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 editor. Hire an editor today. You might be boring your audience to death!
Don’t Dismiss Production Value
Howard commented on the Charlie Sheen fiasco and thought how Charlie’s radio show could have been SO much better. To Howard, it was too raw, too amateurish, and could have been much better if Howard would have produced it himself. I’m sure he’s right.
Brands do this all the time today. We are so focused on getting the content out the door, we forget little things like how much better the experience would be if the video was more professionally produced, or how amazing the digital magazine would have been if a storytelling shop would have designed and edited it. Most brands spend much more time on their advertising copy than they do on their content marketing. Tisk Tisk.
Look, there is nothing wrong with getting the content out quickly, as long as it is helping your business. But, in some cases, stepping back a bit and calling in the pros could make all the difference.
Yes, Your Story Is On…Right Now
Most people think that Howard Stern only has a radio show. You may not know that he has two whole channels on SiriusXM, Howard TV, and news coverage of “Howard” pretty much all day long.
This means that Howard arms his “…employees with audio recorders and video cameras to roam the halls…[and are] tasked with providing 24/7 content.”
Welcome to your future.
If your goal is to be the trusted expert in your industry niche…to be interesting enough that your customers pay attention to you, you need to think like Howard’s team and essentially “cover” your industry. Does that mean arming key sales representatives with cameras? It could. Does that mean you should be hiring journalists? Absolutely.
But start here…think of where the story is going on first, and how telling that story can help your business. You see, the story is already happening…you just need to capture it. You just have to make the content marketing case.
You might think you don’t need to act like Howard (the media company) because you aren’t in the publishing business. Well, yes…yes you are.
Start thinking like a media company.
Howard has always understood this…if you take nothing else from him, take that.
