Content Marketing: Where PR Shines

In 2011, content marketing really gained velocity as organizations realized its value in establishing credibility, demonstrating leadership and contributing to sales and other important ROIs.

Public relations is in the best position to lead in content marketing strategies. We know how to listen, gather business intelligence, analyze it, curate, tell stories and present content in irresistible ways.

With that in mind, this is our newest section of the PR Library. It’s dedicated to helping PR pros learn content marketing best practices as the discipline develops.

You’ll find articles, tips and resources on all of the established and new content marketing tools. Learn more about adding content marketing to your strategic PR mix. Find case studies to help you get a better ROI. Get inspired by great storytelling! Find out who’s having success with brand journaslism.

Check back often to keep an eye on where this new discipline is headed.

All here in one convenient place – the virtual PR Library – open 24 x 7 for your reading and learning pleasure. Don’t forget to check out related topics including PR writing,strategic PR and blogging. Note, articles with a W are PR Coach “winners.”

Public Relations & Content Marketing

3 Reasons How Your Business Benefits from Content Marketing 
Connections, leads and sales sum it up.

3 Ways to Use Google+ in Your Content Marketing Efforts
Here’s how to apply G+ to your content marketing program.

4 Brands That Use Instagram For Killer Social Media Marketing
Learn how four brands use Instagram for creative content curation.

5 Basic Metrics to Measure If You Care About the ROI of Your Content
Measure up Pilgrim!

5 Case Studies of Brands Using Niche Social Sites (and Why You Should too)
Niche sites are growing in appeal for brands.

5 Places to Find Inspiring Content Ideas
Helpful content marketing tips.

5 Reasons Thought Leadership Marketing Matters
Thought leadership, why businesses need it and how to do it well from Jeff Ernst.  W

7 Business Goals of Content Marketing: Inbound Marketing Isn’t Enough
Excellent post on clarity and CM goals.

7 Facebook Blunders You Want Your Company to Avoid
If Facebook is your preferred channel, avoid these common Faceplants.

7 Steps for Building an Effective Community Management Plan
Shane Snow shares seven steps to help you kickstart a community management plan.  W

7 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong On Your Company Blog
Smart corporate blogging tips from The Content Strategist.

7 Tips For Super Strategic Video Content
Great learning. Seven brands using video right!  W

7 Ways to Improve Content Marketing Conversions
Smart tips to capitalize on good content.

8 Tips for Measuring Engagement of Your Blog Readers
Useful advice for measuring success.

10 Blogs You Should Be Reading If You Manage A Company’s Content Strategy
Count ‘em. Ten sources for CM ideas and inspiration.

10 Commandments of Social Media Content Marketing
Jeff Bullas shares 10 very useful tips.  W

10 Content Ideas that Generate Comments and Shares
Valuable content and writing tips from Gini Dietrich.

10 Reasons Why “Liquid” Content Should be Included in Your Social Media Marketing
The goal is to create liquid content that goes viral.

10 Top Content Marketing Takeaways from ‘Get Content. Get Customers’
Top 10 takeaways brilliant content marketing practitioners.

10 Must-Have Templates for Content Marketers
This is a valuable set of tools from the Content Marketing Institute.  W W

10 Reasons Why “Liquid” Content Should be Included in Your Social Media Marketing
Why you should strive to create the “worlds most engaging content.”

12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post
12 blog promotional steps for success.

15 Content Nuggets: The Vocus Online Content Marketing Expert Guide
Vocus shares 15 excellent tips from four experts.  W

21 Ways to Make Your Content Stand Out
Good content marketing tips from Heidi Cohen.

26 Experts Share Content Marketing Tips
Useful primer to get you started in content marketing.

30+ Cool Content Curation Tools for Personal & Professional Use
Great list of curation tools.  W

150+ Content Marketing & Social Media Predictions for 2012
A valuable resource and source for ideas and CM strategies.  W

2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends
This post offers an excellent overview of benchmarks and trends. Essential reading to help you make the case for content marketing ROI to management.  W W

A Brief History of Content Marketing
Good article traces the evolution of CM.

A Case for Content: A Real Partnership
Eloqua and JESS3 share their CM case study in an enjoyable presentation.

A Deep Dive Into Etsy’s Content Strategy
Etsy sold $45.8 million worth of doilies and mustache-shaped phone cases in August and CM was part of the reason.

A Food Pyramid for Content Marketing
Tracy Gold offers a content marketing pyramid at-a-glance that’s worth printing and putting up on your office wall.

A New Breed? 7 Roles of the Content Marketing ‘Engineer’
Thoughtful insight into content marketing trends.

Best Free Content Curation Tools 2012
These tools will get you content cooking.

Brand Journalism Brings New Ethical Perils 
Caution when using brand journalism strategies.

Build a Better Buyer Experience with Content
43.7% of buyers research purchases so content can enhance buying experiences and close the deal.

Chief Content Officer
This online magazine from the Content Marketing Institute is essential reading. The content is superb, the design and presentation are leading edge and the value is huge.  W W

Community Managers Spend Most Time on Content Creation
Valuable PR 2.0 insight.

Confidence Gap
Valuable Junta 42 chart shows which content tools are most effective.  W

Content Audit: The Analysis of a Website
Useful how-to.

Content Marketing 101: How to Build Your Business With Content
Useful five-point CM tutorial from Sonia Simone of Copyblogger.

Content Marketing and Brand Journalism at Boeing
Good CM case study.

Content Marketing Basics: The Best from CMI 2011
These eight indispensable articles are a great place to start for the basics of content marketing.

Content Marketing Building Blocks: The Corporate Blog
Good strategies for corporate bloggers.

Content Marketing Institute
Founded by Joe Pulizzi, CMI is the ultimate resource for content marketers. As you’d expect, it walks the talk and it’s content and resources are simply superb.  W W

Content Marketing New Year’s Resolutions: 8 Posts You Should Have Read In 2011
Excellent foundation CM articles.

Content Marketing Storytelling: Secrets from the Big Screen
Robert Rose offers tips for better storytelling and an impressive video presentation.

Content Marketing Today
CM resource, newsletter and content marketing basics from Newt Barrett.  W

Content Marketing Versus PR: Who Wins?
Inside content marketing vs PR – who wins? chart worth viewing.

Content Marketing: What it is and Why it Works
Excellent resource, definition and infographic.

Contently
The intersection of journalism and brand journalism; an antidote to content farms. Service allows journalists to create a free portfolio and publishers to  build content strategies. And home to The Content Strategist blog.

Curate the Cloud: Is Human Curation the Silver Lining in the Content Cloud?
If the volume of content isn’t going to diminish, human curation may be the silver lining in the content cloud.

Curating Company News: Time for Company Content Curation to Grow Up 
Moving from curation to results is happening.

Custom Content Council
CCC conducts exclusive research measuring the latest trends and best practices within the content marketing industry. Great sorce for research, data and trends.

Digital Publishing: Roping at the Goat Rodeo 
Without strategy, your content marketing is as effective as “roping goats.”

Do Organizations Need a Chief Content Officer?
Convergence is driving the need for content marketing and brand journalism according to Forbes.

Do You Understand The Difference Between Content Marketing and Content Strategy?
Many use them interchangeably, when in fact they mean different things. Do you know the difference?

Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
Two content marketing case studies: Victorinox and K-Y.

EContent
In the world of digital publishing and content marketing EContent is a must-read.  W

Five Experimental Content Marketing Platforms You Need To Be Using
Five platforms offer great ways uniquely interact and share content – but they all work a little differently.

Flowtown’s Blog and Business Are Totally Married – And Why Yours Should Be Too
Read more about Flowtown’s blog/content success story.

Get Them Salivating! Inside the Mind Episode 2: Content Development
Four types of content to help you deliver great results.

How Big Should Your Blog Be? An Informal Formula
Guidelines, a little math and a little strategy,  that can help you judge what’s working and what’s not.

How Futurity Turns University Discoveries into Shareable Content
Research is much more than a reference point — it is content worth sharing and exploring at Futurity, a website that reveals the latest discoveries coming out of university research departments.

How to Become a Pinterest Superstar
Useful tips & tricks for curation using Pinterest.

How To Effectively Manage the Content Marketing Process
Six useful keys to managing the CM process.

How to Get Everyone on Board with Content Marketing
5 good tips for content marketers to increase employee participation.

How to Jack The News For Marketing Buzz
Use breaking news for content in a blog post, tweet, or media alerts that features keywords for potential buzz.

How To Measure ROI on Your Content Strategy
Content works. Here are four steps to measuring your content ROI.

How to plan and create great content for your brand
Four helpful content marketing tips.

How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing
Here is a set of useful tips to help you organize your content editorial.

How to Sell the Value of Content Marketing to Your Company
3 convincing arguments you can use to sell the value of content marketing.  W

How to Write B2B Blogs: Your Story is Your Service
Making your story your service isn’t simple, though but there are several essential steps writes Andrew Moravick.

How Vodka Brands Use Content to Keep the Party Going
How Absolut, Kanon and Smirnoff keep the content flowing for marketing success.

If Your Content Has Fleeting Value, It’s Your Own Fault
Adam Singer suggests ways to get your content working harder.

InSites: EContent Recommends Some Unique Web Sites
Six unique government websites are profiled.

InSites: The EContent Team Suggest Social Content Resources
Four tools worth a look.

Is ‘Content Marketing’ Broken?
This post asks good questions but the premise that content marketing is broken is wrong.

Is Content Marketing the Hot New Trend? – Infographic
Jeff Bullas shares a useful infographic.

Is Content Marketing Worth the Effort?
How small business can use content marketing as a way to attract people to their product or service.

Lessons for Publishers from Facebook’s Most Shared Articles 
 What were the most popular shared articles on Facebook in 2011 and what can we learn?

Lethal Generosity: The Key To Your Online Content Strategy
Giving has a big payback.

MLB.com: A Case of Streamlining Stats
Case study: How Major League Baseball keeps track of content as well as automates and creates a simpler workflow.

Maximize The Content Marketing Impact of Your Newsletter
Eight ways to extend your print or enewsletter’s reach far beyond its core subscribers.

Must-See Content Marketing Examples From 2011
20 bloggers share their favorite CM examples from 2011

New LinkedIn Company Pages: A Step-by-Step Guide for Content Marketers
Practical tips to make your LinkedIn pages sing.

No really, it’s ok…Your content can be fun
Your content marketing can soar too.

Nutritious and Delicious: Eloqua’s Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing
An excellent guide and superb playbook for B2B content marketing from three of the best – Joe Pulizzi, CC Chapman and Ann Handley.  W W

PR Content: A New Architecture?
PR is more than news? Thoughtful.

PR Storytelling: Why’s This So Good? 
All about inspiration, where to find it and three superb examples from Nieman Storyboard.  W

Personalization is the next big thing in content marketing, says Hubspot CEO
Forget the hard sell and get customers coming to you.

Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network
Great basic tips for ceating content on Pinterest.

Seven Ways to Make Your Writing Edgier
Basic tips to make your storytelling sizzle.

Social Media Marketing Gives Brands Measurable Long-Term Benefits 
Proof positive!

Social Media Playbook
Eloqua shares a useful resource – its 41-page basics guide to social media.

Storytelling from Southwest Airlines Brings Out Its Humanity 
LouHoffman shares a content marketing success story.

Storytelling in Business
How stories can work in business.

The 5 Types of Content That Grab Attention
Trends, meteors, how-tos, how-to-work-with and case studies will rock your content marketing.

The 7 Slides You Need for an Epic Monthly Marketing Report
Excellent content marketing tips!  W

The 11th Annual EContent 100: An Introduction to The Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry
Superb 2012 resource for content marketers and producers from EContent.  W

The Confidence Gap In Content Marketing
Old-school worries about CM effectiveness and how to bridge the gap.

The Content Grid
A terrific infographic from Joe Chernov which depicts content marketing channels.  W

The Content Grid V2
Updated infographic showing content marketing channels.  W

The Content Marketing Revolution
This is the valuable blog by content marketing guru (but don’t call him that, LOL) Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and Junta 42.

The Content Strategist
Contently’s blog focuses on what else – content marketing and brand journalism.  W

The Content Strategist – Case Studies
Really informative case studies will help you get a grip on practical CM applications.  W

The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Content for Luddites
Attracting a Luddite once can mean becoming his go-to source for information. Here’s how.

The Effective Marketer
Daniel Kuperman blogs on CM and all things marketing.

The Importance of Your Storytelling in Marketing
Amen!

The Rise of the Chief Content Officer
What’s the new face of content marketing look like? Try Chief Content Officer.

The Simple Template for a Thorough Content Style Guide
Really useful content marketing resource.

The Top Brands on Pinterest 
Quick look at how some brands are using Pinterest for social marketing.

The What, Why, How, Where and When of Content Marketing
Great primer on CM.

Top 5 Content Marketing Articles of 2011
Five great articles from Joe Pulizzi.

Use Pinterest To Keep Your Users Craving Visual Goodness
Learn more about using Pinterest for content strategies.

What are News Discovery Tools? Why Use Them?
A curation possibility worth trying.

What Can Nonprofits Learn from Robin Good, Best Content Curator on Planet?
Learn all abount content curation fron an expert.

What Comes First, Content Creation or Curation?
Good PR 2.0 question, great answers.

What is Content Curation?
Useful primer by Eileen Mullan.  W

What It Takes to Effectively Manage Content Marketing
This top 10 list with links is a must-read for new and experienced content marketers alike.  W W

What PR Pros Can Learn from The Huffington Post
As Joe Chernov writes “Today’s winners no longer try to make news, they instead try to be nearby when news is made.”

What’s the best day and time to publish content?
Great timely advice for the best content marketing ROI.  W

Where to Find Budget for Content Marketing
Heidi Cohen shows 15 ways to find the bucks.

Why Being Transparent With Your Content Matters, Like, A Lot
To get real readership, you need to be exposed, making your content that much more unique, and relevant to your brand.

Why’s this so good? No. 29: Andrea Curtis and the rhythm of mercy
Wonderful, powerful storytelling from Nieman Storyboard.

Writing SEO-Minded Content with Staying Power 
Practical PR 2.0 tips for content marketers.

You Need Better Content, Not More
In a world drowning in content, the secret to success is not more content marketing – it’s better content marketing.

Your Top Content Marketing Challenges Solved
Answers to six great content marketing challenges.  W

Photo credit: Marchnwe via Flickr