Happy Friday, Everyone! Welcome to the Friday Fix where we take a look at what’s going on in the wonderful world of the week in content marketing. This week we check out some new storytelling tools, take content storytelling lessons from contemporary artists, differentiate between Millennials and ‘Boomers, and examine using virtual reality and viral videos. So, grab a cup of your favorite cold brew, turn off your to-do list, and get ready to get your Friday Fix on courtesy of us!
5 Ways to Ideate Stories when It Feels like There’s Nothing New to Say
The Internet needs a ‘relate’ button because that’s how I feel about every one of pundit Taylor Mallory Holland’s pieces. You know the feeling, too, when you need to come up with something to write about but (cue tumbleweed rolling across your brain)… yeah, nothing happens. I mean, you could turn the fact that you have nothing to say into a story, but then again, Taylor already did that. At least she gives you ideas. She advises to keep learning, check analytics, expanding your beat, considering your readers’ (or your own) challenges, and finding new stories on stale topics. She uses her own experience as an example.
Why Virtual Reality is the Ultimate Storytelling Tool for Marketers
Nikki Gilliland’s article explores the state and potential for virtual reality storytelling / marketing. She shares the insight of Dominic Collins, a senior consultant at Jaunt, a California-based virtual reality production company. Collins is also a speaker at the Future of Digital Marketing event (June 7), which is always worth attending. I digress. According to the piece, “lack of awareness” is one of virtual reality’s biggest challenges, but if the content is out there, then the technology is going to have lasting influence.
How to Use Viral Videos in Content Marketing
yourstory.com
Pardeep Goyal is no hack when it comes to content marketing and creating content. In this piece, Pardeep shares three steps of a video marketing campaign (which is great for those who’ve never done it or are just learning the ropes of a new storytelling medium). Pardeep suggests things like uploading directly to Facebook for better traction, always including your name at the end of your video, and optimize your landing page for conversion. The piece also covers essential video-making processes, resources, and marketing strategies.
What Global Content Marketers Can Learn from Contemporary Visual Arts
As a writer, I see storytelling and writing as legitimate an art form as its more visual studio counterparts like painting, sculpting and the like. I include content storytelling in as a form of art as well, and it seems Carlos Garcia-Arista does. In this article, Carlos examines how contemporary artists embrace storytelling techniques that put the audience in charge of interpretation and the overall experience, and he relates how content storytellers can incorporate some of the same techniques in their “art.”
Brand Building Ain’t What It Used to Be
skyword.com
Jason Dooris takes a look at what brand building was and what it is. He uses GoPro’s addictive YouTube content as an example of how sharing the story of adventure, excitement, and human potential is building the GoPro brand. In the past, he points out, brands rarely had any connection to the story they were telling in that they weren’t living it. If you think about how brands are today, it’s true. I was eating Kashi cereal the other day and reading the back of the box, and they were talking about their process; they’re an organic, healthy cereal, and they live it. So, I absolutely agree with Jason’s discussion on how brand building has changed and where it is today (as well as the role storytelling plays in brand building).
Should Marketing to Millennials and ‘Boomers Really be that Different?
For all intents and purposes, Millennials and ‘Boomers speak different languages. You have the most technologically advanced generation ever (yet, my undergraduate students still can’t use Google to answer their own questions…I don’t understand this) and a generation that may still use a checkbook and have a telephone that plugs into the wall (my parents); however, are they really all that different? In this piece, Kyle Harper explores that question analyzes how to bridge the gap with the key take home being that a good story transcends time every time.
5 Necessary Tools to Tell Your Startup Story
inspirationfeed.com
Though Kayla Matthews’ content targets startups, the storytelling resources she suggests taking for a spin can be used by anyone with a story to tell. So, we all know that we all have different stories and different ways to tell those stories. In other words, if your story is particularly difficult to tell, PitchDeck from StoryHow might be the tool for you; if your story is best told by employees, the Kanbanzie is excellent for a team-based storytelling approach. Consequently, in addition to covering three other tools, Kayla’s article is also great at helping you figure out what kind of story you’re better off trying to tell.
25 Visual Content Marketing Tools to Engage Your Audience
This piece by Tomas Laurinavicius is pretty straightforward in that we all agree that storytelling is where it’s at and visual storytelling, well, that’s even more where it’s at. Of course, not everyone is a wizard and can create gorgeous videos and graphics and infographics with their minds (and literally nothing else); for those of us, Tomas has 25 handy tools that will help us create visually-rich stories. He provides a brief description of each resource, so it’s easy to get an idea of what will work best for your needs.
Tools, Resources, and Platforms to Streamline Content Marketing
Okay, so it seems this is the week to share tools, but you can never have enough resources, right? Unique to our other two tool-sharers this week, Dana Kajtezovic runs down three tools in various areas of the content production process that you might find fits your needs. From project management to blogging to content creation / optimization to collaboration, Dana’s piece has what you need to run like a well-oiled content marketing machine.
Content Marketing Benchmarks: Does Your Company Stack Up?
I once said that we - individuals - use numbers to validate and to identify ourselves. For example, I’m using my pre-baby #3 weight as a benchmark for what I’m trying to fitness my way back to (slowly but surely). Anyway, in this piece Sujan Patel talks about numbers, too, but he’s referring to your company’s individual, business, and industry level stats that let you know how you’re performing and while numbers aren’t everything, they certainly help us orient ourselves.
Amy Delcambre is a freelance content and travel writer from Mobile, Alabama with a Master's in Creative Writing. When she's not painting the page with nouns, verbs, and adverbs, she's slaying grammar beasts as a freelance editor and saving the world one sentence fragment at a time teaching university writing classes. In her free time, Amy enjoys cooking, traveling, and testing which plant species best survive prolonged neglect.
Connect with Amy: LinkedIn
