But if you’re smart – if you know where to find business partners and how to separate the winners from the losers – then you might just find the Ben to your Jerry, the Abercrombie to your Fitch or the Barnum to your Bailey. This guide was created to help you do just that. It’s based on the personal experience and strategies of The Content Factory’s two co-owners, Joan Barrett and Kari DePhillips. Their business partnership grows stronger every day. Follow these tips and yours can, too.

How to Pick a Business Partner

We can’t choose our family members. We make friends at work and school, and we find new people to date online or through a friend. But how do you find a business partner? Sadly, they don’t all hang out in a clubhouse waiting for you to barge in and propose a winning business plan. You need a plan, a way to focus your search. To find your very own business soul mate, there are three important principles to keep in mind.

1. Don’t choose your twin. Ever notice how superheroes that team up never have the same powers? There’s a reason for that. It’s because no one, not even superheroes, are good at everything. A masked avenger with the power to turn invisible might suck at hand-to-hand combat once he sneaks into a villain’s hideout. That’s why he needs a partner who can kick some serious henchman booty, even if he’s an open target throughout the entire melee.

A successful business team works the same way. If you want your company to go places, you’ll need a partner whose entrepreneurial skills complement rather than mirror your own. It’s one of the reasons why Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had early success when they started making and selling Apple computers. Wozniak, a tech whiz and an innovative designer, lacked marketing skills and never once thought to sell his products. But Jobs was a visionary who understood the potential of those first machines, and he used his business savvy to really catch the world’s attention. Neither one could have built the Apple empire alone.

To create an equally successful partnership, try this: before you begin your search, write down a list of things that you’re kind of awful at. We know it’s a bummer, but the more honest you are with yourself, the stronger your partnership will be. Revisit your list frequently as you search for your future teammate. It’ll point the way.

2. Don’t take credentials for granted. It’s easy to become blinded by impressive credentials – browse LinkedIn for an hour and you’ll see them everywhere. Your friend from college was a VP of marketing at a major startup. Your cousin works at Google and has already been promoted three times. Your best friend’s sister manages a string of retail stores in your home state. This is impressive stuff, but never forget that while an employment history can tell you where someone has worked, it can’t tell you how that person works. To learn that, you’ll have to look deeper.

Because we’ve all encountered people who somehow occupy positions that they’re unqualified for, we should ask ourselves what exactly credentials are capable of measuring. While we’d never dismiss the value of an impressive resume outright, couldn’t a fantastic set of credentials sometimes be the result of extroversion and charisma – or even luck? What about great connections? If we’re honest, we have to admit that the world sometimes works this way.

But the one thing you cannot fake is know-how, and that’s why we think that Aza Raskin, co-founder of Massive Health, had it right when he said: “When I’m hiring, I don’t look for credentials, I look for knowledge.”

Instead of basing your decision on a resume, base it on research, and on personal experience. Your best move may be to partner up with someone you’ve worked with in the past. If your potential partner has the characteristics of an entrepreneur, you can be certain that you won’t be stuck with someone who half-asses assignments, who procrastinates until the very last minute or who passes the buck when things go wrong. 

3. Find someone who brings out the best in you. For many successful entrepreneurs, 80-hour weeks are not uncommon – and when you're exhausted, stressed, up against a deadline and almost out of coffee, you’ve gotta like the person you’re stuck with. There's nothing more intellectually challenging than running a business, and you should seek out a partner who will push you to think about things from different angles.

If it were easy to dream up a company, to shepherd it into existence and finally to make it indispensable to people around the world, then home garages across America would be turning out way more computer whizzes and far fewer indie bands. But bringing a great idea to life takes massive energy, endless creativity and tons of time. If you don’t fundamentally like your partner, how will you brainstorm? If you’re not hanging out together and enthusiastically bouncing ideas off one another, where will you get the energy to proceed when things are tough? That kind of energy comes from the partnership itself. At its best, it’s electric.

So check yourself. If you’d be afraid to G-chat your partner 20 times in one day, that’s not the person you’re looking for. If it’d feel weird to phone the person at dinnertime to get help with an important problem, then you’re already thinking of your project as a job, not as an adventure or a life mission. Search your mental Rolodex for the person who has a passion that you can activate through the partnership. If you don’t know anyone who fits the bill, then start making connections, because you’re now on a quest to meet that person for the first time. 

Follow those three tips and you’ll be well on your way to forming your own entrepreneurial dynamic duo. But just to boost your chances of success even more, here’s one final bonus tip: pick someone you’ve been in a fight with. Not a knock-down, drag-out bar brawl, but at least a heated discussion or argument. Everyone gets along well when they agree with each other, but you and your business partner won’t always see eye to eye, and it really helps to know how your potential partner handles disagreement. Does she discuss the problem calmly, like a rational adult? Is he likely to blow off your calls for a week and badmouth you to all your employees?

If you’ve argued with the person you’re considering, then you already have these answers. Kari and Joan, the co-founders of The Content Factory, were roommates in college and close friends after graduation. The pair are about as far apart on the political spectrum as two people can be, so they’ve definitely had their share of disagreements. But on the occasions when they don’t see eye to eye, things never get ugly – over the years, they’ve learned to “fight clean,” you might say. The point is only this: if you don’t know exactly where to find business partners, think about the people you debate with the most. Remember your last argument or discussion. Feel that energy? Think there’s a way to put it to use?

We’ve shared our ideas, now we want to ask you – how do you pick a business partner? Do you have a secret strategy that helped you pick a business partner? Did you try to start a business with someone who quickly went from sidekick to arch-nemesis? Do you have any business partner horror stories? Share them with us in a comment below!

The post How to Pick a Business Partner in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on The Content Factory.

Now obviously, you’re not the sort to throw your hands in the air and run away from new challenges. If you were, you wouldn’t be running a successful business (or reading this blog) in the first place. So if you want to learn how to market content, you’re in the right place.

At The Content Factory, we work one-on-one with clients to develop strategies for everything from website copy to blog writing. Many of the clients we work with are developing a content strategy for the first time, so we’re used to explaining the process in plain English. And that’s our goal with this guide. In today’s blog, we’re going to talk about how to market content effectively and efficiently. By the time we’re finished, you should understand just what content marketing is, how it works and how you can begin the process for yourself. Ready? Let’s do this.  

How to Market Your Content (And What Is Content Marketing, Anyway?)

Before you can develop a killer strategy, you first need to understand what content marketing is. So let’s try to explain it, without the business jargon:

Content marketing is the process of creating and spreading valuable pieces of media to consumers. Quality content entertains, instructs and influences. It’s not merely a vehicle for a sales pitch. It has intrinsic value, and consumers can use it.

 

When people find content useful, their connection to a brand and its products is strengthened, and as those people share that media, even more consumers are exposed to the company that created it. When you create useful content that has a purpose, the material essentially markets itself.

What do we mean when we say “media?” It’s a bit of a catchall phrase for many different things. Here are a few examples:

• Blog writing

• Website copy (the writing that fills your company website)

• YouTube videos

• Social media posts (like status updates and tweets)

• Guest posts on outside websites

• Infographics

• Press releases

• E-books

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Of course, for content marketing to work, it needs to be optimized for its target audience. An infographic on the mating rituals of narwhals may seem like a quirky way to grab some online attention, but will it draw customers to your law firm’s website? Probably not. An infographic on workman’s comp cases or the average cost of a divorce would be a lot more effective. Now it’s time to explore a few other concepts that can help you learn how to market content effectively.

How to Market Content: 10 Killer Tips

Content marketing is a fine art, and at The Content Factory, we get better at it every day. It took us years to learn some of the points we’re about to share with you, but we’re going to lay them all out here, just because we’re that awesome.

1. The client is the key. What’s the number-one rule of content marketing? Keep your potential clients and consumers in mind, always. Every piece of media you create should be crafted, through and through, to draw and to maintain the interest of your target audience. Are you writing or designing something that your customers would actually care about? It’s all too easy to just chat the day away in a blog, or to go off on irrelevant tangents. When you do, you’re wasting both time and money.

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2. Original content reigns supreme. Companies that succeed do so because they offer customers something that their competitors can’t, whether it’s a superior product or on-point customer service. It’s no different in content marketing. If you want your material to gain traction with consumers, it has to be special. If you’re just regurgitating blog ideas or web copy you’ve read elsewhere, the impact will be nil.

3. Provoke a reaction. Content that provokes an emotional response is highly effective, and the best emotions to stoke are fear, anger and surprise. It’s not bad to do this when your intentions are pure. For example, a blog titled “Recent Credit Card Scam Attacks Seniors” will cause readers who are afraid of being duped to read on. That can be a good thing. It might also inspire anger, or even outrage – and when people feel those things, the next step is usually action. For you, that means that these readers are much more likely to share your media. As for them, they’ll feel informed.

4. Stick to the facts. These days, everyone and their mom has a blog and an opinion, and that’s why you’ll want to get off the soapbox if your goal is to connect with consumers. Instead of opining on current events, politics or your favorite “Game of Thrones” character, stick to facts and stats. When blogs, articles and website copy are stuffed with concrete details, people feel compelled to share.

5. Offer expert advice. We’re willing to bet that all the time you’ve spent building your business has taught you a thing or two about your industry. For content that really goes places, try giving your potential customers some expert advice they can actually use. That’s what we’re doing right now, and it’s got you reading, right? Trust us – we know what we’re talking about.

6. Know your voice. To say that we have a varied client base is an understatement. We’ve worked with everyone from adult toy retailers to medical supply companies, and along the way we’ve learned that there’s just no such thing as a one-size-fits-all voice.

Think hard about your brand image, as well as your target audience. If you own a high-end jewelry line, you’ll want to keep your writing posh and professional. If you manufacture collapsible beer bongs, you’ll probably win customers over with dirty jokes. There is no single “correct” voice when it comes to content marketing. If you want to succeed, you need to find the unique voice that’s perfect for your company.

7. Shout it from the rooftops. We’ve seen it time and time again: companies create content and then release it like a rehabilitated dove into the wild, expecting it to fly away and succeed on its own. But it doesn’t exactly work that way. Creating content for the web is only half of the battle, because no strategy is complete without effective social media promotion and online PR work. That’s how you build initial momentum. If your blog writing is top-notch, it’ll market itself, yes. But you’ve gotta give it that initial push.

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8. Assemble an expert panel. You know what’s better than the advice of one expert? How about the advice of 10 or 20? When you reach out to a client’s industry peers for outside advice, the results are, quite often, fantastic. We like to round up a large group of experts, get their input on a single subject and then create one article or blog post on that topic. We quote those insiders right there in the piece, and then they promote the article through their own websites and social media channels. That puts our clients right where they want to be – in the industry spotlight.

9. Create evergreen content. It’s pretty stupid to put a bunch of effort into an infographic or in-depth article that’ll seem dated and irrelevant after only a few weeks. Pop culture references and current events can help give a piece of writing color and life, but these things need to be framed in a way that doesn’t put a timestamp on your writing. A joke about Bill Cosby’s horrendous sweaters is timeless, but talking about Lady Gaga’s “latest single” or “yesterday’s election results” may give your content marketing an expiration date. Stay away from these things so that your content can be readable and shareable for years.

10. Write for the eye. Like it or not, most web surfers do judge the book by its cover, so if your latest blog looks like giant wall of grey text, the reader will respond like a seventh grader cracking open “War and Peace.” If you don’t make your writing visually appealing, in other words, your content marketing efforts won’t succeed.

Most online readers will scan articles to decide if they’re worth reading, and when you provide them with clear subheadings, bullet points and numbered lists, you give them an idea of what they’re in for. Photos and graphics can help too – a good rule of thumb is to include at least one photo for every 500 words. These things will keep readers hooked. It’ll stop them from losing their concentration and straying to content that’s easier to digest instead.

Are these the only tips you need to follow when you’re trying to figure out how to market content? Of course not. Like we said, there’s an art to this, and like any art, content marketing takes a lot of practice and dedication. These 10 tips are meant to be something of a primer, but to truly create a winning content strategy, you’re going to need some help.

Hiring a Content Marketing Team

According to Mashable, over 62% of companies outsource their content marketing. Why? Here are a few good reasons:

• Companies want to experiment with different services until they land on a content strategy that feels right to them. They don’t want to hire an entire internal team only to realize later that they need just a handful of blogs per month.

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• Business owners don’t want to waste time training traditional advertisers or new hires. They know that the sooner they start producing content, the sooner they’ll be able to draw attention and drive sales. Working with a team that can hit the ground running helps them to do that.

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• They aren’t sure how to gauge efficacy. Seasoned content marketing teams will present data to them, providing them with numbers that show growth not only in web page visits, but also in time spent on site, conversion rates and even social media interaction.

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• They, and their employees, have better things to do. Many content marketing efforts fail because business owners make the mistake of thinking they can do it all. In reality, creating and promoting winning content is a full-time job. Savvy entrepreneurs realize this. They outsource their content writing so that their other work doesn’t suffer.

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Some business owners balk at the idea of devoting part of their budget to content marketing, but research has proven that this is one investment that pays off, big-time. One study found that content marketing, over the course of three years,  generated 31 leads per $1,000 spent. That’s nearly three times more than what traditional marketing efforts deliver, and that’s why businesses everywhere are beginning to catch on to the value of content marketing. Right now, marketers spend over a quarter of their budgets on content marketing, and that percentage continues to grow.

As for us, we’re witnessing that growth first-hand. When companies have questions about how to market content, they come to us. When they’re looking for a content strategy of their own, we help them develop it.

Want to know more about what The Content Factory can do for your business? Visit our services menu to learn about our online PR, web copy, social media and branding services. Ready to begin building your own content marketing campaign? Contact us today, and we’ll create a custom package of services that’s perfectly tailored to your business – and to your target audience.

Have any tips we missed? If you’ve been thinking long and hard about how to market content, our readers would love to hear your ideas. Post a comment below!

The post How to Market Content: The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing appeared first on The Content Factory.

Conquering Fear

Starting your own business is a risky and often stressful endeavor, but the fear of failure can be particularly strong for female entrepreneurs. As studies have shown, women, due to a lifetime of social conditioning, tend to be more risk-averse than men. But the good news is that we can undo all that negative conditioning. So make like Mae West and be “the type of girl who climbs the ladder wrong by wrong.” There’s no shame in that, and you’ll eventually get it right.

1.    “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”  – Audre Lorde

2. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

3.    “People don’t take opportunities because the timing is bad, the financial side unsecure. Too many people are overanalyzing. Sometimes you just have to go for it.” – Michelle Zatly, Co-founder of SoundFlare

4.    “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

5.    “Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as a survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling.” – Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

Finding Your Voice and Vision – Tougher Than You May Think for Some Entrepreneurial Women

A recent study published in American Political Science Review found that in collaborative group settings, “the time that women spoke was significantly less than their proportional representation – amounting to less than 75 percent of the time that men spoke.” Now we’re not scientists, but this looks like good ol’ social conditioning once again. Men are encouraged to speak up and to be assertive, and women are not. But a woman with entrepreneurial aspirations must make herself heard. If you don’t speak up, you won’t go anywhere, and no one will see your vision – including (probably) you yourself.

6.    “Next time, ask: what’s the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end … And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you … And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.” – Audre Lorde

7.   “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel

8.     “I’m tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” – Madonna

9.     “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” – Melinda Gates

10.   “Walt Disney told his crew to ‘build the castle first’ when constructing Disney World, knowing that vision would continue to serve as motivation throughout the project. Oftentimes when people fail to achieve what they want in life, it’s because their vision isn’t strong enough.” – Gail Blanke, President and CEO, Lifedesigns

Troublemakers and Free Thinkers

Sick of playing politics, working hard and receiving too little in return for their efforts, many entrepreneurial women have ditched the restrictive corporate world to pursue their dreams on their own terms. By 2018, over half of small businesses will be run by female entrepreneurs, according to a study by The National Federation of Small Businesses. What this means is that if you’ve taken the initiative to start your own company, it’s probably because you’ve got an independent and tenacious streak. We’ll toast to that.

11.      “So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” – Caterina Fake, Co-founder, Flickr

12.      “Making the decision to not follow a system, or someone else’s rules has allowed me to really dig into what my own strengths and gifts are without spending time feeling jaded or wasteful.” – Ishita Gupta, founder of Fear.less Magazine

13.      “Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible, be the unexpected.” – Lynda Berry

14.      ”The glass ceiling that once limited a woman’s career path has paved a new road towards business ownership, where women can utilize their sharp business acumen while building strong family ties.” – Erica Nicole, who left Corporate America to start YFS Magazine.

15.      “Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the troublemaking individual.” – Natalie Clifford Barney

Hard Work (Something Women In Business Know a LOT About)

Of course, good old-fashioned hard work always pays off, whether you’re a man or a woman. But if you’re an entrepreneurial woman, be prepared to work extra hard. 

16.      “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” – Maya Angelou

17.      “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.” – Madam C.J. Walker, America's first female entrepreneur millionaire

18.      “You’re not in competition with other women. You’re in competition with everyone.” – Tina Fey

19.      “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou

20.      “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Go Forth and Kick Ass!

Feeling inspired yet? You should be. Now, take in these last little bits of wisdom and go conquer the world.

21.      “Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” – Anais Nin

22.      “I’m not a businessman — I’m a business, man.” – Jay-Z

23.      “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr

24.      “Don’t just stand for the success of other women – insist on it.” – Gail Blanke, President and CEO, Lifedesigns

25.      “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” – Madeleine Albright

We hope this compilation of quotes puts a little fire in your heart whether you’re a man or a woman, but especially if you’re a woman. Because like CEO Gail Blanke, we at The Content Factory don’t just stand for the success of women – we insist on it. 

Are you one of these successful entrepreneural women yourself? What quotes did you find particularly inspirational when you were getting started? Let us know in the comments.

The post 25 Quotes That’ll Inspire Entrepreneurial Women to Kick Ass in Business And In Life appeared first on The Content Factory.

Like the expanding gulf between Lindsay Lohan and her hopes of ever winning an Oscar, the gap between the search terms has grown continuously wider since that original flip-flop, and it’s a trend that has some social networking pros predicting that the term “Tumblr” may one day completely replace the term “blog” – just like the brand name “Kleenex” eclipsed the word “tissue.” But what does this digital name game mean for your business? In two words, a lot. A whole, whole lot.

What Is Tumblr and Why Should You Care?

Asking a group of social networking pros “What is Tumblr?” is a bit like asking a group of teenagers what twerking is. So uncool. To save you from looking like a total square, we’ll give you the gist of it. Tumblr is a social media platform. In fact, it’s one of the most popular social networking sites on the web. If you sneak up behind anyone under 30 and they quickly minimize a tab, there’s at least a 50% chance they were scrolling through their Tumblr dashboard (though we’ll never know for sure, sneaky bastards).

Formed in 2007 by David Karp, Tumblr currently employs only 147 people, but the site hosts over 91.8 million blogs. The majority of those blogs belong to single users – artists, writers, tech junkies, angsty teens, people who are way, way too into One Direction – but a growing number of businesses and brands are joining the ranks. IMB, Rolling Stone and even Twitter (yes, really) are uploading blog content to the site and getting their tumble on.

In the world of business, everyone wants to sit at the big kids’ table, but if the growing number of Fortune-500 companies who are using the service isn’t enough to convince you to set up a business Tumblr, here are a few more reasons to consider creating a Tumblr blog for your brand:

• It’s free. Let’s be real, that’s one of the best reasons for doing anything.

• It’s easy. Tumblr is one of the most user-friendly social media networks out there. Posting images, text, videos and more is simple, and custom templates are easy to edit and make your own.

• It’s fast. Keeping your business Tumblr updated takes far less time than it would to publish blog content on other sites thanks to the reblogging feature, which allows you to quickly curate posts from other popular Tumblr accounts. You can use all that saved time for important business projects, or you can spend it scrolling through the kitten gif tag – your choice.

• It’s fun. The atmosphere of Tumblr is much more casual and playful than that of other social media sites. As David Karp told the New York Times, “People are creating identities and personalities that Facebook and Twitter are not designed to allow you to do.” You may want to try setting up a blog that’s written from your mascot’s point of view, or one that challenges followers to use your products in wacky ways.  

• It’s viral. The content you post on Tumblr doesn’t live and die a slow, painful death on your blog – it’s shared by other users through reblogs. Popular Tumblr posts can continue to bring traffic to your website months and even years after the original post is published.  

Of course, as with all things, there’s a difference between managing a Tumblr for business and managing a Tumblr for business well. (You only need to go to karaoke night once to learn that lesson, right?) Not all blog content is created equal, and neither are all Tumblr accounts, so if you’re ready to create your business Tumblr, you’ll need to follow a few tips to make it count.

The Keys to Creating A Popular Business Tumblr:

Like all social media networks, Tumblr has its own beneficial features, niche audiences and unspoken code of online ethics. In other words, there’s a lot to learn if you hope to create a popular Tumblr account for your business. If this is your first dip in the Tumblr ocean, learning to ride the waves may take you a while. We’d hate for you to embarrass yourself (we’ve seen it happen, and it’s not pretty) so we’ve developed something of a cheat sheet.

Know Your Audience. Before you make your first post to your business Tumblr account – before you even choose a concept and theme – ask yourself who you’re trying to reach. If you sell support stockings or crocheted toilet paper caddies, then we have bad news: creating a business Tumblr is probably a waste of your time. Why? Because the site’s users are less likely to be your customers and more likely to be their grandchildren. If the prevalence of Avengers gifs and the trend of fangirling over Korean pop stars wasn’t enough to convince you, here are some hard stats about Tumblr for business, courtesy of Mashable:

“Here's the breakdown of who is using the blogging platform, according to Mark Coatney from Tumblr: In the U.S. the audience tends to be younger – 56% of the service's 25.2 million monthly visitors are under 34, and users skew slightly more male (52%). If that sounds like your average customer, you may want to give it a go.”

That’s bad news for brands whose consumers don’t fit with these demographics, but if your business hopes to build a relationship with a younger audience, a business Tumblr account could be the missing piece of your social media networking puzzle.

Optimize Your Tumblr Posts. In the world of Tumblr, the normal SEO rules apply, but if you really want to maximize the impact of your posts, there are a few additional rules to follow:

Tagging. Always tag your posts. Always. Tumblr users constantly search for posts by tags, and adding keywords that target your audience will boost your visibility in a big way. But don’t get crazy – your posts will only show up in searches for the first five keywords you list, and posts with dozens of tags are considered tacky (and frankly, a little desperate).

Linking. When posting original content (not reblogs), always list the source as your business’s website. This is especially important for image posts, because users who click on the image will automatically be taken to your website. That’s a major traffic booster. Also, unless you really like hate mail and would enjoy losing followers, never list yourself as the source of a post that’s not yours.

Pinning. Like most social media networking sites, Tumblr allows users to pay to promote themselves. For $5 Tumblr will mark your selected post with a red pushpin. This pin keeps your post at the top of your followers’ dashboards for 24 hours, or until they click on the pin to return your post to its normal spot on their dash.

This feature should be used very, very (read: VERY) sparingly. Even the most popular Tumblr users never use it more than once every three months, and when they do, the pinned post is almost always an important announcement (Coco Rocha has been known to pin her Vogue covers, for example). That little red pushpin is like a giant glittery sign screaming LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Use it with caution.  

Connecting. Your business Tumblr lets you connect with consumers in ways that other social media networks don’t allow. It’s one of the main reasons why creating an account is beneficial, and it’s part of why it’s so much fun. Try these ideas to create engaging blog content:

1. To gain followers and influence people, reblog other users’ content and add your own thoughts on the subject.

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2. Create and post your own animated gifs (gifs on Tumblr are hugely popular, and gif posts tend to get reblogged more than other kinds).

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3. Post a Tumblr challenge for your followers. Ask them to make a certain kind of post every day for a week. Tumblr challenges are a bit like the Myspace surveys of yore, and they always get people engaged.

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4. Tap into fandom. Is your CEO a dedicated Doctor Who fan? Do you have a video of your PR team jamming out to Lady Gaga? Share it! Most popular Tumblr users are ardent fans of at least one TV show, celebrity or band. Show them that you are too and you won’t only boost your interaction – you’ll give your brand a face and gain some fans of your own.

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Of course these aren’t the only ways to gain popularity points in Tumblr land. If you’re the master and commander of a popular Tumblr and you’ve come across some creative ways to boost engagement, leave us a comment below to share the love.  

Keep Calm and Tumble On

We’ll be honest. When it comes to predicting social media trends – to identifying which online social communities will go the way of the dinosaur and which will rule the world – there are no certainties. We know, because we polled the Magic 8-Ball, that fortune teller booth in the mall and Miss Cleo, and they all told us different things.

Besides, as social networking pros we know better than to speak in absolutes when we work in a market that evolves by the day. You won’t see us donning sandwich boards downtown and thundering into a megaphone: “THE END OF FACEBOOK IS NEAR! REPENT! REPENT AND TUMBLE!” Instead, you’ll find us behind our keyboards, teaching ourselves as much as we can about Tumblr for business and then passing on what we’ve learned to our clients.

Luckily, you don't have to do it alone. Contact us today and one of our social networking pros will work with you to develop a plan that’s perfectly tailored to your business's needs. If you just want to be part of the conversation, post your business Tumblr URL in a comment below and feel free to give constructive feedback to readers who do the same. If we missed an important tip that you’d like to share, we hope you’ll post it in the comments too. And finally, if you can possibly find a Tumblr weirder than this one, we may give you some sort of award.  

The post How to Manage a Business Tumblr: A (Fairly) Complete Guide appeared first on The Content Factory.

At The Content Factory, we tweet so much that we hashtag things in our sleep, and we find it difficult to unplug from the world of Twitter marketing, especially because we know how important a quick response can be. When Ricki Lake replies to you, you do NOT leave Ricki Lake hanging.

But as much as we love social media networking, we also enjoy time away from the office. So when we heard about a new way to balance our Twitter marketing with our analog lives, we were pretty pumped, and of course we had to share the love. We’re talking, of course, about automating our Twitter responses. We learned this awesome Twitter marketing trick on Media Bistro. Here’s how to make it work:

How to Set Up a Twitter Auto-Responder

1.    Create a Twitter App

• Sign into dev.twitter.com with your Twitter account. Create a new app, add a website and a callback URL (http://www.google.com/script) and then write a description.
• Click the settings tab and select Read and Write for the Application Type. To save your work, click Update.
• Then head over to the OAuth tool tab and write down the Consumer Secret and Consumer Key.

2.    Create an Auto-Responder Script

• Go to script.google.com.  Select File -> Make a copy to copy and paste the auto-responder script in Google Drive.
• Choose the beginning and ending days for when you’ll be away. Also enter the Twitter app keys and your Twitter handle.
• Next, click on Run -> Start to initialize the auto-responder. If asked to authorize access to Google Script services, click on Yes.
• Select Run -> Start again, which will prompt an “Authorization Required” box. Give authorization for the script to connect to your Twitter account, and your Twitter auto-responder is now complete.

Not so hard, is it? We don’t just use Twitter for a business, we use Twitter for a lot of different clients, so we’ll be sharing this awesome tip with them too. Are you a social media networking expert who could use some screen-free me time? Try creating an auto-responder. Post a comment to tell us how you spent your time back in the real world.

The post How to Set Up A Twitter Auto Responder (Our New Favorite Twitter Hack!) appeared first on The Content Factory.

As you can imagine, it’s not easy. But for every thousand or so viral ad campaigns that fail, there’s one that reaches millions of consumers and creates a tidal wave of sales. What exactly is it that makes a campaign truly go viral? We’re not sure, but to paraphrase that Supreme Court judge who tried to ban pornography, “we know it when we see it.” We’ve found three campaigns that had the right stuff: one that equipped citizens for a zombie apocalypse, one that forced a man to swim through freezing waters while covered in jerky, and one that made skydivers around the word suddenly feel like they were half-assing it.

Looking for some viral marketing inspiration? You’ve found it.

1. A Viral Marketing Campaign With Brains. BRAAAAAAAAAINS.

How much would you pay to survive a zombie attack? If you want to roam the post-apocalyptic badlands like a king, you’re going to want to spring for The Z.E.R.O. Zombie Kit. It sells for $23,999, but the price isn’t that steep when you consider everything that comes in the kit. It’s packed full of military-grade survival gear, from heat vision goggles to tools for making your own bullets. Badass!

We talked to Brian Coughlin, marketing specialist at OpticsPlanet.com, the company that used reanimated human corpses (figuratively – don’t worry) to create one seriously successful viral marketing campaign. Here’s what he told us about his process:

Designing the kit was a lot of fun. I wrote up the extensive website copy and worked with our video team to create a viral video about the kit. We released the video simultaneously through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, press releases and an email to our massive newsletter subscriber list. Then, over the course of the following few weeks, I contacted one site after another. Once the Z.E.R.O. Kit was picked up on a handful of popular sites, it spread virally and we received hundreds of links and mentions from major news outlets.

The goal of the viral marketing campaign wasn’t to sell the zombie kit itself, but rather to showcase the products it contained – and thanks to all the buzz generated by major media networks, those products definitely received a lot of new attention. Brian’s advice for launching successful viral marketing campaigns? “Never be afraid to reach out and tell people you want a link. Be honest and straightforward. Most webmasters appreciate it, and you can develop lasting relationships that lead far beyond the initial surge.”

2. Jerk Man – The Reason Why the Bros at GNC Are So Absurdly Energetic

Not all budding entrepreneurs have access to military-grade battle gear. Some, like Brian Levin, just have a staple gun and jerky. A whole lot of jerky.

Brian is the mastermind behind Perky Jerky, a “craft jerky flavored with guarana for tenderness and a kick of energy.” Today, 40,000 stores carry Perky Jerky, including 7-Eleven, Home Depot and Walmart, but four years ago no one had a clue what Perky Jerky was. Then Brian invented Jerk Man. A spokesman for the company told us the story:

Tight on cash, Brian created "Jerk Man", a character dressed in more than 400 bags of Perky Jerky. Jerk Man goes on many missions. He enters marathons and ski competitions. He runs the Jerk Bar at all NASCAR races, and he's even gone for a swim with the Polar Bear Club. Jerk Man uses social media accounts to offer free 5 oz. samples of Perky Jerky. To date, his offers have been circulated by well over 100 blogs and websites, and Perky Jerky has sent out more than 150,000 free samples. Once someone tries Perky Jerky, they're 70% likely to order more online, so all those in-person appearances went a long way towards building a customer base. It was Jerk Man and his campaign that earned the company massive distribution. 

Brian started off with some jerky and a dream, but now over 40,000 stores carry the stuff. That’s the power of a viral marketing campaign that finds a way to connect with consumers both in-person and online. Jerk Man did the legwork, but it was the social media impact that really made this campaign really take off.

3. Spacediving – It’s Like Skydiving, Except FROM SPACE

Want to really capture the attention of consumers? Break a record. That’s what Red Bull did, and they didn’t even pick an easy one like “most hours spent in a Snuggie.” For what may be the coolest viral marketing campaign of all time, Red Bull sent a man, Felix Baumgartner, to the edge of space for its Stratos project.

The team sent Felix 120,000 feet into the sky in a special helium balloon, and when he stepped out onto the platform and jumped, marketing history was made. Felix became the first person to break the speed of sound during freefall. When he landed safely, millions of viewers stared at the Red Bull logo stretched across his parachute and breathed a sigh of relief.

Besides the whole outer space thing, why does Forbes think Red Bull’s campaign was so successful? “The enlisting of the right messengers to spread the company’s brand to the right audience in the right context, the place and time the message is launched.” Thrill seekers couldn’t help but watch the stunt, but this viral video never would have had the social media impact it did without a web PR team to lay the groundwork. Red Bull’s marketers talked to the media for months and posted updates online to build buzz before the big event. Anticipation grew, and when Felix finally took the plunge, people everywhere dropped what they were doing and turned on CNN to watch. And oh yeah — they got a sweet commercial out of it too.

When a man falls from space or runs through a crowded shopping mall covered in jerky, he’s kind of hard to miss. But remember, the real work that makes campaigns like these go viral happens behind the scenes. Social media managers create buzz online by positioning campaign content on every social platform they can find. SEO experts optimize everything from website copy to tweets. Web PR gurus distribute online news releases, set up interviews and get major news sites to cover the story. Finally, content writers write buzz-worthy blogs to generate even more online interest.

In other words, it takes a village – or, you know, a Content Factory. Because while most companies need to rely on four different teams of people to accomplish these viral marketing tasks, we have all the experts we just mentioned gathered under one (figurative) roof.

So if you want to run around covered in jam or travel to the center of the Earth for your next viral ad campaign, we might not ask to join you, but we’ll sure as hell help your brand get the attention it deserves. That’s because like you, we believe that if you’re going to cover your whole body in jam, you should probably make it count.

The post From Jerk Man to Spaceman: 3 Crazy Viral Marketing Campaigns That Worked appeared first on The Content Factory.

“In the digital age, every business is in the publishing industry.”

That’s a quote from a recent Huffington Post article, and it says so much about content marketing that for us it's something of a mantra when we discuss strategy with new clients. We’ve written, tweeted, posted and pinned for businesses that sell everything from condos to sex toys (yes, you read that right), and our results have proven it’s true. If you want your business to succeed in the digital age, you can’t just produce your product – you have to produce high-quality content too.

For us, this view of content marketing is second nature, but for business owners who are new to the concept, it’s often hard to understand just how important content marketing is in determining a company’s success, both online and off. We’re always looking for relatable ways to explain this importance to our clients, and this week we stumbled upon an incredibly informative article from CIO.com that does just that.

We loved the entire article, but there’s one gem inside it that we knew we had to share – a section that outlines some pretty creative ways to ensure content marketing success:

There's a thin, but important, line between success and failure in content marketing. To help you find that line, our experts offer these 11 tips to put you on the right path.

• Ask yourself some key questions, Kuenn says: Why are you creating a particular piece of content? Who's the intended audience? What's your brand's voice? What types of content should you create for your audience? Finally, what does success look like?

• Think like a publisher, Fasser says. Build an editorial calendar that details who's writing what; assigns deadlines, lists the focus keywords for each particular piece of content, notes how the content ties into your overall SEO program, identifies the problems customers have that the content addresses, and so on. "If you don't nail all that down, you end up developing content just to develop content," he warns.

• Act as a resource to prospects and customers. "If you can bring someone into your site who is actively looking for a solution to a problem, and you can solve it for them in an in-depth way through content, you'll have higher-quality visitors to your site who tend to convert more," Fasser says.

• Use social media to syndicate your content. "When you develop high-quality content and share it through social channels, others interested in the topic will likely connect with you," Fasser says. "That's super important, because the more you can grow your social networks, the bigger the potential audience you'll have for new content."

• Establish benchmarks as you begin a content marketing program. That way you'll know if the efforts are paying off down the road. Among the things to track are the number of new visitors to your site from a particular piece of content, the number of page views and leads generated from that content and how often the content has been liked or shared on social media, Fasser says.

• When brainstorming content, get people from across departments together in a room and get a dialogue going, Kuenn says. Find out what questions customers ask them the most… read more on What Is Content Marketing, and Why Does Your Business Need It?

Dedicated content marketing experts (that’s us!) will take care of many of these tasks for clients, but business owners can make a huge contribution by following that last suggestion. After all, you know your business better than anyone else, and you know what your customers want and need. If you want to make your content as relevant as possible (and obviously you do) you should ask employees from every branch of your company what concerns and questions your customers bring to them.

Why? Because your customers are probably looking for answers to the same questions online. Build your web copy, blogs, and articles around these questions and you’ll earn major traffic while establishing yourself as an industry expert.

So consider this your weekly homework: poll your employees and create a list of common customer inquiries. Then compile the questions in a spreadsheet for your content marketing manager. The more work you do for your content, the more your content will work for you.

Are your customers asking some crazy questions? Share the hilarity in a comment below.

The post The Good Word: Why Businesses Need Content Marketing appeared first on The Content Factory.

On the Essence of PR

What exactly does PR entail? A simple definition might be this: it's the management of information flow between a business or organization and the public, conducted in a way that benefits both parties. Understanding the essence of this dialogue is particularly important in the Internet age, where news breaks at lightning speed and a brand's reputation can be made or destroyed by a single social media post. But of course everyone has their own take on the essence of PR. Here are a few of our favorite quotes on that:

• "The history of PR is… a history of a battle for what is reality and how people will see and understand reality." – Stuart Ewen

• “It’s PR that needs to be creative. It’s PR that needs to be new and different. It’s PR that needs to be original. The best way to establish a brand is to create a new category, and creating a new category requires creative thinking of the highest order.” –  Al & Laura Ries

• "PR is performance recognition" – Douglas Smith

• “Everything you do or say is public relations.” – Unknown

• "Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality." – Nikos Kazantzakis

• “If a young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is – that’s advertising. If the young man tells his date she’s intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he’s saying the right things to the right person and that’s marketing. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is – that’s PR.” – S. H. Simmons

• “To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
  

"The counsel on public relations is not an advertising man but he advocates for advertising where that is indicated. Very often he is called in by an advertising agency to supplement its work on behalf of a client. His work and that of the advertising agency do not conflict with or duplicate each other." – Edward Bernays

On the Art of PR

PR people are often called “spin doctors,” which to us conjures up images of weird zombie voodoo witch doctors. While we like to think of ourselves as good witches rather than bad witches, there's certainly an element of magic to what we do. What's our method? We can't reveal all of our secrets, but read on for a little taste.

• "PR is a mix of journalism, psychology, and lawyering – it’s an ever-changing and always interesting landscape." – Ronn Torossian

• “Public-relations specialists make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so the wilted and less attractive petals are hidden by sturdy blooms.” – Alan Harrington

"An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service." – Daniel Boorstin

• "The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency." – Thomas Paine

• Spin doctors are: “professional political strategists, able on behalf of their clients to manipulate the media – planting a story here, a rumour there, a tip-off somewhere else  – so that any piece of news is tailored to show them in the best possible light.” –  Michael Shea

On Ethics and PR

Ironically – considering how much of our work involves maintaining and improving reputations – PR doesn't always have the best rep when it comes to ethics. Some people, because of bad things that they've done in the past, have even been called propagandists. But there's a big ethical difference between real PR and simple propaganda, and here it is: PR is always solidly rooted in fact. PR is part of the good fight, as the wise people quoted below have recognized.

• "PR means telling the truth and working ethically – even when all the media want is headlines and all the public wants is scapegoats. Public relations fails when there is no integrity." – Viv Segal of Sefin Marketing

• “Publicity is the very soul of justice. It is the keenest spur to exertion, and the surest of all guards against improbity.” – Jeremy Bentham

• “We believe PR should be practiced to serve the public interest, to develop mutual understanding between organizations and their publics.” – James E. Grunig

• “Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Publicity, publicity, publicity is the greatest moral factor and force in our public life.” – Joseph Pulitzer

• "Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of the regeneration and redemption of mankind." – Calvin Coolidge

• “Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation." – Charles Evans Hughes

On PR and Image

Joan Jett didn't give a damn about her reputation, but unless you're a teenage rock star, you should probably give a damn about yours.

• “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet

• "It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.” – Pliny the Elder

• "What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself." – Abraham Lincoln

• "Reputation matters because your behind is always behind you." – Happy Masina

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." – Oscar Wilde

 

 

• "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." – Brendan Behanv

• “If you don't tell your story, someone else will.” – Unknown

• "Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory." – Arthur Ashe​​​​​​

• ​“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” – Mark Twain​

On the Importance of PR

People as disparate as Malcolm X and John D. Rockefeller both spoke to the power and importance of public image. Since PR is something that people who are so fundamentally different can agree on, you know there must be something fundamentally important about it. If you 're still not convinced that public relations is absolutely critical to the success of your business, you'll change your mind after reading this selection of quotes.

• “PR is extremely important, and being able to use it in the right way means everything. You have to market your success." – Lee Haney, bodybuilder and former Mr. Olympia

• “In a downturn, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.” – Doug Leone, VC, Sequoia Capital – Silicon Alley Insider

• "If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget I'd spend it on PR!" – Bill Gates

• “Public relations are a a key component of any operation in this day of instant communications and rightly inquisitive citizens.” – Alvin Adams

• “Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.” – Richard Branson

• “Historically, PR, Marketing and Advertising budgets are the first to be cut; however, that could be one of the first mistakes a business makes in an economic crisis.” – CBSMarketwatch

• “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.” – Malcolm X

“Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.” –

John D. Rockefeller

• “Publicity is the life of this culture – in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive – and at the same time publicity is its dream." – John Berger

• “I suspect in most companies, the public relations person is down at No. 20 in the pecking order. But here, he is fighting incredibly important battles. If a negative story starts running away with itself in the press and is not dealt with fast, it can badly damage the brand, and so we put enormous weight on our PR people.”  – Richard Branson

• "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling

• "Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation.” – Charles Evans Hughes

• “Without publicity there is no prosperity.” – Yakov Zel'dovich

• “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.” – Bill Bernbach, advertising pioneer and founder of DDB

• "Today, journalism is such a persuasive factor in opinion building that no person, group or business can claim immunity or afford to under-estimate the ability of the fourth estate to affect their fortunes – either for better or for worse." – Gigi van der Rie

• "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.” – Daniel J. Boorstin

And there you have 'em. Our 50 favorite “Damn, I wish I'd said that” quotes about PR. Got a favorite that we didn't feature? Let us know in the comment section.

The post “Damn, I Wish I’d Said That!” – 50 of Our Favorite PR Quotes appeared first on The Content Factory.

But as helpful as it is to learn from our own experiences, we’d much rather save ourselves the embarrassment and learn from the mistakes of others instead. We’re always on the lookout for professional advice that can help, and this week we definitely found some. Our friends at PRNewser recently shared a list of words that journalists hate. These words came from the journalists themselves, from 500 reporters and journalists who participated in the annual buzzword report conducted by UK firm Twelve Thirty Eight. Here’s a small sampling of some of the most abhorred words and phrases:

Starting pitches with “So…”: We realize that we do this with posts, but we’re a blog so we can get away with it. Communications folks should stay relatively formal while conveying their excitement about their client/firm’s latest project. “Dear” is a little weird, but “Hi, Patrick” works just fine. (And we prefer “Hi” to “Hey” unless you actually know us, but that’s a personal thing.)

“Dynamic”: We know you’re excited, but maybe back off a bit and call it “interesting” or “intriguing” or even “unique.”“Paradigm”: In most cases this means “the current state of things”, so that phrase will probably work. For example, “the current state of social media” or “today’s social media world” makes more sense than “the social media paradigm.”

"Elite”: “Exclusive” is OK here. We know you can’t say “expensive” or “available only to certain wealthy/famous people”, but we get it.

“Hotly Anticipated”: “Upcoming” or “soon to be announced” doesn’t sound quite as exciting, but it is usually just as accurate.

“End User”: Just write “user” or, even better, “customer” or “consumer”. We’ll get it.

“Influencer”: We understand that someone like, say, Richard Branson has a lot more LinkedIn followers than pretty much anyone else, but in most cases calling someone an “influencer” reads a little weird. “Popular LinkedIn personality” or “public speaker” makes the point.

“Evangelists”: This is just another word for “enthusiast” or “promoter”. And we hope it goes away soon.

“Deliverables”: Too vague. Be specific: do you mean “content”? You probably mean content.

“Icon/Iconic”: If you’re talking about Michael Jackson or the Coca-Cola logo, sure. In most other cases, “popular” or “longstanding” will work.  

Read more at PR ‘Jargon’ to Avoid When Pitching Journalists (With Helpful Suggestions!)

If you’ve ever put out a HARO, you probably nodded along while reading this list. It’s crazy how often these words and phrases pop up in writing – and yet when it’s our turn at the keyboard, many of us are completely blind to the meaningless jargon that infiltrates our emails, our press pitches and even our copy writing.

But we came up with a handful of tricks that should help anyone sharpen their email voice. First, before you hit send on that pitch email, do a quick scan. If you were to read the email to your 13-year-old brother, would you have to define any of the words for him? If so, swap them out for easier ones.

Next, go over your message again. Try to spot nouns that feel professorial, dull or colorless – a lot of these are going to come straight out of business speak, and most will have Latin roots. Look for clichés (if you're heard it before, it's a cliché). Keep an eye out for weak verbs and passively voiced constructions. Are there more specific, concrete words you could use to help journalists get a clearer picture of the business or product you’re promoting? If so, work on those areas.

Buzzwords are weird animals. On the surface they can seem neat, but they can weaken the feeling of authorial presence, and by doing so they can create a kind of distance. In a certain way, they might even be rude, because instead of reaching out personally to a reporter, the writer of the buzzword-stuffed email hopes to trick the reader into jumping on the latest trend. But reporters aren't dogs, you know. They're not gonna play catch with you for a bone. Talk to the person instead, because saying what you actually mean to say has a bracing effect on both the reader and the writer. Clarity is how you seize attention – jargon just puts people to sleep.

If you have any creative fixes for killing jargon and winning the attention of journalists, tell us about them in a comment below.

The post 11 Words You Should NEVER Use in Online PR Pitches appeared first on The Content Factory.

Cosmo’s Best Content Writing Tips

1. Titling Tricks. You’ll find two kinds of titles on almost every Cosmo cover – numbered lists and questions. This is no accident. Titles like “25 Ways to Kiss a Naked Man” pique readers’ attention (that’s a lot of ways – some of them are bound to be weird, right?) and titles with questions like “Are You Letting Your Dream Man Get Away?” automatically engage readers. “Oh god,” they think, “What if I am!? Come back, Ryan Gosling, come back!” The best thing about this content writing trick? It works for every single topic, not just ones that involve sexy dudes.
2. Actionable Content. Need a quick fix for static cling? Battling frizzy winter hair? Looking for a cheap date idea for you and your new boo? Cosmo can help. The magazine is packed with actionable content, tips that readers can actually use to solve their day-to-day problems. Think about the kinds of issues your target audience might be tackling in their personal and professional lives, then create some blog content featuring unique ideas that can help. That’s exactly what we did when we decided to write this article, and surprise – you’re reading it!
3. Evoking Emotion. Here are the three titles from Cosmo’s “Need to Know” section in their November issue:

• The Scary Crime No One’s Talking About
• What Your Gyno Must Never Do
• Sh*t Politicians Say About Women

These topics all have one thing in common – they invoke an emotional reaction, thereby hooking readers on the content. Our advice for writers? Focus on articles that do the same, especially ones that will scare or anger readers. Not only will your blog content attract more traffic to your website, but the comment section will catch fire too, and that helps your controversial content writing go viral. Just be sure to do your research before you make accusations. You want to evoke emotion, not incite wrath.

As you can see, you can find helpful advice in the pages of Cosmo even if you're not a broken-hearted teenage girl. Content writing experts of all stripes can discover some helpful tips from the editors at Cosmopolitan Magazine on how to capture the interest of readers and keep them coming back for more. So go ahead – pick up a copy and see what tricks you can find to boost the power of your website copy. Who knows, you might just learn some sexy new moves along the way. Research people, it’s all about research.

Do you have a friend whose blog could use a little Cosmoing up? Tweet, Facebook or email them this post. 

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