Author Archives: DJ Francis
DJ Francis | Critical Mass Chicago
“Content strategy is brand new and we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”
This was the seminal quote from†the Web Content 2010 conference held a few weeks ago here in Chicago. People (read: clients and bosses) are giving our work credence, despite an ever-evolving struggle to plan for, create, monitor, and evaluate online content.
This sentiment gives voice to both a frustration and excitement surrounding content strategy.†And thus practitioners of library sciences, taxonomies, copywriting, sociology, psychology, and content strategy, itself, came together – to learn, commiserate, and plot a way forward for our burgeoning profession.
Smart Folks, Smart Lessons
Learning was central as it should be, with insightful presentations by content strategy notables like Kristina Halvorson, Rachel Lovinger, and Jeff MacIntyre. A few of the lessons that impacted me and the work we do at Critical Mass included:
- A content strategy methodology is beginning to firm up. Whether you call it “Plan, Create, Govern” or “Audit, Plan, Build, Grow” or another variation, the building blocks of content strategy are starting to become almost universal (pointing to the maturation of the practice).
- Content governance is a huge missing piece, especially for agencies. While it’s getting easier to sell the planning and creation elements, content maintenance seems to still be getting short shrift.
- There is a great opportunity to bring in younger content strategists. Spending my 32nd birthday at the first day of the conference, I was one of the youngest attendees and most certainly the youngest full-time content strategist. It will be interesting to watch an influx of Millennials†during the next few years who come naturally to social media channels and distributed content, but perhaps lack the “publishing” experience brought by the Boomers (and the potential sweet-spot offered to Gen Xers).
Despite those learnings and many more (I will be referencing the materials shared at this conference for a long time to come), I was struck by the perfect blend of vexation and opportunity, to get back to Pulizzi’s quote.
A Time of Huge Opportunity (And What To Do With It)
We are at an amazing cross-roads where our audience is receptive to our message. Now is the time to be selling.
Conferences like this offer the opportunity to commiserate, but I thought speakers and participants at Web Content 2010 were wise to acknowledge this sentiment, but quickly get back to the business at hand (namely: growing our businesses).
DJ Francis | Critical Mass Chicago
There are a slew of books out there and sometimes the good ones slip under the radar. I’d like to highlight a few of the ones you can’t miss.
Neuro Web Design by Dr. Susan Weinschenk
With over 25 years of psychology experience, Dr. Weinschenk brings not only a fresh point-of-view, but an expertise few other marketing-minded folks can boast.
Don’t let the title fool you; this isn’t just a book for designers. Anyone seeking to persuade online – and that’s you, right? – needs to check out this book.
By explaining top research in her field, Weinschenk allows brain science to fortify marketing theories like the paradox of choice.
[Based on conscious thought, unconscious thought, and immediate decision conditions:] “It seems that if we make our choice unconsciously, without conscious processing, then we stick with it over time. If we spend more time and logically analyze why we’re choosing what we’re choosing, we’re less satisfied over time with our choices.”
And this is just one example of many. Expect to see more experts like Dr. Weinschenk lending their experience to online marketing. As a never-before-seen arena in which sociology, psychology, anthropology, business and economics all intermingle, the online channel encourages experts from other fields to posit their knowledge for the benefit of marketers. Thank goodness for that.
(If you’re still not sure, check out this 5 minute version of the book provided by the author.)
Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
Switch is the least “under the radar” book on this list, but it’s definitely not getting the attention it deserves. Their previous book, Made To Stick, is a tad better – and arguably more business-focused – but the lessons in Switch are essential for smart marketers.
Switch is about how to make change when change is difficult (when is it not?) and there are dozens of researched lessons. But, the thing I appreciate the most is their positivity. When we try to create change, we’re often disappointed and frustrated, right?
But change isn’t difficult because everyone else is stubborn or stupid. The Heaths’ instructions can avoid frustration for both the reader and the subject. Their tactics are empowering for both:
“[T]here are two routes to building people’s confidence so that they feel ‘big’ relative to their challenge. You can shrink the change or grow your people (or, preferably, both).”
Simple. Logical. Focused. It will make you consider all the ways you can create change in your own life. (And give you the tools to actually do it.)
Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy is the original bruiser.
Like It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden, I read this book about once a year to keep my mental blades sharp. Each book contains so much universal knowledge that – while perfect for marketing folks – almost anyone can pull useful reams from these tomes.
The thing I appreciate most about Ogilvy is his lack of pretension. We’ve all met the designer who thought they were Picasso. The copywriter who tried to be Hemingway. Agency employees who care more about art than selling.
Not Ogilvy. He sheds (nay, shreds) any misconceptions about our business and gets right to the truth, no matter how brutal.
His first rule is “We sell – or else.” And his other directives are just as timeless.
Benefits over features. Learn about your “consumer” by looking at those closest to you. Use research but don’t forget your gut. And be prepared to forget your gut if there’s contrary research.
Ogilvy belongs to a group of unabashed and unashamed marketers – those who are good at what they do and make no apologies for it. If you’re smart and serious about your marketing career, you will want to join that league.
Conclusion
The thing that connects these books is their lessons of persuasion. And if you’re a marketer – and it’s likely we’re all marketers reading this – you must be able to persuade.
These are books I recommend, but don’t see enough people reading. I would love to hear your reviews of any one of these books. Or recommend another books that can benefit other marketers.
DJ is a Sr. Content Analyst in our Chicago office.
Inspiration often comes from strange places.
†Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, author Scott McCloud examines how we receive different types of information and that process relates directly to design, information architecture, copywriting and content strategy.
Image compliments of Scott McCloud.
“Pictures are received information. We need no formal education to ‘get the message.’ The message is instantaneous.
Writing is perceived information. It takes time and specialized knowledge to decode the abstract symbols of language.” (page 49)
Anyone who’s ever sat through a client review will understand this. It’s not that images or art are less important; in fact, it’s the art that usually solicits “ohhs” and “ahhs” from the clients, right?
McCloud is speaking more about our intrinsic speed of understanding. We get a feeling from a picture right away.
But we need to process words – to piece together abstract ideas. With words, it’s incumbent that we create the images ourselves, in our own consciousness; we ponder meaning, ideas and symbols. Anyone who has read Roland Barthes’ Mythologies knows that this process ain’t easy.
What’s This Got To Do With Agency Life?
Comics and literary theory? Why should marketers care?
In the same way that images are understood before words in the human brain, so too has the planning and creative process developed in marketing agencies. The halcyon days of 1997 were critical for information architecture. IAs became a staple of the creative agency, a bridge between the client’s objectives and the designer’s creative vision.
The same thing didn’t happen for words. It was easy to understand why you’d want to plot out images. But it took another decade for us to plot out what was written on the page and why. (True, maybe astute IAs and copywriters filled this role until content strategy bloomed in recent years.)
So what’s changed? Well, SEO (based on keyWORDS) has blossomed into the main way we find content online. Search engines are ever more refining the way they surface the most relevant content. Our tastes have matured: the internet is no longer the shiny new object – it helps us complete tasks in everyday life. We now use many, many channels to access information and communicate with brands. Findable, useful, contextual, and consistent across channels…online content is more important to our lives than ever before!
It then makes sense that content strategy – a plan for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable, relevant content – would guide many important choices we make as digital marketers.
Toyota reminds me of a guy who buys flood insurance the day after the big rain.
In a recent post on my personal blog, I proposed that an effective ethical strategy required speaking to the emotions of your audience. Watching this car maker’s mounting mistakes and the continuing ethical violations still coming to light, I’m reminded about one of the keys to a successful crisis management strategy:
Crisis management begins before the crisis.
In January (the same month the Toyota debacle really hit the fan, incidentally), clothing retailer H&M was hit with a story claiming that their employees were slashing up clothes before they were discarded. While some brand protection can be understood by some, it looked dastardly in the midst of a recession.
H&M responded to the hubbub immediately, issuing a 5-tweet salvo that concisely stated their case: They gave their brand statement, contact information, a promise to resolve the problem, and a link to a robust corporate social responsibility page. (Here is a history of the incident and the Twitter effect.)
You’d be forgiven if you missed this story. At the time, H&M’s 30K Twitter followers got out the message, mostly defended the brand (or at least stopped disparaging it), and pretty much quashed the story. Compare this to Toyota’s handling of their ethical crisis.
Toyota Goes The Old Route: Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
Toyota spent a lot of money on ads in newspapers (yes, they still exist) and on television. They had very few Twitter followers. They have no blog that I know of (and certainly not one I heard about developed after the story broke).
No customer communication channels. No tools for dialogue. No presence in a community where fans could defend them.
Consider Joseph Jaffe’s admonition of Toyota:
“Toyota did not have a direct line…with their customers, with their advocates, with their loyalists, with their influencers. They weren’t able to go to their community and say, ‘Help us, we need your help, we need your advice…’
You can’t expect to miraculously turn to your customers if you haven’t been building up that relationship with them in advance… You’ve got to anticipate this stuff because it’s going to happen.”
Originally posted at iMedia Connection on Jan. 6, 2010
I’m proud of Critical Mass’ standard of always seeking the extraordinary. So you can imagine my self-disappointment when I sat down to write another “top 10 predictions for the new year” post…it felt decidedly un-extraordinary.
So, forget about 2010. Let’s talk big. REALLY big.
Here are 10 predictions for the next decade. That’s right, the whole darn decade.
Sure, it’s a little linkbait-y, but this is a fun way to start the new year and could ignite some great conversation. What will happen? And how will you succeed in this new decade?
1) Content Strategy Becomes the New Information Architecture: You’ve probably heard the saying, “Information architecture is to design what content strategy is to copy.” And it’s true, except that content strategy lags about 5-10 years behind IA as an agency deliverable. Expect clients to demand content strategy and hence agencies to staff up with folks who understand that the content on a site is as much a science as it is an art.
2) Marketing Sciences Get Sexy: Forget impressions, views, and hits. These dinosaurs are extinct and today’s darlings (the all-too-vague visitors and clicks to name two) will likely follow them into the ether. Web metrics will get a hell of a lot sexier than bounce rate — expect more about engagement, behavior, real customer insights. And as web metrics become more robust, the interpreters of this information — marketing scientists — will become the oracles of the office. Their challenge will be to not only wrestle this data into a story we can understand, but also to make info about past behavior predictive (or prescriptive) for future behavior. (Expect to see offerings like this proliferate.)
3) Google De-throned As Search King: As Google continues to diversify – phones, browsers, tons of acquisitions, etc. — the amount of time they can focus on perfecting search falls. All this while competitors lick their chops. In ’09, Microsoft’s Bing brought a reasonable alternative to the fore with great ads and some innovative changes, especially for video searches. And with Wolfram Alpha and possibly others in the wings, it’s likely the king of search will end this next decade looking around for all that lost market share.
It’s a beer foam blocker. A soup strainer. The manliest of face fungi. Now, the mustache is something else – it’s a potent fundraising tool.
CMers in Chicago, London and Toronto are participating in Movember – a month-long celebration of the mustache, which also serves to highlight and raise money for men’s health issues.
We’re showing our commitment by growing mustaches during Movember, the month formerly known as November. It’s a commitment to men’s health, solidarity, and, frankly, awesomeness.
It seems silly, but the cause is serious. 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-35. If you are a dude, or know or love a dude, it’s likely your life could be affected.
CMers have collectively raised over $15,000 during the last two Movembers and we are excited to participate for a third year.
But we need your help. We’re raising money through Movember for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. And we’d like you to donate to our cause.
Donate online with your credit card or Paypal account. You can donate generally to a team, or to the individual you think best represents the Movember spirit.
Give to a team in these CM cities:
Chicago
London
Toronto
Or donate to an individual CMer. Here’s why some of us chose to grow a ‘stache this Movember:
Tim: For the third consecutive Movember I’m archiving my facial hair growth patterns in hopes of finding secrets of the universe. (Donate to Tim.)
Rob: I have two reasons for doing this. The charity is very worthwhile while being incredibly easy to do with social media. Second, my wife actually thinks the moustache is hot because she grew up in the middle of rural Ohio and is, sadly, damaged by the experience. (Donate to Rob.)
Greg: Recently shaved my hair down short. How to best accent my new look? Shaved head + Fat ‘stache = BADASS. And, cancer runs in my family, so I wanted to do some good. Suck it, Cancer. (Donate to Greg.)
DJ: Cancer runs in my family, so I wanted to give back using one of my best skills: being able to grow a luxurious, testosterone-soaked handlebar mustache. Dig it. (Donate to DJ.)
Sabrina: What better way to build awareness then to see a city full of ‘stache and a donation page full of cash? (Donate to Sabrina.)
Johnathan: Cancer in any shape or form is an emotional and physically taxing thing to deal with, and being part of a potential solution is what motivates me to help. Plus, I’ve always wanted to look like a pirate (even though my mustache takes forever to grow). (Donate to Johnathan.)
Jason: I feel like I should be wearing a Vote for Pedro shirt, due to the adolescent nature of my current moustache. It is an embarrassment I wear with pride, knowing it pales in comparison to what my Dad endured as he (successfully) fought off prostate cancer a few years ago. This is such a great cause, and growing a moustache in this day and age is a REAL conversation starter. Please donate to Prostate Cancer Research, and if you’re so inclined use this link. (Donate to Jason.)
Richard: Growing a mustache is something of an austerity, but nothing compared to the ordeal of having to endure something as painful as prostate cancer. I wouldn’t really know how that feels, and hopefully never will, but with the odds at 1 in 6 I figured I’d join in the effort to try and find a cure. (Donate to Richard.)
Jarrod: I’m wearing this dead squirrel on my lip to support my Dad who suffers daily because of this indiscriminate blight. Please donate what you can to Cancer Research. (Donate to Jarrod.)
Critical Mass is all about compelling user experiences. And what experience isn’t accentuated by a thick mass of man-fuzz across the upper-lip?
Even the anti-mustachio crowd can get involved, donating on behalf of our poor significant others who tolerate our hairy smooches during the month. Let’s face it: there’s no excuse not to get involved.
Please show your support this Movember. Thanks!
