KeySplash Creative Conversations Included in Junta42 List of Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs

For the second quarter in a row, KeySplash Creative Conversations made it onto the list of Junta 42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs.

This quarter’s update to the list included a record 276 blogs, up from 224 last quarter.  According to the Junta 42 website, “the Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list highlights the best bloggers on the web discussing content marketing. Each blog on the list has been rated by our expert staff in terms of content strength, depth, regularity and, to a very small extent, popularity.”

Here is the list of the Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs according to the Junta 42:

1 TippingPoint Labs
2 Copyblogger
3 Marketing Interactions
4 Online Marketing Blog
5 PR 2.0
6 Marketing with Meaning
7 Post Advertising
8 Conversation Agent
9 Brain Traffic
10 Web Ink Now
11 Buzz Marketing for Technology
12 EyeCube
13 ContentMarketingToday
14 Convince and Convert
15 Influential Marketing Blog
16 Internet Marketing Blog
17 Dan Blank
18 The Harte of Marketing
19 Writing on the Web
20 The Toadstool
21 PR 20/20
22 Keysplash Creative
23 Chris Brogan’s Blog
24 Social Media Explorer
25 Content Rich
26 Drew’s Marketing Minute
27 Seth’s Blog
28 9 Inch Marketing
29 The Content Wrangler
30 Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog
31 IdeaLaunch
32 Hard Knox Life
33 Direct Marketing Observations
34 Nigel Hollis
35 Rexblog
36 Daily Fix
37 Sales Lead Insights
38 Techno//Marketer
39 Eat Media Blog
40 Savvy B2B Marketing
41 Social Signal
42 Web Strategy by Jeremiah

You can follow the link to read more about the Junta 42.

Building the Perfect Website

I’ve been giving a lot of thought about online content lately.  One of the terms I often use when discussing online content and marketing with my clients is the shift that happened many years ago with the birth of the social Web that is at the forefront of the online environment today and still growing — that is moving from destination-centric to audience-centric in web design, web development, online brand building, and web usability.

No longer can websites exist simply as an online destination.  Instead, they must be 100% audience-focused and deliver the information consumers are looking for — and they must do it fast!

So what’s the first step to building a perfect business website in the early years of the 21st century?  Make sure every page, every sentence, every image, and everything else on your website is audience-centric.  Focus on the consumer, not you.  That’s one of the core rules of social media marketing success, but truth be told, it has become the core rule for online marketing as a whole. I even discuss that rule in my book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, as it relates to copywriting.

For example, a website like YouTube is great as a destination for online video.  However, it can be challenging to find the specific content you’re looking for on YouTube.  In 2009, highly targeted niche sites are all the rage, and the trend from creating destination sites to audience-focused sites makes sense — consumers have neither the time nor the desire to sift through page after page of useless information.  They want specific information and they want it fast.  Deliver it to them on your website by developing the structure and content with your audience’s needs and wants ranked as the top priority.  Be audience-centric, not destination-centric.

Your thoughts?

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The Evolution of CONsumers to PROsumers

The term “prosumer” isn’t a new one.  It’s been around the marketing world for years, but in today’s world of the social web, it has taken on a new importance that marketers can’t ignore.

The term “prosumer” has transformed from “professional consumer” to “product and brand advocate”.  Rather than simply “consuming” products, people are becoming the voices of those products and significantly impacting the success or failure of companies, products, and brands, particularly thorugh their involvement on the social web.

In simplest terms, no longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages.  Today, consumers are in control.  The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, who spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand.  Prosumers are the online influencers that marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive.  The high level steps to leveraging the power of prosumers are as follows:

1. Identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry (i.e., the prosumers).
2. Acknowledge those people (e.g., send product samples, ask opinions, etc.).
3. Join the online conversation where those people already spend time.
4. Develop relationships with those people by interacting with them, providing useful information, and being accessible and human.
5. Leverage the opportunities of the social web by creating your own branded destinations such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or fan page, LinkedIn group, podcast, etc.

The bottom line to connecting with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experience with your brand.  Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages.  That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for marketers.

5 Myths that Can Kill Your Marketing Copy

Do you know the 5 myths that can destroy your advertising or marketing messages?  Find out what they are and how to avoid them in my new article on Entrepreneur.com.  Follow the link to read the 5 Myths that Can Kill Your Marketing Copy.

Are there any other myths you’d add to the list?

Susan Gunelius Joins Network Solutions Social Web Advisory Board

Network Solutions has put together a group of thought leaders respected for their opinion and ability to offer insight to form a new Network Solutions Social Web Advisory Board.  KeySplash Creative’s President and CEO, Susan Gunelius, was invited to join the Network Solutions Advisory Board along with several other savvy business people and social media experts.  Read more about the Network Solutions Advisory Board members below (via the Network Solutions blog).

Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a full service marketing communications provider offering copywriting, business communications, blog, book and article writing, and marketing and branding consulting services. She brings with her over 15 years of experience working in the marketing field for some of the largest corporations in the world (including divisions of AT&T, HSBC, Household International and more).

Susan is a published author with three books available in book stores and online (Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon through Palgrave Macmillan, Kick-Ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps through Entrepreneur Press, and Google Blogger for Dummies through Wiley). Her fourth book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, will hit book stores (through Palgrave Macmillan) in Fall 2009.

Susan frequently writes about marketing for various publications. She is a featured columnist on Entrepreneur.com where she writes about marketing communications, and you can find some of her marketing-related articles on websites such as WomenEntrepreneur.com, MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, BusinessWeek.com, WashingtonPost.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Small Business, and more.

Susan is also an active blogger authoring the KeySplash Creative Conversations blog about branding, marketing and advertising for her company, KeySplash Creative, Inc., as well as one of the leading blogs for women working in the field of business, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a contributing author at Corporate-Eye.com where she writes about corporate branding, and she writes about small business marketing for Cox Communications’ Kudzu.com Business Success Center where she authors the Everyday Marketing blog. Additionally, she is the Guide to Web Logs for About.com (a New York Times company). [Read more]

When the World is Unstable, Brands Have Success Returning to the Past

The past always brings people a feeling of security and peace of mind.  Earlier this week, I wrote a post on the Corporate Eye blog about brands needing to focus on messages related to longevity these days when economies are weak and the future is uncertain for so many consumers (you can read that post here if you’d like).  While messages about longevity and security in the future are very important, there is also something to be said for looking at the lessons and success from the past and repeating them to leverage the commonly held perception that the past connotes feelings of security.

The Philadelphia 76ers have done exactly that by replacing the modern logo the team launched just over 10 years ago with a new version, which is almost exactly identical to the team’s original logo before the change in the late 1990s.   Check out the logo launched in 1997/98 on the left below vs. the new logo launched in 2009 on the right.

And now, take a look at the pre-1997/98 logo below.  Can you spot the differences between the original logo and the newest version?

Whether or not using the past as a security blanket message was the reasoning behind the Philadelphia 76ers’ logo change, I don’t know, but the timing is certainly great to take advantage of those messages of security and longing for better days when the team performed better and consumers’ lives were better.

Take a look at your brand.  Can you incorporate messages of longevity and security for the future into your marketing?  Or can you incorporate messages that refer to the nostalgia of the past?  Either is a good brand message choice in 2009.

Your thoughts?

By the way, The Brand New has a great overlay graphic of the new logo on top of the old one where you can see just how minimal the changes between the pre 1997/98 logo and the 2009 logo are.