Steve and I are psyched to be on the roster of speakers for Funnel Fuel, an excellent conference sponsored by the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association. The event is 8-5 on 4 June at the Brier Creek Country Club in Morrisville, N.C. We'll be talking about how to make your content more engaging. Wanna come? You can take 10% off the registration fee if you use the WORDFACTORY10 promotional code. Here's the agenda. We hope to see you there! [Want me to speak at your next event? Check out some of my recent presentations, then email me with submission details!]

We're also excited to be judging blogs and article-writing entries for the Insurance & Financial Communicators Association annual awards program. The accolades will be doled out at the 80th Anniversary 2013 Annual Conference, September 29-October 2 in Chicago. We love evaluating competition entries. Contact me if you'd like us to judge your next contest.

In other news, my fantastic protégée, Faith Inman, graduated from William Peace University last weekend. She's now working for USA Baseball, handling its digital and social media. So proud of her!

In a certain sense, we're all content curators, choosing what information we share with friends and colleagues all the live-long day. But there's a business value to content curation, and you can derive it if you follow this advice for becoming a trusted curator:

1. Share judiciously.

Socially sharing anything that catches you eye isn't going to cut it. Instead, think about the people in your network and choose only the items that are useful or interesting to them. Your ability to prune the overgrowth of social content shows your point of view, establishes your influencers and pegs you as a source of thoughtful and actionable information.

2. Establish context.

Add value to your curation by including a little context, where possible. This might be an introductory paragraph on your blog or sentence on status updates, a micro-commentary on Twitter, or links to related content. Hashtags also can help you create context in a handful of characters.

3. Encourage engagement.

Bring your audience into the mix by asking them for comments or RTs. This creates a dialog that can create additional context, build community, spur ideas for original content and new information sources, and expand your network.

4. Organize it.

Use hashtags, tags and categories to provide an organizational structure for the content you curate. Grouping information in this way gives your audience an easy way to find a raft of content on particular topics of interest. It also helps you identify trends to create original content around.

Example

One of the best examples of content curation is the SwitchPoint Reader, created by IntraHealth International*. This human-curated feed reader pulls content from leading innovators, humanitarians and others from across the social web into an easy-to-use online reader. You can check it out at www.switchpointideas.com.

* Full Disclosure: The Word Factory has provided pro bono services to IntraHealth.

Content marketers often suggest writing trends pieces to put your company or product/service in context. It’s also a decent way to create a little news flow. You can identify trends through your own surveying or from news and industry reports. (Here's advice on how to peg your content to trends and news stories)

The most credible trends content does more than highlight the trend and how you, your enterprise or your product/service fit into it. It's got to include a broader perspective from outside your organization. There’s a reason, after all, that the news typically relies on multiple sources in its reporting: It signals objectivity and fosters credibility.

The Rule of Other Voices applies not only to trends articles, but also to investor pitches, media outreach, business plans or canvas, and presentations. Here are some suggested sources:

Competitors

Including the competition—in an objective way—build credibility. It shows that you’re not afraid of others in your space and that you want to provide an objective view of the trend. If you’re developing this content as a pitch to the media, you might as well do this, because they will. At the very least, include contact information for your counterparts or PR contact at your rival organizations, which will endear you to reporters.

Analysts

Industry and financial analysts provide both a macro view of the trend in action and its impact on the marketplace. These folks also can provide micro information on the companies they cover in the industry, providing informed comparisons that you may not want to make yourself. Their voices build further credibility and trust in the content you’re distributing. Again, when creating for the media, include contact information along with the other information.

Pundits

Different from analysts, these folks are the opinion leaders and other trusted sources of information on your company, product/service and/or industry. Like analysts, they can create context for the trend and your role in it. These folks typically have large networks and might even help you distribute your content if you ask nicely and provide the link. One caution: Avoid pundits associated with news outlets if you’re creating a pitch for reporters; they aren’t interested in promoting their competition.

Academics

Some ivory tower denizens are pundits, but many don’t have the wide appeal and dramatic reach. Smart people who’ve engaged in academic research and deep investigation of your industry, the product/service or the trend can provide an interesting perspective. Their voices are particularly valuable in content about science or the social sciences, or when you need an additional layer of integrity.

Users/Customers/Beneficiaries

Though we know you’re not going to include customers who don’t like your product/service, their voices still add to the overall impact of your content. Choose people who are most like the audience you’re trying to attract/influence. We all respond to advice and insights from “people like me”. It also helps to choose people willing to speak on the record with the media.

Strategic Partners/Suppliers

These voices can be helpful in B2B content. The same rules apply for this group as for Users/Customers/Beneficiaries, above.

Investors/Donors/Sponsors

Obviously people who support you financially think your product/service rocks the opera house. But that makes them seem somewhat less objective. Still, include them if you’re doing B2B content, or in an investor relations scenario. Reporters sometimes like to talk to investors holding large blocks of stock or donors who have made major gifts.

Choose one or more of these voices to include in the content you create this week.

Related Content:

• How to get better quotes
• 4 tips for more effective featured content
• Build a logical framework for your content
• How to use a news hook

Everybody’s talking about content marketing. But what type of content is the most valuable? A February study by CopyPress shows that the “featured article” gets the best return on your content investment (see chart), outscoring even online marketing video.

Ok, but what the heck is a “featured article”?

It’s the piece of content most prominently placed and promoted in your marketing, whether that’s your site or an email blast. A featured article is the best content you’ve got, meeting these key criteria:

1. Relevance

Create featured articles about more than your brand, product or service. Choose topics of high value to your audience, things they want to read about and that you’re a trusted source for. Your content might answer questions or address objections or be directed to decision points in the sell/buy cycle. Provide details that give necessary context and support‎. Actionable content marketing tip: Build featured articles around audience needs, concerns, lives—including a clear “why you should care”.

2.Voice

Use word choice and sentence fluency create a “sound” that elicits trust, establishes credibility and exudes expertise. Featured articles can include other voices in the form of quotes.

3.  Clarity

Write featured articles in plain, but not boring, language. Make take-aways--big ideas, action steps, etc.--clear to the reader with effective calls to action, bullet points, strong headlines and data in context.

4. Quality

Featured articles should be your best work, so post only content that's well-researched and The formatting and images should enhance the article, not distract from it. Actionable content marketing tip: Evaluate your content to see where it needs improvement.

I met Liz Morris when she was pitching her company, Sanitation Creations, in the Carolina Challenge, which she won. Liz impressed me not only with the business idea (more about that here), but also with her presentation skills. It’s not everyone who can talk about things like port-a-potties and waste treatment in an engaging way! So I asked her to share her tips for presentations. Here they are.

6 secrets to a great presentation

A bad presentation is like a bad date. Five minutes into both, you start thinking about a fake excuse so you can leave. A great presentation, though--that’s something to remember. Just like a great date, you remember every detail, you want it to last forever, and you hope it happens again.

1. Bring your passion

If you’re not excited about what you’re saying, how can you expect your listeners to get excited? As a presenter, make sure your passion shows throughout the presentation. This doesn’t mean shouting at the audience to get your point across. It means having a sparkle in your eye and connecting with the audience. Show that you’re truly interested in not just the subject, but in communicating it to your audience.

2. Entertain them

I’ve seen many presentations where the presenter cared about their subject, but I was still falling asleep. Draw the audience into the presentation; don’t expect them to automatically be into it just because they showed up. Relate your passion/subject to someone else and get that person to care. Make eye contact. Two options: making it interactive and making it funny. Of course, not every presentation can have humor. I’ve seen serious presentations that still entertaining and engaging. [More on engaging your audience]

3. Keep it simple, stupid

This was advice I got from my 6th grade English teacher (Yes, he wrote out stupid on the board, it caused quite a bit of chatter). Besides Latin roots, this acronym stayed with me. A presentation is a chance to show-off. Sometimes when showing off, you want to throw in big words and industry specific terminology. Remember your audience; they might not know all that terminology (especially acronyms), so be sure to explain things. When I give a presentation, I don’t speak to the person who I know will understand what I am talking about. I talk to the person who somehow wandered into the room and doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Because if I can make my subject clear enough to the lost person that he/she wants to stay for the entire presentation, I’ve captured the entire audience. It is a fine line, though. You don’t want to speak so simply that you make everyone in the room feel dumb. You don’t ever want to talk down to someone. [More on word choice and the importance of plain language]

4. Be a storyteller

Every presentation, just like a story, has a beginning, middle and end, and it should flow. I noticed this when I was defending my thesis and now I apply this concept when I pitch my business. I always start with the hook, why should the audience care about what I’m talking about. If you can’t get their attention in the beginning, you’re not going to get them back at the end. For example, I talk about toilets in my pitches. I start with a personal story about why I care about sanitation, but I relate to an experience everyone in that room has had: using a port-a-potty. This technique captures the audience because they immediately start nodding that port-a-potties are the worst, so that now they want to hear what I have to say about it. Once I have their attention, I can tell them the details. Your ending should reiterate the point of the presentation, or the moral of the story. [More on how to create stories]

5. Get the questions

There's nothing worse for a presenter then asking for questions at the end of the presentation and it’s silent. Provide enough information to share a complete story, but leave enough mystery to get the audience wanting more. [How to handle a question you can't answer]

6. Rehearse, but don’t sound rehearsed

Never go into a presentation without rehearsing it. The trick isn't to memorize what you’re saying--that makes you nervous when you forget something. Instead, know the material backwards and forwards to show you’re the expert. And tell yourself that. No one in that room knows more about the subject than you do. Rehearsing helps to build that confidence.

Liz Morris is the founder and CEO of Sanitation Creations, which does environmentally-friendly toilet design for porta-potties, developing countries, and anywhere that water is not an option. Its first toilet is the patent-pending Dungaroo that is waterless, odorless, and uses specially-lined plastic bags to hold and treat the waste. Liz has an understanding of consumer product design and development, as well as sanitation experience in developing countries. In her spare time she plays the guitar, knits, and runs marathons.

Here are our top 3 most-read posts for April:

• 1 easy way to make your writing clearer: Those introductory phrases? Ditch 'em!
• 5 tips for increasing reach and developing new audiences: Advice from the UN Foundation's Aaron Sherinian and GOOD's Mary Slosson.
• How to get more from your strategic messaging: Most of us factor mission, vision and values in our messaging, but what about customer/stakeholder experience?

Got a topic you'd like me to blog on? Question you'd like answered? Drop me a line!

You know you've done it.

Even if you didn't mean to do it, you've done it.

You've derailed or delayed a discussion with wordsmithing.

You're in a meeting to work on concepts -- not final language -- but you can't help yourself. You focus on getting exactly the right words down instead of the exactly right concepts. That simple shift in focus slows down the process at best, and derails it at worst.

Sometimes we focus on words because that's what we do as communicators. Words matter! True, but they matter less than the idea at this point in the discussion.

Other times, we focus on words because we don't like the ideas but don't want to say so. Wordsmithing can look like you're contributing even as you bog things down.

Whatever the reason, it's not helpful to focus on words before the big ideas are fully formed and vetted.

So don't do it. And don't let others do it, either! When the agenda calls for big-picture concept work, work hard to keep yourself  and others at that level. Agree on the big stuff first. And when folks (yourself included) start working harder on the words, gently pull them back up. Remind them that we all care about how the concept is communicated and that sufficient time and effort will be spent on that at the appropriate time. But right now, the task is to develop and hone the big ideas. Then, if you have time, you can figure out how best to convey that concept. Otherwise, you can convene a smaller group or a strong writer to create draft wording.

More good communications advice from SwitchPoint, this time from Jose Gomez-Marquez, a medical device designer at MIT's Little Devices. He's a super-smart dude who creates nifty innovations in global health medical technology that come in tiny packages (more about that here). He also has some solid tips for communicating scientific and technological discoveries and other news:

Related Content:

• Creating new narratives for new audiences

P.S. Here's our boss ad from the SwitchPoint program (click image for larger view):

There are a lot of reasons to go to conferences. We recently sponsored SwitchPoint, but I would have attended anyhow if only to hang out with this illustrious group of communicators working in global health and international development. It was energizing, inspiring and informative to share ideas with these fine folks.

One of my favorite panels addressed finding new ways to tell global health and development stories and new audiences for them, led by Aaron Sherinian, vice president of communications PR for the UN Foundation, and Mary Slosson, a freelance journalist and global health and development curator at GOOD Magazine. Here are some take-aways that are applicable to anyone communicating anything to anybody:

1. Increase Engagement

Sherinian said the age of download is over; it's all about uploads now.

Action step: Brainstorm ways to give your audience a way to contribute content, whether it's an animate GIF or Vine video, guest posts/comments, etc.; or to curate and share their own collections.

2. Attract Attention

Slosson noted that global health and development aren't sexy, but we can attract new people with art, culture, music and other entry points.

Action Step: If you're charged with conveying something "unsexy", uncover authentic connections to things with broader appeal like art, music, film, travel, etc.

3. Be Accessible

Both speakers agreed that attracting new audiences requires a departure from "wonky", highly technical and jargon-laden content.

Action Step: Talk like a real person. Simplify the language you use to tell your stories and get lay people involved to help you make the connection and get support.

4. Combat Overload

Sherinian suggested that the best way to avoid message/donor fatigue is to talk about what you're actually doing. Example: the retail industry's involvement in Giving Tuesday.

Action Step: Take a break periodically from appeals and sales pitches and focus on service or program delivery. Changing the message can get or reset attention.

5. Share Failure

Sherinian encouraged non-profits and NGOs to follow the trend toward sharing failures as a way to illustrate learning, report course corrections and contribute to the community. Example: Engineers Without Borders.

Action Step: Develop a strategy for sharing failures in a constructive way that show how you're getting closer to success. Visit BethKanter.org for ideas  on how to measure and quantify failure/success.

Redefine Trust

Slosson encouraged us to use all these techniques and technologies to redefine trust through what she calls "radical transparency". By sharing successes and failures more openly, making our content more accessible and involving our audience in creating and curating, we can build new and better trusting relationships with stakeholders, funders/investors and customers/beneficiaries.

Action Step: Open your communications strategy to tell success and failure stories more clearly, increase accessibility and engagement with different entry points, and involve customers/stakeholders in creating and sharing your stories.

I was lucky enough to meet Wyndham Robertson early in my career and to say she influenced me greatly is an understatement. Her indelible Southern charm, easy style, incredible smarts and unending generosity not only helped me become a better writer, but opened doors to me that might not have come ajar otherwise. More than a mentor, she was a sponsor, promoting me and my skills to her peers, and encouraging me to take risks and reach beyond my comfort level. Everyone should have a Wyndham.

Last night, Wyndham received yet another in a long line of accolades: induction into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. Though she could wallpaper a second powder room with all the honors she's gathered, she accepted this one with genuine gratitude and grace. (Learn more about Wyndham Robertson here).

Many moons ago, Wyndham sent me a note about a piece I'd written. Ever the editor, she outlined what was good about it and offered insights on what would make it better. (I think this is probably where the Gold Standards come from). I wrote down her comments for what makes a good story and have held onto it since, taping it to the wall of whatever space I call my office.