From finding out your freelancers are humans and that content isn’t the same thing as content marketing, to discovering that your content strategy can be applied to your content strategy (huh?), this week’s edition of Thursday Trends is full of newsworthy revelations. And that’s why this week’s stories all made our list of the week’s top content marketing news.
Content in Your Back Pocket Doesn’t Equal Content Marketing
Content Is Not the Same as Content Marketing via Content Marketing Institute
Since the content marketing landscape is still new and always evolving, a clear definition of what content marketing is has yet to be clearly defined. One thing, however, is certain. Content marketing is not creating content. Rather, content creation is a part of content marketing, and this separation of processes (and others included in content marketing) should be reflected in your content strategy with clearly defined roles and systems.
This recent article from Content Marketing Institute clearly explains the difference between content and content marketing. Plus, it provides lots of advice on how you can use content within your broader content marketing strategy.
How to Care for Your Creative Team
Working with Freelancers: I Wish All My Clients Were as Organized and Understanding! via WriterAccess
Maybe instead of imagining your freelance creative teams as humans, pretend we’re baby kangaroos, kittens whose eyes have yet to open, or delicate ferns that need sunlight, water, and pruning. Definitely don’t imagine we’re just some electron zipping about cyberspace. Why, you ask? Well, because we’re humans who need instruction, who enjoy working relationships with our clients, and who sometimes have life get in the way.
This article discusses all the ways you, as a person who hires freelance creative people, can make the working relationship even better. Use these tips, tricks, and advice the next time you send out a job or search for a new writer.
Why You Should “Waste Time” on Social Media at Work
7 Reasons Marketers and SEO Pros Should Use Social Media at Work via Search Engine Journal
If you’ve ever held your phone under your desk and scrolled through social media, then you know why most companies block social media websites on their networks; it can be a big distraction and waste of time for employees with better, unrelated tasks on their to-do lists. Social media in the workplace, however, isn’t all bad.
If the headline got you excited, hold your horses. This article doesn’t promote completely unleashing social media on the workplace to disrupt the regular workday. But it does stress the importance of allowing access to employees in departments like marketing, sales, and human resources. The full article provides a long list of reasons why these employees should be allowed to use social media at work and what opening these channels up to them could do for your business.
Take a Hint from Your Content Strategy When Formatting Your Content Strategy
Make Your Content Strategy Useful – Do It in Visuals via Content Marketing Institute
This sounds strange, but you should take your own advice about drawing in audience and earning audience buy-in when it comes to your content strategy and not just the content your strategy is designed to market. Confused? The idea’s actually quite simple advice. If you want your content marketing team and executives to actually read, understand, and retain your content strategy, make it digestible in the same way you make content for marketing purposes digestible.
Content Marketing Institute suggests creating a visual document that uses content contained and organized in graphics to deliver strategy to your entire marketing team. In their article, they provide example slides that show how you can organize content (outside of paragraphs and long blocks of text) in different ways to improve how your content marketing team receives and digests your company’s content strategy.
Jennifer G is a full-time freelance writer and editor with a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana. She enjoys researching and writing creative content to engage readers and developing professional voices for clients across all industries. She specializes in medical, health, veterinary, and financial writing. Having worked nearly thirteen years in finance, Jennifer applies her experience in the banking industry (marketing, social media management, consumer and commercial lending, customer service, accounts, and bookkeeping) to her writing work within the industry.
