Strategist Six: This Week’s Top Stories, Like the ‘Hot Hockey Wives’ Problem

Content folks face a tough quandary; you need to read voraciously to write effectively, but then you look up to realize that you’ve spent the entire morning working through the backlogs of Slate’s Dear Prudence and probably should have been doing something else. Like reading these six stories from around the web. Check it:

This Week’s Top Stories in Content Marketing

1. 5 Ways to Offer Awesome Content without Pulling Your Hair Out (Clarity)

If the challenges of blogging haunt your dreams, The Brazen Careerist’s managing editor, Alexis Grant, is here to help. She’s put together a tactical guide to help marketers and business owners publish awesome content. Among her tips: aggregate content from others (like this weekly roundup), give someone else’s content your own spin, ask your community for guest posts, curate and share community content, and get help from content creator.

We’d add that while these strategies are all an important part of any publisher’s content mix, but telling great, original stories has to be at the core of everything you do.

2. 5 Strategies for Effective Networking in the Digital Age (AdKnowledge)

Content Strategist writer Brian Honigman explains why content marketing is more than just blogging — writing is a means to effective relationship building, which is crucial for individuals (and companies) looking to expand their spheres of influence. Content lets you scale your networking and business development efforts (in an incredibly high-value way). Learn how Brian bring sit all together.

3. Why Related Links Are Getting So Racy, and What Publishers Should Do (AdAge)

At some point, every branded publisher has to explore driving traffic through recommendation widgets like OutBrain; likewise, most every traditional publisher has explore hosting those widgets it as a revenue source.

AdAge points out that these advertising channels are becoming quite racy (“Hot Hockey Wives!”), which is troublesome for brand publishers and traditional publishers alike. In steps the IAC’s nRelate; the ad-tech company will be launching a new feature to give publishers more control over sponsored content ads, which should be a huge step for this important content distribution channel.

4. Brand Tweets that ‘Honor’ MLK Backfire (Digiday)

On Monday, people all over the world honored Martin Luther King Jr. for his bravery, strength, and vision. And some brands tried to hijack #MLK Day. Don’t do what these brands did. The big question: Who was the bigger offender, Hats.com or PornHub?

5. How to Start Your Own Freelance Career and Be Your Own Boss (The Next Web)

As brands become media companies, they’re racing to get top freelancers on their side. This article will help you understand how freelancers are positioning their careers, and now you can attract the best talent. (One idea we embraced this week: Paying writers upon submission of their work.)

6. LeVar Burton’s Plan to Revolutionize Reading with Tech (Mashable)

I’m going to argue that Levar Burton’s “Reading Rainbow” is a big reason why Millennials are such huge consumers of content. Unfortunately, PBS canceled the show in 2009 (I’m still upset), but Burton hasn’t given up the dream. Last year, “Reading Rainbow” launched on the app store. What’s next? Burton wants to port the experience to the web to reach educators all over the world.

Until next week!

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