Category Archives: Business

Business Writing

Wow, My Blog Sucks: 6 Ways to Get Over It and Get Better

January 29, 2012 – 9:20 pm
Your blog sucks and it's ok that your blog sucks!

Don't worry, this is just a prop! Your blog will be fine.

We’ve had a really fun-filled week. We met with a few clients of our good friends at Paper Leaf Designs, and we spoke candidly about business blogging and what it can do for them. One of them complained about their blog saying it wasn’t fresh and they thought it sucked when they looked around at others in their field. It can sometimes seem daunting or painful when people scope out top drawing business blogs with dozens of weekly entries and a warm basket of fresh comments beneath each post. I wish I had an extra 30 minutes to tell them what they really needed to hear, but time wasn’t on our side, so I asked if I could blog about it.

So here are six simple ways to get over your sucky blog.

1. No Original Content

This is by far the most dangerous play you can make on the blogging pitch. Syndicated content moves around the internet because it is created and promoted by content farms. These are the Monsantos of website content. They drown the world with drivel of low nutritioonal value. Don’t be a part of the problem. Prove yourself valueable. Use your blog to bring your expertise and understanding to your readers.

2. Self Centred and Self Promoting Blogs

I like to follow the Golden Rule of Blogging: Love thy reader as you would have them love unto your blog. Don’t get caught up with telling too much of your story and miss out on sharing your customers’ perspectives. They deserve to hear about themselves as much as they deserve to learn about who you are and why you do what you do.

3. Poor SEO and a Lack of Traffic Because of It

There are very simple steps to take to make sure that people can find you. SEO can seem like a complicated realm to navigate, but it doesn’t have to be. Label the tags for your photos and use appropriate keywords in the description and title tags for each blog post. Be sure to use links for websites you cite and link previous blog posts (that are relevant to the current post). This will go far in helping new visitors find your blog. Read our post about blog optimization here.

4. Poor Blog Organization

This is problem that we often encounter when we first visit a newly launched blog. They might have useful information, but if the blog isn’t properly organized, we can’t shop around. I simply refuse to revisit poorly set up blogs. I am far too impatient to deal with it. Keep an archive handy for people to click through, and have well managed categories, topics and search tools. Using your keywords will be a good start point for how you might want to label your content.

5. Lack of Frequency, Lack of Consistency

Frequency is the mother of relevancy. The world will only want to frequent your website if you have new content for them to digest on a regular basis. Also, people will shop through your archive, so if you don’t post consistently, you might look unreliable. Imagine if your favourite monthly magazine suddenly decided that it was too busy and published bi-monthly to take a break… Not acceptable. It’s good to treat your blog with the same reverence. Your people should matter that much. An editorial content calendar and schedule will help prevent you from such pitfalls.

6. You Only Suck Because You Think You Suck!

Our beloved coach, Mike Mack from X5 Management recently shared a quote from Henry Ford, and he keeps it framed on his wall. “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” The fact is that every blog sucks, since every blog starts from the same place, the beginning. The world’s best and most heavily read blogs began with one post, and even the most seasoned blogger knows that the biggest room in their house is the room for improvement. Don’t fret about your social media promotion. Don’t frown because your post lacks comments. Don’t complain about your design or cry about not having crazy apps that make everything look more professional. It gets better if you work at it, but it takes time to master anything, especially blogging. All of those other factors will work their way in if the focus is in the right place.

Remember the Blogging Golden Rule, and if necessary, follow Mike Mack’s lead and get in up on your wall.

And since that’s such a fine idea, we’re doing it too.

Have a great week!

Idris

If you are ready to have a serious conversation about your business blog (or lack thereof), get in touch with us. We’d love to help you out!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Writing

Business Blogging: 7 Quick Tips, 7 Absolute Truths

January 16, 2012 – 7:13 am
Businesses, get ahead using your blog!

"A blog-blog-blog..."

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. Mack D. Male, one of Edmonton, Alberta’s blogging elite will be hosting a seminar downtown at the Alberta Business Link. For those who can make it, there is no need to RSVP. Just show up with some business cards and GET YOUR LEARN ON.

In honour of Mr. Male’s upcoming session, I would like to share some perspective on business blogging and where the Red Paper Clip team sees it going.

Tip 1: Growth does not equal saturation

The consistent growth of business blogging over the last few years is impressive. Email marketing and social media promotion of business blogs are new but essential methods to build leads, authority and community. Their flexibility through the use of platforms and services like WordPress, MailChimp and Aweber makes it easy for even the most novice of content creators.

But the continued growth of business blogs hasn’t slowed down the readership. In fact, it continues to blossom in ways that puzzle even the craziest economists. The readership resource is far from extinguished. For new bloggers, the water’s still warm.

Tip 2: Let your data be your guide—er, DRIVER

Don’t ever let a content strategist, social media person, or anyone who has a job on the Interwebz tell you that data doesn’t matter. One of the greatest advantages of the internet is that everything is trackable. Use this to your business blog’s advantage. Track clicks through Google Analytics, search socially trending topics on Twitter trends and Google Alerts, and get a sense of what people really want to know. Your relevance to them—and your popularity—will skyrocket within a few posts.

Tip 3: Treat your business blog more like a moving magazine

We’ve entered a really interesting time in content creation and management. Today, it’s easy to post images, diagrams, client testimonials, comments, questions, videos, clickable links and audio conversations. Take advantage of these content possibilities by looking at your business blog more like a magazine and less like a sidebar newspaper column. I’ve seen industrial business blogs that look more like climbing magazines (by design, of course), and they earn a much higher yield of leads and traffic than their more conservative counterparts.

Tip 4: RSS is D-E-D: Stick to email marketing for leads and business

The fact that I have to further explain so-called Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to new and established clients is proof that they are never going to catch on. I can’t be bothered to tome on their history (since I predict that their death knell might be in 2012), but here is a great explanation. I always suggest that companies keep their email lists close to their hearts, because it’s where some of your best leads will always come from.

Tip 5: Mobility isn’t the it-girl, but she’s about to be!

I like imagining mobile and smartphone communication like I imagine Zooey Dechanel’s  recent explosion on television. Dechanel’s been in film for a few years, and she’s been working her skills on the big screen just fine. But since earning the lead role in The New Girl, she has been surrounded by a crack team of comedy writers and producers that has really shaken the industry up. Mobile phone use is the same. We’re sitting in a perfect storm of mobile market advantages (ease, cheap prices, easy applications, ubiquity) and the world has thus responded. Keep mobile users in mind when preparing your blog topics. Avoid anything that might not translate well to mobile users, and they will continue to visit.

Tip 6: There will always be bloggers who know more, but only YOU can tell your story.

The proliferation of business blogs has created one problem: There is so damn much information out there, readers often don’t know who best to follow. Many of us in the same profession may have similar views on best practices. So how do you keep those lucky few who visit? Tell your story and keep it up top in your messaging. Readers like to connect with people more than information. Be human. Be courteous. Be professional. Be yourself.

Tip 7: Use SEO blogging best practices to stay visible.

People will read only what they can find. Using simple and effective search engine optimization practices will ensure that you rank where you need to, captivating the right audience to build those leads. Great content is invisible without good SEO. We’ve a few good articles on the matter here.

So for those of you in Edmonton, I look forward to meeting you at the Business Link seminar tomorrow!

Bests,

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Writing

Create Your Editorial Content Calendar

January 2, 2012 – 11:48 pm

.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got 50+ emails, phone calls, to-dos and miscellanea that was supposed to get handled in the onslaught that was Christmas break.

Well, now that we’ve come out from under that pile (not by having finished it, but by having it brushed aside for two weeks), I have laid my New Year’s resolutions on the table.

Unfortunately, the 2012 to-do pile just overtakes them.

If you’re anything like me, you probably sat down with your team. You’ve probably talked about those outstanding things your business should have completed this year. This might have included upgrading your website content or writing X number of blog posts a month, and you may have felt pressured to push those closer-than-future regrets into business resolutions.

And you may have even coupled this with the obvious business disclaimer, “We don’t have time to write/complete/edit these web pages/blog posts/ebooks/reports.”

It might hurt to hear this, but your content for 2012 looks a lot like your content for 2011.

Take control of your content

Don’t let your content slide. We can help you take control of your content.

This is normally the part where I get into a diatribe about how we do it. But we have web pages for that. Instead, I want to give you a leg up on fulfilling your own content requirements.

And this all begins with an editorial calendar.

This is your chance to do what magazines, newspapers, research institutes and professional writers do. We all rely on editorial calendars to clarify the roles of our team, the themes, topics and ideas for the content, and (most importantly), the deadlines for each part of the content. It gives you a chance to plan a process for delivering your content in a timely way so it doesn’t have to infringe on your other work or your peace of mind.

For those of us in the writing industry, editorial calendars can be complicated project architectures separating the roles of contributors, editors, and even typesetters and publishers.

That said, we don’t need to use anything complicated, and neither do you. But we all deserve to have the tools to stop saying, “There’s no time to get this done.”

Editorial Content Calendar Rule 1 – Use a calendar that your team will use

We’re a Mac-outfitted office, but we tend to use Google Calendar. Apple’s Calendar is painfully elementary, and Outlook (as clean as it is for PC networks) isn’t as clean for us. Many people prefer to use shared spreadsheets. What you prefer doesn’t matter as much as picking the method that others can use comfortably.

Editorial Content Calendar Rule 2 – Mark time for research

I like to leave time at the beginning of the month to gather ideas about my industry, pulling favourited tweets, emails from my subscriptions, magazine articles I clipped, notes from websites, etc. The timing of this isn’t important. Just make sure you leave one hour a month to gather or assemble these things and collate them into possible ideas. Believe me: It gets easier as you go, and you can move along whatever doesn’t get used the month before (assuming it’s still current).

Editorial Content Calendar Rule 3 – Don’t talk about it. Lay it out and fight about it later

Most people get stuck here. They get the calendar started and they get the team on board. They gather materials, and then they get caught in committee purgatory. That lifeless place is where good ideas go to die.

Don’t do it. Don’t share everything. Instead, take the agreed-upon ideas and assign them outward. If you have a team of one or two, it gets pretty easy. If you have a team of three or more, don’t share who will do what. Assign tasks and allow them to trade. They can see what might be due when. Allow them the chance to update the responsible parties and move on. A great example is assigning a website content rewriting. You might find that people fear writing the home page or the about page. Don’t let that slow you down. Assign it to who you think the best candidate might be and move on. People can broker their good deeds as trade without committee-style conversations slowing the calendar down.

Now you have a calendar that lays out who is responsible for what content and when it is due. You now have a tool that saves time, effort, and most importantly, backtalk and quips about there being no time to see it through.

As I am often told by one of our architecture clients, “Planning IS execution. Do it right and the labour becomes the easiest part.”

If pulling together a working editorial calendar still feels like an impossible task among your 2012 to-dos, CLICK HERE and we’ll get in touch with you directly. We’re happy to help.

Good luck,

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Strategy Writing

Write Optimized Blog Posts in One Hour

December 19, 2011 – 10:32 am
Write optimized Blog Posts: Four Tips

"This wouldn't be a bad time to think about my blog... where's my notepad?"

I know we tend to go on and on about blogging and content optimization, but it’s so hard for us not to! Blogs are great for providing fresh, relevant content and they can dramatically improve your  search rankings, customer base, community and brand.

But blogs can be brutal for busy people, and the time required to build an effective blog can seem daunting. For those few who take the plunge, coming up with strong, strategic blogs that speak to your audience and fulfill your website goals becomes too much to bear. Stale, dusty or rusty business blogs are commonplace.

It’s not a novel. It’s a blog.

What most people don’t realize is that blog writing isn’t like writing fiction. As most professional writers will tell you, web writing is more design, planning and adjusting than it is idea generation, language or prose .

And since most people don’t have a handle on the tricks that we use to stay on top of our blogs, here are some short tips that you can use today that will get you writing optimized blog posts in an hour, not an afternoon.

Keep a notepad (or maybe an iPad)

Having a way to talk about what you know is critical to writing good content, especially for blogs. I always find that my best ideas come at those times when I am finishing up with a client or am just hanging out with friends. Keep a notebook handy so you can record your thoughts, other people’s questions or opinions. You can tighten these ideas later, but building the list is a huge advantage. Flip through it once a week to…

Write in mind before writing on the page

Give yourself time to create a picture for how you want your blog to be structured. The more time you spend on this, the stronger the flow of your blog will be, and the shorter the time you will need to assemble your ideas as you…

Outline the blog

Create a short list of the central parts of your blog post. You’ll need an introduction, a few short points and way to get out quickly that hits the spot. Take those elements and simply fill them in. Remember that Google, as well as readers, love short, snappy content with headlines, sub headlines and lists. No need to wax poetic. Simply state what’s on order and finish up, but…

Remember the most important trick: Put Your Reader First

Putting the reader first to most means keeping the blog focused on the reader’s frame of mind. We agree, but just as important is thinking about how your reader will find your post. Think about the search terms they use and how they could fit in the blog content, headlines and subheads. Be sure not to neglect your blog tags, meta information and image tags (if you are using WordPress or other blog content platforms, this is easy to do). We’re big fans of Yoast SEO for WordPress for helping us to manage meta information (get it here).

It’s like we always tell people (who will listen): Writing is a process that gets better as you practice and refine your process. The writing becomes easier, faster, and normally better. We’ve seen blogs improve their ranking with a dozen posts of optimized blog content, and there is no reason why any business cannot have a successful blog. By using these 4 tips and following through on them, you’ll build a solid, optimized blog archive that will help the right people find you and make the right decisions on your website.

If time is an issue for you making your blog or website content work, please visit our Contact Page, fill our the form, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Strategy

Don’t Be That Company!

November 28, 2011 – 10:34 pm
"That Guy"

"That Guy" or "That Company." It's all the same in the world of social media!

Friends. Followers. Fans.

Whatever you call them, they’re your people—your online community.

Do you treat them as such, or has your company’s Twitter feed, Facebook page, blog and email newsletter turned into a spam machine, with update after update after update about new products, services and company-held events?

While some may view social media as a means of distancing ourselves from one another and taking the personal out of personal relationships, the opposite is true when it comes to marketing. Once someone has liked, followed or subscribed to you, they have essentially brought you into their circle. They have not only granted you access to their personal or professional online network and presence but they have also gone out on a limb to show all of their followers, friends and fans that they in some way identify with your company and its message. Respect this.

How Should You Treat Your People?

1). Engage them

This often involves posting great articles and links you think your people can use, not just updates about you. It’s also about talking to your people. Asking questions is a great way to build community. If you’re a coach, ask them to share or send you a story about a time they surprised themselves by achieving what they thought was unachievable. If you’re a clothing designer, ask them to share the worst clothing trend they fell for in high school. Just get them talking!

2). Always reply

When someone does use your social media channels to talk to you or share your material, don’t ever ignore them. A meaningful reply is best (too many “thanks for posting!” comments will feel automated), but any acknowledgment is better than none.

3). Pay attention

Just as you’re using social media as a networking tool to boost your online presence, your people are too, and it’s all about give and take. Take the time to look through your list of people and see what they’re up to. It’ll give you some great insight into who they are and what they’re looking for, but it’ll also give you an opportunity to talk directly to them or to share their material. When they see that you care enough to pay attention to them, they’ll care enough to pay attention to you.

Tip: If you have a lot of followers, it can help to use a program like SocialBro to create lists of people to keep an eye on. You may not have time to pay close attention to everyone, but even if you can create a list of 50 contacts whose engagement would be a real asset to your company, you’ll still come out way ahead of the game.

In essence, what we’re talking about here is the Golden Rule. We all want our friends and acquaintances to see us as people and to put in the time to stay connected, even if they’re not our bestest best friends.

After all, if you wouldn’t want to be your friend, you can’t expect anyone else to.

Geneve

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Business Marketing Strategy Writing

Who is Lululemon?

November 15, 2011 – 1:32 am
Lululemon "Who is John Gault?" bag

Photo credit goes to Rick Marazzani at MindPosts

Recently, Lululemon began distributing shopping bags with “Who is John Galt?” printed on the sides, following up with a blog post explaining the company’s decision. Unsurprisingly, this has put Lululemon at the center of controversy as some identify with the message and others paint it in a less favourable light, as a libertarian message endorsed by a company that sells a lifestyle based on conscientiousness and harmony.

I’m not here to discuss Ayn Rand’s politics. Instead, what interests me in all this is whether Lululemon is really all that off base in using such a loaded and controversial literary symbol.

What Were They Thinking?

In its blog post, Lululemon explained itself by saying that it’s John Galt’s pursuit of greatness over mediocrity that is behind its latest marketing inspiration.

Fair enough. No little kid responds to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with, “I want to be mediocre!” And hey, the notion that we can all be whatever we want to be and rise up above circumstance with the right mindset is soothing, kind of like a comfy pair of yoga pants and a cup of hot herbal tea, no?

What’s contentious here is the philosophy of how such greatness is achieved. According to Rand, it’s by acting in self-interest and having a government that stays well out of your way. It’s political.

Using politics in your marketing is ballsy, and those behind the campaign had to have known this would earn the company some enemies.

Or has it?

Who Wears Lululemon?

Something tells me that the people passing Lululemon’s blog post around on Twitter and Facebook and talking about how disgusting this all is aren’t regular Lululemon customers. Lululemon lost the love of the leftist and hippie yoga crowds long ago with its pricing, upscale locales, sweatshop labour allegations, and ubiquitous presence on the bodies of well-to-do so-called “yuppies” and “yummy mummies” in line for an extra-hot skinny latté at Starbucks.

And it is those bodies that Lululemon is marketing to.

Chances are, if you’re the type to have a hate-on for Ayn Rand, you’re not—and never have been—Lululemon’s target market.

The reason so many people are upset at Lululemon’s “Who is John Galt?” campaign isn’t because their much-loved athletic wear provider is a turncoat. It’s because it further reinforces what they already know Lululemon to be: A corporate retailer that has found its niche in high-end, fashionable athletic attire and that aims to profit off of the latest trend in all things yoga, pilates, and dance.

Those Who Try To Please Everyone Please No One

Fact is, Ayn Rand, or at least Lululemon’s interpretation of John Galt, likely resonates with those who are able and willing to spend $100 on a pair of stretch pants. There’s nothing disingenuous about Lululemon’s marketing here. People are strongly divided on the issue, to be sure, but those on the side of Lululemon are exactly the ones Lululemon sought to appeal to.

When it comes to everyone else, well…

No love lost, right?

 

Having not looked at Lululemon’s market research and having not consulted them on their choice of words, I can of course only guess at the company’s motives and provide distant assumptions about the campaign’s effectiveness. However, if you’d like to see how you can use the written word to connect with your best people, contact us to arrange for a free consultation.

Geneve

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Business Strategy Writing

Your Business Blog Deserves More Attention than Your Website Content

November 6, 2011 – 7:00 am
Neglect your business blog at your peril.

Image blatantly stolen from the Stillwater Public Library Blog. THANKS, GUYS!

Blogs: The kids are alright.

There is no shortage of blogs and blog marketers touting the power of blogging, and you’ll see no exception to that here. Blogs are a central part of effective online marketing, and they provide numerous benefits for businesses seeking to build leads, community and authority in their industry. And with the people-driven nature of blogging and blog marketing, businesses of all sizes can quickly benefit from them.

Blogs are lovingly described by social media experts as the centrepiece from which all social media should take place. But blogs for business can be so much more. In fact, blogs can be the leverage point for how a business creates and connects competitive researchers, readers, buyers and ambassadors, as well as encourage deeper interactions among those groups.

It seems far easier to justify a business website than it is to justify a business blog. Much of this is because the same metrics are used for each.

This is an incorrect way to think.

Where the boardroom meets the water cooler

Blogs enable companies to facilitate connections between people who may be directly or indirectly connected to the brand. These individuals, by being completely human (with attitudes, experiences and opinions) contribute to the “energy” of your blog. Therefore, the critical creative decisions you make about your blog must have these people’s interests in mind.

As you begin to build your blog, consider the type of impacts and conversations you wish to facilitate. The reason that I mention this is that the kinds of conversations you have, for some, is as important a measure as your number of visitors.

Plan and define success

You can define the success of your blog based on reputation/social interaction, visitors, search engine ranking and the redirects of your readers to other areas of your website (landing pages, forms, etc). We like to call these points of conversion.

People may be interested in your company, but the reasons for visiting your blog can be for much deeper reasons, and these should not be ignored. It could be for a specific post a writer had posted. It could be the controversial or contrarian position your company takes on a related topic, or it could be a guest blogger of mention that interests your readers. These organic interests should be reason enough to consider your blog a key entry point to your website, your conversion tools or your enrollment methods. Perhaps your email newsletters will see even more interested readers that the ones you recruit in person or over email.

Either way, we say your business blog requires more attention than your website. You’ll get more bang from it than you can imagine. And since people have become more familiar and active on business blogs, you’ll do best to plan, set and move toward your goals. It will come back in relevant and measurable successes.

Cheers,

!d

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Strategy

Online Checkout – Hilarious Video!

October 31, 2011 – 6:42 am

Hey folks.

I just watched this video from Chris Brogan’s Google+ profile. If you are not already aware of him, I highly recommend you visit his blog http://www.chrisbrogan.com. It is the source of great information on marketing online, social media, and it remains one of the top visited blogs out there.

Anyhow, at first glance this appears to be a video about online checkouts, and you are partly right. But this video reveals a problem that afflicts more than the world of e-commerce. Website and content usability remains one of the consistently overlooked areas in website design and development.

So as you enjoy this video, consider the effect that poorly arranged, poorly developed content can have on readers.

Cheers,

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Strategy Writing

4 Tips to Choose a Content Writer

September 25, 2011 – 12:07 am
Content Writers: 4 Tips to choose the right one

Keyboards: The Quill of our century—at least until iPads take over.

We don’t want to come off like jerks.

But we know that there are scores of content writers out there, and there are even more writers eager to dabble in content creation for clients.

The world of copy and content writing is flourishing. In Edmonton and Alberta, we’ve grown into a community of vibrant professionals with differing skill sets and specializations.

But this is also a caveat. Being a great writing company doesn’t make us the best choice for all companies, and this can be said of every other copy or content writer out there.

We have those days when we talk to prospective clients who simply didn’t get what they were hoping for in their past content writer, or worse, they don’t get any results from their online marketing efforts. They are disappointed, nervous and out of some money.

We all know that content is the central component of any successful online presence, so we decided to create a list of tips to help you make an educated decision when considering a content provider.

1. Content Marketing is Still Marketing: Watch for Whiz-bangs.

You’ve likely seen Death of a Salesman, TV’s Madmen or other shows that reveals dark characters pulling the wool over the eyes of audiences and clients. Marketing can be seen as a dark art, and sometimes specialized service providers make the error of trying to razzle and dazzle buyers and clients with whiz-bang terminology. Don’t fall for it. Overuse of flashy words and phrases at best turns your website into adjective soup that doesn’t help your search ranking and at worst costs you more money for pay-per-click marketing.

2. Marketers First or Writers First: Know the Difference.

Many content writers assert that the key to good marketing content is to understand the Internet tools people are using to connect with each other, which might include web, blog, or social media marketing. We agree with this point, but it’s also important to know who is using which of these tools. Why should you pay anyone to beef up your company’s Facebook page if your best clients are on LinkedIn and Twitter. You’ll be trying to connect with people that may not even be there.

One other thing to watch for: Many journalists are veering to digital content marketing, and their skills in story craft is very useful. But watch out. Content has a specific need to be useful, and it requires a unique set of tools and strategies to be profitable. Revealing story is only one component of that, so beware of journalists who lack internet marketing experience.

3. Business Knowledge and Passion

This is hard to say, but many great writers are just that, writers. Content specialists need to be more than writers. They need to understand search, research and strategy to know how people find you and who those people are. They need to know how to build audience, attract the right attention and persuade people to act. They do not need to know your industry specifically, but knowing your people and what compels them to buy will make the difference between success and failure.

4. Clients, Followers and Proofs

One of the advantages of content is that it ends up online. You will forever be able to find it… somewhere. Use this to your advantage. Search their blogs, websites and social media accounts. Look through their client lists and testimonials and if they don’t have any, walk away. Also scour the followers and fans on social media. If there are marketing VPs on their LinkedIn account and you are a marketing VP, your needs will likely be better understood than someone with a network of solopreneurs—or vice versa. Don’t make this the big decision, though. Ask for their list of clients first, then snoop.

Searching for a solid content writer/content strategist can be daunting, but the risks of doing it incorrectly can be costly. Follow your possible provider’s posts and social media to get a feel for them, and use the list above to get a sense of their knowledge and skill. Your content and your strategy will be what you hoped for, and you will save on time and cost as you move toward your goals.

Good Hunting!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Am I an Entrepreneur?

May 15, 2011 – 7:44 am
Entrepreneurship, Risk and Definition

What Defines Us?

I’ve spent a lot of my life being called names. As a kid of mixed heritage, even the most polite of children struggled to classify me based on anything more than my gender. To some I was a brown kid, others a black kid, and, painfully—to those too sensitive to use colour—a kid of no colour.

It was, to say the least, a complicated way to spend a childhood.

But as I grew, I realized how important it was for people to use classification not just to better understand where someone else fits, but to better comprehend where they are able to see themselves. The silly catch phrase at any networking event, “So what do you do?” can score ones chest like a century-old blade, as if you offer the world nothing else but that one thing.

I understand why we do it. And because of that, I struggle to find what term would suit me. Maybe that’s why it stings when I hear it.

“I am an entrepreneur.”

Not bad, I suppose. An “entrepreneur” is quite literally an “undertaker” of risk, moving potential from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. Normally, this means goods, money or services.

But shouldn’t it mean more? Is that really the extent of the entrepreneur? When the term was coined in the 1800s, it’s likely that the material meaning was assumption of risk.

But my work goes so much farther than that. This week I have seen the fruits of my labour yield a crop of epic inner joy. Two of our clients came back to us proclaiming that we nailed our descriptions of their best work. They came to us energized, excited and ready for the next steps.

And this week I have felt that same connection with a difficult client who is embarking on a moderately risky journey, and we are charged with much the same task. Our duty is to bring him the confidence to present his best work clearly to his best people, and facilitate that passion and warmth for his best work—even if it hasn’t yet come.

So, “entrepreneur,” as I struggle to determine whether or not you truly define what it is we do, I resign myself to you—for the time being. I hope that if you do acquire those deeper meanings, you hold tightly on to them. They represent more of us out there, and we all want to know when you’ve become our representative.

We’ll be waiting.

Forever choosing his words carefully,
Idris

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