nostalgia To Our Content Marketing So you may be thinking that  this nostalgia thing sounds great, but I havent really provided any conclusive methods for introducing it to your content marketing. I am glad you brought it up. While this is by no means a conclusive list, here are 5 quick ideas that Ive found for applying nostalgia to  content marketing. #1: Weave Nostalgic  References  Into Your Content Through Storytelling One of the easiest ways to incorporate the effects of nostalgia is through the art of storytelling and reference. Our own content creator, Julie Neidlinger, wrote a post a few years back bringing together the art of content marketing and the beloved mix tape of the 80s. In this type of post, the nostalgic reference is merely an element used to engage the reader in the work. It is simple and effective. #2: Add Nostalgic Reminders To Your Visual Elements In many cases, nostalgic elements can be incorporated into the design of page elements, like they were on this post about audience fragmentation from just a few weeks ago. The visual elements on the page harken to a time and idea past, reflecting and fostering a feeling of nostalgia. #3: Interact With Your Audience In A Nostalgic Way Whenever someone becomes a new paying customer of , we love to thank them with a physical notebook that they can use to jot down blog ideas when they are on the go. is a digital product  so this  is somewhat counterintuitive, but it has proven to be a great program. It encourages us and our users to think about the days of old when we used to write thing in places other than the computer. #4: Create Content That Allows Readers To Experience Greater Nostalgia Love them or hate them, Buzzfeed has garnered a great deal of attention by actually allowing us to interact with their own sense of nostalgia. On their site, you will find dozens of (basically meaningless) quizzes that allow us to discover which 90s soundtrack we are, or which Friends character we should hide in our basement. These may be silly, but they are also popular and are shared like crazy on Facebook. â€Å"The quiz is kind of like the broken-down-to-its-core of what BuzzFeed is,† Summer Anne Burton, Buzzfeed’s managing editorial director and the head of its quiz initiative, told Nieman Lab. â€Å"It gives someone something that they can relate to well enough that they can share it with others.† Buzzfeed built a custom template so that its staffers and its community contributors can easily create these identity-focused questionnaires. (source: The Atlantic) #5: Throwback For A day Microsoft has done an excellent job of using throwback nostalgia to improve its brand and reputation. After taking a beating for years with an error-ridden browser, their marketing team began using nostalgia (ironically) to make amends with the web developers that they have offended along the way – even going as far as releasing a throwback version of their website, an idea that will never get old for a generation of web developers who grew up using tables and font tags on this new thing called the world wide web. The Effects Of Nostalgia In Content Marketing Perhaps Don Draper said it best. Nostalgia is powerful, but delicate. Used correctly, though, it can help us accomplish many things – including better content marketing. Teddy told me that in Greek nostalgia literally means, the pain from an old wound. Its a twinge, in your heart. Far more powerful then memory alone. This device isnt a spaceship, its a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place, where we ache to go again. Its not called The Wheel. Its called The Carousel. It lets us travel in a way a child travels. Round and round, and then back home again. To a place where we know we are loved. Don Draper   Nostalgia can make users more likely to share. #ContentMarketingJust take a look at Buzzfeeds quiz page, which  now contains  some of the most shared and most  nostalgic  content on an already popular site. Nostalgia can make users more likely to convert. #ContentMarketingIf nostalgia makes visitors more likely to buy, then it is fair to assume that it would also make them more likely to convert as an inbound lead. Maybe its time to incorporate some nostalgia into your inbound process.

The Wounded Knee Massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre   The massacre of hundreds of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, marked a particularly tragic milestone American history. The killing of mostly unarmed men, women, and children, was the last major encounter between the Sioux and U.S. Army troops, and it could be viewed as the end of the Plains Wars. The violence at Wounded Knee was rooted in the federal governments reaction to the ghost dance movement, in which a religious ritual centered around dancing became a potent symbol of defiance to white rule. As the ghost dance spread to Indian reservations throughout the West, the federal government began to regard it as a major threat and sought to suppress it. The tensions between white and Indians greatly increased, especially as federal authorities began to fear that the legendary Sioux medicine man Sitting Bull was about to become involved in the ghost dance movement. When Sitting Bull was killed while being arrested on December 15, 1890, the Sioux in South Dakota became fearful. Overshadowing the events of late 1890 were decades of conflicts between whites and Indians in the West. But one event, the massacre at the Little Bighorn of Col. George Armstrong Custer and his troops in June 1876 resonated most deeply. The Sioux in 1890 suspected that commanders in the U.S. Army felt a need to avenge Custer. And that made the Sioux especially suspicious of actions taken by soldiers who came to confront them over the ghost dance movement. Against that backdrop of mistrust, the eventual massacre at Wounded Knee arose out of a series of misunderstandings. On the morning of the massacre, it was unclear who fired the first shot. But once the shooting began, the U.S. Army troops cut down unarmed Indians with no restraint. Even artillery shells were fired at Sioux women and children who were seeking safety and running from the soldiers. In the aftermath of the massacre, the Army commander on the scene, Col. James Forsyth, was relieved of his command. However, an Army inquiry cleared him within two months, and he was restored to his command. The massacre, and the forcible rounding up of Indians following it, crushed any resistance to white rule in the West. Any hope the Sioux or other tribes had of being able to restore their way of life was obliterated. And life on the detested reservations became the plight of the American Indian. The Wounded Knee massacre faded into history. However, a book published in 1971, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, became a surprise best seller and brought the name of the massacre back to public awareness. The book by Dee Brown, a narrative history of the West told from the Indian point of view, struck a chord in America at a time of national skepticism and is widely considered a classic. And Wounded Knee came back in the news in 1973, when American Indian activists, as an act of civil disobedience, took over the site in a standoff with federal agents. Roots of the Conflict The ultimate confrontation at Wounded Knee was rooted in the movement of the 1880s to force Indians in the West onto government reservations. Following the defeat of Custer, the U.S. military was fixated on defeating any Indian resistance to forced resettlement. Sitting Bull, one of the most respected Sioux leaders, led a band of followers across the international border into Canada. The British government of Queen Victoria allowed them to live there and did not persecute them in any way. Yet conditions were very difficult, and Sitting Bull and his people eventually returned to South Dakota. In the 1880s, Buffalo Bill Cody, whose exploits in the West had become famous through dime novels, recruited Sitting Bull to join his famous Wild West Show. The show traveled extensively, and Sitting Bull was a huge attraction. After a few years of enjoying fame in the white world, Sitting Bull returned to South Dakota and life on a reservation. He was regarded with considerable respect by the Sioux. The Ghost Dance The ghost dance movement began with a member of the Paiute tribe in Nevada. Wovoka, who claimed to have religious visions, began preaching after recovering from a serious illness in early 1889. He claimed that God had revealed to him that a new age was about to dawn on earth. According to Wovoka’s prophecies, game which had been hunted to extinction would return, and Indians would restore their culture, which had been essentially destroyed during the decades of conflict with white settlers and soldiers. Part of Wovoka’s teaching involved the practice of ritual dancing. Based on older round dances performed by Indians, the ghost dance had some special characteristics. It was generally performed over a series of days. And special attire, which became known as ghost dance shirts, would be worn. It was believed that those wearing the ghost dance would be protected against harm, including bullets fired by U.S. Army soldiers. As the ghost dance spread throughout western Indian reservations, officials in the federal government became alarmed. Some white Americans argued that the ghost dance was essentially harmless and was a legitimate exercise of religious freedom. Others in the government saw malicious intent behind the ghost dancing. The practice was seen as a way to energize Indians to resist white rule. And by late 1890 the authorities in Washington began giving orders for the U.S. Army to be ready to take action to suppress the ghost dance. Sitting Bull Targeted In 1890 Sitting Bull was living, along with a few hundred other Hunkpapa Sioux, at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota. He had spent time in a military prison, and had also toured with Buffalo Bill, but he seemed to have settled down as a farmer. Still, he always seemed in rebellion to the rules of the reservation and was perceived by some white administrators as a potential source of trouble. The U.S. Army began sending troops into South Dakota in November 1890, planning to suppress the ghost dance and the rebellious movement it seemed to represent. The man in charge of the Army in the area, General Nelson Miles, came up with a plan to get Sitting Bull to surrender peacefully, at which point he could be sent back to prison. Miles wanted Buffalo Bill Cody to approach Sitting Bull and essentially lure him into surrendering. Cody apparently traveled to South Dakota, but the plan fell apart and Cody left and returned to Chicago. Army officers decided to use Indians who were working as policemen on the reservation to arrest Sitting Bull. A detachment of 43 tribal police officers arrived at Sitting Bull’s log cabin on the morning of December 15, 1890. Sitting Bull agreed to go with the officers, but some of his followers, who were generally described as ghost dancers, tried to intervene. An Indian shot the commander of the police, who raised his own weapon to return fire and accidentally wounded Sitting Bull. In the confusion, Sitting Bull was then fatally shot by another officer. The outbreak of gunfire brought a charge by a detachment of soldiers who had been positioned nearby in case of trouble. Witnesses to the violent incident recalled a peculiar spectacle: a show horse which had been presented to Sitting Bull years earlier by Buffalo Bill heard the gunfire and must have thought it was back in the Wild West Show. The horse began performing intricate dance moves as the violent scene unfolded. The Massacre The killing of Sitting Bull was national news. The New York Times, on December 16, 1890, published a story at the top of the front page headlined â€Å"The Last of Sitting Bull.† The sub-headlines said he had been killed while resisting arrest. In South Dakota, the death of Sitting Bull stoked fear and distrust. Hundreds of his followers departed the Hunkpapa Sioux camps and began to scatter. One band, led by the chief Big Foot, began traveling to meet up with one of the old chiefs of the Sioux, Red Cloud. It was hoped Red Cloud should protect them from the soldiers. As the group, a few hundred men, women, and children, moved through the harsh winter conditions, Big Foot became quite ill. On December 28, 1890, Big Foot and his people were intercepted by cavalry troopers. An officer in the Seventh Cavalry, Major Samuel Whitside, met with Big Foot under a flag of truce. Whitside assured Big Foot his people would not be harmed. And he made arrangements for Big Foot to travel in an Army wagon, as he was suffering from pneumonia. The cavalry was going to escort the Indians with Big Foot to a reservation. That night the Indians set up camp, and the soldiers set up their bivouacs nearby. At some point in the evening another cavalry force, commanded by Col. James Forsyth, arrived on the scene. The new group of soldiers were accompanied by an artillery unit. On the morning of December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army troops told the Indians to gather in a group. They were ordered to surrender their weapons. The Indians stacked up their guns, but the soldiers suspected they were hiding more weapons. Soldiers began searching the Sioux tepees. Two rifles were found, one of which belonged to an Indian named Black Coyote, who was probably deaf. Black Coyote refused to give up his Winchester, and in a confrontation with him a shot was fired. The situation quickly accelerated as soldiers began shooting at the Indians. Some of the male Indians drew knives and faced the soldiers, believing that the ghost dance shirts they were wearing would protect them from bullets. They were shot down. As Indians, including many women and children, tried to flee, the soldiers continued firing. Several artillery pieces, which had been positioned on a nearby hill, began to rake the fleeing Indians. The shells and shrapnel killed and wounded scores of people. The entire massacre lasted for less than an hour. It was estimated that about 300 to 350 Indians were killed. Casualties among the cavalry amounted to 25 dead and 34 wounded. It was believed most of the killed and wounded among the U.S. Army troops had been caused by friendly fire. Wounded Indians were taken on wagons to the Pine Ridge reservation, where Dr. Charles Eastman, who had been born a Sioux and educated at schools in the East, sought to treat them. Within days, Eastman traveled with a group to the massacre site to search for survivors. They did find some Indians who were miraculously still alive. But they also discovered hundreds of frozen corpses, some as many as two miles away. Most of the bodies were gathered by soldiers and buried in a mass grave. Reaction to the Massacre In the East, the massacre at Wounded Knee was portrayed as a battle between â€Å"hostiles† and soldiers. Stories on the front page of the New York Times in the final days of 1890 gave the Army version of events. Though the number of people killed, and the fact that many were women and children, created interest in official circles. Accounts told by Indian witnesses were reported and appeared in newspapers. On February 12, 1890, an article in the New York Times was headlined â€Å"Indians Tell Their Story.† The sub-headline read, â€Å"A Pathetic Recital of the Killing of Women and Children.† The article gave witness accounts, and ended with a chilling anecdote. According to a minister at one of the churches at the Pine Ridge reservation, one of the Army scouts told him he had heard an officer say, after the massacre, â€Å"Now we have avenged Custer’s death.† The Army launched an investigation of what happened, and Col. Forsyth was relieved of his command. But he was quickly cleared. A story in the New York Times on February 13, 1891, was headlined â€Å"Col. Forsyth Exonerated.† The sub-headlines read â€Å"His Action at Wounded Knee Justified† and â€Å"The Colonel Restored to Command of His Gallant Regiment.† Legacy of Wounded Knee After the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Sioux came to accept that resistance to white rule was futile. The Indians came to live on the reservations. The massacre itself faded into history. However, in the early 1970s, the name of Wounded Knee came to take on resonance, largely due to Dee Brown’s book. A native American resistance movement put a new focus on the massacre as a symbol of broken promises and betrayals by white America.