Joe Pulizzi On Latest Book, Content Inc.

By Janet Dodrill

The Web Association welcomed Joe Pulizzi, Founder and CEO Content Marketing Institute.

Last month, I heard Joe Pulizzi (@CMIContent), Founder and CEO Content Marketing Institute, speak at The Web Association, held at COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises) in Cleveland, Ohio. He speaks on a regular basis (He noted that ours was his 71st presentation of 2015!), and has authored several books including bestselling Epic Content Marketing.

Joes Pulizzi points out ways to connect and engage on both a personal and professional level.

Joe discussed his newly published book, Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses, which is sold on Amazon.

Using the Content Inc. model, he reviewed the many forms of engaging through social media: social blogs, wikis, video, rating, social bookmarking, internet forums, pictures, microblogging, weblogs, and podcasts.

It was stated that the importance of communicating through the creation and distribution of your own information to build audiences is key.

A few highlights of his talk included these points:

• Create your mission statement: have a defined audience, deliver, then measure the audience outcome.
• Establish your content type and platform, deliver consistently over a long period of time, i.e. e-newsletter.
• Loyal customers can mean increased product sales and revenue.

He pointed out ways to engage socially on both a personal and business level. Personal avenues include blogs, books and public speaking, whereas business methods could be digital media, print (yes, it still a valued form of communication), and in-person contact.

Takeaways:

-Find a niche and become a leading expert
-Develop your content mission
-Focus on content type, platform and delivery consistently
-Build an audience of opt-in subscribers
-Create an amazing e-newsletter and download
-Audience first, products second
-Be patient!

In his book, Content Inc., Joe breaks down the process to visualize, launch and monetize your own business, based on his own success and failures. This is explained through case studies.

Are you looking for a startup-business strategy? Perhaps kick-off the new year with his business-growing strategy. The Content Marketing Institute website is full of good information, plus there is an email news sign-up and podcast network. Also be sure to watch the 43-minute movie which explains how the marketing of the future is all about brands telling stories, in “The Story of Content: Rise of the New Marketing.”

 

Me with Joe Pulizzi!

Joe Pilluzi’s book, Content Inc. (Joe likes the color orange and orange shoes!).

“Janet, go out and be epic!” – Joe Pulizzi (signed in Joe’s favorite color — orange).

A great feature for your business website is an email signup, like that on the Content Marketing Institute site.

COSE, Council of Smaller Enterprises, a division of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

Search Engine Strategies at The Web Association – Recap

By Janet Dodrill

Search Engine Strategies, the topic of The Web Association‘s presentation 2/28/12 informed a packed room on relevant content strategies for search engines to improve organic rankings.

Moderator Ryan Morgan, ERC prefaced the meeting by pointing out facts like Google now has 62.2% of search engine market share, while Bing has 15.2% and Yahoo 14.1%. He outlined that the two biggest factors to search engine results are page content, and number of links to that page. Inbound diverse and quality links across many pages is desirable.

He stated that page level keyword usage accounts for 15% of results, and that domain level keyword usage only accounts for 11%. Rising trends are relevance and value (to user). Decreasing trends are domain name keywords and the effectiveness of paid links.

Eric Pryor of Rosetta stressed the three tiers of a successful site were components 1.) Technical (crawlable, built-well with everything working, and loads fast), 2.) On-site Optimization (content), and 3.) Off-site Promotion (relevant, authoritative, significant linking to site).

Co-presenter, Dave Skorepa of Aztek made the point of how important the content of a site is, and the best designed site will not look good if it lacks content. The customer is responsible for content when approaching a web design firm. Content strategy should come first, before the web site design.

He used Smashing Magazine as an example of a well-executed site, both in content, and in design and the visual experience. He shared that the best sites have relevant, current information; attract the target audience; retain visitors; create and maintain customers; establish credibility; further business goals; make connections; foster communication; and create a community.

It was recommend to create other kinds of content for your web site, like: blogs, forums, quizzes, podcasts, FAQs, and surveys, to name a few. Content consists of traditional on-site methods (i.e. page titles, META tags, images and alt tags, text content, video) plus use of off-site content (news releases, articles, blogs, images, videos, etc.).

This year’s content strategy for Coca-Cola was mentioned (Google it!), that consists of 70% low risk (already works), 20% expansion of that (pushing what already works), and 10% new ideas (take chances, makes some mistakes, fail fast).

Dave presented a ‘Content Cycle’ (and suggested to repeat this often) of segments: Research; content creation; content optimization; content promotion; content distribution; link building; measure results; strategy development.

It is beneficial to create ‘Purpose Pages’ defined with goals that can be used as templates for other pages in site, that could, i.e. be a product details landing page, demo, solution, or case study.

A good discipline would be to create a calendar for your business, in order to schedule when and what you post. Develop content for the year to better prepare for your busy times, planned promotions or holiday themes.

Research the topic more. In Google type in “content strategy” or “content marketing” to learn more. The rules and standards change fast.

Dave Skorepa’s slides: www.slideshare.net/AztekWeb/seo-andcontentstrategy

Source: Logo property of The Web Association

Instagram Free App for iPhone, and Soon Android

By Janet Dodrill

Instagram, www.instagr.am, is a free iPhone app (powered by Tumblr photo sharing service) with increasing popularity and a recent version 2.0 rollout. It allows you to turn your smartphone photos into visually appealing chromatic-like color-altered images through the use of live filters, instant tilt-shift and high resolution abilities.

According to Mashable Tech, it was announced this month that they are developing an Instagram Android (smartphone operating system) app. See Mashable’s “Meet the Top 15 Photographers on Instagram [PICS]“.

Instagram's blog archive

Their web site offers a link to the free iPhone app download. Instagram’s robust blog offers weekly featured “Instagrammers” (photographers), tips, InstaMeets links on Meetup.com (there are currently 745 Instagram communities with 3 in the Cleveland area), social media links to Instagram on Facebook where you can see hundreds of images, and Instagram on Twitter, who I follow are receive notices of news and featured image postings.

Twitter giants, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, are avid Instagram users, with Jack posting random travelscapes like in “Found object“, and Biz enjoying his new baby son subject like in “He has my eyes“.

I am a fan even though I am awaiting the Android release to use it myself. Once on Instagram’s blog page, click on the clock icon to see the archive and spend some time acquainting yourself with the interviews, evolving news, user tips, and featured images by its established fan base.

Blog Blog Blog – Archive 1

By Janet Dodrill

In an effort to consolidate my blog posts across multiple blog sites, I have decided to make WordPress my blog of choice. Past posts on my other blog site at janetdodrill.blog.com will remain. Here is a list of the posts you can find there:

Twitter’s ‘#followfriday’ Following
6/18/09

Have You Ever Been Asked to Write a Press Release?
5/20/09

Urban Dictionary
4/21/09

Tutorial Web Sites for Graphic Designers and Web Designers
3/3/09

Fun Obama Poster Style Icon-Maker
1/20/09

How to Create a Panoramic Image in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Janet Dodrill’s Holiday Card 2008
12/10/08

Also, please check out my past blog posts for Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group (CDPUG), and check back periodically, at blog.cdpug.org:

The Rise of Cleveland Tech Events
6/24/09

Ning and Bebo Among Fastest Growing Social Media Sites
4/30/09

Educational Online Tutorials and Podcasts
3/18/09