Category Archives: People You Should Know
People You Should Know: Russell Sparkman
This edition of People You Should Know features content marketing guru Russell Sparkman. I first came across Russell’s work when I was heavily involved in the world of organ donation for a past client. While doing some research, I discovered an excellent interactive educational site called The Gift of a Lifetime and learned that Russell, with his business partner/brother Kevin Sparkman, was behind the work. I’ve followed Russell closely since as we share a mutual passion for storytelling and content marketing. Russell always manages to have his hands in a number of great projects. Be sure to check out his portfolio and some excellent insights below.
Russell Sparkman - in action.
1. The phrase ” content marketing” often gets thrown around with different meanings but it often boils down to building brand loyalty. Distill down your brief definition of the phrase.
Individuals who I admire for their success often are people who strengthen their relationship bonds by freely sharing their knowledge and showing compassion for those in their (often extensive) networks.
Content marketing is how this same behavior is scaled to the enterprise, non-profit and even governmental agency size. By this, I mean investing in and sharing content as the basis of relationship building and engagement.
But content marketing isn’t just about building human relationships.
In addition to strengthening bonds – i.e. building brand loyalty – with prospects, customers and stakeholders through relevant, compelling, fun and educational content, skillfully produced content marketing fulfills strategic imperatives related to social media and SEO tactics.
2. One could argue that not having a thorough grasp of effective content marketing puts a business or organization of any size at a severe disadvantage when it comes to online engagement. What are three key learning resources you point others to that are just starting to wrap their heads around content marketing?
The most important red flag I raise regarding not thoroughly grasping content marketing is the competitive imperative, the point being that if you’re not leading engagement with prospects and clients through content marketing, more than likely, your competitor is.
Three of the most important resources that I regularly point people to are:
Love is the Killer App, by Tim Sanders
This may sound like an odd choice, but my earlier premise of giving of your knowledge and showing compassion as a recipe for success stems from this book. It’s a philosophy. A mindset. And it matters. Read this book!
Content is King … NOT! Why Content is Gold
It might seem silly to point to just one blog post out there, but I think it’s one of the most important because it makes the crucial case for why budgets need to be allocated to content creation (disclaimer: it is one of my blog posts).
Fundamentally, content is king is a poor analogy that doesn’t truly convey the value proposition of content as a marketing imperative. Off with the head of the analogy, and let’s get more people talking in terms of “content is gold.”
Content Marketing Institute
My preference for content marketing is grounded in a belief that it’s a “bigger tent” than focusing only on social media, or only on inbound marketing, and so on. The Content Marketing Institute provides a vast amount of useful content about content marketing, and is connected to Content Marketing World.
3. Which companies or organizations stand out in your mind that ” get” content marketing and why?
Ironically, a great case study for content marketing success is actually the Content Marketing World event, which premiered in September.
Throughout the event, in the hallways and at the cocktail parties, I overhead many discussions and comments about how amazing it was to get such a turnout of speakers and attendees at a premier event. In Cleveland, no less.
But if you break down the content strategy and output of Joe Pulizzi and his crew, it really provides great insight into what it takes.
In a nutshell: Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett published a book called in Get Content, Get Customers in 2007. This was the starting gun.
Joe began consistently writing blog posts. Since 2007, he’s written over 500 blog posts. How many times has he missed his weekly deadline? Zero.
Since 2007, Joe presented at 200 conferences, and participated in 100 webinars.
Joe supplemented his content creation with content curation when he created the Content Marketing Institute in 2009.
There’s over 90 expert bloggers contributing to the institute’s blog, and there are more than 400 blog posts, to date.
Joe and team has produced six ebooks, four case studies and published more than 100 presentations to Slideshare. Creativity has mattered, and from great design, to “branding” content marketing the color orange, they’ve created a unified experience with their brand.
All of this was done as a “ground game” lead up to the Content Marketing World event. The following they’d built as a result became eager attendees, once promotions for the event began.
4. What’s one big change or paradigm shift that you anticipate happening in the world of content marketing in 2012?
First, there is a shift happening where brands are no longer looking at people as “customers” but truly as “audiences,” much like broadcasters, movie studios and publishers view people as audiences. And audiences want content in the form of resources, and stories, and games, etc.
Therefore, we’re on the cusp of a shift from the kind of “we have to do social media” mentality of the past several years to a “we have to have a content strategy” mindset.
I think that this means more communications strategies will become “social media agnostic,” and content strategy will take on a more central role. Through content strategy work, brands will develop their story first, and then map their content assets to specific channels — social media, mobile, print — in the ways the best serve to tell the brand story.
As this happens, Content Marketing will continue to gain recognition and traction as the approach that best aligns with thinking of people first as “audiences” before, and after, they become customers.
5. You’re the Founder/Executive Director for the Langley Center for New Media which serves as the educational and training arm of your main company, Fusionspark Media Inc. What are you looking forward to most about the Center’s Upcoming 2nd Annual Content Marketing Retreat on Jan. 26-27?
I’m really proud of the Day 1 Speaker Narrative for the 2nd Content Marketing Retreat.
We’ve developed a formula for our Retreats in which Day 1 is treated like a book on the Retreat’s subject matter, in this case the “how to” of content marketing.
From the opening keynote to the last speaker, each speaker represents a “chapter” on the subject in short (15 min.) presentations that are dynamic and to the point. When combined with the wine tasting event that evening in which, due to the fairly small and intimate size of our gatherings, everybody gets to meet everybody, it’s going to be an unprecedented day of learning and networking.
So, I’m personally looking forward to the collective wisdom that’s going to be shared by the smart and talented presenters who come to this having solved or addressed many of content marketing’s challenges.
People You Should Know: Hanson Hosein
I recently had the opportunity to speak with one of my favorite local storytellers and communications leaders, Hanson Hosein. Between directing the University of Washington’s Master of Communication in Digital Media program, running Media Space, shooting an award winning independent film, and leading Four Peaks – Hanson is one busy man. Huge thanks to Hanson for taking time out of his schedule to provide insight below. A coworker previously recapped some learnings from Hanson’s recent SAL lecture and this Q&A provides some deeper insight on the relevance of storytelling in the PR industry and the ways in which communications continue to evolve.
In lectures and presentations, you talk about the convergence of journalism and marketing. Expound upon the future outcome you envision and overall impact this will have on the PR industry.
Hanson
The “storyteller uprising” that I refer to in my talks is predicated on a simple foundation. We’ve seen an explosion in the wide availability of cheap communications technology (cameras, smartphones, social media distribution networks), combined with a breakdown in business models for media organizations that have traditionally enjoyed an institutional lockdown in communications. Suddenly, anyone now has the opportunity to create a trusted relationship through communication. And that “trust” is no longer relegated to brand names in marketing or journalism. Anyone can establish that trust by creating a powerful narrative, and then by interacting on a regular basis with those we seek to engage with our story.
What does this mean for PR? Traditionally, PR served as the intermediary between companies seeking to sell something (a product, an idea) with professional media outlets. In many ways, PR had to learn journalistic skills to do its job well, in addition to understanding the marketing side. Now, those professional media outlets still retain some value, but there’s also this remarkable opportunity for us to engage people directly. No one really likes to be “spun,” “messaged” or “marketed” to – and younger people are increasingly becoming savvy to that. So if you’re going to expect anyone to pay attention to what you’re saying, you’ll need to create valuable content, with a voice of authenticity that is relevant to people’s lives. Who says that this needs to continue to be the exclusive preserve of journalism or marketing? Public relations at its heart is about engagement – it just needs to learn a few more reflexes and reconsider its own business.
In other words, PR can think more expansively now – it can push into advertising and digital marketing agencies’ territory. And it can help build direct, trusted relationships around media and information. Ultimately this means a title shift for the industry along the lines of “Engagement Management” or “Trusted Communications” (the funny thing is that “Public Relations” is probably most apt now – but it’s a tarnished term in the average person’s eyes). It’s a huge opportunity to create a one-stop shop for clients if done strategically, entrepreneurially and with an eye on tight budgets.
Content. Content. Content. We’re in a transformative period where the notion of active content creation is flooding mainstream. Can you provide a couple of examples of the type of content that’s recently caught your eye or regularly breaks through the clutter?
Clearly any powerful story cuts through the clutter. That’s why we’ve been so rapt with attention over the people’s uprisings in the Middle East – we can relate to people who rise up against oppression. And those people are creating content on a regular basis through online video and social media channels despite the best efforts of repressive regimes to lock them down. I’ve also been recently impressed with car companies like Ford and Hyundai: their engagement strategies (the Fiesta Agent program was brilliant), combined with bold narratives really catch my eye. But even here we need to take a step back when we think about “content.” It’s not just about the quality of what these companies are communicating….their success also comes in the products that they’re creating – which are obviously industry-leading. In other words, your communication strategy itself doesn’t win the day. The content itself has to be good. People see through crap more than ever today.
A couple of years ago, I wrote this post around skills needed to compete by young PR pros. With digital continuing to play a larger role in all overall strategic communications plans, what advice are you delivering to your students to prime up for a competitive job market?
The deep economic recession has forced us all into the ROI (Return on Investment) age. In other words, we think twice before we expend any energy or resources on a particular endeavor until we’re sure that the value proposition is a good one. I believe the same holds true to the education that we offer: we just can’t take for granted that professionals are going to want to plunk down their money and take whatever we have to offer. We need to work harder to prove the value proposition to justify their money and time. This requires nimble, entrepreneurial thinking on our part, and an ability to provide high quality educational content.
The same holds true for what our students need to do to get a job. They need to show that they have a specific, unique skill set (storytelling, social media skills, a keen understanding of engagement in the digital age), but that they’re also capable of stretching for the task at hand. Everything is changing so fast that to profess immutable expertise – and to hang your hat on that – is almost dishonest. Rather, we should all be prepared to do what it takes to accomplish the task with consistent excellence. Our students who are finding great jobs are those who have demonstrated leadership abilities in the communication field, along with a strong sense of the practical.
As a master storyteller, what are three core components that you look for in any good story?
(1) A clear narrative with a memorable, emotional punch.
(2) Creative, non-distracting production qualities (or compelling visuals)
(3) A desire to engage beyond the beginning, middle and end of the narrative itself.
You’re helping lead collaboration of Seattle’s top technology innovators through your Four Peaks Salon. What local storytelling or innovation trend are you most excited about?
I love the confluence between community engagement and technology in our region. It’s what sets us apart. We like to connect – online, and in-person through events. And there are so many local developers who are creating new platforms to facilitate those connections to bring together the real and the virtual in a way that allows us to capture the moment of that connection, and to have it lead to something meaningful even after the event is over. That’s what we’re focused on with Four Peaks – to create that connective tissue that enables amazing collaborative work to emerge from those surprising human connections.
Note: This post also appears on the Weber Shandwick Seattle blog. I also encourage you to check out other featured communications pros from my People You Should Know series.
People You Should Know – Thurston Hatcher
Thurston
This edition of People You Should Know features Thurston Hatcher, one of my old clients from Rush University Medical Center. Currently the Web managing editor and social media manager at Rush, Thurston has helped Rush forge ahead with online communications.
Thanks Thurston and congrats on completing the Chicago Marathon!
Any hospital that integrates social media into their communications efforts inevitably faces resource barriers as efforts scale. How are resources at Rush balanced to manage your social strategy?
We certainly don’t spend vast sums on our social media efforts. It’s just one component of our overall marketing strategy, and of my job. I devote about an hour a day to social media, our Media Relations team maintains the Rush News Blog, and others in our marketing department help with video production along with writing and rounding up blog contributions. Plus we have smart consultants who help us keep on top of the ever-changing social media landscape. But overall it’s a relatively small line item in our budget.
Obviously many hospitals have either A) realized the value of integrating online engagement or B) are at least willing to test the social waters. What would be your advice to a hospital that is still teetering with making the leap into utilizing social media?
What’s holding you back? People are already out there talking about you, and if nothing else you ought to be listening to what they’re saying and, even better, interacting with them. It’s not that hard, and as I already noted, it’s neither forbiddingly expensive nor time-consuming. And it’s a simple way to become your own mini-media outlet and draw attention to the compelling stories coming out of your hospital.
Between Tweets, video, blog posts, status updates…what type of content do you see resonating best with your audience?
Compelling stories by and about staff and patients seem to generate the most attention. But tweets about research findings at Rush, along with exciting or occasionally offbeat health news in other publications tend to generate a fair number of clicks and retweets. On Facebook, I sense the most interest coming from people who either work, study or have been treated at Rush – and they love photos, particularly historic images from the archives and new ones showing progress on our new hospital buildings.
The Big Kahuna. R.O.I. What’s been the #1 metric for Rush to look at as a strong investment of resources in social media?
ROI is particularly tough to gauge with social media, not unlike, say, advertising or PR. Fortunately, we don’t feel a huge amount of pressure to attach dollar values to each and every tweet and Facebook post. We do pay attention to the metrics, though, and we feel we’re doing our job if we’re continuing to build an audience, connecting with patients and the community, and spreading the word about the great work going on at Rush.
