Content Marketing Institute

I bumped into my good friend Chris Baggott from Compendium yesterday at the Online Marketing Summit.  Every conference we run into each other at, Chris pulls me aside and says, “Joe, here we are at this INSERT NAME conference and a content marketing conference has broken out”.

The point? Everyone is talking content marketing these days. The practice and integration of the creation and distribution of valuable, compelling and relevant content to attract and retain customers has never been more critical for brands of all sizes (see this Coca-Cola content marketing example if you want some proof).

It didn’t used to be the case.  Even though I’ve been trying to get corporate marketers to use the term “content marketing” since 2001, only recently has it caught on (see this Google Trends chart below. If content marketing were a stock, we’d be living the high life.) Read More »

So, another Super Bowl gone.  For those who advertised during the Super Bowl, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad this year was $3.5 million to promote their brand in front of 111 million viewers.

For those counting, that’s $116,000 per second.

Back in 2008 I looked at how much content marketing you could buy for the price of a Super Bowl ad.  Four years ago, the price for a 30-second-spot was $2.7 million (folks, in this market, the economy is working just fine).  That bought you A LOT of content.  Today, you can buy even more.  Here are a few examples. Read More »

The concept of Lethal Generosity was first coined by social media pioneer Shel Israel in 2008. Simply put:

Lethal Generosity is the concept that the most generous members of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace.

In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always [rise] to the top, not just in influence but also in search results.  The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely to receive.

Although Mr. Israel focuses this point in a social media context, the application of this idea is much broader. Read More »

It’s hard to believe the sheer number of social media tools we use everyday to help grow the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract, as well as my own personal brand.  Since there are so many, I decided to update this post from almost three years ago.  It’s amazing the number of social media and content marketing tools that I continue to use, as well as the many that died over the years from lack of use.

Which ones am I missing that you cannot live without? [disclaimer: many of the tools below are CMI partner tools] Read More »

You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version:

McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video  of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer.

Shortly thereafter, consumers from around the world ‘hijacked’ the #McDStories hashtag with, to say the least, some horrible tweets about McDonald’s food quality and overall experience.  You can read the most notorious ones here at the Daily Mail and here at Business Insider. Read More »

If you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on:

• Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter.  This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter.
• In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units.
• According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012.  The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Read More »

Joshua with his LEGO bricks at age Six

As many of you regular readers know, my oldest son Joshua was diagnosed with autism at two years of age (Joshua is now 10). At the age of three, he could barely speak.  Today, Joshua would be considered “high-functioning” autistic, which means that, if you don’t look closely, you may not notice he actually is a child with autism. To be honest, Joshua is one of those amazing gifts in life that just keeps giving.  We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

[NOTE: To give just a bit back to all those who've helped Joshua along the way, we organize a charity golf event every year, where the proceeds, now in excess of $75,000 in five years, go to the Easter Seals Northern Ohio (ESNO) earmarked for speech therapy. For full disclosure, I serve on the board of ESNO.] Read More »

There are a lot of reasons why content marketing doesn’t work for some companies. If we were making a list, they would include:

• A lack of understanding reader/customer needs
• Focusing on the wrong metrics and objectives
• A soloed approach to content marketing
• Poor execution
• Bland storytelling
• Lack of authenticity
• Creating information that, simply put, is not helpful or engaging
• Sales pitches disguised as content

And the list goes on… Read More »