Had someone told me at the beginning of the month that I’d be flying to Minneapolis to co-present an all-day session at the Confab Conference, I would have laughed. But that’s exactly what happened when Ann Handley called to see if I could pinch-hit for her Content Rules co-author, C.C. Chapman, who wouldn’t be able to co-present with her due to emergency surgery.
And so, last Wednesday I found myself standing next to Ann before 60 content creators, who were all there to participate in: “Content Rules: How to Create Content People Really Care About.” I was very excited to speak to this group for one simple reason: They already know the value of content. Unlike traditional marketers who see content creation as a threat to their jobs or old school PR folks who see it as a threat to their cushy monthly retainers, the corporate storytellers in front of us represented the new guard of this digital communications era.
At the beginning of the session, Ann asked everyone to jot down three things that they each wanted to learn. We collected 117 questions from 48 participants.
The figure below represents the seven categories that we divided them into. Almost 60% of the questions fell into two categories: Finding and Telling Stories and Executive Education. The largest vote-getter wasn’t much of a surprise considering the name of the presentation and the audience. The second one, however, was. No matter how much we in the social media fishbowl pontificate about how far we’ve gotten with social media, we still have a long way to go. The fact that “managing up” is the second-largest concern for those tasked with creating corporate content proves that we haven’t yet made a dent in the problem.
For example, here are some of the Executive Education questions:
- How to get an organization to see content as an opportunity (exciting!) rather than a burden?
- How to get execs to respect content development as a skill (and non-execs too)?
- How to develop organizational discipline around writing (i.e., get everyone on board with starting with the story)?
- Focus execs so they/we can prioritize which story to tell
I love the last one. You know that things have changed when the creatives are trying to get the executives to focus!
And 30% of the questions revolved around Content Strategy and Best Practices—again, not surprising considering we were at a Content Strategy conference. However, the next two categories, which accounted for 25% of the questions, identified a need to connect stories to business and to find ways to balance voice and the corporate brand.
Some of those questions included:
- How do you use those stories to help make sales goals?
- How to tell a brand’s stories without being too salesy—but still achieve business objective.
- How do you balance the goal of making the voice of your content informal/accessible with the goal of making the “voice” professional quality?
- How do you keep your brand story consistent and powerful across multiple content creators? Over time?
- We want to do more video content but our brand manager wants it to look “perfect.” What’s your take on this? Does video need to look super-duper professional?
- Practical ways to convert brand messages into engaging, compelling content.
These are the questions that companies contemplating new media self-publishing must ask. They form the conversation-starters for serious discussions around water coolers, in break rooms, meeting rooms, cubicles, and on all rows mahogany.
Over the next couple of months, I’ll draw blog posts from some of these questions/categories. Are there any that you want me to prioritize?
A version of this post appeared first at RonAmok!
Tags: Content, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy and Tactics
I think most fail due to lack of planning.
I suggest to clients to develop a Content Plan first and go from there.
Most dont listen and charge ahead… but they usually end up in a cul-de-sac.
No shortcuts to success
Can’t tell you how excited I was to read (no, inhale) your above article, What Challenges Do Content Creators Face? Moreover, I’m amazed to learn that there is indeed a conference Contentologists can attend to bolster contentolgy! How amazing.
Ron, your article hits the key, burning hot points that I confront and deal with a regular basis for my clients, the ones that have consistently reared their head for the last 5 years. Bravo! to organizing these key challenges, elements, springboards for thought, so well.
For me, it’s a consistent need to shore up the gap between the meaning of what a company does and making that meaning meaningful to an audience that is not educated, or emotionally invested in what that does. Part 2 is equating content with revenue, with meaning as money. Content is revenue. I think companies are embodied by people, so there is a romantic belief held by company owners that an offering should automatically attract buyers without having to explain why. Perhaps there’s something about the hero archetype that wants to be recognized for simply showing up. So for me, ALL of your points rang as quite significant. However one point really stood (and it’s one that could be offered as a Ph.D in a sociology meets sales business program) but it’s for me:
•How do we use these stories to help make sales goals?
Having a pat way to equate content with revenue, I think, will provide content creators with more freedom to imaginate, and create alluring content for an audience that needs a story — because company owners will understand that the efforts are attached to revenue objectives. (I was careful not to use the word, “goal”, oh, boy). Moreover, I feel good content is deals with identifying true sales pain. It’s outlining an authentic scenario (s) people deal with, and subsequently readers, listeners, prospective converts and buyers can look past the sales paradigm and into a scenario they can identify with. Emotionally.
Ron, thank you for writing such an inspiring article and so look forward to more! Thank you for the reading my post!
The concept of “Content” generally disrespects the writers, graphic artists, photographers, videographers, and other people who actually write and/or edit stories and gather and gather and introduce new information and ideas. The commodification of creative work as “content” and the ease of stealing same, nay, even the insistence that “content wants to be free” does not acknowledge the long hours which people put into being able to do this well, by insisting that anyone with a keyboard, a camera phone or Flip camera can make equally “good” content as anyone else. I can put together a Lego ™ structure, but I would never pass myself off as an engineer.
Not to mention that “imaginate” is a monstrosity word only a marketer could come up with. No thank you. Most people can see that most “content” is just a cheap attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator who have no sensibility except the slavering need to consume. The world doesn’t need more dross. It needs more substance, and to be willing to pay for it.
Hi Alana: I don’t think that the word “content” disrespects anyone. I see “content” as a kind of broad word to describe all the things you name specifically — the text, graphics, photos, videos, audio podcasts, etc. that are created by specialists like writers, graphic artists, and so on.
The fact that content is easy to create on the Internet is both a blessing and a curse, I think. It’s a double-edged sword, in other words (at the risk of completely mixing metaphors here!), for the reasons you point out: It’s a snap to set up a blog, for example, but that also means that some truly terrible blogs are created, containing some really awful text.
I can’t do anything about that – nor can any of us, of course. But I can help people and businesses think about the quality of what they create, and not the quanity. Focus on finding the right people to help you create great stuff — or learn to do it yourself. Think about content not as a commodity, but as an opportunity to express the soul of who you are, or who your company is. That’s a rich way to connect with customers, I believe. And it also (handily) respects the content, and the people who create it.
Too many people focus on the tools, when they should be focusing on the message, and the… well, content! Like you, I don’t think anyone with an iPhone is a videographer. But I also think that anyone with the iPhone has the *potential* to create some really amazing stuff. And that’s where things get interesting.
I have no idea who anyone here is (link shared through Google Reader), but I’m inclined to agree with Alana on this one. Feels like the aforementioned “social media fishbowl” in full effect. “Content Strategy, Creation, Best Practices?” It’s akin to all those conversations about measuring influence. It smacks of lowest common denominator hackery to me.
For those who truly listen to others, who genuinely participate in their communities as equals, there is no need to measure influence or develop content strategy or figure out best practices for the creation of “content.” These people have broken down the business-customer dichotomy. Authenticity results in understanding the needs of others and the co-creative potential of the whole.
Anytime the word “content” is used in combination with “customer,” there’s a good chance of shenanigans. Nothing created to drive sales will ever be as valuable as the creation of a human being meant to entertain, enlighten, and empower other human beings.
We all are customers. We are all creators. Let’s not forget that when we step into our offices, yeah?
Alana, I appreciate the “keeping it real” message you have provided.
In my experience, creating “content” is about being practical with time. It’s the budgeting of time (which is money) that produces an atmosphere that can be thought of as disrespecting the creatives who are forced to comprise quality for quick keyword tagging opportunities and click through goals. Can you imagine Mozart, Picasso or Joyce creating content for blogs, cut and paste with just enough generic intro to mask it’s total lack of originally, too funny. And yes Alana, ultimately most people can see that most content provides them with no real value whatsoever.
I had to lol at the prospect of John Lennon singing “imaginate there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try …”
Alana, I’m surprised to hear that the word “Content” evoked such a negative reaction in you. I use it in the highest regard. But if those of us who toil over keyboards and audio/video editing consoles get bent out of shape over a simple term, we’ll never be able to convince those to pay us the true value of what we do for them. Every time I speak with corporate executives, I’m stressing the value of content. I’m on your side, here!
Brian, the “…business-customer dichotomy” was broken down long before either one of us were born. Businesses create products and services to help people solve their problems. If the products and services that they produce match the value that you or I place on solving that problem, we’ll reach willingly into our wallets. We do it all the time. Sometimes we are delighted with the exchange. Other times we aren’t. After twenty-five years in business, I’ve seen how companies that delight tend to be around a lot longer than those that disappoint.
Of course some businesses engage in shenanigans, but our job as content creators is root out such activities. But to do so, we need to use our skills in communication. The best communicators understand their audiences. My audience consists of executives who pay content creators for their services. In order to best communicate with execs, I need to use terminology that they understand. Granted terms such as “strategy” and “best practices” are ugly, but I’ve found them much more accessible to execs than other social media fishbowl phrases such as “genuinely participate in their communities as equals,” “Authenticity,” “empower,” and “…the co-creative potential of the whole.”
I wrote a comment yesterday but I think it got lost. I am really excited to see more about this topic, specifically practical ways to convert brand messages into compelling content. That’s a real struggle when you work in the B2B space like I do. – Laurie Head, AIS Network
[...] “Finding and Telling Stories” topped our list of content creators concerns, I’ve been looking for an example that explains [...]