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 […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
‘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 […]
#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 […]
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 […]
‘Content Rules’: Now in Paperback… With Pictures!
MmmmmMmmmmm… That new-book smell is now wafting throughout the place.
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 […]