"If 2008 was the year social media went mainstream, 2009 should be the year of content marketing, the corporation as media company, the brand as publisher and broadcaster," says Junta 42 publisher Joe Pulizzi.
It's true that much of what you read these days about online marketing is about using Twitter, Facebook and social sites effectively. And most of what experts are saying about using these sites has to do with the quality of your messages and how to tie into building your brand and relationships.
If you haven't been keeping up with all this, don't worry. Some of us just aren't early adopters. We can wait for the dust to settle and just learn from the mistakes of others, after the best practices are ironed out. But get prepared because much of this will become as mainstream as email.
What is becoming crucial is that we can no longer afford to NOT pay attention to content marketing, be it on a blog, email newsletters, or on Twitter.
It doesn't matter if you're part of a big corporation trying to brand and market your products and services, or a solo professional or small business owner.
Creating content that engages readers is the challenge. You can forget going out and buying an ad. You've got to write - or hire someone to write for you.
Joe Pulizzi writes from a corporate perspective and gives 10 Content Marketing Tips to Start Now for 2009.
How can we, as brands, be relevant to our customers? How can we create and develop real relationships with them? How do we engage?
... brands can do only two things to create the goal of 100% engagement - we can inform our customers - or give them a good time.
(This is similar to my post about educating and entertaining readers.) Joe goes on to write this about ezines:
Joe's post is relevant to the solo professional as well. I suggest you read his 10 Tips and then make a list of content marketing steps you can prepare to execute in 2009.
You may not be able to provide enough content to your readers as a solo professional yourself. There are services and other ways to gather content so that you stay relevant to your readers that you might not think of.
Related post: BuildaBetterBlog.com
Other People's Content: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking
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Patsi...I'm loving the content marketing evangelism!
Posted by: Joe Pulizzi | December 12, 2008 at 12:07 AM