Content Marketing Today

As content marketing leaps 'the chasm' and lands in Geoffrey Moore's back garden, more and more marketers are on the lookout for a B2B content marketing agency that can make them famous. ...

That's a good thing. But almost every B2B agency out there is hurriedly carving a new 'Content Marketing' sign for their front door.

So it pays to have a think before you get yourself committed. Read More

Written by Amber Mac, Fast Company.

When I interviewed entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki recently, I chatted with him at great lengths about his Twitter publishing habits.

Take a look at his feed, and every few minutes you'll see a new post, from why videos go viral to Playboy's plans for a strip club. Read More

By Matthew Turner (@Turndog_million)

Growing up I was under the impression writers were artists… usually alcoholics, people teeming with personal issues, and eccentric as hell. These people wrote, sent out their work, got published, and sat back watching the royalties pour in.

Now, this was probably naïve of me, but for all I know this was true. What I can be sure of it’s no longer the case. Writers are still artists, and they may still be drunks, eccentric, and teeming with personal issues. However, they’re also marketers, and designers, and personal speakers, and coaches, and just about everything else you could possibly think of. Read More

A lot of great marketers make lousy social media marketers.

Most of the time they don’t even know how bad they are at it, probably because they’ve been so successful in some other kind of marketing (advertising, PR, CRM… something). Read More

We Got Coverage and Kudos from David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, and All Top

Yesterday, we discussed how Sasha Baron: successfully newsjacked the Oscars with his successful Red Carpet stunt. Posing as the Dictator, he spilled the alleged ashes of the late North Korean dictator Kim ill Jung on  Ryan Seacrest.   Although we loved the stunt for its own sake, we also hoped that we might pull off a bit of newsjacking ourselves. And, it worked, albeit on a more modest scale.

Because it was a hot Hollywood story, the Red Carpet stunt got all kinds of attention on TV, online, and in print--with lots of YouTube coverage.   So, I decided to see if we could inject ourselves however modestly into that same story.

Grab a hot story that conveys a key concept to maximize  the reach of your important message

If I had been writing a basic, just the facts, ma'am, story that described what newsjacking was and why it might be useful for public relations and marketing professionals,  I doubt that much would've happened. Regular readers of our blog would have benefited. But, I probably would not have generated much attention or additional readership.

Because I was able to inject a real-time element  into our story that incorporated both a hot concept--news jacking--as well as a hot event--the Oscars, we achieved a level of visibility that would've been otherwise impossible.  Read More

What is it that women seem to love and understand and guys don't? (about Pinterest, of course)

Perhaps, it's Pinterest's self-description which doesn't make it sound like a guy thing:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Check out this great Slideshare presentation  from 6S Marketing to understand what's going on with Pinterest? Read More

Infographic from CopyBlogger Gives You Both Inspiration and Practical Tips 

 

I love visuals that communicate complex ideas simply. This is a perfect example. And, I can relate to the need to cook up great blog ideas.

Enjoy the complete infographic below:

Read More

USA TODAY--A Social Media Primer For Neophytes-How To Populate Your iPad or Tablet Town Hall.There has been an explosion in social media networks over the past ten years. The younger set gets it, and aggressively uses them.Via finance.townhall.com Read More

Social media marketing is a trend, not a fad.  Moreover, it's a terrific extension of your content marketing strategy.

What’s clear from current research is that when we evaluate social media, we are not talking about the marketing longevity equivalent of the hula hoop or the Lambada. Social media marketing is here to stay.  If you are not already active in venues such as a business blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Slideshare, and YouTube, you should be asking yourself whether it's way past time to jump in with both virtual feet. The answer to the question is yes with an important caveat… …Before making the commitment to one or many possible social media outlets, it is vital to determine whether:

• you understand the target audience that you intend to reach
• you have something valuable to communicate to that target audience
• you have someone with the time, skill, and enthusiasm to execute a consistent social media program--either inside or outside your organization
• you will make the time to listen and respond to your social media audience.

There is nothing sadder than a business blog whose most recent post was a year ago. And, there is nothing less impressive than a Facebook fan page with only a few fans and hardly any messages to or from those fans. Yes, social media can be an extremely effective marketing tool. But, you will need to make a serious company commitment to ensure that it is effective for your organization. Read More

Great Content Marketing Advice from the Original Guerilla Marketer I get lots of useless emails from allegedly savvy marketers. But, much more often than not I can count on Jay Conrad Levinson for succinct, actionable, affordable advice. Here's the latest gem from his Guerilla Marketing email: Let your clients on hold learn how to connect to your Web site for pertinent information. Encourage the people who answer your phones to give your Web address to every caller who identifies [...] Read More