If you want to lead, if you want to change things or make an impact in your market, you’re going to need Influence.

To have Influence in this highly digital, highly connected world. You are going to need to create content that matters. Emails, blog posts, videos, podcasts, content that moves people and improves their lives.

I’ve discovered a poorly kept secret. It’s a key to creating more meaningful content, more rapidly.

Don’t do anything!

I know that sounds contradictory or even ridiculous.

However more and more I’m finding, it works a charm. If you can outline the content you want to create, and leave it. When you return to finish the creation process, the content will just flow onto the page, camera, mindmap, canvas, whatever.

When I just leave it, sleep on it (preferably). I come back to creating, back to the page (so to speak), the meat of what I’m creating flows out.

Use A Staged Process

With so much opportunity in the our lives it’s easy to feel harried. You might feel you need to get something out fast, or you’ll miss the boat. However if you use a staged approach to content creation, you will create better content and more of it.

Try this 6 step approach.

Outline It > Sleep On It > Chunk It Out > Leave It > Polish It > Publish It

This is very much inline with the technique Ed Dale has taught in The Challenge for the last few years. It sounded so simple that I ignored it. Now with my hand on my heart I’m telling you, it works.

Outline It

Use a mindmap, back of an envelope, Evernote, Simple Note to get down the main points. There should only be 2 or 3.

Don’t force things, just work quickly and dump what’s in your brain, then leave it.

Sleep On It

As I’m sure you know there are many parts to our mind. The mind is often explained as having two parts; the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

When we force ourselves to pump out content on the spot, we don’t give our subconscious mind it’s opportunity to shine. To work on our content in the background, and provide us with the sparks of inspiration, that make OK content into Compelling Content.

When you outline your content and then leave it or sleep on it, your subconscious works away in the background. If you don’t believe me try it.

Try it half a dozen times and you’ll be amazed how much easier it is to complete the blog post, video script, podcast interview, etc once you’ve let it breathe.

Chunk It Out

Now you’ve given your content time to breath, now it’s time to fill in the gaps. I find it valuable to do this rapidly. I use a version of the Pomodoro Technique to keep me focussed and creating with mild urgency.

Not the clenched teeth, slam-this-thing-out panic, that I have done in the past, but with creating with focus and intent.

Leave It

If I can, I then like to leave the content again, even if for an hour. Preferably not a week or a month, just stop and do something else for a little while. Then you can come back to your work with fresh eyes.

Polish It

Without labouring come back to your content, check spelling and grammar (if it’s text), check the details, make sure nothing is missing.

You might be able to write a better headline at this point. If fact I recommend writing a “sacrificial” headline or title early, knowing that a better one will come to you in the Polish stage.

Publish It

You’re done. Publish that sucker.

Support The Process

After you have been doing this for a while you will have a repository of outlines, a workbench on the content you’re working on, and a growing mountain of published work.

You might find it helpful to create a Kanban Wall 1 to track content through the creation process and spot gaps and opportunities.

I’d love to hear about your content creation process. What works for you?

I use this process every day. This process, in combination with writing in Markdown, has massively increased my output. But writing in Markdown 2, that’s another story.

One that’s already outlined and ready to write.

Case studies: Media publisher versus content marketer



Weight Watchers has a tremendous content marketing operation. It produces high volumes of content about dieting and exercise, most of which avoids any mention of Weight Watchers itself. Let’s compare it with a site like Fitness Magazine, which has similar content for a similar audience.

Fitness likely generates around a $6.50 effective CPM for the ads that it runs, a blended rate for its direct-sold and remnant inventory that is consistent with industry averages. Assuming that three ads are run on each page and that the average visitor visits five pages, Fitness would have an ARPU of about $0.10.


Weight Watchers, on the other hand, does not run ads, but tries to convert visitors into becoming paying customers. Given its $194 price point and a conservative 2 percent conversion assumption, the ARPU for Weight Watchers is $4. What we see here is a 40X ARPU difference between the media publisher and the content marketer.

Other comparisons yield similar results. Linux Magazine is a tech site providing content to programmers and system administrators. Given the higher CPMs in the tech industry, its ARPU likely is around $0.15. Rackspace is a major provider of web hosting, and it has a content marketing operation serving programmer and administrator audiences. At a $100/ month price point and 2 percent conversion, its ARPU is $24, an over 100X difference.


Curbed is a highly successful site providing real estate content with a likely ARPU around $0.15. Redfin provides discounted real estate services and blogs regularly about content relevant to home buyers. On a $300,000 house, Redfin would earn its 1.5 percent, or $4500, putting its ARPU at hundreds of times of Curbed’s even at the most conservative conversion rates.

Read the full article at Why Marketing Will Fund the Future of Content

Tagging Other Facebook Users

Tagging Locations In Your Post

Toggle Privacy On Each Facebook Post

To see a video walk through and to read a comprehensive post see http://www.facebook.com/about/sharing

Google Plus is gaining some serious momentum. The latest function is a Google Hangout button on every Youtube video.

This of course means that you can now watch a Youtube video with friends. Imagine what this could mean for Social TV.

To  start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube. Click the “Share” button underneath any video, and then click on “Start a Google+ Hangout” in the bottom right-hand corner.

More Signs Google Plus Is Here to Stay

• Louis Gray Is Joining The Google Plus team I have a great deal of respect for Louis and have closely followed his insights and thinking for many years.
• Google Plus Adds Games
• Google Plus Posts Now Appear In Search Results This is probably the biggest driver of Google Plus.

Follow Deano and Byron New Media on Google Plus

Hat Tip to Brain Glick for surfacing this

Update: Gives you a small insight into how much utility Google Plus is going to have when Google integrate it with all their services.

Think about a hangout with a Google Docs spreadsheet, discussing Google Analytics Results with your web team via Hangout, or discussing where to meet friends for dinner via a Google Places search and Hangout.

Some interesting numbers here for Facebook Marketers or Small Businesses wondering if they should create a Facebook Page.

Originally posted at All ABout Facebook

Hotpot is an clever intiative by Google to remain relevant in an online environment where people, not webmasters power links and the Like Economy or Taste Graph is influencing the content people discover online.

You are probably aware that Google has recently been making changes to it’s algorithms to increase the influence of “Social Signal” (that’s Facebook Likes, Twitter shares, Youtube comments, that kind of thing) on search results. This has caused massive problems for some.

It’s become evident that for Google assigning authority to a webpage based on incoming links is a game savvy SEO’s or South East Asian Link Building Factories can play with intensity. For Google results to be relevant, they must turn to those who don’t make it their business to build a link farm to artificially inflate the discoverability of a local restaurant, but instead share with those the care about the virtues of a meal they have just enjoyed.

This does not of course help Google if people aren’t even searching for restaurants any more. But asking their Facebook friends or using location based networks like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places to find mea recommendations.

Enter Google Hotspot. It leverages Google Places, a massive inventory of businesses that is linked to Google Maps. It makes rating and ranking simple and rapid. It will beget Google a lot of data about which are the most popular places offline. The question is will you use it? Will it keep Google in the ring with Facebook for another round? Or will Hotpot go the way of Google Wave a brilliant concept that failed to get major traction?

What do you say? Will you use Hotspot?

It’s an ancient communication device used in Sub Saharan Democracy, Religion and Music and you could employ it today in your Social Media Content Strategy.

The Call And Response device is best known for it’s use in music. Jazz, African Drumming and Classical Orchestral music have all used it’s two part formula.

If you think about a drumming example, one drummer would beat his drum creating a particular phrase of music. Then a second drummer would then respond with a difference phrase resolving the tension created by the first. Musical geniuses like James Brown (aka Soul Brother Number 1) would use this structure in their performance building the crowd up and the backing the tempo down so that the energy of the crescendo could be fully appreciated.

The Call and Response In Social Media Content Strategy

The Call and Response structure lends itself perfectly to engaging your audience with Social Media Content. Whether you are writing a tweet, facebook page update, blog post or sales letter, Call and Response is a framework that cuts through short attention spans and an overflowing buffet of media options.

Contrast allows humans to understand complex concepts rapidly. Think about “Before and After” shots to explain a weight loss product, time lapse illustration of two washing detergents on a TV commercial, a crisp black and white photograph framed by a cream photo matte.

To create compelling tweets, updates and posts break the content you’re trying to communicate into two halves.

• Problem/Solution,
• Adversity/Opportunity,
• Setup/Punchline,
• Benefit/Call To Action

Create the tension with the first half and release it in the second. For example if you are creating a tweet or micro blog update to promote a wine bar happy hour you might write;

Too much work, too little play? We’ve chilled the wine, dimed the lights and cued the tunes. http://bit.ly/happyhour.

If you’re penning a Status Update for your Facebook Page to drive traffic to a blog post about writing good headlines you might use;

Do your headlines suck? 10 Killer Headline Ideas http://bit.ly/10headlineideas.

If writing a Tumblr quote to share a patch working tip try;

Can’t find the material you need for that last square on your latest patchwork project? Use a different cabinet for each material color and a different drawer for each pattern category.

Still stuck for Social Media Content ideas?

Take a piece of paper and divide it into three. In the first column list the 10 questions our clients most commonly ask and the 10 things they don’t ask but should. Now go back through the list and against each write a call in the second column and an associated response in the third column for each item in the first column.

If you found this post helpful please leave a comment below or share it with your friends.

Facebook has rolled out some changes to Facebook Pages today, for the time being the changes are being applied on an opt-on basis. They bring pages more inline with the revamped personal profiles, come March 10 all pages will be shifted over to the new format. These developments were somewhat pre-empted in December when Facebook accidentially launched the changes.

The video above demonstrates one of the key changes namely the seperation between being a page admin and having a personal profile.

I recently received a great question from a twitter friend, Chelsea Duchene @GoFigureChelsea Who asked “how do you switch from opportunity seeking to strategic thinking”? I am paraphrasing slightly, see the conversation above.

What a great question. Over the last decade I have been privileged to design and develop strategies for Small and Medium Businesses, Government Departments, NGO’s, and Social Entrepreneurs. I have noticed that those organisations and projects that invest in and commit to sound strategy are more productive and more pleasant to be involved with.

Being a Strategic Thinker

Being a Strategic Thinker is about having a framework you can repeatedly apply to shift you and your business towards a predetermined goal or target. This framework then becomes a filter through which you make decisions about any new tactics or opportunities and actions are you going to take.

As human beings we are rather irrational illogical creatures. We can tend to become overwhelmed by the pletora of opportunities available to us and mountain of information raining on us.Having a documented strategy that you had committed to, manages the distraction of shiny new objects, and it mitigates against becoming a rampant opportunity chasers.

When you break it down a digital strategy or any strategy for that matter has five key components.

Five Key Components Of Digital Strategy

The first component is assessment or an inventory of the current situation. A big picture view of the environment in which the strategy is operating. This would typically involve some research or fact-finding, however it can be as simple as taking a page and jotting down all the assets or strengths that you currently have or can draw on and a profile of all of the stakeholders that are affected by or involved in the strategy .

The second element is goals or targets, documenting what it is that you want from the strategy.

The third component is an action plan with some activities or actions that you will take in order to reach your goals or targets

The fourth element is some kind of measurement. Metrics that you will use to determine if your strategy is on target or if you need to alter your actions to reach the goals or targets you’ve set out in your strategy.

The fifth and final element is planned reflection or review. The key word is planned. It’s vital to evaluate if your actions and tactics are leading you towards or away from your targets and how are they performing based on the resources you’re using.

Tip of the hat to @eventatpowwows and Rich Schefren for getting the conversation started.

I’d love to know your thoughts? How do you keep in a strategic frame of mind?

Some big stories (and rumors) in the last 24 hours that highlight the trend shaping online attention, is the “Like Economy”.

Google changed the web when 2 college students realised that when someone added a link to another website on their own site it was an endorsement, a way of passing on authority and thereby making the site that was being linked to more of an authority. That was back in the good one days when webmasters were pretty much the only ones who could create links, now through Social Media, people power links.

The rise of Social Media sites like Twitter and especially Facebook has seen a big shift in the way traffic and attention on the web are directed. In March this year Facebook passed Google for monthly traffic. Which in a round about way means you are more likely to discover my webpage via one of your friends sharing it on Facebook then you searching for it in Google.

So What Is The “Like Economy”?

The “Like Economy” is discovery of online content directed by the other people clicking a Facebook Like button, sharing it on Twitter or LinkedIn or similar social network. “Like” data is already being incorporated into Search Engine Results, however the technology is evolving very rapidly. All the major platforms are making big moves in the last quarter of 2010 in an effort to win market share of your online attention. In 2011 expect a “Taste Graph” to start influencing the online content you consume, that is people who have similar interests to you are likely to determine the content you are served on Social Media sites and on Search Engines.

Google Me a Facebook Killer, Maybe?

Google has been adding social elements to many of it’s services for some time now. For example Google Hotpot adds social recommendations to Google Maps. Rumors have been circulating that Google is building a Facebook Killer. Overnight Mashable reports that Google Me may launch in April or May 2011. Will it be the Facebook Killer? If there is any company that has the resources to pull it off it’s Google. However at the moment Facebook has a huge advantage and has plenty of developments of it’s own, e.g. Facebook Messages, Facebook Places, and Facebook Deals

LinkedIn Adds A Share Button For Your Website

LinkedIn is a powerful Social Network for business professionals. Their recent announcement of a LinkedIn like button for publishers means that you can easily connect your website to the LinkedIn ecosytem. More connection, more relevance and more data for the “Like Economy”.

Here is an example of the Like Button in action, expect to see these popping up all over the web as well.

So How Do I Take Advantage Of The “Like Economy”?

This is a big topic and one that I will cover more in the coming weeks and months, however here are a couple of action items to start with.

• If you haven’t already, sign up for LinkedIn and Twitter and create a Facebook Business page as a minimum.
• Find the thought leaders in your niche or industry and start connecting with them. These people will become your “taste graph”, your trusted filters. Like their Facebook Pages, add them as connections on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter, etc
• Enable Social Sharing on your website. Lots of platforms have this built in, if not maybe shift your website to WordPress
• Find some quality content in your areas of interest and start sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter, and your Facebook Page

Oh and if you don’t mind, could you please like and share this page