4 simple truths about content marketing re-imagined ~ by Helen Nesterenko

Content marketing is still a new field, and it remains dynamic and evolving. Every day, we have access to new statistics, which are based on the increasingly fine and detailed data that can be collected. These all reveal the importance of content marketing to businesses, and the very management of day to day operations.
However, despite all the buzz about this topic, it’s still important to keep basic principles and good sense in mind when crafting your content marketing strategy.
This article will highlight some basics to keep you current with the state of the industry.

Content is king

We have all heard this, and interpreted it in our own ways. However, as always when immersed in the daily pressure of running a business or maintaining a website, it is easy to become distracted by all the new developments and forget what is essential – the content itself. Have you lavished days of work on landing page graphics and shortchanged the text? Have you obsessively counted characters for the title of your post, and then rushed to try to produce a graceful composition fulfilling your title’s promise? Have you invested seemingly endless hours poring over website analytics, while forgetting to check in on what your audience is actually saying about your webpage?
Your readers always have time for what helps them get through their day, makes their life better, improves their business, or saves them effort or money. No landing animations, graphics of pretty models, website optimizing keywords, or urgent and appealing calls to action will compensate for rushed and poorly-thought-out content.


Stay positive. Work your @ss off. Educate yourself and remember these basic principles for successful content marketing. Good luck!
Main image Source:http://www.boscoanthony.com/

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About Helen Nesterenko

Helen Nesterenko is the founder of Writtent.com, the go-to place for engaging content that drives marketing results for businesses. She loves everything about blogging, writing and content marketing. That is why she truly enjoys sharing her insights with the audience.

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Lurkers are the 99.989% of Social Media ~ by Chris Abraham

Sam Fiorella, Partner at Sensei Marketing, recently wrote “Community Management: The 90-9-1 Rule is Dead,” about how the old concept that 90% of all your followers are just lurking, 9% are engaged, and that only 1% of the community actively produces content. Sam believes this is dead and that it’s closer to 70%/20%/10%, according to some research by Paul Schneider (from back in August of 2011).
I don’t know if I agree with this — I think it’s more like 990-9-1 — we’ve attained a culture that is getting further and further from being an actor and more and more comfortable in the audience.

From Producers to Audience; from Hobbyists to Consumers

It’s happened like this over and over: photography, filmmaking, recording, radio, television, computing, the Internet, message boards, blogging, and now social media. At the beginning of each of these creative innovation, there was a heyday of hobbyism, during which ambitious and creative innovators were able to use their wits, a little money, and loads of sweat equity to become the earliest of adopters, well before commercial interests even knew there were commercial opportunities available.






I have recently become obsessed with Amateur Radio. Even though radio has been commercialized since the mid-20s, Ham Radio holds on to the hobbyist nature of radio, almost as if radio were captured in amber.
Amateur radio reminds me of what it was like being a blogger in the late 90s using tools like Greymatter, Zope, and Pyra Labs (pre-Blogger).
You needed to connect to your platform intimately, understanding all the layers of online communication: hosting, web service, bandwidth, programing languages, monetization, plugins, domain names, DNS, moderation, anti-spam strategies, site architecture, SEO, and the rest.
With message boards, it was the same thing. Even if you weren’t a creator, admin, or host, it took quite a lot of effort to become a USENET member.




 


If you wanted to join alt.fan.lemurs, you really needed to figure out your computer, your modem, you ISP, your terminal, your BBS, and then find your way through a gateway or two, until you found your way into USENET — and then you’d need to find your way around that entire thing.
It’s not like that any more.
There’s very little need to be a hobbyist to engage with the Internet any more. Who even needs to know what Apache is, what an IP address is, how to set up a DNS, navigate the MX records, hack an .htaccess document or be concerned with ping latency. Now, all of that stuff is invisible, seamless. The barrier to entry has been (mostly) razed.
There are still coders, hackers, geeks, nerds, and hobbyist around, but those are hundreds-of-thousands of folks and not hundreds-of-millions — to say nothing of the 2 billion folks who are online, globally.
Today, circa 2014, it’s tough to even get that close. You need to go out of your way, these days, to be able to run your own mail and web server from your own home. It’s not even easy to get an ISP or web host to give you access to shell access.





 
And, if you don’t know what the hell I’ve been talking about in the last few paragraphs, you’re part of the problem and not the solution — which is a pity because it’s never been easier to become a geek, a coder, a hacker, a tech, an app-maker, a MAKER. The Internet has razed the barrier to entry to all of these things and the tools are all cheap. I mean, haven’t you heard about the Raspberry Pi?
It doesn’t matter. You’re either really into it or you’re not. No matter how easy it is. Or, if you are of a tech brain, maybe you’ve moved on well past the Internet. Maybe you’re entering the world of making the next thing. Either way, there’s surely a dumbing-down of the Internet (one would say this has been happening since AOL opened up a gateway to USENET, back in the early 90s.)
Anyways…
So, as a result, we’re entering a world with fewer and fewer active Internet-, Web-, Blog-, Social Media- and Content-Creators. Social media, including Pinterest and YouTube, is becoming more and more celebrity-, brand-, agency-, and studio-driven.

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About Chris Abraham

A pioneer in online social networks and publishing, with a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing, Chris is an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to the industries' leading firms. He specializes in Web 2.0 technologies, including content syndication; organize search engine optimization (SEO), online reputation management (ORM), content marketing, online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.

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Are you a social media polymath? by Chris Abraham

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Are you a one-trick pony? Are all of your conversations meta, meaning do you only discuss social media and social networks, the platforms and vehicles, rather than about content, narrative, story, experiences, expertise, and insight. Maybe you’re a polymath. Polymath (noun): a person of encyclopedic learning.
Well, it’s time to open your kimono and show off all that God had given you, both the features of which you are most proud as well as those features you’re maybe even ashamed of. By ashamed, I mean those parts of yourself that maybe haven’t seen the light of day, or the scroll of your blog, in many, many, years, if ever.

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Why You Need Content Marketing For Personal Branding~ By Jill Celeste

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Content marketing has gotten a lot of buzz lately – and for good reason. It’s a powerful way for brands to offer helpful content to their customers without asking them to make a purchase – and part of the trust-building process brands can follow to generate leads for future sales.

While we hear much about content marketing for companies, it is also important to consider content marketing for personal branding. Here are eight ways content marketing can boost your personal brand:

#1: Content marketing lets you show off your expertise.

What are you an expert in? There’s no better way to tell the world than through content marketing. Put yourself in your potential customers’ shoes and think about the questions they have about your industry. Then, write blog posts, make videos and design PowerPoint presentations that answer these questions. By positioning yourself as an expert and problem-solver, people will turn to you for answers, and, eventually, to purchase your products or services.

#2: You can build online authority through content marketing.

Your goal is to make your name synonymous with your niche, and content marketing will help you achieve this goal. As you create more content marketing pieces and share your knowledge with the world, you build your online authority. Partnering with other experts also helps build online authority. Bylined articles, podcast interviews and collaborating on webinars are all effective ways to extend your online authority.

#3: Content marketing helps with SEO.

Simply put, when you constantly create new content, you are helping your overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Google looks for relevant content, social signals and smart linking as part of its search algorithms. By creating helpful content, you are satisfying one-third of this SEO formula. Showing up on the first page of Google search results is a great way for customers to find you!

#4: Connect with others through content marketing.

Another aspect of your personal branding strategy is to connect with others, building relationships that grow your personal brand. Content marketing can help you connect with others in so many ways. First, through blog comments, you can answer questions and leave valuable feedback on influencers’ blog posts. You can also build relationships as you share your original content through social media channels. Finally, consider guest posts and interviews where you can extend your reach even more.

#5: With content marketing, you are always learning and sharing.

Personal branding is a journey of learning and sharing. While you are an expert in your niche, you can always learn from others. Be generous with what you learn and share it with your audience. Not only will you be more “human” with your audience, you will gain their trust even more. Consider content curation as part of your overall content marketing strategy. By using content curation tools such as Alltop, Paper.li, Feedly and Google Alerts, you’ll always have fresh content to share.

#6: High-quality content marketing makes you trustworthy.

That may sound like a tall order, but it’s very true: People learn to trust you through content marketing. When you provide high-quality content on a consistent basis, people will see you as helpful, knowledgeable and reliable. Furthermore, people buy from those they trust. If you’re helping them with your content marketing, you will be the person they’ll trust when it’s time to make a purchase.

#7: Establish yourself as a teacher and role model through content marketing.

Hand in hand with trust, people also purchase from those they admire, and content marketing is a fabulous way to find people who will admire your work. In most cases, you are not a marketer – you’re a photographer, SEO specialist or personal trainer. Teach people what you know. Be a role model in your industry. Show this expertise through content marketing, and people will line up to hire you.

#8: Through content marketing, you are showing people you are there for them.

Part of your personal brand rests on this question: What do you want to get paid to do (but you would do it for free)? When you’re passionate about your niche, it shows. You can’t help but help people get better! As you create content that exudes your passion, people will see you care for them. As you answer their questions, your audience will know you have their best interest at heart. This care and compassion translates to trust, admiration and loyalty – all hallmarks of a solid personal brand.
Personal branding is the way to show the world how you can help them. Think of content marketing as a vehicle to help you on this journey. When you create helpful, high-quality content that speaks to your audience, you are building your personal brand every time. Be there for your audience, and they’ll be there for you. Your personal branding experience will be that much richer.
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Stuck on what type of original content to produce? Be sure to get my free report, 76 Types of Original Content That Will Skyrocket Your Brand. You’ll never be short on content marketing ideas again!

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Jill Celeste

Jill Celeste, MA helps entrepreneurs and professionals learn to use social media to grow their personal brands so they can attract more clients, get better job offers and make more money. Jill believes that people buy from those they trust, and the best way for entrepreneurs and professionals to build that trust is through social media and content marketing. Jill is also the owner of Hound Dog Social Media, a full-service social media marketing agency, which helps her coaching clients implement smart social media solutions.

10 Google+ Communities for PR Pros, SEOs and Social Media Experts-by Violeta-Loredana Pascal

There are many public relations professionals who joined Google+ and share articles and interesting findings on this network. Communities are great places to keep in touch with PR peeps who share the same passion and interests, to exchange ideas, get tips and feel the pulse of the industry.
Below are ten Google+ Communities you should consider joining. They are listed based on the number of members, and cover a wide range of PR, communications and marketing aspects so that all the PR people on Google+ can find something that meets their interests.

1. Marketing+ – A Community of Marketers. Mobile Local Social Search PR – has over 1700 members. This community invites its members to “assemble some brilliant minds in marketing and connect… so, we can help marketing NOT suck.” Many interesting articles here!
2. Public Relations – A place for PR pros to talk about workflow, tools, tips, etc., – it is a community with over 1300 members sharing interesting and useful content in various categories.
3. Social media – this is a community with over 1300 members. The official presentation mentions that beginners and seasoned pros are all invited to learn from each other.
4. Online Marketing – A great community to talk about Online Marketing – with over 1000 members, open for anyone who deals with SEO, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Display, analytics and any other areas of performance marketing. They also run monthly events for professionals working in the space.
5. Social media – Discover How To Use Social Media For Your Business! – has almost 900 members and is a social media community devoted to helping businesses and marketers use social media more effectively.
6. Online Marketing – Where SEO SEM Online Marketing and webmasters meet – is a community with over 600 members discussing SEO, SEM, online Marketing best practices and so forth.
7. Search Marketing – The latest news, tips, articles, and discussions in Search Marketing – has over 500 members and it is a Google+ community that was created to bring you the latest in Paid Search, SEO and Social Media and as a platform for open discussions and idea sharing.
8. PR and Public Relations – A Google+ group for PR professionals both in house and agency. This community has almost 300 members, but only few share content. However, the articles and recommendations you’ll find here will make you join the community dedicated to PR professionals from around the world.
9. PR & Communications Professionals – Increase networking and facilitate discussions on industry trends. This community has over 260 members, but it is a community very relevant to PR pros so I simply had to feature it on this list. There are many categories with relevant and interesting topics, designed for industry professionals interested in the latest news and discussions about public relations, marketing, branding, social media and more.
10. Inbound Marketing – all-in-one marketing resources is a community with over 260 members sharing articles and discussing SEO, social media, marketing, PR, etc.

Yes, I know, there is also Internet Marketing – A Network of Internet Marketing Professionals community, with over 1300 members, but I find the content on the other communities to be more interesting, and since it is a list of 10, this community gets a mention here.
Another important thing: yes, you will find some people and articles in more than one community. In the end, you can check these communities and see which one(s) are of more interest to you and then join them.

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About Violeta-Loredana Pascal
Violeta-Loredana Pascal has over 10 years of experience in PR, marketing and communication, and has been running her own PR agency, PRwave INTERNATIONAL for 7 years. She is passionate about reading, blogging and traveling – see Travel – Moments in Time. Follow her on Twitter - @violetaloredana (Romanian and English) and @TravelMoments (English only).
 

Turn social into your own personal media empire

Your personal newsroom calls for authentic, purposeful engagement

If you read your local newspaper or a typical magazine, you’ll realize that most journalism is specialized. You have your columns, reporting, reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, and ombudsman. However, most companies don’t have the volume or diversity of news required to need such staffing.
That said, enough does go on each and every day in your office, among your staff, in your business, in your industry, with you and your very own personal brand that you need to cover the entire newsroom on your own, including the advertising and publicity (because like the news, everything comes down to driving revenue, and if you can’t prove that all the time, energy, and resources you’re spending online aren’t feeding sales, your one-man-social-media-band is not long for this world.)
Let me break it down.
I would start by saying tone down the shameless self-promotion that you’re incessantly dropping into your streams and onto your walls, but I have a feeling you’re not being aggressive enough. Why? Because I don’t think that most social media experts, consultants, and gurus recommend being aggressive enough.

Become your own personal newsroom

Ultimately, you need to become a reporter of your own facts. You need to lead your followers deep into who you are, what you do, what products and services you can, have, and do offer. You need to make sure you use your platform — your own personal newsroom, your own personal media empire.
It’s OK because that’s part of what makes you interesting: what you do, what you can do, and who you are.
The content on your website — about your company or brand, who you are, what you do, products, services, case studies, client lists — can be woven into what you discuss on a daily basis, interspersed with other news and content that come from other departments of your newsroom.
How would I write that stuff up so I don’t sound like a self-promotional, self-loving jerk? Be objective. What I would say is that you should report the facts, ma’am, only the facts, even if the facts reflect the work, experience, products, services, staff, and culture of you and your company.
It’s amazing how much time and energy is spent developing witty commentary and narrative outside of what you, your brand, and your company actually do. Too much time is spent being cute, coy, playful, and timely; riding the meme-wave, if you will, instead of getting down to business and giving the people what they want.

Consumers are hungry for engagement

People are tired of just playing peekaboo. People are a lot more earnest and hungry for real news, worthwhile content, and a spirited conversation — not just the razzle dazzle or the dance of the seven veils that you may think. Bombast and titilation have their place, but people grow tired of the same old tricks and eventually want something more, especially if you’re not actually TMZ or Rush.
In addition to wanting to know more about what you do, who you are, what you know, and how you can help, people follow you on social media in order to engage with you. They have questions, concerns, problems. People also come to you to find out what you think. They come by to see if you have an opinion or analysis of what’s going on in your space.
And it is your opportunity, every day, to offer your unique insight into what’s going on in the news. Sadly, most people spend more time sharing other peoples’ news, analysis, critiques, and insights hoping that the quality of news that they curate from others into their own social media stream says a lot about them. Sometimes that’s indeed true; however, the real value-add in this scenario is when the reshare, reblog, and retweet isn’t just a carbon copy but offers additional commentary, analysis, or personal color-commentary.

Analyze, teach and share

People come to you not for your curation and aggregation skills but for your take on things. Many people criticize newspapers circa 2013 because they’ve become news aggregators for nationally syndicated content, AP wire news, and barely doctored press releases. Spending a little time taking the news that’s coming across your news desk and putting your own personal spin on it is essential to your success and the value of your voice in a very noisy social mediasphere.

Listen to your followers, who will give you opportunities to expand upon your ideas, to refine your insights, and to learn more about your clients and brand fans

This is indeed less possible on Twitter where we’re only offered a paltry 140 characters but blogs, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, and even Pinterest allow hundreds of characters, plenty of room to go into quite a sophisticated analysis.
And finally, there’s the role of editor, teacher and ombudsman. After you’ve spent some serious time out there producing opinionated, brave, smart, and insightful content, you’re likely to get questions, queries, concerns, misunderstandings, and request for more, specific, content.
It’s time to listen, now — and listen carefully. Your followers will not only tell you what they need, want, and dislike, but they’ll also give you many opportunities to expand upon your ideas, to refine your thoughts and insights, and to learn more about your current clients and brand fans but you’ll have an opportunity to listen to what your natural business prospects are interested in and be able to sell towards that.
No matter how much social media experts and gurus talk about the traditional media as being broadcast-only, newsrooms have always depended upon their community to provide them news, traffic reports, leads, human interest stories, letters to the editors, and local community news.
In many case, at a macro scale, you’re now a publisher. You are your own personal newsroom and while you might want to keep the reins in and keep your own media empire relatively modest for now, you still need to think more in terms of engaging with your community in a real way instead if just entertaining and amusing them.
And that’s the way it is.

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The Importance of Keywords: What is the Long Tail?

By Christina Tarkoff

 

 

Never underestimate the importance of keywords in internet marketing, particularly the long tail keywords that can pick you up traffic that others might miss. So what is the long tail, and how can it be used to improve your chances of online success?

As you probably know, a keyword is nothing more than the search term a search engine user employs to find information. In order to be more specific with our terms, let’s use Google as a typical search engine: it is used for almost 80% of internet searches, with Bing and Yahoo next at about 8% and 7% respectively.

When considering the importance of keywords in Google rankings, particularly long tail keywords, there are some aspects of the Google search and listing algorithms of which you should be aware.

1. Keywords and Search Terms

When you are seeking information online you will enter a search term into the Google search box. For example, if you want a new lock for your house door you might enter ‘locks’. Google will search its index for web pages that contain the text string ‘locks’ and then provide you with a list of web pages that contain this term in order of relevance and quality of service.

In order for your web page to be listed for ‘locks,’ it must first be indexed by Google. This means the page must meet certain other criteria – such as have a Privacy Policy perhaps, have large numbers of quality web pages relating to locks linking to yours, have a logical design and load quickly, enable visitors to easily contact you, and many, many more. However, your page must also contain the keyword because that is what the Google user is seeking.

2. The Mystifying Google Algorithms—Otherwise Known as Latent Semantic Indexing

Google applies an algorithm known as LSI (latent semantic indexing), which calculates mathematically the relevance of the vocabulary on your page to the search term used by the Google user.

a) You Are the Customer

Let’s say you enter ‘locks’ into the Google search window. You will receive information on locks of hair, canal locks, internet security devices and even poems containing the word. The vocabulary you use on your web page should make it clear to a search engine algorithm exactly what the topic of the page is – the Google LSI algorithm is programmed to recognize synonyms, and to relate their use to a specific search term.

So you should also use vocabulary such as ‘key, door, house,’ and so on. The Google LSI algorithm will then know to list only pages that refer to door locks.

b) You Are the Seller

So let’s now turn that on its head, and assume that you are not carrying out the search, but are offering information and products on your web page. You should make it clear to Google within the text on your page exactly what kind of locks you are selling. The more relevant your page, and the better it meets Google’s listing criteria, the higher your page will be listed in these results.

By using the main keyword (‘locks’) and including the secondary keywords in both your title and the body of your page content, you will find that Google will provide the prospect with pages that relate to the type of locks you are selling. In other words, you should optimize each web page on your website for one specific search term, so that your page has a good chance of being listed when a search engine user uses that term or something close to it, then also include semantically relevant vocabulary to emphasize the relevance.

3. What Is the Long Tail

The logical conclusion is to design your web page content round keywords consisting of multiple words. In fact, a good strategy would be to create a few pages using popular keywords such as ‘security locks’, chub locks, ‘door locks’ and so on. Then create more pages on longer keywords/phrases.

Keyword analysis might find terms such as ‘front entry door locks’ and ‘door locks and hardware.’ By optimizing a page on each of these you would likely pick up traffic that web pages without these terms would not get. You could take it even further, to real long-tail keywords of five or more words such as ‘Door security – benefits of 7-lever door locks.’

Here are some specific advantages of using the long tail keywords in your keyword strategy:

• When used in large numbers, long tail keywords can get you a significant number of visitors.
• Long tail keywords are more specific than shorter phrases, so the traffic that reaches your web page is highly targeted and more likely to buy.
• The more words used in their search, the more focused prospects are and the more committed they are to buy.
• Long tail keywords are cheaper to buy in CPC advertising due to the lower competition, and they also offer higher click through rates.

The Take Away

While the importance of keywords should be obvious to those involved in internet marketing, the long tail keywords should be targeted as part of an effective comprehensive SEO campaign marketing. What is the long tail? It is an opportunity!




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Dangerous Youtube Marketing, Sales Training and Tutorial for Men Only

 

by marketing on 01/25/2013

You do what you do to put food on the table. To you, it’s second nature. You get a kid out of college- even a fancy ivy league college to try to do what you do and it will take him years of additional blood sweat and tears to do it well. Then another decade to do it as well as you do.
That’s because for you, what you do as a pro is autohabit.
For him, every little step and every little decision is a nerve racking stressor.

So, now that you’ve decided that you’ve got to start producing you tube videos to promote your firm, products, and services, what have the most effective Youtube video marketing pros picked up along the way that drives the highest number of conversions and sales? If there was a Youtube marketing tutorial or a sales training video that could raise your sales by 5%, would you watch it?
The above tutorial will raise your sales by at least 25%. It’s for manly men only.

 

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Facebook Graph Search Is Here. What Do Marketers Need to Know?~By Michael Lazerow

           Social Graph Combined With Intent Data Is   Powerful Mix for Marketers... 

When Facebook announces something, people listen. And  when  the words "Facebook" and "search" are mentioned in one event, people really listen. And when marketers learn the possibilities presented by this new search product, called "Graph Search," they'll listen even more.

While Zuck did not focus on brands, it's clear where Facebook is going with its search strategy. And businesses large and small will be one of the primary beneficiaries.
What Did Facebook Announce?
Zuck announced the social networking giant's foray into search in Menlo Park Tuesday. Instead of pages and links, the heart of Facebook search is called Graph Search, which is the love child of its scantily clad search bar and Facebook's humongous social graph. And it's the third child of the Facebook ecosystem, which already includes News Feed and Timeline.
Zuck made clear that Graph Search is not a search engine. Instead, when people go to search for a term, they'll be directed to people, places, or Pages that already exist on Facebook, instead of a series of links. And because Facebook has its massive social graph to flex, search results will be displayed based on personal relationships that you've established on the network.

So How Does it Affect Marketers?
Think about the potential in terms of sheer volume of search queries. With over a billion people on Facebook, creating more than 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections, imagine how many search queries will be performed each day. Every time someone searches for something, your branded content will have an opportunity to appear to Facebook's vast user base. Though users can only find content that has been shared with them, Graph Search makes it much easier to find track.

Consider that by creating a tie through the social network between a user and your Page, you are now providing another chance for you to reach people; this time, in the form of a branded search result.
This points to a larger trend in personalization.
I've said many times that people are people, and need to be treated as such. We're done with the days of people being labelled as expiring cookies or data points; instead, marketers need to treat people like human beings. Graph Search is the next logical step in this process for Facebook and social marketing. By building a fan base, creating engaging content and building a community, you can ensure that you're there when your fans and the friends of your fans are searching for something on the site.
The secondary benefit to marketers is that Facebook will now be conditioning its billions of users to search for what they're looking for. Does this sound familiar? Yes! It's intent. And Facebook has never been able to capture intent. The combination of social context (what your friends like) and intent (what you're looking to buy) will make it possible for advertisers to take Facebook's already amazing targeting to the next level.
I don't want to blow your mind just yet, so I won't go much further down this path. But imagine what happens when you combine intent, social context and custom audiences (i.e. the data you have about your customers). All of a sudden, Ford can advertise to friends of their current customers who are in the market for a car today. That's exciting and opens up many possibilities to take loyalty and social referrals to the next level.
Graph Search is only available to a few Beta testers. So for now, you should continue to focus on creating great content and buying sponsored stories to amplify the resulting engagement across the social network. Connecting to consumers using today's strategies will turn out to be the best form of SEO down the road as Graph Search takes off, and will ensure you aren't trying to play catch up when the functionality is launched to over one billion people across the social network


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4 Great Content Marketing Examples~By Andrew Schulkind

Looking for inspiration? Here are a handful of very different content marketing examples worth examining. We’ve covered a lot of ground in this column over the past few months, from the importance of relationships to evaluating appropriate channels to measuring your content marketing’s effectiveness. In some of those columns, we’ve looked at examples of great content marketing, but I thought it would be helpful to gather a small collection of samples for inspiration. Here’s are 4 of my favorites. These aren’t necessarily the “greatest of all time,” to borrow a phrase from Muhammad Ali; I’ve chosen them because they represent different ways to be memorable and because I hope they’ll inspire great ideas for you to use in your own content marketing.
Get People Involved
I just read this week that Hasbro has launched a campaign asking people to save their favorite Monopoly piece. Between now and February 5, 2013 you are invited to vote for the token you most want Monopoly keep. Voting takes place on the Monopoly Facebook page. As the article says, the least voted-for token “goes directly – and permanently – to jail.”
Talk about great content marketing. The campaign itself creates excitement, gets fans involved and rekindles nostalgia for the game in people who probably haven’t thought about Monopoly in a decade or more.
Even better, they’ve taken steps to capitalize on the excitement, releasing a limited edition of the game that includes all the current pieces and all the new candidates to replace the losing piece. You get a vote to save your favorite piece and a vote for your favorite candidate to replace the losing piece from five possibilities: toy robot, helicopter, cat, guitar or diamond ring.
(By the way, I came across this on Flipboard – a great tool for any content marketer or news junkie – and have to admit that this is the first time I’ve read an article in USAToday while sitting anywhere but a hotel coffee shop.)
Hasbro’s approach is worth looking to for inspiration if you’re a B2C brand with an emotional connection to your audience. (Even if that connection is somewhat dormant.) The social media aspect is worth examining for B2B audiences, too, though Facebook is probably not the channel for most B2B marketers.
Make ‘Em Laugh
I doubt there’s ever been a better way to waste time than the internet. But that doesn’t mean humor is always going to make for effective marketing. Beneath the yuks, there has to be a strong message if humor is going to further your content marketing goals. One fantastic example, and a real granddaddy of content marketing greatness, is the Blendtec video series, “Will It Blend?”
It’s not just enormously enjoyable to watch a “scientist” destroy cell phones, iPads, or Justin Bieber CDs. It also makes it plainly obvious that the Blendtec is one powerful blender. Will this work for you? Well, video is tough to beat as a delivery mechanism. People love watching video, and the search engines reward it in SEO terms.
The bigger question, though, is can you compete? No one cares whether your budget is a fraction of Blendtec’s – they just want to be entertained. If you don’t have the creativity or skills in-house and can’t afford to hire pros who do, you don’t really stand a chance. Dollar Shave Club is another firm with great a video. But unless you have a CEO who is really comfortable on camera, don’t try this at home.
Perfect Timing
Is there any better time for a welcome distraction than when you kid has scraped her knee? Band-Aids to the rescue.

1. Apply Muppets Band-Aid to the scraped knee.
2. Fire up the app on your smartphone
3. Sigh in relief as the video plays and the crying stops

Here again we have video, but we also have a really wonderful tie between a product that doesn’t generally grab many people emotionally and a product that does.
The take-away here: seek out connections like this – whether for content marketing or for your philanthropic giving – and you’ll be more likely to rise above the noise. The use of really cool tech toys, like the augmented reality used here, can also help spread the message.
Remain Relevant
If you’ve spent any time thinking about content marketing, you’ve probably heard of The Furrow from John Deere. Frequently cited as the original content marketing vehicle, it’s a publication that John Deere has made available to customers since before the turn of the century. (The turn from the 19th to the 20th …)
It’s a great example of sticking to your knitting – knowing your audience, knowing their interests, and recognizing how addressing their needs provides you with the opportunity to present your products without a hard sell. Yes, The Furrow is available online now, but it has stuck to its formula of serving an audience it knows well with information Deere knows they want.
The lesson here is to not dive into what’s hot just because it’s hot – choosing a channel should be one of the last decisions you make. First you have to you determine who you’re trying to reach, what they’re interested in, and how you can fill a need for them. A channel or channels should present itself pretty naturally once you’ve answered those questions.
I’d love to hear your favorite content marketing examples – and why they work for you.

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Predictions for B2B digital marketing in 2013~By Ruth Stevens

It’s that time of the year when observers can’t resist making predictions about developments on the horizon. I hereby take up that tradition, offering up four random prognostications for where B2B digital marketing is headed in 2013. My topics include Facebook, content marketing, personal branding, and data hygiene—certainly an eclectic mix. I encourage readers to add their own.
Facebook is ready, at last, for the B2B prime time
It took a while, but Facebook marketing is now ready for mainstream B2B, in support of branding, lead generation, and customer relationship marketing goals for enterprises of all sizes. There are several reasons for this—FB’s universality being one of them. But the critical driver is the recent arrival of the Facebook Exchange (FBX) ad platform, which will allow banner ad bidding and retargeting to specific individuals, based on data matching.
So, while I used to argue that Facebook should be at the bottom of a B2B marketer’s to-do list, I am revising my view for 2013. Talking to my pals at Edmund Optics, where I serve on the board of directors, I am hearing confirmation of these developments. Edmund’s target is audience is optical engineers, and others interested in science and technology. Years ago, I would have advised them to ignore FB and focus on more targeted social networks.
But now, EO has turned its Facebook page into an effective environment for engaging these guys, with weekly “Geeky Friday” offers, and the enormously popular Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide at Halloween, where engineers were invited to design zombie blasting tools using Edmund products. Facebook is now a top referring source for EO’s website, up 60% from last year. I stand corrected.
More and better content
B2B marketers were early to the content marketing game. In fact, I would argue that B2B has been a leading force in this area, in recognition of the importance of prospect education and thought leadership in the complex selling process. B2B marketers will continue to excel at creating valuable materials—digital, paper-based, video, you name it—to attract prospects and deepen relationships.
How do I know this? A new study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, which says that 54% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets in 2013. Their biggest content challenge for next year? Ironically, it’s producing enough content.
Personal branding as a way of life
Business people and consumers alike are realizing that their online personas have a growing impact on both their everyday lives and their professional careers. Rather than letting their personal brands evolve organically, individuals will make more proactive efforts to build and manage their images online, benefiting from the guidance of an emerging community of personal brand experts like William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson. This means establishing a unique brand positioning, and developing a set of active and consistent messaging across Internet media, especially social networks, to explain who they are and what are their capabilities. Personal branding is no longer just for celebrities or the self-employed; with the rise of social media, it is for everyone.
Renewed interest in data hygiene
Whenever I give a seminar on B2B marketing, I ask attendees to take out their business cards and look at them carefully. Then, I say, “Raise your hand if anything on the card is new in the last 12 months.” Invariably, 30% of the hands go up.
The high rate of change in B2B—whether moving to a different a company, a new title, even a new mail stop—is obvious. But only recently has it begun to sink in that addressing people incorrectly, or campaigning with undeliverable mail or email addresses, not only wastes marketing dollars, but also means lost business opportunity. So enough about big data. The focus in 2013 will be clean data.
And if you want some tips on how to keep your B2B data clean, have a look at my white paper, “Our Data is a Mess! How to Clean Up Your Marketing Database.”
So, those are my predictions. I hope readers will add some of their own. What do you think we’ll be seeing in B2B digital marketing in 2013?

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