Social Media

Follow The Fear: Do Things That Scare You

I used to think that being afraid of everything was a weakness. Then I learned how to “follow the fear,” and use fear to my advantage. This is an annotated version of a talk I gave on the Bold Talks stage at Hubspot‘s INBOUND event. I published the essay that became the basis for this talk over at LinkedIN. But here, ima give you the slide deck. It more efficiently tells the story of why a “Bold Talk” pushed me out of my comfort zone. (Speaking publicly about content marketing is a piece of cake. Speaking publicly about myself? Not so much.) (Note: This might be best viewed in Full Screen mode. But maybe your eyes can handle it. Your call.) #FollowTheFear: Do Things That Scare You from Ann Handley Thanks to: Amy Gahran, for articulating so well the idea that your comfort zone is your dead zone, which I […]

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SXSW 2014 PanelPicker: This Election, Cast A Vote for Simple

Every fall, the SXSW PanelPicker process turns prospective speakers into something akin to politicians in election years. I’m allergic to asking for votes for anything, but in this case my friend Tim Washer and I had a little fun with the idea. Here is our smear campaign to promote our SXSW 2014 Interactive Festival proposal this year — which (incidentally!) is how to create compelling content. It’s called Hollywood Stories on a Boring Brand’s Budget. (See what we did there?) Please consider a vote for our 2014 SXSW panel here: http://bit.ly/sx2014story. (Note: You’ll have to register. Sorry about that.) I’m also participating… err, hopefully participating… in two other awesome sessions at SXSW Interactive: Beyond Social Media: Marketing in the Post-Ad Era with organizer Mark Schaefer and SXSW virgin Mitch Joel. Please cast a vote for us here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/25837 and Influence Marketing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with organizer

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JetBlue: When a Marketing Slogan Is More Than Marketing Slogan

Most commercial air travel experiences are exercises in endurance, not anticipation: “I suppose vacation will be fun, but I really can’t wait to spend 6 hours bouncing around in a cramped tin tube getting there!” said no one ever. I would feel this way even if I didn’t hate to fly with a passion, which I do. There’s simply too much out of a passenger’s control to make flying most commercial carriers anything to celebrate: Tightly packed with strangers who may (or may not) be a pleasure to sit close to; mechanical delays; weather issues… It was the latter that caused my flight from Chicago’s O’Hare to Boston to be delayed by two hours on a recent Friday night. Severe thunderstorms in the originating city had delayed our JetBlue plane, so it was late getting to O’Hare, which meant that it wasn’t where I expected it to be when I

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LinkedIn Influencer Posts: Content Catnip

This week, I published my first post on the LinkedIn Influencer blog series. It was a huge honor for me, since the influencers contributing original essays there are a select collection of some 400 entrepreneurs, authors, CEOs, mayors and at least one president sharing ideas, insights, prescriptions and philosophies on the business of work and, sometimes, simply life. (It was also an angsty honor: When elation at the invitation gives way to self-doubt, anxiety and a general What do I possibly have to add to that group? Then I slapped myself and snapped out of it.) LinkedIn launched the program this past fall as content catnip to attract more regular readership and interaction; an antidote to the occasional visits by those looking for new work or new clients. It thrills me to be a newbie to its series. But it also thrills me to see LinkedIn gaining ground as an interesting place to hang out. I’ve long held that

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‘My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter’: The Story and Content Lessons of the Best Pinterest Board Ever

This is the story of Quinoa, a small, trendy child who wears haute couture and a model’s aloof expression. It’s also the story of how a hilarious Pinterest board for a fake child blew up this week on the interwebs, growing its follower base more than 100-fold in 24 hours, from around 100 to almost 11,000 (at last count). First, the child: More than a legend in her own playroom, Quinoa is an icon in the fashion world who always has the perfectly accessorized outfit no matter her mood or activity: She wears a chevron maxi for a stroll through a field of wildflowers; an outdoorsy kilt and cloak for a damp stroll by a bog; and totes a spare “urban outfit” in her mother’s purse in the event they’re going to be around a lot of chain link fencing. Pleather crushes her tiny soul. So does the poverty, which

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#ContentTools: Effortless Storytelling from Disney’s New Story App

I love content creation tools that put wizard wands into the hands of Muggles. Instagram did this for photos, allowing mere mortals like me to create and share photos that were beautiful and expressive. Vine allows us to elegantly create short, 6-second videos through an intuitive interface. Takes is another neat mobile tool I particularly love for the way it effortlessly creates video by capturing the context around still photos. And now Disney has created a branded tool called Story that allows any of us (well, anyone with an iPhone) to effortlessly tell and share annotated narratives. Think of it like creating a mini scrapbook with a pulse. What it does: Story allows you to organize new or existing photos and videos from your iPhone into sharable digital flip books. You can also add captions, text, and play with various themes and layouts. (But no filters. Guessing that’ll come later.)

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Ann Handley is not impressed. (The back story.)

Dani Hagen had the idea late last week to create a MarketingProfs version of the Olympic-inspired meme, “McKayla is not impressed.” Because I live under a rock, apparently, I had only a vague notion of what Dani was referring to. It turns out that she was referring to US gymnist McKayla Maroney’s sour expression after settling for a silver medal in the women’s vault final, which promptly birthed the Tumblr that transported the 16-year-old’s hilariously sour face to places far away from London. Like the Sistine Chapel. Into an Andy Warhol painting. And what not.

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A Message from My Marketing World… I’m Writing a Book!

I’m interrupting this personal blog to bring you a message from my business world: I’m writing a book! Planned for early December release, Content Rules is a how-to guide to creating compelling content for the Web. The talented and fun CC Chapman is co-author (David Meerman Scott is writing the foreword), and together we’ll answer questions like, How can you create so-called bold stories and videos and blog posts that will inspire people? How do you develop ideas that will arouse passion for your products or services? How can you cultivate fans? How can your ideas ignite your business? Any organization with a website is a publisher, right? So Content Rules applies to organizations of all sizes and stripes, whether you are a Fortune 500 corporation or a mom-and-pop on the corner, or anything in between: hospital, entrepreneur, nonprofit, sole practitioner or consultant, artist, government agency, church, school, political candidate,

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