Four Ways To Drive Content Marketing

Recently I heard US content guru Lee Odden talk about the power of content marketing.  Lee is the author of 29 Content Marketing Secrets.

The conversation was timely.  Today there are over seven billion connected devices and the number grows each day. A few weeks ago Facebook hit the one billion user mark.  Five years ago could you have imagined so many people communicating from a single grid?

In this age of connectivity we create, consume, publish, interact and transact at will.  

But what exactly do we communicate?  Is there quality in our conversations?

The answer is simple - if your social media horizons are personal.  You share the details of daily life with friends and family.  But a government, business or not for profit can't and won't do that.  Nor can they afford to fall into the trap of using social media as an electronic brochure simply blasting out their stuff. One way, self-centred conversations quickly become tiresome.

You can achieve far more if the content in your social media dialogue is grounded around a few essential basics such as: 

• Your audience and their ambition, goals, needs and problems.
• Stories of people who benefit or are impacted by what you do and stories of frontline staff interacting with others.
• Your commitment to respond and interact, share information and cop criticism along with compliments
• Communicating with passion and energy - the qualities which will really make you stand out and stand for something. 

This mirrors our real world conversations that add value to our lives so craft content along these lines and you're bound to succeed.

Three PR Lessons from San Francisco

My recent visit to San Francisco for this year's Public Relations Society of America's International Conference was an eye-opener. 

Just as the Bay City led  the 60s with its flower power movement, the convention showed it remains a powerhouse of new ideas.

When 3000 PR-types from across the globe gather, you're bound to meet interesting people and discover good ideas. It's always a buzz tapping into the energy of PRs from all over the world. Akin to having communications jumper leads (or booster cables as Americans call them) wired up to your brain.  

This particular conference  revealed insights and emphasised three themes:  

• Social media is now baked into every significant piece of marketing and communication.  PRs must be able to strategise, deliver, integrate and evaluate a social media program.  If you can't, then you stamp a sign on your forehead which shouts you have no future in the industry. Bosses expect you to be as adept as social media as you are at writing media releases or staging events. And, there can be no excuses when we are all surrounded by free advice, tips and techniques on the web and PRs willing to share their experiences.

• A social media crisis can hit at  tweet-speed. And just as quickly it can pass by leaving a trail of busted reputations and broken staff. The risks of doing nothing are too great in a world of instant dialogue. The PR professional is expected to respond quickly which puts a premium on crisis communications skills.  Once the province of specialist communicators, managing crisis communications has now moved to the front row of PR competencies.  

• Social media is introducing a new era of transparency.  The citizen, customer or client is king and queen and can and will vent frequently and fully.  The social media spotlight penetrates like a miner's lamp further and faster into the back offices and factory floors of government and business. Everyone needs to adapt.  That means HR as well as PR, and also count in the folks in finance, production, distribution and R&D.

If you're not using social media and using it effectively, be confident your competitors are -  to out-organise, out-sell, out-strategise or out-think you. 

While our core business objectives may not have changed, San Fransisco shows the communications landscape around them certainly has. We are going to have to do more in less time.

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Talking To Politicans Cost Money

The intersection between money and communications is well known. Those with the dollars have far more communications options than the rest of us.

This is particularly true in political communications, and why fund raising is such an important part in US elections.

In coming days US Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Paul Ryan are in Connecticut looking for cash.

They will appear at party fundraisers with hefty price tags. For example the Hartford Courant newspaper reports local Republican supporters will pay $10 000 per person for a round table discussion with Ryan. Attending a reception for him will cost $1000 while a photo with the Vice Presidential nominee will set you back $5 000.

The costs for engaging with the Vice President are similar.

So if you need to talk to the top pollies ahead of the US election, your best chance is to grab the cheque book, start up the limo and head for the mansions where the well heeled gather.

The Ultimate Trade Show

Marketers instinctively know the power of events to introduce and promote brands.

The 2012 Antique Fair in Paris ranks among the world's most high end events.

Held in the Grande Palais, exhibitors such as Cartier and Bulgari have transformed this iconic Parisian building into a temple for luxury lines.

High end fashion mix with exquisite jewelry - and that's just what the visitors are wearing. On display are precious stones, antique objects d'art and paintings by famous artists.

The event planning and attention to detail are meticulous. The exhibition area is covered by designer carpet and display stands are architectural pieces in their own right.

The Paris show ranks as one if the world's great events where luxury brands meet the international jet set. But the principles of good planning, clever layout and stylish presentation could apply anywhere.

Ironing Pants And Human Rights

You meet a lot of people while ironing pants.

On a recent visit to Geneva I was pressing clothes in a hotel ironing room and sharing iron boards - so to speak - with Hussien from Bahrain.

Hussien was in Geneva as part of a delegation to address the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He passionately outlined his hopes for more democracy and personal liberties in the Gulf States.

Rights we take for granted in the West, including the right to communicate about anything anytime, are not always available in other parts of the world.

I wished Hussein well for his presentation to the world body. And reflected that his presentation would be far more important than any I have ever made in my career.

Sometimes we all need wake up calls to remind us what's really important in life.