Content Strategy

10 Better Ideas Than Looking at a Top 10 List for Advice

by Andrew Hanelly · January 10, 2012

Top 10 lists are like new year’s resolutions. They seem great at first, but they quickly make you feel bored, hopeless, and like you’ve wasted your time.

And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y.

Which is why I’ve kept this one bare-bones, tactical, and hopefully useful for you beyond the 4 days it typically takes us to crash and burn through our empty new year promises.

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The Content Strategy Burger [Infographic]

by Mark Smiciklas · December 8, 2011

A good content marketing plan contains a number of different elements including theme, audience, tone, publishing channel, etc. But how do all of these components come together to form a cohesive strategy?

After reading 6 Layers of Social Media Content Strategy by Jeffrey Cohen over at Radian6, I was inspired to create a visual metaphor that assembles all these content marketing ingredients.

Although I agree with the layers discussed in Jeffrey’s post, I have a slightly different view about what makes up the ‘meat’ of an effective content strategy. Check out the inforgraphic and read the Radian6 post.

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The Business of Infographics

by Mark Smiciklas · October 5, 2011

A picture is worth a thousand words. In the digital age, the saying has never been more relevant. To cope with the daily onslaught of information we’ve become content grazers, skimming headlines and post descriptions for the promise of bite-sized nuggets of information.

As brevity becomes more important, infographics present brand journalists with a great opportunity to deliver knowledge, ideas, solutions, etc., in a manner that can be quickly consumed, understood and remembered.

Robin Richards, Information Design Director at the creative firm JESS3, says this about infographics:

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Learn Content Marketing With This Crash Course

by Jason Falls · September 21, 2011

Analyze all the various channels of marketing and you’ll typically find one thing ties them all together: Content. Content marketing lies at the core of any good marketing effort, not just social media marketing effort. Understand how to build content marketing strategies and you’ll be 10 legs up on most people out there calling themselves “marketers.”

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The Future of Websites

by Andrew Hanelly · September 20, 2011

When you’re talking about the future it’s hard not to get carried away. The future of almost everything seems exciting. Futuristic cars, houses, and of course, websites, will seemingly be able to perform almost any function, thanks to creativity and advances in technology. So our imagination runs wild. And we sound like Dave Gelernter sounded in a 1997 BusinessWeek article, when he discussed the radical notion of ”lifestreams” — a flood of data from an individual person that shared every detail of their life.

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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Content

by Jason Falls · August 4, 2011

Everything you ever wanted to know about content, you’ll learn at Content Marketing World. The conference, which is not-quite-inaccurately being billed as the premier international content marketing event, takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 6-8. I’m speaking there, along with an all-star roster than includes the likes of CBS News and New York Times contributor David Pogue, David Meerman Scott, Kevin Smith (a/k/a Silent Bob), Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi and a roster that’s frankly eye-popping.

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The Anatomy of a Web Redesign Failure

by Andrew Hanelly · July 20, 2011

All of the best practice documents in the world can’t prepare you for a thud that was supposed to be a splash when your big website redesign hits the market.

Or should we say, misses the market.

Designing a website is a difficult endeavor. Sure, everybody and their 11-year-old-nephew seems to be capable of launching their own web magic, but there’s a big difference between plopping a new blog on the web and building a website that serves a purpose, an audience, and a bottom line.

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The First Step In Creating A Social Media Content Strategy

by Ilana Rabinowitz · July 6, 2011

A question that new users of social media often ask is, “I hear that content is king, but what kind of content should I be producing?” The conventional wisdom in marketing is: first figure out your objectives, then plan a strategy and finally develop the tactics. Then, the theory goes, you get customers — and that’s when you take care of them. After all, look at the time, effort and money you spent. Of course you have to show them you care, or you’ll lose your valuable assets!

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Want Your Message to Resonate? Say it Again. Want Your Marketing Message to Resonate? Say it Again.

by Andrew Hanelly · June 7, 2011

Growing up, my mom had to constantly remind me to do the things she needed me to do.

After the fifth or so reminder, I’d reluctantly get up and put my clothes in the hamper (or complete whichever menial task she’d requested of me). On my way back to couch potato land, I’d let her know how much of a nag she was under my breath.

She’d almost always counter (correctly) with the same argument: “Well, if you did it the first time I asked, I wouldn’t have to repeat myself.”

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