Contently Cheat Sheet: This Week’s Killer Content Strategy Stories

We’re officially in the heart of what I like to call “hijacking season.” From the Grammys, to the Super Bowl, to Valentine’s Day and the Academy Awards, there’s a plethora of pop culture events that promise to make every brand’s content dream come true.

But there’s so much more to content strategy than appearing to be drunk for half the Super Bowl. These stories can help you figure out what that is for you.

This Will Be the Top Business Skill of the Next 5 Years

Storytelling has been the buzzword off and on since advertising became a thing. It’s always coming out of the buzzword pile because, at the end of the day, it’s a timeless skill. Stories have been an essential driver of change throughout human history. In the current business landscape, it’s about to take off on a massive scale. The key is understanding how to do it right. Read more.

25 Quotes That’ll Make You a Better Brand Publisher

Brand publishing is hard. Trust us — we know. Everyday, here at The Content Strategist and at our sister site, The Freelance Strategist, we create content that we hope will help writers, multimedia and marketers tell better stories while also moving the needle for Contently.

Here are visualized quotes from some great thinkers, writers, and marketers that get us pumped up to tell better stories everyday. Read more.

Paper: The Latest Step In Facebook’s Native Ad Master Plan

On Monday, Facebook introduced Paper, a ‘social newspaper’ app that feels like Flipboard and Facebook had a beautiful love child raised and nurtured by Apple. The internet is praising Paper like it just won the Super Bowl, while speculating about the motives behind it.

Paper isn’t about Facebook trying to screw publishers out of ad revenue, like during the 2011 summer of social readers. Nor is it the social kingpin’s midlife crisis, unveiled on the eve of its tenth birthday.

It’s much more than that. Paper is Facebook’s latest (and smartest) move towards controlling the flow of content, and all the native ad dollars that go with it. Read more.

6 Keys to Creating Sticky Content

You don’t have to be a creative genius to create ingenious content. These six simple concepts will help you create content that sticks in people’s minds today. What more could brand publishers want?

Yahoo Ditches Mobile Banner Ads, Foreshadowing Native’s Rise to Power

Yahoo, the godfather of banner ads, is ditching mobile banner ads to go all-in on native ads – “stream ads” in Yahoo speak – that live in its editorial feed. Most of Yahoo’s current “native ads” are really display ads in sheep’s clothing, but if they embrace high-quality sponsored content, the media landscape could change for the better in a big way.

The Content Strategist is our brand’s story. What’s yours? Let us help you find the answer.