Aviva Rabinovici

Simple ways to add value to your writing

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Information becomes content when it adds value to the customer experience. The best way to do this? Show – don’t tell. As a leader in your field, the best way to create valuable content is to showcase your talents, proprietary knowledge or expertise. Here are a few ways to do that:

1)      Offer insight

Sure, that report laden with raw data makes sense to you, but chances are it’s just a bunch of numbers to your clients. Offering context, and explaining why the data is important to your clients’ business, is a great way to illustrate the value of your expertise.

2)      Boil it down

Sometimes the most valuable content is that which breaks down a complicated topic into laymen’s terms. We’re not talking about “dumbing it down” – we’re talking about writing for your audience. Not only does this help your clients better understand the topic at hand, but it shows that you’re approachable and you know what you’re talking about.

3)      Pick a side

If you have an opinion about an industry-related topic, don’t be afraid to share it with your audience. The most share-worthy content is that which evokes some sort of emotion. If clients (or potential clients) agree with you, they’ll appreciate an article that articulates their thoughts. If they disagree, they might be motivated to leave a comment and start a discussion. Basically, as long as your opinion is factually based, you really can’t lose.

Want to learn more content-generating tips? Download our free report, Feeding the Content Beast.

Aviva Rabinovici

You’ve already found your next blog post

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When it comes to generating new content, many businesses tend to reinvent the wheel rather than work with what they already have. Chances are, if you’ve been writing content for a while, your next blog post is already written. Here are a few places you can find it:

1. Old content

The best place to find new content is by reading through content you’ve already written. Particularly popular posts are a good place to start. Try exploring a different angle or updating outdated information.

2. Larger materials

A whitepaper doesn’t only have one purpose. Break it down into smaller chunks, pull out some interesting statistics, grab a quote or two and you have enough blog posts, newsletter articles, tweets and Facebook updates to last you for a while. An added bonus? All that material can link back to the original whitepaper.

3. The stockpile

If you have time to sit down to write a blog post, try to write a second one with a longer shelf life. Building a content reserve can come in handy – and save you when you just can’t find a decent story idea. If you’re not that organized, however, the comments of previous blog posts are also a great place to find ideas.

Want to find out more? Download our free report, Feeding the Content Beast.

Michael Rabinovici

Why Content Marketing Matters More Than Ever

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An excellent article in Fast Company by LinkedIn’s Jonathan Lister discusses why your content marketing strategy will ultimately decide whether or not customers will do business with you.
Some highlights:

Research shows consumers are 60% through the buyer’s journey before reaching out to brands for help on available options

There are a myriad of ways to gain greater understanding of your audience, but there’s no better barometer than the conversations you hear on the platforms where you have a constant stream of information.

Read the full article here – http://bit.ly/why-content-marketing-matters

Michael Rabinovici

Content Marketing – Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends for 2012

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Content marketing is gaining an increasingly important role for B2B marketers, and in companies’ overall marketing strategies .  Below you will find a link to the 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends survey put together by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

For purposes of the research, the survey defined content marketing as follows: “Content marketing/custom media (sometimes called custom publishing, custom content, or branded content) is the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or retain customers.”
Here are some highlights:

• On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.

• 60% report that they plan to increase their spend on content marketing over the next 12 months.

• Marketers, on average, spend over a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing.

Industries with the highest rates of content marketing adoption:

• Professional Services………………………………..94%

• Computing/Software…………………………………93%

• Advertising/Marketing………………………………89%

• Healthcare……………………………………………………….89%

• Business Services……………………………………….84%

• Manufacturing/Processing…………………….83%

For a free copy if the report – Click Here

How is your company leveraging content marketing?  What results are you experiencing?  Leave a comment below or email me at michael at ar-com.com

 

 

 

Michael Rabinovici

Your Company Sucks

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Just kidding. You know we love our clients. But someone, somewhere on the vast network we call the Internet, may be saying this about your company.  The better known your brand and your products, the greater the chance that someone is taking a pot shot at you.  The issue is not whether the criticism is justified but how quickly you find out about, and respond to, it.  The difference in finding out within hours as opposed to days or weeks can be measured in millions of dollars and, once in a while, can even become a matter of survival.

If your company was “slammed” for no good reason, you can set the record straight.  If the criticism is justified, you can fix it quickly and win points for your lightening-speed response and exemplary customer service — a perfect opportunity to make lemonade from the lemons you’ve been handed.

So how do we find out as soon as possible? By using a set of tools readily available online. We’ve covered some of these before, but they are worth mentioning again:

1. Google Alerts — http://www.google.com/alerts.  A content monitoring service, offered by the search engine company Google, that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups matches a set of search terms selected by the user.  The service is free with a Google account and is easy to set up.  The key is to set up alerts for numerous terms, including product names, as well as those of key executives.  I would even go as far as to suggest that one of your alert terms should be “your company name sucks”.  Most of our clients have been using Google Alerts for a while and we are working with them to gain even better leverage with this tool.

With Twitter growing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis, you absolutely have to monitor conversation in the Twitterverse.  Recent stats tell us that users currently generate 2 billion (that’s a “B”) per month.

I previously recommended in this space Tweet Beep (www.tweetbeep.com) which enables anyone to receive alerts by email whenever a specific word or phrase is tweeted on Twitter.  Here are a couple of other options for Twitter:

2.  Tweet Alarm – http://www.tweetalarm.com/

3.  Tweet Alerts – http://www.twitteralerts.net/.  With this service, you have a number of options when it comes to notifications, including SMS.

To see the effectiveness of Twitter as a customer response and service tool, Comcast is the classic example. Read the these stories and you’ll become a believer:

Savvy online service can win back customers – http://bit.ly/apZlyP

My @ComcastCares Customer Service Story – http://bit.ly/dqx3L7

Michael Rabinovici

LinkedIn- You’ve come a long way baby!

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Founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman, and launched in 2003, LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) has become the dominant Web-based professional networking platform.  I’ve been using it and have encouraged clients to do so for some time now.  As good as LinkedIn is, it did stumble somewhat by not embracing social media tools and networks fast enough.

This all changed over the last year or so with the integration of a number of social media capabilities into the LinkedIn platform.  In my view, these are the most important ones:

1.  Twitter (www.twitter.com) – you can now have your Twitter feed automatically appear in your LinkedIn profile as soon as you’ve tweeted

2. Blogging – your blog posts now also get uploaded onto your profile right after they are posted on your blog (this feature is available for a number of blogging platforms, including WordPress and TypePad)

3. Slideshare (www.slideshare.net) – any voice-enabled PowerPoint presentations you’ve uploaded to to SildeShare now appear in your profile as well

These changes are important for a number of reasons.  First, they expose more of your brand and content to your LinkedIn professional network.  These contacts can now see your tweets and blog posts without having to go elsewhere.  Second, they save you a ton of time in that you no longer have to update your LinkedIn profile with content you’ve created elsewhere. Last, by making sure it embraces social media, LinkedIn is taking steps to stay relevant and, in the process, protect the myriad of hours its members have spent in building their profiles and extending their networks.

Michael Rabinovici

Did Social Media Determine Fate of US Healthcare Reform?

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By all appearances that is exactly what happened.  Scott Brown’s upset, come from behind, win in the Massachusetts Senate race now represents the 41st vote in the Senate, breaking the Democrats filibuster-proof majority in Washington.  In another word passage of President Obama’s healthcare reform legislation is now very much in doubt.

When you dig a little (which we did) you’ll find not only that a Canadian orchestrate the victory but he utilized social media tools to pull off what some referred to as one of the biggest political upset in recent memory.   Whether you support or oppose healthcare reform in the US, the lesson is that social media marketing, properly leveraged, can significantly affect the outcome of a political race or, for that matter, the success of you company

For a good article on this check today’s National Post here or go to – http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2493174

Aviva Rabinovici

New Web & Social Media Marketing Guidlines created by the CBA

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The Canadian Bar Association has issued new guidelines on Web & Social Media Marketing.  These were created in response to an influx of questions from lawyers looking to ensure their marketing initiatives were onside with existing regulations.

Read Robert Todd’s article in the Law Times, where AR Communications’  Michael Rabinovici is quoted here, or go to http://www.lawtimesnews.com/200910195631/Headline-News/CBA-offers-tips-on-legal-Tweeting.