Today I sat in on the Content Marketing World Fireside Chats, which was a series of three short presentations on killer storytelling techniques, distribution ideas and your career. Highlights from each session are below.
Killer Storytelling Techniques Learned From Hollywood
Robert Rose, Chief Strategist for Content Marketing Institute, applies classic storytelling structure to content marketing. Ask yourself: What business am I in? What story do I really want to tell? You have to differentiate yourself from others, not be incrementally better or just be a sequel to another story.
Here’s how you can think about your story:
Act I
Ordinary world
- Movies: Dorothy imagining life over the rainbow
- Marketing: What is the conventional market? How does the world work today for your product or service?
Call to action/challenge
- Marketing: What if the world was different? What business are we really in?
- Refusal of the call
- Movies: Luke Skywalker wanting to stay home on the farm
- Marketing: What happens if we don’t succeed with this goal? What is at risk?
Find a mentor
- Movies: Yoda
- Marketing: Who will help us tell this story? Internally? Externally?
Act II
Cross the threshold
- Marketing: How can we understand and map the challenge we face?
- Deal with tests and challenges and gather allies
- Movies: Dorothy on the way to the Emerald City
- Marketing: Who can we reach out to and what story elements do we want to share? Bloggers, partners, doubters?
- Face the ordeal
- Marketing: What do we need to make the world believe in our “what if”?
Act III
The reward
- Movies: The magic speech, usually in the rain, like at the end of Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Marketing: How can we bring friends and customers along on this journey? Can we use customer testimonials? How can we make the world believe? How can we celebrate that we won?
15 paid and free ideas to distribute your content
Barbra Gago, Director of Strategy for Left Brain DGA, reminds us that we have to consider distribution along with content and strategy, and think about how and when the audience consumes our content.
Manual distribution options:
- Websites — A primary way for a steady flow of content
- Blogs
- Social media — such as updating LinkedIn status, posting articles, etc.
- Comment threads — use content from blogs and white papers to answer questions or make comments
- Discussion forums
- Document sharing, like Google Docs or Slideshare
- E-signatures
- Email — enable social sharing of content
- Events — virtual events are gaining traction
- Multi-media sites, like YouTube or Flickr
- Mobile applications
Community distribution options
- Company newsflashes within an organization
- Influencers or bloggers — select a few and continue engagement over time, commenting on their blogs, sharing content, etc.
- Public relations — press releases are still a good tool and have longer life online
- Social bookmarking and social news sites to allow people to share with own network and community
- Partners — leveraging these relationships doesn’t always have to be strategic and formal
Automated distribution options
- Widgets
- E-newsletters that pull in RSS feeds from your blog
- Lead nurturing — mapping content to specific stages of the purchase process
How your content impacts your career and your brand
“What about strengthening your personal brand with content,” asked Bernie Borges, CEO for Find and Convert. We use these strategies for our companies and clients, so why not apply them to our careers?
1. Think like a triathlete. 75 percent of all triathletes are amateurs, people like us with jobs and families but they find time to train for these events
- Set written goals
- Get a coach
- Find an accountability partner
- Attend events
- Develop a routine
- Work on your technique
- Make a commitment
2. Develop your personal brand. Figure out what you want to be known for.
- Become a mini-rock star. If you can get 100-200 people to follow you based on what you want to be known for, that is fantastic.
- Give yourself permission to build personal brand. Fear of failure or not knowing how to do it is the No. 1 obstacle.
- Be who you aspire to be. Do it today, don’t wait until someone taps you on the shoulder and tells you that you should do it.
3. Commit to at least two content assets. One will rise to the top as your primary source of content in your career.
4. Become a stalker. Follow people you like and engage with them.
5. Be a storyteller.
There are many benefits of using content in your career:
- Stand out
- Climb the ladder you are trying to climb
- Gain notoriety and recognition
Content Marketing Fireside Chats
Today I sat in on the Content Marketing World Fireside Chats, which was a series of three short presentations on killer storytelling techniques, distribution ideas and your career. Highlights from each session are below.
Killer Storytelling Techniques Learned From Hollywood
Robert Rose, Chief Strategist for Content Marketing Institute, applies classic storytelling structure to content marketing. Ask yourself: What business am I in? What story do I really want to tell? You have to differentiate yourself from others, not be incrementally better or just be a sequel to another story.
Here’s how you can think about your story:
Act I
Ordinary world
Call to action/challenge
Find a mentor
Act II
Cross the threshold
Act III
The reward
15 paid and free ideas to distribute your content
Barbra Gago, Director of Strategy for Left Brain DGA, reminds us that we have to consider distribution along with content and strategy, and think about how and when the audience consumes our content.
Manual distribution options:
Community distribution options
Automated distribution options
How your content impacts your career and your brand
“What about strengthening your personal brand with content,” asked Bernie Borges, CEO for Find and Convert. We use these strategies for our companies and clients, so why not apply them to our careers?
1. Think like a triathlete. 75 percent of all triathletes are amateurs, people like us with jobs and families but they find time to train for these events
2. Develop your personal brand. Figure out what you want to be known for.
3. Commit to at least two content assets. One will rise to the top as your primary source of content in your career.
4. Become a stalker. Follow people you like and engage with them.
5. Be a storyteller.
There are many benefits of using content in your career: