The Lean Content Movement is curation, tools with fast feedback loops and writing less content that does more. Join the Lean Content Movement, here's how.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Listened to a great interview with Guillaume today on Blog Talk Radio. Guillaume and Scoop.it have created what is tantamount to a new movement - the Lean Content Movement.
Lean Content is about:
* Writing less, but creating more meaning. * Using fast feedback loop tools such as Scoop.it. * Cutting through the clutter with BETTER content.
"Better" in the Lean Content movement is when reader or creator gain insight faster and so realizing the promise of "do more with less".
Hi Therese - The way we see it (and please bear in mind that Lean Content is a concept still being defined), Lean Content is not about "Information diet" or trying to refrain from creating Content. We are definitely in a world of content inflation. So how do we cope with this? Part of the best practices we've seen being done come around faster content creation cycle, leveraged content distribution, content curation, etc... Faster content creation cycle is for instance something Leo from Buffer talked about at our first meetup group here in SF explaining techniques to become better and better at turning out quality content fast. What I call leveraged content distribution is the idea of using guest posting, slideshare or quora to give a bigger distribution to your content than your blog if it's nascent - techniques we used a lot at Scoop.it and that proved efficient for us. So it's not about zero growth (an interesting economic concept that I don't believe in but that's a different discussion ;-) but it's about doing more and better with your content strategy for the limited resources that startups, non-profits or even small teams within bigger organizations have. Makes any sense?
Museums must become more open to what author Lisa Gansky calls "The Mesh". If consumers can't take pictures, consume and mashup a museum's content they are missing the open source future that is right around the mobile phone powered corner.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Museums Are Stupid Actually museums are brilliant, but most people who manage museums haven't gotten the new social media marketing memo. I was reminded of how out of touch museums can be the other day.
I called our very good small museum, The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), to ask about shooting a marketing video in the museum. Not allowed I was told UNLESS I was a nonprofit.
What? Are you kidding me?
Yes I wanted a beautiful backdrop for our marketing videos, but I also wanted to incorporate (or mashup if you will) several favorite paintings into our marketing discussion. I agree I shouldn't be able to profit from a museum built with my tax dollars, but that is not what I was attempting to accomplish.
The Benefactor = The Museum.
I wasn't going to resell the video or make money from it at least not directly. If I discuss Internet marketing standing in front of their amazing Alex Katz painting and incorporate the work into my presentation what is being advertised more?
Answer = The Museum.
Teaching in our Thank You Economy (great book by Vaynerchuk) is a great way to disrupt, market and share. Teaching at the museum is mutually beneficial. They get free PR and awareness and that is our table stakes in the game or how we repay their willingness to allow us to shoot there.
By being more generous about how their space can be used they INCREASE their awareness, visitors and change their context. Changing the experience of the brand is important to bringing in new people. Most museums are arrogant about shifting paradigms and context.
Museums are the proverbial small fish in a big pond. Even the majors are FLEAS when it comes to marketing. Fleas who could be giants if they take an expansive view of their mission and content. If NCMA allowed filming then I and the others who film there gain a little even as the museum gains more.
Every museum must overcome the notion of being stuffing, elitist and so "not for me" in most people's minds. Museums are so self referential and dependent on the same rich people's support they trip over the mob's millions to pick up the rich guy's quarters.
The real money for any museum is in being seen as OPEN and ENGAGING. We live in hectic times. We consumers reserve our free time for places that are OPEN and ENGAGING such as Starbucks, the movies and the great outdoors.
Museums are stupid if they don't understand a simple truth - they must compete for our attention just like any other brand. Here is the real pity. NCMA is a GREAT small museum and that is the real reason I wanted to ADVOCATE for them.
Their refusal to allow us to film is left over from an old time when copyright laws ruled the land. Not so much anymore because the (c) genie is out of the bottle. I used The Scream by Munch as the visual for this piece because it is a true horror story to museums. Seems someone forgot to do something and Munch's painting of universal angst wasn't protected.
As a result my ex-wife sold an inflatable scream blowup doll. Here is my real lesson for Museum Directors. That doll introduced a new generation of people to Munch's work. The benefits of open source museum-ing are so much greater than its costs that smart museum Directors are already headed to a more inclusive and open ecosystem.
Here is my other important point: In the end, it doesn't matter what YOU want or think becasue open source will win in the end. There is no putting this mashup genie back in any bottle. Museum directors should relax and learn to love our abilit to roll their precious content like a burrito or they will alienate advocates and become the thing museums fear most - becoming an elitist institution with no relevance or meaning to anyone other than themselves.
CMI consultants continue a roundtable discussion on key challenges for content marketing strategies in social media. Find out the secret to choosing channels.
I like the Content Marketing Institute team. I've attended a Content Marketing World and it was one of the better conferences I've been to in years. Joe Pulizzi, the head of CMI, has been a content champion for years, so follow them. This article helps cut hype from truth in social media.
Article from Kuno marketing on what is content marketing and why you should care.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
This is an excellent advanced introduciton to content marketing. The rubber meets the road in the section on why you should care about content marketing.
Seth Godin has my favorite statement about why you should care about content markteing when he says, "Its the only marketing left".
With a multitude of mobile devices coming out almost every week, how can marketers ensure that their content is optimized for different device types, screen sizes, and capabilities?
Robert Wright, Michael Shermer and Yochai Benkler believe we rebel against the one size fits all command and control systems so favored in the forties, fifties and sixties.
William Whyte wrote The Organization Man in 1957. In the last 15 years we've begun to question the "selfish" man model only motivated by extrinsic motivations (the whip, chair, gun or greed). We know we LOVE things and so are willing and happy to GIVE of our time, effort and life.
The New Altruism is being fueled by:
* Social Networks.
* Flat, Global and Connected world.
* Recognition not everyone is motivated by the same things.
* Greater understanding motivation is contextual too.
I've written about The New Altruism since 2007 when no one cared. Now everyone seems to care. And they should because each day brings new cool tools, examples and chances to expand Internet marketing's New Altruism.
Social media has rapidly become an important part of many peoples’ lives, not just as a way to keep up with friends and family, but also for professional networks, exploring fields of research, shopping, sharing content and fostering online communities.
It has also become a crucial aspect of a businesses’ online presence- now a firm can connect with consumers and tailor their online relationships with customers, other brands, and with employees. Predicting quite what is going to happen in this ever changing digital landscape isn’t easy, but it’s certainly worth noting some of the rising trends and having a look ahead to 2013.
Learn more about these trends, including social marketing, content development, branding, video + media applications, social tv, and the growing influence of mobile devices in social media...
Eliza Steely's comment,
December 13, 2012 12:57 PM
I love that point Martin! I think people call it social because of the personal element to it as opposed to advertising and things like that, especially because it's so interactive in nature. Do you have a suggestion as to what to change the name to?
(From the article): "The coming year will see a massive increase in companies using social media services to market their goods and services, recognising the potential for sharing content and information and enhancing engagement with target audiences."
Is Google changing marketing or the other way around?
Marty Note Why would I subject you to an old SlideShare from 2009? It is a hoot to look back and see how much I missed and how much I got right. I'm batting better than 50% in the predictions department and beating chance (lol). Did I miss MOBILE? Yep :).
The SEO Cool Part The other reason I share this presentation is it has been sitting at #1 or #2 (absolute meaning no float) on the phrase "Content Marketing Network" almost since I put it up in 2009 WITH NO FURTHER SUPPORT.
If you are new to this game we Internet marketers play let me translate that last for you - SlideShare is SEO HUGE. Make sure creation and uploads of SlideShares is part of your ongoing content strategy especially for long tail terms like this.
"Being of a slightly contrarian frame of mind, however, I think it’s important that we remind ourselves that stories do have limits, and excessive reliance on them can weaken our persuasive efforts, especially when our listeners start probing a little deeper to find the real truth behind them."
I like how the author Jack Malcolm starts out his blog. Yes, stories can be deceptive just like any other form of communication.
And I agree with his first point: they may be untrue or exaggerated.
After that however, I put my cranky pants on.
The next point advocates is that stories are ALWAYS incomplete; that nuance and complexity get in the way of a good story.
Balderdash I say!! What about the creation of rich media, layered meanings, and multiple interpretations?
The next point is equally problematic: stories may be true, but insufficient; that the more vivid and compelling a story, the more it can mislead because the listener focuses in on the details instead of the larger picture.
Aaaarrrgghh! All that says to me is that when that happens, the teller is not that skilled in storytelling and the crafting of co-created meanings which speak to a larger picture.
Bottom line for all of us? Keep learning the craft of storytelling. Know how to layer multiple meanings into your biz stories when needed. Keep drawing out the bigger picture in your stories when needed. And be authentic.
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
Marty Note Great thoughts from Karen. I especially love her end call to action. Keep learning the craft of storytelling! If you missed Karen's the Best Stories Win for @SmallRivers' Paper.li blog read it now as it is a MUST READ on how to tell a story:
Dr. Karen Dietz's comment October 27, 2012 6:04 PM
Hi Malek! Just an FYI -- I did rewrite my original review of this article, making some slight changes. I felt I was a little too harsh on the author :) Thanks for re-scooping this piece!
The classic sales funnel has long been used to describe website development strategy.
However, the deployment of content marketing in a sales funnel with a campaign focus is a relatively new concept to many.
It’s not as simple as writing lots of blog posts every day and distributing them on social channels.
In fact, the goal of strategic content marketing should be to identify, qualify, segment, score and, ultimately, close leads in an accelerated and predictable fashion.
In order to strategically deploy content marketing it requires the right software, a defined sales funnel and a campaign structure.
Segments are usually FINANCIAL measures such as VIPs or "multi-buyers". Segments is one way to quantify groups within your marketing. Personas are another. Personas identify archetypes and group characteristics (instead of financial segments). Personas help develop creative segments make sure you make money.
Hi Marty. I temporarily forgot that our comments showed up on your wall as well. Yes, I was endorsing you to a business student because your posts can add fresh insight in many of her buisness courses. Thanks Marty for all of your great scoops and true curation.
If you are curious of why Facebook bought Instagram for so much money or why Pinterest is worth so much money... the answer is our societies shift to attraction to photos is the age of information over-load. Also, we have been hard-wired to visual communication since our cave-man days. Here are 13 great examples of how and why adding strategic photos to social media can help your marketing.
Ken Morrison
Social media photos: how to expand your social media presence with photos that attract and engage readers.
***** WOW this is a smart, smart realization tht is so RIGHT, but I never would of gotten there on my own. Great Scoop Mike!
"The social web is more than just a bunch of social networks."
Forbes has been crushing it lately about social media. Who'd a thunk the bastion of old-school capitalism would be one of the most reliable commentators on this new technology, especially since social media threatens how business is done today.
This article says, basically, make yourself relevant and Google will find you. Playing the SEO game without understanding what will really make your brand sustainable is a fool's game. A must read.
316 Million Video Viewers Ignored by B2B Marketers?
Great study by David Rose showing MAJOR brands unprepared for video, sill using flash and looking out of it. Video and mobile are, at least initially, Darwinian. If you have your act together there it helps appear as if your act is together everywhere (whehter it is or not is a real debate). When major brands still have flash, don't sniff that I'm on an iPad or iPhone they appear stupid and out of touch as David points out. Marty
Internet marketing shares humanity, warts and all, then weaves a sum is greater tapestry where YOURS, OURS and THEIRS lose value or distinction. Here's How.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Outlaw Josey Wales IM Advice CONTEST What advice do you thihnk the outlaw Josey Wales would give today's Internte marketers? Enter on Atlantic BT's Facebook page:
Don't Piss Down My Back & Tell Me Its Raining Josey Wales had a way of using a few words to say amazing things. The article linked here discusses a company that got their Internet marketing a little right and a lot wrong.
Writing the piece I wondered what other advice the outlaw Josey Wales would share with today's Internet marketers. What do you think? Share your outlaw advice on Atlantic BT's Facebook page:
That is an excellent article about how cool products in poorly designed booths were ignored at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Trade Shows are DARWINIAN. Seth Godin had a great explanation for why you buy more booth space than you can afford - because of how it LOOKS.
Design is only HALF the disruption. The other half comes from having the courage to spend money without being able to fully know if there is ROI. One thing the people in empty booths know is it is better to be busy.
2. Whirlpool Teaches To Disrupt In the same article is a great example of an old brand that gets it. Whirlpool didn't just recreate their graphics they explained their process. Read the great book HOW: Why How You Do Anything Means Everything by Dov Seidman.
Dov explains that in a fast, flat, connected time the only unique thing your company or brand truly "owns" is your business processes. Teaching is an exciting way to disrupt, but never ONLY teach. Make sure you are listening too (see #3).
3. Listen To Disrupt Scoop.it Learns FAST I love Scoop.it. Two upgrades ago Scoop.it removed some beloved and ingenious features. I led a little revolt complaining about not being included. First victory was how well Guillaume and his team listened and how quickly they pivoted returning our lost features. All was good and then it was time for the next big change.
This time Scoop.it released their changes to a handful of advocates and loyal Scoop.it users. The Scoop.it team listened so well they changed on the fly AND changed their roll out process. Well done Scoop.it and that are listening to disrupt.
4. Gold Miners Use UGC & Wisdom of Crowds To Disrupt
Canada's GoldCorp did the unthinkable in the gold mining business when they made normally secret data with the world. The result? GoldCorp is now Canada's largest mining company after crowd wisdom tuned their data to find more than $3B in "new gold" with very low exploration costs. More than simply applying new eyes GoldCorp's contest prompted creation of new visualizations and content (User Generated Content) showing where and why there was gold in previously un-mined belts.
5. NewsJack The Media To Disrupt
Read David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR and NewsJacking to learn how to play your marketing on top of trends brewing in the media. My favorite example is the casino that garnered millions in free PR when they banned bad girl Lindsay Lohan from their casino.
These days marketing serves a bigger idea or it isn't sticky. This article is about how to create movements to sell campaigns. If you have the one, movements and the advocacy they create, the other is easy. Ideally, you sell less as your advocates sell more and this post shares tips on how to make the magic happen.
Great article from Marcus Sheridan aka The Sales Lion (@TheSalesLion) about the content saturation index or the ROAR of the lion.
Ally is right content marketing is the only marketing left and she is right. Marcus is also right. Everyone knows the importance of content now so the amount of DREK content being loaded up as I type this is staggering.
"We create as much digital content very 2 days now as from the dawn of man up until 2003." Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
If Ally's excellent article is (A) and Marcus' is (B) here is (C):
Ally - Content marketing = NET so throw as much as possible.
Sales Lion - Already a lot of fishermen throwing lots of net, great tips on throwing yours better.
ScentTrail - Disruption Cuts through clutter.
ScentTrail - Find and live in Greatness, win hearts and minds.
Mashing those 4 posts together can help any Internet marketing team in 2013. What other posts should be mash into the MUST READ mix for 2013? Share your favorites and we will curate them in.
Can Altruism Disrupt? Altruism may be the ONLY marketing act sure to disrupt from now to the end of time. Sure Altruism has HUGE proponents in Google and Facebook, but as Benkler discussed in the video included in my The New Altruism post PAPA GOT A BRAND NEW BAG.
I've been wondering why we seem to have suddenly made this turn toward altruism when Benkler explained it so beautifully. This trend isn't a turn, a tune or a change. The majority of people, like 70%, have always wanted a fair expression of altruism in their lives.
We assumed, and you know what happens when we Internet marketers do that, everyone was the 30% of self-interested pirates. Benkler makes the same point as Gladwell in Tipping Point. Given the right context we jump the turnstile, we break the window, we join the 30%.
We are NOT all one thing or another ever. We are a strange mix of all kinds of things. Art, science, anger, love and magician and bully are present and, given the right circumstance, will visit and sometimes make it feel like we are THAT or THIS.
Not so much as it turns out. Perhaps I have unique perspective on the question of who I am. In quick succession I lost my role in the company I co-founded, the love of my life and heard "cancer" and my name in the same sentence. Tough couple of years taught me some HARD things about ME. I can be an ASS and a kind, loving, generous person sometimes in the same day, hour, minute (lol).
Pema Chodron taught me to forgive and Eckhart Tolle taught me to live in this moment, the one happening NOW. Both these great teachers help create the complex self Benkler discusses.
Perhaps this self-awareness is why DISRUPTION is so important. A company, brand or product willing to disrupt is unsure, acting in the NOW with courage. They may FAIL, some believe Pepsi did, or they may just create a new less selfish and more connected future.
I may not get to that future with you or your children, but it is coming and I will spend every dime I've ever saved and every moment I have to help altruism DISRUPT because life is short, magical and full of joy. Why wouldn't we share such a disruptive message?
What about you? What have you disrupted or been good to lately? Share your experience with Altruisim or cause marketing and I will curate in. Thanks, you ROCK. Marty
Now that the content marketing sale has been made there are new ideas you and your Internet marketing team can use to become a disruptive content marketer. Why? Because disrupt or die :).
Content Marketing is beyond the tipping point and that is both the good and bad news. Good news if you are trying to sell the concept of content marketing. Bad news if you are behind (and you are always behind someone in Internet markting). The key to success is DISRUPTION, finding ways to bend, manipulate and change content marketing so you do it just a little better.This post discusses how to become a disruptive content marketer.
This infographic is a tad on the minimal, flat and binary to real life, but the points it makes about mine the network, react in real time, grow the network, create content, campaign on the content, respond in real time and then grow the network more is right on.
The reason the infographic is a tad binary is because it doesn't show the false starts, a need for vicious prioritization or the gambling with data, intuition, money and GUT that this kind of Internet marketing requires but then how do you put that in an infographic (lol).
This study shows how pricing is rarely about what YOU think it is about. Since pricing needs to blend your (the seller's) needs with buyer expectations read about what is important to THEM so you can learn what should be important to US (buyers and sellers).
This is a pair of Levi's®, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together. When the road gets rough and the sky gets jumpy a...
Marty Note Woe is me to the great American brand that was Levis. Levis was more than jeans. Levis was America, apple pie, hamburgers and home. Levis became exportable culture. You could go to Russia with a suitcase of jeans and come home with a pile of cash. Then Brooke Shields didn't let anything come between her and her Calvin Klein jeans. Jeans moved from working class hero to downtown vogue Sheik.
Q: How does a brand recover cool? A: You can't. Once cool leaves the building it runs and you never catch it in the same way again. Power to the marketing team at Levis. Instead of a miserable grubbing beg they broke their own mold and spoke UP to us. First they used Walt Whitman and now they channel Patti Smith.
I am a Smith fan. There is a controversy about how dare Levis channel the singer/songwriter and poet without paying her. People who say that don't really know Patti Smith. Patti wasn't going to sell her work to Levis in this lifetime. Patti was married to Robert Mapplethorpe and she huddled on cold bare floors with little to eat, drink or wear in sacrifice to her art.
That Patti is experiencing a final act uplift in interest, praise and homage is a tiny spark of HOPE in the universe of Justin Bieber (no offense meant). Her estate might sell Patti's work to Levis, but Patti's appeal could be moot by then (though I believe Smith's tone poems will have staying power).
What about the reaction that these ads are trite or hamfisted? I say that too is nonsense. These ads are expressions of the hero with a thousand faces, Joseph Campbell's famous work. Campbell believed all cultures are guided by a handful of similar myths. A hero goes on a journey, discovers enlightenment and returns to change us. These ads are expressions of an ancient well, one that never goes dry.
Here is the thing that those outraged for Patti can take to heart. Patti is being talked about more now than before the ad. Patti will be paid in renewed interest and people wanting to know what all the controversy is about. Since this is the only way to channel Levis money to Patti I am all for it. We support ART in strange ways in this country. Best to chalk this latest example up to our American inability to be seen as listening to or supporting poetry. Music is all good, but poetry is unacceptable.
What about Levis stealing Patti's style? Nonsense, the ad is as much homage as outright theft and, as Picasso said, "Great artists steal, bad artists imitate." There is no stealing from Patti. She was and is much to distinct to ever be stolen from. If these "tributes" introduce an important voice to a new generation because of wearing some denim then I raise my gloved fist into the air in support of an American brand in the hopes they recover their cool.
According to Amir Efrati of the WSJ, Google is creating a integrated marketing solution for small businesses (SMBs) trying to cash in on the consumer shift to social, mobile, local.
***** Google kicking you know what and taking names. Marty
Via Manuel Thomas
StoryBranding Part II-How it works- Learn about how the persuasive powers of story can be applied to your brand.
This is the second video about story branding from Jim Signorelli. It is short, sweet and to the point -- focusing on WHY.
By WHY, Jim means -- what is the 'why' behind your business? What is the cause behind what you do? Understanding, articulating, and communicating the WHY of your business is the first critical step in story branding.
Because remember -- people don't buy the 'what', they buy the WHY.
Enjoy this video and if you haven't already, start figuring out your WHY!
***** When I worked at P&G we called "Why" our USP or Unique Selling Proposition. Now I prefer UVP or Unique Value Proposition since no one "sells" anything anymore at least not in the old way. People buy with emotion and justify with logic another important P&G idea. I think "emotional buying" challenges dry UVPs to incorporate "save the world" ideas.
The other thing I would change ever so slightly is the idea of people buying things. Just as we don't "sell" anything anymore now we JOIN more than we buy. Author Faith Popcorn was prescient when she said, "People don't BUY brands they JOIN them." If that was true then (90's) it is even more so now after Facebook, Twitter, SumbleUpon et al.
BtoB Magazine is the publication for b2b marketing strategists.
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Boss shared this article with me this morning. Interesting to see B2B companies suspend all traditional advertising in favor of promoting content marketing. Wise and money much better spent. Marty
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Listened to a great interview with Guillaume today on Blog Talk Radio. Guillaume and Scoop.it have created what is tantamount to a new movement - the Lean Content Movement.
Lean Content is about:
* Writing less, but creating more meaning.
* Using fast feedback loop tools such as Scoop.it.
* Cutting through the clutter with BETTER content.
"Better" in the Lean Content movement is when reader or creator gain insight faster and so realizing the promise of "do more with less".