Our friend Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 has released a new white paper called “New Rules of Custom Publishing – New Complimentary White Paper: Nine Strategies to Create a World-Class Content Marketing Company.” You can download the white paper in a digital format here.

After the jump, read Joe’s list of Nine strategies to create a world-class content marketing company. As anyone who follows Hammock Inc., it’s no surprise we agree with each one of them:

I’m tempted just to say, “Amen!” to this recent Slate post about intrusive linking policies. Jack Schafer’s list includes my top three links-to-hate:

• Double-click the word, get a definition [NYTimes.com is a big culprit. I have, at least 3 times, clicked on the word “inside” while reading an article on the Times site. Trust me, after 13 years of primary and secondary, a college degree and nine hours of graduate work, I’ve finally figured out what inside means. Now, as for that tricky “outside….”]
• Pop-over boxes Often found on news sites to display ads, this blog tool was amusing when it first came out. Now that I’ve seen Snap Shots used more than a couple times — indeed, far too frequently — I am still waiting for an application of it that doesn’t make me grit my teeth.
• Links that don’t tell you where you’re going The web allows for endless copy. I don’t need much, but please do more than tell me you want to link here. [It’s not a real link. I wouldn’t do that to you.]

Lost photos: I shot this photo from
my office window last April.
Unfortunately, I can’t locate the photos shot
from the same location on April 16, 1998.

(This “recollection” is also cross-posted on rexblog.com.)

My first ever accidental online “citizen journalism” (before the term existed) experience occurred ten years ago, today. Unfortunately, because of the ephemeral nature of the web and certain “wish we knew then what we know now” practices, there is no place for me to point to what I did on that day.

[After the jump, read about the Hammock ‘tornado’ photos.]

After a couple of days of backpacking, one of my favorite things to do on my way back to civilization is to stop by a local joint for some good ole home cookin’. Driving through some small east Tennessee towns this past weekend, Granny’s Diner beckoned—with melt-in-your-mouth chicken-n-dumplings and chocolate meringue pie. Not only do these kinds of restaurants amp up the calorie level, but they can usually be counted on to fuel the funny bone. Granny’s did not disappoint.

After being greeted by a cheerful door mat saying, “Go Away,” we were bombarded by dozens of dos and don’ts signs aimed at restaurant employees—labeled “Employee’s.” My favorite sign admonished “employee’s” not to smoke on the job—“its the law I don’t like it anymore than you do but its not going to be tolerated and you got to go outside to smoke when no customer’s are here and if you don’t like it talk to your representative in Nashville.” Although few of the signs had out-and-out misspellings (Granny’s computer must have had spell check), grammar is not her forte, bless her heart.

Although I didn’t dare correct the woman who had just slaved over a hot stove to prepare such a delicious meal, I bet the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) wouldn’t have had any compunction about putting a red pen to all the offending signs.

Have you heard about these guys? Embarking on a “Typo Hunt Across America,” Jeff Deck and his grammar nerd-like friends have been road-tripping from coast to coast since March correcting typos in signs, restaurant menus and public posters. Deck concedes that grammar mistakes are bound to happen and he doesn’t harshly admonish the violators, but he laments, in his tongue-in-cheek blog, the failure of a culture that allows such errors to flourish. By the time they return to Boston in late May, TEAL hopes to have furthered the cause of “a typo-free society.”

Any vandalism aside, these guys are my heroes. If they want to take another loop through Tennessee, I’ve got the perfect place for Sunday supper.

In a recent issue of the e-mail newsletter Online Spin, Max Kalehoff provided the following thoughtful description of the role your company Web site must play in today’s digital marketplace.

Web Site As Brand Hub. For most businesses, the Web must become your brand hub. The Web site is the anchor for a range of critical actions in the consideration and purchase funnel. It is where search engines discover brands and where they direct prospects. It is the currency of pass-along when others wish to refer or recommend you. It is where the most engaged prospects learn about your brand, or fail to learn what they need to know in order to engage further. It is often a critical repository for collecting names, demographic information, purchase intentions and behaviors. It is a listening mechanism and interaction platform when customers do wish to engage. For many businesses, it’s where transactions actually take place, and services are rendered. It increasingly is where people turn when things go wrong, and the place where problems are corrected, or not. It is where companies have the choice to engage intimately with customers, or instill a cold, faceless façade. As the marketplace increasingly goes digital, the Web site should play a central role in leading a company’s key customer performance metrics to drive overall marketing strategy.

At Hammock, we agree that Web sites play a powerful role in building stronger relationships, but your site must be optimized for this type of interaction in order for it to be successful. We recommend the adoption and integration of social media tools such as blogs, photo or video sharing applications, and wikis to help initiate this engagement and conversation with your audience.

Want to get started but aren’t sure what to do first? Contact us. We’ll provide an assessment of your site and make recommendations for what changes are needed to transform your site into a destination online, fully optimized for this Web 2.0 world.

When you want to share your organization’s story, a blog should be high on your list. Blogging is an easy way to share the inside scoop and help your customers feel like they have a relationship with your company that goes beyond the transaction. Before you rush out to get a WordPress account, make sure you are really ready with these tips.
[After the jump, read the 9 Rules of Corporate Blogging]

Starbucks recently sent an RFP to their media partners with a “call for innovation.” Bon Appetit‘s well-executed response can be seen in its May issue. Readers flip to the masthead page to find the business team’s names and positions listed on a Starbucks-like chalkboard. After the headline, “What do you like best with your Starbucks coffee at home?” six members of Bon Appetit‘s staff share their favorite Starbucks pairings.

With print advertising revenues down and magazines fighting for their share of limited budgets, maybe it’s not that surprising that Bon Appetit opened up its masthead to advertising. Still, though I admit it’s a clever promotion, my sense is that it crosses a line. This isn’t simply advertising—by putting the “promotion” in a format that readers count on to be straight service editorial (just the facts), the page has been transformed into a Bon Appetit endorsement. Perhaps in this increasingly competitive marketplace for magazine advertising this is how “innovation” will be defined, but I’d like to think that there are better, less ethically murky ways to incorporate advertising “innovation” without requiring or encouraging members of a magazine’s staff to become advocates or spokesmen for an advertiser’s product.

Update: Mediaweek reports that the Bon Appetit Starbucks masthead treatment was a one-time deal.

We decided about 18 months ago to create a new kind of website here at Hammock.com. As individuals, we were using lots of new online media approaches and technology — and were incorporating them into work we were doing for clients. Our site, while attractive, was not a reflection of where we are — as a company or as individuals. So we headed into a new direction.
[After the jump, read more about how Hammock.com is evolving.]

A common failure among organizations is to forget all of the touch points one’s members or clients have with their brand, and the opportunity the organization has to capitalize on those engagement opportunities. What does that mean for today’s marketing and communications professionals? As we continue to be bombarded with millions of competing marketing messages, it’s important that your organization successfully breaks through the clutter. Here’s how you can make your organization’s marketing stand out:

Take inventory: Evaluate those communication vehicles already in place. Include magazines, newsletters, e-mail newsletters, annual reports, e-mails, Web site, direct mail, event promotions, advertising, telemarketing efforts and sales materials in your assessment—and be willing to discontinue those that aren’t working.

Revisit your logo: Is your logo representative of your organization’s mission and culture? If not, it might be time to consider investing in a new logo to reflect your brand more effectively.

Be consistent with print and online products: Make sure that all of your print and digital media products share a common design template. This includes the use of fonts, sizes, headers and overall aesthetic.

Create a style guide: If your organization does not already have one in place, author a rulebook of standards for editorial and design work.

Police your communications: Assign a member of your team to be responsible for monitoring all outgoing company communications to ensure that your organization’s guidelines are applied before the messaging goes out the door.

Last month there was a splash in the agency world when the Boston-based agency Modernista launched its new Web site. But this wasn’t your typical agency Web site. Modernista’s new site looks like this:

What? That’s right—Modernista’s homepage looks like a Wikipedia entry. Your eye is guided to the red area at the top where you read:

“Do not be alarmed. You are viewing Modernista through the eyes of the Web. The menu on the left is our homepage. Everything behind it is beyond our control.”

I applaud the bold statement Modernista is making with this approach. By structuring their site in such a creative, extreme way, the agency is illustrating not only that they “get” social media, but that it’s the right choice for anyone looking for an interactive, dynamic, cutting-edge ad agency.

Modernista and Hammock share a similar philosophy that embraces social media, and while Modernista exploits the medium a little more radically, their site and ours have a lot in common. We both post examples of our work on an easy to update, easy to view Flickr account. They post their digital work on del.icio.us, a social media bookmarking site; Hammock.com’s Industry News is fed from our del.icio.us account, too. Like Hammock.com, Modernista also utilizes the features of YouTube and Google Maps.

At Hammock, we believe that social media should become an integral part of corporate and association communications today. Like Modernista, we often demonstrate ways a site can take advantage of the benefits of online communities, such as Facebook, del.icio.us, YouTube and Twitter. We invest our time and energy into learning and utilizing these platforms because we’re convinced the old static Web site model is not only a thing of the past, but will prevent organizations from accomplishing their communications goals. To engage with your members or clients, you must utilize these new tools to connect with your audience online.