There was a great post I read last week from Gary Vaynerchuk. You can read it in its entirety here, but if you don’t have the time the headline says it all: You’re All Media Companies. Content and your brand are one. And guess what? More brands are investing more in content.
If you didn’t read what Armano had to say about content archetypes. He points out that there are three drivers changing how we spend our time and attention, and because of these drivers he outlines five ways we need to think about content. It’s a fantastic post.
And as this joint study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute point out:
B2B marketers are becoming confident in creating content, both owned and supported by the brand, enlisting everything from videos, books, articles, how-to guides and infographics.So what are you doing? As the year comes to an end this may be a good time to rethink how you will take on 2014. I’ve written my thoughts about content management before but wanted to reemphasize some thoughts on how to think more like a content manager.
Internal collaboration is critical; build a team. Your organization is too vast and too complex to do it on your own. Use content management to open doors internally to each department and build relationships. People internally want their story told and will work with you so this is your opportunity. In addition, build out a team of experts with different talents. Our team includes individuals with unique talents for analytics, graphics, web, mobile and business continuity. Find your content superheroes. You will benefit tremendously as an organization by ensuring you have different people represented from different departments.
Leverage partners and vendors. Third parties tell your story better than anyone else. Are they not a part of your strategy? Connect with them and leverage them. Remember, you are helping them as well.
Repetition is not just okay, but required. In fact, read what Forbes has discovered — more than half of its monthly traffic is to content that is older than 30 days. The same is likely happening with your content. How will you reuse your content? Think about ways that you can do this; from news and trends stories to building ongoing campaigns around key business issues.
Know your content influencers (inside and out). You need to know who matters most to building your content (internal) and who can help spread it (external). This will take time, so invest the time.
Benchmark against other industries for ideas. Knowing what your competition is doing is important, but don’t be afraid to look elsewhere at other industries for ideas as to what works and what doesn’t. There are an abundance of case studies online so take the time to learn from others.
Measure your success (and failure). There’s not enough that can be said about data and measuring influence. Make it a part of your daily habit. And make sure you are asking the right questions.
Content is becoming more strategic to advertising, brand management, communications and marketing and often cross the borders of all four disciplines. It is a topic you will continue to hear about as more companies think like media companies to distribute messaging and influence key stakeholders. Having a plan of action for your content, by department, function and organization, is becoming more important and vital not just to the success of communications but to the success of the business.
