Here’s an interesting infographic from Fathom on the power of storytelling that I wanted to share. A great reminder that the creation of valuable, compelling stories on a consistent basis can maintain or change the behavior of your target audience. Content marketing. Great stuff!

I spoke at an AMA webinar today sponsored by Curata talking about content marketing and content curation. There were a number of questions about the “fair use” of online content when it comes to content curation. Since this is a topic we get questions about all the time, I thought the following information should help. By the way, I am not a lawyer…please seek legal advice for situations where you need it. What’s the Law on Fair Use with Online Content? Kimberley Isbell from the Nieman Journalism Lab has a very lengthy article on the legal aspects of aggregated content. Kimberley brings out this important point: “For all of the attention that news aggregators have received, no case in the United States has yet definitively addressed the question of whether their activities are legal.” Even the US Government Copyright office states that  “the distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined.” This paper from...

An abbreviated article based on this topic first appeared in BtoB Magazine. Arnie Kuenn, President of the Phoenix-based search and content agency Vertical Measures, calls the latest Google algorithm update (dubbed the Panda or Farmer Update) “one of the biggest, most significant updates from Google in years.” The goal of the Google Panda update involves the filtering of low quality or duplicate pages that are deemed “not useful” to users. Google has called out so-called content farm sites such as the eHow and Answerbag juggernaut Demand Media, as well as those sites that feature a disproportional amount of advertising over informative text. The result has impacted millions of pages in almost every topic area. Those pages have been squeezed out of their organic search rankings with one push from the hand of Google. And it doesn’t stop there. Jason Calacanis, founder of human-powered search engine site Mahalo.com, almost immediately announced a 10% employee reduction due to the impact the...

The  Content Marketing Institute (CMI) today announced the launch of their strategy consulting practice dedicated to the emerging category of content marketing strategy and editorial services.  The practice is focused on helping organizations of all sizes address the opportunity for original content to be leveraged for positive impact on business results.Continue reading

I know nothing about the company that produced this video. After watching the video, I’m compelled to find out more about them. Now that’s content marketing! Thanks to Bob Leonard from acSellerant for calling this out.  It’s worth the time.

Most marketers we work with want to develop a content marketing program driven, in part, by user-generated content (UGC). They believe that if they can only get their prospects and customers to talk about their brands online in blogs, forums and review sites, all their woes will disappear. And in almost all cases, marketers start out in this quest the wrong way. But let’s begin with a story. LEGO on Community Building LEGO opened a new store in Beachwood, Ohio (just east of Cleveland) this past Friday and we were on hand for the grand opening. Just outside the store, the folks at LEGO set up an exhibit where they were building a larger than life R2D2 out of LEGOs (the image below is the model that the LEGO master builder started with as a guide).Continue reading

I had the pleasure of presenting at a recent PR Newswire sales meeting where they discussed their new ARC Engagement Platform [disclaimer: PR Newswire is a Content Marketing Institute benefactor]. One of the samples came from Rodale Custom Content & Marketing and Curves International (see below as well as this direct link). Rodale Marketing On behalf of Curves, Rodale CCM has published Diane magazine for the past six years. To date, the magazine has touched the lives of millions of Curves members by providing inspirational and informational content that is in alignment with the brand’s guiding mission: to make women stronger. To illustrate its capabilities as a custom content marketing provider, Rodale CCM created a video that captured the emotional connection between Curves, members and franchisees, and Diane magazine. The video focuses on three women, and depicts the role Curves and Diane play in their lives. To widely distribute this video content, along with a white paper series...

I first heard the term content curation in this post by Rohit Bhargava back in 2009. Rohit positioned that, as more corporations and individuals create content, the role of the content curator is needed.  Rohit describes this position as: Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward. As we fast forward to 2011, content curation techniques are now a key part of content marketing itself.  Actually, it’s always been an important part, but we are just now defining it as content curation.Continue reading

Say what you will of Howard Stern, the man is a genius. If you get the chance, this article in this month’s Rolling Stone magazine is worth the read. The self-proclaimed “King of All Media” dishes out some pretty amazing advice for us in the content marketing business.  Here’s three big ones that we all need to focus on. Edit your content…then edit some more. When Howard was growing up, he used to perform in front of his family doing impressions. Sometimes, his father would stop him and say, “Stop! You’re going on too long.  Shorten it up! Make it Interesting!” Besides helping mold Howard into the paranoid man he is, every day Howard focuses on how less can be more, using editing as an art form. That’s actually one reason why Howard will oftentimes cut off his interviewees mid-sentence. I see this all the time with small and large companies in their content marketing…they don’t know when to stop or when to bring in a great...

Released today at the Custom Content Conference, the Custom Content Council with Roper Affairs released the preliminary results of a CMO and Consumer Attitude study on custom content marketing.  The original study was performed in 2006. Here are the highlights of the 2011 study: Chief Marketing Officers 35% of CMOs surveyed believe that custom content marketing is the future of marketing, versus 19% in 2006. CMOs see an increased value to custom content – 87% feel it’s valuable in 2011 versus 72% in 2006. Consumers 77% of consumers understand that the company’s goal for content creation is to sell them something. 73% of consumers prefer to get information from a company in the form of a collection of articles over an advertisement. 69% of consumers like that custom content marketing targets their interests. 67% feel that custom content from a company is valuable. 61% feel better about a company that delivers custom content AND are in turn more likely to buy from that...

People ask me all the time: “Isn’t there such a thing as too much content?” The answer: of course. How do you know? Well, if the content is NOT valuable and relevant and NOT working for your business, it’s NOT worth developing and distributing.  If it is, then do it. Although I’m a big fan of editorial calendars and structured publishing schedules, I live by a different content marketing credo than “too much” or “too little” content. Always Be Launching (ABL) Today is the 10 month anniversary of the Content Marketing Institute. In many ways, it feels like it’s been around forever. This CMI post details the ABL strategy. Since May of 2010, we’ve launched: A daily, community blogging portal The industry magazine (print and digital) Major content marketing research A premium content portal The largest content marketing event Our goal: Two new content launches per quarter (yes, we are working on some new ones right now…stay...

I started in the publishing industry over a decade ago. At that time, we used an antiquated publishing strategy called the “three-legged stool.” The concept was that, in order to be the industry’s leading media content provider, we needed to be the expert provider of information using online, print and in-person – the three legs of the stool.Continue reading