Tech

Stories on the tech industry, content marketing and online sales enablement

Jun 182014
 
Living in the Age of DDoS

The Internet has never been a more dangerous place to do business, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are the main reason why. That’s according to recent research published by two players in the online security space, Arbor Networks and VeriSign. Arbor Networks calls the past 18 months the “hockey stick era” for DDoS […]

May 312014
 
Meeker Charts the Internet, 2014 Edition

Mary Meeker is a name familiar to anyone who has charted the rise of the Internet from the 1990’s on. Back then she was an analyst at Morgan Stanley and made her reputation by seeing early the transformative potential of the Internet explosion, while avoiding the overly frothy (and occasionally illegal) boosterism of other analyts. […]

May 162014
 
2014 Federal Media and Marketing Study

For years clients of mine have leveraged reports from the research firm Market Connections. For the past six years the firm has hosted an event to announce their latest federal media and marketing study. My former agency Strategic Communications was a sponsor of the 2011 event, during which research was released highlighting increased social media […]

May 112014
 
Singing the Brand Journalism Song

I’ve written frequently about brand journalism for a few years now on this site. But I’ve never written a song about it. That’s what healthcare PR and marketing firm MediaSource did recently. Agency president Lisa Arledge Powell gave a presentation on content marketing in healthcare at a PRSA event that included the “Brand Journalizer” song. […]

Apr 152014
 
Understanding Your Content Marketing Mix

Recently I read an excellent piece on content marketing from Jeremiah Owyang. It talks about understanding the different types of content that make up a comprehensive content marketing effort. I’ve found this kind of segmentation increasingly useful as clients become more sophisticated in their content marketing programs. Firstly, it’s helpful because despite its increasing popularity […]

Apr 092014
 
New Report -- "Random Acts of Content Marketing" Won't Cut It

Forrester Research is out with a new report on content marketing. It’s titled “Build Your Content Brand By Delivering Customer Value” and its lead author is analyst Ryan Skinner. The report is $500 to download, and thanks to Michael Skinner’s excellent B2B Marketing Insider blog I can share some highlights. The report concludes that one […]

Mar 282014
 
Content Marketing Research Numbers

eMarketer pulled together this week some content marketing research and made it available via a new report. The report was sponsored by Contently, which bills itself as “the largest network of freelance professional journalists.” So they’re the brand journalism people, though they don’t use that exact term. Here’s the link to download the report. If […]

Mar 082014
 
How Bad is Federal Employee Morale?

Fifty percent of federal workers are considering leaving for the private sector due to pay freezes, political gridlock and better pay. That’s one of the findings from a recent poll conducted by research firm Market Connections and FierceGovIT. Many of these percentages are startling. The coming tsunami of senior level retirements in government has been […]

Feb 142014
 
Content Marketing for Public Affairs

Most of my clients engage in content marketing efforts designed to increase revenue. Over the past five years we’ve established a proven methodology for making that happen. But increased sales is not the only outcome content marketing can support. Content marketing engagements can also pursue public affairs goals. A good example is a campaign being […]

Feb 062014
 
Social Media Giants Becoming More Media, Less Social

Social media giants like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are not really social any longer, but they are the modern equivalent of the old network broadcasting system. That’s the verdict of an excellent article from Jay Baer at Convince and Convert. These companies used interaction and community to grow to massive scale. Now they are monetizing […]

Jan 302014
 
The Demands of a Quality Content Marketing Program

Success in an agency environment requires a constant balancing act. You want your client to view you as a full member of their team, ready to go to any lengths to get results. At the same time you need to stay in business, which requires matching the time and attention given to each account with […]

Jan 212014
 
Validating Great Content

Any discussion of content marketing will talk about the importance of great content. That is the foundation on which a content marketing campaign is built. If you and your client aren’t putting out great stuff, the campaign won’t be successful. High quality, consistent content development isn’t easy. Usually you’re busy, the client is busy and […]