Content Chat

#ContentChat is a weekly chat on Twitter and LinkedIn that brings together content creators and content marketers to share their challenges and best practices for solving them.

I took over hosting duties from Lucy Rendler-Kaplan on June 13, 2016. The chat was originated by Jenise Stout Fryatt of Smarter Shift who built up the community over three years.

Check out these recaps from recent chats and join us on Mondays at 12 noon Pacific/ 3:00 p.m. Eastern to join in the conversation.

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Are you a content marketing practitioner or consultant who is interested in being a guest for an upcoming edition of #ContentChat? We’d love to see your topic pitch via our Content Chat guest submission form.

September 18, 2023 Content Chat Recap: Content Marketing Career and Salary Outlook 2024 (CMI Research)

October 1, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

It’s undeniable that content marketers (and professionals across industries) have faced years of burnout as we were thrust into remote (and now hybrid) work arrangements and our companies grappled with an uncertain economy. And that’s independent from the ever-growing pressure and urgency to learn how to use AI to stay competitive.

But there is a lot to be optimistic about regarding the future of our industry and our value as humans—and there are proven ways for companies to better develop, engage, and retain us.

To get a pulse on how marketers feel about their work, Erika joins Kim Moutsos, VP of editorial at the Content Marketing Institute, in this #ContentChat recap to dig into findings from CMI’s Content Marketing Career and Salary Outlook 2024 research.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below. If you’re currently looking for resources to help you in your career (including open positions), check out CMI’s career hub.

Q1: How are content marketers using generative AI to support their workflows?

According to the research, three out of four content marketers are using AI (even if it’s just to experiment). Top uses include brainstorming topics and researching headlines and keywords.

“47%—and this was the top number—said that they’re using AI to brainstorm new topics. Another 46% told us they use it to research headlines and keywords. I do that myself; I definitely have a few AI tools that I go in and I try out different headlines. Of course, I then evaluate it against my own judgment and experience.” – Kim Moutsos

About one in three marketers use AI to write drafts, but only 29% say they use it to proofread (which is surprising, because tools like Grammarly are AI-powered!).

“36% said they’re using it right now to write drafts. And only 29% say they use it to proofread.” – Kim Moutsos

One in four marketers use AI to create outlines.

“Another 25% said they use it to create outlines for assignments.” – Kim Moutsos

25% of marketers claim they don’t use AI at all… which could imply people don’t realize that many of their favorite tools use AI.

“Only 25% say they don’t use [AI] at all. And I’m actually a little skeptical about that number, because, let’s be honest, people are curious—does that mean they don’t use the output of AI in their work? I’d just be really shocked if there’s anyone working in our field who hasn’t at least gone over to peek at ChatGPT or something AI-related.” – Kim Moutsos

“I wonder, too, if some people just don’t understand that AI is in some of the tools that they’re using. For instance, I know so many people have used the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. And if you ask them ‘do you use AI to help you with your headlines?’ they might answer no, not even realizing that it’s AI.” – Erika Heald

Erika loves using AI to help with personalization workflows and to ensure content has a unified brand voice (especially when writing for different executives or thought leaders).

“AI can be so helpful for workflows for personalization, and one of my favorites for really ensuring you have that unified brand voice across everything that comes out of your organization.” – Erika Heald

Q2: What fears do content marketers have regarding how generative AI will shape the future of our work?

September 11, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How To Repurpose Content To Maximize Your Content Marketing Value

October 1, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

If a topic is valuable to your brand community or audience, then it makes sense to explore that information in multiple ways to drive the most value from your efforts! As our team believes: for every one piece of content you create, you should have at least three uses.

To help you create a process for planning your derivative content, Erika joins Meisha Bochicchio, digital content marketing program manager at VMware, in this #ContentChat recap to explain how to repurpose content to maximize your content marketing value.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below.

Q1: What are the signs that an existing piece of content could drive value in a new form?

If your audience engages with a piece of content and it consistently drives views or clicks, it could be valuable in other forms!

“If something is really resonating with your audience so you’re getting a ton of engagement on your social amplification and people are commenting, you have high engagement via email, [and] you have lots of page traffic or lots of referral traffic—those are really great signals that a topic is relevant and your audience might be hungry for that content in different formats.” – Meisha Bochicchio

“As I look at our event content and how to prioritize how we’re repurposing our content, I’m using things like consumption signals (how many folks are going to our on-demand library and what sessions are trending). Also reviews from our sessions: how can I get those out and amplify those to our remote folks as well?” – Meisha Bochicchio

Ideally, your content team will map out all the derivative forms of content for a topic or asset during the planning stages.

“I hope that starts before you create the content, right? I like to think about it on a campaign level—mapping out your content from the very beginning.” – Meisha Bochicchio

Erika uses a content planning form to think through the many forms that a content idea can take.

“Pretty much every major engagement I’ve had for the last six years has been kicked off with creating that kind of content intake form or content planning form. Because a lot of times, maybe so many different people are involved in the process that everyone just sort of picks it up and starts fresh every time. And that’s how you forget things. If you’re starting from a blank page, I think it’s so hard to really make the most of it. It has to be a system.” – Erika Heald

Using a large research report as an example, Meisha says you could launch it in the form of a digital event, explore the topic in other places like webinars or podcasts, and also plan a certain number of blog post topics to promote the report.

“So, for example, [if] you have a large research report coming out the next quarter, think about how you can take that and break that down into an entire ecosystem of content. You might [say]: I want to launch this in the form of a digital event, we want to have a webinar or a conference around this theme to launch the report. You could [also] submit speaking opportunities to relevant conferences, webinars, [and] podcasts. You could also come up with X derivative blog topics that might make sense to level up into the report.” – Meisha Bochicchio

Social media is important to consider, too!

“Also think about your social strategy. How are we distributing and breaking down this information and starting conversations with our audience on social? You could come up with carousels, video sizzle reels that share the data, or you can break up your event into different sections and video segments for social reaction videos. You could do polls and then gut check your research against what people think.” – Meisha Bochicchio

Email marketing can be especially effective for repurposing your content.

“Have snippets that you send out in your newsletters. Maybe you send it out via a one-off list that matches the ICP for that information. [Or] add that content to relevant onboarding flows or nurtures or newsletters, wherever it makes sense given the context.” – Meisha Bochicchio

Q2: When planning a piece of content, how do you decide the best format(s) to create for your audience?

August 28, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How To Activate A Brand Thought Leader in Support Of Your Content Marketing Strategy

September 6, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

An expert thought leader is a valuable asset for both content marketing and public relations teams, but activating them in support of your strategy can often be challenging if you’re new to managing a thought leadership program.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Kathy Casciani, principal at Azul PR + Communications, to explain how to best find and partner with a brand thought leader and surface valuable storylines that align with your company goals—spanning tips for media relations, contributed content, speaking opportunities, and more!

Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below.

Q1: What qualities make for an ideal thought leader to cultivate for content creation, speaking engagements, and media relations?

Your CEO is likely not your best brand thought leader given how much is already on their plate. Use them strategically.

“Frequently, everybody focuses on the CEO to the exclusion of everyone else. And let’s be clear: CEOs have a lot of things to do that don’t include [content creation, speaking engagements, and media relations].” – Erika Heald

“In the perfect world, your founder or CEO is willing to put themselves out there at least for some areas of expertise.” – Kathy Casciani

Kathy recommends reading Founder Brand, a book by David Gerhardt, to learn about how founders can turn their stories into a competitive advantage. Check it out on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

“It’s a really great book about how as a founder you can turn your story into a competitive advantage for your company and all the ways you can do that.” – Kathy Casciani

Find experts in your organization who are authentic and willing to share their expertise on topics that relate to your business.

“You want to look for that person who’s that authentic personality [and] has experience that is worth sharing that somehow ties clearly to your business. You need that person to be willing to put themselves out there. Someone who has that strong point of view about a topic or something about your industry.” – Kathy Casciani

“To give you an example, I work with a company called Freemodel, and it’s a home renovation company. They have a whole team of interior designers, and many of them are vocal about home decor subject matter. We frequently leverage them for media opportunities.” – Kathy Casciani

Develop a roster of thought leaders you can tap into for specific opportunities, and leverage each thought leader for their interests and strengths.

“It’s smart to really think about what that whole collective group of people looks like that you can tap into. That’s especially true when you want to have informed content curation, so that way you’re sharing on your company pages things that are really relevant and compelling and that you can take a stand on. I’ve used Flipboard quite a bit for doing that, because you can invite multiple people to participate. It becomes a more efficient way of keeping in one place all those links where someone says ‘we should share this, and here’s why.'” – Erika Heald

No matter what: You need a thought leader who has the time to share their ideas and opinions to inform content or pitches.

“You can’t have thought leadership without thoughts from the leader. You cannot just assign an intern at the PR agency or at the company to come up with content. It’s not going to be compelling, it’s not going to have the wisdom, it’s not going to have all that experience.” – Erika Heald

“You cannot outsource the thought leadership. Yes, you can have somebody help you articulate, but the thoughts have to be there.” – Kathy Casciani

Q2: What are some effective ways to uncover a thought leader’s stories and notable experiences that could make for effective media pitches?

August 21, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How To Improve Your Email Marketing Content Strategy

August 27, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

More than 10% of marketers send emails to their subscribers daily, which begs the question—what is an effective email marketing strategy? And how can you find the right cadence for your brand, based on your goals?

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Jessica Best, owner and chief strategist at BetterAve, to dig into the nuances of email and provide actionable ways you can improve your email marketing content strategy.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below.

Q1: To set a scope for this chat: what kinds of email marketing do brands send to their communities, and how do they fit into a comprehensive content strategy?

Email marketing is a core part of a healthy channel mix because it can steadily make money for brands in a trackable way.

“10 years ago we kept getting articles [saying] everything died—email is dead, now social media is dead. [But] it was never dying, right? It’s all part of the channel mix. And one of the things that we realized during the pandemic was [that] this is something that steadily makes money for brands. And suddenly it was one of the only ways we could trackably make money for our brands. There’s been this real movement in marketing to start to partner more with email marketing and what that first-party database of email address identifiers can really do for you.” – Jessica Best

First-party email lists power your other channels and help you find new prospective buyers.

“It also helps power and identify some of our other channels. Paid media can use existing first-party email lists not only to target those same people, but to target people who look like those people.” – Jessica Best

Email marketing can span a range of types, such as transactional emails, email newsletters, promotional emails, review request emails, sponsorship emails, re-engagement emails, and more.

“What does email marketing mean? It used to mean newsletters a lot more than it does now. B2C we see a lot more product- or value-focused emails.” – Jessica Best

Q2: What do brands often get wrong when it comes to their email marketing content?

July 24, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How to Create and Active a Content Strategy Framework for Better Content Marketing

August 27, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

It’s a recipe for failure (and burnout) if you keep pushing out content without a purpose or promotion plan. Everything that content creators make must have a clear goal, address a specific persona, and have a distribution strategy to ensure it helps the most people possible. This is a lot to manage and things can easily slip through the cracks—which is why a content strategy framework is key for keeping you focused and improving your content marketing results.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Laurie Kretchmar, a communications strategist, former business journalist, and founder of Laurie Kretchmar Associates, to discuss how to create and activate a content strategy framework for better content marketing. Laurie tells us about her CAB framework, and she and Erika share other tips for building your network and tapping into it to help share your content.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below:

Laurie is looking for help! Are you a history buff or want to learn more about dynastic families in San Francisco? Get in touch with Laurie!

Q1: What is a content strategy framework, and how can it benefit content marketing teams?

A content strategy explains how a piece of content will support your content marketing and business goals.

“A content strategy is the big picture. If you want to use fancier words, it’s the philosophy or framework.” – Laurie Kretchmar

“Put into words what might be obvious to you, especially for people in sales, or that other department down the hall, or the C-suite. Put into words the bigger picture that you’re looking at. I would get real excited talking about Twitter, but what I wasn’t saying is it’s a way to communicate, reach people you haven’t met before, find evangelists, and find new trends. Actually spell out that bigger framework.” – Laurie Kretchmar

Julie advocates for CAB: Create, Amplify, Build. Check out her short video on the CAB framework!

“I call it CAB, like a yellow cab. Create, Amplify, Build. Whether you’re creating a PowerPoint presentation or a keynote speech or a series of articles, that content is going to be a lot of work. We’re trying to appeal to that target audience and their hopes, fears, desires, and all of that, so the content is going to take a lot of your attention. But you can’t just put [content] out there. You also want to amplify it. Amplification is huge because of that old saying: you can build a better mouse trap and nobody might ever know about it, but they might really need it.” – Laurie Kretchmar

“I see it as a continuous cycle: You’re creating the content, you’re amplifying it, you’re building your network. I meet people who are focused on one part, especially the content, but you must think about the whole thing. Otherwise, you’re not going to find your audience and they’re not going to find you.” – Laurie Kretchmar

A content strategy is helpful for pushing back on new content requests that don’t align with your team’s goals (or previously agreed upon strategy).

“My motto is ‘No More Random Acts of Content,’ and having a documented content strategy is absolutely the best way to make that a reality.” – Erika Heald

Q2: What elements should a content strategy framework include to boost your content marketing success?

July 31, 2023 Content Chat Recap: The Midlife Marketer: Orchestrating a Fulfilling Career Change

August 14, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

“If you are in a job you hate, then get out of it. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to enjoy fulfillment. You deserve to have a job that you enjoy. If you’re miserable in a job, get out of it! I’m not saying that it’s easy or that it can happen overnight, but take some action.” – Bernie Borges

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Bernie Borges, VP of global content marketing at iQor and host of the Midlife Fulfilled podcast, to discuss how to navigate a fulfilling career change as a midlife marketer. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or read through the highlights below. Once you’re ready to start planning your next steps, download Bernie’s free Midlife Career Reboot Workbook to walk through his five-step process to find your next role.

If you’re looking for more resources around navigating a midlife career change, start with Midlife Fulfilled episode 100. Bernie explains what midlife means (spoiler: it isn’t defined solely by age) and the five areas of life where you should seek fulfillment.

Q1: What are some signs that it is time to consider a career change, instead of pursuing a similar marketing role with a new company?

It’s a unique and deeply personal journey to decide if you should pursue a career change. Bernie shares one telltale sign that it’s your time:

“The easiest way to answer that question is: If at night you dread going to bed because you have to get up tomorrow to go to work—especially on Sunday. If you are dreading Monday, that is a telltale sign that it’s time to do something different (or keep doing what you’re doing somewhere else).” – Bernie Borges

Your career is one area where you can seek fulfillment. Bernie explains that health, fitness, relationships, and legacy are also core areas that you should prioritize.

“Career is one of five areas that I speak about in terms of fulfillment. There’s career, health, fitness, relationships, and legacy. Career is huge. We spend most of our waking life working as adults. You’ve got to be fulfilled in your career. But if you’re not 100% fulfilled, but you’re still OK, don’t beat yourself up. Not everybody is going to get to 100% fulfilled in their career. And very few people ever get to 100% fulfilled across each of those five areas. That’s just way too much to even ask of yourself.” – Bernie Borges

Content Chat

Never Miss A #ContentChat Recap

Want #ContentChat on your calendar?

Be our guest—send us your pitch!

Q1: How are content marketers using generative AI to support their workflows?

According to the research, three out of four content marketers are using AI (even if it’s just to experiment). Top uses include brainstorming topics and researching headlines and keywords.

About one in three marketers use AI to write drafts, but only 29% say they use it to proofread (which is surprising, because tools like Grammarly are AI-powered!).

One in four marketers use AI to create outlines.

25% of marketers claim they don’t use AI at all… which could imply people don’t realize that many of their favorite tools use AI.

Erika loves using AI to help with personalization workflows and to ensure content has a unified brand voice (especially when writing for different executives or thought leaders).

Q2: What fears do content marketers have regarding how generative AI will shape the future of our work?

Q1: What are the signs that an existing piece of content could drive value in a new form?

If your audience engages with a piece of content and it consistently drives views or clicks, it could be valuable in other forms!

Ideally, your content team will map out all the derivative forms of content for a topic or asset during the planning stages.

Erika uses a content planning form to think through the many forms that a content idea can take.

Using a large research report as an example, Meisha says you could launch it in the form of a digital event, explore the topic in other places like webinars or podcasts, and also plan a certain number of blog post topics to promote the report.

Social media is important to consider, too!

Email marketing can be especially effective for repurposing your content.

Q2: When planning a piece of content, how do you decide the best format(s) to create for your audience?

Q1: What qualities make for an ideal thought leader to cultivate for content creation, speaking engagements, and media relations?

Your CEO is likely not your best brand thought leader given how much is already on their plate. Use them strategically.

Kathy recommends reading Founder Brand, a book by David Gerhardt, to learn about how founders can turn their stories into a competitive advantage. Check it out on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Find experts in your organization who are authentic and willing to share their expertise on topics that relate to your business.

Develop a roster of thought leaders you can tap into for specific opportunities, and leverage each thought leader for their interests and strengths.

No matter what: You need a thought leader who has the time to share their ideas and opinions to inform content or pitches.

Q2: What are some effective ways to uncover a thought leader’s stories and notable experiences that could make for effective media pitches?

Q1: To set a scope for this chat: what kinds of email marketing do brands send to their communities, and how do they fit into a comprehensive content strategy?

Email marketing is a core part of a healthy channel mix because it can steadily make money for brands in a trackable way.

First-party email lists power your other channels and help you find new prospective buyers.

Email marketing can span a range of types, such as transactional emails, email newsletters, promotional emails, review request emails, sponsorship emails, re-engagement emails, and more.

Q2: What do brands often get wrong when it comes to their email marketing content?

Q1: What is a content strategy framework, and how can it benefit content marketing teams?

A content strategy explains how a piece of content will support your content marketing and business goals.

Julie advocates for CAB: Create, Amplify, Build. Check out her short video on the CAB framework!

A content strategy is helpful for pushing back on new content requests that don’t align with your team’s goals (or previously agreed upon strategy).

Q2: What elements should a content strategy framework include to boost your content marketing success?

Q1: What are some signs that it is time to consider a career change, instead of pursuing a similar marketing role with a new company?

It’s a unique and deeply personal journey to decide if you should pursue a career change. Bernie shares one telltale sign that it’s your time:

Your career is one area where you can seek fulfillment. Bernie explains that health, fitness, relationships, and legacy are also core areas that you should prioritize.

Q2: How can marketing professionals start to identify potential new career paths?

Let your values guide your career search. Write down your values in this season of your life.

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