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One day last week I had two very different meetings back to back, one with a company that wanted to use newsjacking, another with a focus on long-form content. It was fine. Each knows where their particular strengths lie. One reason – not the only one – is that the first company is an agile [...]
Read MoreHave you got permission to quote sources in your content marketing? The brand journalists among you (with emphasis on the journalist) might consider that a redundant question. You interview someone – in person, over the phone or on camera – and then use some of what they tell you. Or choose not to. But this [...]
Read MoreThere is a perception that content from brands is inferior to the quality produced by the media. Of course, we regularly consume poor-quality media and great brand content but I don’t think we’re sticking our neck out making that generalisation, even if times are changing. One area where brand content sometimes lacks the kind of [...]
Read MoreMost of us, whether in journalism or marketing, probably have the same reaction to that question – No. Perhaps that’s because we don’t expect the areas where content is growing most strongly – in content marketing, driven by brands – to be associated with breaking news. Or maybe it is simply not to be trusted, [...]
Read MoreDo you know what kind of content will drive your business? Collective Content (UK), since we set up almost 18 months ago (does that now make us ancient in content marketing terms?), has always been about content strategy. But which strategy? We know how to work with what you already have, decide on those you [...]
Read MoreOK, it’s not perfect. And OK, it might not be our favourite all the time. But this chart tends to get used by us again and again. We don’t care that it is a variation on many a marketing slide or that it promotes Eloqua/Oracle – credit where credit is due. What’s most important about [...]
Read MoreDoes sponsored content have a labeling problem?, asked Digiday’s Josh Sternberg yesterday. No Josh, it simply has a quality problem. Content marketing in general and perhaps particularly native advertising, a sub-set of content marketing that is being used increasingly by traditional online publishers as well as Facebook and Twitter, is getting some stick for supposedly [...]
Read MoreDid we just see the backlash against native advertising – perhaps against content marketing more generally – begin? Collective Content often complains that no one calls out all those bad examples of content marketing. We say this as a content marketing agency because bad work doesn’t help anyone and a culture of mutual backslapping isn’t [...]
Read MoreSemi-colons are fine for long lists, computer programmers and Mark Twain. While we have a lot of love for the latter two of those three, what we really mean is avoid them if possible. Why? In short, they’re messy. They’re great for certain novelists and poets – oh the poetry! – and students of English [...]
Read MoreOne of the first components of any content strategy is a look backwards. Which for one thing is counterintuitive because strategy always involves some planning and planning is about the future. But this look into the past is vital. Why? Because before companies start to create and curate they should know what they already have. [...]
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