Once Again, Steve Jobs Gets His Timing Just About Right with the iPad.

Timing is everything. Too early with too little for too few and you lose. That was the fate of the Apple Newton which might be considered the great grandfather of the iPad. 

That won’t be the fate of the iPad as it comes to market at just the right time, providing a marvelous new outlet for content marketers to capture the increasingly mobile digital generation that now includes most of us.

The Sad Fate of the Apple Newton in the 1990s. Great idea. Unfortunate timing.

For Apple, the Newton was a tablet pc that was too early to deliver on its lofty promise in the early 90s.  It failed not because Steve Jobs’ ultimate concept was wrong, but because users weren’t screaming for a mobile device and because the Newton’s capabilities were limited and disappointing to many.  In many respects, the Newton was a remarkable product for its time, but it didn’t deliver enough value to captivate millions of users as its descendents the iPod and iPhone have done.

However, Steve Jobs simply lost an early skirmish as an intrepid pioneer, but he will be proven right over time. He has been fearlessly persistent in evolving products that he believes represent the future of computing. He learns from what did well and what did poorly and then goes on to define the future. 

So it will be with the iPad. This new device reflects everything Steve and Apple have learned about computing and communications as they introduced and continually improved their highly mobile products–from the Newton to the iPod, to the iPhone, and now to the iPad.

The iPad in 2010 is Dressed for Success.  Incredible idea. Terrific timing. Genuine Game Changer.

The new iPad dwarfs the old Newton: It’s colorful, connected, powerful, packed with storage, easy to use, larger, thinner, and just a bit heavier.

The iPad not only delivers solutions for today’s users demand, but is perfectly positioned to dominate for years to come as the standard for tablet computing on the go.

When you introduce a product that matches a confluence of powerful trends, you win.  Here’s why I believe that the iPad is that product:

The iPad: Dominating 2 Critical Trends That Will Drive the Future of Computing

1. Print is giving way to digital content for almost every generation. This seismic shift applies to books…to newspapers…to magazines…to catalogues…to advertising…to direct marketing.  It’s impossible to avoid headlines that shout out the disintegration of traditional print.  Even the best newspapers struggle with print while attempting to make their online products both compelling and profitable.  Costs are up. Subscriptions are down. Staffing has been slashed. Ad revenues have plummeted.
   We are consuming our information digitally and leaving paper behind.  That trend will only accelerate as we find just the right digital solution to meet our information consumption needs.

2. There is another equally powerful tectonic transition– from stationary to mobile. Today we expect to be able to compute and to connect with the world on the run. We also expect to receive the information we want instantly wherever we are. And, since the days of portable cassette players and the Sony Discman, we also want to take our entertainment with us as well.  But, now the definition of entertainment is much broader and includes games, movies, books, and magazines. We want our fun on the run.

In short, we want everything that we have always wanted but we want it on our terms. We are impatient mobile consumers of information and infotainment. 

Apple: Seducing Us First with the iPod and the iPhone—Tablet PCs by Any Other Name

Apple has been warming up users with small devices that they adore—the iPod and the iPhone. They have trained us to love their own version of  ‘tablet pc’s’ even though that’s not what they called them. Hundreds of millions of users are now comfortable using Apple touch screens and virtual keyboards even on these super small computers.  That makes them tiny—and unbelievably successful–tablet computers.  The numbers tell the story:

• The iPod. Launched October 2001. 240 million sold by Jan 2010.
• The iPhone. Launched June 2007. 33.75 million sold by Q4 2009.

In spite of  the iPhone/iPod’s miniature form factor, millions of users are using these computing cousins for much more than phones or music devices. They are put them to work:

• to browse the internet
• to read online newspapers and magazines in the browser
• to read books via Kindle iPhone app
• to manage calendar and task info
• to manage finances
• to play games
• to connect with friends/colleagues via email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• to share pix and videos
• to use a myriad of business and personal applications—2 billion downloaded by Q3 2009.

Soon users will be doing even more, more enjoyably by migrating to the next generation of tablet computers: the IPad.

Let’s Get Large. Bringing the Best of the iPod/iPhone to the iPad

If millions of users are doing so much with such tiny devices, imagine what they will do with a WIFI-enabled, full color, backlit, iPad with a 9.7” screen with 10 hours of reading time.  That’s as large as a small laptop or typical netbook, every bit as powerful, and much more enjoyable to use.

There is a lot to love:

• It’s large but thin–1/2”—and light–1.5 lbs.
• Instant on. No multi-minute Windows warm up wait.
• From the get go, every iPhone application will run unchanged on the iPad
• Users can buy books in full-color from the iBook store which uses the open eBook standard. It will be easy for authors to get their books onto the iPad.
• You can read Kindle books in a nice large size with your Kindle iPhone app.
• You can keep and share all your music, pictures, and videos from your iPod or iPhone.
• You can browse the iTunes store for music, video, and apps.
• You will be able to access customized information products such as the NY Times.
• You can draw and diagram to your heart’s content on a nice, large screen.
• You can easily connect a real keyboard if you want or use a comfortably sized virtual keyboard.
• You have a choice of WIFI only (plenty for many users) or the addition of high-speed 3G internet connectivity.

What’s missing and does it matter?

• No native phone, although you can use Skype or other internet phone software.
• No camera, but you can easily download pix to the iPad from your real camera or camera-enabled smart phone.

I believe that Apple has gotten the iPad just right and that Apple will dominate the heart of an exploding market for tablet computers where every other tablet pretender will be compared for better or for worse to the iPad.

For content marketers who are increasingly focusing on social and mobile media, the iPad offers loads of enticing possibilities to be newly relevant and compelling to a very active group enthusiasts.  Be there or be very square.

Postscript:

Yes, I will be pre-ordering mine on March 12.  And, no, the Newton wasn’t named after me.

I just received an email promotion that was so wrong-headed that it makes a perfect negative case study.  As always we can learn from what is terrific or, in this case, not so terrific.

Here are 4 Major Email Promo Mistakes that You Should Avoid:

• The header: This is the email header I saw in my inbox: “invitation for March 17”.  It doesn’t tell me what is happening on that date or why I should care. Since I, like all of you, receive way too many emails, I have no earthly reason to open it. 
  Your header must entice the recipient to open your email by showing quickly that your reader will benefit. It plays the critical role of a headline in a news story or an advertisement and is even more important because it’s the only thing your recipients may see in their crowded in box.

• The sender: The sender was Pearl Collier, but I neither know her nor can determine who she works for by looking at the sender name. That makes me nervous. If I take the trouble to cursor over the name, I can figure out that her email address seems to come from a large local R.E. developer. But, I bothered to do that only because I was motivated to write this article.
  Your send address mustn’t be mysterious. Unless you are mass mailing to folks who are inclined to open something from you because they know or respect you, you should use inexpensive software such as Constant Contact or MailChimp that lets you show a company name as sender in order to give you credibility.
• The message body: This tells me nothing other than the fact that an unspecified event is happening in an unspecified location at an unspecified time for an unspecified reason. I can see that the sender is connected to ‘Verandah’ but I don’t necessary know what Verandah is or what on earth the event is all about.
  Your message body should include everything your target needs to know to motivate them to take the next step whether it’s to attend an event, visit your website, get a free report, etc., etc. Make it obvious and enticing.
• The attachment: Since I don’t know this person and am paranoid about viruses and evil spyware demons, I will not open something that might wreck havoc on my PC.  Even if I knew the sender, she hasn’t given me enough explanation about why I would benefit to justify opening it.
  Your attachments should be rare or non-existent in promotional mailings. Put what you need to communicate in the body of the message. Make it super easy for your recipients to do what you want them to do.

A Sadly Missed Content Marketing Opportunity

What’s really unfortunate about this promotional mailing is that it is almost certainly promoting an event that is important for the company, expensive to produce, and most likely enjoyable to attend.  But, few recipients are likely get past the marketing hurdles that make it hard for them to justify taking action.

Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure that your header and your message body provide relevant and compelling content that motivates your prospects to take the next step toward becoming your customers.

If you were to dig up a five or 10-year-old edition of the Yellow Pages, you would find that in every major category, there are lots of very large ads from companies with huge budgets to spend influencing buying behavior. Back then, it really was important to have some kind of presence in the Yellow Pages because they frequently represented the last stage in purchasing.

Today everything has changed. Buyers go first to the web to do their research about potential purchases. They then either buy directly from the web or take their research results and go to the store or contact the business in order to complete their purchase.  You have only to look at the incredible shrinking Yellow Pages to understand how little influence they have in purchasing behavior today.

That is sad for the Yellow Pages. But it is terrific for small business marketers.

In days past, they would have had to invest thousands of dollars every month year in and year out to be able to compete against large established companies. A tiny Yellow Pages ad could cost several hundred dollars per month. Unfortunately, the impact of that small ad would be minimal compared to that of their giant-sized competitors.

On the Internet Even Small Companies Can Be Major Players

For a capital investment of $5-$10,000 a business of any size can build a credible and compelling website that integrates a blog, an eNewsletter, and social media in order to compete effectively with companies that might be 10 or 100 times their size.

The power of such a web presence is that it can have infinite depth and breath. Although the website of a small business may lack some of the polish and pizzazz of its giant brethren, it can be every bit as successful when it conveys content that is truly relevant and compelling for its ideal target customers. Moreover, we’ve all seen small companies execute more effectively on the internet than their competitors who may have big budgets but less understanding of what works on the web.

Even better, social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter make communicating with your customers and building a base of rabid fans surprisingly easy. Because both of those tools are free, ideas and creativity have the chance to beat out marketing efforts from companies with big budgets but a poor understanding of how to put social media to work for the benefit of their customers.

Bad Economic News. Great Marketing News.

Every small business faces the challenges of a very tough economy. That’s the bad news. But, the good news is that it is never an easier or less expensive to create and conduct an effective marketing program.

You can now go head-to-head with the big guys online–and win.

Online research for an upcoming April trip to the wonderful city on the Seine uncovered a delightful content marketing practitioner, Steve Solosky, “The Traveling Professor,” along with his guide to Paris, his website, his eNewsletters, his blog, and his intuitive grasp of content marketing.

I’m sure that launching a successful series of travel guides is almost as challenging as it is for an unknown novelist to create a blockbuster. That’s because everybody who loves to travel thinks they should be a travel writer in spite of long-established competition from Michelin, Fodor, Frommer, Insight Guides, Time Out, and hundreds of others.  In fact, a quick Amazon search for ‘paris travel guides’ shows more than 1000 listings. Steve’s book appears on the first search page and is ranked #40 Amazon’s Books > Travel > Europe > France > Paris.

But, Steve is more than travel book author. He also leads tours to Paris and to other parts of Europe.  What he has achieved is to position himself as an expert so that travelers will trust him as both a virtual and literal tour guide.  He has translated a passion into a business.  His commitment to content marketing over time has certainly helped to make that business a success.

How I Discovered The Professor from his Helpful Comment on Another Paris Guide

Steve offered a very informative and useful comment on Budget Travel’s Romantic French Restaurants blog post. That’s how I discovered him. Because the hyperlink attached to his name took me the The Traveling Professor site, I was able to benefit from much more valuable advice—not just about restaurants, but about everything to do with Paris.  I followed the link because it was obvious that he knew what he was talking about and was being really helpful rather than self-promotional.

Voila! Content Marketing Basics—and More from The Traveling Professor

• He came up with a wonderful brand—The Traveling Professor—that is memorable, comforting, and authentic. After all, he is a professor.
• He created a website that is chock full of information with an integrated blog that provides lots of timely information that benefits visitors who are about to travel—or are already on the journey. You learn important but basic stuff like, How ot Use ATM/Credit Cards in Paris and questions that really concern Parisian newbies, How Much French Do You Really Need to Know to Visit Paris?
• He wrote and self-published a book to position himself as an expert, using Amazon.com’s BookSurge subsidiary. As noted, his book is selling  very well. That doesn’t happen automatically, but requires consistent, long-term content marketing efforts to appeal to information-hungry travelers. 
• He gives away both information and stuff. As noted, his blog is info-rich. But he is currently offering to send site visitors
• a free electronic version of his 2008 travel guide in return for registering (It has more than 10,000 downloads
• free copies of many Paris-related books that he has acquired over the years.
• He includes a ‘Video Blog’ on his home page that is an entree to a set of simple but charming videos on YouTube that he has uploaded to YouTube and that evoke the feeling of being in Paris.  I can smell the just out of the oven French bread now.
• He makes good use of  those YouTube videos with nice, brief invitation to learn more about Paris as on his video above, “A Stroll Down rue Mouffetard in Paris France – January 2010. See www.travelingprofessor.com for more information about traveling to Paris” And, if you are searching for this famous ‘rue’ on YouTube, Steve’s video pops up at position #7.
• Very helpful links, including books, articles, favorite haunts, useful guides, all of his past newsletters, and other blogs worth reading.
• He is actively crowdsourcing for his next book edition. This encourages enthusiastic participation and word of mouth among those of us who love Paris and want to share with others who feel the same way.  And, I’m proud to say that he may include my suggestion of the Cimietiere des Chiens as a fun, off-beat place to visit for veteran Paris voyagers.
• He provides everything you need to know to take the next step and buy his book—or to join his next journey to Paris.  He is turning browsers into buyers.

You may not be a traveling professor. You may not even love Paris. But, like Steve, you will benefit directly by developing thought leadership over time that engenders deep levels of trust among your current and future customers.  Check out his site. You’ll pick up some great tips about the City of Light and about content marketing.

AC Transit avoids the "build it and they will come" mistake to which many companies and organizations fall prey. They know that simply offering bus service and implementing technology is just the beginning to motivating Bay Area residents to take the bus regularly.  They also prove that traditional outdoor advertising can still work brilliantly at the right time and place.  This is targeted, visual content marketing at its best.

The San Francisco Bay area boasts excellent public transit systems in the city itself and in surrounding counties. AC Transit is notable not only for a well-run system, but for its effectiveness in marketing the benefits of public transit to its passengers.

AC Transit is the third-largest bus-only transit system in California, serving over 400 square miles of the East Bay.  Every weekday, over 230,000 people ride their fleet of nearly 800 buses.  They run buses on 105 routes with more than 6500 stops.

Even better, they do a great job of marketing all those buses, stops, and routes to current and future passengers.

We have already written about their wonderful online marketing campaign that paints such a compelling picture of the benefits of bus travel. AC Transit  created ACT for Me as “Your Guide to the Future of Public Transit.”  They illustrate why AC Transit should be an integral part of your life by sharing a creative range of content—from user-generated videos, to a travel savings calculator, to a discussion of community and environment benefits, and the exciting future of transit. Here’s A Public Agency That Really Understands Content Marketing.

Now they are adding even more value for their customers and continuing their effective campaign in a brand-new way.

Helping Passengers First by Adding Smart Transit Technology—and Then by  Enticing Them with Smart Targeted Marketing

AC Transit committed to NextBus to improve bus travel for their millions of annual passengers.  This system tells riders exactly when the next bus will arrive—and can even send arrival alerts so passengers never miss a bus.  However, they didn’t assume that every rider–or potential rider–would be aware of this new technology nor understand how NextBus could help them

To make the most of their NextBus implementation, they have recently added advertising to their bus shelters.  Now, even passersby get the message about how easy it is to use public transit and to stay on time.  The bus stop ads illustrate that it’s easy to know when the next bus will arrive by using NextBus technology. They use an image of a rider using a smart phone to access bus data with an additional close-up image of a smart phone and showing a NextBus prediction. Of course, they include the appropriate web address to use so that riders can access the NextBus data immediatel

In this way, AC Transit helps current riders to improve their bus riding experience while providing an easy-to-understand marketing message for folks who may be just beginning to think about taking the bus on a regular basis.

Even in Northern California, it can be difficult to get drivers out of their cars and onto the bus. But AC  Transit is doing a stellar job of marketing that is very likely to make that transit transition seem like a very smart idea .

Too many websites lack effective headlines. In fact, many have no headlines at all.  This void violates the first commandment of content marketing: “Think Like a Publisher.” 

That commandment covers a lot of ground, but let’s just focus on the all important headline. Unless you have time to go back to school, you can learn plenty from legendary print and online publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and yes, in its own unique way, the New York Post.

The purpose of a headline is simple: To make your visitors want to read the story that follows. Your headline must just explain enough so that readers correctly and eagerly anticipate content that follows. The right headline will then intrigue visitors enough to jump into the story.

It doesn’t matter that your site covers a niche that only some people care about. Your headlines must still entice those targeted visitors into reading your stories.

We can learn a lot from some of the best practitioners such as the Times, the Journal, and the Post. I have selected recent headlines that illustrate key elements for those of us who aren’t trained journalists—but who must nonetheless capture our readers’ attention whenever they visit us online.

Essential elements to emulate in the headlines that follow:

1. They tell just enough of the story so readers know what to expect if they continue reading.
2. They appeal to readers likely to have an interest in the story.
3. They are brief—longest 12 words; shortest 3 words; most 4 to 5 words
4. They get to the point. You don’t have to do much guessing about the topic and why you might care.
5. Some are clever or amusing, but not at the expense of meaning. In fact, a straightforward headline may be just fine for many topics.
6. When appropriate, they identify the key player(s) and/ or the key issues that the story covers. For example:
1. Key players–
1. Toyota,
2. US Hockey,
3. young smokers,
4. US banks,
5. Wal-Mart
2. Key issues—
1. Toyota safety problem,
2. US hockey victory,
3. curbing health care costs
4. plunging consumer confidence

How do the headlines on your website or blog measure up to the pros?

New York Times

• Toyota Official Says Recall May Not Fully Solve Safety Problem
• No Brownies at Bake Sales, but Doritos May Be O.K.
• French Ad Shocks, but Will It Stop Young Smokers?
• U.S. Men’s Hockey Victory Only a Bit Player on NBC
• Movie Review: In an Ever-Changing New York, Falling in Love May Be the Only Constant

Wall Street Journal

• Small Businesses Seek More Action to Curb Health-Care Costs
• Consumer Confidence Plunges
  
• Number of Problem U.S. Banks on the Rise
• Wal-Mart Buys Online Movie Service
• Credit-Card Fees: the New Traps

New York Post

• Don’t laugh: Curling is no joke
• Tiger’s ’sorry’ statement a real bogey: experts
• Police: Irate NY man crushed 30 cars
• Burning mad over tan tax

How do your headlines measure up? Do you have any headlines on your key pages? Do you have enough headlines? Give your site a critical assessment.  When you optimize the quality of your headlines, you’ll delight both your readers and the search engines.  You’ll improve readership, ranking, and results.

Headline feedback requested:

Please send me your favorite examples of great headlines—and why you love them.  Or send some examples of really bad headlines—and why they suck.

After all, the newsletter has a relatively finite reach, even online.  Think beyond this single content product.  You can dramatically increase the impact of your content marketing by thoughtful repurposing of the information and resources you developed in order to create the newsletter itself.

Here are 7 ways to extend the reach of your content far beyond the circulation of that print publication.  None of these require significant incremental expense. But they will consistently deliver dramatic increases in the reach of your content to prospective customers—and the impact it has on them.

1. Be certain that each newsletter story links to a dedicated page on your website or blog. You want your readers to find their way easily to your online home so they can discover lots more about your company, its products, and its people.  Your hyperlinked newsletter articles make the natural content connection.  In addition, try to link to more related stories on your site or blog from the original article.

2. Record audio and video of interviews for your newsletter for later repurposing. Post videos of interviews to YouTube and other targeted video portals specific to your industry. Upload audio to your website and blog.  Research podcast directories that may be relevant to your industry. Many of us would rather watch or listen to critical content.

3. Develop a news release schedule before your newsletter comes out. Target three or four key topics that affect your customers and the industry (based on the newsletter content). The release link should take them to the newsletter subscription page. Consider offering a free whitepaper or report as an incentive.

4. Discuss the newsletter and its content on your business blog. Post some of the key findings/issues. If you don’t have a blog, it’s high time you started one to connect to your customers.

5. Sent out news releases through a keyword-optimized service such as PRWeb. Make sure that they really are newsworthy. You’ll be surprised at your reach beyond your static newsletter readership. You’ll be picked up in the blogosphere and even by traditional reporters who are always looking for news stories.
Remember, news releases are for much more than getting press; they are for building key links and for helping bloggers and influencers find your site. Industry bloggers will be key to extending the reach and impact of your newsletter.

5. Continue the news release program after your newsletter is released, pushing the audience to  videos, an eBook, or key articles.  Your newsletter content can still be the foundation for newsworthy stories weeks or sometimes months after it hits the virtual street.

6. Be sure to make RSS feeds available for your newsletter and for all of your web content. This is an easy and free way of syndicating your news stories that will extend your newsletter subscriber base dramatically.

7. Be sure each article integrates social media sharing capabilities so that enthusiastic readers can tell your stories to their colleagues and friends on Facebook and Twitter.  If you’re lucky, a great article may go viral and be spread across the web by enthusiasts who value and want to share your content.

8. Provide something remarkable and different on your website or blog for download. This does two things: 1) continues the conversation with your current customers, or 2) gives you information on prospects so you can begin a conversation with them. Something remarkable may be a free eBook about the 10 trends in your industry, or a free white paper on a new, cutting-edge technology. Keep the sales pitch out. Seek only to educate at this point.

This lame attempt at artificial online intelligence was amusing, but appalling.

I was awake late one night not too long ago and wound up on a marketing product site that didn’t want to let me go. Up popped the following dialogue between the fictional Lacey and my canine alter ego.  Her enthusiasm for her product never flagged in spite of my devious doggy replies.

See if you’re smarter at spotting a prevaricating PC pooch than ‘Lacey’ was in this actual dialogue (or dogalogue).

Woof, indeed. 

Penton’s shift to online only for Welding Design & Fabrication symbolizes the decline of traditional media.  At the same time, Miller Electric shows just how powerful content marketing can be as a replacement for traditional publishing—even when publishers take their acts to the web.

Penton’s print magazine launched in 1959 when Eisenhower was President, Sputnik had just gone into orbit, and most TVs were black and white. After decades of success, the print edition of Welding Design & Fabrication succumbed to fundamental changes in buyer behavior and vanishing ad dollars.  In fact, only an association publication remains in print.

Print pubs are perishing across the B2B landscape as advertisers and readers flee. What’s happening at Penton is happening everywhere. You may regret the demise of B2B print as do I, but you cannot bring it back to life. You can no more expect a return to publishing days gone by than you can to poodle skirts and hula hoops.

In most niche markets, only one or two publications are likely to survive. This print apocalypse would have posed tough marketing challenges just 10 years ago, because B2B buyers still relied primarily on print for their information. Thus, sending a message to those buyers meant either PR or advertising campaigns aimed at welding or whatever targeted magazines delivered the right set of customers. Today, those buyers have moved online.

Just Going Online is Necessary but not Sufficient to Solve the Publishing Problem

Penton promised great things for the online version of Welding Design & Fabrication in their news release, “We are excited about the opportunity to focus our efforts online and trust our readers will look forward to the enhanced online features and solutions we will be launching in the near future to better support their operations.”

But, as my friend and former Penton exec, Bob Rosenbaum pointed out, “A focus on ‘product introductions, as well as increased participation by thought leaders, vendors and suppliers throughout the industry’ is shorthand for a reduction on spending for original content.“ He added that “This move makes sense only in the context of cutting expenses. Readers don’t want this, and while advertisers in the market are looking for creative digital products, they will view this as a last gasp. And they will flee.”

In fact, the current site seems to bear out Bob’s concern:

• Its lead news item is 15 days old as of January 29
• the only event it shows is 4 days past as of January 29
• It has a link to webcasts, but they appear to date back to 2007
• it doesn’t produce its own videos and those they show appear to be vendor infomercials
• its educational products are provided by ToolingU.com and available to anybody without going to Penton.

Of course, as unfortunate as this disappointing effort is for the future of Penton, it is equally problematic for marketers who need to connect to buyers in a meaningful way.  If Welding Design & Fabrication loses relevance online, how can marketers reach and influence their buyers efficiently?

There is a sound content marketing solution, but it requires businesses to replace the role of traditional publishers. Those early to market with the best solutions will benefit the most—and possibly lock out late comers. Miller Electric shows us the way.

Smart Business are Becoming the B2B Media—No longer out of Choice But out of Necessity.

Millerwelds.com shows what business can and must do from now on to replace the role traditional media in the marketing mix. We have written extensively about them online, Yes, Content Marketing Can Make Welding Cool!  and in our book, Get Content Get Customers. But, a single current example illustrates how their content beats the Penton online welding effort. They produce a host of very useful and practical videos that instruct users on a broad range of welding topics.

Here’s one example:

Although there is a brief mention of a Miller product, this video is all about best welding practices.

Penton lags way behind Miller not only in videos, but also in how-to information, interactive buying guides, and easily accessible content.  They prove that a business can out publish a publisher.

You may not have the resources that Miller can leverage, but by studying their approach to their customers, you will certainly be inspired to start thinking and acting like a publisher. That’s critical,because soon you will have few realistic alternatives to effective content marketing.

Guest post from Kathleen Taylor, APR, President of the Southwest Florida chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association offers 4 top takeaways from their January 2010 Social Media Cafe.   Her report from the seminar illustrates that social media is beginning to permeate PR even in a relatively small market such as the Naples/Ft. Myers Fl area.

By Kathleen Taylor, APR

"The wisdom’s in the room. Make a concerted effort to learn from those around you," said Butch Ward from Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, FL, as he spoke with a crowd of public relations professionals at the January 2010 Social Media Café.  Butch and three fellow experts shared new ways of including social media tactics in our public relations practices.

The Poynter Institute describes itself as “a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders.” The Institute’s interest in how PR or “business communication” professionals practice exemplifies the social media requirement  to reach beyond the way we’ve always done things. As Butch reminded the audience, we are all learning together as we explore the new  social media sandbox. Fortunately for all of us, not everything is new and unfamiliar.

In fact, as we expand our minds to embrace new technology and new methods, the best of traditional public relations and marketing principles still apply.  Moreover, even new elements such as business blogging don’t need to be intimidating.

Here are 4 useful tips from the Social Media Café seminar that will make even reluctant marketing professionals comfortable about  jumping on board the social media train before it has left the station:

1. Research, planning, implementation, and evaluation: These fundamentals still apply to social media.

Don’t be tempted by the deceptive simplicity of going social. Some companies jump right in with little or no knowledge of why they want to be there. Don’t abandon the traditional wisdom of defining goals and calculating the plan. Before diving in, consider what you want to talk about and which social media connection can be the most beneficial. Are your customers already participating on this platform? Do you want to build your brand in a different market? Not all Social media sites serve the same purpose, and many are industry-specific. Companies will typically benefit more from a social media venture that fits them strategically. Social media is continuously evolving, and it can serve a multitude of purposes for a company; just don’t let the extent of your reasoning be “because everyone else is doing it.”

2. Blog posts don’t need to be long or fancy to be useful and popular. Just know your subject matter, and give people what they need to know.

Your business blog can provide timely and valuable insights to your customers about your industry, on current events, and on key market trends. Don’t be intimidated because plain and simple writing will work just fine when combined with the authenticity and transparency your customers demand. Your business will benefit from a blog because you give customers reasons to keep coming back. Providing a detailed, updated communications with your audience makes your company  both more approachable and more valuable to customers. Equally important is the fact that regular, relevant blog activity that attracts and keeps a regular following can boost your Google Web site ranking.

3. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million!

Practically from the moment the moving picture was invented, audiences were captivated. In recent years, YouTube has captured our attention with millions of users count on it for news, entertainment and seemingly countless cute kitty home movies (Doubt me? I dare you to search for “cute kitties” on YouTube.). Research by eMarketer shows that there is a HUGE audience watching online video. Now, it’s your turn to put video to work in attracting that vast universe. From promotional videos, how-tos, and testimonials to commercials and interviews with company officials, you’ll find dozens of opportunities to get your customers to pay much more attention to what you have to say (Here are 2 recent posts the may be helpful as you explore the possibilities: 10 Ways to Win with Online Video and 6 Secrets to Making Online Video Work for Small Business )

4. Talk about ethical decision making within a social media context before a crisis presents itself.

Pretending something will never become a problem is a bit like triple-dog daring Murphy’s Law.  Your limited time is better spent considering sticky social media situations in advance than to find yourself in a crisis without a plan.
A case in point: As both professional and personal participation grows in social media networking, there are ethical concerns on both the part of the employee and the company when it comes to social media and the freedom it allows. If unfavorable commentary about your company were broadcast through an employee’s personal site, would his or her job be at risk? Are employees already aware of the expectations? Have a plan. Be proactive and have these conversations about social media ethics with your employees and partners now.

Contributing presenters to the Florida Public Relations Association’s Social Media Café on January 22, 2010 at the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Fort Myers, FL included: Butch Ward of Poynter Institute, Michelle Catin of rbb Public Relations, Chris Griffith of Keller Williams Elite Realty, and Michelle K. Gardner of John Scott Daily Florida Institute of Government at the University of Central Florida. You can read more about the presentations at the blog: http://www.fpraswflchapter.blogspot.com/

More on guest blogger, Kathleen Taylor:

Kathleen Taylor, APR is the president of the Southwest Florida chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. She currently works as a public relations consultant for a variety of clients ranging from real estate to healthcare. When she’s not penning public relations prose at
her computer, she’s discovered that logging miles in her running shoes provides great cardio and generates great ideas. You can follow Kathleen on Twitter @KatTayls, and learn more about her profession background at http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/taylorkathleen.