A. Have a cool name

B. Have a hook

C. Have a fearless leader

Rock and Roll is full of bands with memorable names: Black Sabbath, The Velvet Underground and Earth, Wind and Fire. It is also full of individuals with memorable names: Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart and Madonna.

Have you given your business, magazine, URL or department a superstar name, or a forgettable one?

All content—video, audio, editorial and mobile—depends on a hook. Sometimes it’s the overall concept, sometimes it’s a memorable tagline. And sometimes, at its lamest, most obvious and most successful—it’s a scantily clad brunette and a giant logo.

But what about first impressions? What about the name attributed to the brand? If We Rock Hard was a rock band, you could probably take a good guess what they would sound like. But would you have any inkling what Sigur Ros sounded like? Naming content departments, your business and even a band are all very important decisions. Select a great name and the world is yours. Select a name that doesn’t have a hook and doesn’t brand well and get used to a lot of explaining and the spending of precious marketing/advertising dollars. (And your product better kick ass.) So, are you selecting a name that will generate interest or one that is giving people exactly what they expect?

Which of the three naming convention camps have you bought into?

1) Selecting a safe name that inspires confidence in your industry or very clearly identifies what you do:
Food Supply/Rage Against the Machine

or

2) Selecting a more creative name that you grow into and will uniquely identify you and only you:

37signals/violent femmes

or

3) Riding on the confidence the founder inspires:

Deutsch/John Mayer

If you’re a freelance writer, don’t make these mistakes.

As ad budgets come and go and staff writing jobs continue to evaporate, freelance content marketing is a viable way to earn a living (and buy you some time to work on that screenplay or novel). Avoid these mistakes; make your editor happy; get more work; keep the good life going.

1)    Don’t understand the primary tool of your trade—the computer. As a staffer, you worked on a six-year old version of Microsoft Office, your IT team set up your email account and no one used IM because they loved sitting in unproductive meetings all day. So when you launch your freelance business, you buy a no-name computer from a friend loaded with software you don’t know how to use. You use webmail as your primary email source because you can’t figure out how to use a real email program. And you broadcast your outdated ways to the world by using an AOL or Hotmail email address.

Bottom line: Learn the technology of your industry. It’s your job. And get a Gmail account, already. Or better yet, buy your own domain.

2)    Take full advantage of the fact that you work from home and you’re your own boss. Go out of pocket for blocks of time during the day so that when your editor has a question about a piece that’s hours away from going to press, there’s no way to reach you. Consistently take several hours—or even up to a day or more—to reply to simple email queries, thus holding your editor hostage and unable to shuttle your piece along.

Bottom line: Just because you work for yourself doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep normal office hours. If you’re committed to shopping at the mall on Wednesday afternoons, then get a Blackberry or iPhone. Make yourself available like a professional person.

3)    Refuse to learn your editor’s style guide. Submit a 3,000-word story full of dashes or space-dash-dash-spaces instead of proper em-dashes—and if your editor is kind enough to explain to you how to create a proper em- or en-dash using the Mac shortcuts and you’re on a PC, don’t bother to do a simple Google search to figure out the PC equivalent. Editors LOVE combing through 15-page documents to convert your lazy dash-dashes to proper em-dashes.

Bottom line: Pay attention to the line edits you get back from your clients. Ask for a copy of their style guide. Keep a Post-it by your computer listing which clients use the serial comma and which don’t. Even though these are simple fixes we’re talking about, wouldn’t you rather have your editors focus on the content of your work rather than the mechanics?

4)    Fill your word count criteria with lazy metaphors, throwaway quotes and “narrative resume” material. Hey, no one wants to read an actual story, right? Just take a look at a source’s resume and write it out in a series of paragraphs. That should do the trick.

Bottom line: If you’re bored by your writing, you can bet your readers will be, too. It’s your job to dig deeper in your research, get better material out of your interviewees and work an idea until you get an interesting angle or twist.

5)    Your editor has spellcheck and proofreaders, so don’t bother printing out your work and reading it over before shooting it off. Spell your sources names two or even three different ways throughout your story. Forget a period here and there. Ignore the squiggly red line Word offers to help you identify typos throughout your work. And definitely don’t take time to proof for the things spellcheck wouldn’t catch, such as typing “if” instead of “it” or “an” instead of “and.”

Bottom line: You’re not just a writer; you’re an editor and proofreader, too. Read your own work.

6)    Don’t bother to read the assignment letter detailing minor points like word count, where to send your draft, and when (and how) to submit your invoice. While your at it, go a few hundred words over the word count—that way the editor has plenty to work with, right? Send everything directly to your editor instead of their story inbox or accounting department—he or she will handle it for you, right? Shoot off an informal invoice in the body of your email instead of creating a proper Word doc or PDF—they’ll figure it out, right? Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Bottom line: Pay attention to the job details. Not following the guidelines your editor took the time to explain is no different from going to a restaurant and the waiter bringing you a “top shelf” margarita with Jose Cuervo tequila instead of Patron.

7)    And the always popular—let deadlines come and go without alerting your editor in advance. Let the editor wake up in the middle of the night to realize your story didn’t come in. That’s a great way to build a relationship and get more work.

Bottom line: If you’re a week out from a deadline and still haven’t heard back from a key source, let your editor know right away. He may have an alternate source for you, or he may give you an extension. A week out from a deadline means there are still possibilities. A missed deadline means your editor is left scrambling to fill the hole left by your lack of a story.

-Britta

Stakeboring v:— The act of watering down a compelling message by uninvolved stakeholders.

Manage-a-trough /meɪˈnɑʒ ɑ ˈtrwɑ; Fr. meɪnaʒ a ˈtrwɑ/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[mey-nahzh ah troth] n:— The management of content producers by multiple editors without the use of a project management system, CMS or editorial calendar.

Frightspace n:— The fear of any whitespace in print or web publications.

Invisibully n:— A person who publicly tears apart a company to promote their own.

Ctrl C-Ctrl V Speakers n: — Successful marketing authors who charge ridiculous fees to repeat what is in their books on stage.

This past week we had two unfortunate incidents relating writing and death. The first was the passing of author David Foster Wallace. Like many other contemporaries of Wallace’s I found his masterpiece Infinite Jest simultaneously aggravating and exhilarating. His non-fiction on the other hand gleamed with a face-against-the window realism and detail that most writers skip over in place of rote facts and tired cliché’s. I once read that the farther you get away from the visual and the tactile in the arts, the higher your chance of suicide. There is a very real difficulty holding treads in both worlds—one world that inspires and sometimes lets you down and another that you create out of reflections, alphabets and inspiration.

The second incident was the train tragedy in Los Angeles. Communication tilts many dominoes every day: an inside stock tip, an unforeseen ‘I love you’ and on the business side a follow up email from a vendor. Rarely, but occasionally, the delivery of communication fails us. A minor, real-life, case of this would be my email being down this morning when I needed to send a final file to a client. A major case of it would be the yet to be substantiated claims that the conductor of the crash in Chatsworth missed a track signal because he was texting on his cell phone.

Choosing what to communicate is very important. Choosing when to communicate is vital.

Respectfully,

Ian Alexander

Short of making our clients happy, nothing is quite as satisfying as hanging a new sign, in a new office. Eat Media has moved into a new SW Florida office complete with a media room, lobby and an orange couch.

We have also added two new content editors to our team—welcome Cindy Kane and Jonathan Maziarz. Stay tuned for new services, news and an Eat Media homepage re-branding. First 50 people to sign up for our newsletter get to sit on the orange couch.

Back in my MIT days I saw E-Ink at a MITERS club event. Back then it was wires, leads, vellum and batteries (as I recall). It has tickled my head with possibilites ever since—looks like it may be en route finally.

Check out this article at BoingBoing

While attending the SAP Sapphire 08 Conference in March, I had the pleasure of listening to Keynote speaker Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Mr. Lencioni’s book is one that I have skipped over in the bookstore hundreds of times. It has one of those covers that says, “self-help this way”. But on stage Mr. Lencioni is a whole different story—or better yet he is the same story but he is more animated and incredibly engaging.

Lencioni’s lecture, and review of his book, provided insight into some of the issues your customers might be facing. When customers aren’t internally on the same page it makes a content manager’s job challenging to say the least. Keep in mind that one of the most difficult things about managing content for companies is navigating the loss of control the company feels. On one hand, organizations know they don’t have the time or bandwidth to manage and create the volume of content that is required to succeed in today’s market. But on the other hand it isn’t like emailing a file to your printer and having a dented Minivan deliver boxes of stationary to the office a few days later. Hiring a content marketing agency to assist with content creation and management is one part execution, one part strategy and two parts teamwork

A content marketing partner should be an integral part of every organizations team. If you are hired to manage a client’s content make sure you understand your clients and their message. If their internal systems are unclear or there are inconsistent messages from client contact to client contact, let them know. You will gain trust by asking the right questions and stopping to ensure you get the nuts and bolts—and in turn they are less likely to micromanage you.

“Teamwork remains the greatest opportunity for competitive advantage, because teamwork is what allows you to leverage your investments in technology strategy and intelligence,” Lencioni said from the big stage.

To effectively use trust and teamwork as tools, content marketers need to listen, advise and listen some more before creating relevant: editorial, how-to’s, videos or case studies. And organizations need to do their part too and come to the table with clear goals, likes/dislikes and understand that a content marketing partner is a part of their team, not a hired gun. Spend the time. Select the Team. Build the trust.

Scenario: It’s the week after you’ve attended a conference. Sitting at your computer you come across a stack of business cards, folks you’d like to keep in contact with—(ideally to create and maintain a relationship). You jot off a series of non-pitchy, follow-up emails—albeit there could be sales potentials but the relationship is what you are focused on. This is what you get back:

Bill

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

-Anon

No email response. No reference to the conference you both attended, just a simple LinkedIn invitation. You believe there is value in the relationship, so you click “Accept” and realize you are one 500+ people in this persons network. Whoanh Whoanh.

Many of the people using LinkedIn and other social networking/community sites are digitizing the card dispenser/amasser strategy akin to conferences, by trolling for contacts. There are some people/firms who don’t take individuals/companies seriously unless they have a magic number of contacts in their social network. And what originally started out as a global conversation has quickly degraded into a broadcast. “It’s not what you know but who you know” has taken on a life of it’s own, and in some cases not for the best.

When you have 2149 contacts in your social network, how many of those people do you really know? Are you building those relationships or are they notches in your networking belt?

A community usually works together to embrace the well being of the group. A network is a connection, lacking an emphasis on how strong or weak that connection is. A community (virtual or real) is comprised of a coterie you could turn to for advice and assistance. Your network consists of folks who are more apt to wonder what is in it for them. My neighbor Jeff knows a great mechanic—that’s my community. My mechanic—that’s my network. Can they be one in the same, yes, but it takes work.

In 1980 The Circle Jerks recorded the song “Deny Everything”. The San Francisco based company Pure Digital Technologies, maker of The Flip, has incorporated this strategy into their customer service.

“I’m innocent
until I’m proven guilty.
Deny everything, Deny everything.
I’m being framed
it’s all a set-up
Deny everything, Deny everything
I’m just a spoke in the wheel
just a part of the puzzle
a part of the game.
I’m being framed
innocent
until I’m proven guilty.
Deny everything
Deny everything
Deny everything
Deny everything”

I like many other people saw the wonderful video by David Pogue about The Flip and was intrigued. Shortly after watching the video I hopped online and purchased a shiny white one from TheFlip.com. Two days later I purchased a second one at Best Buy. (I had a conference to attend and ship time wouldn’t have it to me by my departure date.)

Initially the camera worked great but on the second day it wouldn’t allow me to delete videos. Actually, it would allow me to delete videos but it still thought the camcorder was full after deletion. In between conference sessions I called customer support—5 times. Each time they gave me a different thing to try, none of them worked. Each person I spoke with said they had never heard of my issue and that there were rarely any problems with The Flip. Once I arrived home, failing to record the conference highlights as I had hoped. I called customer service again to say none of the solutions they offered worked. They started me right back at the beginning of the troubleshooting chain, having me repeat what I had already tried. Finally, after a tremendous waste of my time, they stated that they would take a look at it—if I paid to ship it back to them. Their product is broken after 1 week and I have to ship it back to them?

Since I had the second Flip I purchased from Best Buy I returned the broken one and asked for my money back. No go, but I could get a new Flip in exchange. After one use with the new one: Record, Save, Delete. I ran into the same issue. 3 more calls to customer service and I am still waiting.

Had I gone to Amazon and done a check on the Flip I would have read all about their dreadful customer service and MAC support.

$350 dollars in camcorders

$70 in accessories

10+ calls to customer service (2 pending)

On my most recent call this morning I got someone new.

She asked what OS I was using (the first time that this question had been asked).

“Leopard,” I replied.

“Oh, it doesn’t work with Leopard,” she answered.

Maybe they felt they were “proven guilty” or perhaps the customer service rep was a fan of early punk rock. Either way—branding, customer service and content marketing are a closed loop that has to work in harmony. No harmony here I’m just Flipped Off.

Targeting your audience. It’s a simple concept but one that is often done poorly.

This weekend I caught a reflection of the inside of fly on my Lucky Brand Jeans it reads “Lucky You”. Funny and bit risqué, but definitely memorable and a good example of content placement. The designer jeans business is driven by fashion which is driven by sex appeal and Lucky made a remarkable play with this.

Later in the day, on a weekend warrior Lowes run, I passed a homemade sign on the side of the road that read “Childcare Available”. The sign was one of those wire stakes in the ground jobbers—but this one was ultra special. It was stenciled with silver spray paint, on cardboard, at a busy intersection. This sort of advertising breaks all the rules—poor design, lack of a targeted audience and shoddy execution. The childcare business more than most industries is built on trust and I would bet the farm the company who made these signs didn’t receive a single call.

I can hear the conversation now.

“The economy is down, we need more sales and we can’t afford to do more advertising.”

“We’ll let’s stay late and make some signs.”

Three cans of spray paint later the company unknowingly branded themselves as sloppy, dangerous and uncaring—not the kind of people you want handling your children.

Is your organization thinking creatively about content or haphazardly tossing signs on the side of the road?