Date: Wednesday, 15 February 2012

What is the value of writing content? If content is king... how is this defined? When content is written well and tells a story or a message that people resonate with, it is KING. But what happens when it doesn't. When content falls prey to audience misconception or to a swing in favour because your opinion or comments differ from the opinions of your audience?

Olympic swimmer, Stephanie Rice, was innocently tweeting backwards and forwards to a friend and used a word that may be seen as deogratory to people who are homosexual, and all of a sudden she was 'on the nose'. Ousted. Gone.

In Kyle Sandilands latest rants, he said one thing that went a little too far, and all of a sudden, he too has fallen prey to the swing of the public and more importantly, the sponsors who subsidise his wages.

Content management, whether it is in the written form or through a media platform like radio, television, podcasts, webinars, youtube or any other media of this type, needs to be managed.

The written form for small businesses covers custom publishing, custom media, customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, branded content, corporate media, corporate publishing, branded media, your website, your direct marketing campaigns, blogs, landing pages and more.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

What content marketing is not... is it does not 'sell' in a direct manner. It is un-interrupted marketing. It provides knowledge and explanation driving customer and prospect loyalty.

This marketing blog is a clear example of how content can work for an organisation. It provides information on 'real life' small business operations whether it be how we work with customers, marketing, employees, mentors, finance or expansion. It travels through the daily grind of being an entrepreneur and dealing with real emotions that at times goes up and down according to how the week flows. It is often raw with experiences or up-beat with positivity. The marketing blog uses examples of people that I interact with in business and in life and it cover how your personal life influences your business life.

How can you improve your content marketing immediately?

"Develop case studies and put them online, write a blog, use mobile enabled web outreach with website landing pages, video, advanced search engine optimisation, digital content and be sure to measure through analytics the results. How long are people reading your content? What is more popular?

Hiring a professional writer or a journalist to help you develop content that is readable will be beneficial to any business who is choosing to produce high quality content.

IN TODAY'S COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT... IF YOU ARE NOT CONTENT MARKETING, YOU ARE NOT MARKETING. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN DO THIS BETTER.

My high school friend rung me last week as I was driving out to Palm Beach and asked if I could be a business mentor to her. She was happy to pay me market rate, and would require a few hours of my time a month. It needed to be in a business environment and she would like me to be hard on her.

The latter... very easy for me as I am a seasoned professional on being hard on people when they need a kick up the bum or a little push in the right direction.

Then, today, my mentor rung me. Not to give me a kick up the bum, but to ask me how I am going. As I explained the latest developments in my business and a little update on my personal life, I was able to hear out loud what my dreams are for my business and how I planned to execute them. I couldn't very well just give him an overarching view like I can with my employees. He wanted to know exactly how I am going to make it happen. Am I going to enough meetings with the right people? Have I done enough research? Is it financially viable? Have I run it past some other people we mutually know that are very smart in business? What do I want the outcome to be? Do I realise how much work is involved?