Content That Works

Earlier this year, Hammock began working with 20|20 Research on a project designed to help boost their organic search results and generate leads for its suite of online research products.

Long known for its physical research facilities, the company now boasts impressive online products with a fast-growing user base of research professionals in the United States and Europe. As these new products ramp up, they want to make sure their expanded capabilities and unique online products are receiving the recognition they deserve.

When they reached out to us they were already savvy content marketers and a step ahead of most companies. Not only did they have a well-written and authoritative CEO blog, they also had a strong presence on LinkedIn and Twitter.

However, like many companies, the full plate of duties already being handled by everyone on staff made it difficult for the company to find the time and focus needed to reach the objectives they had for their online efforts.

Among the many weird Facebook groups springing up every day—“I bet this pickle can get more fans than Nickelback” is a recent gem—one grabbed this editor’s attention: “'Let’s eat Grandma!' or, 'Let’s eat, Grandma!' Punctuation saves lives.”

As long as punctuation continues to make a difference in Grandmas’ lives everywhere, good proofreaders will be necessary. But how do Hammock editors and designers keep our proofing wits about us, especially if it’s something we’ve read, edited and commented on a hundred times? From the well-proven strategies to the unusual ones, here’s how we keep those proofing pencils sharp.

The cover of a magazine—its colors, words and images—determine how quickly a reader will pick it up off of a newsstand or coffee table. With this in mind, editors and designers look for an inspiring or provocative shot to grace the cover—something that represents what the audience wants to see or read about the most, or speaks to a particular demographic. So what happens when there are two (or more) equally compelling stories that are cover worthy? When faced with this dilemma, some editors are choosing multiple covers for one issue.

OK, so that's a strange example, but I was just trying to demonstrate one of the best uses of social media and Web 2.0—crowdsourcing. In very basic terms, crowdsourcing means leveraging your audience to find solutions to your problems—or, in my case, answers to very random questions.

6 Steps to a Productive Session

Also known as "stream of consciousness writing," free writing is not that different from those grade-school exercises where the teacher would ask you to take out a piece of paper and write whatever you wanted on a topic until she called time. I used to hate it when my teacher would snatch up my paper before I was done, but what I didn't realize then was that free writing isn't about producing perfect prose. It's about collecting and connecting your thoughts, and silencing that critical voice inside that keeps you from fully expressing yourself.

“Are you here for the exclusive, online-only content? Right this way. Hey, by the way, how did you find out about us? Oh, the magazine directed you here? Wow, that’s great! It worked!”

30 minutes later: “Wow, you’re still here! You’re right, there is so much information on this site. Well, thanks for coming. Don’t be a stranger. Come back, we’ll have new content tomorrow!”

At least, that’s how I envision a conversation I’d have with a MyBusiness reader who I bumped into online.

With MyBusiness, the magazine we publish for the National Federation of Independent Business, the way we drive readers online is to offer them additional information about a topic that appeared in the magazine.

We work with clients to plan content months ahead of time. It's not uncommon to write a story on the history of Christmas cookies in June or interview entrepreneurs with summertime businesses in February. This early and detailed planning is just one essential piece of the publication puzzle.

"Magazine" originally meant a storehouse for supplies -- especially weapons and ammunition. So magazines held a variety of things in all shapes and sizes. For most people today, "magazine" means a periodic publication filled with -- you guessed it -- a variety of items in all shapes and sizes. Today, small is the new big.

We decided about 18 months ago to create a new kind of website here at Hammock.com. As individuals, we were using lots of new online media approaches and technology -- and were incorporating them into work we were doing for clients. Our site, while attractive, was not a reflection of where we are -- as a company or as individuals. So we headed into a new direction.

[After the jump, read more about how Hammock.com is evolving.]

It's been a while since I've made an "audio post" to a blog (I'm more "video" these days). However, some recent blog posts and Twitter comments by Patrick Ruffini inspired me to dust-off the Skype account and Audio Hijack software and give him a call. In 2004 Ruffini had the very Web 1.0 title "webmaster" for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Despite the title, he ushered in some very Web 2.0 features and approaches to the site -- and the campaign. Over 30,000 off-line "meetup-like" volunteer gatherings were organized on the site and over 5,000 websites and weblogs hosted the badges and widgets (remember, this was in 2004) that Ruffini's team developed using RSS and XML. After the election, he ran the Inauguration website and later had a two-year stint as eCampaign Director for the GOP.

After the jump, read more and listen to the interview.

Last week I caught up with our own Summer Huggins to ask her a few questions about how she uses Flickr in anticipation of the release of a podcast she’d be featured on about the subject.

But as I prepared my interview questions, I didn’t know what to ask. What's not to understand about Flickr? You post your pictures, send the link to mom and dad, and cross your fingers that their e-mail client allows them to click on the link.

1. Podcasting: Perhaps one of the best known of the new casting models, podcasting is simply the idea of distributing MP3 (audio) files in a way that listeners can subscribe to and "catch" them when you distribute a new one. There are lots of options on how to distribute such content, but iTunes, email or attaching a file to a blog post can provide most everyone in your audience a way to receive such content in the way they choose. Links: Our favorite Podcast tool, and What is Podcasting? by Make Magazine's Phillip Torrone.

2. Videocasting: Sometimes, called video podcasting, the idea is the same. A video file can be distributed through various channels (email, iTunes, attaching to blog posts, posting on video hosting services or social networking sites) so that your audience can receive them when you release them, not just when they land on your website.

3. IMcasting: Do you have customers, members, students, fans, employees who communicate via instant messaging? A simple way to cast to these in your audience is through the microblogging service Twitter. Link: Twitter.com FAQ: How to Twitter via IM (scroll down).

4. SMScasting: What about those in your audience who communicate primarily via text messaging? Services like Twitter allow your customers and members to following you via text messaging as well as IM. Link: Twitter.com FAQ: How to Twitter via SMS (text-messaging) (scroll down).

5. PDFcasting: Did you know you could distribute a PDF or digital magazine via iTunes or RSS feed? Well, you do now. No longer do you have to limit your audience to subscribing to a digital publication via email or, worse, coming to your site to download it. The idea also works for PowerPoint presentations or Excel documents. Simply enclose (attach) a document with anything that generates an RSS feed (a blog post, for example) and you can start document-casting immediately.

6. Photocasting: Like with audio or video podcasting, you now have several ways to distribute photography in a way that fits into how your customers and members are experiencing photography online. And by photography, we mean any form of visual content that your customers or members may enjoy -- or find important -- to receive from you. Link: Share Business Images by Photocasting (Apple.com)

7. Screensaver-casting: While the idea has been around for a long time -- some of the earliest forms of push media used the concept -- we're testing some early versions of such tools, including FlickrFan (now, Mac only) that distribute content in ways that will make it easy for members, customers or employees to view ever-changing content (headlines, photography, web links) while their computer monitor or Internet-connected HDTV is in a rest mode. Link: FlickrFan Turns Any Photostream Into a Mac Screen Saver

8. Linkcasting: One of those easy-to-overlook content ideas is the low-effort, high-reward service you provide when you share current links to content on the web that your audience will find engaging. In addition to emailing links, take advantage of the wide array of ways to feed links to your customer or member's desktop. Link: Here's a "feed" of links we maintain related to media industry news.