Her presentation illustrated how content strategy creates:

• More airtight solutions
• Save time, budget, and energy on iteration
• More cohesive user experience
• Higher conversions

An organized and effective content strategy can inform the internal execution of every project:

Designers:

An informed content strategy can help designers to communicate a message more effectively. What is the message architecture of your brand? What are you trying to communicate? When you answer these questions before you begin to design, you come away with a better final product.

“Content and visual design that share a message architecture can foster a more cohesive, consistent and richer user experience.”

Words are cheaper than Photoshop proofs — they are also easier for clients to understand.

Copywriting:

Copywriting and content strategy are not the same thing, according Margot. For her, comparing copywriting and content strategy is like comparing photography and design. Photography is one part of design, but fails to describe the entire concept, much like copywriting  fails to describe the entire concept of  content strategy.

SEO:

User experience with content begins with the meta-data. While it is tempting to plug as many keywords into the meta-data as possible, don’t forget that meta-description is the first experience that a user has with your messaging. Hook your users with meta-data, and build the tone and brand of the website right away.

Project Managers and Information Architects:

Without an informed content strategy, it is extremely difficult for project managers to map out an entire project. How do you create timelines or benchmarks when you don’t know what it is you are going to say?

To develop a solid content strategy, project managers can start with a content audit that answers these questions:

1) Is the content appropriate? Does the content reflect the overall brand messaging?

2) Is the content current? Is the content an accurate reflection of what our brand is accomplishing right now?

3) Is the content relevant? Is our content useful to the reader? Does it answer the questions and respond to the interests that drove the user to the site?

Social Media:

Great social media interaction and engagement demands a good content strategy. Make sure that you allow for two-way interaction, and do an effective job of tailoring your messaging for different social media channels. Content needs to change based on the channel.

Hopefully this recap did justice to an amazing panel. For more resources on content strategy follow the hashtag #ContentStrategy on Twitter, sometimes shortened to #CS,  the LinkedIn Content Strategy group, or ContentStrategy.com

You can see more of Margot’s presentations at Slideshare.com/mbloomstein.

After this panel, I don’t think I’ll ever scoff again when someone says “content is king“. Will you?

The conference is a mecca for all things digital and I am thrilled at the opportunity to attend. I will be conducting interviews, writing about different panels, and live tweeting some events for The Ocean Agency. Here is my full schedule:

SXSWi Coverage

I will write about 1 panel per day, my tentative editorial calendar:

Friday, March 12th:

“Content Strategy: What’s in it for you?”. This panel will discuss the future of content on the web. I’m very excited to learn how to best use content strategy to drive a marketing initiative.

Saturday, March 13th:

“The Future of Influence” Influence is a term that gets thrown around a lot on the web these days. This will definitely be an a fascinating discussion pertaining to “influencer marketing”.

Sunday, March 14th:

“The Facebook Developer Garage, Austin” With its 400 million users, Facebook has the power to eat the entire web. I’m excited to see the latest innovations from Facebook developers, and understand how we can utilize Facebook more effectively for our clients.

Monday March 15th:

“Social Search, A Little Help From My Friends” Social search profoundly impacts SEO. Excited to hear about the future of social search, and expert opinions on the matter.

Tuesday March 16th :

“Can Web 2.0 Kill the Real Estate Industry”. As an agency that completes digital strategy for large real estate clients, this panel will be very interesting.

And of course, there are multiple parties, meetups, tweetups etc that I am very excited about. If you want to meet up or connect to learn more about The Ocean Agency, let me know on Twitter: @pragerd or @theOceanAgency.

If you can’t attend the event and are looking for coverage of a certain panel, let me know, either in the comments or on Twitter. The first SXSW interactive event for the Ocean Agency, and for me, should be an amazing experience. Can’t wait to report back!

Tips and Tricks for SXSW:

I’m bringing an extra-phone battery, laptop battery, water bottle and comfortable shoes (even though I did contemplate wearing cowboy boots). Suggestions of other essentials are welcome.

Cool SXSW applications:

1) Sitby.us — Developed right here in Chicago, Sitby.us takes checking in to a whole new level. You can check in at your seat at panels so you can find your friends in the immense Austin Conference center.

2) Mashable’s Austin Real Time Directory powered by Citrix. Upload you itinerary, google calendar, and whatever else you have going on in Austin all in one place. Pretty neat.

Social Networking Site to Watch at SXSW:

Plancast allows you to subscribe to your friends upcoming plans and network before events occur. It’s a great tool for conferences and for folks who go to a lot of networking events.

Looking forward to a great SXSW 2010! Hope I’ll see you there, or around the interwebs.

With the emergence and mass-adoption of social media, marketing buzz words are now on steroids. So, here at the Ocean Agency, we thought we would help out business owners by translating marketing buzz words and break down how they can improve your business, minus the marketing speak.

1) Augmented Reality

Definition: Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.” (Wikipedia)

Our Definition: Mixing technology into physical real-world experiences

Example:

Does augmented reality make sense for you business? Possibly.

Here is one example:

If you’re a restaurant, you could have the food items on the menu reveal themselves in all 3-D glory.

Obviously, augmented reality is expensive to produce, but the future lies in digital experiences mixed in with consumers physical spaces that tell a compelling story, or, more importantly, offer some kind of value.

Biggest take away for your businesses: Incorporate technologies that improve the experience of your customers.

2) Geo-Location

Definition:” Geo-location is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor or other.” (Wikipedia)

Our Definition: Identifying and targeting  customers based on their location.

Examples: Foursquare location targeted specials and advertisements:

Does geo-location make sense for your business? Probably.

This one is definitely living up to the hype thus far. With the expansion of social networking on mobile devices, people are sharing their location data at an increasing rate. Businesses can create relevant ads on these platforms that aren’t intrusive.

With this data businesses can help consumers make decisions, save money, and build brand loyalty. A win-win for both brands and consumers.

Something to keep in mind:

Recently, Foursquare has partnered with a variety of major media outlets like BravoTV and the New York Times. The only incentive for users from these partnerships?

A Bravo TV or New York Times Olympic Badge.

These are great incentives for Foursquare addicted PR, communication and markerting types, but in order to encourage mainstream adoption the incentives will have to increase.

Biggest take-away for your business: Make your place of businesses a true destination. People share their location to gain incentives and because it says something about them. Ask yourself this question: Would people want to tell the world that they are at your place of business? Why? Why not?

3) Brand Utility:

Definition: “The brand utility method is concerned less with feature sets and more with functionality. How can your products make the lives of consumers better? That is the question that a brand utility advertising campaign seeks to answer.”  (Printing and Advertising)

Our Definition: Improving the lives of your customers to inspire loyalty in your customer base.

Example:

ING Direct.

If ING Direct is a bank, why does it have cafes in major cities in the US?

Brand Utility.

The ING Direct cafe offers free wifi, $1 coffee/tea and $1 pastries, in addition to employees who know all about ING Direct products.

They improve the lives of their customers by offering discounted coffee and food and even give those with an ING direct account free coffe or tea on Fridays. The ING direct cafe concept is a perfect example of brand utility, and it makes incentives offered by other banks look lame/miniscule in comparison.

Biggest take away for your business: If you improve the lives of your customers, they will thank you publicly and keep coming back.

What can you do to improve the lives of your customers in a way that fits with your overall brand message?

Alright, now it’s your turn. Business owners:

Would you use these tools in your marketing plan? Why or why not?

What makes this even more interesting is that 93% of teens are online:

These figures illustrate something really important about teenagers: They care about their friends and their actual physical network. Moreover, psychology has taught us that many teenagers) are terrible at planning ahead and thinking about the future. They live in the moment and with the consequences. The prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that is most involved in future planning and decision making, does not fully develop until your early 20s.

What does this have to do with “public” information sharing, like Twitter or blogging?

1) In order to blog or tweet, you inherently have to believe that you have something remotely valuable to say. This requires both a sense of personal identity and self-esteem, both of which are developing during the teen years.

2) Tweeting and blogging are linked to “personal branding” more than anything else. Personal branding requires foresight, introspection and networking with people who aren’t your “real” friends. If teens are deeply focused on physical friendship and developing a personal identity, the link between Twitter, blogs and personal branding might be seen as “lame” or inauthentic.

If teens don’t tweet or blog, how do you target teens with an interactive marketing campaign?

1) Target teens through their social graph, and create content that will give them social capital within their real life circle of friends:

A deal, discount or contest may not be enough. For teens to pay attention, creates something innovative that will make them look good within their group of friends.

2) SMS campaigns work:

We have seen SMS campaigns take off. Texting is something that is natural to teenagers, and because its ubiquitous and easy it’s accepted by teens everywhere.

So these tactics are working now, but what about the near future?

1) Video:

Check your social networks. Are you starting to see more Skype and Google video chats going on? Video-chatting is big among teens because it reinforces the bonds with their physical friend network, and it’s easier than a phone call or text if you really want to talk to someone. It’s the most rewarding virtual hang out.

Businesses and brands can do much more with video chatting. Whether it be in the customer service, branding or public relations realm.

2) Mobile application tie-ins

This year, the Dockers Super Bowl commercial will feature a tie in with “Shazzam,” one of the most popular smart phone applications out there. Shazzam tells you the artist and album of any song that is playing where you are — just hold up your phone. For the Dockers ad, if you utilize Shazzam during the commercial, it will take you to a site where you can download the jingle from the commercial.

It is innovative thoughts like these — taking services that teens already use and creating new uses — that have a big impact.

Businesses should aim to find tie-ins with well-known and well-used mobile applications.

3) Geo-location (that makes sense)

I’m not talking Foursquare. I’m talking geo-location tools that are relevant to teens — location tools that quickly and easily show them where there friends are. Think Facebook with check-ins that are broadcasted to who you want, when you want.

Alright youth-obsessed society, let’s talk about how to target teens with interactive marketing!

Today, Cisco has released findings from its latest study about how business use social media to colloberate and interact with customers.

What is so special about this study?

1) The process:

The study utilized qualitative and not just quantitative methods. By using in depth interviews by graduate students and professors from universities all over the world, the data is espcially robust and reliable.

2) The findings:

Companies need to integrate their new media efforts with internal IT professionals, and that internal social media use needs to be more effectively organized and regulated.

IT professionals? Regulation of social media efforts? What does this mean for your business?

1) You need to integrate social media into all aspects of your business.

No longer is social media merely a marketing, communications, or public relations tool it is an essential element in the structure and design of your business.

IT pepole, or at the very least, an employee who is comfortable with all the technological aspects of your business needs to put these social technologies in place.

Just as your IT person may have set up your wireless network, printer, or microsoft outlook, they need to install and regulate social media applications into your technological infrastructure.

2) You need social media guidelines and policies for you business:

Having a social strategy is more than having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or micro-blogging sites. It’s about having a vision and the infrastructure to encourage employee collaboration both internally and externally on social channels. Take time to craft a social business manifesto, that includes an overall strategy, but also includes social media guidelines for employees and management.

As a business owner, how do you control what employees post on social networks? Well, you can’t. However, you can have clear guidelines that dictate what is effective, what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable.

While the importance of these concepts have absolutely been written about before, the qualitative design, validity, and caliber of the Cisco study illustrates the importance of social business in a profound way.

Here is another great write up of the study.

It’s time. Social media is no longer an add on, it is an integral part of your future business design.

How have you integrated social into your business infrastructure?

1) Mobile Search

Google has recognized the growing power and widespread use of the mobile internet and is attempting to engage people on their mobile devices. Especially when it comes to searching for business listings, restaurants, or directions these are natural things to search for on mobile devices.

Each favorite place listing has a “QR” code attached that takes the mobile user directly to the businesses’ Google listing.

Great way to spur the use of mobile Google search.

2) Geo-location

Watch out. Google knows us early adopter folks are having fun with Foursquare, Gowalla and a few others. With Google’s favorite places mobile program they are setting the stage to create contests, coupons, and scavenger hunts with Google engineering behind it. This means amazing usability and simple design.

3) Augmented Reality

Imagine walking down the street and having a coupon code from Google pop up based on your mobile search for “ice cream” on Google Maps.

How about holding your phone up, and the places with Google business listings appear with a rating, user reviews, and daily deals?

While the Yelp Iphone app has tried to harness augmented reality technology, Google will definitely do it better.

4) Deals, Coupons, User Generated Content

Why do you follow a business on Twitter or Facebook? Generally, it’s to make yourself privy to special discounts, offers, and hear about brand happenings first.

So the Google favorite places program encourages businesses to create a profile where they can post coupons, deals, pictures and video. So for all us social media deal and contest hounds, will the Google favorite places program draw us away from following brands and businesses on social media profiles? Maybe.

5) Measurement

How do you measure mobile social media networking?

Well, while social media is amazingly important for branding, PR, and customer satisfaction, when it comes to pure social media marketing businesses want to see the bottom line. They want traffic, engagement, and sales.

With the favorite places business profiles, Google has made it easier than ever to track that “bottom line”.

It’s pretty easy to imagine a world where coupon codes, special offers and deals are integrated into your overall website analytics.

Imagine if you could tell a client: 240 people came to your store after finding your Monday special via Google maps on their  mobile phone.

While we can obviously track social media contests, coupons and interactions — a direct integration into Google Analytics could revolutionize the way we measure online marketing efforts.

These are just my initial thoughts after recieving the Google Favorite Places invite, how do you think it will impact online business marketing?

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you have been to a meet-up or tweet up. Let me tell you something, I love meeting new people and I love social events, but generally, tweet up are pretty bland. You go and you talk about how awesome Twitter is, and sit on your phone tweeting the whole time, and never make any real connections.

The Social Media Club Chicago holiday party/event last night, showed me just how valuable and fun a social media event can be. Here’s what they did right:

1) Got big name speakers:

Erik Qualman . His videos and books do a great job of answering the question, what’s the ROI of social media? He gave an interesting speech. He really drove the point home that social media is not just a PR or Marketing tool — it touches ever facet of your business. I’ve seen both his videos, but it was awesome watching it with the man who created them.

Shel Israel pretty much wrote the book on Twitter. It was great to see him in person. One of my favorite things about Shel is that he feels no pressure to conform or find value in social media tools just because they are popular or catch on with the masses. Google Wave, Facebook Connect? He doesn’t like them because they don’t offer any real value to him personally. You really feel like you are getting his true voice and opinions. While he may be promoting his books, you also get a real sense of his personality (pretty sure there’s a social media marketing lesson in there somewhere).

2) Found sponsors that are passionate about social media.

Just as it wouldn’t make sense for Disney to sponsor the AVN convention, it wouldn’t make sense for a company without a social media presence to sponsor a social media holiday party.

A great example, including Ramon DeLeon and Domino’s as a sponsor.

3) Maintain a strong community, while still welcoming new members

This was my first #SMCChicago event and I was welcomed with open arms. Breaking into an established community is one of the hardest things to do, and it’s wonderful that I was allowed to. At the same time, they did a great job of rewarding their existing community members with raffles, prizes, and even quips in between presentations. This is a group that is passionate about social media, but also passionate about their existing community and friendship.

4) Focusing on fun in addition to networking.

While networking is obviously a draw, this event was first and foremost about celebrating with people who share similiar passions, and recognize the changing nature of the way we communicate. While, it’s exciting and challenging to explain social media to clients, sometimes you just want to hang out with people who get it.

5) Low price point

The low price point of the event allowed just about everyone and anyone to attend. From freelancers who use social media to promote their business to big time marketing agency owners who use social media for some of the largest companies, all were able to learn from each other.

The low price point made the event feel like a gathering of friends, rather than a pedantic high powered networking event that aimed to have marketers teach other marketers how to “powerfully leverage social media for online word of mouth”.While those high powered events are important,

I’ll take a social media event that focuses on friendship and community rather than how to generate social media ROI any day. Besides, as us social media users know, relationship building, networking and friendship are integral to achieving that ROI anyway.

Personal highlights:

Loved the ugly sweater contest, still a little bitter I came in second. I really enjoyed talking with Ramon De Leon, who made the fantastic point that “We need social media war stories not success stories”. I agree. We know its here to stay, most of us aren’t working with Dell or Comcast. Give us some war stories.

Meeting Barbara Maldonado was so much fun. Her energy and enthusiasm for social media really translates from the web into real life.

Tim Jahn is always one of my favorite people to see at events. He always has a smile on his face, and always makes me feel at ease at any social media meetup.

Of course, the moment when David Armano , a consistent SM thought leader who inspires me to work harder everyday, ran across the stage to use the restroom. Classic.

I would love to hear all of your thoughts on the social media club Chicago party, what did you enjoy? What could be improved?

Thanks to Interactive Amy, Barbara Maldonado, JWilly, and all the others who made the evening such a success.

While the 1-800flowers.com store is exciting there are some issues. Firstly, let’s say you want to join the 1-800flowers.com group. So, you go into your Facebook search box and look for 1-800flowers.com. What comes up first? A group called, 1-800 flowers sucks. Don’t believe me? Look for yourself:

Ah, the beauty of social media. Sometimes it is easier to find negative groups about your brand than anything else.

Now groups like this may scare brands away from creating an ecommerce platform on Facebook or any other social site. What they need to remember is influence. 82 people in the group “1-800 flowers sucks” has minimal influence compared to the 2,000 fans of the service. Now, if those numbers were flipped, 1800-flowers.com would have something to worry about.

When social media first emerged, users were inspired by the ability of the platform to encourage outspoken consumer advocacy. However, many consumer advocates became selfish whiners, calling out brands not on behalf of consumers, but leveraging their influence for personal gain.  As we move into an age where social media is no longer new, those users who maliciously attacked brands for personal gain are not going to be viewed as innovators, but as obnoxious muckrakers who are selfish and tiresome.

Many brands are scared to use social media because of the possibility of uncontrollable negative PR. What they have to realize is that, unless your brand has a negative image already, the pros of using social media outweigh the cons. Think about all the new customers and free press 1800-flowers.com has gotten based off their facebook integration. That could be your brand, just be prepared to ignore the small groups of people who think your brand “sucks”.

For more about this story check out these writeups:
Digital Media Buzz

Marketing Vox

E-Consultancy

Agency2

Be sure to follow the Ocean Agency and Me on Twitter.

So by now, you’ve probably seen this video, which recently exploded across the internet. Maybe it’s the catchy Chris Brown song, or the joyful wedding party, or just the general gutsiness it would take to do this that makes the video so addictive– whatever it is, it’s already gotten almost 2 million views on YouTube. Here at Ocean, our office has been bumping to “Forever” all day.

The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” is the first and only video posted by Jill and Kevin, a couple from Minnesota. And that may just be the reason behind it becoming such a viral hit. It feels real, genuine and legitimate, and not like content created by a marketing company and planted on YouTube to drive traffic to a website or spread brand awareness. People love to share it, the defining characteristic of a viral success, because it comes from other people just like them, who were looking to share a moment of their life. If you are trying to create a viral smash hit, remembering the importance of the urge to share and emulating Jill and Kevin in their genuiness would probably take you a long way toward success.

Who benefits from this kind of viral video, though? Clearly, Jill and Kevin weren’t pushing any agenda with their wedding day stunt, but just expressing their personality and sharing it with friends. This time, Chris Brown may actually be the winner. According to The Idolater, his song “Forever,” is “currently No. 45 on the iTunes Store’s singles chart, and No. 41 on the corresponding chart at Amazon MP3.” Around a year after this song made it’s original pop chart splash, that’s a big deal. It also makes us agree with The Idolator writers–  maybe Chris Brown should send Jill and Kevin a wedding present for the free press. You know, something nicer than a breadmaker.

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Case in point: Facebook has a gift program, that allows you to place a gift on other people’s profiles. They charge a nominal fee for the gift, and brands can also pay for gift placement.  When they were trying to get their gift program off the ground, one of the free gifts they offered was a beer mug filled with delicious brew. It was a huge hit. Facebook leveraged free effectively, and today Facebook gifts are everywhere, partly thanks to that little beer stein.

Beyond the obvious qualities that allow beer to connect people, companies that make beer, especially those who make hard to find micro and specialty brews, portray themselves as especially social — just regular folks who enjoy drinking with friends and savoring the flavor of life. Even larger brands, such as Sam Adams, have adopted this approach, featuring “brew-masters” in commercials who describe their passion for beer.

These tactics allow beer companies to appear open, likeable, and as beverage experts. At face value, many of these micro-breweries market themselves so effectively that you would swear that they would give their beer away for free if they could.

So the goal of most breweries is to appear open, social, and friendly. Social media allows brands to connect with their fans, appear transparent, and increase their likeability. So, I’ll come right out and say it. Beer companies, especially small micro-breweries with a following of passionate fans, need to use social media.

By using social media specialty and micro breweries can further their already effective branding, and be as social as possible. Beyond branding, Social media also gives you amazing niche marketing. Micro and specialty breweries definitely cater to a growing niche market, that probably is engrossed in social media already.

So, to all you micro and specialty breweries out there, leverage this passion and further your branding by using social media. Whether it is creating a facebook fanpage where you advertise events and talk about new brews, or using twitter to interact with your fans, or a great company blog that illusrates your personality, social media is key for growing your business. So get started today.

For some great examples of micro and specialty breweries that effectively use social media, check these out:

Dogfish Head Brewery. Not only do they have great beer, but they have an impressive Twitter presence as well, check it out.

New Holland Brewery. They have great blogs that really illustrate their personality. Makes me want to go hang out in Michigan, which says something about the power of their social media presence.

New Belgium Brewery. They have a great site, a facebook fan page, and a strong Twitter following. Also, their Skinny Dip is one of my favorite summer beers. Yum.