Discovery’s ‘Moonshiners’ Recipe Tweets, Holiday Content, Nissan Video

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Discovery’s ‘Moonshiners’ and Twitter Outreach

Discovery is reaching out to fans of its show “Moonshiners” on Twitter and asking them to tweet out exactly how they make their own batches of booze, according to AdAge.

Brian Steinberg writes, “Fans of the series, which features moonshine maker Tim Smith and his sidekick Tickle, can create a custom batch of moonshine by tweeting ingredients, flavors and ideas for packaging to Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn’s oldest operating distillery.”

Viewers need to include @Discovery and #moonshiners, along with ingredients like #rye or #wheat in order to be considered for the prizes.

Holiday Marketing Content

Vocus’ Brian Conlin says content marketing during the holiday season should aim to boost readers’ confidence and be based around current events.

Marketers can post photos of behind the scenes activities and need to “make emotional appeals by writing about what inspires your business,” he says. “Combine the emotional appeal with a human voice (i.e. no corporate speak) and sales will come.”

Nissan’s Branded Content Campaign

According to Digiday, Nissan has posted a six-part video series that aims to shows the features the 2013 Sentra. The videos are about the romance of “Jeff and Felicia” and the ending will be determined by app users on Facebook.

Nissan’s Social Media Chief Erich Marx said, “Consumers are in control of what they view more than ever before. There are no guarantees anyone is consuming your traditional advertising messages anymore. Branded content now plays a larger and more important role in defining the brand and engaging with an owner base and prospect base.”

CBS Might Stream Shows Online

CNBC reports that this week, CBS announced that it has made a deal with Hulu Plus to stream past TV shows. However, on Wednesday, Nov. 7, that outlook shifted. Now, it might start selling past seasons of current shows to the online platform.

This would “allow viewers to catch up on past seasons, and act as an enticement for them to tune in to new episodes as they come on TV.” CEO Les Moonves said it could help raise profits to allow the streaming of current programs.

Charter Communications Loses in the Third Quarter

Charter Communications Inc., which is the fourth-largest cable-TV provider in America, lost cable customers in the third quarter, according to the Seattle PI.

Though new broadband customers signed on, it lost $87 million from July to September, and saw a decline of 72,000 TV customers.

Why Customer Engagement Matters More Than Ever

Jasmine Sandler of ClickZ says that since Google changed its search algorithm, it’s ever more important for marketers engage with consumers.

“Google’s algorithmic changes are now directly correlated to the level of customer engagement on a brand’s important web pages,” she writes. “From a social media perspective, customer engagement is truly the only tangible factor to determining social media marketing success. And, when you tie the two together (social and SEO), you see a direct correlation in brand lift and ultimately sales.”

In order to engage customers on the company website, Sandler says brands should include effective copy, a blog with an editorial calendar/strategy, professional content creation in the form of videos, articles, and images, and giveaway items like online video tips, MP3s, and webinars.

NBC’s TV Sales on Mobile Devices

Mashable’s Todd Wasserman reports that NBC has developed a program that allows viewers of TV shows use their mobile devices to purchase items they see on shows.

The program, called Zeebox — an Android and iOS app — allows viewers to purchase items from DailyCandy, an “NBC-owned site that will curate exclusive products inspired by Bravo’s Life After Top Chef, E!’s Fashion Police and Style’s Tia & Tamera.”