If you’ve ever been inside an elementary school library from the year 1966 onward, you’ve probably laid eyes on the phrase “Reading is FUNdamental” at one point in your life.

And it is. Especially if you want to create good content.

In order to do that—to engage, entertain, and inform—one has to know how it’s done, and it helps to see it done by people who are better at it than us, or at least, have notched a few hits.

If you want to pump out good content, you have to READ good content. And nothing is better than a good book. Literature is full of people who are better than the average Joe at content (arguable, but you’d have to be a pretty great debater).

Remember Hemingway? Borges, Twain, Tolstoy, and Oates? Shelley? To read them is to immerse yourself in their talent, and who doesn’t want or need a little more talent in their life?

And, no, the Internet is not enough. This blog post is not enough.

In this techno-driven world, we have a particular way of writing on the Web, one very different than what one sees in the comparatively Luddite world of literature. In order to keep Internet readers’ limited attention, writers have to speed things up—write for their lives—because in this age of quick-tabbing—switching from a news article to Facebook to email to actual work—every second matters.

That is why we write how we write on the Internet: in short, succinct bursts of information, littered with links, short asides, and bolded keywords. Often, the graceful beauty of a good sentence sometimes gets lost in making sure someone’s not going to go play Angry Birds before he finishes this paragraph.

Before you Web writers tar and feather me, I believe that beautiful writing can exist on the Internet. It’s just harder for our overactive brains to read.

In 2008, in an article in Slate, Michael Agger wrote about a key difference between reading for pleasure, ludic reading, as one reads literature, and reading on the Web. When we read for pleasure, “we read more slowly. When we’re really engaged in a text, it’s like being in an effortless trance,” something so different than the quick flick and click of the Internet. He writes, “We’ll do more and more reading on screens, but they won’t replace paper—never mind what your friend with a Kindle tells you. Rather, paper seems to be the new Prozac. A balm for the distracted mind…contained, offline, tactile.”

In 1991, a group of neuroscientists in Italy discovered something crazy about our brains. They learned that when a monkey watches a human reach for food, the areas of the monkey’s brain that normally engage when it reaches for food itself, still engage while the animal watches the food being grasped by someone else. Neurologically, this works as if the monkey was reaching for food itself— but it wasn’t. It was just watching. From this, something called mirror neurons were discovered—parts of your brain that let you feel the heebie jeebies when a spider lands on your friend’s arm.

The Society for Neuroscience explains it this way: “When you see someone smile, for example, your mirror neurons for smiling fire up, too, creating a sensation in your own mind of the feeling associated with smiling. You don’t have to think about what the other person intends by smiling. You experience the meaning immediately and effortlessly.”

I think one of the most important things about literature is that it serves as mirror neurons for life—and for the weary web writer— creating content. As the writer William Styron once wrote, “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” Through literature, not only do we get to improve our grasp on life—expand our vocabulary; learn more about ourselves, the world, relationships, our environment—we also gain the benefit of absorbing great content, letting our mirror neurons fire, teaching us to create great content ourselves.

I certainly think I’d be less of a person if I hadn’t read the books I have read. My vocabulary would be busted; my understanding of people, relationships, family, honesty stunted; my writing stinted and uninspired; my exposure to sentences so well-crafted even my mother might tattoo them on her arm diminished significantly.

This is why, I believe, to be a true creator of content (good content) you have to engage people in a way that reading for pleasure engages people, or, really, engage YOURSELF the way literature engages. Let literature be your content Gatorade. Replenish your content electrolytes. Shake it up. Turn off that laptop, unplug that desktop, power down your Kindle, and read a book—with no distractions except a comfy couch and a steaming cup of tea. Soak up that paper Prozac and refresh your brain, sanity, and let yourself bask in the beauty of a 7-sentence paragraph without any links at all.

Hemingway will thank you.

[image: PhilliesFan8]

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Lucky me! Last week I was invited to host a Social Media Club of D.C. event and let my true nerd flag fly.

My task? Moderate a panel discussion that combined two of my favorite things: food and social media.

In the hot seats were three very tech-savvy people from D.C.’s restaurant scene: Jonathan Goldfuss (@ThinkFoodGroup) from Think Food Group, the management company for Jose Andres’ many restaurants; Polly Wiedmaier (@marcelsbeckdc), wife of (and marketing guru for) chef Robert Wiedmaier, of Brasserie Beck, Marcels, and others; and Chef Tony Marciante (@ChefTony) of his namesake restaurant in Bethesda, north of D.C.

We were there to chat about social media in the dining biz. Or rather, how the heck do you cook and tweet at the same time!? The panel had a wide range of social media influence and experience, and so the conversation was lively, and their tips and advice could be applied to nearly any industry—not just those who are chopping vegetables while snapping Twitpics.

Serving up Content

The first question I had focused on what kind of content they are sharing socially. Sometimes it’s hard for businesses to figure out where to even start with social media – eMarketer reports that 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content is their biggest challenge. Our panel overcame the obstacle in some interesting ways:

Jonathan said he urges his restaurant managers and chefs to be active on Twitter and Facebook, but they often ask him, what do I say? His response is simple: What have you done today? Everything you do on a day-to-day basis in business is a story, even a 140-character one. People want to see what’s behind the scenes at a restaurant or any business.

Chef Tony said he puts everything out there, from when he’s at the market shopping for his ingredients to Twit pics of the final dishes right before they’re about to be presented to diners. And Polly has the interesting task of being the online marketing mouthpiece for her social media-shy chef husband, Robert. So sometimes, a look into their busy lives is all it takes.

Not-So-Tasty Tweets

I wanted to know what the panel does when they have angry customers or diners tweeting at them, or blogging negative reviews. After all, they unanimously said social media is an extension to the conversation in the dining room.

Chef Tony said it’s the opportunity to turn a negative dining experience around—and even gave a great example in which he reached out to a blogger who bashed his business, and ended up making a loyal customer out of him.

Polly and Jonathan both agreed. They said they actively reach out to those customers, by DM’ing them on Twitter or sending them an email if they can, to help rectify the complaint. Jonathan’s restaurants even have a set policy for how to handle the situation. (Video: Social Media Guidelines Made Simple)

The trick is to be human, and not a corporate bot, and be understanding of customers’ complaints. Clearly Chef Tony is—he preached often about being real in social media. But what about brand names or businesses that don’t have a face that’s as famous as their business name? Jonathan says even though the restaurants’ names are the social media handles, he encourages his managers and chefs to lend their personality to the posts.

Setting the Table

And, finally, platform. The three said they stick to Twitter, Facebook, and occasionally post videos on YouTube, but haven’t really gotten into other platforms, such as Pinterest. And while it’s easy to synch platforms, or use tools to spread your messages across multiple mediums, you have to be careful your audiences don’t get confused—and that the message is tailored to the platform audience.

Chef Tony said social media the cheapest and best way to market your business, but Jonathan warned that it does cost something—time. And if you can’t do it well and correctly and frequently, then perhaps you should be careful to dip your toes into it.

If you’re in the D.C. area, make sure you get involved with the SMCDC. Their next event is a hot one, on the topic of social media and romance.

See all the tweets here.

[Image: Aimee.Knight]

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Moving pictures can be dangerous. Witness video of me, circa 1988, clad in acid-washed jeans with a shock of hair resembling a dump truck in full tilt.

Same thing applies to a new generation of video and the media machine it feeds every second of the day. When it comes to branded video content—or even content used to supplement a story online or on your slick new app—if you have the wrong mission or focus, things can go south faster than a bender in Tijuana.

I’ve learned a lot during my first year as someone responsible for providing video content for a TV network. No, it’s not NBC or even cable. It’s an in-airport network seen by nearly 4 million passengers a month at Washington D.C.’s Dulles International and Reagan National airports. We have 50-inch, flat-screen monitors everywhere except the bathrooms. (Another goal for another day…)

Our screens roll 24/7, and our “program” is a 20-minute loop that changes weekly. Yes, a whole different set of viewing variables.

What have I learned?

First, I was wrong about almost everything. Thus the myths debunked.

1. No one really pays much attention to video except for the “S#%* People Say” meme on YouTube.

Don’t bet on it. Video content is everywhere and can fine-tune or absolutely define your message and brand.

We produce branded video content for airports, but video is, of course, most dominant online with no signs of slowing. In fact, digital tracking company comScore noted that 182 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in December for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer.

That number will rise: A survey released this week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that the number of Americans who own a tablet—the device of choice for watching new video content—has risen to 29 percent.

2. Tell a good story, and you’ll be fine—no matter what the length.

The writer in me wanted to believe this. But something interesting happened on my way to becoming Marty Scorcese: I learned that long narrative is best left to tablets, and even then only if you have something monumental to say that cannot be said in 60-90 seconds.

We began 2011 showcasing local artists, singers, chefs and even yours truly on the road in Portland doing a travelogue. The videography was strong. The stories were appealing. And the music soared in the right places.

The problem: The videos were too long, clocking in anywhere from three to six minutes. I visited the airports and watched the body language of viewers and witnessed initial interest fade to iPhone-checking and, sometimes, actual snoozing—which is usually a sign you’re not engaging your audience (nothing gets by me). We lost them.

3. Quick 1-minute, branded videos are infinitely more appealing and don’t even need a narrative.

There are no shortcuts. Videos, like good stories, need a beginning, middle and end, even if they’re 60 seconds long.

This is among the best one-minute videos I’ve seen in the past six months. It’s branded content for a student travel service in Australia. Scores of images flash across the screen in what looks impossibly gorgeous.

The middle? Yes, it’s the clap at the pigeons. The end? Looks like the Tetons, right? And then fade to white with the branded catchphrase. Brilliant. It’s so effective I’m more than a little jealous.

And, yes, an incredible story was told in less time it takes to send an email.

4. YouTube has democratized video production, so content doesn’t even have to look that good.

Sorry, but production values for branded content need to be just as strong as those for the written word in print or online. (Besides, YouTube even has plans to tame the Wild West as it redefines niche programming light years beyond cable.)

The good news is that HD cameras have made it easy for content creators, once wary of anything other than the almighty keyboard, to film interviews and tell stories in new and exciting ways.

And those content creators can take it a step further. The latest version of Final Cut, released last May (and lambasted in many video- and film-production circles for its “dumbed-down” feel) features a smooth user interface and infinite flexibility. It’s a winner.

Indeed, I’ve been producing my own stuff for the past several months.

I still don’t know the perfect path of video and its complementary role in the content we provide. But I do have a better sense of how to avoid paths that lead to dark ravines with scary things such as miniscule click-through or, even worse, a collective shrug from audiences.

Marty would be proud.

[Image: BrittneyBush]

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When it comes to digital media, competition can sometimes make writers turn into digital grinches. While it’s healthy to stoke friendly competition and take pride in your work, stonewalling and shoulder checking isn’t really necessary.

The web was built on the notion of sharing ideas and exchanging news. Links, the glue that holds the Internet content train together, are meant to be given freely and awarded to the best and most relevant content. The saying goes that no man is an island, and the same goes for most web sites and blogs, as networking and collaboration are key parts of the growth of pretty much any digital property.

But along the way, there’s been a rise in grinchery. These writers will purposely avoid linking out to sites and blogs that are clearly informing their writing. And rather than quoting their sources, they’ll rewrite their content and reduce the attribution to the vague “according to various reports.”

So why the stinginess? The answer can be summed up by a line in a Michael Jackson song: “Tell ‘em that it’s human nature.”

As more importance has been placed on increasing pageviews and time spent on site, some writers have put themselves before their readers and as a result, become hoardish with their links and compliments. Instead of embracing the diversity of information on the web, they act like they’re the only shop in town and try to ensure that readers never leave the tangled web they’re weaving.

Recently, Sarah Lacy, formerly of TechCrunch, took a firm stand against this trend. When she launched her own tech blog, PandoDaily, Lacy outlined her manifesto in one of the site’s introductory posts to her readership. She made it clear that she sought to correct a wrong she’d seen becoming more prevalent in the blogosphere:

We are insanely competitive. We want to break every story. But we also want to bring more civility into the blogosophere. We’ll link to people who beat us on a story and be good sports about it, as much as it pisses us off. We’ll welcome competitors to cover our events, and we’ll cover theirs.

It all boils down to one thing: Sportsmanship. Just like we were taught to put on a polite face and shake hands with the other team as we picked up our broken spirits and tended to our scraped knees after a particularly brutal game of kickball in elementary school, it’s important to give credit where credit is due and pay compliments when the work warrants it.

As content creators, we all know the good feeling of having someone send you a note remarking about how they appreciate your work. Whether it’s an admired peer congratulating you at a conference, a thankful email from a reader landing in your inbox or a heart-warming tweet from a stranger praising your story telling, everyone likes to be acknowledged.

That’s why when it comes to content creation, I’m generous with my links and when it comes to social media, I’m quick to pay compliments to fellow writers. I recently made it a point to drop a quick note to a technology blogger who I stumbled upon, letting him know that I liked his work and would be keeping up with his posts in the future. He responded in kind and was appreciative of the note.

And before anyone goes getting any funny ideas who should compliment who, paying compliments knows no rank or class. Want an example? How about the president of the United States of America sangin’ a little tune for the Reverend Al Green at a recent fundraiser at the Apollo theater?

There President Obama was, doing his best attempt at Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” in tribute to the great soul king himself. Fortunately, Obama proved to be capable of carrying a decent tune, though he’s obviously not snatching the American Idol crown any time soon.

As Obama wrapped up his little ditty with a nervous laugh, he explained his humble display simply:

“Don’t worry, Rev, I cannot sing like you. But I just wanted to show my appreciation.”

Content creators, go forth and link freely. Comment on content that moves you and tweet out a compliment or two. It’ll do you and the Internet some good, I promise.

[image via SimpleMom]

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In the past year, social media was the vehicle that drove several high-profile careers off a cliff.

Pro athlete Larry Johnson tweeted a homophobic slur that resulted in a fan petition calling for his removal from the Kansas City Chiefs. He was later suspended.

Gilbert Gottfried lost his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck for making a joke about the aftermath of a devastating tsunami in Japan.

Journalist Octavia Nasr was fired for a controversial Tweet that violated CNN’s social media policy.

But high-profile celebrities weren’t the only “victims” in our era of real-time transparency.

Agencies lost clients.

Businesses turned off customers.

And organizations were embarrassed.

The common thread in all of these social media meltdowns is that the “person” took the wheel and the “professional” took the back seat.

In other words, caught in the heat of the moment, (or in a fit of passion) these people acted very … well, human (in many cases, however, still inappropriately so).

Can we blame them? The beauty of social media is that people are allowed to finally be themselves. Transparency, authenticity and all that, right?

Gone is the carefully planned company line and here to stay is the spontaneous and often unchecked ad-libbed line.

But if this “be yourself” mantra is the driving force behind social media’s mass adoption, then why do we come down with such a heavy hand on those that embrace it?

Because deep down we still have expectations for people who are representing a brand. And as much as we want to say social media is the pinnacle of freedom of expression, if you are tied to an organization, your social media outbursts could bring them down with you. It is, in one word: irresponsible.

Which is why we need to look at this sobering piece of reality: when you use social media, you forfeit the right to truly be yourself with no holds barred. Holds are definitely barred.

Whether you’re managing official accounts or feeding your own, directly or indirectly, you are linked to the company that helps you pay your bills (if you don’t like it, find a new line of work).

If you represent an organization, (and anyone who receives a paycheck from an organization does) you’re going to need to start acting like a profersonal (if you haven’t done the math, that’s professional blended with personal).

The lines are irreversibly blurred between our personal and professional lives. There is no more “privacy” or protected content online. Only content waiting to be found like ticking time bombs we never needed to create.

Here are the new rules we must live by:

Act as if anyone will be able to read what you write, track you down, connect you to your organization, and have chaos ensue. When we look at the example of Detroit Motor city Tweet and also the Red Cross Tweet we see that this excuse was used: “I thought I was sending it from my personal account.” If the Twitter users behind those accounts employed this logic, the mistake never would have happened.

Don’t swear, get political, get preachy or do anything else you wouldn’t do at an all-hands meeting. It may seem disconnected from your work life while you’re ranting from your dark basement, but when the lights come on, everyone can see the proverbial logo you wear.

Have fun, but make sure it’s good, clean fun. The kind you might have with Shrek, not Charlie Sheen. The kind the Bronx Zoo Cobra had back in the day.

Continue to treat social media like a cocktail party. But make sure it doesn’t turn into an 8 day bender where you end up in a Las Vegas suite with a tiger.

I’ll probably be called conservative, scared, and several unprintable names for putting together this shiny, corporate-friendly post. But it’s the truth, and embracing it will be liberating and finally rid us of the false anxiety of thinking that some of our social media content is personal and some of it is professional.

If you have a job, all of your social media activity is both personal and professional. It’s profersonal. It’s the era we live in.

[Image: Krystal OBrien]

This post was originally published on The Future Buzz.

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The biggest roadblock for writers trying to perfect their voice isn’t using the correct grammar, proper spelling, or consistent syntax.

It’s fear.

One of my college professors once called me out for being too tentative in a story. I was writing a review of the movie “High Noon” and after a decent lead, I just lost my voice. He asked me point blank, “What are you afraid of?”

It was a pretty heavy question for a 20-year-old who thought he was invincible and couldn’t imagine any other career than being a writer. However, the more I thought about it, and the more I worked on developing my craft, the less potent the fear of losing my voice in print was.

I reached out to that professor, along with one of my literary Twitter followers, and came up with three tips writers can use to master their writing anxiety.

Don’t Compare Notes

Comparing your work to other writers can cripple your ability to overcome the fear your own words.

You aren’t going to accomplish much if you’re concentrating on what others have done and what you haven’t. You’re only going to lose your voice even more, and be that much more scared of never finding it again.

“Your own voice isn’t supposed to sound like anyone else’s,” says Morgan Pehme, my former college professor and current executive director of New York Civic, a nonprofit, nonpartisan good government group that aims to advance political reform in the city and state of New York. “If you are discomfited by your voice sounding different than others, and thus unprofessional or inferior, take heart in the fact that your voice is supposed to be different.”

“No two authors will ever write the same story, even if they begin with the same concept,” says Julie Anne Lindsey, a young adult fiction writer and blogger. “Your voice should be embraced because its what makes you you.”

Take a Step Back

This is the easiest and hardest thing to do for a writer. But there are times you just need to get the hell away from your work. Your writing voice, just like anything else on your person, gets fatigued. The more tired it is, the more you start to fear it.

When one word or phrase looks out of place, you start moving pieces around, and the next thing you know everything looks scrambled. Not to mention, you’ve now taken cover under a blanket with a baseball bat.

“A respite allows us to view our work with greater objectivity,” says Pehme. “It’s an experience that either clarifies its flaws, but, more often that not, impresses us that the piece was much better than we initially thought.”

Whenever you decide to return to the page—it could be two hours or two months—your voice should be refreshed and ready. And instead of wearing a Halloween mask, it’ll be wearing the smile of an old, trusted friend.

Confidence is Key

Confidence in your writing is everything. Errors can be corrected, tone can be honed, but there is no easy fix for sustained fear.

“Know that all writers lack confidence in their work,” says Pehme. He notes that a tour of the Rare Book collection of the British Museum will show how even classic writers like Shakespeare, Joyce, and Austen constantly crossed out and revised their work. “Just because you are insecure doesn’t mean your insecurity is founded. Writing requires a leap of faith. Don’t be afraid to jump!” he says.

“Fearing your voice as a writer is like an artist fearing their medium, a painter avoiding his paint, a pianist afraid to play,” says Lindsey. “Don’t fear your gift. Treasure it. Your voice gives your story its passion, edge, and bite.”

The process of finding your voice can be a messy and frightening one, but if you are patient and hungry, you’ll be able to wield your words ferociously, rather than live in fear of them.

[image: jjpacres]

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Guess what? It’s not all about you.

Anyone who has ever played on a team knows that. And shortstops know it best.

This idea is the fabric of his or her nature. While pitchers, outfielders, and catchers have received the lion’s share of the glory in baseball, they would be nowhere without a good shortstop.

The great 1910 Chicago Cub infielders Evers and Chance would be nothing without their shortstop Tinkers. The late 1990s will remembered not only by gargantuan home runs by drugged-up sluggers, but also for the great shortstop play of Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, and Barry Larkin. Yankees legend Phil Rizzuto selflessly helped his teams win World Series after World Series, but finished his career with a mediocre looking stat line. Oh yeah, he’s in the Hall of Fame.

You’ve got to be asking yourself: What does any of this have to do with content? Everything. The skills needed to be a good shortstop are the same as those possessed by a good Web editor.

Here are 3 things Web editors should keep in mind to better field their position:

Be a Field General

Once a shortstop digs his metal cleats into the manicured infield dirt, he has no equal. He also never shuts up. He’s constantly shouting support to his pitcher, directing his fellow infielders to the best position, and eagerly anticipating the ball being hit in his direction. He leads by example and never walks or jogs back to the dugout. He is always sprinting.

A Web editor must always be sprinting and leading by example. Your job is to run through walls so that the people you work for don’t have to. At the end of every day, there should be a Web editor-shaped hole in the wall of your office. Make sure your coworkers know you have their backs, and they will have yours. You are their first line of defense, so do everything possible to make yourself bulletproof.

Never stop moving the team forward, never stop pushing the envelope, and never shut up.  The end result will not only be an improved website, but a team that respects you and is ready to battle with you every day.

Don’t Hate. Innovate.

It’s lazy for any shortstop to start making excuses why he doesn’t get to a ball that should be easily fielded. It’s even worse, when the shortstop starts picking apart and bemoaning the success of other shortstops that are playing the game better.

The same thing can be said of Web editors. So much time can be wasted complaining about the resources you don’t have, or how your competition’s website is superior to yours.

Stop it.

The first reason they do things better than you, is because you’re not doing anything. Identify the areas where your website performs well, and put all your effort into making them spectacular. And when you’re not working on that, come up with some out-of-the-box ideas that shake up the rest of your site. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Derek Jeter gets asked about what he thinks about people who call him a poor fielder all the time. Does he pout and rage at the reporters and fans? Of course not—he’s a professional. He goes out there and does what he does well fantastically, and figures out a way to get through the rest without hurting his team.

You should do the same Mr. and Ms. Web editor.

Nothing is About You.

A shortstop can’t turn a double play without a partner, can’t score a run without the next batter in the lineup, and can’t will the pitcher to make the opposing team hit groundballs in his direction. A great shortstop knows he needs his teammates as much as they need him.

Whether you write every article on the website, have your own blog, or you have some say in design and advertising, you aren’t working in a vacuum. You need to be as inclusive as possible. Every idea needs to be heard, debated, and if it’s a good one, assimilated. You should never believe that every idea you have is the right one. And even if that were true, there are probably more ideas from the people around you that will make it an even better idea.

You’re not doing this job to make yourself look good. You should be dedicating yourself to making your website the best it can be, and making the people you work for and work with look like stars.

It is worth repeating: nothing you have done, and nothing you will do is about you.

The recent New York Times best seller The Art of Fielding focuses on the trials and triumphs of an up-and-coming shortstop. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite lines in the book that could easily have been written about a Web editor:

The shortstop is a source of stillness at the center of the defense. He projects this stillness and his teammates respond.

Now go run into some walls.

[Image: jellaluna]

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Top 10 lists are like new year’s resolutions. They seem great at first, but they quickly make you feel bored, hopeless, and like you’ve wasted your time.

And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y.

Which is why I’ve kept this one bare-bones, tactical, and hopefully useful for you beyond the 4 days it typically takes us to crash and burn through our empty new year promises.

1. Check which pages on your site earned the most inbound links

Any search engine optimizer who knows her SEO clichés will tell you that inbound links count as votes in the eyes of search engines, and having links point to your content will help you rank better in search. It’s a feel-good moment that brings value to your domain. It’s a win-win.

Take a look at which of your posts attracted the most inbound links and see what they have in common. Were the headlines provocative? Were they exhaustive posts on a singular subject? Were they curated round-ups of the industry’s top events?

Figure out what type of content is earning you links (votes) and produce more of it in 2012. Also, look up to see who the human is behind a link. If this person made an editorial decision to link to your stuff they are paying attention to you and think your content is worth sharing. They’re someone you probably want to network with on Twitter if you haven’t started already.

2. Look at search terms that drove visits to your site

It may seem obvious: monitor keywords that lead traffic to your site and celebrate your SEO dominance. While it’s ok to pause and celebrate your search victory, the real opportunity is to find mediocre-performing keywords and exploit them for your purposes.

(It is way less sinister than it sounds.)

Basically, search through your top few thousand keywords and find keywords that your site ranks for somewhere on page one of the SERPs (search engine results pages) but not at the top of the page.

Identify the articles which are ranking for these terms and tweak them to more strongly target the keyphrase. Then, find opportunities in your own relevant content to link to these articles and consider sharing them in social media (if they are still relevant, of course). The idea is to find keywords you are already competitive on and try to turn a #7 ranking into a #3 ranking and earn more share of the clicks for that given search term.

3. Test your page load speed

When is the last time you’ve checked how quickly your website loads? If you’re one of the people taking advantage of Google’s Analytics pageload feature (or Google Page Speed Online, or Pingdom’s website load speed calculator), then you’re probably on top of it. If you’re not, it’s a good thing to start looking at.

Load speed is a huge factor for search engines when they are choosing what content should rank for a given phrase. Knowing what pages or elements on your site that are holding things up is the first step in addressing and fixing any issues.

Give your site a website speed audit and prioritize fixes based on severity (the tools will tell you what is high, medium, and low importance).

4. Check for page leaks

Make a list of the pages on your site that have the highest bounce rate (i.e. pages with the highest percentage of visitors who leave your site almost immediately after arriving, without clicking through to more content).

Start with the pages that get the highest volume of traffic (and are therefore leaking the most of it away). Examine the page for possible causes:

• Is there a relevant call to action?

• Are there links to related content that users may enjoy?

• Is page load speed extra slow on this page?

• Is there an obvious issue with the layout of this page?

If the answer isn’t immediately obvious, consider setting up an experiment on fivesecondtest.com or a similar service to see how viewers are experiencing the page and try to get insight on how to improve the page’s performance.

5. Look for dead-ends

Similar to page leaks, dead-ends are places on your site where users run into a hurdle (and we all know that most people would rather avoid the hurdle on the web rather than get over it themselves).

Take note of any 404 errors you may have on your site and consider creating a more user-friendly 404 error page. Run Xenu’s Link Sleuth and see if there are broken links from your content that are frustrating users and search engines.

Fixing dead-ends will help you maximize the experience for the traffic you already have.

6. Follow top blogger actions, not advice

Top bloggers don’t always practice what they preach. And conventional wisdom isn’t always the path to success in the world of digital marketing. Best practices may prescribe a course of action that lead you in the wrong direction.

For instance, I once looked at what the top 10 blogs in content marketing were doing (as opposed to saying) and found some interesting results, like, the average blog in AdAge’s Top 10 in the Power 150 write 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every day and have been doing so for nearly 7 years. (Doing this is probably not the answer you’d get from them if you asked them how to be successful online. See what I mean?)

A lot of sites publish a list of “best of” content at the end of the year. Take the top posts and see what they have in common. Check word count, style of post, layout, use of images, etc., and uncover patterns.

Sometimes it’s not what people say, it’s what they do.

7. Get in tune with the right social media channel

Take an honest look at the volume and quality of traffic from popular social media. Where are you getting solid traction? Are you spending time building a presence in the right social media channels?

Ten thousand visits from StumbleUpon could be a mixed blessing if visitors only stay for a quick few seconds. Likewise, if you’re spending an inordinate amount of time hustling your content on Twitter but not seeing a return, it may be time to reevaluate your priorities and focus your efforts on other social media outposts.

Some sites I’ve been working with have had low traffic volume with high engagement from LinkedIn, and vice versa with Twitter. We now know that spending more time earning the good traffic from LinkedIn is well worth our while.

8. Conduct an old-fashioned customer survey

Magazines have been doing reader surveys with great success for years, gleaning valuable data directly from their audience. This simple but often overlooked tactic can provide mountains of business intelligence and hard to get insight, but can also help tell a more compelling story to your advertiser base. The more clearly you can define your audience, the better off you’ll be.

Nothing beats conducting customer surveys and many web services offer the ability to do this at a fraction of what the cost used to be.

9. Consult your real-life network

This is the time of year to shake the holiday lethargy and get socially active in real life. Talk to people you know that operate web sites (regardless of the niche) and attend events in your area where you can meet people also in the content marketing game.

Look through your LinkedIn connections list and find a few people to schedule coffee with in the first month of this new year. Talk to them candidly about what you’re trying to do with your site in 2012 and ask for their honest feedback.

And make sure you offer to pay for the coffee.

10. Read boring industry research

We’re in an environment of quick tips, sound bites, and real-time reactions. And who can blame us? It’s easy to feel productive if we stay on top of industry-leading blogs and skim the points they make. But how much more value could we get if the next 500 pages we read online were part of a research report or a book?

Research reports pack a lot more effort, analysis, and peer-review into what they publish and can be worth their weight in gold (or bytes, at least).

These aren’t the only places to look, but sometimes the less glamorous places have the biggest payoffs when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy for the new year.

Read your fair share of top 10 posts – they do have value – but don’t forget to look in the nooks and crannies of your own operation, too.

[Image: ell brown]

This post was originally published on SocialMediaExplorer.com

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Betty Crocker found a great recipe for content marketing success. (I know, that pun was hard to swallow.)

When food brand giant and cultural icon Betty Crocker, a brand owned by General Mills, wasn’t having success online they developed a digital video series centered around solving common problems for at-home chefs.

Since launching in 2008, their library of around 1,500 videos collectively received more than 70 million views, according to ChiefMarketer.com.

So what did they do right to earn their way into consumers’ kitchens?

The videos are low on selling, high on solving

“We wanted to get out of the interruption business and more firmly into the solution-based ‘let-us-help-you’ business,” said Doug Moore, vice president of branding for General Mills in a ChiefMarketer.com interview.

This requires a philosophical commitment to the idea that customers can be earned through providing content they found useful versus promoting products on price or value positioning alone.

Instead of “hey, look what our products can do for you,” it’s “hey, here’s how to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do. And oh yeah, if you need the ingredients, we’ve got those, too.”

Use of a smart, beyond-the-basics, SEO strategy

Anyone can kick their feet up on a desk, stare off into the distance and say things like “you know, people really like to search for ‘recipes’ online.”

The team got specific and drilled down to see what household cooking projects web audiences were struggling with and created videos that specifically targeted long-tail search terms like “how do I make buttermilk?” and “how do I thaw a turkey quickly?”

They went for long-term value instead of fleeting viral

These videos aren’t positioned to have an explosive viral effect and end up on the Today Show. With videos that focus on being the right answer to the right question at the right time they are better positioned to serve an ultra-specific need that has reasonable demand, one video at a time.

The goal is not to rack up vanity metrics, it’s to become a resource for people who buy their products – or will be buying them shortly.

[Image: jeffrey.w]

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