Gold Quill Judging Looks At World's Best

This weekend I helped judge the 2013 Gold Quill award entries in Melbourne.

I always learn so much from the experience and it's the one of the highlights of my year as a communicator.

Gold Quill Judging 2013 from Bob Crawshaw

Get More Attention on Twitter

This infographic from Fusework Studios offers guidelines on how to get more engagement on Twitter with just a few simple tweaks.

A Twitter infographic by Fusework Studios

The Key Message Is Dead: Hail Content Marketing

There is fat chance anyone is listening to your carefully crafted,

committee approved, centrally delivered key messages.  

A friend recently asked me "isn't content marketing what we've always done?"

In a way she's right.  Communicators have long practiced elements of content marketing -  messaging, knowing audiences, distributing information etc.   The difference now is social media,the mega paradigm-buster.

Social media has accelerated information delivery to breakneck speed. Everyone potentially has a publishing platform for their opinions, and all of us can precisely choose what information we let into our lives and what we block.

No one is dependent on what you say.  We are outrageously spoiled for choice when it comes to information and we can choose where we get it, when and how.

Let's say your company, not for profit or agency tells me something.  Instantly I can go online to check its accuracy or access a staggering volume of contending data, commentary or analysis.  Many hierarchical organisations particularly government bodies still find it difficult to accept that the logo on your letterhead adds little authority to their arguments. 

You can longer claim sole expertise based on who you are.  Google has made all of us experts ... or at least let us think we are.

There is a fundamental difference between old style PR and content marketing.  And it is this: unless we are prepared to provide audiences with information that is helpful, entertaining or both, we stand little chance of connecting with, let alone persuading them. 

The era of the one-way key message blasted from the hierarchical bunker is dead.  Perhaps it served us well in the past.  But today people want dialogue not monologue.  There is fat chance anyone is listening to your carefully crafted, committee approved, centrally delivered key messages.  

Listening, continuously offering valuable insights helping those we need to reach, shared conversation and letting others own your topic hold today's keys to successfully reaching customers, clients and citizens. 

Creating Compelling Content For Footall Fans

 When Hawthorn player Cyril Rioli spectacularly marked a football last year he did so in the heat of the moment, for the team, for the game.

But Rioli's effort also provided a rich source of content for the 100 plus communications staff  employed by the Australian Football League (AFL).  

The flying mark, a unique feature of Australia's own football code, is a highly visual demonstration of the game's  athleticism.  

The communications staff quickly seized the Rioli moment as a content marketing opportunity to spread the imagery across its own multiple platforms and make sure it was talked about in bars, clubs and taxis throughout the football world.. 

The League's own online commentary team endlessly talked about it, the imagery was available to fans on their mobile phones and it was plastered across the official website which attracts 3.2 million unique visits every month.

The AFL is one of Australia's pioneers in content marketing.  Throughout the coming 2013 season the League and its clubs plan to offer fans a rich sporting smorgasbord of:

• Scores and game highlights
• Breaking news gathered by its in-house journalists 
• Videos, images, ladders, tables, ratings and other graphics
• Game analysis from its commentary teams
• Online and on demand TV shows
• Audio captured from the training park and after the final siren 
• Player profiles and bios
• Historical information and quirky insights
• Fan comment
• ...plus endless lists categorizing players, game highlights and other data in endless ways

This season the football playbooks will be matched by the content marketing playbooks of the AFL's marketers  singularly  focused on using compelling content to drive fan loyalty.

Thanks to a presentation by AFL Head of Content Matt Pinkney

at the recent Content Marketing World conference in Sydney. 

How To Succeed In Change Management

Change Management from Bob Crawshaw

Changing behaviour in organisations is one of the toughest challenges communicators face. IABC Canberra presenter Tina Chawner recently offered insights on the subject based on her UK experiences.