You’re probably reading this and thinking I’m crazy. But, really, creating a strategy for building content is the simple part. No, it’s not really “easy,” but deciding you need a blog (or a video series, a podcast, a Twitter feed, or some other type of content) isn’t the hard part. Creating and curating content is where the rubber hits the road.

It’s great when organizations come to me before they create a content strategy. That way I can help you build an effective approach that addresses goals and create content that will resonate with your audience. (In other words, no unnecessary Facebook pages just because “everyone’s on Facebook.” And no joining Instagram pods because someone read they’re a great way to build a following.)

Often, however, businesses contact me after they’ve started because they get stuck.

That’s where a cornerstone and cobblestones approach can help.

Here’s how to feed the content machine.

I recently put together a presentation on how to think about and organize content for your business. The discussion looks at the principle of cornerstone and cobblestones and walks through three examples of companies that are doing a good job using this content marketing approach.

Click here if the video doesn’t load.

As you listen to the presentation, think about:

• how can you use a cobblestone and cornerstone approach?
• what’s the big idea?
• what’s the right way to present your big idea?
• how many different ways can you repurpose, share, and disseminate your big idea?

This framework is just a first step. Because, as I said before, mapping your platforms and creating your daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly content is where the hard work begins. But using this approach should make that work a little easier.

Equally alarming are our filter bubbles. It’s not just that we’re looking for the news sources we trust, it’s that we’re rarely seeing beyond them. This is okay if we’re information omnivores or if we stick to a carefully curated set of objectively credible news sources. But, let’s be real: lots of us are also reading what our friends are sharing — and that’s often reflective of our biases (left, right, or center).

As Buffalo Springfield wrote:

It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

The American Press Institute has been thinking a lot about how we consume stories and what journalists can do help people distinguish good reporting from bad. And they’ve come up with a plan.

The importance of news fluency.

API posits a need to “create journalism differently,” and it all starts with the concept of news fluency (as opposed to news literacy). API writes:

Literacy suggests someone is either capable or incapable of performing a task — in the same way one either can or cannot read. That doesn’t aptly describe what is going on with news. People consume news constantly, even at an early age. The issue is whether they recognize the characteristics of good reporting — such as thoroughness, good sourcing, strong evidence, the difference between hearsay and eyewitness evidence and more.

The metaphor of fluency, by contrast, describes the process of mastering something you can already do. Fluency also is something you can accomplish on your own, through conscious effort.

At the heart of API’s proposed approach is a focus on ensuring that key questions are answered (and answered upfront) much as nutritional labeling has given consumers a better understanding of their food choices. API calls this the “show me” approach.

How to build a better story.

API has created a series of templates for different types of news stories:

• Standard news stories
• non-investigative projects
• Investigations
• Fact checks
• Explainers
• Breaking news
• Live events
• Features
• Opinion

Each template identifies some of the critical questions that a reader might ask about a topic. They’re not the stuff of rocket science, but they are the stuff of news fluency.

So how do we help people master the news? Equally important, who’s responsible for this? API’s focus is journalists, but increasingly they’re not the only people building and publishing stories. Which raises the question: what role do companies, public relations professionals, and other content creators have in how we tell our stories?

Library by Max Langelott (Unsplash).

I’ve talked before about the importance of voice recognition, and that trend has accelerated since I first started talking about it. We have Siri, and Cortana, and Alexa, and Ok Google. As a result, we’re asking questions and looking for directions and recommendations more and more via voice. And buying stuff too.

Here are just three key statistics:

• There are now an estimated >1 billion voice searches per month (Alpine.AI)
• 50 percent of all searches by 2020 will be voice searches (ComScore)
• Voice commerce was a $1.8 billion retail segment in the U.S. in 2017 (Voicebot.AI)

Moreover, OC&C Strategy Consultants predicts that voice-based commerce will account for $40 billion in sales by 2022.

Is your business ready?

Voice search is different.

We’ve been trained to think of search engines as inherently imprecise. Sure, Google’s always been pretty good at delivering your 10 blue links. But we were trained to talk in keywords and ask precise questions. So we’d type in “Chinese restaurants, Washington, DC,” rather than “What’s a good Chinese place to eat around here?”

Here’s another example of how voice search is different. When I did an initial keyword search for “voice search statistics,” I got some good answers but not exactly what I was hoping to find. Then I grabbed my smartphone and asked: “Ok, Google, how many voice searches were there in 2017?” Same results. But then I asked, “how often was OK Google used in 2017?” Alright, I didn’t find THE answer — but can you see how voice search moves away from keywords?

I’m no expert in this area, but it’s clear that organizations are going to have to rethink how consumers search for information. And then we’re all going to have to figure out how to adapt to this new reality.

Watch semantic search in action.

Google just unveiled two examples of natural language search. I’ve played with each, and each gave me a little better understanding of my keyword search tendencies and what’s possible moving forward.

In an article posted to Google’s Research Blog, the authors write:

We are proud to share Semantic Experiences, a website showing two examples of how these new capabilities can drive applications that weren’t possible before. Talk to Books is an entirely new way to explore books by starting at the sentence level, rather than the author or topic level. Semantris is a word association game powered by machine learning, where you type out words associated with a given prompt.

This stuff is fascinating. And it’s our future, so we better be prepared.

Search by João Silas (Unsplash).

The General Data Protection Regulation, known simply as the GDPR, is a new, sweeping European Union rule going into effect May 25 that is designed to “protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.” I’ve been seeing references to the GDPR for months, so I figured it was time to take a closer look.

The key provisions include:

• territorial scope (includes any organization, anywhere, that processes personal data of someone in the EU or UK)
• penalties
• consent (includes plain language and simple, clear, opt-out options)
• data rights

The data rights piece is broad, and it covers a lot of things consumers want and businesses will now have to do. It includes provisions around breach notification, access to your data, the right to be forgotten, portability, and more. Altimeter included the handy visual of the data rights provisions in its new report on the implications of the GDPR for marketers (free with registration).

The GDPR is a big deal.

The regulation protects EU citizens, but it applies to any organization that does business in the European Union. Let’s just talk for a moment about five big data companies: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, IBM. They will have to comply to do business in the EU. This means they will have the means to do these things. How long before consumers in other countries (i.e., the U.S.) start to demand the same protections by default?

Privacy is the new default.

I can’t take credit for the phrase. It comes from Ann Cavoukian at Ryerson University, who is quoted in the Altimeter report as saying: “Privacy is the new default — that is a game changer.” Altimeter’s take on this swirls around the benefits to organizations of improved data accuracy since consumers can now see, interact, and correct their data. (Of course, there’s nothing stopping companies from showing consumers their data now.) My take: companies will have to become not only better data stewards but also better data partners with consumers.

Data rights: a competitive edge?

The GDPR is an EU issue in the same way that California environmental regulations are a state issue (they’re not). What happens in California often sets a model that other U.S. states will follow; similarly, EU data rights aren’t staying locked in the EU. Which means that putting in place data rights protections for your customers, members, patients, and so forth will become part of doing business.

Which financial institution, for example, would you prefer to do business with: the one that lets you see, modify, and correct any issues in your credit report or the one that keeps putting up roadblocks? Which wearable tracker would you prefer: the one that lets you track key stats or the one that enables you to download, review, and even erase all the health data it’s aggregating about you?

Those first to market with stronger data protections will, I believe, enjoy a competitive edge until privacy truly becomes the new default.

Think about your organization. Which GDPR elements can you put in place?

Feature photo by Drew Graham (Unsplash).

We’ve been “connected” since the early days of social media. We’ve stayed connected because, like me, McLellan has always been less focused on building an audience to sell his business and more focused on finding common ground and having conversations. Heck, he even compiled a series of books on The Age of Conversation.

I’ve been thinking about digital connections and conversation since I heard a couple of people comment that they don’t understand why there’s so little of both. More precisely, they were lamenting that people no longer cross-share (i.e., I share your post, you share mine). It’s true — if you discount the Triberr and Instagram pod models. (Please, discount them.) But does that matter?

To be fair, they have a point. Sorta. Like the Facebook relationship status button says, “It’s complicated.”

The case for digital reciprocity.

I appreciate people, like McClellan, who take the time to share my work. It’s always gratifying to know when your content resonates. Moreover, it is nice when people care enough about your avatar (and, hopefully, you) to look at your blog, website, or LinkedIn profile. It says I’m here not just to push myself and my product but also to learn about you and yours.

Moreover, it builds relationships. People who say you can’t make real friends on social media aren’t trying to forge friendships on social media. I have great friendships that started online. People who say you can’t have conversations on Twitter don’t have conversations on Twitter. I have them every day.

In a world where people do business with people they like, being curious and generous are good traits to have.

Reciprocity is overrated.

Share because you care. Because a blog post, video, podcast, or photograph is interesting, thought-provoking, or speaks to you and your audience.

While there is a case for digital reciprocity, expecting people to share your content or otherwise cross-promote “just because” is unrealistic. Sometimes, it’s fair to ask if a person is just too self-absorbed in pushing out their content to care about their audience. But often, it’s not deliberate. We all have reading lists, and maybe your stuff doesn’t make their cut. Or what if they’re reading and loving your blog but your content isn’t relevant to their audience?

More important: Why do you write, curate content, or otherwise post to a blog or social media feeds? What’s your goal? Who’s your audience? Are you trying to win a popularity contest or run a business?

As I’ve said before, there’s a reason I don’t have a marketing blog.

In the early blogging days, lots of people would share and leave comments on each other’s posts. It was a good way to build an audience, and it helped me discover fresh voices and make new friends — some of whom, like McClellan, I’ve kept to this day. Often, however, that audience wasn’t an audience of potential clients that, ultimately, we all need to have.

I share what matters to me, and I likewise want people to share my content because it’s valuable to them. The more relevant it is, the more likely it is to reach my target audience. Digital reciprocity is important, but it’s not all that.

Way by Kai Gradert (Unsplash); Mural by Wyron A (Unsplash).

Doug Levy, at the time chief communications officer at Columbia University Medical Center, was in the middle of that effort. Now he’s written a book to guide communications professionals on how to handle crisis communications.

The Communications Golden Hour is designed to help communicators in the public sector understand how to prepare and respond to life-threatening emergencies. It walks through several recent crises (Northern California Wildfires, Las Vegas mass shooting, the Hawaii false missile alert) and examines what went right — and what went wrong.

The book’s title comes from the health care sector, where what happens within the first 60-minutes after a traumatic injury often means the difference between life and death. Levy writes:

Just as with emergency medical care, communications decisions made before the first emergency alert goes out and within the initial response frequently determine how the public will perceive everything that folllows.

The book addresses:

• establishing trust
• 3 key questions for crisis planning
• crafting an effective plan
• tailoring your messages
• choosing the right messengers
• selecting the appropriate channels
• addressing mistakes

The book also looks at 10 lessons learned from evaluating past incidents and contains tools and worksheets to help agencies and other organizations develop their own comprehensive crisis communications plans.

The 1 big thing I learned.

The one big thing I learned is to be consciously aware of your audience’s biases when planning for an emergency.

Levy packs a lot of information into The Communications Golden Hour. And his book is one I will use as a guide the next time a client approaches me about communications planning. But to give you a sense of why I like this book so much I wanted to share my biggest takeaway. It’s about how to answer the question: what does your audience believe about the situation?

Emergency communicators cannot simply say “don’t worry” or “you are wrong.” If a person believes they can get Ebola from casual contact or simply living in the same city as someone who is sick, there is nothing irrational about wanting to get away from what that person believes is a risk… The point is, do not challenge the beliefs of your target audience. That gives people reason to reject your instructions at the very time that you need to be considered a trusted source of safety information.

In other words, if people believe something erroneous to be true, a crisis is not the time to correct their misperceptions. Doing so is more likely to make people tune you out when you most need them to listen and take action. Instead, understand their conscious (and unconscious) biases and craft your messages accordingly.

Every organization needs a crisis communications plan.

The book is written for public sector agencies, but it’s really a book for all of us. Whether it’s an active shooter on campus (as happened at YouTube earlier this month) or chemical stores spewing into the community (as occurred following the2017 flooding in Houston), you have to be prepared for the worst. Preparing in advance for what to say, how to say it, who will say it, and where you’ll say it can make all the difference. The Communications Golden Hour is a beautifully written, smart, practical, and succinct guide to help you do just that.

*Disclosure: I received a review copy of the book in exchange for agreeing to review it — but without any restrictions on what I might say. And I only review books I think are worth reading, not because they’re free swag.

Keeping Time by Agê Barros (Unsplash).

Before we explore the pros and cons, let’s first step back and talk about what they are. Brands set up affiliate programs to reward people, often called brand ambassadors, for directing sales their way. Each brand ambassador is given a unique URL for tracking purposes. Click on that link for a product, for example, and the referring party (often a blogger) will get paid a predetermined fee if it translates into a sale.

For example, some bloggers are Amazon affiliate marketers. So if you’re reading a book review and want to learn more, you click on the link. It takes you to the Amazon sales page. Buy the book and — voila! — the blogger’s made a little money.

There are pros and cons to affiliate marketing.

Before you start adding affiliate links, consider this.

Here’s why you might consider affiliate relationships:

• you love the product
• you’re already writing product (or service) reviews
• you want a passive income stream

Lots of people have affiliate marketing deals with various companies (notably Amazon). And maybe it is a perfect fit for you. But “lots of people” aren’t your brand or your reputation. Before you start adding affiliate links to your website, ask:

• What will my audience think?
• Will my readers still find my reviews credible?
• Will people think I’m sales-y?
• Does this product fit my brand?
• Is affiliate marketing consistent with my brand values?
• Is the extra cash worth it?

Affiliate relationships must be disclosed.

This isn’t me on a soapbox — it’s the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has pretty clear guidelines that you must disclose sponsored posts and that influencers must disclose when they are paid. The FTC disclosure rules were prompted by the rise of the “mommy bloggers” — a powerful group in the mid-2000s that were commanding all kinds of swag to write favorable stories about a wide range of products. The commission saw the direction that blogging was headed (and, subsequently, social media as well) and ruled that transparency and disclosure were essential.

I’ve become a brand ambassador — and all the money is going to charity.

There are no affiliate links on my website.

Whether you’re landing on my site for the first time or are a regular visitor, it’s clear that I don’t have affiliate links. Nor do I have badges and other faux social proof points. It’s never been my thing, and it’s not authentically my brand or me. I provide recommendations to readers (and clients) because a book or a product has helped me or could be of use to you. Full. Stop.

And that is not going to change. But I do love Buffer, and I’ve been recommending it for a long time. It’s a pretty cool company and a handy social media scheduling tool that I use every day. So when Buffer said they were rolling out an ambassador program I knew I wanted in.

Here’s how it’s going to work. For every person who signs up using this unique Buffer referral link, I will donate my referral fee to charity — and match the first $150. It’s a win-win. And that is consistent with my brand and my values.

If you’ve been thinking about using Buffer but haven’t made the plunge, now’s your chance. The Pro Plan is $15/month (with a 20-percent discount for paying annually) and lets you schedule up to 100 posts at a time across your social media platforms. There’s also a free option and business plans (if you have multiple users) that start at $99/month.

Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. (Unsplash).

That was about to change.

While SI was enjoying the summer of James, another platform — The Players’ Tribune — was preparing to launch that would fundamentally change how athletes tell their stories.

You know how nuance is often lost in translation? How soundbites sometimes pop up bereft of context and secondhand accounts butcher the essence of a story? Well, The Players’ Tribune is quietly remaking the relationship between athletes and the media by giving athletes a platform of their own. Founder Derek Jeter has said his goal for the site is to “transform how athletes and newsmakers share information.”

I’ve been fascinated with The Players’ Tribune since it launched because it has taken the megaphone away from sports reporters and put it into the hands of athletes. Keyon Dooling on anxiety and depression; Alecko Eskandarian on concussions in soccer; Pau Gasol on gender equality and female coaches. Every person has a story, and The Players’ Tribune has enabled athletes to skip the canned “we’re just trying to win” post-game remarks and talk about their childhoods, their families, race and gender and mental health and whatever else is important to them. Plus, like every smart digital platform, it features a mix of written content, podcasts, videos, and photographs. Some of the content is one-off, some is serial. And some of the content is branded, but not in the typical obtrusive-product-placement kind of way.

Ad Age Calls The Players’ Tribune a “Storytelling Revolution.”

Ad Age recently published a terrific article about The Players’ Tribune and branded content. It reads, in part:

In the world of branded content, The Players’ Tribune represents a new wrinkle, as the company bases its revenue almost entirely on the creation of high-quality sponsored stories, following a game plan intended to leverage its greatest asset: the athletes… Success in branded content is all due to one guiding principle: authenticity. Instead of gauging success by traditional metrics like numbers of clicks, the site focuses on engagement—the length of time someone spends reading a story.

And here’s why this matters:

“It’s very easy to buy audience,” says [CEO Jeff] Levick, who claims the site boasts an average engagement time of seven minutes and 45 seconds per piece. “But it’s very hard to buy audience that will actually engage with the content. For us, things like sharing and commenting mean we have content that is really resonating, that people care about it and didn’t just see it. This is what brands should be paying attention to: How do I insert myself in those authentic narratives that consumers are caring about the most?”

I’ve talked a lot about quality content, trust, authenticity, and why you shouldn’t buy followers. The Players’ Tribune is putting all these factors into play. It’s part revolution and part evolution and relentlessly focused on its mission. And it’s working, so if you haven’t been paying attention, you should start now.

Photo by Photo by Nick Fewings (UnSplash).

I tested Google’s last attempt to remake Gmail (I think it was called Inbox) for about 10 minutes. It eliminated everything that is good about the “primary + multiple inboxes” approach and added nothing noteworthy instead. But this redesign? It’s a keeper.

For one thing, it builds on the existing design rather than try to make me rethink my inbox. For another, it has some great features that I’m just starting to explore.

Five reasons to use the new Gmail now.

No, this is not my inbox.

While there’s a lot to love, here’s my starter list:

• attachments are viewable inline
• view your calendar in Gmail
• use Task View and Keep (notes) right from Gmail
• delete or snooze emails
• confidential mode

I “star” far too many emails. Mostly I do this so that I can easily find the email from a client that has a crucial document or quickly go back and locate where, in a long line of emails, a signed contract is buried. The new Gmail makes much of that process obsolete with a default view that not only shows you which emails have attachments but what they are (the type of file and the first 13 characters of the file name). More important: you can click directly on a file without first opening the email.

Another big plus of this redesign is the ability to see other Google apps right from your inbox. I’ve had my calendar up all day, negating the need to constantly toggle back and forth between Gmail and Calendar tabs. You can also view tasks, notes, and even integrated outside apps (e.g., Trello). Similarly, it always stunned me that you could one-click archive an email but you couldn’t until now one-click delete one. And don’t snooze on snooze mode, which will let you remove an email temporarily out of your inbox until it’s needed. At that point, it will pop back up to the top of your inbox.

The new Gmail also has an AI feature that comes up with “smart replies.” Although I understand the value of a quick “thanks” response, I hope people use this new feature judiciously. A few extra words (aka, personalization) still matter — at least to me.

With this redesign, Google has done away with the need for a number of extensions and plug-ins. One example of this is confidential mode. According to the Gmail blog:

A new confidential mode allows you to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages—useful for when you have to send sensitive information via email like a tax return or your social security number. You can also make a message expire after a set period of time to help you stay in control of your information.

This is important, and having it baked into Gmail will help.

Here’s where to learn more about the new redesign. And here’s a Gmail cheat sheet.

You can start using the redesign now.

If you have a personal Gmail account, you can start using the new Gmail by clicking on settings and then on “try the new Gmail.”

If you have a Google apps (G Suite) account, there’s an extra step to get started. Assuming you are the administrator, you need to go into your administrative console. Once there, type into the console search bar, “Gmail Early Adopter Program.” (Trust me, it’s easiest this way.) Once you find it, click the option to become an early adopter. Shortly after that, the option to “try the new Gmail” should appear in your Gmail settings. Hey, it worked for me.

Give the Gmail redesign a try. I think you’ll like it too.

There’s a lot of noise. And the more LinkedIn sent me emails about faux work anniversaries and job changes that are typically just overdue profile updates, the more I tuned everything out. Until recently, pretty much the only content-focused action I took regularly on LinkedIn was to post a daily update — either my content or a curated article.

I mostly use the platform to identify prospective clients. But that’s me doing all the work (okay, it’s important to do since my business requires clients to survive) versus me having a system that draws people to me. We know that people are researching you before they ever talk to you. We also know that LinkedIn is populated with many of the people my business (and likely yours too) wants to meet. And LinkedIn can be a useful platform for content marketing.

You can have a LinkedIn content marketing strategy.

There are three major strategies to consider:

• LinkedIn Publisher
• native video
• long-form content

In my quest to get serious about LinkedIn content marketing in 2018, I’ve started to experiment with LinkedIn Publisher. Since I have so much content already (hello, blog!), it’s pretty ridiculous that I haven’t repurposed content more deliberately in the past. If you have relevant blog content, repurpose that. Or think about video or podcast content that you can transcribe and tweak. It’s all about showcasing your expertise (as of now, you can only publish on a profile page and not a company page). And don’t forget to share your content with your network via an update, with targeted connections using the “@” option, or via LinkedIn Messenger.

LinkedIn likes videos.

There are lots of reasons to use video, and you can always share tips, conduct an interview, or teach your audience something new. What makes LinkedIn video a little different is that you’re uploading the video directly — you don’t have to first post it on YouTube and then embed the link. According to Viveka von Rosen, who recently did a MarketingProfs webinar on LinkedIn content, video content is currently getting priority on LinkedIn. In other words, the algorithms like video so video will show up more.

Long-form updates are in vogue.

I saw something recently about how longer updates with no images were doing better right now on LinkedIn than shorter updates with images. Okay, this made no sense — but now I think I (sorta) get it.

Because I have primarily scheduled posts via Buffer, my strategy has been to find content and make sure there’s a visual attached to the update. But it sounds like LinkedIn might be trying to finally undue some of its Facebook-ish approach because LinkedIn now lets you share an update of up to 1,300 characters (~250-300 words). This enables you to tell a short story with a call to action to generate engagement (versus primarily posting links). Von Rosen advised adding any hyperlinks into the comments and not directly into the post. As I said, maybe LinkedIn’s figured out that Twitter’s got the news firehouse covered and Facebook’s posts are (ideally) all about friends.

I’m slowly trying to get more intentional about LinkedIn. And it’s definitely a work in progress. Meanwhile, if you need help developing a LinkedIn content marketing strategy, please let me know. You can always do as I say and not as I’m not yet entirely doing for myself.

Punch by Johnson Wang (Unsplash).