By Leo Valiquette
On Monday, Francis shared some highlights from last week’s International Startup Festival in Montreal, which of course raises the obvious question, why do we not have these kinds of events in Ottawa?
After a false start, serial entrepreneur and all around community booster Scott Annan has launched his Mercury Grove startup incubator. Over at Exploriem, Bruce Firestone and the team are ramping up the scale of their operations. And then there’s the whole reincarnation of OCRI as Invest Ottawa.
There is no shortage of activity in this city in support of early-stage and growing technology ventures. Isn’t it time to knit this all together with a signature event that would feature the best and brightest from locally and abroad sharing their insights with the Ottawa community?
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By Alexandra Reid
While content marketing has been around for a long time, content marketing through digital channels is becoming increasingly important in many of today’s marketing programs as social media and blogging continue to rise as influential channels where corporate thought leadership can be developed and displayed.
However, many companies are struggling to properly manage these channels, which demand a considerable amount of resources, especially the human resources required to find, develop and propagate high-quality content and engage communities. We’ve all seen corporate blogs and social media accounts flop because they lacked professionalism, resources dried up or there wasn’t a sound strategy in place to encourage long-term commitment.
To ensure professional and long-term management of their channels, many companies are outsourcing some or all of their blogging and social media activities to agencies or independent ghostwriters. Ghostwriters can take on a wide range of functions, from editing to article writing and even social media communications. While each agreement will vary depending on a company’s requirements, great ghostwriters share a number of professional qualities. If you are considering hiring one or several to write or edit your content, choose those who have the following skills:
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By Francis Moran
To hear many of the speakers at last week’s International Startup Festival in Montréal tell it, there has rarely been as good a time as the present to start a new business. “Now is awesome,” said technology industry watcher Chris Shipley. “Resources for startups are raining down.” Dave McLure of 500 Startups agreed; resources are cheap and plentiful, he said.
This is not to say that either of these speakers believed that launching a startup would be a walk in the park. The tension and worry associated with doing so means that “Tums become a snack food,” Shipley said, while McLure, in trademark fashion, opened his remarks by saying to anyone present who wanted to be an entrepreneur, “You fucking idiots.”
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Joe Pulizzi, BtoB, Mashable, VentureBeat, and Business2Community.
5 reasons for the great content marketing correction
If you follow the stock market, then you understand what a correction is. Technically, a correction in the stock market happens when stocks (as a whole) decline at least 10 percent over a relatively short period of time, usually after a nice run up in stocks (called a bull market). Over the last 50 years, we’ve seen (for the most part), a bull market in paid media. It was clear back then and it is even clearer today: most brands were (are) overweight in paid media and underweight in owned media. In this post, Joe Pulizzi explains that the movement of content marketing is a necessary correction in the marketplace, and why this shift is occurring.
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By Jesse Rodgers
A tweet by Peter Mansbridge brought a lot of people’s attention to an article entitled Steve Jobs’ Lesson for RIM: Power of Perceptions, Turnaround 101, which focuses on how Steve Jobs changed the perception of Apple. That perception shift was driven a lot by product, and it wasn’t the iPod that did it. It was the other product — the Mac computer — and Apple’s ability to extend the life of a dead OS. Apple focused on revenue building and its “cult of mac” first.
The problem Steve Jobs faced with Apple’s OS going from the OS 8/9 to X and where RIM is now feels very similar. Apple extended the life of a dead OS while it built the OS for its future (OS X), the one that gave it the flexibility to build the iPod, the iPhone, and beyond. Did Jobs manage perceptions through how he spoke about Apple? Sure, but he also needed his product to deliver on the promise that Apple is innovative and cool.
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Your audience will judge you by your cover
July 11, 2012 by Leo Valiquette
Earlier this year, I had the honour of being involved with Northern Lights 2012, a four-day conference that showcased economic and business development opportunities in Canada’s north, along with the social, cultural and environmental considerations that must be part of any commercial activity up there […]
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7 reasons why people hate your B2B business blog
July 10, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
As a content marketer, I read a lot of blogs. I subscribe to 201 blogs and have another two-dozen or so outlets saved as links, which I monitor daily. I monitor streams on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and plough through Google news for hours every morning […]
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Trademarks for small businesses in little towns
July 09, 2012 by David French
I visited a wine-tasting opening event for a make-it-yourself wine business in Shawville, Québec recently. While reclining in comfort, I considered the question: “Do Intellectual Property rights matter for small businesses in little towns?” IP rights refer to patents […]
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Great articles roundup: Great leaders, marketing orientation, content marketing, personal information and ghost writing
July 06, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Fast Company, Econsultancy, MarketingWeek, TechVibes, and Business 2 Community […]
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The price of everything, the value of nothing and customer service
July 05, 2012 by Leo Valiquette
Customer service, and the lack thereof, is a recurring topic on this blog, and for good reason. As public relations and marketing consultants, we appreciate the profound impact that a poor experience with your brand can have on a customer’s willingness to come again or refer your products and services to others […]
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Happy Independence Day!
July 04, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
To all our neighbours down south, happy Independence Day. Regular posting will resume tomorrow […]
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The top 10 truths of social media
July 03, 2012 by Caroline Kealey
There’s no question that social media is the darling of communications tactics at the moment, and with good reason. Social media gives communicators a direct, immediate and highly targeted way of engaging with our audiences. It’s a profound and permanent […]
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Happy Canada Day long weekend!
July 02, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
From all of us at Francis Moran and Associates, we hope you have a happy and safe Canada Day long weekend. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.
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By Leo Valiquette
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Tweets by @FrancisMoranRecent Comments
The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]