Susan Does Social

This presentation from SlideShare begs an interesting question: do you need a personal brand? So often in our professional lives we spend our time working for the company and boosting their brand, but is it important to have a brand of our own? Do you need to have a stream of idea clients if you are happily employed? The answer is a resounding yes. Even if you are happily employed, you want your brand to show who you are, both to your company and your external clients. If your boss, or your boss' boss, wants you on the next project because he knows of your work, you've done well. Tom Peters and Zig Zigler led the charge on personal branding, and the coversation has only gotten more interesting in the age of social media. Truthfully, this is a case of writing what I most need to hear. Look forward to more blog posts from someone developing her brand! Good luck as you all work on your brands. Here are some great personal brands: William Tincup Laurie Ruettiman Tim Sackett  Who...

Turns out, there's a market for educational content. In 2013, my SlideShare presentations used for college instruction were in the top 5%--more than 7,000 views! Check it out: http://slideshare.net/yearinreview/smueggecci/B0FwAw   

The most successful marketing programs I have seen and been a part of are those that have a plan. Sounds simple, but it's not. Many small businesses, especially nowadays, are tempted to see facebook as their marketing program. If they post news on facebook regularly and add an occasion comment, they're done. While that is more than nothing, it's not what you need. According to a recent series from Kapost on Content: The force that moves the buyer down the funnel , programmatic content marketing can increase sales as much as 300 percent and decrease cycle time up to 50 percent. This is not posting on facebook--this is a true programmatic marketing program with a content calendar, regular development and delivery, and a coordinated release in conjunction with sales. If you find yourself asking, what do I do, you're not alone. While Kapost has some great suggestions on how to do this, you'll find that the best suggestions are tuned to your industry yet follow some ba...

Great article from Kapost, leading to an even better one from Aberdeen: http://marketeer.kapost.com/2013/11/content-marketing-leaders/?goback=%2Egde_5109383_member_5809013467620864003#%21 Great takeaways here on how to align your content with your marketing and sales team. It's interesting how very little the messaging has changed--you are not an island. This is the same message marketing and sales professionals have been receiving for years, and once again it comes home in the content marketing arena. Again, no man is an island.

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/10/future-b2b-content-marketing-experts/ from http://blog.thestarrconspiracy.com/truth/this-week-in-the-world-b2b-marketing-globoforce-ipo-and-your-2014-marketing-budget/ Starr Tincup posted a link to this excellent piece from the Content Marketing Academy. The questions are relevant ones, about the future of content and how it will play out in marketing. While they suggest content strategy vs. content marketing discussions, the real struggle is playing out in the small business, the one that the entire marketing department consists of one person. While social media has opened up some venues for equality, it is also pointing out that everyone is not a writer, nor are they being trained to be writers in college. I work in both business and education, and the two careers are dovetailing more than ever. We have so many students who can barely write, let alone write creatively per the vision of the marketing team. As social media becomes more and m...

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3020047/story-20-the-surprising-thing-about-the-next-wave-of-narrative?goback=.gde_5109383_member_5803164735457210368#! So, it turns out that the most important thing for content in 2013 is...wait for it...the content. This article does a great job of pointing out that all the bells and whistles are just that. It's the story that matters still.

http://www.idgconnectmarketers.com/its-time-for-content-operations/?goback=.gde_5109383_member_5802125494455394304#! When I started developing content for business almost ten years ago, much of it was a "nice to have". It was used as a piece to draw in the leads to other, more relevant points in the sales funnel. Blogs were still under corporate ownership, and most execs had a single ghost writer to manage the company blog. Now, so many companies are still applying the strategies that worked then to the rapidly evolving world of content. Companies see that they need social media, but fighting for a place at the table at a SMB is still a struggle. It is a tactics game.