Sometimes you can easily overlook how serious you must be to succeed at content marketing.
Once you begin a conversation with clients, customers, citizens or fans it takes time, effort and energy to maintain the connection, keep things fresh, build audience and generate loyalty.
For example take the newly established American Athletics Conference which is staging its inaugural Women Basketball Tournament this weekend. A dedicated digital team is communicating the match-ups between 12 teams who have traveled across the US to compete. Located court side and venturing into locker rooms, the digital team opens up the tournament to fans beyond the arena through scores, updates, images, video and interviews. And all done at sizzling pace.
Pre-game the Conference provides mountains of player, game and season stats that would satisfy the most passionate fans of women's basketball.
During each of the tournament's nine games fans can follow the action live on social media through scores, video and images.
Following each contest they can either commiserate or celebrate their team's performance with post game notes, video highlights or after action quotes from players and coaches.
The digital team runs the Conference's 10 dedicated or personal work-related social media accounts supported court-side by a video cameraman with backpack technology and a photographer. Which means as fans in the stadium sip beer and enjoy the game, the team is splitting eyeballs between hoops and laptops to create a treasure trove for fans over the next four days.
Of course small business, not for profits and most government agencies will never be expected to work at such intensity. But the American Conference offers up a content marketing lesson for each. Get serious about engaging because you need skills, firm focus and an awful lot of stamina to succeed with the people who are most important to your organisation.
For the record the digital team at the American Conference is @TaraPetrolino, @jamieleecorun and @Mark_Hodgkin. They synchronize efforts with other PR and marketing staff managing traditional media arrangements including live TV coverage of each game.