Thanks to Emily Thompson, online marketing coordinator for Kutenda Online Marketing Software, for this week’s guest post. Couple thoughts I (Joe) had while reading this.  First, you need to understand your brand persona first and foremost when it comes to SEO and content marketing.  In other words, what do you need to be a true expert in to drive your business? That will help determine the tactics Emily speaks to. Also, regarding Emily’s last point, design-intensive content marketing, through devices such as the iPad, is becoming more important.  As content marketers, we need to start understanding that “content” is the combination of words and pictures (and the context). We can and do gain credibility off of both.  Although I’m biased, like Emily, toward the word, I am more focused on the interplay between both more than ever. SEO and Content Marketing Content is King. If you’re doing content marketing, you understand its importance, and the trust it builds...

I had an excellent podcast interview with Kim Albee from Genoo yesterday (it will be up in a week or so) where we talked in detail about content marketing and authenticity. The first step in being authentic in your content marketing and social media? Understanding who YOU are.  What’s your brand story?  What do you stand for? So much focus in content marketing is understanding the buyer persona – or understanding exactly who your customers are, what their pain points are, their informational needs, etc.  (Some companies go so far as to name their personas and create pictures of them.)Continue reading

The results are in.  Content marketing spending will rise again in 2010. The 3rd Annual 2010 Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Survey found for the third straight year that marketers will again put significantly more money into content marketing initiatives. Go here for the complete content marketing spending survey results and a complimentary download of the final report. Content Marketing Spending Takeaways: 6 of 10 marketers are increasing content marketing spending in 2010. Only 7% are decreasing spending. According to the 259 survey respondents, average content marketing budgets are 33% of the total marketing budget (up from 29% in 2008) Small companies spend more than 2x the amount on content marketing as to larger companies. Of all content areas, marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions more than any other area (as a % growth from 2009). Content marketing spending overall increased 11% from 2008 to 2010. Click here to see the entire report (with pretty...

2008 The Year of Content Marketing What – Most marketers never heard the term and didn’t “get” it. Lots of explaining to do. 2009 The Year of Content Marketing Why – Marketers now knew what is was, but needed to convince their teams (and bosses) why it was so important (if you are not convinced, get the content marketing book). 2010 The Year of Content Marketing How – Marketers know what it is and why it’s so important. 2010 is the year we see major content marketing projects come to fruition (especially online). Marketers are talking content strategy and how content needs to be the center of their social media program. I’ve been talking about the content marketing revolution for over a decade now.  It seems like it took 10 years for us to get to it. We are in the middle of something amazing, whether you realize it or not.  Brands, small, medium and large, are the publishers of today and tomorrow. Long live content marketing.

Thanks to Randall Beard, EVP and General Manager – Nielsen, for sharing this week’s guest post… Instead of using your own content marketing to surround and reinforce your brand, what if you put someone else’s TV program content around it instead?  Branded Integrations, done right, use TV program content to drive your brand.  The problem, though, is that most Branded Integrations come about by happenstance and not by use of proven tools and techniques.  Here’s how to successfully use Branded Integrations as part of your Content Marketing portfolio. Continue reading

Every speech I give to marketing professionals, I get asked one of two possible questions: How long do you spend on Twitter each day?, or How long should I spend using Twitter each day? Bar none, this is the best response to using Twitter that I have heard – from Guy Kawasaki: Question: How long do you spend on Twitter every day? Answer: Asking me this is like asking Tiger Woods how much he plays golf. “It’s what I do.” If I’m on the computer, I’m on Twitter, and I’m on a computer eight hours per day. After reading this from Guy, I realized he’s exactly right.  When I’m on the computer (which is most of the day), or using my iPhone (when I’m not using the computer), I’m on Twitter. Twitter, as well as other social media, just becomes part of what you do as a marketing professional.  We have no choice anymore.  It just is. And you know what…that’s okay by me.

Thanks to our good friends at Zmags, we now have a 75-page eBook covering over 100 social media and content marketing predictions for 2010 from the most influential marketers in the world. You can view it here without signup! Last week we released the 100 content marketing predictions for 2010, easily our most popular post of the year.

No one seems exactly sure when, but shoelaces became popular sometime in the 20th century to better tighten shoes, replacing buckles and buttons (which were slow and cumbersome). Shoelaces are odd to me.  The technology exists today that we can manufacture any type of shoe, dress, casual or sport, without the need for shoelaces.  There is no need to tighten shoes, because the shoe itself can loosen or tighten, depending upon the need.  Take a shoe like this I just purchased from Sketchers.  I could wear this shoe for literally any situation. And no shoelaces.Continue reading

Some things amaze me, like this year’s social media and content marketing predictions list.  What does one sent email and two tweets equal?  Over 100 predictions from 60+ of the best and the brightest in marketing, content marketing, custom publishing and social media.  No kidding!  Just check out this list below. …and just to be fair, we have listed the predictions by order of submission.  Congrats to Seth Godin for being Quick Draw McGraw.  For those of you who want to add your two cents, please do so in the comments. Here are some of the key trends I found while reading through our expert predictions:Continue reading

We’ll be here someday with electronic, but this makes the case for why print is still an essential tool for most of us.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Rick Liebling, a long-time Junta42 supporter, for this provocative guest post.  Connect with Rick @eyecube. While those of us who are believers in Content Marketing have been diligently spreading the word, proponents of crowdsourcing have been screaming from the rooftops with all the subtlety of a tent show revival about the buzzword of 2010. But is crowdsourcing really all its cracked up to be? Can brands really harness it to their benefit? As a marketer your resources, both human and financial, are limited, so where should you be looking to shift your time and money? It’s important to understand what Content Marketing and Crowdsourcing are, what they can (and can’t do) and how they can be used (and misused). I think the biggest area of, if not confusion then perhaps misunderstanding, is with crowdsourcing.  Right now a lot of brands are using crowdsourcing like a cudgel instead of a scalpel. They are trying to grab as many consumers as possible, throw a challenge, any challenge,...

  Thanks to Dara Solomon, Community Manager at FunAdvice.com, for putting this timely piece together on user-generated content. More and more, marketers are asking how or if user-generated content should fit into their overall content marketing strategy. Dara provides a good overview below to help you in your decision making. As the Internet continues to sprawl, entangle with, and seemingly overtake many aspects of our lives, different issues also begin to reel us in. Something interesting to think about is the debate on websites using “user-generated content” (UGC) versus “traditional” content. The concept is simple: user-generated content includes any site where the user (that’s you or possibly your customer) can write and publish content, whether it is video content, blog posts, advice websites, and the like. No Rupert Murdoch involved there. Contrarily, “traditional” content includes pages run by local and national media, business pages, and any website where the content was professionally...