tips

5 Content Marketing Resolutions (That You Might Actually Keep)

The resolution bandwagon is full of false hope and empty promises at the beginning of every year.

You’ve got the classic “I will lose X number of pounds before bathing suit season” and “I will save more money this year (and stop buying so many video games.)”

Sure, those resolutions are good hearted but many fall to pieces well before the Super Bowl. So with so many failed attempts, why do we still bother? Because we hope one year they might magically stick.

Unfortunately, magic has nothing to do with it. So instead of focusing on unattainable goals we hope we’ll achieve, why not focus on reachable goals and make this New Year count?

The following content marketing resolutions are more practical than anything else and they focus on your bottom line instead of your waistline.

Here are five content marketing resolutions you might want to adopt as your own:
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7 Ways for Your Company to Break the Ice with the Blogosphere

Does your organization have a blog?

Though it seems the evidence that blogging pays off is everywhere, some companies are still struggling to get a blog up and running.

(Consider this 2011 HubSpot study where 69% of businesses surveyed attributed their success with lead generation directly to blogging. Business is built on consumer interest, and a blog will give you more opportunities to generate that interest.)

So why are so many organizations not taking advantage of the blogging channel?

According to a recent survey by Junta42 and MarketingProfs, producing content (i.e. actually creating it) is the biggest challenge facing content marketers, not lack of buy-in or budget.
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3 Things the Top 10 Viral Videos of All Time Have in Common

Want to watch a baby do flips on rollerblades?

How about people playing the piano with their feet? Maybe you’d rather see a biker riding on the tops of stores and jumping off bridges?

Well I’m sure I have your attention now…or maybe you’ve already seen the videos I’m talking about on YouTube or some other place on the web.

Both instances are probably true since those advertisements have gone viral from the time of their debut. Undoubtedly, that’s great news for the brands that produced them but what makes these 10 videos so great that viewership exploded?

Some will make you laugh and others will make you tilt your head in amazement. Whatever your reaction, you’re bound to be impressed by at least one of the videos. I mean, hey, they did receive well over a million views each.
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4 Tips for Developing a Blog Comment Policy

If you’ve spent time in social media, you’ve probably been warned not to “feed the trolls.”’

Trolls, as Wikipedia will tell you, are defined as “someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”

Give them gasoline and a match, and they’ll start a fire on your blog. So don’t feed them content that might encourage them to, you know, troll.

But not feeding the trolls is a lot easier said than done. Why? Because trolls eat anything. The web to them is like an all you eat buffet.

Write a post about your favorite breakfast diner and a troll will claim you’re sleeping with the owner.
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