The Retreat exceeded my expectations on all accounts. Great location, stellar organization throughout the day, knockout food (holy homemade pumpkin bread) and of course most importantly, an all-star lineup made for an excellent trip.

Throughout the course of day one, attendees hear from Rod Brooks, Russell Sparkman, Tim Frick, Jayme Thomason, Chris Baggott, Pawan Deshpande, Mark Jacobs, Jeff Erramouspe, Simon Kelly and Robert Rose.

The crowd was a diverse group from all over with a slant towards those working in smaller organizations. Topics covered a wide range, from top level content marketing strategy to maximizing use of Google Analytics data to improve content optimization. While many conferences can drag at certain points, the short presentation structure followed by panel discussions made for a great format to maintain audience attention throughout.

Below are five key takeaways that stemmed from the Retreat.

1. Content Marketing is Not Rocket Science

Sorry, it’s just not. Does content marketing require smart analysis, technical insight, natural instinct for audience demands and the ability to piece everything together into a solid strategy? You bet, but it takes practice and requires that you are constantly thinking about how best to stay a step ahead of your audience and the competition.

2. Brands That Succeed at Content Marketing Fail…a Lot.

During his presentation on developing a step-by-step content marketing plan, Robert Rose emphasized the importance of establishing an office culture that embraces innovation. You, along with your coworkers or employees, need to feel that it’s okay to fail. In fact, you need to be realistic about the fact that success often stems from a series of smart failures where you’ve progressively learned more and more about how best to achieve your goals. The iPhone and iPad weren’t created overnight and neither will your strategy for how to sell X products or engage with Y number of people. Try and keep trying.

3. Data Is the Hidden Gem Behind All Good Content Marketing

It’s scary to me these days when a company or organization gives you a blank stare when you ask about website or engagement analytics. Data drives strategy. If you don’t have a benchmark and ongoing consistent measurement to track what content is resonating with which audience, you don’t have the fuel necessary to revamp your content marketing plan.

4. Curation is An Art Form

Successful curators have amazing taste. They know their audience’s taste like the back of their hand. They know the value of attribution, the importance of framing and how to deliver content to their target audience in the right format in a consistent fashion.

5. Content Marketers Understand the Difference Between Audience “Needs” and “Wants”

Rod Brooks did a great job putting this point on display. Rod is the CMO for Pemco Insurance. We all need insurance. We know that. Do we all like to talk about insurance on a daily basis? Nope.

What we do love to talk about is our family, friends and community. We love to discuss topics of shared interest that resonate across the board relevant to our safety and well being.

The same applies for your company. Stop trying to shove your audience’s needs down their throat and take a broader look at the shared values and interests of your target community. What type of content does this audience want? What do they care most about? THAT is your point of entry. That is your bridge to building trust and creating robust dialogue.

Thanks again to Russell Sparkman and all of the presenters. Looking forward to another fantastic gathering next year.

As many of my friends in these parts are also Chicago transplants, we shared a collective chuckle around the mesmerizing general reaction to what is typically referred to as “slight snowfall” on an average winter day in Chicago. One of the main issues is that it simply does not snow but a few times each year in Seattle (good thing) but when it does, the city shuts down completely due to a lack of resources and preparation. It had me recalling some messy mornings from my old life in Chicago where I was simply unable to dig my car out.

Snow-filled Seattle last week.

Fittingly, a friend pointed me towards Chicago Shovels last weekend -  a new initiative by the City of Chicago that provides an interactive resource to help residents deal with the city’s typically treacherous winter.

My expectations were low knowing that I was about to visit a city run site – notorious for poor user experience and slow technology adoption. I was wrong. What makes the site strong in my book is the degree of practical social and digital integration. There is a “Plow Tracker” to help residents keep tabs on real-time street clearing activity as well as a number of integrated apps (including a Tow Tracker to help you find where your car has been “relocated” – imperative in a city that loves to tow) and even SMS alerts to stay updated.

While my bet would be that an agency helped the city with some of the marketing content, full kudos to the team for developing useful video content to help users navigate the site.

Though Seattle does not have the frequency of snow to warrant a full on platform like this, Chicago Shovels is a great model for other snow-laden cities to follow in implementing a smart communications platform that fits the baseline communication needs for residents.

Content marketing strategy guess #2…fail.

Content marketing strategy guess #3…

If you want to waste valuable time and resources while taking a shot in the dark at a content marketing plan, then by all means, keep guessing which strategy will work for your clients.

But, if you’d rather pinpoint exact goals and objectives and develop a sound strategy that you know will solve the business issues that need to be addressed, ask every new client the following question:

What keeps you awake at night?

Determine the answer to this one single question and you’ll be well on your way to developing a content marketing plan that delivers the right content,  to the right audiences, at the right time.

In the video below, Joe Pulizzi (@junta42), founder of Content Marketing Institute, serves up a series of excellent insights around building online relationships, developing sound social strategies and creating community. Thanks to Social Media Examiner for conducting the great interview.

For those looking to attend a great upcoming content marketing workshop, be sure to check out details around the 2nd Annual Content Marketing Retreat in Langley, WA on January 26 & 27.

Check out Joe’s insights below and be sure to watch the excellent TED talk he included at the end.

That aside, stories first need to be discovered and explored. Great stories also typically require time to evolve and develop in order to properly match a storyteller’s vision. So what’s the super secret to drumming up a great story??

Take a walk and explore.

Step away from the computer. March outside and start walking. Look around. Delve into the details and take note of all the happenings and your surroundings. You’ll be amazed at the plethora of story ideas that you’ll encounter.

Need a lesson in how it’s done right? I was ecstatic this morning to learn that Matt Green (man behind I’m Just Walkin’ who most recently documented his walk across the U.S.) is embarking on a new walking trek exploring every public street in NYC.

When I originally discovered Matt’s blog, I couldn’t help but immediately jump into marketing mode analyzing Matt’s blog template, assessing why he wasn’t utilizing Facebook/Twitter/YouTube to further build community and enrich his story, determining whether he was tying his walk into a larger cause-related effort, jostling back and forth about why shoe and outdoor gear brands hadn’t jumped onboard to sponsor, etc. I quickly caught myself.

After following along for a few days, I came to recognize the purity of Matt’s approach to storytelling as he spent day in and day out capturing the finer details in life that we often overlook or simply never experience. I was drawn in by Matt’s simplistic approach, authentic tone and great photos. Key ingredients frequently found among great storytellers.

For those questioning why Matt ever completed his first walk, give this post a good read. One of Matt’s key takeaways from his journey was proving that despite all the horrible stories we hear about in the media day in and day out  – people are inherently good natured. Unfortunately, we’ve learned to shy away from interacting with strangers or exploring new areas based on preconceived notions of danger. As Matt notes:

It’s only when people are isolated from some potential danger that they really begin to fear it in a way that’s totally out of proportion. When we let our expectations of danger make decisions for us, we end up avoiding the very experiences that have the power to change those expectations. In that way, our fear of the world is self-sustaining. We never give ourselves the chance to learn that our fears are baseless, because we isolate ourselves from the situations that can challenge our fears.

Great storytellers step outside their boundaries. They talk to strangers. They explore unfamiliar locations. They look behind the door. They face fears.

While marketers are naturally drawn to the bells and whistles of building community and making a story sing, the truth of the matter is that good stories stand on their own when told in an authentic manner.

In 2012, strive to be a great storyteller. Focus on starting with a great story. Embrace the world and approach one another with initial trust that we’re all good people and most importantly – go take a walk.

p.s. If you are a shoe/outdoor gear brand, may be smart to drop Matt a line as he’s seeking a bit of financial support. Just sayin’.

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.

Who doesn’t love a great infographic? A simple, clean way to present complex data and tell an interesting story in a visual manner that is easy to digest? Sign me up.

The volume of infographics being produced has really started to spike the last couple years as companies have latched onto them as an effective communications channel. Of course, variations of infographics have been around for quite some time in the form of simple design and pared down data visualization. As I’m constantly studying the design space and creating infographics day in and day out for clients, I thought I’d share a few tips to make sure you’re taking your infographic from good to great.

1. Start With a Purpose: Seems obvious, right? You’d be surprised at how many companies and organizations feel they need an infographic simply to have an infographic. Bad move.

What’s your end goal? Are you working to drive traffic to a blog/site to beef SEO or to serve as a pitch asset for media and bloggers? Is your best option a standard infographic or do you have the budget and would your audience be more likely to engage with a video infographic? Think through your intended niche audience and don’t try to craft a universal pitch piece that applies to everyone. As with most successful online marketing, it’s not about generating a piece that sells you but rather about creating creative content that your audience feels compelled to share and learn more about.

2. Gather Your Data -> Build Your Storyline: Data and storytelling naturally go hand-in-hand in infographic world. The most critical part of any infographic is taking ample time to do your research and cover your bases to ensure you are presenting accurate, interesting information. From there, you need to strap on your creative thinking cap and come up with a unique storyline and method of presenting the data. Depending on your intended format, visual.ly, coolinfographics.com, infographicsshowcase.com and videoinfographic.com can serve up some solid inspiration.

3. Make Your Design Dyn-o-mite: Bad design will turn readers away in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, great design will have readers sharing like mad and clicking through for more good content. Pay close attention to your careful balance of color coding, graphics/icons, and framing. Stay attuned to natural human tendency to scan left-to-right, top-to-bottom and focus on captivating attention via graphics size variance.

4. Provide a Conclusion: All too often, I come across infographics that lack any storyline and are instead merely a splattering of facts and figures bunched together into the equivalent of an online poster. Fine if you’re just looking for a creative way to present stats, but without a logical storyline, a reader is left without a conclusion, key learning or call to action that helps paint the whole picture. Don’t force readers to piece together their own takeaway.

5. Promote Yourself and Share Like Mad: Anyone that tells you that infographics are quick and easy to create is lying – or selling you on what is bound to be a disappointing final product. Great infographics take time to plan and design no matter what. As such, you should ensure that you’ve added your logo/URL to the bottom to get credit for your hard work. When it comes time for distribution, make sure you’re checking off every option possible such as the following:

• Utilizing as pitch asset for media and bloggers
• Posting on infographics showcase sites
• Sharing on own site, incorporating into blog post, sharing via e-news
• Sharing across your own and partner organization social channels

What tips do you have to share about creating great infographics?

Meetings after meetings after meetings. Sometimes meetings are absolutely necessary but in most cases, they are either unnecessary or not properly structured to maximize efficiency. When your days are booked with meetings, you are unproductive and don’t get work done. The result? Valuable time is wasted and the following occurs:

• Longer hours spent playing catch up
• Less sleep
• Less creativity
• Decreased morale

In short, not healthy and yet meetings remain an embedded part of office culture that we all abide by regardless of the known consequences.

Unproductive meetings are a constant itch for me which is why I was excited to read Jason Fried and David Heinemeier’s critically acclaimed book, Rework. Jason and David are the owners of 37Signals, a company that provides web-based apps for assisting with project management and team collaboration. I became familiar with their company after using one of their products, basecamp, to assist with global project management for a client.

What I love most about this book is that it is perfectly tailored for it’s primary audience. I zipped through in a mere two hours (believe me, I’m far from being a speedy book reader). Chapters are divided up in a very logical, bite-sized manner that will leave you with a book full of dog-eared pages. While the read is geared towards tech-startups, there are many, many tidbits throughout that apply to anyone who works in an office.

A few key learnings I absorbed:

• Work less but more efficiently. Knock out the distractions and diversions throughout the day (check every email, make every meeting, chat with everyone that stops by your office, constantly check Tweetdeck, etc.)
• Chunk out decisions. Quick, small decisions reduce friction and eliminate another item on the checklist to address later.
• Reduce plans. One-year plans are great, except for the fact that they will likely change drastically two months from now. Focus on the factors you know will get you from A to B.
• Meet less. Make every meeting count. Structure agendas for maximum decision making and clear action items.

I’d also encourage you to check out this excerpt from the book to get a taste. Pick it up for your next flight, you won’t be disappointed.

P.S. Kudos to the team for using an old Chi video contact, Sandy, in this marketing video below. Enjoyed working with him on this project in the past. Also look forward to seeing how this behind-the-scenes video effort works for 37Signals.

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I’ve always had a thing for maps.

I think it comes with my obsession with traveling and seeing new places. There are times when I miss unfolding the giant maps and navigating my way across the country – followed by frustration and never being able to fold it back up again. A few years ago, I remember getting a bit nostalgic thinking about the death of the unfold/fold map and thinking of how archaic it felt that it wasn’t so long ago that it was the norm.

Fast forward a few years, and it’s clear maps aren’t dead. They are almost creepily alive. Mobile and online maps can help us find the nearest happy hour, Starbucks, read the front page of papers around the world, or plan the next Urban Mural cross country road trip. Nearly anything you can imagine — there’s a map for it.

While all of this is pretty great for my personal life, I’m even more blown away at how this technology is being applied to health and development. Maps are being used to promote causes, raise awareness, and ultimately improve and save lives. Here are just a couple of examples of how maps and mapping are being used to for social good.

• A couple of weeks ago, the Center of Foreign Relations (CRF) launched a searchable interactive map tracking vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. The CRF has been tracking outbreaks of diseases such as measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, and rubella – all of which are easily preventable with an in expensive vaccine – and careful map plotting.
• We all know Google Earth is a pretty amazing tool, but check out this video about how nonprofits can use Google Earth to raise awareness and communicate quickly and effectively on issues including genocide and climate change.

Obviously these are just a few of thousands of examples. Comment below and let me know if you have other examples of how organizations are using online mapping technology to help address social problems.

As any regular visitor to this blog knows, I’m a photography and storytelling fanatic. As such, I’m constantly looking for new subjects to shoot and creative avenues to extend my photog skills. Good friend Chris Sewell (@mydeadlyballoon)shares my passion for uncovering what we all see on the surface day in and day out. Chris also happens to be an audio buff with a knack for drawing anyone into an interview.

A few weeks back, Chris and I decided to gather our tools of the trade and head down to Westlake Center in Seattle to do a bit of content gathering around the Occupy Seattle activity. Admittedly, neither of us had done much homework at that point on the Occupy Wall Street movement. We decided that going in blind would actually be a better approach for our attempt to make sense of the ongoing protest.

Over the course of about three hours, we interviewed a LOT of people. Some made fair points but most could not seem to piece together a logical message (outside of what distilled down to wanting to feel a sense of community) about why they were present. As a communications pro, I was most confused by the fact that there was no central messaging pillar physically present at the protest location. For what has evolved as a decently well organized movement, I spent three hours attempting to piece together the main messaging behind the various signs, chanting and individual reasoning we witnessed. To be frank, I believe that the chief event organizers could have tripled the effect and impact of their efforts if they simply had a giant sign in the middle stating the movement’s three main messages/call to action (obviously, the movement’s demands are a bit more complicated but you get my point – why make it a challenge for the public/media to interpret?).

Alas, we took what we could and distilled it down to the video below to provide a brief glimpse into the gathering. Stay tuned, we’re planning for plenty more similar storytelling efforts of this nature down the line.

p.s. fellow storytelling fans may also enjoy checking out the Third Coast International Audio Festival.