Couples with marital troubles are often told to spice things up in the bedroom. Why is that? Well, it turns out that people get bored with even the most fun activities. You see, we as humans are programmed from a biological and emotional perspective to seek out new challenges and experiences in almost every part of our lives. For example, experts on the aging process often encourage senior citizens to take up new sports or play puzzle games like Scrabble to keep their mental muscles agile. Likewise, we can all stand a little variety in our activities and surroundings to keep us as engaged and entertained as much as possible. On the flip side, when things are too different people tend to become uneasy or even fall apart. Change to a part of a routine is necessary to keep it interesting, but completely change the routine and you risk experiencing way too much chaos as fear of the unfamiliar sets in.Continue reading

“How do we know it works?” “Can we prove that we’ll affect the bottom line?” Aren’t these the client questions you receive most often about social media? When my clients ask them, I explain that social media is about building relationships with customers. All the different tools — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. — are the distribution vehicles you choose to get your message across. When you choose the right delivery vehicle for the right message, you can ensure your success. Continue reading

After refueling on orange Jell-O (in chic martini glasses) and Cheetos, Content Marketing World participants were ready to hear about “7 Content Ideas to Blow Up Your Small Business in 12 Months or Less.” Marcus Sheridan, CEO, River Pools and Spas, (wearing an orange shirt and looking, in his words, like a creamsicle on steroids), compares content marketing to a modern-day David and Goliath story. Using content marketing, Marcus was able to grow his business, even though the pool industry’s business model is not traditionally set up to favor people in Marcus’ position. Continue reading

If you are truly an effective content marketer consultant, at least 25 percent of your job is educating your clients about the digital marketplace. Clients look to you to clarify how things really work  in cyberspace, and if you are good at your job, you take that seriously. One area where my clients have a lot of questions is with analytics. Even when they are digital experts, it’s common for me to have to explain what the different benchmarks in analytics packages really mean.Continue reading

Mobile content is hot. There’s no denying it. Over the next 12 months, four out of five marketers intend to increase their mobile spending, according to the new “Mobile Marketing: Plans Trends and Measurability” study by King Fish Media. Just like other content marketing, mobile content should be findable, readable, understandable, actionable and shareable (See the Creating Valuable Content Checklist). So what do you need to know to make sure your mobile content is valuable and effective? Continue reading

We are all looking for the silver bullet that will make our content sparkle. What if from the time of content creation we already had the benchmarks in place that we know forms valuable content? Yesterday, I introduced the Creating Valuable Content Checklist, which I use to quantify what makes content valuable to our content consumers.  Today I’ll explain the steps in each of these benchmarks. Continue reading

To help you manage the execution details of your content marketing, use this Creating Valuable Content Checklist.

Do you want to use analytics more often to make decisions based on data instead of instinct? To do this, you not only need to have a good understanding of analytics, but you also need to present them to your team in a way that is useful to them. Last week we looked at why analytics programs are important for helping teams make decisions based on real facts instead of hunches. Continue reading

All too often, I’ll ask a client a question, and they’ll readily have an answer. But when I question the answer and ask for a source, they’ll tell me, “We just know.” I don’t have to explain why this is SO wrong, and yet we all do it all the time. Instead of finding proof for our assumptions, we base many of our decisions on what we think we know. This is a terrible way to do business: It will negatively affect our decision-making. Backing up decisions with real data is critical in digital communications, where assumptions could translate into daily mistakes because of the speed at which our customers consume information. Applying what we know to what we don’t know How  can we fix this?  The answer is in our analytics.  The problems with analytics are most people don’t: Understand them Want to understand them Have the ability to translate what they really mean into facts that inform decision making Important note: Understanding your analytics is only one pillar to informing your decisions. ...

So much has been written about content creation, and it’s easy to get excited about the possibilities. However, have you ever noticed that everyone is gung-ho when the project starts, but things fall apart months later? Do you find yourself asking the following questions: Why is there always a content bottleneck, either in creation or in editing? Why do the developers always seem to need to know so much more than the writer hands off to them? Why do executives look at the work of many months and many people and say, “Nah, this isn’t really what we had in mind”? Why does content creation seem to be such a beast?Continue reading

How many of you saw Toy Story 3 this summer?  I know it had to be some of you because the movie grossed  $415.0 million in the U.S. and just made history as only the third animated movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. In Toy Story 3, Andy boxes his toys up in preparation for going to college, and he intends to put them in the attic.  Instead, the toys mistakenly end up at a daycare center—and the toys think Andy has willingly sent them there.  The toys have to decide: work to get back to Andy or stay at the daycare center and accept that Andy may have given them away.Continue reading

I had the strangest thing happen to me last week.  I was talking to the lead on a big website project, and I asked him, “So what types of content do you plan to include?”  He told me, “Written, video, message boards, podcasting and downloadable documents.” However, when he sent me the design specs for the site, there was absolutely no room on the page for video. When I pressed him on this issue, he responded, “We’ll worry about that later.” Huh?Continue reading