Brands creating content these days often steal a few tricks from features journalism to tell stories. Even more commonly, brands hire former journalists to run content marketing initiatives.

For journalists, how do the two tasks compare?

Some traditionally trained journalists say they worry that articles or blog posts seem less trustworthy if the content is produced by a brand, but in practice that tends to not be the case.

Brands such as Birchbox and Behance have created editorial destinations that are utility driven and meet the readers’ needs the same way features writing always has.

The Content Strategist talked to Sean Blanda, associate editor and producer at Behance, about his experience moving from journalism to developing content for a brand, and the similarities and differences in each.

The Content Strategist: How did you get into brand content and what did you do before?

Blanda: Before this, I was in Philadelphia working on a company I started with two friends of mine called Technically Philly – it’s kind of the TechCrunch for Philadelphia.

We covered startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, but out of that, one of the ways we made money in the early days, was with what people now call content marketing for brands.

The more I immersed myself in it the more I realized that features journalism — not like hard news, political reporting, investigative journalism — but features writing for the features section, or the style section, that kind of journalism and content marketing are not that dissimilar. They have a lot to learn from each other. I felt the skills readily transferred between each one and was kind of excited, I saw this whole untapped universe of brands not really being met.

In respect to content, what are your goals at Behance?

Blanda: The goals with content is primarily executed through 99U, which is a conference and a blog we run. The tagline is making ideas happen — we get enough inspiration every day but how do we put our nose to the grindstone and crank out all the great work we can do.

The blog is to kind of motivate and get people to that message and hopefully they’ll buy a notebook, or attend a conference, or join the Behance network. It’s another way for people to get sucked into the Behance universe.

How is what you do now similar to journalism, and how is it different?

Blanda: I don’t view what we do at 99U as that dissimilar to features journalism. So, like reaching out to people, interviewing them, getting the takeaway, its just like service journalism, finding ways to help our readers. Instead of selling subscriptions, we’re selling conference tickets.

The only different is we play a small role in also trying to monetize the things we do. In a traditional old school journalism environment that didn’t happen.

[At Technically Philly,] I acted as a publisher, publisher writer and editor all rolled into one as a necessity. Because you only have a staff of three, it’s hard to do the traditional walled-off gardens that used to exist. So I think nowadays, you’re doing a disservice if you want to create content but you’re not figuring out ways to monetize — in a way that makes sense. Not just ads or a paywall, but what does your audience want that based on your expertise and access you can give them, to make their lives better.

What are the most important skills to succeed in the space right now?

Blanda: You can learn how to write, you an learn how to edit, you can learn how to interview, but the one thing I think that you need in this space is a constant curiosity to try out new ways of reaching your audience and new ways of providing for your audience.

So I think it’s really easy to just say to yourself, I’m a writer, and not really bother yourself with that. I think those kinds of people are going to be left behind really quickly. If you’re not afraid to experiement and try new stuff you’ll eventually end up on top — it might be hard in the beginning, but youll eventually end up on top.

 What’s one thing you’re working on right now?

Blanda: The biggest thing we have coming up is our 99U conference, which is kind of like a lecture series, a bootcamp for creating, to come and really get a butt-kicking in making their ideas happen. So we’re gonna have a few days of speakers and some action classes as well as studio session tours all throughout New York City.

We promote it through the blog all the time. We interview people who have spoken or wil speak on the site, record the lectures, and those are then streamed up on 99u.com so if you got to 99u.com/videos you can see the last three years, I believe.

Any industry-related pet peeves? 

Blanda: A lot of journalists don’t recognize the power your sources have. Sources can make their own platform now, and sources can build an audience way larger than the journalists sometimes. And I think a lot of people aren’t really atuned to that, there’s still a few people catching up.

Think about 37signals, they have their film blog Signal vs. Noise, they have their book series, they talk often at a lot of conferences, but do they really need the attention? Probably not. And I think that’s a rising trend we’re gonna see.

If [journalists] don’t react quickly to that kind of trend they’re going to get left behind. They need to provide value. Before the value of a journalist doing an interview was, Hey I’m going to give you my audience but what happens when your audience is bigger than my audience? Does it matter anymore?

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Of course, an article that discusses issues such as race or feminism will attract comments on either extreme, but sometimes a story about baking pie manages to build a heated discussion, too.

Sites with most comment success are often personal blogs where the author reads and responds to nearly every comment. Self-serving spam is deleted and incentivized against, and critical remarks are often constructive since the commenter knows the original author is listening.

Not every website has the manpower to invest time and effort in comment threads, leading to the abandoned garden effect, where, once published, and article is left to become adulterated by mindless and sometimes heartless commentary.

It’s left some publishers wondering if the Internet is better off without comments. Perhaps it is true that less than one percent of an audience scrolls down to read the them, and including a comment section is dead weight on a site, or worse, brings an unnecessary cost of moderation. (For example, The Huffington Post reports a grand total of  7 million comments per month, and in the past has advertised job postings for around-the-clock comment moderators.)

Another way to comment: Directed questions

This site, The Content Strategist, opts to end each post with a survey, called Urtak, rather than open-ended comments. The yes or no questions allow for reader feedback that is quantifiable and are generally less attractive to comment trolls. For readers, it offers a way to engage without much friction — it gives users something to click on — which is, after all, a key feature that separates the web from print.

Some blogging sites have launched without the option of comments. Svbtle is an invite-only blogging site that offers a “kudos” button in the top right corner of the post to bring in reader feedback. Medium (example page) could be called a blogging platform, but is ordered by topic rather than author, so it’s almost a group journal. Readers are given one option on which to click, similar to Svbtle’s, this time just called “Good Story.”

The community that content develops around itself might be driven by design decisions as much as editorial — note that YouTube, renown for particularly strongly worded comments, allows a thumbs up and a thumbs down, while Facebook only allows positive feedback — the Like.

A more established, but still interesting design standard is on Reddit, where a vote up or down is just an arrow and is therefore less driven by sentiment and more by perceived quality.

Brad Gerick, social media editor at Patch, recommends this voting strategy as a way to get the smarter comments up higher, calling it “a combination of Reddit and the good side of Gawker.”

Gawker’s comment aggressive approach

On Gawker, an algorithm surfaces the better comments to the top, while each user is responsible for moderating comments on the thread they’ve started. This solves the abandoned garden problem and treats comments as a true web product rather than a plugin that’s sort of tacked on to the end of a post.

But, it gets better — could comments sell? Traditional wisdom says that the uninformed riffraff will devalue content overall, and make advertisers less likely to want their brand next to it. But Gawker’s Nick Denton suggests comments offer a business opportunity.

In a staff memo: “We all know the conventional wisdom: the days of the banner advertisement are numbered. In two years, our primary offering to marketers will be our discussion platform.”

The idea is that a brand could post a comment for free just as easily as a brand can tweet — and pay for guaranteed exposure similar to how promoted tweets work.

But, the value is not the impressions — it’s the real time conversation that’s expected in comment threads. If discussions are heated, a brand could step in and address concerns. Then, publishers gain yet another party, who has an incentive for positive and enlightening conversation, to tend the comment garden.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

It’s praised as a holy grail for brands and a rising revenue stream for publishers, but what’s the secret to content marketing?

Kyle Monson’s company, Knock Twice, cites being-in-the-know as a founding principle. That’s not where the mystery ends — according to the company website, some of Monson’s biggest clients are “the ones we don’t talk about.”

However, Monson did give The Content Strategist a peek into how he thinks about content campaigns and what parts of the industry could be better, from search algorithms to more beautiful content and empathetic creators.

The Content Strategist: Tell me about Knock Twice — when did you launch and how did it come about? 

Knock Twice was an idea I had with a long-time friend, Mike Barash. He was one of my favorite PR guys to work with back when I was a tech journalist — very sharp, always on the ball, no B.S. We were hanging out at a SXSW party, and talking about how the tech PR industry was just garbage, and we could do it better. He went ahead and got the company off the ground a couple years ago, and I finally joined in April.

The name “Knock Twice” refers to our philosophy that marketing agencies should be neither seen nor heard. The constant push for publicity that I see in ad agencies and PR firms drives me crazy, and I’m sure it drives clients crazy, too. At Knock Twice, we want to be in the background making things happen. It’s like a secret door to a cool club — you either know where it is or you don’t.

What’s your personal background and how did you get into content strategy?

Ever since I was in high school, I wanted to be a journalist at Newsweek. I worked all through college toward a communications/journalism degree, worked at a bunch of newspapers and finally got my dream internship at Newsweek. It turned out not to be a great fit (isn’t that the way it always happens?). I spent the next 5 or 6 years as a tech journalist and editor at PC Magazine, eventually rising up the ranks to senior editor.

After a while, though, I started to feel like I had read every tech news story that could possibly be written, so I moved on to a new career in advertising, as content strategy director at JWT. I was hired to bring my journalistic sensibilities to big ad campaigns for companies like Microsoft, and we had a lot of success with that strategy, winning a pile of awards, including a Cannes Titanium Lion.

This is remarkable not just because the award-winning campaign was from Microsoft, but because it was a B2B campaign targeting IT guys. B2B campaigns don’t often win piles of awards. After three years at JWT, I moved on to partner with Mike and Knock Twice. We’re having a great time doing PR for a bunch of small tech startups and digital/content strategy for some huge companies that will remain nameless.

There’s a lot of definitions for content marketing — based on the work you do, how would you define it?

I’d define it as using content to achieve brand or campaign goals. “Content” can be entertaining videos, informational white papers, humanizing blog posts, silly tweets, whatever, but when correctly deployed, they support the brand’s overall goals. That might be building awareness, changing brand perceptions, moving the needle on sales, boosting SEO, or any number of other things.

I tend to stick to campaigns that use content to activate niche influencers, in order to effect wide perception shifts. These kinds of campaigns let me make content for the smartest, best-informed people in my target audience, and that’s where I want to play and frankly, where I think more brands should play.

What does your process for prepping a content product for a client look like? 

That’s a proprietary question! I can only say three things on the subject:

1. It’s not that different from the typical planning process. Who’s the audience, what’s the desired perception, and what content gets them there? And then what channel gets the content in front of them?

2. I love to target the smallest, most niche, most inaccessible audiences. They’re usually the core influencers of larger groups.

3. I always stress honesty with clients. We aren’t “infiltrating” these small niche communities, we’re trying to gain credibility and access to them. The worst thing a brand can do is barge in where it isn’t welcome or wanted.

Favorite case study out of anything you’ve worked on?

They’re all my babies! But my favorite wins from campaigns are the personal moments with community members I’m trying to reach. These are very rare, but I remember each one: A big name in the IT community leaving a friendly comment on my personal blog, a tech influencer with a million Twitter followers finding and tweeting a piece of campaign content on her own, an email from a community member expressing appreciation for our transparent marketing tactics, and, a heavy hitter agreeing to write a piece of branded content.

These magical moments generally aren’t included in our campaign metrics slides, but they’re indicators that we’re doing good work for the brand, and that perceptions are shifting.

Looking forward, what will the content field be like five years from now?

I really struggle with this as I try to figure out where the industry is headed. Content marketing can make the web a better place or a worse place, and I think the jury’s out on which side will prevail.

I was talking with an old ad guy in China this week, who was bemoaning all the shady content marketing tactics in use over there, and I see a lot of the same crap here. My hope is that more brands will see that they can use their marketing dollars to make beautiful things, and to create amazing content that the audience wants. Or they can make crappy videos and pay for them to “go viral” and get a bunch of positive fake comments.

Hard to tell which approach will be more popular going forward. The good news is that search algorithms will always, always be on our side, and they’ll only get better at keeping the crap away from the audience, and surfacing the good stuff.

What skill or personal trait do you find to be a differentiator in developing content?

Empathy is by far the most important trait. That is, the ability to get in your audience’s heads and both understand their needs, and see the content the way they would see it.

I think it’s nearly impossible to make good content or advertising if you look down on your audience or you don’t understand them.

Any industry-related pet peeves?

1. Lack of empathy. Snotty NYC creatives making snotty content because they don’t really like the Middle American moms they’re trying to reach.

2. Valuing the wrong metrics. X number of Twitter followers does not tell you anything about how those followers view your brand, and whether your tweets are improving that perception or hurting it. Likewise, X number of views and comments doesn’t indicate whether your content was successful. If views and comment counts really are all-important, we should be making porn videos. Seriously.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Mike Schaffer’s been a social media strategist since the days when that meant breaking rules on Facebook and Myspace to create a presence for brands before they were officially allowed.

Since then, he’s extended his repertoire to a holistic content approach, including film, customer care, advertising and content, for clients from major league baseball teams to restaurants, non-profits and the Army National Guard.

Relationships are key to success, he told The Content Strategist, and Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters network might be a sign of what’s to come in content.

The Content Strategist: What’s your background and how’d you get into content marketing?

Schaffer: My path into the content marketing world comes from a background in media and public relations — I got my start in radio and that turned into a pretty long career in sports PR, sports entertainment, restaurant, retail, nonprofit, got to work with Mike Tyson — everything imaginable from fun restaurant brands to national sports teams and some World Cup stuff.

Around 2008, I had been dabbling in social media work for my clients. I graduated college before social media was a thing, before Facebook, so I had been sort of illegally placing clients on Facebook and Myspace, and that was before brands were allowed to have a presence on those networks.

I had a couple clients that were getting more and more interested in social media, and they kind of said, if you want to still be our agency, you have to get digital.

So I started jumping into the online public relations marketing industry on Twitter and the next year I started my blog, TheBuzzByMikeSchaffer.com, and starting speaking at events and gained some foothold or level of presence in the social media industry — and then I went full-time digital when I joined iostudio in 2010 .

TCS: Tell me about iostudio — what do you do for them, and what are some nuances in how you approach content for your industry?

Schaffer: I am the content marketing director at iostudio. Social media even in the last few years has become a tactic, not a strategy, whereas not too long ago it was … let’s just have a social media strategy, we’re good to go. Now, social media has to be part of the bigger picture — that’s where my passion is — let’s see how all the pieces fit together.

We are at our core an advertising agency, but so much more than that — there are four main lanes of deliverables: advertising, film and video, customer care and then content marketing. While there is significant overlap, there are four lanes.

In my role as content marketing director I sort of get to stick my nose into a lot of things across the agency, the Army National Guard, California Tortilla, a regional restaurant chain.

I get to work on a whole lot of fun stuff for all of our clients — I’ve been doing some PR and marketing for two major league baseball teams — so we really have a wide range of clients, which I love, being able to flex our muscles in different industries is a fun challenge.

 TCS: There’s a lot of definitions for content marketing — based on the work you do, how would you define it? 

Schaffer: I think content marketing is three things. It is one, what’s the story; two, who needs to hear it; three, how can we get that message in front of them.

So I know it doesn’t fit easily into one sentence but those are the three key parts in my mind of content marketing we have to start as storytellers. We have to figure out what’s the message were trying to get across, who’s the target audience, what’s the best way to get it there.

I was at the dentist yesterday and she pulled out this bag of six or seven different scalpels or picks or tweezers and it was a whole mess of stuff. She poured it on the table next to me and I said, ”Oh my God, I hope you don’t need to use all of those.” She said, ”No, actually each of them has its own purpose so it’s actually better if I use more because they’re specialized.”

So I think that third part of content marketing in my definition — how to get the message out to the people you want to get it to — clicked for me, that every different vehicle, every different media will have a different purpose and a different audience, so understanding what’s on the table and what’s available to use — I think that’s the challenge.

TCS: Looking forward, what excites you about the field in the next few years? 

Schaffer: One is about building relationships with your customers, or your audience, it doesn’t matter if content marketers are looking to make a sale, per se. There’s so much clutter in the world that the marketers who can build a stronger relationship are the ones that are going to see greater success. I’m seeing the owned content areas be a real big thing people are going to try — I don’t know if it’s going to work, but I think more people are going to try.

By owned content areas, I mean Lady Gaga’s new social platform, Little Monsters — she created this entire social network surrounding her and the lifestyle and image that she’s portraying, so I think there’s going to be a lot more of that as brands try to create this holistic experience and keep people there.

I think is really strong and the second part of that what were kind of looking at right now is augmented reality, I like to say, enhanced media. You can look at what’s on a page and it can be so much more than that. Maxim and Esquire have some recent examples that have done well, and as more people get used to that technology and  thinking that way, we’re going to see more of that in the next five years.

 TCS: What important skills do you recommend building for someone who wants to succeed in content?

Schaffer: Number one is the ablity to connect with an audience, so being able to understand what the target audience is looking for at the end of the day you can know exactly who you want to talk to and how to get it to them – that first step of knowing what the story is is a big part.

Also, what I’ve seen in content generators is the ability to find some sort of passion for the client, the company or product — being able to find something you really like about what you’re working on helps you just do a better job at it and in an agency world there’s different clients coming through the shop all the time, but our job as marketers on the agency side is to find something we really truly are passionate about with that client, and then have that sort of guide us.

TCS: Any industry-related pet peeves? 

Schaffer: I hate the world guru — guru and wizard and silly names for experts, those are probably my biggest pet peeves.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Alexis Grant turned a part-time social media business into a full-time profession and now empowers others to do the same with candid blog posts, guides and online courses.

She says she’s come to the realization that consistently fabulous content makes you stand out, even in a crowded (and often junky) content ecosystem.

The Content Strategist got some tips from Grant on how to get into and stay ahead in the social media and content strategist business.

What’s your work and how does your background drive your success?

I’m an entrepreneurial writer and digital strategist (and a recovering journalist!). I make my living in a few ways:

• Helping small businesses and organizations with blogging and social media. For example, I run Brazen Careerist’s blog.
• Creating and selling digital guides and courses on my website.
• Writing about careers-related topics for various publications.

This post explains more details about how I make money online. My journalism background has certainly helped me get where I am now; at the core of all my work is strong writing, the ability to tell stories and share strategic messages.

How did you get started?

I began blogging while traveling through Africa in 2008. But I didn’t take on my first social media client until mid-2010, when I was back from traveling and needed to make money. That’s when I realized small businesses had a huge need for help with social media.

I released my first digital guide — about how to build a part-time social media business – in mid-2011, and things have snowballed since then. My biggest piece of advice for anyone looking to transition to running their own business or starting a side hustle is to just get started. [Grant covers this in a recent newsletter.]

I started small without knowing what my project would turn into — and now I have total freedom over my work, which means more freedom in my life. It’s incredibly satisfying to succeed when you’ve built something with your own hands and let your plans evolve along the way.

What’s your process for creating a social media content strategy for a client?

I start by learning a lot about the client’s business. I learn who they’re targeting, so I can figure out where those people hang out online.

Then, a lot of the strategy revolves around what kind of content we’ll provide, because offering helpful content is really one of the best ways to build a following.

Since I get asked this question all the time, I go into more detail in How to Create a Freakin’ Fabulous Social Media Strategy, which also includes a strategy template.

How has your personal blog contributed to your needs in running your own business?

My blog is really the foundation for everything I do. It showcases my expertise, helps me build a community and leads to clients and referrals. My blog is my baby!

You wrote recently that you’re rebranding your blog. What brought you to this decision?

I started blogging about travel and writing, which is why I’ve called myself The Traveling Writer for a few years. But now I’m focusing more on careers and the new workforce — how to get where you want to be professionally, how to build the life you want to live, how to create freedom in your work (and I still write a lot about writing, too).

Loyal readers know what to expect when they visit the blog, but new visitors often think I’m a travel blogger, and that’s no longer the case. So I’m looking to rebrand to better reflect what I have to offer and where I’m going.

The first step in this process is figuring out what to call myself, then creating a logo and website design that meshes well with that concept. Holler if you have any ideas for a new blog name!

There’s a lot of definitions for content marketing — based on the work you do, how would you define it?

I hate that phrase because people who don’t do it don’t know what it means. But I do really consider myself a content marketer — I create content that helps companies and organizations cultivate communities.

It’s not outright marketing material, but more along the lines of helpful, useful content that will draw readers to that brand. It’s the same thing I offer on my own blog — posts that will help my readers reach their goals.

What I’m saying is that content marketing doesn’t have to be “market-y.” It can — and in a lot of places should — just be awesome content, and it serves a double purpose of promoting your brand.

What changes do you see coming in the content space, and what are you excited about?

What I’m not excited about is all the crap out there. It takes an increasing amount of work to sort through all the junk content to find info that’s really helpful.

Sometimes I get notes from people who’ve bought and devoured my guides, and they go on and on about how great and useful the information was, and I want to say, “You paid for this! I promised you something! Of course it’s great!”

But the expectation has been set so low that they’re thrilled when content is awesome.

Maybe that’s the bright spot here – if you create fabulous, relevant content, you will stand out. But you’ve got to create it on a consistent basis, and you’ve got to figure out how to reach enough eyes that your content catches on. It’s not easy in a cluttered world!

What skill or personal trait do you find to be a differentiator in developing content?

Personality, and the ability to convey that personality through your writing. So much writing is bland, corporate and boring.

If you can let your personality shine through your writing — and the best way to do that is to write how you talk, and in an honest voice — your readers will feel like they know you, and they’ll love you for that.

Any industry-related pet peeves?

Republishing blog content without attribution. In other words, stealing. Not cool.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The Apple fanboy movement is an obvious example. The values the company stands for are so desirable that its customers want to be associated.

Having an attractive brand is important, but even more crucial is putting out a cohesive message. The company manifesto is not new, but it is trendy and serves as almost a new type of mission statement — it’s a content vehicle for outreach, but also a valuable resource for those internally at your company.

Lululemon is a fitness brand specializing in yoga attire and boasts what is perhaps the most recognizable manifesto, printed on red and white bags. “Breathe Deeply” is one phrase easily spotted in the design, directly referencing an important facet of yoga.

Another catchphrase, “Dance, Sing, Floss and Travel” is more broad but still highly applicable to Lululemon’s young, urban audience.

Suddenly, Lululemon is more than attire; it’s something you believe in, and the products reflect the sentiment, too.

Holstee, designer of mindful consumer goods, created a manifesto that captures the intentions of the founders when they started the company. It’s been a hit, and Maria Popova at Brain Pickings continues to display it in the sidebar of her high-trafficked blog.

“This is your life. Do what you love,” it begins.

The concept of a manifesto can work for a business brand, too.

Quicken Loans includes what it calls “ISMs” on its site, including “It’s not about WHO is right, it’s about WHAT is right,” and “A penny saved is a penny,” with each line described in more detail.

Essentially, these brands are using cliches, or near-cliches, to create meaning relative to themselves. The simplicity allows the message to be memorable.

Note that poster-style layout used by Holstee and Lululemon is not only a fun use of typography, but for those looking to expand their content on Pinterest, the image is very pinnable.

For inspiration writing a manifesto, check out this selection by Brain Pickings.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The Internet’s changed a lot over the years, but once newspaper journalist, now social strategist Amy Vernon tells The Content Strategist about one content type that hasn’t gone out of style.

She was a power user of Digg in its heyday and still holds the title of top female submitter of all time.

Now general manager of social marketing for Internet Media Labs, Vernon says the web is becoming a better place for writers and the best is yet to come.

How did you get involved in Internet Media Labs?

Internet Media Labs is a New York City-based tech startup. I’ve known two of the four founders for a while — Peter Bordes and Robert Moore — through mutual friends and the NYC tech startup scene. They’d been working on a relevance engine for examining your Twitter followers and I was, of course, intrigued.

As a hard-core Twitter user, I started unofficially advising them on that platform and other related projects as far back as last October and as time went on, we realized we were a good fit for each other. So we took our time to figure out how we could best work together. I started working there full-time in July.

Though we don’t desire to become a standalone digital agency the likes of a BigFuel, we have the skills in the team, so there’s no reason to outsource those services.

I work with clients on overall digital strategy, including social bookmarking sites consulting, community engagement on Twitter and Facebook and building out strategies for emerging platforms, such as G+, Instagram and Tumblr.

What’s your personal background and how did you get into digital strategy?

I was a professional newspaper journalist for 20 years. I was an active part of the Pulitzer-winning staff of The Miami Herald back in 1992 for Hurricane Andrew coverage, and also worked for papers in Arizona and suburban New York City.

My last job was as metro editor, but that job had a bunch of other roles added to it — education editor, blogger, blog superuser (meaning I was the person everyone else came to when they had technical problems while blogging) and social media “expert.”

I found Digg as I was trying to figure out ways to help drive traffic to our newspaper and eventually became the top female submitter of all time on Digg — somewhere around 1,300 front page submissions in all.

When I was laid off in the newspaper’s third round of job cuts in 2008, the editor told me to keep doing what I was doing, that I’d be OK. He didn’t have to tell me that, though — I had my first contract for consulting the day after the layoff and never looked back.

There’s a lot of definitions for content marketing — based on the work you do, how would you define it?

The kind of content marketing I’ve been most involved in has been marketing the content itself.

From my years in newspapers and having used Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon over the years, I have a strong sense for what kind of content does well. I know the memes, I know the types of news articles, the kinds of infographics that people enjoy.

I remember, for example, hearing people complain back in 1993 about how played out lists were. Yes, back in 1993 — long before the Internet became inundated with Top 10 lists and sites. Guess what? They’re still around and still popular. What people say they like and what they actually read are not always the same thing.

What skill or personal trait do you find to be a differentiator in developing content?

To do well in content development, you have to understand people. People consume content. And if you don’t understand what makes them laugh or cry or get mad or fascinated, you won’t succeed.

How has the content industry changed over the past five years, for better or worse?

I honestly believe it’s gotten better for writers. The “content farms” are not doing as well as they were, opening the door for writers to charge more for their writing again.

There is a huge desire and need for quality content, more than ever before. While writers may not be able to charge the same rates they used to for magazines, writing was never a high-paying profession for most. There are more platforms and publications than ever where writers can hone their craft, and more avenues for them to be “discovered,” if you will.

Though many places journalists and other writers once worked for have disappeared, so many more are available. The shakeout has not ended, but once it has, I believe writers will have greater opportunity than they’ve ever had.

What are you excited about in the digital realm?

I’m very excited about the evolution of analytics. We’re gone past page views and likes and now we’re diving deep into data.

I’ve always been a secret data wonk — used to love when we got huge data dumps from the state education department and I had to create spreadsheets and sort them and figure out the stories that were there.

We have more data than ever before and are using so little of it. Now we’re starting to get the tools to be able to use it, and that’s cool.

Any industry-related pet peeves?

I dislike it when people proclaim themselves to be experts in digital strategy, social media, whatever. No one is an expert. You may have expertise in Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or any combination of platforms. You may have a strong foundation in marketing and public relations. You may be a fantastic writer or be excellent with blogger outreach.

But the second you think you’re actually an expert in anything, you stop learning and then you lose your expertise.

The entire digital realm evolves every day. The best you can do is to learn as much as you can about what you’re most interested in, and surround yourself with other people who have expertise in other topics you’re not as skilled in.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Before he began writing about technology and design, Jared Erondu was a designer, a defining factor in the blog he co-founded nine months ago, The Industry.

He is a prolific blogger, editor-in-chief at The Industry, as well as a content expert at Treehouse.

Erondu said that editorial websites that put as much effort into design as they do to the content itself will continue to supplant what he calls the blog “dynasties.”

He recently told The Content Strategist about his lastest projects and shared some tips on how to amplify online content.

TCS: You’re editor and co-founder of The Industry — what’s the story behind the site?

Jared Erondu: Drew [Wilson] and I launched last December. Essentially the goal was to be, not TechCrunch, per se, but the big tech blog for the design industry..

A lot of times the small design projects are overlooked by sites like TechCrunch, Mashable and The Next Web solely because they’re not invested in by Kevin Rose or Reid Hoffman or something. But that doesn’t mean that what they’re doing doesn’t have impact, right?

So we’re kind of like that middle ground — we’re not too small but we’re not too big for you not to contact us.

Originally I am a designer. Writing was always a passion of mine but I never actually pursued it until I started my first blog three or four years ago. And from there I just sort of got attached to it. I wrote for several sites, most recently for Macgasm.

Eventually we started The Industry because I wanted to write about the field that I come from. Coming from the design industry, I know exactly how hard it is to get coverage if you’re not known or have 50,000 followers on Twitter. The Industry was kind of just piggy-backing off two passions of mine, design and writing.

TCS: How’d you get involved at Treehouse and what your vision is there?

Erondu: Ryan [Carson] and I have been in contact for some time. We’ve encountered each other a few times in the past years. So with Treehouse I am – there are so many names for my title – one would be content lead.

Essentially I am running a project that we’re working on that I can’t really talk about but besides that I write and do content stuff. The goal is user growth. The project I am leading comes out in August, and a new addition to Treehouse is coming soon, mid-September, and I am playing a major part of that.

TCS: What can we expect to see from The Industry in the coming months?

Erondu: We have a massive redesign planned. It’s under works right now.

And we’re also building out a podcast and editorial network, so our editorial network will encase a bunch of smaller design sites that focus on one thing in particular — web design, graphic design or development, or even a subcategory of those niches.

Also, a podcast network – our current radio show – we’ve tripled the amount of plays per episode, four episodes in a row, so that’s growing tremendously. The podcast network will bring on podcasts like the ShopTalk Chow, The Changelog and other design and development podcasts to our own little network.

TCS: How do you build an audience?

Erondu: Twitter’s been a massive tool for us, Twitter and Google. We haven’t done much in terms of SEO, but it seems to be working.

Word of mouth as well, because in our podcasts and blog, we do a lot of interviews with people like like Chris Coyier and Dan Cederholm of Dribbble. People with large follower bases.

We’ve had guests from Adobe, Github and so forth on our podcast so when those episodes go out, people are going to want other people to hear what they’ve just been on, so they’ll tweet out or write about it on their own personal blog.

TCS: What do you expect from the content industry in the next five years? 

Erondu: Well, it’s definitely changing. The big dynasties like TechCrunch and Mashable are definitely falling. You’re seeing sites that focus equally on presentation as the content itself. Sites like The Verge that captured a lot of people, even non-tech savvy people because the presentation is just as good as their content.

So, people are going for more longform-style articles instead of the quick 200 – 300 word announcement pieces. PandoDaily is the analysis of Silicon Valley rather than the up-to-the-minute news, so in essence I think that blogging about news has kind of returned to its foundation.

We’re even making that slight pivot at The Industry. We’re starting to realize that when people come to our site and read our articles, it’s not to hear news that they heard seven minutes ago — it’s to get a different view or a deeper analysis of it.

I think news announcements are not even articles themselves, but the headline. People give a lot of information away in just that. If the title is “Google Plus massive redesign,” you see that on Twitter about seventeen times before you actually click on an article. You’re not clicking on that article to hear “again” that Google got a redesign.

 TCS: What traits make a fantastic writer or content lead?

Erondu: I think commentary is the biggest thing. Certain people have a lot of traction in the blogging space like John Gruber, Shawn Blanc, Federico Viticci and Marco Arment — you see, they link to the news, and the headline is the news for them, but that’s not why people are coming to their site. They’re coming for the commentary

At Industry, we have four main categories — news, reviews, interviews and op-ed or opinion — and you’ll find that most articles on our site falls under news, but the ones that get the most traffic are between the other three. And that just goes back to my earlier point that no one reads articles for news anymore. The headline kind of does that for them.

The opinion category on The Industry probably gets the most traffic. You build up your credibility in this space and people will believe what you say, so opinion pieces are very powerful. People want to hear a specific person’s take on a situation or announcement because they’ve built up their credibility in that space.

As a design blog what we push for each of our writers to do is to build that credibility amongst their readers so people can actually see them as an authority in the design space. If such-and-such happens and they cover it and write their own opinion pieces, people are gonna want to read and understand their take on what just happened.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Publishers and startups alike often adopt a “build it and they will come” mentality, relying on a quality product to float both user numbers and revenue, but Dana Oshiro has found that audience engagement comes from deliberate content and distribution efforts.

She’s worked with startups on user acquisition and public relations, covered the technology realm for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable and The New York Times.

She is now senior manager of media analysis at NetShelter in San Francisco, offering engagement and social media insights to 4,500 technology bloggers and 200 sites including MacRumors, Phandroid and 9to5Mac.

The Content Strategist spoke with Oshiro about how content creators can stay relevant in the changing industry and what types of content tend to float to the top.

The Content Strategist: Tell us a little about Netshelter and your role there.

Oshiro: We’ve got an audience of 150 million unique visitors and we work with brands to help publishers monetize their existing earned media through the inPowered data platform.

My job is to help publishers define their audiences and increase social media engagement.

TCS: How does NetShelter apply content marketing?

Oshiro: Content marketing refers to the creation of content in order to attract customers. We approach content marketing in a slightly different way than most organizations.

Our publishers maintain their editorial integrity by writing what they like and brands then pay to distribute brand-related stories as weighed by our data platform. This is what we called the “inPowered approach.”

By tracking millions of technology articles and weighing them across 30+ different social signals, we can surface the top emerging topics, writers and brands in real-time. Some folks might call this earned media advertising or word of mouth advertising.

TCS: What traits make a great content creator?

Oshiro: In addition to fact checking and understanding the 5 key tenets of newsworthiness, great writers respect their audiences and want to give them something useful, entertaining and new.

A misanthrope might be a decent investigative writer, but if the delivery is disrespectful to the audience, then the message is often lost.

TCS: How can we make our content competitive in the crowded landscape?

Oshiro: The reason why content farms have thrived is because they’re gaming search engines and creating a glut of link farms and low quality content. Essentially they’re tricking search audiences into visiting them.

Truly useful content still lies with individual experts. My belief is that content will be less about driving eyeballs and more about surfacing individual experts who’ve been qualified by topic-relevant referrers.

TCS: Any industry pet peeves?

Oshiro: Being a prolific social media user is silly unless you’ve got something to say. Real influence relies on expertise.

The best writers have an area of expertise and provide a service to their readers. This service is rewarded by audience feedback and meaningful conversations.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

A brand developing a content strategy from scratch might have free reign in terms of voice, but it can take time to develop the personality that will resonate with the audience.

On the other hand, a media company can rely on existing content to influence how it relates to followers on new, more conversational platforms.

Maintaining a consistent voice across all these channels is key, advises Marketing Week. All output – tweets, articles, customer service calls, and product copy — is part of product positioning, or how a product is perceived in the audience’s mind.

Start with product positioning

The process of developing a unique voice for content begins with an analysis of both the product and the audience. This is vitally important when the product is the editorial content.

Is your site “the most accessible beauty and style content for 18 to 25-year-olds” or does your product offer ”the best way to read news on a mobile device”?

Conduct open-ended surveys to find out how your most reliable customers perceive your brand.

Take a look at your product vision and determine where you want to be in six months, or one year.

Craft a persona for your audience

Don’t fall for the myth that your content is for “everybody” — targeting an audience is one of the best ways to make content highly relevant and shareable.

Think of a persona as a fictional character who represents your target market, but without being generic — think of it as marking the “bullseye” of your target market. A great persona has an age, a favorite movie, lives in a certain neighborhood and has defined habits regarding how she or he might use your product.

Some brands have multiple audiences — if this is the case, develop multiple channels to stay consistent on each, much like Birchbox created Birchbox Man separately from its main account.

Now your content needs a persona, too

Sometimes a persona is driven by the community manager behind the content, but more often, there are many producers sharing duties on blogging, customer service around the web and other outreach.

Kate Gardiner, who works with media brands on social strategy, notes that the existing content at a news brand, such as the New York public radio station WNYC or Radiolab, allows a social voice to come organically for company insiders.

“Setting the tone for my news organizations’ social accounts is usually just a natural happening — we all know how ’we’ sound in-house,” Gardiner explains. ”The person who monitors [social] has to be incredibly smart about what they’re doing — and aware of everything that’s going on, site- or brand- or newsroom-wide.”

In lieu of existing content from which to extract a tone and voice, brands can create a persona much like the one it uses for its target market.

Develop a “Tone of Voice” sheet

A tone of voice (TOV) sheet makes your brand’s identity scalable in your organization. Remember that voice and tone are two separate but related qualities.

Voice refers to the words and phrases used, the style of vocabulary (hipster, upper class) and can be defined with adjectives.

The tone is the “how.” As a person, you talk differently with your grandma than you do with your best friend. Does your brand chat with the audience like a peer, or does the brand inform the audience like an subject matter expert college professor? Think of tone in terms of the relationship between the brand and the audience.

Things to include in your TOV:

1. Positioning & Persona: Around four defining qualities that make the brand unique from competitors, and a clear definition of the audience.
2. “[Brand name] is _____”: A list of adjectives that describe the brand. Think “timeless”, “refined” or “humble.”
3. “[Brand name] is not _____”: A list of adjectives that your brand should avoid. Think “uptight” or “pretentious.”
4. Samples: Develop an ongoing list of words and phrases that represent the brandreally well. When someone on the team tweets something that works or resonates with the audience, add it to the TOV. Also include a list of samples to avoid.

Listen to feedback. If the media, or your customers are not repeating your brand positioning as they talk about your product, it is not resonating.

“If it doesn’t work, your positioning hypothesis is probably wrong,” explains marketing consultant Venkatesh Rao. “Go back … rinse and repeat. Product tweaks may be required. If two to three positioning stabs don’t work, you may need to relaunch your product with a new name/brand, because you can’t reposition a given brand name too many times.”

Images courtesy of Szelepcsenyi / Shutterstock.com, timlewisnm/flickr, Michael D Brown/shutterstock

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently