And not in that order. Improvisation has changed my world. It's changed everything in 20 years for me. It’s not just about honing your funny bone (and it will, Virginia, I promise!); the true lessons of improvisation are about so much more than being funny. In fact, improvisation makes us better marketers because it makes us better people. (note: this is an update of an older post I wrote and [...]
We fall into ruts all the time. We use the same ways to get out of those ruts. That itself keeps us from seeing things in new ways. So if you want more creative content ideas, here are 6 rules to break now. Don't buy into a template mentality for your content. Your brand's path is different. My interview with Content Marketing Institute. Want More Creative Ideas? Here [...]
Humor and Branded Content - How to Show Audiences You "Get it" Humor and Branded Content This month I published a piece on humor and branded content and native advertising in the latest updates for the Native Advertising Institute. It's getting harder to get and keep attention. Well-thought out humor can help. This piece outlines four ways to use humor and branded content (as well in native advertising) [...]
The Language of Inclusion and The SOTU Response "I, me, mine...." Oh, brother. Queue eyeroll.... Remember the seagulls in "Finding Nemo?" Mine, mine, mine!" That scene still makes me laugh. It's not so funny when we use these things in our #marketing, #communication and our talks. Source: Ron Smith via Unsplash.com Language matters. It signals intent, values and beliefs. The language of unity isn't "I, me, mine..." [...]
Mixed Reality Will Change Business Storytelling and Content: From Telling to Sharing Experiences Sharing Experiences (Source: Unsplash.com) Lots of big brands today are experimenting with mixed reality tech – virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to create content. Forbes recently reported that 75% of the world's most valuable brands (Forbes brand list) have created some kind of mixed reality experience for customers in an effort to grow [...]
Infographics Storytelling: Let's Get Visual! In this fun convo with Brian Wallace, our focus is Infographics storytelling. It's a growing and important part of visual storytelling strategy. We don't stay there too long - because when Brian and I get together, we talk about lots of stuff. For example, we discuss how marketing itself has changed, what storytelling is really about and why people need to think in stories. Of [...]
Three Ways Marketers Kill Marketing There are three big ways marketers kill marketing: jargon; lack of a compelling story; and guilt and shame tactics. I discuss all of those in more detail in this video. See the Medium article of this post. I have always joked that the fifth horseman of the apocalypse is a content marketer. To get notified when I go live, sign up here! Watch the Video [...]
Product Story: Beyond Product Content - My Chat with Robert Rose Not too long ago, I had the great and fun fortune of being able to chat with my friend and colleague, Robert Rose, of the Content Marketing Institute. It's time to go beyond the product story and product-focused content. Yes, product story matters - and yet it's about so much more than that. It's about how we make peoples' [...]
Go Daddy's Empathy Marketing Focus In June, I chatted with Go Daddy's Director of Content, Chris Carfi, on #yesandbrandshow. The company is renewing its focus on being human, solving more of the entrepreneur's issues, and why empathy marketing matters. We chatted in-depth about how the company has turned around its image and why focusing on the whole customer with empathy mapping has made a huge difference for the brand. We [...]
LinkedIn Summer 2107 Reading List: Top 25 Marketing Books In June, Linkedin published its "LinkedIn Summer 2017 Reading List" and Named "Stop Boring Me!" a top 25 Marketing Must-Read! I am so honored. Thank you, LinkedIn Marketing. And there are 24 other fantastic titles on this list. So whether you get to the reads this summer or not, it's never too late to read great books! Get your read on. [...]
