Distillations

Customer experience is the lifeblood of any service- or product-related business. It accounts for the many and varied interactions a prospect or customer has with your brand, before, during and after they do business with you. If the experience is positive, you can earn a...
If you’re trying to build a corporate blog, don’t simply focus on the content you create and share. Focus, too, on having subject matter experts help you create accurate, high-quality content, and you’ll be ahead of the competition and further ensure your web copy gets...
Brands as publishers? Rubbish! Your brand doesn’t need to be a publisher to be successful at content marketing. In fact, publishing your own content could actually be a detriment to your business. I attacked the logic of brands as publishers before, making the point that...
Content strategy is about far more than strategy. We tend to get caught up in deliverables: Content audits, competitive analyses, tone of voice guidelines, workflows, great website content…the list goes on and on. At their best, these deliverables work together as part of a cohesive...
How important is social media for small business owners? In a word, imperative.  The platforms are too important for hearing from, learning about and getting to know your audience and would-be audience. What’s more, businesses not using social media are putting themselves at a distinct...
There is no magical time of day for your brand to use Twitter for brand authority and reach, according to research by Stone Temple Consulting. The Boston company’s  Twitter study is tantamount to a myth-busting experiment that should make it easier for businesses and individuals...
If you desire the be the best web strategist or foremost content expert, reading must be part of your personal content marketing plan. Being an avid reader came naturally to me, for my parents insisted that we always have a book in our hands, whether...
I became a content strategist by accident; I was very deliberate in finding my content strategy community online.  It all began in 2010. One of my friends, an executive at a multi-billion-dollar outdoor brand, shared with me that online marketing was blistering hot. “If you’re...
I’ve learned a lot in the last few years, much of it has helped me become a better content strategist, writer and speaker. Even the frustrating stuff has made me a better and a more qualified evaluator of the marketplace and the role I can successfully...
Content strategy is difficult stuff. I’m not talking about content marketing strategy, mind you. We’re talking about, as Kristina Halvorson has said and written numerous times, “planning for  the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.” Yeah … That. Doesn’t sound fun, does it?...