The word content today means many things: Writing, photography, video, illustrations, design, interactive games, apps and data. Content can refer to a wide variety of media, also, from beautiful coffee-table magazines to how-to videos appearing on the web.
Because marketers are discovering that the difference between success and failure is often the quality, strategy and measurement of an organization’s content, we’ve decided to more clearly define our services by using the term “content marketing” to stress the solutions and support we can provide our clients.

Whether it be for the blogs we maintain or the magazines we publish, we get lots of press releases and “pitches” at Hammock, so we appreciated — and wanted to pass along — these tips for online publicity from writer Lindsay Robertson. Her post goes into detail on each one, but here are the highlights:

Why would a marketer buy a Superbowl ad rather than hit a home run with a year-long content marketing strategy?
Yesterday, I wrote about some of the year-long content marketing plans I’d execute instead of spending $3 million on a Superbowl ad. (If you read to the 5th point, my list of ideas had more than $2 million left over.)
But why do companies keep spending money on the hail-Mary passes that a $3 million Superbowl ad represents? In some cases — Budweiser beer springs to mind — an ad during the Superbowl makes lots of sense. Budweiser probably generates tens of millions in revenue during the game itself, making the ad something of a “Let’s go out to the lobby” jingle from the old days at the movie theater.
But for advertisers who are using the ad to generate conversation about their brands or products, the venue and costs make little sense. So why do they spend such a significant portion of their budgets on a 30-second ad and not a year-long content marketing strategy?

Next Feb. 7, a 30-second Superbowl ad will cost around $3 million — just for airtime. That doesn’t include creative or production costs.
So what do you get for that $3 million? Lots of eyeballs and, the theory goes, lots of people talking about you before and after the game. Lots and lots of blog posts and Twitter users talking about your ad and pointing to your YouTube account.
The PR bonanza is supposed to make the $3 million airtime seem like a bargain.
I’m sorry. I believe most Superbowl ads are a waste of money.

While Hammock Inc. is known for providing a wide array of outsourced services related to media and community strategy, creation and management, we are also a “user” of a wide array of outsourced services to do our jobs and manage our business.
For example, in a typical year, we will work with around 150 freelance writers, photographers, illustrators, videographers and web developers. We also outsource a long list of administrative and technical support services ranging from managing payroll to keeping our color printers humming.
Being a customer of outsourced services has taught us a lot about being a provider of outsourced services. For the most part, these lessons have come from taking what works in one experience or relationship and applying it to the next similar challenge. I’ll admit, with much regret, that some of these lessons have come from our being “bad clients.”

Struggling through what speaker after speaker acknowledged is one of the most challenging times ever faced by the association community, there was still a strong note of determination and resolve among the attendees, panelists, speakers and exhibitors at the ASAE Conference and Expo.

One such call to be open to the opportunities found in times of crisis and challenge came from best-selling author and consultant Gary Hamel, who first sounded a warning to those married to the status quo.

“Problems happen when the leaders of an association are behind the thinking of their members,” he said. “That’s when denial occurs. That’s when digging in and protecting the status quo occurs.” It’s also when most great changes take place, he declared.

Being open to experimentation — and the failure it often brings — was another theme heard throughout the event. Again, as Hamel said, using acorns from an oak tree as a metaphor: “It takes a thousand nutty ideas to come up with one or two that take root and grow into giants.”

Perhaps the most universal theme heard was the challenge to association executives to drop their belief in certain “myths” that are preventing them from moving forward. Here are just a few of the myth-challenging assertions we heard association executives and presenters discuss:

It’s not just the economy: We’d strongly advise anyone who is an executive at an association to review the most recent ASAE research report on the impact of the economy on associations. (You can download the PDF here.) After reading it, you may want to believe that yes, it is the economy as membership and participation in associations — especially professional associations where dues and expenses are covered by an employer — have been greatly impacted by the downturn. However, the research also shows there are factors beyond the economy that are fundamentally changing the association landscape. Some of them have to do with the ways individuals are organizing and sharing knowledge online, others have to do with generational shifts and others relate to the perception and expectation of the value one receives from membership in the association. Bottom line: Don’t fool yourself into believing that the economy recovering is going to translate into the recovery of an association who does not address other fundamental issues.

The solution is not technology: Of course, a stroll through the ASAE Expo hall would astound anyone not familiar with the array of technology now available to organize, administer, track, communicate with and train staff and members of an association. But presenter after presenter warned that placing too much belief or faith in a “platform” instead of into “relationships” or “innovation” can lead to failure. Charlene Li, author and new media analyst, said in a keynote address that captured the message of many of the conference panels: “Don’t trust a specific technology to be the answer. Next year, there will be a new set of technologies, so it’s not about technology — it’s about strategy, approach, being wherever your members are.”

Let go of control: The economy may have been the backdrop of the conference, but “social media” was the topic most discussed in general sessions, learning lab panels and in the hallways. Frankly, trying to decide what exactly the term means was a challenge for some association executives. By the end of the meeting, however, the message was clear: Social media is not something an association can “own” or “control.” Associations can participate in conversations and help members connect with one another — within the association context and outside it — but the idea that “social media” fits within the paradigm of association staff talking “to” the members was clearly dispelled. Time after time, in panel sessions or in the hallway, we heard examples of how associations were struggling with groups of members who were “setting up their own websites” or “planning their own ‘un-conferences.'” The best advice we heard was when someone in a hallway conversation responded to another attendee who complained about such a situation where a member had organized an unauthorized meeting that corresponded with the group’s national gathering: “That’s who I would be recruiting as a board member.”

Yes, there was a lot of fear and dispair at the meeting. But we heard a lot of optimism and hope, as well. Innovation, creativity and new business models are all going to be a part of the future of successful associations.

And the future has already started.

The editor of the magazine Publishing Executive was kind enough to ask me to write an guest column on the topic of What I’ve learned about magazines from blogging. The column can be found on Publishing Executive website. For archival purposes, I’m posting it here, as well:

It’s been 10 years since I set up my blog, RexBlog.com.

Back then, I never imagined that one day I’d be described as “a magazine publishing blogger” or a “CEO blogger” or a “media blogger.” For a decade before blogging came along, my company and I had been involved in a wide array of online community platforms like e-mail listservs and different types of forums. As I had never been called a “forum-er” or “listserv-er” or, for that matter, an e-mailer or telephoner, I never suspected that using a blog would be anything more than just another platform to share information with a few dozen people.

So I was shocked the first time that someone at a magazine publishing-related event said to me, “Hey, you’re that blogger.” I didn’t know if he meant it as an accusation or a compliment. I still don’t.

My blog was started long before marketers discovered them, so I wasn’t weighed down by the responsibility of knowing I was supposed to accomplish anything, “branding-wise,” with a blog. “Monetization” was not a word ever used in a sentence with the word “weblog” back then. Like the show “Seinfeld,” my blog was about nothing. Therefore, I could make it about anything. And since I’m in the custom publishing business and a big part of my professional day is spent creating and publishing magazines, it is easy to understand why a significant percentage of the nearly 9,000 posts I’ve written over the past decade have been about the magazine industry.

No doubt, you’ve missed most of those 9,000 posts. Probably, you’ve missed all of them. So to give you a glimpse of what I’ve had to say about magazines over the past decade, here’s a run-through of some of the recurring observations and discoveries I’ve made and shared:

1. Magazines and blogs are made for each other. Some blogs and new-media companies compete for breaking news and advertising dollars with old-line media companies that publish magazines. However, I can’t conceive of two media, as a medium or media platform, that are more complementary than a magazine and weblog. Blogs can break stories; magazines can explain stories. Magazines can survey and analyze issues; blogs can archive as much data as necessary to back up your analysis. A blog can fill in many gaps that a magazine schedule leaves wide open.

2. People in the magazine industry are consistently inarticulate in their attempts to describe the qualities of the magazine format, especially in comparison to the Web. One of the strangest reasons I’ve heard magazine people suggest the medium will survive forever is this: It’s the perfect format for bathroom reading. It would be funny, if I didn’t hear it used so often. Note to magazine people: Bathroom reading material is not very high on the media food chain. While the magazines my company publishes may, on occasion, be read there, I can assure you it is not the venue for which any of them are designed.

3. No one will ever collect NationalGeographic.com. OK, here is my suggestion to those in the magazine industry who haven’t figured out how to compare magazines with the Web (see point #2). The magazines we love are not merely things we read and enjoy; they are expressions of who we are. We display them on coffee tables and desks the way people wear designer labels on clothes or purchase one model of car over another. People collect magazines, trade them and display them on decorative racks or in frames hung on the wall. Magazines provide us with mementos of our life’s journey. They allow us to savor our passions and save special moments. The magazines we love are so important to us, they make us feel guilty to consider throwing them away. The Web is a wonderful thing when you want to drink information from a fire hose. But the magazines people love are like bottles of fine wine: Even if you have to wait a little before opening it, there’s something a bit exciting about the anticipation.

4. The people who say print is dead don’t actually mean print is dead. People who write blog headlines and book titles have the need to boil down complex issues into catch phrases, so they write stuff like “Five more signs that print is dead.” However, if you actually read what people write under those “print is dead” headlines, you’ll find they’re talking about a business model and not a publishing format. Also, I’ve never heard of anyone who writes about the death of print turning down a book offer.

5. Successful magazines succeed for three reasons. They appeal to a narrowly focused audience of people who share a deep, personal or professional passion. They have content that is required reading if you want to belong to the community of individuals who share that passion. They are published by people who understand the power of aesthetics and good design.

6. More magazines play a role in a non-publishing business model than in a publishing business model. Just think of all those alumni magazines, association magazines, corporate employee magazines. They exist to support a business model that has nothing to do with advertising and circulation revenue. The “magazine business” is not the same as “the magazine business model.”

7. A digital magazine will never replace a printed magazine. While I’m an advocate of e-books and e-publications and all things e-ish, I don’t believe the best use of new media is to replicate old media. Digital magazines can be a powerful “push” medium if they utilize their unique capabilities and become something that offers an experience beyond—or at least different from—what is possible in the printed version of a magazine. But don’t think you can slap a combustible engine on a buggy and end up with a Lamborghini.

8. The magazine format can contain content that is “journalism” or it can contain content that’s anything but journalism. Blogging about magazines has made me appreciate the vast diversity of magazines. Before there was the Web, the closest thing to it was a library magazine section or a big-city magazine newsstand. But those just scratched the surface of what’s out there. I’ve been a part of many blogger debates that never would have taken place had their originator understood that “magazines” aren’t just about serious news and aren’t all published in New York by giant companies.

9. Another thing I’ve learned from blogging: Make lists end on a random number other than 10.

If you enjoy celebrating local food — certainly my favorite local food, by the way — then mark your calendar for Saturday, Aug. 8 for the East Nashville Tomato Art Fest. (July 31 is the deadline to submit your tomato haikus — see below for details.)

So what exactly does one do at a tomato festival? Well, first off, don’t expect it to be like La Tomatina, that gigantic tomato food fight that takes place in Spain every year. We have too much love and respect for the tomato to use them as projectiles.

The East Nashville Tomato Art Fest has plenty of fun-for-the-whole-family activities with live music (hey, it’s Nashville) and art and fun competitions all related to the tomato theme.

No doubt, members of Team Hammock will report back on the fun. See you there!

*East Nashville Tomato Art Fest official website
*Map

Written and Doodled by Rex

Earlier this summer, at the annual conference of our client, Association Media & Publishing, I enjoyed a presentation on “visual thinking” by Dan Roam, author of the best-selling book, Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. As you can see in the photo on the right, I got into the spirit of the presentation and took notes about his presentation on the back of a napkin — more on that in a minute.

At Hammock, we’re constantly challenging ourselves — and the photographers, illustrators and videographers with whom we work — to tell stories visually, not just to think of their work as something to support the words in our stories. It’s true what they say about pictures and a thousand words — but for some reason, people don’t feel comfortable with trying to solve problems and develop strategies with pictures.

Recently, I stumbled across a debate I could never imagine taking place. My friend Joe Pulizzi at CustomPublishers.com was recounting his numerous discussions with individuals in the custom publishing business who view it as being separate from services related to social media.

As anyone who knows me will easily know, I can’t comprehend how anyone — a marketer or any creator of custom media — could perceive that “social media” is not only a part of what a custom publishing firm does, it’s the heart of what we should be about.

First, let me explain a few things.

1. I believe the term “social media” is just a temporary label. Those who follow the media, marketing and technology fields need an umbrella term to describe all the methods people are using to identify and express themselves online. For the moment, the term “social media” is a catch-all phrase to describe everything from Twitter to Facebook. So, remember, “social media” = “the way in which people identify and express themselves online.”
2. At Hammock Inc., we have never described what we do in terms of “creating content.” We are in the relationship-building business. From the day our company was created nearly 19 years ago, we have always clearly conveyed that our job is helping our clients create longer-lasting and deeper relationships with customers, members, supporters, alumni or whatever term a marketer applies to those with whom it has a relationship based on a shared passion.
3. To us, “custom publishing” has always been a means to facilitate conversation among all those who share a common love, passion, commitment or special relationship. Before the word became a cliche, we used “community” to describe the goal of successful custom publishing.
4. While we are known for our magazines — and our love of magazine story-telling, photography, illustration and design — Hammock Inc., from Day 1 of its existence, has also been committed to being on the leading edge of technology that supports our clients’ efforts to build strong relationships with their audiences. That means we were early developers of a wide array of interactive media in the early 1990s and managed listservs and CompuServe forums in the mid-1990s and created and managed web-based forums and communities beginning in 1995.

So you can see, I don’t even comprehend why a custom publishing company can say it’s not in the social media business.

To me, whatever media — magazines, online, video, audio — that help communities build around shared passions is the business we’re in. Building stronger, longer, more mutually-beneficial relationships is what we do.