Category: Publishing

“Newsjacking”: New Term, Big Opportunities

David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term “newsjacking,” which he describes as “the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.” He’s even written an ebook on the topic: Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas Into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.

The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it’s a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they’re curating and communicating fresh, engaging content? Continue reading ““Newsjacking”: New Term, Big Opportunities”

Podcasts Offer Potential for Advertisers

About 10 years ago, in June 2005, Apple began supporting podcasts through iTunes and the rest, as they say, is history. The popularity of podcasts has ebbed and flowed since then-most recently flowing as popular programs like Serial, NPRs Fresh Air and the TED Radio Hour attracting masses of listeners on a regular basis. Marketers haven’t been immune to the trend. Continue reading “Podcasts Offer Potential for Advertisers”

To Engage Your Audience, Provide Real Value

Savvy business owners and marketing professionals are always looking for ways to deepen their connection with existing customers and attract new clientele. In the age of content, newsletters and e-letters are great ways to connect with an audience and good tools for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use for customer engagement.

The key—as with any kind of online communication—is to Continue reading “To Engage Your Audience, Provide Real Value”

Thanks Google! Content Really is King Once Again.

 

The world suddenly seems to have a voracious appetite for content as online marketers compete with each other in an attempt to capture the eyeballs and eardrums of current and potential customers. Not just any content, but high-quality, unique and relevant content.

It wasn’t always this way. The bottom kind of fell out of the writing industry back in 2008 as the recession hit full force. Media outlets were laying people off in droves, or closing entirely, and the demand for freelancers was rapidly diminishing. I know because I had been a freelancer for a number of years. Even while employed full-time, I made a very nice “extra income” from writing for a variety of trade and professional publications.

It was this extra income that I felt would help provide me with a cushion when I launched Strategic Communications in 2008. But I was wrong.

Continue reading “Thanks Google! Content Really is King Once Again.”

5 Reasons Your Pitch Isn’t Getting Picked Up by the Media and What to Do About It

by Linda Pophal

 

At least once a week – maybe more often – a colleague, prospect or client will say to me: “I can’t understand why the media won’t run a story on my…” Well, there may be a number of reasons. Here are 5: Continue reading “5 Reasons Your Pitch Isn’t Getting Picked Up by the Media and What to Do About It”

An “Inside Out” Approach to Engaging Your Audience

We work with companies and individuals in the business-to-business (B2B) space on content marketing planning and implementation, including the use of social media. The greatest challenge—and opportunity—for companies of any kind is generating content that is going to be valued by their audience. That often means thinking, as we like to say, “from the outside in.”

Continue reading “An “Inside Out” Approach to Engaging Your Audience”

Why Your Homepage Isn’t Really Your Homepage

by Linda Pophal

 

For me, the summer months represent a relatively quiet time to catch up on some professional development activities that tend to be at the bottom of my list during busier times of the year. This summer, I’ve signed up for a few Coursera courses, including one called “Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals.” One of the reading assignments led me, as is often the case, down a rabbit hole to more and more intriguing topics until I found myself looking at Continue reading “Why Your Homepage Isn’t Really Your Homepage”

Best Blogging Practices

Blogging can seem like a big commitment and, to a certain degree, it is. After all, you don’t want to start a blog without committing to posting to it regularly. But the time and effort don’t have to be overwhelming. I started this blog in February 2009 and have been posting to it regularly ever since. Over the past few years, I’ve been posting a couple of times a week.

I have five tips for those wanting to start a blog, or do a better job of managing an existing blog: Continue reading “Best Blogging Practices”

The Biggest Mistake You May Be Making With Your Blog

A client contact asked me recently what I consider to be the “biggest mistake” bloggers make as they attempt to connect with their audiences. I’m sure there are many! I have been publishing this blog for several years now, and we also work with various clients to create and manage their blogs. There are a variety of mistakes that I have made (and, hopefully, learned from!) and many missteps that I see others make as well. Continue reading “The Biggest Mistake You May Be Making With Your Blog”

Blogging Best Practices

Blogs continue to be a great communication tool for marketers of any size, in any industry. Blogs have two “big benefits”:

  • They help you stay engaged with your audience in, hopefully, valued ways—keeping you “top of mind” when members of the audience are in need of your goods or services
  • They aid in driving traffic to your website – because blogs are (or, at least, should be) updated with new posts regularly, your content will be fresh, and will contain relevant key words and phrases that can boost SEO

We have a blog that we’ve been posting to since 2009. We also manage blogs for a number of clients. In our work we’ve discovered some important best practices: Continue reading “Blogging Best Practices”