Content Marketing Show: Key Takeaways

---

Content Marketing Show: Key Takeaways Posted: 17 Jul 2014 02:30 AM PDT Today we are at the Content Marketing Show in London. Our very own Digital Consultant Charlie will be taking to the stage later this afternoon to share his knowledge, but before then we will be blogging the key takeaways from the sessions…   Can a brand ever truly be social – Stephen Waddington Brands want to join the social media party. They try and adopt different personalities to “fit in” to the party. Nice, but dim (Brands trying to associate themselves with unrelated events such as World Cup or Mother’s Day) Nutters (Those who might associate themselves with serious topic and trying to make it a joke) Automation (Big risk as the conversations do not flow) Therefore it’s a good idea to improve the content that you share on the internet, including when working with your clients. Social media is intrinsically human, so automate with extreme care.   How to use data for your content strategy – Jojo Most data is already available (and free) so use it to tell your story. Tools to use for data include: Facebook Insights Google Analytics Google Trends It is important to present data in an interesting way. Try using these tools: Gephi (can show network analysis) CartoDB (mapping analysis)   Content marketing yearbook 2014 – Fergus Parker Effective content marketing is not simple – it’s complicated! Success isn’t a straight journey as there are lessons to learn on the way. £4 billion is spent on content marketing in the UK. There is £2.1 billion currently being used ineffectively. Focus on 7 things to improve: Inspire Educate Emotion Belief Meaning and purpose Relevant Authentic Produce content for people who already have an audience. And make sure you know what they want.   Create an inbound marketing strategy in a boring industry – Jasper Martens Look at the purchase decision funnel when creating content. Content can be done before the purchase, when people are a customer, and as a retention tool. Create relevant content by answering questions that consumers have. It is important to be consistent and invest. Big ideas may have risk, but could also have big results. Great content is shared, so be prepared and make sure the piece is hosted somewhere that can handle a lot of traffic in a small amount of time. Data can be used to create interesting content that can be used by news services to support their reports. This can increase your visibility.   Alex Johnson taking over now, ready for the second session of the day at the Content Marketing Show. You can catch me on twitter @alex_cestrian Why do we share stuff? – Emma Dunn – Caliber Social Currency – stuff that makes them look cool/smart/in the know Usefulness When things are unexpected/surprising Emotional triggers – amusement, anger, surprise Stories – people love to share a good story, tap into emotional identity   What can being a poker player teach me about content marketing?  – Andrew Tipp 1. Data – Be thoughtful, analytical- data can tell a story Everything should begin and end with data (don’t be a content marketing cowboy!) 2. Tells – Look for insight and clues to make decisions from incomplete information 3. Expectation – Make content decisions with a positive expectation value – look at the long term goals 18-24 month strategies work well in looking at long term value 4. Research your opponents – Analyse what they are doing better than you!! What is their strategy/how are they gaining coverage? 5. Strategy - Be flexible in your strategy – different strategies for different campaigns 6. Winning – Is it all about the big win? – its all about picking up the small incremental win – most wins should be from the ‘bread and butter content’ 7. Losing – Avoiding big losses is as good as creating big wins – test to make sure you’re not losing out 8. Folding – Know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em – don’t persist with content concepts that aren’t winning!   How a journalistic approach and a magazine mindset improves brand content – Steve Masters The journalist mindset is all about finding a good story The magazine mindset is about variety Interviews improve storytelling – quotes bring passion, kudos and weight Ask experts to give you quotes and include references and also contradictions Conversation is key – interviews are not an inquisition Listen for soundbites – they won’t come ready-made   How do you measure Content Marketing? The $44bn question – Andrew Davies Content Marketing is now a $43.9bn industry The big question is proving the value of content marketing 3 steps: Content Performance -> Audience Performance -> Business Performance Measure your audience – build personas and measure Don’t forget the individual At this point, Andrew Davies offends northerners [ed. is a northerner...grrrr!] From here it gets a bit confusing and very detailed, so I’d recommend you check out Andrew Davies’ slide deck – we’ll add a link here once its up online Right, it’s now time for lunch at the Content Marketing Show, we’ll be back in a couple of hours with takeaways from the afternoon sessions, live from the Institute of Education in Central London… over and out! Coming up…. 4:30 Raph Goldberg The Hero's Journey: using archetypes in video marketing Wes West Making animation for the web Nichola Stott Getting Past the Buying Objection with Problem-Solving Content Jess Collins Types, tripe and how to get it right (types of content & how to make boring content inspiring)   16:30 Marcin Chirowski How to organise successful international bloggers event Chelsea Blacker Motivational Content Stories For the Down Trodden Charlie Williams Gateway-drug content strategy elements you should use Lisa Myers Running and motivating a creative content team   The post Content Marketing Show: Key Takeaways appeared first on White.net.

Competitor Analysis: Identifying your online competitors Posted: 17 Jul 2014 12:30 AM PDT Do you conduct any competitor research for the industry that you work in? If the answer is yes, then great. If it is no, then you are not the only one! In my opinion, competitor research is one of the most underrated pieces of work completed. Often even if it is done, it is not used, and gets left on the desk, put in a drawer or, if sent electronically, not even read. Why dammit, why? This piece of research is essential to your online marketing plan, your strategy, and your business! It is key to understanding what is going on and what is required for your business to succeed or, at the very least, keep it afloat. Yet, so many people just don’t seem to care, or view it as a pointless task. Well, over the next four posts I am hoping to change your mind. I want to show you what you can uncover with competitor research, and how it can all come together to influence your search marketing plan. In these posts I am going to be discussing: Identifying competitors based on search terms Finding keyword & content opportunities Understanding what content performs well What coverage your competitors are getting, and why But first I am going to start with identifying your online competitors. Online is different to Offline! If you have got this far, then you either don’t normally conduct competitor analysis or you want to know how and why to do it. To start with, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Who are my competitors? What search terms are they visible for? Are those search terms of value to you? What are your competitors ranking for and should you be? How much money will it cost me to buy that traffic through paid search? Luckily, there are tools available to help you do this. Some are paid, as you would expect, but they are worth the money if you are going to be constantly monitoring the landscape – which you should be! So how do you understand who your online competitors are within search and what their visibility is? Well here is what I do in 10 steps… *To complete these steps you will need paid access to both SEMrush & Linkdex. Firstly, head over to SEMrush, type in your domain, choose the country that you want to analyse (SEMrush currently has 22 countries), and hit search. This will return a lot of data, but at this point you are purely focusing on the organic keywords and competitors, which you will find if you scroll down the page. What you need to do now is to download all the organic keywords from the top 10-20 organic competitors. You can obviously choose more or less depending on the market that you are researching. To do this, simply click on the ‘Organic Competitors’ full report, then click on the competitor of choice. This will provide you with a list of keywords that you can simply download into Excel format. Go ahead and do this for your chosen number of competitors. Now you have all the keywords, you need to merge them into a single spreadsheet, keeping all the data, and de-dupe them. Now that you have a single list, you will need to spend some time going through the keywords and removing any that are unnecessary. Terms that include brand, jobs, recruitment, sales and anything else that isn’t relevant to your business and market, need to be removed. This will give you a much more accurate list of terms. Once you have completed your list in Excel, you will need to import this data into Linkdex, keeping the Term, Search Volume and CPC data found in SEMrush. To do this, simply go to the keyword rankings function within Linkdex and bulk upload using their import tool. Choose the correct headings and let it gather ranking data for those terms. Whilst that is happening, head over to the new ‘visibility’ feature that has recently been released by Linkdex. This feature is similar to that of SEMrush in that it tracks millions of keywords, but it also allows you to do some of your analysis side-by-side. Once you are in the new feature, you need to start entering the competitors that you identified in SEMrush. Once complete you will start to see the table populate with terms that each domain is visible for. The next step is pretty time-consuming, but is required. You will need to go through each competitor and add any keywords that are not currently in your list, but that are relevant to you. You may have to go and get the search volume and CPC data for these extra terms. This can be done by heading over to the keyword planner and adding in the terms as exact match and returning the data. By time you have done this, you should have a very comprehensive list of search terms that you and your competitors are competing for. Still in Linkdex, head over to the dashboards and create a ‘Competitor Detective Pro’ widget that looks at all of the keywords that you have added into Linkdex for checking. Once you have set this up and clicked OK, wait for the data to load and voila! Here are your competitors based on all the terms within the market, along with rankings by position, estimated traffic volume and how much that traffic is worth if you paid for it through PPC. So there you have it, a list of your online competitors who are targeting the key phrases within your industry, along with ranking data, estimated volumes and how much it would cost. This data can be useful to understand where you currently sit in the search landscape vs your new found competitors. It will also likely throw up some competitors that you may not have thought were competing on similar terms. All this data can form part of your strategy going forward and inform the next steps. In my next post I will talk about how you take this data and find new opportunities that your competitors are already taking advantage of. Are you conducting any competitor analysis for your clients? Do you follow a similar process, or are you doing something completely different? I’d really like to hear your comments on my thought process and what you would do differently in the comments below or over on twitter @danielbianchini. Flickr Image Credit. The post Competitor Analysis: Identifying your online competitors appeared first on White.net.

You are subscribed to email updates from White.net To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Seth's Blog : The special problem

 

The special problem

Yes, it's possible that your particular challenge is unique, that your industry, your job situation, your set of circumstances is so one-of-a-kind that the general wisdom doesn't apply.

And it's possible that your problem is so perfect and you are so stuck that in fact there's nothing out there that can help you.

Possible, but not likely.

When you complain that you need ever more specific advice because the general advice just doesn't apply, consider looking for your fear instead. As Steve Pressfield has pointed out, the resistance is a wily adversary, and one of the clever ways it will help us hide from the insight that will lead to forward motion is to play the unique, this-one-is-different card.

We can learn by analogy, if we're willing to try and fail, and mostly, if we're willing to get unstuck.

The first step is acknowledging that our problem isn't that special.

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• When in doubt, re-read rule one
• Project management for work that matters
• Lessons from the Eiffel Tower
• Literacy (and unguided reading)
• The self-driving reset of just about everything in our cities

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 365 Boston Post Rd, Suite 123, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.

 

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

---

Yellen Yap: Silliness, Outright Lies, and Some Refreshingly Accurate Reporting Posted: 16 Jul 2014 09:45 PM PDT Yellen Yap Silliness The spotlight on Fed Chair Janet Yellen is rather amusing given she is more disingenuous than former Chair Ben Bernanke. Some of the headlines are downright silly. For example, Bloomberg reports Dollar Rises to Highest in 3 Weeks on Yellen Comments. The dollar reached the strongest in a month versus the euro as wholesale prices in the U.S. rose more than forecast and the Fed saw modest to moderate growth in June. New Zealand's dollar slumped the most in seven weeks after inflation accelerated slower than expected and a gauge of dairy prices dropped to its lowest since 2012. South Korea's won slid to the weakest since April. Yellen testified before the House Financial Services Committee today that she's not seeing "alarming warning signals" in markets. "My general assessment at this point is that threats to financial stability are at a moderate level and not a very high level," she said. While some asset values "may be on the high side and there may be some pockets where we see valuations becoming stretched," in general "price equity ratios and other measures are not outside of historical norms." US Dollar Weekly Chart click on chart for sharper image Questions of the Day Did the US dollar rise because of what Yellen said or in spite of what Yellen said? Was the move based on wholesale prices or other economic data, as opposed to anything Yellen said? What about none of the above? Was this a random fluctuation not attributable to anything? Even if the move in the US dollar could reasonably be attributed to Yellen, was the move worth mentioning in a headline? Yellen Yap Lies Let's move from silliness to outright lies, and an excellent post by Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism that discusses the lies (whoppers). In response to the New Yorker article The Hand on the Lever regarding "How Janet Yellen is redefining the Federal Reserve", by Nicholas Lemann, Smith accurately assesses the setup in her coverage Yellen Tells Whoppers to the New Yorker A Nicholas Lemann profile of Janet Yellen in the New Yorker, based on interviews with her, is creating quite a stir, and for many of the wrong reasons. The article verges on fawning, but even after you scrape off the treacle, it's not hard to see how aggressively and consistently the Fed chair hits her big talking point, that's she's on the side of the little guy. In fact, as we'll discuss, Yellen's record before and at the Fed shows she's either aligned herself with banking/elite interests or played two-handed economist to sit out important policy fights. Even if she actually harbors concern for ordinary citizens, she's never been willing to risk an ounce of career capital on it. The article is also generously larded with standard defenses of the Fed, that it lacked the power to do much of anything about dodgy mortgage lending in the runup to the crisis. In fact, the Fed was so firmly in denial that even in 2007, Fed officials were convinced that banks were victimized by subprime borrowers, which is hardly a pro-intervention stance. And why did the Fed take so little interest? The real reason was that prior to the crisis, if borrowers bought more costly housing than they could afford, the losses fell mainly on them. There was enough of an equity cushion on average that the banks came out at worst only mildly dented. In other words, readers are supposed to take Yellen's claims at face value, when the Fed's policy of saving banks by goosing asset prices and convincing itself that ordinary people would benefit because the "wealth effect" would lead to more consumption. The result has been widening income and wealth disparity and corporate profits at record levels as a percent of GDP, meaning workers are getting less than they've ever gotten. At the Fed, Yellen is given more credit than she deserves for sounding some mild concern about rising housing prices. She's also been cited as the best forecaster on the FOMC, but given how the FOMC failed to see the crisis coming, her "success" is tantamount to declaring her the winner of a height competition among peanuts. In other words, Yellen was in the center to center-right of the Democratic party technocratic elite of the 1990s and never departed from conventional thinking. She's now trying to rewrite her record by making pious statements and getting her interlocutors to focus on what she presents as her character in the hope that they won't bother looking at her actions. Yellen's contention that she's really out to help little people would be far more credible if she acknowledged her past anti-middle class policy positions and claimed that she'd made a Pauline conversion. But her institutional and political loyalties preclude that.  Bingo The Fed is the number one cause of widening income and wealth disparity and corporate profits at record levels, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions. It is very refreshing to be on the same side of the debate as Yves Smith, possibly because her article did not go into solutions. I advocate free market solutions while Yves tends to advocate more intervention. Regardless, Yves did an outstanding job bashing the disingenuous nature of Yellen. Her article merits a read in entirety. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

"Treasury Bond Undervalued" Says Hoisington Second Quarter Review; Path to Fiscal Ruin Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:42 AM PDT The Hoisington Investment Management, Second Quarter 2014 Review and Outlook makes the case "Treasury Bond Undervalued". Thirty-year treasury bonds appear to be undervalued based on the tepid growth rate of the U.S. economy. The past four quarters have recorded a nominal "top-line" GDP expansion of only 2.9%, while the bond yield remains close to 3.4%.   To put the 2.9% change in nominal GDP over the past four quarters in perspective, it is below the entry point of any post-war recession. Even adjusting for inflation the average four-quarter growth rate in real GDP for this recovery is 1.8%, well below the 4.2% average in all of the previous post-war expansions. Fisher's Equation of Exchange Slow nominal growth is not surprising to those who recall the American economist Irving Fisher's (1867-1947) equation of exchange that was formulated in 1911. Fisher stated that nominal GDP is equal to money (M) times its turnover or velocity (V), i.e., GDP=M*V. Twelve months ago money (M) was expanding about 7%, and velocity (V) was declining at about a 4% annual rate. If you assume that those trends would remain in place then nominal GDP should have expanded at about 3% over the ensuing twelve months, which is exactly what occurred. Projecting further into 2014, the evidence of a continual lackluster expansion is clear. At the end of June money was expanding at slightly above a 6% annual rate, while velocity has been declining around 3%. Thus, Fisher's formula suggests that another twelve months of a 3% nominal growth rate is more likely than not. With inflation widely expected to rise in the 1.5% to 2.0% range, arithmetic suggests that real GDP in 2014 will expand between 1.0% and 1.5% versus the average output level of 2013. This rate of expansion will translate into a year-over-year growth rate of around 1% by the fourth quarter of 2014. This is akin to pre-recessionary conditions. An Alternative View of Debt The perplexing fact is that the growth rate of the economy continues to erode despite six years of cumulative deficits totaling $6.27 trillion and the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing policy which added net $3.63 trillion of treasury and agency securities to their portfolio. Many would assume that such stimulus would be associated with a booming economic environment, not a slowing one. Readers of our letters are familiar with our long-standing assessment that the cause of slower growth is the overly indebted economy with too much non-productive debt. Rather than repairing its balance sheet by reducing debt, the U.S. economy is starting to increase its leverage. Total debt rose to 349.3% of GDP in the first quarter, up from 343.7% in the third quarter of 2013. It is possible to cast an increase in debt in positive terms since it suggests that banks and other financial intermediaries are now confident and are lowering credit standards for automobiles, home equity, credit cards and other types of loans. Indeed, the economy gets a temporary boost when participants become more indebted. This conclusion was the essence of the pioneering work by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914) and Irving Fisher which stated that debt is an increase in current spending (economic expansion) followed by a decline in future spending (economic contraction). In concert with this view, but pinpointing the negative aspect of debt, contemporary economic research has corroborated the views of Hyman Minsky (1919-1996) and Charles Kindleberger (1910-2003) that debt slows economic growth at higher levels when it is skewed toward the type of borrowing that will not create an income stream sufficient to repay principal and interest. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) correctly argued that the severity of the Great Depression was due to under-consumption or over-saving. What Keynes failed to note was that the under-consumption of the 1930s was due to over-spending in the second half of the 1920s. In other words, once circumstances have allowed the under-saving event to occur, the net result will be a long period of economic under-performance. Implications for 2014-2015 In previous letters we have shown that the largest economies in the world have a higher total debt to GDP today than at the time of the Great Recession in 2008. PSRs [Personal Savings Rates] also indicate that foreign households are living further above their means than six years ago. According to the OECD, Japan's PSR for 2014 will be 0.6%, virtually unchanged from 2008. The OECD figure is likely to turn out to be very optimistic as the full effects of the April 2014 VAT increase takes effect, and a negative PSR for the year should not be ruled out. In addition, Japan's PSR is considerably below that of the U.S. The Eurozone PSR as a whole is estimated at 7.9%, down 1.5 percentage points from 2008. Thus, in aggregate, the U.S., Japan and Europe are all trying to solve an under-saving problem by creating more under-saving. History indicates this is not a viable path to recovery. Japan confirms the experience in the United States because their PSR has declined from over 20% in the financial meltdown year of 1989 to today's near zero level. Japan, unlike the U.S. in the 1940s, has moved further away from financial stability. Despite numerous monetary and fiscal policy maneuvers that were described as extremely powerful, the end result was that they have not been successful. With U.S. rates higher than those of major foreign markets, investors are provided with an additional reason to look favorably on increased investments in the long end of the U.S. treasury market. Additionally, with nominal growth slowing in response to low saving and higher debt we expect that over the next several years U.S. thirty-year bond yields could decline into the range of 1.7% to 2.3%, which is where the thirty-year yields in the Japanese and German economies, respectively, currently stand. Van R. Hoisington Lacy H. Hunt, Ph.D. Reflections on Keynesian Analysis Unlike the Hoisington authors, I have no praise at all for Keynes. That said, Hoisington politely blasts Keynes in this snip: "Keynes failed to note was that the under-consumption of the 1930s was due to over-spending in the second half of the 1920s. In other words, once circumstances have allowed the under-saving event to occur, the net result will be a long period of economic under-performance." I like the discussion on personal savings rates, especially this comment: "In aggregate, the U.S., Japan and Europe are all trying to solve an under-saving problem by creating more under-saving. History indicates this is not a viable path to recovery." Bingo. Path to Fiscal Ruin The OECD predicts Japan's PSR for 2014 will be 0.6%, but Hoisington points out that assessment is "likely to turn out to be very optimistic as the full effects of the April 2014 VAT increase takes effect. A negative PSR for the year should not be ruled out." The US and Japan are both on the path of fiscal ruin. It appears highly likely Japan will get there first thanks to a big head start followed by Abenomics. Yesterday, in Corporate and Government Bonds: Where to From Here? and in sharp contrast to all of those who see a US treasury bond bubble, I stated: "The worry about US government bonds is, for the time, overblown." Hoisington provides much analysis that shows why my statement is correct. There is much more in the article and it merits a full read. Ignore any positive references to Keynes,  but accept all of the negative ones, and the article reads perfectly. Personal Update I am in Glacier National Park, Montana (to be more precise, just outside the park). There is no phone or internet in the park. It can take 1 hour to do an email on the park satellite Wi-Fi. Liz and I went on a 10 mile round-trip hike to Iceberg Lake. It has about a 1,200 foot elevation change, all up on the way to the lake, all down on the way back. Here are a couple of images. Iceberg Lake Iceberg Lake Closeup Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

You are subscribed to email updates from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Damn Cool Pics

---

• These People Are Doing The Beach Wrong
• Woman Spends Fortune To Look Like Kim Kardashian
• 10 Companies That Rule The World Of Food
• Hot Babes Represent Their Team At The World Cup
• See What The Inside Of A Bullet Looks Like
• The 35 Most Powerful Militaries In The World [Infographic]

These People Are Doing The Beach Wrong Posted: 16 Jul 2014 07:22 PM PDT This is what happens when a good day at the beach turns into a bad day at the beach. It's all downhill from here.

Woman Spends Fortune To Look Like Kim Kardashian Posted: 16 Jul 2014 07:04 PM PDT 24 year old Claire Leeson spent $30,000 to look like Kim Kardashian. Do you think it was worth it? The London resident became obsessed with Kim K. in 2009 after she watched the family's reality show and realized she had the same number of sisters as Kardashian.

10 Companies That Rule The World Of Food Posted: 16 Jul 2014 08:35 AM PDT You probably never knew that all of the food in your kitchen is created by these 10 companies. It's only a matter of time before they take over the world.

Hot Babes Represent Their Team At The World Cup Posted: 15 Jul 2014 08:25 PM PDT There's nothing like a little team spirit. Costa Rica Brazil Argentina Russia France Columbia Belgium South Korea Argentina Brazil Columbia Costa Rica Germany England Costa Rica USA Mexico Argentina USA Brazil Costa Rica Belgium Columbia Brazil Germany

See What The Inside Of A Bullet Looks Like Posted: 15 Jul 2014 07:25 PM PDT These bullets were sliced perfectly in half in order to give you a better look at what's really inside these dangerous weapons.

The 35 Most Powerful Militaries In The World [Infographic] Posted: 15 Jul 2014 07:16 PM PDT Business Insider has created an infographic that ranks the 35 most powerful militaries in the world. Taking information from the Global Firepower Index, the ranking is allocated based on several factors such as available manpower, the quantity of weapons and their military budget. United States leads the overall ranking in first place, with Russia and China coming in at second and third place respectively. North Korea may be rounding up the list as the 35th, but it has a record of 78 submarines. Click on Image to Enlarge.

You are subscribed to email updates from Damn Cool Pictures To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610