Case Study on Mashable - Abstract

Mashable started in 2005 as a one-man tech blog from founder Pete Cashmore’s home in Banchory, Scotland—a far cry from the Silicon Valley scene. Since then, it has evolved into a veritable mainstream news operation, serving as a leading source for news, information, and resources for what is called the Connected Generation. In the process, they’ve gathered a community of 25 million unique visitors and 11 million social media followers.

But it isn’t just the number of visitors that has grown and evolved. They’ve also adapted their reporting to cover the influence of the digital revolution on all aspects of business, tech, entertainment, lifestyle, and web culture. This has been more or less a natural process as the space evolves, but their mission remains stronger than ever: to inform and inspire readers on the latest trends and technologies.

In this case study we will look at how Mashable evolved from its humble beginnings to a digital media website which hosts over 43 million visits per month and became a sustainable company in this unstable and competitive industry.

Mashable started in 2005 as a blog run by Pete Cashmore from his house in Scotland, A long way away from the Silicon Valley scene. Since then, it has evolved into a veritable mainstream news operation, serving as a leading source for news, information, and resources for what we call the Connected Generation. In the process, they’ve gathered a community of 25 million unique visitors and 11 million social media followers.

But it isn’t just the number of visitors that has grown and evolved. They’ve also adapted their reporting to cover the influence of the digital revolution on all aspects of business, tech, entertainment, lifestyle, and web culture. This has been more or less a natural process as the space evolves, but their mission remains stronger than ever - to inform and inspire readers on the latest trends and technologies.

However, this strategy isn’t only applicable to Mashable; there are a few things that any brand or company can learn from what they’ve managed to achieve. Some of the factors are:

· Think about what your consumers and stakeholders want to read, see, and share. Companies should ask if their content is easily accessible across channels and devices, and easy to understand. With social media, it’s important to bring order to complexity and make sure a brand's message is clear and not muddled by using inaccessible or complicated social media language (or buzzwords!).

· Focus on the creativity of your brand's social content. Once you've set up a sustainable presence on social, don't get lazy; seek out new opportunities and adopt new formats. Being at the forefront gives you time to better understand different platforms before other brands have even started.

· We are entering the next era of social networking, moving beyond just followers and distribution to true engagement. At the core of this is a shift from search-driven content to social driven content. This is great news for humans! We hear a lot about content curation, and while it is a buzzword of the moment, at the heart of it is social discovery. People are finding news, information, and entertainment everywhere online. And they are looking for both networks and feeds that provide reliable filters and/or serendipity.

· Visuals are now driving more engagement on social networks. From Pinterest to photos, images are now important to social content. For example, shared images on Mashable can draw as many as eight times more engagement when compared to simple non-visual links. Brands needs to think about pairing compelling visuals with their stories.