Content Curation Resolutions: 8 Tools to Try in 2016

Does anyone know where 2015 went? Seems like I just blinked my eyes and opened them on a brand new year.

I always consider the holiday season to be a time for reflection – a time to take a step back from the daily grind, look at the progress I made in the year that’s passed, and prepare to tackle the tasks and projects I want to accomplish in the next 12 months.

Among all my usual resolutions for 2016 (get more exercise … spend more time with friends … bring about world peace … blah, blah, blah), I’m looking to add some new skills to my arsenal and step up my content curation game. But rather than doing all the work myself, this year I plan to follow in the footsteps of our wonderful CMI contributors and community members who have recommended some tools they use for finding relevant content, enhancing their creativity and productivity, and keeping their tasks prioritized and organized.

For those of you who have similar resolutions for 2016, I’ve highlighted a few tools that seem particularly helpful, along with a bit of detail on the specific ways each might be used in a content curation context.

1. Domo: Many curation projects are published on multiple channels and platforms at once. This means curators typically need to look at several metrics reports, then find a way to correlate the data to create an apples-to-apples analysis about performance.

Named as one of the top 10 most influential brands on LinkedIn in 2015, Domo was built to help streamline repetitive and complicated processes like this, bringing all the data points into a single platform and providing simple-yet-robust visualization tools, to help it all make sense. No wonder it came so highly recommended during this year’s CMI Twitter chat on metrics.

2. Google’s Digital Analytics Fundamentals course: Understanding how well your content is performing is the responsibility of every content marketer on the team – even those who work on the more creative side of things and aren’t as comfortable with the numeric data component of content (guilty as charged). While I have a working knowledge of many Google Analytics reports, I know there’s a world of additional information available that I should be tapping into – particularly as it’s essential to my goal of curating the content that our audience needs, and engages with, most.

Fortunately, Joe Pulizzi clued me in that Google’s Analytics Academy offers an in-depth tutorial on the fundamentals of working with this essential analytics tool. The full (and free) course has six units that cover everything from core analysis techniques, to creation and configuration of an account, to understanding and analysis of the various types of Google Analytics reports. It also includes archived Hangouts, where Google team members and other experts answer users’ questions. With Google practically holding my hand, I might just conquer my legendary fear of numbers, and uncover ways to make my contributions to CMI more effective.

3. IFTTT: We all have those little housekeeping tasks that are part of the content marketing process – a tedious, soul-numbing, and time-consuming part, to be sure – yet a necessary part for effective content creation, curation, and management. For me, one of those tasks is logging all the examples we publish across our various content channels in one centralized Google spreadsheet so I can later repurpose them into e-books, infographics, and other curation projects (i.e., the fun part of the job).

If This Then That, better known as IFTTT, might just be the tool that can make this chore – and others like it – less of a time-suck. As CMI contributor Dan Smith discussed, by creating customized “recipes” that automate certain interactions between two products or apps (think: adding a recently posted YouTube video to a list of videos on Google Docs, or emailing yourself a weekly roundup of the most popular posts on your blog), IFTTT can minimize the time spent on menial tasks and help to ensure that the important stuff doesn’t slip past your radar.

4. MindManager: A perennial favorite of Roger C. Parker (who used it to develop his three-step blog post tracker), Mindjet’s MindManager has the reputation of being one of the best mind-mapping software programs. It’s definitely high on my list of tools to explore this year.

Mind maps help content creators visualize the connection between concepts, enabling them to identify the most logical flow of meaning between them. This kind of tool is helpful for a wide range of content marketing activities – from brainstorming content ideas to structuring a series of loose ideas into a cohesive story framework and organizing those stories into a content marketing calendar. From a curation standpoint, I’m particularly interested in using mind maps to align my project ideas with CMI’s business goals, which will help me better understand which projects to prioritize throughout the year.

5. Airstory: I’ve been obsessed with trying this writing tool, ever since it was recommended during our recent Twitter chat with Ann Smarty on content marketing tools.

Available as an invitation-only beta, Airstory helps you turn your content notes, media clips, image files, soundbites, and more into taggable, searchable cards. When you are ready to turn these odds and ends into a cohesive story, just drag and drop the relevant cards into an outline, and start connecting the dots between your ideas and your marketing insights. Airstory organizes and annotates the saved information in your cards for easy reference and stores everything in one view, so you won’t lose track of great ideas for future projects.

6. ZooBurst: While I’m typically most comfortable when I’m working with text-based content, I often long for the ability to take more of our content pieces off the static page and move them into a more visual medium or a unique and innovative format. Since our design team understandably needs us to prioritize the projects when we enlist its help – and because I have limited artistic talents – I’ve come to accept that few of my more experimental ideas will ever get to see the light of day.

Still, there may be hope. For example, after the CMI editorial team discovered a Listly of storytelling tools, I’ve been itching to give a creative tool like ZooBurst a try. This digital storytelling application enables users to create three-dimensional pop-up books online and share them via a simple hyperlink or embed them on a website or blog. There’s also an augmented reality mode that gives readers the ability to interact with the content using a webcam and some simple gestures.

7. ThingLink: While screenshots are great to include in content when illustrating a particular concept or function, they don’t always highlight the specific idea referenced in the context of my discussion. When curating images, I often find myself looking for a way to draw attention to a specific part of the graphic and include explanatory text or add a URL for additional resources on the topic.

Recommended by a CMI blog reader (who discovered it on this Listly of awesome content marketing tools), ThingLink enables users to annotate their images and video content with notes, links, and rich media – ideal for marking up graphics to enhance their value and make them more actionable.

8. Venngage: Speaking of images, one of the most powerful ways to refresh and repurpose content for easier reference is to take the text from a popular blog post (or an article, an interview, a video, etc.) and summarize it visually by creating an infographic. (For example, take a look at the recent SEO Clues infographic we built, based on the Ultimate SEO Checklist post published earlier on the CMI blog.)

Click to view full graphic

However, creating curated infographics like this can take a big bite out of our designer resources. When regular #CMWorld Twitter chat contributor Jade Phillips suggested using Venngage to create beautiful infographics, reports, and data visualizations, I thought I might try my hand at learning to build them myself. Hundreds of pictograms, maps, and icon tools are available in the Venngage library, and users can even upload their own photos, logos, and images to customize the designs and ensure that they are consistent with their business’ usual branding.

Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg – there’s no way to include all the relevant tools available to content marketers in just one post, let alone try them all out (much as I would love to do so). If there are additional apps, software products, or services that you’ve used and loved, feel free to mention them in the comments – I’d love to add them to my list of new tools to explore.

Want a reminder to read the latest tips, tools, and more insight from the Content Marketing Institute? Subscribe to our blog posts and never miss a day.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Content Curation Resolutions: 8 Tools to Try in 2016 appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

E-commerce and Mobile: 10 Easy Powerful Tricks to Sell More

According to research carried out by PayPal, which examined more than 17,000 consumers in 22 countries around the world, one-third of online shoppers uses mobile devices to make a purchase.

Mobile commerce, that is the management of commercial transactions via smartphones and tablets, has existed for at least fifteen years: in the late ’90s, Coca-Cola installed vending machines that accept payment via SMS text messages, and a few years later the possibility to pay train tickets directly from mobile phones was introduced in Austria.
However, it is only in recent years that purchases from mobile have seen an exponential growth: PayPal’s research reveals an annual growth rate of 42% in the period between 2013 and 2016.

Searching on mobile, conversion on desktop

Despite the growth of mobile, there is a fact that speaks volumes: the conversion rate on smartphones is 0.8% against 2.78% on desktops and users who clicked on “Add to cart” on mobile are less than half of those on PC.

It seems clear that, despite the fact that more consumers surf online to shop, this often does not lead to purchase. People use their smartphones to search for information about products, to compare prices, perhaps even get themselves intrigued by new products and promotions, but then they would rather complete the purchase on desktop.

When optimization is a stranger

There are different reasons why people are reluctant to purchase on mobile. According to Paypal’s research, 34% of people say the problem lies in the physicality of the device. The screen size is too small to allow an easy visualization and navigation of the purchase procedure. 18% of users blame it instead on the lack of site optimization, the content layout and difficulty in finding information.

Today, mobile commerce offers a great opportunity to all brands, because thanks to smartphones people can shop anytime, anywhere, multiplying purchasing opportunities. But this opportunity still too rarely results into business, because most of these e-commerce businesses are not yet ready to make the mobile purchase path easy, simple and fast.

M-commerce: undoubtedly fast, but without improvising

For anyone who has an e-commerce business, thinking mobile is a priority that should not be put off anymore: 204 million dollars were spent on these devices in 2014, while in 2018 transactions will be 626 million, three times as much. According to an article on Entrepreneur.com, if you aren’t building e-commerce businesses with mobile in mind, you may be irrelevant in three to five years. Before starting, however, it is important to analyze your objectives and targets, to observe the profiles and behaviors of consumers on mobile, which do not always coincide with those on other channels: the audience is generally young people. According to Paypal, 59% of shoppers on mobile between 18 and 34 years old use their phone to surf for about 3 hours a day (source: eMarketer) and they prefer in 63% of cases (source: Econsultancy) e-commerce businesses that have rich contents, which give detailed descriptions and product reviews. From this first general guideline, we can define the specific audience of the brand. You should always keep them in mind when designing and implementing all these improvements that make the shopping experience on your e-commerce business better and more evolved.

Here is a series of effective tricks to get you started:

#1 Enrich your content: although mobile experience is the emblem of immediacy, when it comes to choosing a product people love to have in-depth information. Therefore you should put detailed descriptions for each item, and you could even add videos illustrating the assembly instructions, functions or its use.

#2 Encourage reviews: Descriptions are important but opinions on your products spontaneously left by costumers are 12 times more (source: Econsultancy). To encourage them, put and highlight under each item a field where they can leave a review and make sure that the publishing procedure is as simple as possible, even on mobile.

#3 Choose explanatory photos: Given the small size of the screen, the pictures should tell what the product is about in a clear and attractive way and highlight its strengths. Make sure they are in good quality and easy to view.

#4 Use legible font sizes: To read the texts, whether they are titles, descriptions or buttons, users should not have to zoom in or move horizontally or vertically to see the whole page. Make sure all the important information are already shown on the opening page.

#5 Scrolling is better: Every link involves a waiting time to open a new page, which is not particularly appreciated on mobile. Structure your information as a single sequence that can be viewed through scrolling, so that users can smoothly pass from one content to another without interrupting their navigation.

#6 Customize your message: The e-commerce app is particularly useful to communicate to users instantly and in a personalized way: thanks to push notifications you can inform customers who have purchased one of your products when a similar or complementary product is on sale.

#7 Enable booking: Considering that many users search for products on mobile but then buy them on desktop, you should provide the opportunity to book an item, so that they can buy it at a later time.

#8 Add Social Medias: 28% of online activity is spent on social networks (source: Social Times) and there are 1.65 million active users on mobile (source: Wersocial). Make sure that they talk about your e-commerce business by adding social sharing buttons on each product and by promoting your best articles on your social medias.

#9 Make payments easy: Purchasing through apps offers consumers the convenience of not having to enter their data each time they make a payment. 26% of consumers consider it a significant advantage (source: Skrill). Ensure the possibility for costumers to use all major credit and debit cards and allow them to complete the purchase path in just a few clicks.

#10 Optimize your efforts: If you can’t apply most of these tips on your e-commerce business or the app currently in use, it may be appropriate to rethink it from scratch and to rely on skilled programmers or web designers. Alternatively, if you have limited time and budget, you can choose an online system to create apps and mobile sites on your own, like mob.is.it, without having graphics or programming skills, and they will be ready in a few minutes with its full features, also for e-commerce.

Experience is the key to commerce, even on mobile

It’s a fact: mobile commerce will continue to evolve and it is possible that these and other winning tricks today will be completely outdated in a few years. How to keep up with the times? By choosing a flexible e-commerce system and remaining faithful to your role: even in the mobile era a marketer’s task is to keep their eyes open and think about the consumers, what can truly satisfy their desires for comfort, immediacy, and simplicity in the purchase path. As stated by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, “If you do build a really great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” Do your costumers talk to each other about your e-commerce business? Make sure that the answer is yes.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

Content Strategy Musings for Forward-Thinking Marketers

“Quick story.” If that phrase makes you think of CMI Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose, you’ve probably been following Content Strategy for Marketers, the weekly newsletter that he kicked off a year ago.

Every Saturday, subscribers eavesdrop on his conversations, learn about what he’s reading or watching or listening to, and discover, as he weaves one quick story into another, his latest observations on content marketing and content strategy.

You can download an anthology of all of Robert’s Content Strategy for Marketers musings, and keep reading for a sampling of Robert’s messages that I’ve found especially thought-provoking, useful, and inspiring.

(Note: I’ve identified the newsletter’s edition title in applicable references so you can find the rest of the content more easily in the e-book.)

Treat content as a strategic asset

“Content is perhaps the most important business asset that we fail to manage as well as we could,” Robert says.

What does it mean to treat content as a business asset – a strategic asset – and why should we do it?

“We mostly rationalize the value of content against the priorities of individual functions of the business rather than its entirety. In other words, we look at content as a feature of the business, not as an ultimate strategic value of the business … Content created and managed well, repeatedly, defines a business. That’s why it’s so important.” – Content Is What We Are

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Content created and managed well, repeatedly, defines a business. That’s why it’s so important via @robert_rose
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The volume and complexity of corporate content make treating content as a strategic asset one of the biggest challenges of our day.

“I believe that a crisis is fast approaching for many enterprise marketers who are scaling their content-production efforts … We all know that we need to produce content like a media company. But our existing people, practices, and technology are not there yet.” – What Is Big Content?

In that newsletter, Robert also tells us of a dream in which his third-grade teacher appears holding a goat. What does it mean? Tune in next time, he says. (Robert has worked in the movie biz. He will mess with you.)

Ponder this: In what ways does your organization already treat content as a strategic asset – something that people plan, distribute, promote, and manage so that it supports your business goals in measurable ways? What more might you do?

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Look beyond the content to the content experience

It’s not surprising that, as co-author of a book called Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, Robert talks about the importance of the ways customers experience our content. Here are some examples:

“Content defines every experience we create for our customers – including our product or service. Thus, it cannot be a neutral part of any one experience. Content either enhances the experience or degrades it.” – Content Is What We Are

“Content strategists and marketers need to push interfaces beyond their traditional boundaries. (How quickly yesterday’s ‘innovative’ becomes today’s ‘traditional.’) We need to imagine ways to hack content-driven experiences.” – Hacking Content Experiences

“For some reason, customer-facing content – the thing that creates the customer experience our business will be known for – is treated differently. When a company is stuck in this pattern, content … may be hurting the brand.” – Who’s Afraid of Strategy in Content?

Having once worked for a company that excluded content from its user testing, I want to cheer every time I hear this message. The company I worked for in those days had formed a UX group, a big deal back when the term “user experience” was new. I wrote user documentation for highly regulated products that might affect life-and-death decisions. It seemed only logical to me – mandatory, even – that the UX group would test not only the product usability but also the information usability. Customer-facing content is part of the customer experience, right? Customers, you know, face it.

Didn’t happen. I couldn’t convince anyone in the testing group to include the documentation in the usability tests. The company defined user experience as product experience. Content wasn’t seen (by the suits) as part of the product; it didn’t count.

I still get worked up when I think about that mindset. Deep breaths. Robert is here. Content, he says, is part of the customer experience. It may just be the most important part.

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#Content is part of the customer experience. It may just be the most important part.
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Ponder this: How does your organization find out about the customer experience of your content? How could it find out more?

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Noz Urbina Talks Adaptive Content, Customer Experience

Get techier

Content pros resemble – or need to resemble – IT pros. Robert talks about the “blistering speed” at which enterprise technology is evolving. Even at that speed, technology is not changing fast enough to keep up with what publishers want to accomplish with it. He quotes Zemanta CEO Todd Sawicki: “We’re sort of all dancing around, waiting for the tech to get better.”

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In the meantime, content professionals have to embrace technology, despite its imperfections, lest we put our employers and ourselves at a disadvantage. Robert illustrates this point with numbers:

“In just one year, the number of marketing-technology companies has gone from 947 to more than 1,800. It has doubled in a year … I searched through a couple of job sites for ‘content strategists’ and found on one site almost 5,000 jobs that contained ‘well versed in technology’ as part of the job description … What does all this mean? … As you move through your career as a content marketer or content-strategy practitioner, how well do you need to know technology? The answer is, as well as possible.” – How Well Do You Need to Know Technology?

You might wonder why Robert’s research included looking at what it takes to do a content strategist’s job. Content marketers are not content strategists. But content marketers do have a lot to learn from content strategists. That’s one of CMI’s big themes for 2015.

Getting techier is just one way in which we need to learn from the folks in related content professions.

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Content marketers are not content strategists. But they do have a lot to learn from content strategists.
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When it comes to IT, we’ll never keep up with the changes. Keeping up isn’t the goal. The goal is to keep learning.

Robert pursues a similar theme when he evokes Bruce Wayne just after he has climbed a mountain in the movie Batman Begins.

“Bruce Wayne, searching for training to master his fears, gives a symbolic blue flower to Henri Ducard (no spoilers). Bruce has been told that delivering this flower to the top of the mountain will enable him to find what he’s been looking for. Henri takes the flower and says, ‘To manipulate the fears in others, you must first master your own.’ Then he asks, ‘Are you ready to begin?’ Breathless, Bruce says, ‘I can barely stand.’ With a powerful kick to the chest that knocks Bruce halfway across the room, Henri yells, ‘Death does not wait for you to be ready!’” – Are You Ready for the Next Level of Digital Content?

We are Bruce Wayne, and technology is about to deliver that kick to the chest. How about it? Robert asks. (Is that a blue flower in his hand?) Are we ready to begin?

Ponder this: What do you need to learn next about technology? How will you get that knowledge? When will you do it?

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Don’t get too techie

As important as it is that we get techier, Robert reminds us not to overvalue the role of technology in our jobs. He says that great content “strikes the right balance between human care and technology – between art and science – resulting in more-resonant audience experiences.”

He compares the classic movie Jurassic Park to The Hobbit trilogy and other movies produced today. Whereas Steven Spielberg struck the right balance between human care and technology, blending in computerized effects “only when he needed them,” many directors today “overuse computer-generated imagery. And audiences can sense that something is wrong. The suspension of disbelief is broken.”

One place where marketers need to avoid overdoing tech is in personalization. Robert tells of a colleague who wondered how personalized email can get before recipients feel “weirded out.”

“Yeah, this is the same ‘snap’ that today’s moviegoers experience. Computer and robotics engineers have a name for this phenomenon: the Uncanny Valley. The ‘valley’ is the dip in people’s comfort level when they encounter a nearly human image – a likeness that’s a little bit off. People feel repulsed rather than attracted to the almost-but-not-quite real. With our marketing content, this ‘snap’ into the Uncanny Valley is not good. It’s lazy directing, and it’s lazy content.” – Can You Be the Steven Spielberg of Content?

How do we as marketers avoid the Uncanny Valley? Be like Spielberg. Use technology only when you need it. Strike a balance between technology and humanity.

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Use technology only when you need it. Strike a balance between technology and humanity by @MarciaRJohnston
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Ponder this: In what ways might your customers feel weirded out or even repulsed by the experiences they have with your organization’s content? If you think no one is ever repulsed, how do you know? How could you test your assumptions?

Face your fear

Robert calls for marketers to change. At the same time, he understands the paralyzing fear of change. He stares down fear in several newsletters.

He channels Seth Godin, noting that when people raise their hands, they often unthinkingly keep them low. Robert urges us to raise our hands all the way up and avoid making “half-hearted attempts to tweak traditional marketing campaigns into ‘content campaigns’”:

“Expanding the remit of marketing into a group that creates valuable, content-driven experiences (rather than simply describing the product) using product-development methodologies for that content (rather than campaign-minded tactics) is the evolution of marketing … We’d better not be afraid to give it our all to make this evolution happen.” – Are We Reaching High Enough?

Robert again urges us to take action in the face of fear. In that newsletter, he recalls the Starbucks #RaceTogether campaign, which encouraged baristas to write the hashtag on cups and to talk about race.

“It was immediately met with a backlash on social media, and it was ridiculed by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight and on marketing blogs all over.  It doesn’t matter what you think of the Starbucks campaign. It doesn’t matter whether its strategy or execution was flawed. They tried something big.” – Action Reduces Fear

Image source: Starbucks

All of us should try big things, Robert says, and we shouldn’t stop just because we get scared. Trying big things “is the key with becoming strategic with content for creating differentiated customer experiences. Every action we take reduces the risk of the next. It’s only through continued inaction that the risk of the first step increases.”

While leaders at all levels need to take action in the face of fear, those who control the big budgets often find themselves in Robert’s sights: “We have to change. We have to get over the fear of the different. The C suite must see content as one of the most important things to get right.” – Who’s Afraid of Strategy in Content?

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Content is one of the most important things for your organization to get right. Don't let fear stop you.
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Whether or not we have the support of the C suite, though, he challenges each of us to look for opportunities to do what we can as he shares with a characteristic flourish:

“Can we pick one? Take one action? Even if we fail at it, that one action reduces the fear of the next. And one of those actions just might be the one that changes everything.” – Action Reduces Fear

Go ahead, apply those words to your life. Robert dares you.

Ponder this: What one action calls to you right now? If you took that action, what’s the worst that could happen?

The Content Strategy for Marketers newsletter goes out via email every Saturday. I look forward to reading it every week. I bet you would, too. One of these weeks, we’re bound to find out what happened with the third-grade teacher and the goat.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Content Strategy Musings for Forward-Thinking Marketers  appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Our Favorite Tweets from the 2015 #CMWorld Twitter Chats

At the Content Marketing Institute, our team is filled with people who have a genuine enthusiasm for the practice of content marketing. We also are fortunate to be supported by another team with a similar fervor – a vibrant #CMWorld Twitter Chat community. This super-smart, incessantly curious, and generous group gathers each Tuesday at noon Eastern Standard Time. We extend our sincere thanks to the hundreds of people who have joined us in 2015, including our inaugural CMI Community Champion Mike Myers.

Joe summed up our sentiments well when he tweeted:

Love you all #CMWorld. You are helping to change the face of communication and business as we know it. The big picture is real.

Below are a few of the most retweeted and insightful tweets from our chats. We invite you to join us in 2016. (You can see a schedule of upcoming chats and read transcripts from previous chats here.)

Community talk

Getting to know the #CMWorld community

A7 #CMWorld is full of the best and brightest content marketing has to offer. I can’t decide between the people and the education!! #CMWorld

— Blanks/USA Blog (@BlanksUSABlog) April 28, 2015

A4 Put simply, #contentmarketing will become #marketing #CMWorld

— Mike Myers (@mikemyers614) April 28, 2015

100th chat

A5: #ContentMarketing must follow the customer journey. So it’s ALL about the customer experience #CMWorld

— Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael) July 7, 2015

A1: I think being able to positively affect the lives of others, and accomplish real business goals at the same time is amazing. #cmworld

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2015

CMWorld wrap-up

A8: It’s time for the campaign to go away. Content marketing is a long game and not just a short win #CMWorld

— Vishal Khanna (@bediscontent) September 15, 2015

A1: Many of us speak with our marketing or advertising voice. It’s hard to be authentic with a mask on. #cmworld

— Scott Lum (@ScottLum) September 15, 2015

Audience-building

Email marketing

A1: Email is only as old school as your strategy. #CMWorld

— John Bonini (@Bonini84) May 5, 2015

A2 The best way to build an audience is to solve problems: blog, white papers, videos. Email is just about delivering that content. #CMWorld

— Aaron Orendorff (@iconiContent) May 5, 2015

Subscriber-building via websites and blogs

Subscribers want to listen. Leads want to buy. #cmworld

— Tom Reid (@GovConSME) June 2, 2015

A5 The metrics you use to “quantify” subscriber value affect behavior, so use care. Consider long-term relationship. #CMworld

— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) June 2, 2015

Customer experience and content marketing

A3) Absolutely! Without successful customer experience, what is a business? Even the simplest email content makes a difference. #cmworld

— Crowd Content (@CrowdContent) June 9, 2015

A7 – there is element of consistency across touch pts – which is core brand messages must be the same otherwise there is confusion #cmworld

— Sue Duris (@SusynEliseDuris) June 9, 2015

Growth hacking content marketing

A1 Growth hacking is a mindset. It’s fast-pace, data driven, actionable approach capitalizing on ops & Ideas that drive biz growth #CMWorld

— Sujan Patel (@sujanpatel) November 17, 2015

A6: Get content marketing inspiration from brands you admire. They’ve likely solved a lot of challenges. No need to start from zero #CMWorld

— Maureen Jann (@MaureenOnPoint) November 17, 2015

Strategies for building your email list

A1 An email list is a marketing asset you OWN, versus social media, which you’re just using and don’t control. #cmworld

— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) December 15, 2015

A4: Make sure the content matches the hook that brought them to it – no bait and switch – clarity is key #cmworld

— Ardath Albee (@ardath421) December 15, 2015

Content creation

Headline tips

A1: Top headline-writing tip: Surprise me. Intrigue me. Make me smile. (Sounds so simple) #CMWorld

— Doug Kessler (@dougkessler) April 21, 2015

RT @JoshStAubin SEO is great, but you write to provide value to people. Scoring in search is icing on the cake. #cmworld

— Content Marketing (@CMIContent) April 21, 2015

Content built for intentional repurposing

A1. I think content marketing strategy is first: Why, Who, What. Then comes where. Distribution must be part of planning. #cmworld

— Lee Odden (@leeodden) June 16, 2015

A1. I like to say: great content isn’t great until it’s discovered, consumed and shared (or acted on). #cmworld

— Lee Odden (@leeodden) June 16, 2015

A4: Great #content still needs to have the human element. Plan ahead but stay involved. #CMWorld

— Mike Myers (@mikemyers614) June 16, 2015

Content Inc.

Content marketing for entrepreneurs

A5 Be super focused on a small niche audience. If your content is for everybody, it’s for nobody. #cmworld

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) September 29, 2015

A6 While social media connections are great, most #ContentInc models use email subscription as the center of the business #cmworld

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) September 29, 2015

A8: Stay true to your strengths, talents & passion! #CMWorld

— Ben Gibbons (@bendgibbons) September 29, 2015

Charitable component to your business

A1 Similar to being a well-rounded person, being a well-rounded brand should include some form of giving back in my opinion! #cmworld

— Pam (@pamkozelka) December 1, 2015

A1: Brands don’t *need* a cause, but a sense of purpose can gather/mobilize employees and customers to do great things #CMWorld

— Bill Cushard (@billcush) December 1, 2015

Content marketing careers

Personal branding and content marketing

A8 The stronger your personal brand, the more you can help amplify your organization’s message. Your reach & credibility only help. #cmworld

— Christin Kardos (@ChristinKardos) July 14, 2015

A8: Personal brand helps with discovery and community. People connect w/ people 1st, brands 2nd #cmworld

— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) July 14, 2015

A5: It’s in a brands best interest to foster personal branding and retain those who practice it. #cmworld

— Josh McCormack (@joshmccormack) July 14, 2015

Professional development

A8 Never stop asking “why would my audience care about this?” in everything you do #cmworld

— traci browne (@tracibrowne) August 11, 2015

A8 Read everything you can! Seriously. Consume content marketing blogs and e-books and podcasts. And twitter chats! #cmworld

— Erika Heald (@SFerika) August 11, 2015

A8. Write. Write a lot. Write often. Be a strong strong writer. #CMWorld

— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) August 11, 2015

Content promotion and distribution

Paid promotions for content marketing

So, 1) Know you audience 2) find out where they hang 3) Entertain them with awesome content 4) Test your paid promos. Easy as pie! #cmworld

— The Cartoon Agency (@BrandedCartoons) January 6, 2015

A1: Here’s how I view the channels of content promotion http://t.co/fYWI3cxEbv.U can do it through earned, owned and paid #CMWorld

— Chad Pollitt (@ChadPollitt) January 6, 2015

Value of traditional media in content marketing

Ads are not content marketing usually. But the best ads and the best content marketing tells stories-ones that are meaningful. #cmworld

— Christoph Trappe (@CTrappe) January 20, 2015

You ultimately need direct connections to customers (email) – journalists, ads & everything else are temporary tactics #cmworld

— Nick Kellet (@NickKellet) January 20, 2015

Content promotion

A1 2/2: You don’t need a large audience to get your content out there. You can use it to grow your audience on social and email. #cmworld

— Kristi Hines (@kikolani) November 24, 2015

A7: It depends on your influence. If you are influential you get away with less promotion. If you are new it’s 90% promotion! #cmworld

— Ian Cleary (@IanCleary) November 24, 2015

Content to build trust

A2: Your company content can and should be the soul of your business. Traditional media struggles w this. #CMWorld #BeReal

— Marcus Sheridan (@TheSalesLion) August 18, 2015

You can (& should) build trust through all forms of marketing/advertising, but #contentmarketing allows you to tell a better story. #CMWorld

— Mark Kats (@ActualKats) August 18, 2015

Content marketing research

Research in your content marketing strategy

A3: Start with a strategy and a plan. What are your goals? What do you want to learn and why? #cmworld

— Lisa Murton Beets (@LisaBeets) April 14, 2015

A1. Context is key. Tell audience why that stat is so vital that you had to share it. How does it affect them? #cmworld

— Erin Cushing (@eccushing) April 14, 2015

Influencer marketing

Media and influencer relations

A4: Research who you want to target- what they write about, their beats etc. #cmworld

— Amanda Subler (@AmandaSubler) May 26, 2015

I would suggest spending less time worrying about press release and more time building a content rich media room on website #cmworld

— traci browne (@tracibrowne) May 26, 2015

A4. Sounds simple, but personalization is personal. And variable text ≠ personal. Pay attention. Think about what matters to them. #cmworld

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 26, 2015

Community-building to support marketing goals

A5: Don’t change your approach. You should treat a community of 1000 like a community of 10. Be personable. Familiar. Engaged. #CMworld

— Evan LePage (@EvanLePage) September 22, 2015

A7 Most important, forget about numbers. The real influencers in your community are the ones who love you most. No numbers needed. #cmworld

— Kelly Hungerford (@KDHungerford) September 22, 2015

Measurement and ROI

Content marketing metrics

Q4: You can actually use all the metrics listed in this graphic to measure an individual piece of content: http://t.co/08vAZzEWY6 #cmworld

— Pawan Deshpande (@TweetsFromPawan) March 17, 2015

A3. Vanity metrics are the most seductive, beguiling and useless from a business success perspective. #CMWorld

— Kip Meacham (@KipMeacham) March 17, 2015

Content hacks and tools to double conversion rates

For measuring content, I want to see influence, attention and velocity. Does your content compel people to DO something? #cmworld

— Matt Heinz (@HeinzMarketing) July 21, 2015

SEO

SEO and content marketing

@CMIContent Too many folks target & optimize for keywords, but don’t answer searchers’ potential questions well in their content #CMWorld

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) August 4, 2015

A8: Back in the day SEO was 80% technical and 20% content. – Now its 80% content and 20% technical. #CMWorld

— Marvin Russell (@marvinrussell) August 4, 2015

@CMIContent If at first you don’t succeed w/ piece of content, try publishing new version & 301’ing or rel=canonicaling old one. #CMWorld

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) August 4, 2015

Social media

Social media management / management of multiple accounts

A6: First step is always education. If people don’t know the guidelines they can’t follow them. Create a SM Manager mentor program. #cmworld

— Tony Fernandez (@bukowski33) February 10, 2015

SlideShare

PowerPoints do NOT need to be boring. It’s really not a requirement. Seriously. #CMWorld

— Christoph Trappe (@CTrappe) March 10, 2015

@tracibrowne Google searches. Our site has a lot of SEO power due to our optical readers which extract text and index content. #cmworld

— LinkedIn SlideShare (@SlideShare) March 10, 2015

LinkedIn

A8: I’m more about the individual’s posting content. Feels more personal to me. @dharmesh is ALWAYS a must read when he posts. #CMWorld

— John Bonini (@Bonini84) April 7, 2015

If you want to own a conversation you need to move from thinking like a publisher to actually publishing like one. #CMWorld.

— Jason A Miller (@JasonMillerCA) April 7, 2015

Customer service in a social/tech age

A1. With social media, customer service is now a spectator sport. The onlookers are as important as the customer. #cmworld

— Jay Baer (@jaybaer) July 28, 2015

A7. Take your inbound #custserv calls, transcribe them, turn into a word cloud, and use as a #contentmarketing idea map. Bam! #cmworld

— Jay Baer (@jaybaer) July 28, 2015

Comments good or bad are great indicators for the type of content customers NEED. Many same questions = create content addressing #CMWorld

— Lydia Nicoll (@LydiaNicoll) July 28, 2015

Social selling

A1 Social selling isn’t “selling.” It’s listening, responding and being a source for consumers’ needs. It’s more personalized #cmworld

— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) August 25, 2015

A5: social listening = information. social analysis = insight. Biggest miss IMO is co’s doing listening w/out gr8 analysts #cmworld

— Tom Martin (@TomMartin) August 25, 2015

Event apps to build and develop content for reuse

A5: Integrate social media & a hashtag (like this one!). Create attendee profiles for networking, etc. #cmworld

— lindsay (@flinds) September 1, 2015

A6 Instead of telling people to put their phones away tell attendees to get them out! Embrace #mobile & use the app to engage #CMWorld

— CrowdCompass (@CrowdCompass) September 1, 2015

Varied content for social distribution

A3. See what resonates best w/ your audience. Be mindful of what gets more likes, shares, comments, etc. & do more of that. #CMWorld

— Josh St. Aubin (@JoshStAubin) October 13, 2015

A4: Be a social media user first. If you’re exposed to it in your own feeds, you’ll know how to treat the content you share. #cmworld

— Evan LePage (@EvanLePage) October 13, 2015

Instagram

A3: Make sure the focus stays on quality and brand alignment. Share only exceptional UGC so you don’t lose credibility yourself. #CMWorld

— Megan/HerMrktngBlog (@hermarketing) October 27, 2015

A5. Hashtags play important role in discovery process and no saturation. That being said, don’t spam hashtags – use relevant ones #cmworld

— Josh Brown (@joshabrown00) October 27, 2015

Strategy

Content-driven experiences

A1 We need to ask “what experience do we want to create?” and then understand what content can do that #cmworld

— Carla Johnson (@CarlaJohnson) January 27, 2015

#cmworld a true marketer is creative, conscious of strategy and concise.

— Todd Davis (@ToddSocial) January 27, 2015

Multichannel marketing

A2: Brands can learn a lot from publishers. Good ones wake up in the morning thinking about their audience, not their publication. #cmworld

— Mike Myers (@mikemyers614) February 24, 2015

A2: Publishers think in terms of “stories” not feeds and speeds! #cmworld

— Ardath Albee (@ardath421) February 24, 2015

A2 I think brands can learn plenty, but 2 main things: 1. Focus on content readers actually want; 2. Put systems/processes in place #cmworld

— Mark Walker (@jfdimark) February 24, 2015

More intelligent content marketing

@atxcopywriter “Good” content is about what’s in the pipe. “Intelligent” content is about the plumbing. #cmworld

— MarciaRieferJohnston (@MarciaRJohnston) March 3, 2015

A1: I’m gonna repeat that. Deliver the right content, to the right person, in the right LANGUAGE, on the right device. #CMworld

— Val Swisher (@valswisher) March 3, 2015

Content program development in a large enterprise

A7: Lots of tools can help, but your strategy needs to be in place first. The tools will need to know what you want to measure. #CMWorld

— Mike Myers (@mikemyers614) May 19, 2015

Preach! If #contentmarketing isn’t a rollercoaster of ups and downs, you’re probably not doing it right #CMWorld https://t.co/rJARanFwBD

— Aaron Harrison (@howAaronsees_it) May 19, 2015

Engagement, impact, and sales

A8 Content marketing can’t be siloed, on an island — Establish a Reason to believe & a reason to Act #cmworld pic.twitter.com/I4a5rqNYz6

— jeff fagel (@jf1216) May 12, 2015

A4: Forget impressions and clicks. It’s all about real KPIs like leads, conversions and revenue from the content. #cmworld

— Andrew James (@AJUTAH) May 12, 2015

Content strategy 101

A1: Content strategy is about providing the right content, to the right people, at the right times, *for the right reasons*. #CMWorld

— meghscase (@meghscase) June 30, 2015

A6: An important caveat: nothing may be “wrong” with your content. It could be the context (timing/device/delivery). #cmworld

— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) June 30, 2015

Teams and processes

Culture of content

A culture of content doesn’t just produce content, it values content #CMWorld

— Rebecca Lieb (@lieblink) January 13, 2015

Customers are important, but not the only audience. Think vendor partners, agencies, suppliers & employees as part of aud, too #CMWorld

— Rebecca Lieb (@lieblink) January 13, 2015

A1: Content is the touchpoint, the language, and the conversation between a brand and the audience. #SoImportant #cmworld

— Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael) January 13, 2015

PR and content marketing

A8: Social media is a content distribution platform. Pay attention to which social referrals drive traffic and spend time there #cmworld

— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 17, 2015

“Traditional PR” often misunderstood to mean “news releases.” PR has always been social. Now there are just more tools #cmworld

— Kathleen Stansberry (@kstansberry) February 17, 2015

Subject-matter experts

A1: Find experts doing guest posts for other sites in your niche. Also look for consultants or training companies as options #cmworld

— Tom Treanor (@RtMixMktg) March 24, 2015

A3: Use an editorial calendar so experts and content team are in sync #cmworld

— Linda Dessau (@lindadessau) March 24, 2015

Role of the editor in content marketing

A6: Don’t assume because someone is a good writer, s/he will be a good editor. #cmworld

— Ann Gynn (@anngynn) March 31, 2015

A2: We encounter a lot of people who think content marketing is just writing. They don’t realize the importance of editing. #cmworld

— Brooke Howell (@BrookeHowell) March 31, 2015

A good editor is someone who can turn something ridiculously terrible, into something ridiculously incredible. #cmworld

Wyzowl @wyzowl

@wyzowl Sometimes all you can do is make it readable :/ #CMWorld

— Sarah A. Parker (@SparkerWorks) March 31, 2015

Team processes and brand guidelines

A8: Content marketing is a TEAM sport. Nobody can do this alone. Teamwork, trust & efficiency are critical to our success. #cmworld

— Amanda Todorovich (@amandatodo) June 23, 2015

A7: If any piece of content goes against the brand it causes confusion or distrust. You must infuse your brand into EVERYTHING #CMWorld

— The Gary J. Nix ® (@Mr_McFly) June 23, 2015

Front-end vs. back-end marketers

For CM, front=creators. Care for experiences. Back=ensure these get to the right ppl & trigger actions (+ tweak accordingly) #cmworld

— Jay Acunzo (@Jay_zo) October 6, 2015

@Jay_zo I don’t think you can write/create w/o knowing how measure & optimize Great content marketers r blend of artist + scientist #CMWorld

— Amanda Todorovich (@amandatodo) October 6, 2015

Culture of content marketing

A2: Encourage every single employee to participate in content process. Include diff teams & departments in brainstorming sessions. #cmworld

— Quinn Whissen (@QuinnCW) November 3, 2015

A8: Empower everyone, no matter what role, to share content ideas, big or small! #CMWorld

— UpContent (@getupcontent) November 3, 2015

Multi-author blogs

A3: Great examples of blog guidelines @hubspot @mailchimp @sharaholic Here’s CMI’s: https://t.co/nfCmdy0U1u #CMWorld

— Lisa Dougherty (@BrandLoveLLC) December 8, 2015

A5: Always have conversation with guest bloggers. Explain content strategy/ what content marketing is. 99% of the time they get it. #cmworld

— Shawn A. Turner (@shawn_turner1) December 8, 2015

Tools and technology

Content marketing productivity

A6. If something’s really not working, give yourself permission to step away. Come back to it tomorrow. Work on something else. #CMWorld

— Sarah A. Parker (@SparkerWorks) February 3, 2015

#Productivity makes #creativity” possible. #CMWorld

— Roger C. Parker (@Rogercparker) February 3, 2015

Content marketing tools

A4 You also need a continuous revisiting process – make sure the team is still getting value from tools after 3 mos, 6 mos, 1 yr #cmworld

— Andrea Fryrear (@AndreaFryrear) October 20, 2015

A1 If you type in Google the tool name you are aware of followed by vs, you’ll get some cool results #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/XSUlel3qHR

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) October 20, 2015

Visual content and design

Creative video solutions

A3: Stop turning a print story into a video just because you have a camera. #cmworld

— Michael Buller (@MichaelDFCI) November 10, 2015

A3) Think of your video like a movie trailer – tease your audience so they want to find out more about your brand. #cmworld

— Sarah Quinn (@MissSarahQ) November 10, 2015

A6. Share, promote, advertise it. Blog about it, turn the key concepts into a gated piece of content. Opportunities are endless #CMWorld

— Stephanie Canarte (@stephcanarte) November 10, 2015

Want to discuss the latest trends in content marketing and get advice from experts? Join CMI (@CMIContent) and a guest every Tuesday from 12 PM – 1 PM ET as we discuss key content marketing topics. Follow #cmworld on Twitter to join the conversation. 

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Our Favorite Tweets from the 2015 #CMWorld Twitter Chats appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Don’t be Pigeon-holed by Google’s Local Algorithm Changes

On July 24, 2014, Google updated its local search algorithm, setting out to make local search more relevant, more accurate and more useful for users. Pigeon aimed to do that by incorporating ranking signals into local optimization that are similar to traditional web search ranking factors.

Along with bringing traditional search ranking back into the local fold, Pigeon improved Google’s location and distance parameters. This was coupled with a somewhat sweeping redesign for local optimization thanks to Google Pigeon, where cities are no longer geographical entities. Pigeon effectively sliced and diced cities into “neighborhoods” resulting in a smaller search radius for local search queries.

This shook up the SERPs. Some businesses lost the rank they had achieved by optimizing for cities, while some local businesses ended up in different places, at first causing a panic and leaving local SEOs begging the question “what now?”

If you feel you have been Pigeon-holed into a less desirable position due to changes in the local search algorithm, you are in luck because we have some suggestions to help you get back on your feet.

1. Neighborhoods don’t go by just one name

Neil Patel pointed out on Search Engine Land that there is a colloquial name that a neighborhood has as well as a formal one. Making a comparison similar to his, a local New Yorker might say “Alphabet City” whereas a tourist might call it the “East Village.” Not only that, Patel went on to posit that the Pigeon algorithm updates would return better results for queries that incorporate usage for both colloquial and formal terms. By optimizing for both types of keywords you leverage this fact, and for competitive niches, it may be easier to rank higher and capitalize on the less competitive neighborhood synonym.

2. Optimize Your Local Directories, and Use them as a Source of Information

Pigeon places importance on local directories such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and Urban Spoon. Make sure you have a presence on all local directories that are important to your niche and make sure they are well optimized. Directories are a great source of information for your local optimization efforts. If you want to harvest keywords that tourists are using, read relevant reviews.

3. Don’t Change Your NAP

Although your city keywords may now have to be oriented with neighborhood keywords, don’t change the NAP (name, address and phone number) that you have been using. Your NAP is integral to a successful local SEO strategy.

4. Have Traditional Values

Shift some of the focus on your local optimization to traditional SEO optimization tactics. According to Moz, on-page signals total out to 21% of local ranking factors. So place your keywords in the title tag, work on increasing your on-page domain authority, and pump out that optimized content.

5. Don’t Panic, Make a Good Website Instead

Finally, to quote “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” – Don’t Panic! As with any major change in the SEO community, the initial reaction to Pigeon seemed to be very large. After the dust settled with it, however, the feelings about it became somewhat neutral, according to a poll run by BrightLocal during a webinar called The Impact of Pigeon Update back in December 2014. 53% of the respondents thought the change was negative – making the consensus about 50/50. 69% felt that the user now enjoys positive changes from Pigeon, and the majority felt as though there were little or no changes to their business.

This of course varies in context – the niche and circumstances of the business definitely come into play. Most local SEO experts now advise local businesses to beef up their brand recognition and focus on optimizing for location.

The Bottom Line:

Although at this stage in the game, this last word of advice may seem cliché, it will be offered. If you place most of your focus on just maintaining a quality site that is relevant and helpful to your audience, you should be able to navigate through algorithm changes with ease. The fact is Google wants to keep its job as a search engine, and it does this by returning quality sites that are relevant to what users are looking for. Focus on this fact, and you ultimately won’t find yourself pigeonholed by updates to algorithms.

Kristin rankin works for BBEX ,An internet marketing consulting company located in Boca Raton,Florida.BBEX is one of a top SEO company in Florida specializes in website designing,SEO,Social media and other online marketing strategies to assist your company for getting more leads and business .

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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