Today begins a week-long look at Content Jam, starting with my keynote and ending on Thursday with analytics. Each post will run at noon CT this week and is written by a member of our team. So uncap your highlighters, open your moleskins, and get ready to take some notes.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the sheer pleasure to keynote Content Jam, a conference about, well, content, put on by Orbit Media, StoryStudio, and Mightybytes.
My topic? The future of content marketing.
But before we go there, there are a few things to consider.
As it turns out, content marketing is not new. We all know cave men took to drawings to communicate. Because of that, the earliest examples of content marketing were in 4,200 BC.
Skip ahead a few thousand years and, in 1895, John Deere launched their first customer magazine called, The Furrow.
In the early 1900s, Sears, P&G, Jello, and Michelin joined the content game and, from there, it grew.
In 2007, seven out of 10 publications on U.K. newsstands were corporately-produced. Seventy percent.
Today, of course, we have Chief Content Officer magazine, conferences such as Content Jam and Content Marketing World, and new jobs being created for those who have figured out how to create content in a compelling and interesting way.
While content has the “king” title right now, there is a lot we can learn about how it’s done from a gazillion years ago, but also what we can expect in the future.
As I see it, there are four things to think about for your communications plans next year: Visionary content, brand journalism, sponsored content and native advertising, and employee and customer stories.
These are just four examples of how to use these trends next year. I certainly don’t recommend you try to do all four in one year, but to choose one and execute it flawlessly.
To help you decide which one to choose and how to implement it, I am going to do a redux of my Content Jam keynote on November 14 at noon ET.
It’s free and you can come and heckle me, just like they did live a couple of weeks ago.
All you have to do is register here (click the blue ” Free-purchase” button; you won’t be charged) and then click “checkout.” After you do that, you will receive an email that asks you to register with Meeting Burner.
If you do not do that second step, you will not receive a reminder, it won’t be automatically added to your calendar, and you won’t receive a copy of the video, once it’s complete. So don’t forget to do it!
But, for now, let’s chat about what you think is the future of content marketing. Perhaps I’ll even include your ideas in the webinar!
The drawing used above was created by Lin Wilson during my presentation.
Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.