At RebelMouse we're obsessed with setting up content for success through the power of distributed publishing. We've mastered a lean tech model that lets you launch socially-powered websites that can be launched in hours, not weeks.

Still, RebelMouse is much more than just a software vendor and technology platform. The company has deep experience building and launching successful media properties that gain real traction and have a chance to become a core part of pop culture.

2016 was not just the year of video, it marked the explosion of live video on every major social media platform. Facebook launched first with live video one year ago back in March 2016, where the format quickly became popular among users. Google announced support for 4K live streaming on YouTube. And, as 2016 came to a close, Instagram rolled out its version of live video Stories while Twitter, which owns Periscope, decided to finally bring live-streaming functionality into its main app.

The spread of live video should surprise no one given the engagement stats: People comment 10x more on Facebook Live videos than regular videos.

October 2016 marked one year of working from home for me. Before that, my 20s were spent in a have-to-be-there-even-on-Thanksgiving news station and a clock-watching ad agency. Now, people ask me all the time: How do I like working from home, and how do I do it?

I love it, I never want to go back, and it's a lot easier. If you don't feel comfortable working from home at least some of the time, take 2017 to get more used to it.

At RebelMouse, we make it our mission to give you back your organic growth. Still, we know the idea of pay-to-play on social media, especially on Facebook, isn't going away anytime soon. The average user spends 20 minutes a day on Facebook and 80% of marketers are investing in social ads in 2017. So having an allocated budget for Facebook is a near-mandatory strategy for content distribution.

The good news is you can make your dollar stretch on the platform. Whether you've already implemented a robust spending strategy for Facebook, or you're just getting started, here's a tip to try:

Here's a great little throwback fact: When Facebook advertising first began, the only way you could target by interests, locations, etc. was through dark posts. Now, those features are available with every ad. So what are dark posts in 2017?

Dark posts, or "unpublished posts," as Facebook calls them, do not post to your Facebook Page's wall or appear organically in the news feed of your current followers. The perks of dark posting are pretty obvious for big brands and e-commerce Pages, but every advertiser can benefit from experimenting with them too. But if you're new to the Facebook ad game, it can be a little abstract to learn. So, if you're a rookie or just need a refresher (like I sometimes do), let's shine the light back on the benefits of dark posts and how to create them.

Does your site generate consistent traffic? Can you confidently identify a loyal audience that craves your content?

If the answer is yes to either question, then consider your content valuable and, therefore, monetizable. But with banner blindness and ad blocking on the rise, your monetization strategy needs to go beyond slapping banners across your site. In an era where advertisers closely monitor ROI and push for quality audience engagement, success requires an integrated advertising approach that enhances the overall user experience on your site.

In this guide, you'll learn the following:

At RebelMouse, we love the crazy, fast, ever-changing world of the internet. Founded by Paul Berry, the original CTO of The Huffington Post, and backed by new media experts from BuzzFeed and Buddy Media, we have an avant-garde view of how publishing works.

Check out these 10 statements that define the RebelMouse mindset for 2017, designed to get you psyched to share your stories with the world.

Updated: December 28, 2016

Being a Rebel Socialite Means Taking an Integrated Approach to Content Creation + Distribution

...Maximize Your Growth When You Hit Publish

At RebelMouse, we are obsessed with content distribution, which is why our platform is designed to enable a publishing process built on social sharing. We embrace the idea that the potential for audience growth is much larger when you consider all of the people who care about what you create beyond your domain. With functionality to create and distribute stories across social networks, the RebelMouse platform empowers users to maximize this ecosystem.

The mission of scaling an engaged audience is exciting and rewarding. At RebelMouse, we believe that achieving success isn't an accident, it's a decision. The key is to effectively blend the art and the science in the editorial process. Here are five best practices for growth that you can apply to your strategy.

1. Own Your Identity

Organic reach isn't dead. You just need to know how to adapt to recent changes. We have you covered.

According to Social Media Examiner's 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 55% of marketers chose Facebook as the most important social network, and 86% regularly use Facebook Ads. Plus, 67% of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook marketing activities. So it's no secret marketers are eager to learn how to get back some of the organic reach that has been lost in recent years. We created this guide as a way to help you navigate around these changes and start growing on Facebook again.

In this guide, you'll learn the following:

RebelMouse Founder and CEO (and former CTO of The Huffington Post) Paul Berry has obsessed about contagious media — and how people consume it — for decades. He chatted with Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist at Edelman, for Rubel's podcast on all things storytelling, Content Convergence.

Click here to listen to it for free and get up to speed on ad blocking, audience growth, and the future of media companies and marketing in 2016.

In addition (and only in supplementary fashion!), digest some of the key points in our true gif-listicle form.

In today's dynamic digital landscape, where the ecosystem is ever evolving and you're required to make changes in a snap to keep up (or you simply want to make a design change without relying on a vendor), RebelMouse now gives you ultimate control over your site.

Our comprehensive Layout & Design tool enables you to customize, optimize, and flexibly manage any element of your site. The best part? No matter how you wield the Layout & Design tool, your site will be set up to look beautiful and perform optimally across devices, screen sizes, and platforms.

A lot has happened in the social sphere this year — but the rise of video, especially readable video, is the most impactful content shift of 2016. It's part of the the mobile takeover. This year, mobile is responsible for 65% of digital media time, making desktop a "secondary touch point," according to Marketing Land.

Videos are super easy to watch on mobile, and, so far, they've morphed into two very friendly beasts.

3 Simple Steps to Social Content Success

Building a social media content strategy is an important exercise to make sure you're getting the most out of your social posts. To get you started, we've created a set of guidelines that will help you kick start your strategic efforts.

In this guide, you'll learn the following:

These days there isn't a headline or piece of content on the whole wide web that isn't influenced, in some way, by data. In fact, for companies whose success depends on courting and converting customers online, big data is now (arguably) the most important competitive advantage to gain in the digital marketplace. Just look at the tooth-and-nail battle between social platforms like Facebook and Twitter for marketing dollars. Though active user figures are important, it is the maturity of each platform's ad product — that is, its ability to leverage data to enable brands to engage with consumers in relevant and authentic ways — that determines revenue potential.

Listicles are eye catching, easy to read, and, most importantly, consumers love to share them.

Source: Social Media Examiner, 2015

Here is your chance to get time with one of the few people in the world that have built important, massively viral properties on the internet.

RebelMouse is committed to helping brands and media organizations make the most of their digital presence, so we're opening up our CEO, Paul Berry, for one-on-one strategy sessions so you can learn the trade secrets of the best media brands in the world and apply them to your own business.

This summer I read Isaac Asimov's awesome sci-fi novel The End of Eternity. I thought a story about time travel would be a pleasant escape from the present-day world of media and marketing I work in every day. Ha!

Upgrade alert. Two new major changes to our platform will make your publishing experience that much more customizable and easy to use.

A/B Testing

We know the importance of A/B testing headlines and social copy is sooo 2011 — and while we've got that stuff down too, we've taken it a step further.

This is the third part of a three-part series on the path to distributed publishing. ICYMI, here's a brief history of how we got here + distributed publishing's impact on websites + tech.

What Does It Mean for Editorial Teams?

Editorial teams are waking up post earthquake and realizing they have exactly the wrong ratio of writers to video editors. The key for writers and reporters is to shift. They learned to tell their story in slideshows and then adapted those into listicles. The best writers then realized readable video needs to be written and are now out there writing it.

"More people meant more ideas, greater densities meant that ideas could spread more readily… These developments increased the rate of growth of economic productivity and technological." — Nick Bostrom

We are witnessing an unprecedented change in the way ideas are discovered, created, and spread. The infrastructure for ideas and content to reach audiences at speed and scale today is unlike anything we've ever seen before. Nick Bostrom illustrated the explosion in population and production beautifully in his excellent book titled "SuperIntelligence: Paths, Danger, Strategies."

This is the second part of a three-part series on the path to distributed publishing. ICYMI, here's a brief history of how we got here.

What Does It Mean for Websites?

Websites are not dead. But their purpose has changed, and their focus has shifted. Great websites are now social companions — built to help build loyalty and depth with the much smaller group of readers reached who've fallen in love with a publisher's voice.

The way people have found content on the internet has gone through some very clear phases. Understanding our history is vital to understanding the present and being able to anticipate the available paths of the present into the future.

Should we talk about AOL?

Content creators have one, big challenge: content nobody sees. That's why we're obsessed with distribution. We truly believe if you funnel your content to platforms in a methodical way, you'll see organic growth — because audience development isn't a hope, it's a strategy.

That's why we created Rebel Discovery. Discovery uses proprietary technology to find communities on social platforms that would be interested in sharing your content. You'll see results that won't come up through native searching alone.

During its annual F8 conference, Facebook revealed RebelMouse as a platform partner to publish Instant Articles, which is now available to any media company or brand.

Facebook introduced Instant Articles to create a faster, more immersive and more engaging experience for people consuming content within the Facebook app. We've been working closely with Facebook since last fall to build integration with the social network's new format.

You're a WordPress user. We get it. WordPress has been around for ages and meets your basic publishing needs.

But you may start to realize that "basic" doesn't cut it anymore in today's quickly evolving digital landscape. And having access to thousands of themes and plugins only makes it harder to figure out the right one for your content needs. Plus, any upgrades likely require developer work, which leads to skyrocketing costs.

So...ready to try something new?