Content Strategy

The cornerstone of effective content marketing is developing a rock-solid content strategy.

Here are some posts to help you create yours:

5 Guiding Principles of a Website Launch

Amid the controlled chaos of a successful web launch are a handful of guiding principles that keep the vision on track, the content on point, and the project on time. As the dust begins to settle from the recently launched website for Associations Now, we revisit the strategic framework guiding the launch of associationsnow.com and […]

5 Ways to Create More Content Without Creating More Work

A lot can happen in a minute. Consider this: every minute, 571 new websites are created; YouTube users upload 48 hours of video; Google receives more than 2 million search inquiries; more than 100,000 Tweets are sent; and Tumblr, the online blogging service, publishes 27,778 new posts. Social media and mobile and digital publishing have […]

Election by Design: 6 Examples of Print Coverage

The content business can be pretty scattershot. One minute you’re brainstorming art for a long-form science feature, and the next you’re creating a blog post about the top 10 diet tips of 2012. Sometimes, though, an event is big enough that it keeps coming up. It unites your work even as it divides hardcore political […]

Good Ads are Content in Disguise

Be useful. Be interesting. Or be ignored. This is the three sentence survival guide for anyone who wants to earn attention and ultimately, influence action. Recently, Science World in Vancouver took the three sentence survival guide to heart with this clever ad campaign that does its selling by telling.

Q-and-A with Kim Caviness: How to Redesign a Magazine

We just celebrated the big 3-1 here at TMG. Since Day One, we’ve been helping our clients dream up, build, and share their custom magazines, a business that has evolved to now include digital media and video. Everything about content is changing fast, and we’ve been keeping pace. Most recently, we worked with our client […]

You Can’t Cram For Community Development

cramming for a test works, cramming for community development does not

Some of the less-than-wild late nights I had in college were spent in all-night study sessions the night before a big exam, drinking coffee by the pot and furiously trying to memorize everything I should have learned in the semester prior in one last-ditch attempt. While the tactics were questionable, the results were mixed. I […]

It’s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Wins a Content Marketing Award

Note: This is the first in a series of posts about ASAE Gold Circle Award winners. But please, hold your applause until the end of the series! Applause, accolades, awards. Esteem is the second highest tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of basic human needs. Whether we admit it or not, this is a craving we […]

Free vs. Paid: Will Your Members Still Love You?

When we’re talking about using social media as part of a content strategy, we are talking about having free content out there. One of the first questions an association might ask is: Does giving away free content lessen the value of membership in the association?

5 Things I Learned About Journalism (That They Don’t Teach You in School)

Journalism schools are scary places nowadays. They continue to teach bright, eager students to produce quality content, but sometimes, we’re not sure why. After all, prospects are supposed to be gloomy, right? Professional journalism is dying, slowly replaced by Joe Schmoe and his fantastic Blog of Random Thoughts – and no one really knows what […]

10 Stats That Prove the Value of SEO

Search engines are a massive opportunity for growing traffic to your site or blog. Taking advantage of this is as easy as saying S-E-O. As corny as that may have sounded, optimizing your blog posts or pages on your site for search engines can have enormous benefits for the visibility of your company. If your […]

Express Yourself: 6 Ways to Get Creative with Facebook Cover Photos

First impressions are lasting. So naturally it’s important to make a good one. What does this have to do with Facebook? Well, a lot actually. When your followers land on your page, the first thing they notice is your cover photo. According to this study by EyeTrack Shop, visitors spend more time focusing on the […]

8 London 2012 Olympic Twitter Moments You Might Have Missed

It’s an American tradition. Every four years, we sit for two weeks in front of the TV and soak in as much Olympic energy as we can get. Conan O’Brien even joked, “Olympics can inspire American kids to get active. Or it can inspire American kids to sit on the couch and watch the Olympics.” […]

Is Your Brand a People Person?

Remember the scene from the 1999 movie Office Space when the two consultants interview employees at the fictional software firm Initech ahead of companywide layoffs? “What would ya say you do here?” asks one of the consultants. “I have people skills. I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that?!” replies an emotional […]

If It Ain’t Broke: Why Changing a Logo Is a Bigger Deal Than You Might Think

With the new innovations in modern technology and social networking, it’s a no-brainer for brands to adapt and change with regards to their advertising and outreach efforts. So, changing with the times is good, right? What about when it concerns a company’s name or logo?

Curing Your Pinterest Hangover: 6 Steps For Conducting A Pinterest Audit

I fell in love with Pinterest from the moment I first saw it. And, according to industry response and the spike in user growth I wasn’t the only one. We eagerly responded to this visually intoxicating social platform and went Pin crazy. We pinned anything and everything we found and liked. And in the process we […]

What Millennials Want From Your Brand: 5 Insider Secrets

A lady never reveals her age, but I will for the purposes of this post. Hello, my name is Anuli and I am 21 years old (or, young-however you want to see it). Marketers categorize me as a Millennial — one of the approximately 79 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 34. The […]

3 Things a Good Web Journalist Needs to Do Post-Wheaties

Every morning starts with you spooning your laptop like a lovesick, needy fool. If this is you (and you aren’t a video game junkie or a technophile with a bizarre fetish), you’re a Web journalist. It’s also entirely possible that your laptop isn’t the only piece of technology curled up next to you. Your smart […]

Why Hope is Not a Content Strategy

While we won’t often admit to it – at least not out in the open on the internet – we sometimes let hope be the primary driver of our content strategy. “I hope people like this.” “Hopefully, it’ll get picked up by the linkerati.” “We haven’t considered our resources, our audience, or our end goals, […]

3 Infographic Styles to Get Your Message Across in 60 Seconds or Less

Have you ever suffered from information overload? Your eyes glaze over and then you start drooling at your screen until you snap your head back and hope no one saw you. In the age of endless information, becoming overwhelmed with stimuli is a common occurrence for our audiences. So, as content creators, our goal is […]

6 Unbreakable Rules of Video (OK, So You Can Bend Them a Little)

Trying to plan a video can be daunting. There are many questions to answer, many details to understand. And on top of that, your video is competing with the overwhelming amount of information (including other videos) that’s out there, vying for your audience’s attention. After all, more than one hour of video is uploaded to […]

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