Allan Tan of Content Marketing Institute created his own set of 4 Golden Rules for Successful Content Brainstorms inspired by The Godfather.

Rule 1: Leave “the judge;” bring “the kid”

Choose the members of your brainstorming team carefully and keep it small so everyone will have a better chance to have their ideas heard.  Select people who are less “judging” and more intuitive and perceptive. The goal is to make sure that enthusiasm doesn’t get killed and that creative thinking is encouraged.

Tan says to be prepared to have fun, and remember to think: “There are no bad ideas — merely unfinished ones.”

Rule 2: It’s not business, Sonny. It’s strictly creative

Tan says that since “creativity is messy and fun,” the environment of a brainstorm should generate excitement. Bring elements in such as cheerful magazines, pictures, soccer balls, and noisemakers. Rearrange the furniture. Bring snacks. Make sure that there are materials available to capture every idea, including Post-it notes and plenty of pencils and pens.

Rule 3: When it comes to ideas, go “to the mattresses”

According to Tan, a brainstorming session is not meant to produce the perfect idea or to “crack the brief.”  Use time after the brainstorm to organize ideas, but not during the actual brainstorm. As the facilitator, keep the energy high and encourage crazy ideas.

Rule 4: If anything in this life is certain, it’s that anyone can be creative

Sometimes the great ideas won’t happen during the brainstorm, but afterward as they leap into consciousness while doing something mundane, like washing the dishes. That does not mean the brainstorm wasn’t successful, if anything it did the job.

Tan says “great brainstorming sessions can act as a catalyst for breaking up the crud that’s blocking up your creative ability.”

For more inspiration, look up the 21 Types of Content Audiences Love.

In the spirit of getting inspired by the movies and keeping content marketing fun, Renee DeCoskey offers her take on What Content Marketing Can Learn from the Movie Industry.

The Documentary

Whether documentaries are film-length productions made for television or the big screen, there is always someone who is spending a lot of time, money, and other resources doing research so that the information the viewer receives is as accurate as possible. The way DeCoskey sees it, content marketing isn’t much different.

“When you’re creating a content strategy, one of your primary objectives is probably to educate your visitors in some way,” she says.

Avoid Typecasting

It’s always good to take a chance on a role that’s different from what you usually do. Just like actors, content marketers should learn to step out of their comfort zone. Before falling into a rut, DeCoskey says to shake it up before getting too bored, “otherwise you risk burning out and fading into oblivion.”

Deep Focus

In the movie industry, deep focus refers to a cinematographic technique in which a large depth of field is used. Instead of a lot of back and forth shots or slicing and dicing in the editing room, the scene is allowed to play out.

“Think of deep focus a bit like using longer pieces as part of your content strategy,” explains DeCoskey, “Instead of a lot of slicing and dicing and trying to keep your content below 800 words, let it play out.”

While being brief is often preached when it comes to effective content strategy, sometimes there is content that requires more “length,” like a long blog post, a blog series, or an eBook.

Image courtesy of TRF_Mr_Hyde/flickr

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

One way to save time but still get an abundance of content is to learn how to repurpose it.

The trick is to see if information can be repurposed into different mediums through various distribution channels.

Renee DeCoskey of Business2Community says there is an intelligent way to repurpose content. Thinking creatively about why content should be reshared in some way is what content strategy is all about.

According to DeCoskey, to think intelligently means to know who the audience is and where personalities, styles, and preferences of the audience come into play. The next step is knowing to keep the content feeling fresh (done by repurposing into a different medium) and keep the overall goal in mind.

Below is the suggested method DeCoskey recommends make sure you are repurposing content intelligently:

1. Select a piece of your content that has gained some traction.

• Think of three ways that you can repurpose that content (as you get the hang of repurposing, you’ll probably find yourself with more than just three ideas).

Need some help? Try these:

• Blog post
• Video
• Interview (text or video)
• White paper
• Infographic
• eBook
• Webinar
• Case study
• Chart
• Blog series
• Twitter chat
• Facebook contest
• Best-of list

2. Promote as you would with any other content.

• Ask your followers for feedback.
• Monitor your analytics to get an idea of what worked and what didn’t.

Image courtesy of infografick/shutterstock

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