EVERY conversation I’m having includes Content Marketing

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Let me apologize up front to everyone I “talked business” with at the annualish Newman Pig Pickin this past weekend. You know who you are. Thanks for telling me to relax.

That being said, every conversation I had over pork and brisket, every phone call I’m having with folks, every new business meeting I’ve taken recently includes the new buzz topic du jour: Content Marketing.

Aside from this thrilling me because THP has been focusing our efforts on this for the past year or so, I’m very excited since this moves the conversation away from social media as it has been. This new conversation includes the true, new combination of solid content, content planning, social media and platforms, creativity, and social advertising that makes up this new world of Content Marketing.

It also moves PR firms from those murky non-ROI days to being able to use a client’s content and expertise to not only do great things like helping to create a leadership position for clients, to the cool stuff like capturing leads.

But before I continue my happy dance here are the words of wisdom and warning that I’m finding coming out of my mouth in every conversation:

  • This takes time: Time to figure out your positioning, time to create the content, time to plan, time to post and target those posts. Time and lots of it. If you can’t devote the time or pay someone else to devote it for you, you’re just paying lip service to true content marketing.
  • This takes people: This means experts in your organization need to understand the importance of this because you’re leading with them, their brain power, their experience, their expertise. If they can’t spend at least an hour a week devoted to this, it won’t get you anywhere.
  • This takes experience: Not any 23-year-old can walk out of school anymore and be anointed as the “content czar” because they know how to take a photo on an iPhone and post it on Instagram (and sorry to all the 23-year-olds out there including those who work for us). This is where the experienced writers, creatives and PR pros regain the seat at the table. Because the content needs to be good, be on point, be of value.
  • This takes money: Money for writers, for social ad experts, for videos and photos, for time for agencies to work with your organizations, for social advertising to amplify the content to push it out to the right audiences, for offers to generate leads. And not a little money either. This is and should be a significant investment.
  • This takes social to another level: This is not your kid in college’s social media anymore. Posting for the sake of it is dead. Social channels are just the beginning. It is what you post and the quality of it AND how you use those channels to AMPLIFY the content to your targeted audiences that will win the day.

If any of those bullets scare you, then you’re not ready. The conversation should end right here.

You will see a lot more on this coming from me and from us in the coming days and months. As always, I’m biased and think that PR firms are best positioned to do this kind of content marketing and expertise positioning well.

It is not for the faint of heart. It is not for every client. It IS for those who understand the impact that solid, unfiltered, direct content that when published and amplified (catch the theme here?) to the right audience can have on their company or organization.

Care to join me in the conversation?

Jon Newman

In 2002 Jon cofounded The Hodges Partnership and has helped to grow it into one of the country’s largest public relations firms (based on O’Dwyer’s annual rankings). Jon has taught communications as an adjunct professor at VCU, speaks regularly at conferences and meetings and blogs and tweets about public relations and marketing issues.

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