Fifteen years ago I interviewed a half-dozen experts about LinkedIn Groups. Here’s how their advice has aged.Continue reading “LinkedIn Groups in 2026: What My 2011 Article Got Right — And What Changed”
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC
Content marketing metrics are the quantitative and qualitative measures used to evaluate whether a content program is achieving its intended business objectives. They include audience growth, lead generation, search visibility, and revenue attribution. The distinction between meaningful metrics and vanity metrics is critical: vanity metrics (page views, social media likes, follower counts) may look impressive but reveal little about business impact, while meaningful metrics connect content activity directly to outcomes that matter to the organization.
Every content marketer I’ve worked with has felt the pull of the vanity metric. The blog post that got 2,000 views. The LinkedIn post with 150 likes. The social media following that crossed a round number.
Continue reading “The Content Marketing Metrics That Actually Matter (And the Ones to Ignore)”
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC
Interviewing subject matter experts for content marketing is the practice of conducting structured conversations with domain specialists like executives, practitioners, researchers, or clients to gather original insights, stories, and perspectives that form the foundation of high-quality written content.
Done well, the expert interview is the single most powerful tool available to content marketers for producing material that is genuinely authoritative and distinctively voiced.
Continue reading “The Art of the Interview: How to Get Better Stories from Subject Matter Experts”
In the digital marketing landscape, authenticity and connections with consumers are paramount. A great way to connect with and engage your audience, while leveraging the power of word-of-mouth is through user-Generated Content (UGC). UGC can play a significant role in building brand trust and engagement.
But what do we mean when we say “user-generated” content, and how can you incorporate that kind of content into your marketing efforts in a way that’s brand supportive? Continue reading “The Role of User-Generated Content in Building Brand Trust”
I’m often surprised that the most overlooked audience when it comes to communicating with key constituents is the internal or employee audience. Companies are generally pretty good about recognizing that they need to communicate with customers and prospects, but employees tend to be an afterthought. This may be because of the assumption that Continue reading “Are You Overlooking Your Most Important Audience?”
I’m often surprised that the most overlooked audience, when it comes to communicating with key constituents, is the internal or employee audience. Companies are generally pretty good about recognizing that they need to communicate with customers and prospects, but employees tend to be an afterthought. This may be because of the assumption that since employees are part of the organization they somehow “know” what’s going on. After all, it was in the newsletter or on Slack, wasn’t it? The fact of the matter, though, is that companies can’t leave it to chance that employees are paying attention to the messages they’re sending, or that they understand which are the key messages that they should be paying attention to. Continue reading “What Your Employees Don’t Know Could Hurt You: How Effective Communication Builds Strong Brand Ambassadors”
by Linda Pophal
Having worked for organizations and their senior leaders and spokespeople for a number of years as director of corporate communications and marketing in various fields I’ve long been familiar—and quite comfortable—with the concept of ghostwriting. Ghostwriters write content for others. That content might be in the form of a speech, a presentation, an email, an article, a letter to the editor, a book-length manuscript, or a wide range of other applications. Continue reading “Sometimes I Just Can’t Be a Ghost…”
While it may seem like it’s a 21st-century thing, influencer marketing has been around since the early 20th century. One of the earliest influencers was Santa Claus, a character modernized and reinvented by Coca-Cola. Today’s influencers tend to be real people—PewDiePie, Logan Paul, Zoella, and others—many who leapt to fame thanks to the wide reach of social media channels, such as YouTube and Instagram. But influencers today come in a lot of forms depending on the target audience. Business-es, products, and services of all types leverage the audience, reach, and endorsement power of influencers to grow awareness and preference for what they have to offer. Continue reading “Following the Trends in Influencer Marketing”
We’ve previously discussed the challenges many companies face when trying to calculate an ROI on their marketing efforts. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can make it difficult to justify increasing spend on marketing efforts.
But, just because you feel like you can’t spend more money on marketing doesn’t mean you can’t invest in your brand. Continue reading “No-Cost, Low-Cost Ways to Boost Your Brand”
Having a real person associated with your brand can help your company connect with consumers on a personal level. It can also bring negative publicity from the actions or statements of those spokespeople. While it might be harder for audiences to connect personally with the Trix Bunny or Pillsbury Dough Boy, neither is likely to be in the news for making offensive statements or getting arrested.
Continue reading “Papa John’s Takes a Dip; Shaq Comes to the Rescue in More Ways Than One”
