Insight

Rebecca Black and the Art of Being Bad

rebecca black bad is the new good

It’s official: Bad is the new good. For the moment, anyway. While music tastes and styles have always been subjective, there’s no disputing that the buzz that built overnight around “Friday,” fledgling teen “singer” Rebecca Black’s ode to the weekend, is a sign that you don’t necessarily need to be good at what you do [...]

Tying It All Together: What a Well-Placed Headline Can Do For A Layout

tying it all together, rugs and headlines

There’s a scene from the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski where Jeff Bridges’ character, The Dude, walks into a local bowling alley lamenting the ruination of a living room rug vandalized by intruders. “That rug really tied the room together, did it not?” asks a concerned John Goodman, who plays fellow bowler [...]

What the Top 10 Blogs in Content Marketing Are Doing That You Probably Aren’t

what the best content marketing blogs do that you probably don't

If you want to have one of the most-read blogs in all of content marketing, the formula is actually pretty simple. All you have to do? Write 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every day for the next 6.7 years. Think you have the stamina?

How to Avoid Trolls, Landmines, and Time-Sucks in Social Media

guide to social landscape

The social media landscape can be a Labyrinth for even the most seasoned marketing professionals. Unexpected landmines, spiteful trolls, and productivity black holes are commonly spotted – that is if you’ve got the foresight to see them. And if you don’t? Well, you’re not totally out of luck as long as you have access to [...]

That’s Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man

tin foil troll

You have written the perfect blog entry on a topic that seems harmless enough: “Five fitness tips for fighting flab.” You publish, and then you wait for the healthy dialogue to begin.

3 Web Design Tools for Non-Web Designers Who Need to Explain Design Ideas

web design tools for non-web designers

I couldn’t draw you a 6-inch straight line if you gave me a ruler, a pencil, and a 5-inch head start. Seriously, design is not my forte. Just ask anyone who has ever tried to copy off my papers in high school. My doodles are terrible and cast doubt on my ability to perform basic [...]

Don’t Worry, Be Content: 10 Rules for Creating Quality Editorial

examining quality editorial

No rules, just write, right? Not so fast. Though creating quality editorial is an art, there’s absolutely a science behind it, according to Kim Caviness, VP of content at TMG Custom Media (disclosure: the company behind this blog). Here are her 10 rules for quality editorial:

Content Marketing: Forget About the Glamour, Focus on the Grindstone

glamour versus grindstone marketing

A kindergartner came home excited after his first day of school. Talking a mile a minute, he began telling his mom about all the fun things he did: finger painting, arts and crafts, alphabet games. The list went on and on as he breathlessly detailed each moment, the story goes. Bright-eyed and encouraged, his mom [...]

How to Lose Credibility with One Typoe

a typo in mario and luigi

It seems like common sense: Look over your work before you share it. But sometimes – especially in the era of “do more with less” – that simply doesn’t happen. In the name of timesaving, we skip the review and let it fly. We hit “send” or “submit” or “publish” without giving work a once-over [...]

How Powerful Brands Make Big Deals Out of the Little Things

Thumbnail image for How Powerful Brands Make Big Deals Out of the Little Things

What was one of the biggest news stories across the globe just a few days ago? A 16 year old boy getting a haircut. Why is this news? Well, because it wasn’t just any teenage boy, it was Grammy-snubbed, chart-topping, Canadian-born teen pop star Justin Bieber. You know, the one that sang for the President [...]

Content Curation: If You Can’t Be the Source, Be the Resource

pizza and content curation

People used to come into my sandwich shop craving pizza. I could see it in their eyes. They wanted melted mozzarella on a bed of tomato sauce with black olives, pepperoni and maybe just a touch of roasted red pepper. They wouldn’t be satisfied with a sandwich – not this time anyway. Their craving knew [...]

4 Secrets to Building a Good Website

secrets to a good website

Eureka moments can happen anywhere. Mark Zuckerberg first tinkered with the code that would spark the social media revolution in his Harvard dorm room. Harry Potter came to J.K. Rowling in a dream. Howard Schultz envisioned a coffee empire while standing in line at a café in Milan. In the case of Schultz, the Brooklyn-bred [...]

Social Media Disaster Recovery: It’s All About the Response

social media disaster recovery

“With great power comes great responsibility.” The owner of the sandwich shop I managed in college said this to me prior to my first time flying solo as the shift supervisor for his store. He was only kidding, or so I told myself, so I rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. Really, it wasn’t [...]

Lessons In Social Capitalism

social capitalism

By now you may have heard about Kickstarter.com, the web site where entrepreneurs with compelling ideas but empty pockets can go to crowdsource the financing they need to make their crazy dreams a reality. The site calls itself “a new way to fund and follow creativity,” and it functions as a platform for “patrons,” or [...]

The Most Interesting Writer in the World

Most Interesting Writer in the World

I dig beer. And if you’re going to concoct an advertising campaign with attendant brand building that appeals to my need for suds, please, for the love of the almighty marketing gods, tell me your pitch man is the most interesting man in the world. That’s audacious. And better yet, tell me things about him [...]

Branded Content: Examples of Getting it Right

branded content right

There’s no question that there’s been an upswing in the trend of brands publishing content to win over consumers. Bypassing traditional avenues of promotion, smart organizations are tapping their internal expertise to create content that entertains, educates, and engages their current and potential customers. Consider the following data from the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry [...]

Why SEO Would Matter Even If Search Engines Stopped Running

seo without search engines

“Isn’t SEO just the practice of gaming the search engines?” If you’ve ever had to make the case for SEO, this Molotov cocktail of cynicism has likely been lobbed your way. “But good content doesn’t need an SEO strategy.” Right. It doesn’t. And horses don’t need saddles. But things go a heck of a lot [...]

7 Grammar Mistakes that Make Editors Hyperventilate

grammar mistakes for editor hyperventilation

It’s time to declare a war on bad grammar, misuse of words and cringeworthy punctuation and capitalization. In today’s fast-paced media environment, perfection seems to have been traded for speed, making room for these unwelcome villains on the pages of publications everywhere. But who is enemy #1? Do all editors loathe the same mistakes, or [...]

An Illustrated History of Content (and a Smooth Move in Content Marketing)

smooth move in content marketing

You know you’ve done your job as a marketer when people do your advertising for you. By creating something memorable, entertaining, and worth talking about, you get more mileage out of your initial investment. This is what brands hope for when they make decisions like investing $100,000 per second in the Super Bowl commercials we [...]

What If We Treated Every Page Like Our Homepage?

treat every page like a homepage

I get it. You’re not going to stop obsessing over your homepage. And you shouldn’t. Sure, only a percentage of your overall site traffic probably views your homepage in reality, but it doesn’t matter. It means too much. It’s symbolic. It’s political. It’s your brand. It’s the first thing people see when they check out [...]

6 Steps to a Better Media Kit

better media kit

So, you did your job as a marketer and you got a nibble: someone wants to learn more about your organization. Maybe your company got some great press and reporters are hounding you for more info. Or maybe a potential advertiser finally admits they are, in fact, interested in advertising with you, and they want [...]

I Love You For You: Why Ignoring Technology is the Most Innovative Move You Can Make

customer service

There’s a diner down the street that my girlfriend and I love to go to for breakfast on weekend mornings. It’s cozy, friendly, and it’s the perfect backdrop for conversation. It has built its business around serving regulars – like us – who count on it for a moment of serenity during typically hectic Washington [...]

Social Media Monitoring Made Simple

social media monitoring

If you’ve been monitoring social media for mentions of … social media monitoring, you’ll likely have noticed more people discussing how to listen better on behalf of your brand. There are tools. There are services. And there are case studies on how your organization can sift through social media static and glean out useful nuggets. [...]

Content as Social Currency

content as social currency thumbnail

Think of a funny friend. This is the person you bring to happy hours and parties because you know, despite how awkward it may get, this person is sure to make everyone have a good time. Now think of a self-absorbed friend. This is the person who segues (ahem, forces) every conversation to morph into [...]

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