Here’s one for the doesn’t surprise us folder: Social media usage in content marketing jumped 500 percent in two years, according to a new Junta 42 study.
Other content products that have seen the biggest increases since 2008 are blogs, online video and eBooks, followed by digital magazines, podcasts and microsites.
Does this mean your company should be using the hottest tools and ditching the least popular ones? Not at all. What it means is that there are a lot more ways to communicate with your audience these days.

Are your content marketing efforts hitting a wall? Does it seem like your e-mail blasts and newsletters disappear into cyberspace? Do your carefully crafted Tweets, status updates and posts feel like a waste of time?
The truth is converting content into cash is easy, but it takes getting into the skin of your readers and winning their trust and friendship. Here are secrets on how to do this from online business blogger Dan Ohis:

A recent interview with Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 provides some great insight into the role of content today in the marketplace and why companies are looking to outsource the creation of this content to experts in custom media and content marketing. Today companies can’t rely on their customers to tell their story. They need their own custom content to tell their story, and then as Joe points out, “great content should spawn useful user-generated content.”
Here are Joe’s keys to success in content marketing:

Have you ever heard the expression, “You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else”? Well, the expression applies not just in relationships, but also when it comes to your content marketing strategy, according to Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta42.
In his latest blog post, Pulizzi acknowledges the fact that so many businesses spend countless hours and resources creating buyer personas (sometimes even giving them names), so they can understand who their customers are, without really understanding the brand they are selling (their brand persona).
How does this relate to content marketing? Isn’t content marketing all about the customer? Clearly not, when you consider Pulizzi’s example:
“Just think of the difference between Southwest and Continental airlines. Two reputable companies. Two very different companies. If Continental came out with a video series about their flight attendants doing tricks on passengers, it would seem severely out of place. Southwest, not so much.”

It may seem like newspapers, magazines and television stations are the experts when it comes to developing local content, but small businesses could have a corner on that market, too—if they just took advantage of it. More consumers are seeking online content about events they can attend in the community and information about local organizations—and small businesses are in the prime position to fill that niche, according this BizReport blog.
Social networks are the best way to publicize this information because they are “becoming the new search engine,” said Jon Zack, co-founder of EggZack.com, which gives businesses an online platform for creating, uploading and distributing online newsletters, event flyers and other marketing materials. Sharing content through social networks ensures that customers will hear about the event and perhaps even repost a link to the information for family and friends.

At Hammock, we know that a well-executed content marketing strategy will allow a client to influence the decision-making and buying behavior of their customers, which is why we were not surprised to read the results of the latest annual Junta 42 Content Marketing Spending Survey, showing that 59 percent of those surveyed plan to increase their spending on content marketing in 2010. For marketers, the research show that content marketing spending is growing rapidly as a portion of their overall budget—serving as 33 percent of current overall marketing budgets, compared to only 11 percent in 2008. Marketers are expected to spend those bigger budgets on social media (72 percent), enewsletters (63 percent), blogs (63 percent), whitepapers (48 percent) and article marketing (48 percent).
View the Content Marketing Spending Report.

You’ve heard it before, the people who don’t really “get” Twitter say it’s just for telling other people about what you had for lunch. But if you’re a marketer, you know Twitter is (and can be) so much more than that.
Jason Falls knows this. In a recent post on Social Media Today, he breaks down the four social media marketing styles that he’s observed using Twitter:

• The Conversationalist. Those who “use Twitter for their business, but seem more apt and willing to participate in the daily chitter-chatter…”
• The Conversational Marketer. The marketer on Twitter who “… has a more obvious, even stated, purpose for using Twitter.”
• The Salesman. Falls says this is the marketer who pushes products more than 50 percent of the time, conversing with others even less.
• The Broadcaster. Falls initially called this type of marketer the “spammer,” but notes many of them definitely have a following.

So, which marketing style do you have on Twitter?

Ten years ago, custom content meant a newsletter or a member magazine of varying sizes and frequency. And today? It probably wouldn’t be an overstatement to say a company’s options are endless in how it can reach and engage current and prospective customers.
As John Bell points out on his Digital Influence Mapping Project blog, custom content, especially the digital kind, today can take many forms.
It could be an app, like the ones created by Kraft Foods and Geico Insurance. Or it could be a community site, like Weber Nation, created for owners of Weber grills to share their tips, techniques and grilling victories.
And the list goes on. There are more options today than in the past, but the goal of custom content has always been the same—to engage customers in a meaningful way.
The challenge for marketers is figuring out which strategy works best for their audience. Are you a marketer facing that challenge? We can help.

You may have heard about the four P’s of B2C marketing: product, price, placement and promotion. But what are the rules when it comes to B2B marketing? In his blog, marketing guru Paul Dunay outlines the four C’s of B2B marketing, which he argues are the most applicable principles to the challenges marketers face today. They are:

1. Content. Creating a steady stream of content to engage your audience.
2. Connection. Creating content that connects with your target audience.
3. Communication. Creating content that engages your audience in an ongoing conversation.
4. Conversion. Creating content that converts your audience into customers.

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: