Wading through the so-called professional writers out there to find the experience, skill and proficiency you need is challenging, but essential to finding the best of the best. Here are a few tips that might help you find the tested, proven professionals with the experience you need to join your staff fulltime.

1.)  Forget the fulltime hire, go freelance at WriterAccess.com. OK, that is our site.  So just kidding. Not really.  But on to the next.

2.)  Cover Letter.  Try posting a job that declares in the first paragraph that the requirement for consideration is creating a thoughtful, customized cover letter that explains why you’re the right person for the job and how you can help the business grow with a freakishly amazing skill or talent or thing about you that nobody has.

3.)  Resume Style. There’s a lot of “that person” that you can see in their resume. Study it closely, and scrap resumes that just don’t look right to you. Someday I’ll write a book on this correlation, as it is scary.

4.)  Testing 1, 2, 3.  Put your writers through a test.  Heck, you can have them take the free test at WriterAccess.com if you want. We have both an Editor and Writer test that is extremely difficult, offering great opportunity to screen the winners from the losers in a few different categories.  But that is just the beginning really. Create a written test in your office, a small assignment to create a blog post on XYZ topic, like resume writing or something simple. Toss in a few twists like “use 5 headlines” or “offer 5 tips” in your blog posts, and a title that is search engine friendly. Review the assignment and ask them for a summary of what they did and why they did it.

5.)  Confirm Curiosity.  Great writers are curious creatures. Too curious some would argue. They are always digging for the story and the master of Socratic techniques to find information and dig for the story. Learn to test that skill by asking them for questions and opening them up with broad questions like: What would challenge you most about this job? What would concern you about this job?  What would you love to know about our company? What questions do you ask when you are interviewing someone? You get the idea.

WriterAccess takes the hassles out of finding the perfect writers—tested, proven professionals with the experience you need. You pay a small subscription fee and get access to thousands of big-time talents.

We’ve all heard the expression Content is King.  After all, content is the fuel behind the social media revolution currently sweeping the Web. Close examination of the art world, however, offers a solid case that curation, not content, may in fact be the ruler online.

When it comes to content marketing, developing a content strategy for your company starts by curating your existing content assets, along with researching the assets of the competition.  You roll up all research found using competitive research tools and quickly learn how you stack up with the competition in a number of different ways. Through the content curation process, you learn how much content you need, how frequently you need to publish it and which channels of distribution (social especially) are required to capture organic market share. The skill and savvy of a Content Strategist is equally as important as your Director of Marketing these days. Getting the right content to the right prospects at the right time is the key to content marketing success.

Take a close look at what’s happening in the local art scene and you’ll discover insights on curation that translate over to the latest online trends of content marketing and social media. The big story in the last five years has been the explosive growth in museums.  New institutions, buildings and additions, both public and privately financed, are common in most major cities. And with all this surprising investment has naturally come increased curation firepower to properly fuel the growth.

But as museums take major strides forward, the area’s smaller art centers and galleries have slipped backward, cutting curation funding that delivers inconsistent and often unambitious exhibitions to dwindling fans. Local artists are suffering as a result of the lack of creativity with curation, program development and scheduling. Daring and exciting shows are hard to find. Yet the possibilities for connecting the dots for artistic expression are endless: exploring how technology, development, consumerism, Wall Street, global economy and green living are influencing and affecting us all, and finding expression in unique artistic ways.

The main problem, it seems, is the very definition of curation: Provide a clear, coherent vision for presentation that offers direction and purpose (and attracts visitors and fans in droves). It’s that last part that’s the hardest to achieve for success and failure.

Big budgets with larger museums are attracting curators with great skill and knowledge.  Budget cuts in the smaller galleries force out the talented curators causing disappointment for the dwindling fans. These two forces together are disrupting the health of the entire art ecosystem.

In the content marketing world, there is a different set of challenges for success at this early stage of the revolution. The enemy that is killing quality content is typically the legal department, CFO and/or the performance marketing specialists. They control the purse strings and influence decisions to spend less on content, and more on mass reach for more gain. Content investment gets cut, and Media spending tend to stay the same or go up. More content = more traffic = more revenue, so the logic would flow.

Who will win the content curation war of the web? The race to transform to high-quality publishing is officially on.  It’s time to gather ideas, develop stories and publish quality content that keeps readers (and customers) coming back for more.

Large companies could pony up the investment and seize the opportunity to connect with readers and customers. SalesForce.com (full disclosure, a client of ours at ideaLaunch.com) for example, invests wisely in listening to customers’ wants and needs, and developing stories that inspire action and offer education on hot topics like social media and inbound marketing far removed from the software platform they power on the market.

Small companies are also finding great writers to create the great content that customers want and need. ArtisanTalent.com (full disclosure, another client of ours at WriterAccess.com) for example has been developing great blog posts, well curated and well researched for several years. And they know how to get the ROI they demand for their investment with traffic that has increased 4X in the last year.

In the end, it’s not content that’s king. Instead, it’s the impact that the content has on us long after we pass it by. Great content is hard to create, curate, optimize and distribute. But when it all comes to together, it is THE catalyst that makes your business better. And better than that.

Byron White
Chief Idea Officer
ideaLaunch.com
WriterAccess.com
WordVision.com
LifeTips.com
o: 617-227-8800 x 201
c: 617-775-5828
LinkedIn: ByronWhite
Twitter: @ByronWhite
byron@idealaunch.com

Content that’s meaningful, entertaining and helpful will keep readers coming back and is certain to achieve all kinds of KPI’s like time-on-site, conversion rates, improvement of your listings positions in the search engines and more.

We all know that, right?

Maybe not.  Think of one company that is producing meaningful content.  OK, how about one blog. That’s easier.  And how much money are those bloggers making for their meaningful content? Not much. How much money are companies spending on content?  Billions.  Something’s wrong with this picture.

Companies, listen up.

Meaningful content is…..

-Inspirational in making my business or personal life better.

-Something I think about long after I read it.

-A story that I’m inspired to tell (or share) with other people.

-Something that offers insights that I did not know before I read it.

-Ect Ect.

Was this Blog Post meaningful to you? If not, I have failed.

Let’s face it, we’re all trying to create content that connects with readers these days, without feeling like forced-marketing. But snaring Web readers with nanosecond attention spans seems more and more difficult as time ticks on. Readers are orbiting at high speeds, in multiple channels, and catching them is now an art and a science.

Here are quick facts that help us understand what is going on:

• Average time spent reading has been cut in half over the past 10 years
• Time watching TV is at a record high according to a Nielsen study
• Smaller screens mean less content and faster skim reading

Mobile means people are reading while on the move

And since we’ve already exhausted your nanosecond attention span, here are some even quicker tips on how to attract readers in droves and keep them coming back for more.

• Headlines make it or break it.
• Be bold with bold and focus on what will get told.
• Put a new twist on executive summary.

Well, today is Friday (TGIF). It has been an action-packed week here at ideaLaunch to say the least, and even more so for the city of Boston. Between trade shows, hockey pucks, and rolling out new features on WriterAccess, we’re looking forward to the weekend as much as our Boston Occupants are looking forward to the warmer weather. So sit back, relax, and kick off the Round-Up with us:

• We have announced a new and exciting feature to WriterAccess—Editors! With 4,000 writers on board and only three editors in the office, something had to change.  So we launched a new remote editing service that will provide our clients with hundreds of editorial support specialists!

Think you got what it takes to be an editor on WriterAccess? We invite you to apply now for positions that include proofreading, editing, senior editing, and managing editor positions.  Help our clients make the world and the web a better place, one word at a time.

• Occupy Boston paid a visit to the ideaLaunch office yesterday. Thousands of protestors gathered in Dewey Square and proceeded to march right past our front door. I managed to snap this picture in the midst of all the madness:

• We have a handful of Boston Bruins fanatics here in our office, so I feel it’s important to note that the Stanley Cup champs won their seventh game in a row last night. The B’s took on the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first time this season, ultimately beating them in a shootout. Byron, our CEO, was lucky enough to witness the excitement first hand.

• Speaking of Byron, he attended ad:tech New York last week (as mentioned in the previous blog post).  He thought it would be important for me to note that our booth location could possibly have been in the worst spot in the history of tradeshows attended.

“A nice big booth (10 x 20) on a small isle packed with small booths seemed like a good idea on paper”, notes Chief Idea Officer Byron White. But truth be known, the location was like much like Siberia and did not attract as many visitors as past shows. The only upside to the booth was it was right next to the speaker forum where Byron spoke on Thursday, the last day of the show. Attendees of the speaking session stumbled over to the booth afterwards to learn about WriterAccess.com and how our small army of writers is a big resource to grow business these days.

Sure, the booth was in a crappy location, but how could anyone resist this one-of-a-kind snazzy jacket?

Presidential candidate Rick Perry made a surprise visit on David Letterman last Thursday night, just two days after his disastrous memory lapse in the recent debate that many in the media are calling the “tipping point” for resignation from the campaign.

Rather than pushing the scraps of embarrassment under the table, his campaign spinners have carved out a content marketing strategy that is using Perry’s gaffe to create positive campaign buzz rather than letting it become the crushing blow many thought it would be.

Check out at these funny, honest and savvy Top 10 Reasons for the Memory Lapse that Governor Perry read to Letterman fans:

10. Actually, there were three reasons I messed up last night: 1) was the nerves and, 2) was the headache and, 3) um…uh…oops.

9. I don’t know what you’re talking about — I think things went well.

8. I was up late last night watching “Dancing With the Stars.”

7. I thought the debate was tonight.

6. You try concentrating with Mitt Romney smiling at you. That is one handsome dude!

5. Uh, El Nino?

4. I had a five-hour energy drink six hours before the debate.

3. I really hoped it would get me on my favorite talk show, but instead, I ended up here.

2. I wanted to help take the heat off my buddy Herman Cain.

1. I just learned Justin Bieber is my father.

This is content marketing at its finest here: Present great content at the right time, to the right audience and hope it gets passed around. And around. (Which is exactly what I’m doing here).

And the content marketing strategy did not stop there. An appearance on Saturday Night Live likely turned even more people into Rick Perry believers and fans.

Years ago I experienced the power of adversity transformation by founding the Lost Ball golf tournament after a battle with cancer (and I’ll bet you can guess what kind of cancer I had), which raised more than $100k for the Jimmy fund over a ten year span. I had just started my first company, and this event brought lots of attention to cancer research and our new start-up.  We developed an incredible brand, logo and identity for the Lost Ball Tournament, featuring a golf ball resting on a tee casting a shadow, with another tee standing beside it, only without a ball and shadow. Another logo that was used intentionally left the “o” out of the logo, which read as “L_st Ball Golf Tournament.” All good fun. All for a great cause. And to this day, I’m probably more famous in Boston for starting that golf tournament than any of the companies I’ve started since then.

Overcoming adversity can used as a positive force in content marketing, politics and your business. Simply gather the ideas from your experience, develop the stories and publish great content that engages readers and keeps them coming back for more, and more, and more.  And if you have a real winner, your content will be shared over and over again in the online social sphere.

I just got back to Boston from Ad-Tech in New York, and I’m thrilled. Great show again this year. We connected with more than 250 leads who are all seemingly excited to try out WriterAccess.com with our special $25 off promo code, 25Bonus, that we handed out at the show (Feel Free to Cash In on this Bonus even if you didn’t make the show).

I happened to catch the David Letterman Show on Tuesday night in NY, with guest Robert Pattinson.  Check out this great Photo I shot of him on his way into the Studio for the show:

And here’s another shot of me, this time in the crazy ideaLaunch branded sports coat that I had made in Vietnam earlier this year while traveling there on business.

Dear Great Content,

The Content Revolution is getting ugly. Dry white papers are dying on the front lines. Boring content is being carried off the battlefield. Duplicate copy has it worst of all—Google’s Panda release buried most of it alive!

The good news is that content across the web is getting better. Search results are becoming more relevant. The enemy (bad content) is retreating. Offshore content is being rejected at the border. News re-spins are now bad news.

Great Content, only you can inspire readers with those ah-ha moments, and make us laugh (and cry) with words that touch the soul. It’s about time you had your day of glory.

Victory is near. Great writers are joining the Content Revolution every day and learning how to tell stories well—with Sisomo! Everyone’s jumping in … gathering ideas, developing stories, and publishing engaging content across multiple channels to win the war of words on the web.

Keep fighting the good fight. We’ll continue to send information, methodology and technology reinforcements from MarketingSherpa, Content Marketing Institute, Junta 42 and our ideaLaunch content marketing blog.

Happy Ranting,
Byron White

Take a look at the email blast below that I received from CNN a few days ago.

Notice the following negative words: walloped, renewed fears, plunged, plowed, dropped, lost.

And the positive words (yikes, not many): record, settled (even these are a bit of a stretch).

—————————————————————————————————-

Wall Street was walloped Thursday by a stock sell-off driven by renewed fears about the U.S. and global economies.

Major stock indexes plunged. Investors plowed their money into safe U.S. government bonds — briefly pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury below 2%. And gold settled at a record $1,822 an ounce.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 419 points, or 3.7%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each lost more than 4%.

————————————————————————————————–

OK, it was a pretty bad day overall on Wall Street.  But from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the market was actually rising after a big dip in the morning. Hey, that’s good news for the day.

Words are powerful things. Perhaps too powerful at times like these when heightened economic fears can be easily agitated by fear-focused media coverage.

What kind of words are you using on your website, in your communication, in your blog posts? Are your words positive, happy and  “friendly” for all?  Or are you selling and spinning your features into the ground?

Take a look. And find the right words that communicate your corporate vision and personality to the world.

Content Marketing is hot. Really hot.

I enjoyed two trade-show speaking engagements this month: The Conversion Conference in San Francisco and Search Engine Strategies in N.Y. You can now download a condensed summary deck I call Content Marketing Work-flow Manifesto that I presented at both shows. Enjoy!

The Conversion Conference session was a solo, one-hour presentation, offering plenty of time to walk through the details and 71 slides in the deck. Yeah, I talk fast. The session was entitled “Content Distribution: Conversion Through Thought Leadership”—which was probably not right title, but it worked for the crowd. Groovy acid jazz music played from my laptop through the speakers as a new twist for my speaking gigs, offering a positive vibe and higher energy level—perhaps attracting new recruits that packed into the few chairs available for the standing-room-only session.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR was the co-speaker of the Search Engine Srategies session called “Developing Great Content in NY,” and we both enjoyed every minute of our presentation, offering some great advice for the audience. And yes, I made it through 71 slides, skipping only a few. A crowd gathered around us after the session, and 37 attendees were kind enough to pass on great feedback and to request a copy of the deck and a PDF version of my 101 Content Marketing Tips book after the session. They actually had to kick us off the stage and request we take the conversations in the hallway.

Below are a few shots of the left and right side of the standing-room-only presentation in NY.