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Scoop.it!
What we can learn from everyday conversation in setting the right tone and dialogue for content. 
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Scoop.it!
Genevieve Walker / Staff Writer -
Ally Greer's insight:
Think you don't need content marketing because of your niche industry? Think again. MedCity, the Cleveland, Ohio-based startup covering life science innovation and the B2B medical health community, has used content to increase its monthly website traffic from 100k to 300k. Some great tips from CEO Chris Seper: -Ask your audience what they want -Be "insane on metrics" -"Serve and monetize your audience" as best as you possibly can by being realistic and opening your mind to new distribution methods.
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Writer’s block is a lame excuse real writers don’t use. Translation: “I can’t write.” Writer’s void? Different issue. It means, “There are no writers here.” This is a legitimate challenge for a good many companies who want to get active in content marketing.
Ally Greer's insight:
These are some great tips by an incredibly creative writer and content creator, Barry Feldman on how to approach your content strategy if you don't really have any writers. Hint: it can be done!
Jennifer Samuels's curator insight,
March 27, 2013 7:15 PM
Just another example of the importance of media literacy.
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Ally Greer's insight:
We had a great time at Scoop.it's #leancontent meetup with K.Tighe from Tasktabbit! Check out some pictures we took to start out the #leancontent movement!
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As every B2B brand turns to content marketing, we're about to be hit by a deluge of... crap. Here's what you can do about it.
Pedro Barbosa's curator insight,
January 18, 2013 3:59 AM
Indded, the value comes from scarcity. From good, scarce, content
Pedro Barbosa | www.pbarbosa.com | www.harvardtrends.com 
Eternity's curator insight,
January 21, 2013 3:24 PM
very relevant about the amount of content and info being sent to all of us on daily basis!!
Scoop.it!
My name is Ally Greer. I’m a marketer with expertise in content marketing and curation. You’ve probably never heard of me. With over 500 million users on Twitter, 175 million on LinkedIn, and over a billion on Facebook, you probably haven’t heard of most people on the Internet. The bad news is that this also means most of those people probably haven’t heard of you either.
ben bernard's comment,
January 9, 2013 11:40 PM
thanks ! http://www.scoop.it/t/direct-marketing-services my newly made scoop.it :)
's comment January 27, 2013 10:26 PM
Inspiring article - thanks!
Scoop.it!
Most content by brands serves only to promote the brand. This is not a conversation. This is a content marketing echo chamber.
Ally Greer's insight:
It's been a while since I've heard about the term "echo chamber," and the last time I investigated it it was mostly concerning the social graph and surrounding yourself with the same people and the same ideas. I always like seeing how social phenomena convert over into the business world, and this is a perfect example of that. If the entire online presence of your brand, including your content, only consists of talking about your own brand and encouraging others to talk about your brand, there is no room to grow, and no actual value to the content you're providing. Michael Brenner says that “good content educates, entertains or even amazes your audience because it starts with a focus on them, not you.” Get out of the echo chamber and stop throwing around generic praise and information about your brand, and start telling your story and demonstrating your expertise.
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CMI talks with IBM's Leslie Reiser about IBM's influencer blogging program, gaining traction in the midsize market, and plans for content marketing expansion.
Ally Greer's insight:
An interesting perspective of a company who is already extremely successful in its industry and is now using content marketing to break into a new space. I love the use of influencers to spread your ideas as well as providing you with intelligent content to use to develop your brand.
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You have a website and constantly fight to increase your traffic and attract new visitors. You built a great SEO campaign and keep improving your marketing strategies to reach that goal. But did you think about your content strategy?
Ally Greer's insight:
You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: content is the new SEO/SEM strategy!
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Ally Greer's insight:
My prediction is that content marketing is going to continue drastically changing the world of SEO and diminishing the value of paid keyword advertising. Also, content creators and distributors are going to become integral parts of every organization, with the creation of new positions, even at the C-level devoted specifically to content.
Eric Moran's curator insight,
December 19, 2012 1:18 PM
Vey Good insight into the future of content and how it will fit into marketing. I really enjoy the comments about the pivot of the journalist. Coming from the publishing industry you can already see this happening from the inside out.
Scoop.it!
Not long ago, a few members of the Scoop.it team began discussing the answer to the all too popular question: how do I do content marketing if I’m a startup or professional without a big budget?
Ally Greer's insight:
This evening, we were happy to host the co-founder of the awesome social media tool BufferApp, Leo Widrich (@LeoWid), who shared five awesome lessons that he’s learned over the last two years of developing his very own content marketing strategy. At the time of its creation, Buffer App didn’t have any users and its two young founders tried relentlessly to get any tech blogs to cover them. When this didn’t work, the co-founders asked themselves, “if no one else will write about us, why can’t we just write about ourselves?” Since Leo was the “marketing guy,” he was charged with putting out as much content as he could to spread the word about Buffer App. Two years and a highly successful social media app later, Leo has learned some of the most important lessons in content marketing: 1. Pick Quantity over Quality 2. The Hidden Power of Images 3. Copy and Steal 4. Help 1 other person with each piece of content. 5. Show your passion and culture
Ally Greer's curator insight,
November 27, 2012 11:56 PM
This evening, we were happy to host the co-founder of the awesome social media tool BufferApp, Leo Widrich (@LeoWid), who shared five awesome lessons that he’s learned over the last two years of developing his very own content marketing strategy. At the time of its creation, Buffer App didn’t have any users and its two young founders tried relentlessly to get any tech blogs to cover them. When this didn’t work, the co-founders asked themselves, “if no one else will write about us, why can’t we just write about ourselves?” Since Leo was the “marketing guy,” he was charged with putting out as much content as he could to spread the word about Buffer App. Two years and a highly successful social media app later, Leo has learned some of the most important lessons in content marketing: 1. Pick Quantity over Quality 2. The Hidden Power of Images 3. Copy and Steal 4. Help 1 other person with each piece of content. 5. Show your passion and culture 
Barbara Kurts's comment,
January 9, 2013 9:08 PM
my topics here http://www.scoop.it/t/health-leads-plus
ben bernard's comment,
January 9, 2013 11:41 PM
thanks ! http://www.scoop.it/t/direct-marketing-services my newly made scoop.it :)
Scoop.it!
The most important step of your content marketing is finding your voice. What do your readers want to read? What will they feel compelled to share? And, most importantly, what will make them want to buy your product/service? I really like the skeleton provided here to find your customers: As a customer of ----, I want to ------, so that -----. Filling in these blanks with three different scenarios gives you three solid profiles of your customers and should open op many ideas of angles to take with your content.
Scoop.it!
Although this article is talking specifically about PowerPoint presentations, I think that these rules can be generally applied to all content. Some of the best pointers include: Don't give too much information at once Balance your Text:Images ratio Make your fonts legible As pretty as it may be, make sure it actually has substance ...and more!
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Scoop.it!
Content Marketing: It can be easy to get anxious or even a little freaked out, if you are involved with any kind of content or social media marketing.
Ally Greer's insight:
Here are some pretty interseting and unusual tips to make the most out of content marketing.
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Learn what context marketing is and why it's so important for your inbound marketing.
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Coming up with new content ideas can be a challenge, especially for those new to content marketing. While video marketing has become one of the most popular Via Two Pens
Ally Greer's insight:
As stated, video marketing can be pretty cheap to start out with - you don't have to make professional feature films for your video campaigns to be effective. A great video that's aligned with your brand's message while also being entertaining is an awesome piece of evergreen content that can go a very long way.
Two Pens's curator insight,
January 31, 2013 2:44 PM
With the low price of entry cameras and easy editing tools in IMovie and others, it's just not that tough to create video content anymore. Here are a few ideas on how to use the medium to show, not tell.
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Regardless of your political views, marketers can learn from how The White House's social media team creatively leveraged content in real-time to engage their fan base of more than 1.6 million during the Presidential Inauguration.
Ally Greer's insight:
Who would have thought that some of the best practices in lean content would be coming straight from the White House? From the Death Star petition response ( a short but sweet essay written with its audience in mind and a message that travelled a long way ) to the inspirational curation of photos and quotes during the inauguration, the White House really seems to have figured out the core concept of lean content: aligning your message with your brand, and making it last without too much work.
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Here are some rough guidelines what kind of updates I expect from startups on Facebook. If you prefer images: a Pinterest board with good examples and another with bad ones.
Ally Greer's insight:
Facebook pages are probably some of the best and worst things to happen to businesses. If you do it right, you're likely to gain lots of fans, engagement, and, hopefully, customers. If you do it wrong, though, you're bound to become the laughing stock of the social media community. In all honesty, it's hard to come up with the best way to manage a brand Facebook page, especially for a startup, but Luca Hammer has done a pretty great job here. He divides the article into "Great" practices, "Good" practices, and "Ugly" practices. Before you go trying anything and everything that just might work for your startup on Facebook, take a look at this post and pick up a few tips that could help you build your strategy.
Jeff Domansky's curator insight,
January 5, 2013 4:28 PM
From great to good to ugly, these Facebook tips are useful.
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Content marketing tips, discover the best content marketing tactics and strategies used by the experts today.....I’m seeing some real excitement starting to build around content curation platforms right now, and by far my favorite content curation tool is Scoop.it.
Guillaume Decugis's curator insight,
December 18, 2012 7:28 PM
Cindy King asked 10 experts to give their best tip on Content Marketing. Ileane Smith chose to embrace curation and share interesting data points on her use of Scoop.it, now a bigger referrer for her than LinkedIn. Plus as she adds, "it’s important to add that the average number of pages visited was 3.4 and the bounce rate was only 12%, so we’re talking high-quality, targeted traffic here." Ileane just nailed a very important point of Content Curation in my opinion: connecting you with a well-targeted audience. Who cares about reaching billions of people? It's about reaching the right ones which share the same interests.
Scoop.it!
Content marketing continues to be an integral strategy for B2B companies; however, objectives for content strategies are shifting toward thought leadership and educating the market, according to a survey from Curata.
Nearly 9 in 10 surveyed B2B marketing professionals (87%) say they use content marketing to achieve business goals, up from the 82% who said so in 2011, the survey found. Other top channels in marketing strategies in 2012 are SEO (67%) and event marketing (60%), according to the study. Meanwhile, the use of traditional marketing tactics such as print/TV/radio advertising continues to decrease, down 6 percentage points from 32% in 2011 to 26% in 2012.
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I have to admit that when I first read the results of a survey of marketers done by PR firm Matter Communications, I was tempted to write this article in a very satirical voice - even more satirical then I normally do.
Ally Greer's insight:
As Steve Olenski points out, the fact that visual content does better should not be news to any marketers. But, he holds back the sarcasm just a little due to the (unfortunate) fact that this isn't yet common knowledge. I really like the point he makes at the end: "Look at your monitor as a TV screen. You don’t read TV do you? Of course not. You watch it. Very basic and simplistic for sure but also very true. People want to see things online, not just read. And more and more want to do more of the former and less of the latter."
Scoop.it!
Our topic this week is Content Curation with AJ Kohn http://www.blindfiveyearold.com"
Ally Greer's insight:
Max Minzer is a Seattle SEO consultant, internet marketing strategist, entrepreneur and business adviser who helps businesses and individuals establish and maintain engaged online presence. Every Thursday, Max hosts a "Max Impact Hangout," a conversation designed to help businesses have maximum impact in their industry on social media. This hangout is centered around content curation, and feautres AJ Kohn, the owner of Blind Five Year Old, an online marketing consulting firm out of San Francisco. Kohn has some great points about the benefits of curation, including: -"It's not just about sharing the content; it's providing your context. It's good to be able to read a lot, but it's better to be able to understand it, and so it's your job to help your audience understand it and put context around it. If you're not doing that, it's just a bunch of links, and that's not particularly helpful." -"Curation at its core is about expertise." -"People are looking for trust and expertise, and they don't have a lot of time. If they can rely on you to continuously deliver that trust and value, they're going to continue to come to you." He also points out an interesting curation practice that is probably forgotten (or dismissed) by some businesses: curating the content of your competitors. Regarding this practice, AJ says, "Your users are talking about [your competitors] anyway. You want to control the story: if they're going to be reading it anyway, it's better to provide the context for them." The hangout also includes a Q&A/discussion session with AJ.
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Ally Greer's insight:
If you're a company focusing a lot of your efforts on Facebook, it's time you rethink your content strategy for this increasingly "pay to play" platform. Similarly to Google, Facebook's new algorithm shows only the best/most viral content as well as the content whose creators pay for it to be seen. For smaller businesses who don't exactly have the pay-per-click budget, it's time to get creative. Post the most relevant and interesting images and pieces of content, and encourage engagement by posting only "Shareables."
Ally Greer's curator insight,
November 29, 2012 2:29 PM
With Facebook's new EdgeRank system that shows only the most relevant posts, it's possible that a lot of what you're posting isn't even showing up in your followers' newsfeeds. Facebook is slowly trying to become a "pay to play" platform, similar to Google. In order for your content to be seen, it has to be awesomely awesome, or you have to pay per click. 
Yasmina Dumont's curator insight,
December 13, 2012 3:55 AM
Clairement, ce nouvel algorithme Facebook complique la tâche à ceux qui n'ont pas le budget d'être paresseux, quelques trucs:De super images et vidéos, sur Facebook, ça marche mieux que du blablablabla, c'est prouvé.Du meilleur contenu, pas plus de contenu. Dans tous les cas c'est la qualité du contenu qui compte.Attention aux moments où vous postez. Regardez dans quelles heures votre page est la plus visitée et postez à ces moments-là.
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-Throw away your content schedule? -Talk about the negatives? -Find a villain? 29 brilliant though-leaders share uncommon content strategy advice and tips.
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The Content Marketer's pledge: I, [Your Name], pledge to create something remarkable. Something that people will love. Something they will want to share. Something I can be proud of. And if it fails to achieve my marketing goals, I won't give up. I will try again. My failures will be the practice I need to earn future successes and future customers. -Rand Fishkin
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Although it may seem obvious, it's something that is constantly being overlooked: think about your content marketing as a conversation.
This especially starts with social media communications and carries over into the content that you're offering to your customers. The first conversation cited in this article clearly makes no sense, yet it is the method that most content marketers are taking because it seems right to contunially put out content about what you do and who you are, rather than to actually engage in coversation. The truth is, starting a conversation may take a little more time, but it's worth it. Listening to what your customers and potential customers want and then putting out content to cater to those desires is a much more effective strategy in the long run.