Image from Toothpaste for Dinner

This morning, a friend (HT: Gwen) who’s aware of my type-nerd tendencies shared a document that embodies what I think content marketing is all about.

Type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones’s March newsletter, “Four Techniques for Combining Fonts,” does just about all of the things we think are important for creative content. Why is this working so well?

• It’s functional. I’m not a designer, but I do dabble in the graphic arts, and one of the most difficult tasks I’ve encountered in that arena is combining different fonts in the same piece. Really… one step too far and you end up with a Geocities site circa 1999. This well-designed, easy-to-read tutorial on font combining would be useful for any designer; so useful, in fact, that some of them might even hang on to it to reference later on.
• It speaks the language. This was clearly written by a creative person for a creative person. Take these lines, for example: “What do a neoclassical modern, a suave sans serif, and a sporty slab have in common? All are meditations on precision, though each has a different texture.” This language is meant to invoke visuals, and visuals are the designer’s language.
• It’s well written. Seriously, that is some sparkling-clean copy. Not a typo or grammatical error in sight. If you’re not confident in your own written-word abilities, consider hiring a writer.
• It’s promotional without being salesy. This one document promotes about 11 different products without beating you over the head with marketing language. It’s pretty straightforward: here’s what we offer, and here’s what you can do with it. Aside from the fact that this is a pleasure to look at, it showcases the products beautifully.

One of the most important aspects of content marketing is that useful content earns trust and keeps readers coming back. If you’ve got a product, try to make both your content and your product valuable to your customers.

Many weeks ago, I expressed misgivings about the targeted ads that show up on Facebook. According to a recent article in the New York Times, it looks like I’m not the only one who’s put off by them.

The ads that appear on the right-hand side of Facebook pages are determined for each user based on demographic information and interests shared on the site. Since my last mini-diatribe on this subject, the ads that I’ve seen have tended to be more relevant (read: less offensive) to me. For example, I just clicked on my profile page, and one of the ads is for ModCloth.com, an online vintage/indie clothing store. Maybe I’m seeing this particular ad because I’ve listed John Fluevog shoes as an interest, or maybe it has something to do with my year of graduation and music tastes. In any case, this is an ad I wouldn’t mind clicking (and I don’t mean the little “x” in the corner).

Ok, so what about the rest of the ads on my profile page? Well, here’s one that’s not-so-relevant (at least, I sincerely hope not): “Having trouble fitting in? No guarantees, but you’ll probably be more popular with a funny tee, hoodie, mug or sticker from CafePress!” While I would normally find an ad like this to be annoying, what’s more unsettling about this one is the venue in which it appears. I know that these ads come up for me based on information Facebook has gathered about me. Because it’s actually targeted toward me, it has the potential to cross the line from annoying to insulting.

What’s my point here? While targeted online advertising can be effective, it’s got a ways to go. No matter how effective it gets, though, and especially until the technology and methodology improve, understanding your audience and being able to speak to them in a language they’ll understand is invaluable. Take the example used in the article: “Are you a fan of Eddie Izzard? We need 100 music and movie lovers to test and KEEP the new Apple iPad.” Aside from the fact that Eddie Izzard is a performer whose material is available in a variety of media, it seems like a pretty serious stretch to connect an appreciation of British comedy to a desire for Apple products so directly. You want to try hard to engage with your readers by providing useful content without looking like you’re trying so hard (or not hard at all… depends on how you look at it).

It’s all thanks to the magic known as Latent Semantic Imaging (or LSI).  LSI uses algorithms (or, as NPR put it in today’s Morning Edition, “fancy math”) to recognize and keep track of patterns in users’ search queries.  What’s the point?  This is what allows Google to understand context (again, Hannah Montana! or Hannah, Montana).

At this point, we should all be able to come up with myriad reasons why keyword stuffing is a bad, bad idea.  In addition to keeping your keyword density to a reasonable level, however, it’s also important to consider all of the words surrounding keywords and phrases if you want to create quality content.  If those words don’t make sense to the fancy mathematician spider-robots, then your content is going to send up a red flag, because it probably won’t make much sense to us less-sophisticated human readers either.

I bring this up today because, according to NPR, a company called Burning Glass is making use of what appears to be similar technology to streamline the job application process. According to the article, the technology is able to look through entire sentences in a user’s resume, taking into account degree, work experience, extracurricular activities, etc. 

Much like Google’s use of LSI, all of this is supposed to give the user more relevant search results.  Users of traditional career-search websites might especially appreciate this. Take John L. of Boston, for instance: “Just because I have experience in political/government doesn’t mean I want to be an Army Dentist.”  Or, Virginia Su M. of Cambridge: “HAILSTORM of cuss words.”

Optimized Halloween Costume!

Still not sure what to be for Halloween?  Here’s yet another idea for the tech-savvy procrastinator: the homemade tag cloud!  Forget social media for a night… this year, publicize your personal information the old-fashioned, analog way by wearing it!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A sheet of white posterboard
• A blue marker
• A steady hand
• Some scissors (a scissor? Whatever)
• Interests
• Some string or something
• A piece of paper and a pen

How to make it:

• Use the pen and paper to make a short list of your interests (about 10 should do). List them in descending order according to how interested you are.
• On the posterboard, crudely draw a giant cloud.
• Cut out said cloud.
• With your list as a reference, write each of your interests on the cloud (for authenticity, try to make your handwriting look like the typeface “Arial”). Space them out sort of randomly and vary the size based on their position on your list (for example, if “rock tumbling” is your #1 interest, make it the biggest).
• Attach the string or whatever you found to each side of the cloud, hang it around your neck, and voila! You’re optimized!

Thanks to Amanda Smyth Connor for allowing me to creepily yank a picture of her from Facebook, make ridiculous alterations to it, and then post it on this blog.

So why doesn’t traditional marketing work for me? First of all, the delivery tends to be… well, rude. Yes, I understand that television is ad-supported, and yes, I understand that this is by no means a new concept. The great thing about taking in my information, media, etc. via the ‘tubes (the inter-ones) is that, for the most part, I can view advertisements on my own terms. For example, Hulu often gives viewers a choice regarding advertisements: Would you like to view this program with normal commercial interruption, or would you prefer to see one longer commercial at the beginning and then enjoy the rest of the show uninterrupted? While I view this as a step in the right direction and appreciate being given an option, I usually find that the advertisements (however brief) aren’t relevant to me as a consumer (again, Black Jack Taco).

Recently, social media sites like Facebook and Digg have started responding to this need for relevant content. Facebook started by basing the advertisements a user sees on the content in his/her profile. They went a step farther by allowing users to “vote” on whether or not they like these ads. So, for instance, when I log into Facebook and see three adds for various Acai-berry diets to the right of my profile, I can click the a little “x” button on each one and then state why I don’t like them (unfortunately, there’s no option in the drop-down for, “Seriously, why do you guys think I need to go on a diet?”). While it took a few weeks, after hitting the x button and choosing the options “Irrelevant,” “Offensive,” and “Repetitive” a few dozen times, Facebook no longer suggests that I lose a few pounds. I’m happy to report that I feel a lot better about myself now.

As we know, advertising is everywhere (really, everywhere… ever heard of “whisper marketing”? Yikes). It’s nice to finally have some modicum of control over how I take ads in. What I like and respond to even more, though, are marketing materials that tell me something useful about the product/service/idea/whathaveyou being advertised.

[Note: This is the part wherein I promote content marketing (more specifically, the content marketing services offered by the company by which I’m currently employed). Remember when I said advertising is everywhere? This is so meta, my head’s about to explode.]

Let’s consider this hypothetical situation: Imagine that I’m interested in purchasing a stand-up kitchen mixer (that part’s not hypothetical… I want one really bad). They’re a little pricey, and I’m hesitant to make such an investment when my desire to learn to bake might not even see the end of the week. So I’m doing some internet browsing, comparing brands, prices, etc., and I end up at the website of a company that makes this kind of mixer. I notice that this site has a link to a “Resources” page, so I click on it, and there are all kinds of links with titles like “Adding Flour to Batter Without Getting It All Over Yourself,” and “Pancakes: Don’t Get Tough, Add Fluff,” etc. Guess what happens when I click the second link? I learn that over-mixing pancake batter results in tough pancakes, and that I should only mix until the ingredients are just combined. I learned something… how exciting!

Having well-written content about your products or services has a couple of benefits. First of all, it’s the perfect avenue for you to emphasize your product’s benefits, rather than just list features. Second of all, it can be optimized to make it easier for readers to find. More importantly (IMHO), presenting helpful information makes you a resource, rather than just a retailer. If the information is good enough, someone like me might just come back to your site for more.