Hey, it’s time we caught up!
ISITE Design is sponsoring a free webinar in which I get to share the five things you need to do now to drive your digital business’ success. This has been an amazing year of working with great marketers around the world. I’m thrilled to have a chance to share some of these methods and views — and I want you to be in the house and part of the discussion.

We’re dialing in this Thursday, 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific, and hope you can join us. (Jump to the registration details.)

What you can expect from #Digital2012
If you care about how the mobile web, video, and social media are coming together, then I think you’ll get fired-up by this. But knowing is different from doing, so we’ll also look at tools and techniques to help get your whole firm behind your digital business vision.

There’s just no way to write a post about all this stuff; it takes a webinar. But in just 60 minutes, it will be fast-moving and cover a ton. Please come join us, and bring friends. ;>

There’s an awesome give-away
Not that incentives are needed, but the first three audience members to log in on presentation day will get a copy of one of  2011′s best reads, Business Model Generation from Wiley Press. I’ll be demonstrating their business modeling rubric, and if you’re early, you’ll get a copy and be designing business revolutions from home.

You’re the first to know, so tell someone.
Since you read UsefulArts, you are the first to know about this free event. Act on this tip now, register here – *and* tip off your friends.

I’ll be tweeting about this using the #Digital2012 tag. Later today, I’ll start putting word about this on LinkedIn, and the usual channels. 

I’d be immensely in your debt if you’d spread the word — and I’ll try to pay you back Thursday with the smartest, most actionable, quotable presentation and discussion I can give. ISITE’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jeff Cram, will moderate questions and help get your voice in the mix.

This webinar is graciously organized by ISITE Design, with whom I have  ongoing business dealings. They do a lot of good promoting the discussion of online experiences that delight, reward, and elevate. I hope this will be one of those…with you in the house, it’s sure to be.

Thanks for encouraging my behavior!
Talk with you Thursday,
Dave

“I used to search for news; now, somehow, it finds me.”  Ever hear someone say something like that?

Well, that “somehow” shouldn’t involve peering through clouds of real-time information on Twitter. There are already too many “inboxes” in my life, and I imagine in your life too.

That’s why curation is a huge buzzword in content marketing.  But it’s a buzzword with a benefit. Here’s what how I’ve been curating.

Know how I find great digital marketing campaigns?  I have a Paperli page that curates the links being shared by several hundred top digital agencies through Twitter. Each day, it seeks out and organizes what these agencies are sharing, and it makes a little newspaper for me called The Digital Agency Daily. I get a consolidated view of what’s on the minds of the creative agencies I watch, and I can even tweak the results and share it as a link, or automatically send it to subscribers. It’s like a newspaper you do almost no work to make.

If you’re passionate about a topic, starting this kind of page might be a great way to follow the space, and even to share your view of its current events with others.

Meanwhile, if you follow the digital space, feel free to use this as another way for news of the digital world to find you.

Back in the day, when we got our news via dead tree, most folks picked up a newspaper either at the newsstand (quaint idea!) or by subscription. For a long time, most big cities supported more than one newspaper and, hard as it is to believe, some still do. Prior to the 1960s, Boston and New York had at least six and frequently many more. Media choice, time and economics whittled that down to our current condition, where most cities have at best one paper.

A few years ago, as the Boston Globe‘s front page described attempts at Mideast peace, but the Boston Herald told readers that a gorilla had escaped the zoo. For those of us near the zoo that day,  news of the gorilla trumped any peace talks.

But I digress.

Meet The Christian Science Monitor
It’s good to have a second news source you can turn to. The classic – and still one of the best – second papers is The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor’s excellent reporters are far less concerned with breaking news than they are with putting it in context and filling in all the details; giving the reader the full story. Their award winning journalism and global focus makes them a compliment to most local news sources.

That’s why the Monitor is great a second newspaper, it has a different take on stories than you see in other news sources. To be clear: It is not one of those shouting-heads news outlets that just puts a partisan spin on stories. The Monitor offers thoughtful, well-researched and nuanced stories. Sometimes it offers a very different take than you find on other news sources. Other times it takes a similar approach but with far more context. Either way, the articles almost always provide a deeper look that gives you much more to think about than you’d get from a headline or the AP version. (Not that there’s anything wrong with the AP, except for the whole digital thing.)

There are several other newspapers I turn to for this kind of information – and which everyone now has access to at the click of a link:

The Epoch Times
One is The Epoch Times, which covers the world but is especially strong on news about China. That’s because it started as a Chinese language news source by Chinese people who weren’t content with the party line of information. It offers original news and reporting from China on a level unmatched by anyone else. As China’s importance and efforts at censorship continuing to grow, so does the need for The Epoch Times.

There’s obviously a huge quality issue between the Monitor, which I gladly subscribe to, and the Epoch Times which is free and localized in its six national editions.  Like the Monitor, the print edition is just a ton richer than the still interesting online edition. I’ve found some of the edgiest, earliest and most visionary reporting around it.

Their pages have parsed Wikileaks for four years now. More controversially, they’ve published a series of articles on organ harvesting in China’s labor camps.  These accounts of forced surgery on dissidents to provide party faithful in China with organ transplants could be the biggest human rights story of the decade.  It could also be bias in news.  They’ve been early and right before – so I continue to pick them up as an unusual source of news that is distinctly not in the echo chamber of the conventional media.

GlobalPost
Another great second paper is GlobalPost. This web-based news source works with hundreds — if not thousands — of freelance reporters around the world, who live in the nations they cover. The best way to describe GlobalPost is to say that it is The Christian Science Monitor of wire services like the AP and Reuters. To give you an idea of the quality, consider that GlobalPost‘s stories are picked up by everyone from NPR to Bill O’Reilly, as well as AP and Reuters.

News coverage is being cut back everywhere in the US. There are fewer reporters in city halls, state houses and especially overseas than ever before. (Did you know CBS only has ONE foreign bureau? It’s in London. They are supposed to cover the entire WORLD.) Reading and supporting any or all of these organizations is a great way to make sure that when the Next Big Story hits, you are already well-informed.

–
Disclosure: Before joining Thomson Reuters, I spent several years as Digital Strategy Manger at The Christian Science Monitor. I pay for my own subscription, and am fully independent of them and the other publications mentioned here.

Justin P. Lambert over at Words that Begin With You mentioned a series of posts we ran last year about the ethics of outsourcing social media.  While inviting discussion, he’s staked out a position which could be characterized as “truthiness in business.” That is, nobody expects relentless personal communication in business, so changing the medium shouldn’t shift that standard.

I took a different view of social outsourcing last year, when I referred to this as “Marionette Social Media.” This inspired three fantastic comments with differing views, which turned in to guest posts: one made the point that blogging and social media are different; one aligned with Justin that “writers bring a bardic voice to client communications” so why not blogs; and my friend Altaf outdid them all by saying failing to outsource is a risk to personal effectiveness.

I’d like to update this discussion, and I hope you’ll comment, email me, or write a guest post if you’re inclined.

Social Media Should Be a Choice
I hope everyone who reads this will agree that it is unrealistic to expect the whole world to blog, tweet, or moo just because it’s the new popular social media thing.  Fantastic athletes, statesmen, actors don’t have to be witty in 140 characters. That should be an option we’re ready to accept. Solitude is a forgotten pleasure, and in social media, too often the virtue of silence is forgotten as well.

I can cope with the idea that Bruce Willis or Tom Wolfe doesn’t want to Tweet to us. This admission, that it’s okay not to use social media, is the difference between real life and episodes of Frasier.

Mind the Gap
Also, I hope we can agree that clients need to mind any gap they create between perception and reality when they hire writers.  This is just a point of good brand management. The execs at BP would have done well to mind the gap they created by branding themselves as the “green” oil company.

Ethics Can Be Situational
Does it matter that the CEO of Dunder Mifflin turns in newsletter features or blog posts written on assignment by someone else?  Nope. Does it matter than the Guy Kawasaki who comments on my blog might be his assistant using his name? It does if that means Guy really didn’t read the post, and that the compliment is really part of a brand-building campaign.

Does This Change Based on Which Social Media Is Used?
Is it okay when someone tweets on another’s behalf? It may, when it comes out that @RealHughJackman is making factual errors in their tweets as a.) the real Hugh Jackman hired that job out and b.) the tweeter isn’t in the same city that he’s writing about “really enjoying.” Once the truth is out, social media outsourcing can look pretty silly.

Does Profession Matter?
Some professions have codes of ethics that extend to marketing and address creating false perceptions.

1. Journalism
   Does it matter that a journalist in their newspaper’s blog writes what is actually bylined to them? Yep. In my experience, bylines matter a great deal in newsrooms. Journalists like facts, and they treat bylines that way.
2. Lawyers
   If you learn of a lawyer through a ghostwritten blog, you might form your opinion of the lawyer’s skill and knowledge through their frequent and excellent writing on a topic. If it turned out that counselor was not skilled or knowledgeable as suggested in the blog, you could mount a successful ethics complaint.
3. Public Relations and Ghostwriting
   The public relations industry also has a code of ethics, and some agencies I know are quite uncomfortable with ghosting that crosses the line of deception. In both these instances the client, not the writer, is responsible for the impression created.

It’s a Matter of Degrees
Most writer/client relationships I know of are highly integrated and client-driven. A busy executive wants to say more than they have time to write; they may pass off outlines and drafts, and re-edit written work so it is just as they want it. That’s different than the buffoon Denny Crane who hires Tom Wolfe to write and post some of that “social media stuff” for him.

Let the Client Beware
You’re publicly responsible for what you have done in your name.  It’s okay not to be in social media. It’s okay to get help to “amplify your voice.” But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so keep it under control. Everyone is cool and hip in social media, until someone becomes Frasier.

Like politics, strategy is the art of the possible. And as strategy pursues corporate goals, it has to navigate the pecularities of the organization while marshalling its assets.

In this video, I share some thoughts on the FutureM conference on the Future of Digital Strategy, as well as some words from Harvard’s Perry Hewitt, who talks a little about their mobile strategy, and why it made sense to take this on as an open field for innovation.

As pragmatic marketers, it often makes sense to innovate in arenas where organizational stakeholders are not focused.  You can start with a blank page and  iterate your new approach with a bit more time and space for experimentation. And then deliver an unexpected new result.

The video below will give you an idea of how Perry’s done this as an enterprise marketer, and how you can use this approach in your organization’s digital strategy.

Have you noticed firms that do content marketing with such an SEO focus that it gets in the way of their user experience? Too often firms follow SEO tactics which are really an arbitrage of marginally useful actions that often have no value other than to influence Google.

Here are some good SEO practices that I’ve seen turned in to tulip manias:

• Crappy content marketing
  (page count and keyword loading)
• Insincere links (popularity)
• Exact-matching domain names (hyper relevance)

These efforts are usually based on “proportionate thinking,” which builds an SEO factory to bulk-up metrics to “please” (or more accurately to trick) Google. The problem with this thinking is that Google doesn’t want to be tricked. And just like the stock market, there are corrections when bubbles develop.

Crappy Content Marketing
If you want to know exactly why content always trumps SEO, visit DemandMedia, Suite101, Associated Content, or one of the other content mills and do a query on a random topic. I did this with typewriters – because a friend of mine collects them – and then clicked on the first article each site suggested.

• Suite101: There are many simple machines that go into the construction and contribute to the proper functioning of typewriters. Until the rise of computers, typewriters were the most popular machines used for word processing. For most types of typewriters to function properly, each and every type of simple machine is required.
• AssociatedContent: There are many people that collect something they really like such as first edition books, antique desks, or vintage sewing machines. There are a few things however, that not only can get expensive but if you don’t know what to look for can burst your bubble, like collecting vintage typewriters. Not yet an expert and still looking for more tips on collecting vintage typewriters, I have made a few purchases, some good, some great, and some that I should have researched a little better. The more the experts share with us rookies, the better off we as collectors will be and fortunately with a little research and by following tips on collecting vintage typewriters, the pitfalls can be averted.
• DemandMedia offered me an article called “How To Use A Typewriter” which offered 12 easy to follow suggestions like: 1) If it’s an electric typewriter, turn it on.

Would you really have any faith or interest in a site that presented you with this kind of crap? Would you ever go back to this site? No and no.

People and companies pay for this stuff! They put it on their sites because … content helps you get traffic, right? And these content mills are very concerned with SEO. They have SEO guidelines for writers in order to provide companies with content that will improve their search engine results. If brands are built based on user experiences, then pulp content turns brand experiences in to static.

Attention K-Mart shoppers: Content is not king. GOOD CONTENT is king.
Content = Currency. Do you want your currency to be the Haitian gourde (currently trading at 0.0248004 to the dollar) or the Euro (1.39509)?

Online, you are what you share.
It comes down to the quality of your site’s insight and its expression in content. So, “If it’s an electric typewriter, turn it on”….and write something an audience cares about.

I’m not sure who’s an expert about social media. But I’ve figured out a few tips to steer clear of stupidity.

1. Shun Gurus, Ninjas, Rockstars
They should be translated as follows:

• Guru = “Windbag”
• Ninja = “Novice”
• Rockstar = “Marginally competent”

How did ninja – an elite assassin and/or practitioner of ninjitsu – come to mean “someone who is good at social media”? In this context, shouldn’t a ninja be someone who is good at destroying reputations?

A friend of mine got a call from her daughter’s kindergarten, claiming the girl had been lying. Seems when they ask the kids in the class what their dads do for a living, the daughter says, “He’s a ninja.”

Long pause from mom on the phone. Then mom says, “Well, what do you call someone who teaches ninjitsu?” (And unless that’s what you do, best to stop it now before you meet a real ninja.)

2. List-Based Headlines Announce Weak Content
Y’know, like “iPads, Facebook, Pro Wrestling and You.” Or “Three Tips Anyone Can Use to Muck up a Headline.” It’s a sure indicator that the author doesn’t have anything new to add to the topic or even a coherent idea.  I stopped reading these (and writing them) cold turkey, and life has only gotten better.

List headlines may good for SEO. But since people make all purchasing calls I’m part of, it’s a no-brainer to default to writing for the humans who pay the bills, rather than the search algorithm that’s trying to  ignore over-optimized drivel.

3. Follow Your Own Path
Beware of any blog written according to the Problogger/Copyblogger formula for success. Jason Cohen has a great post at his blog A Smart Bear explaining what this formula is and why he’d rather get a root canal than follow it. This formula is perfect for people who have nothing to say. The only reasons for writing like this are because you’re lazy or you think your readers lack a clue.

4. Don’t Study “Authenticity”
If you want to be authentic then just say what you have to say and stop wondering if you sound authentic. If you’re worried about sounding authentic – whatever that means – then you have a bigger problem: Figuring out who the hell you are. An authentic person just is. Maybe your authentic voice is that of a stuffed shirt. That’s OK, as long as it’s a stuffed shirt with real information. If you don’t have the information then, again, SHUT UP.

5. Avoid the List’s End
Be extra-skeptical of any post that has five, seven, 10, or 15 items. Real life doesn’t work that way, even if marketing wants it to. Generally, a list like that has been padded out. And that last item will be real short and self-evident. Like this one. ;>

Look around: These *are* amazing times. Who would imagine, in the “Summer of the Great Recession,“ that a digital content start-up and a phone company whose majority of customers pay nothing would be hot IPO news.  But that’s the point. These two companies shift the status away from the status quo.  And they’re heating up August, which is usually a quiet investment month.

Today Skype announced it would seek up to $100 million in its Initial Public Offiering (IPO).  This comes on the heels of last week’s S1 filing that content producer Demand Media seeks to raise $125 million. (You may recall that I predicted a digital IPO hot streak as a 2010 trend. So far, digital has been a hot spot in a largely cool market.)

If the name Demand Media doesn’t ring a bell, you may recall the lengthy feature in Wired that described them as a video content factory.  While I love video and at-scale content production, Peter Guber, Chair of Mandalay Entertainment and a board member of Demand Media, surely did not. During his INTA Keynote he explained how he helped counter this pejorative view through media outreach.

Demand Media’s genius is that it figured out that the things people are searching on aren’t necessarily what writers naturally focus on for fun.  That’s a breakthrough.  Imagine people searching for ways to get wasps out of their sheds, or how to draw a viking helmet.  But there aren’t many resources for such specific questions.

The company finds gaps between search demand and content, prioritizes the topics by shelf-life and the likelihood of finding ad sponsors, and then coordinates a network of freelancers who make more than 4,000 new videos and articles every day. As Wired said, they are like the kid in class who raises his hand and yells an answer on every question. Best answer or worst, simply being in channel more displaces competitors and gets them revenue.

Company CEO Richard Rosenblatt expects to be publishing 1 million items per month. That’s the equivalent to publishing one new English language Wikipedia every three months.  Unlike Skype, which is currently posting net income, Demand Media is still growing and moving toward profitable operation.  Its S1 notes that about a quarter of its revenue is from the Google advertising that appears on its pages. This makes the company somewhat vulnerable to changes in Google algorithms that send it both traffic and advertising.

Of course, there are other big-name digital properties (like Facebook0 that may be emboldened by these IPOs. The year is just more than half done, and investment is back and hot in the digital space.

Related Posts on Digital Investment:

• 2010 Prediction: Digital Marketing IPOs Skyrocket <Dec 27>
• Read the Steamy FriendFinder Prospectus: A Dating and Porn IPO <Jan 19>
• Oracle Purchases Market2Lead IP <May 28>
• Hearst Media Buys iCrossing <June 10>
• Jive Takes 30 Million in Funding – Positions for Future IPO <July 26>

Last week, buying lead management companies was all the rage.  Now Marin Software, a Paid Search (SEM) Marketing Platform, completed another financing round, bringing in $11 million.  (That’s $33 million for them to date.)

And SEM agency iCrossing has been purchased by Hearst Media for a reported $325 million. The deal could increase to more than $400 million depending on performance goals.

So, as we predicted back in December, digital marketing firms are hot investment and sales targets. The market is dyspeptic, so demand may not be taking form in IPO activity. However, that’s not stopping investors from grabbing on to digital as funds shift from traditional media businesses.

I’m at the International Trademark Asosciastion’s annual meeting, where about 100 IP lawyers are listening to Anamaria Cashman, Assistant Counsel for Playboy Enterprises.

If your firm pushes business models and ethical tradition, it’s likely a high-incident target for compliance action. That compels firms like Playboy to be attentive to compliance strategy, as they expect to mount defenses for their business and brand.

Facebook:
Playboy Enterprises has 1.5 million friends on FB.  It is an important point of engagement.  But because of that, they’ve made the strategic choice of adhering to Facebook’s non-nudity policies.  They police content and quickly respond to notices.  The Facebook community then has links into the firm’s adult publications.

YouTube:
Playboy celebrated a recent anniversary by inviting women to make their own YouTube video about why they should be the magazine’s next centerfold.  Again, nudity was prohibited. Playboy worked with Google to implement “pre-screening” so that content, identity, and model releases could be verified.  It was a succesful campaign, but the additional compliance steps removed the immediacy of YouTube.  The successful execution of the campaign in itself was a victory, as it extended the brand meaningfully into the social space.

Twitter:
It’s not a big channel for Playboy.  Still, they have staff who are listening and engaged, but at a low level. The brand in present, but not very active.

Email Marketing:
Not surprisingly, opt-in requires agreement of age and acceptance that content is not obscene in the receiver’s community.

Further, if the email contains sexually explicit content, it must be labeled as sexually explicit in subject line. Imagine how easily an ISP could decide to filter anything with that subject. Playboy tends to use suggestive, though not explicit, graphics that link back to properly disclaimed adult sites.