Hedgehogs Run the Show?
Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, wrote on Wednesday:
The hedgehog, in business, is that thing your business can be the best at… that combines your unique talents and passion into something you can make money doing.
He writes that a similar parallel exists in content marketing: “Do one thing really well… be the best at one thing… you don’t have to focus on every channel.”
We agree with this assessment. Video, webinars, podcasts, social media, email, newsletters, mobile marketing — yadda, yadda — the list of marketing tactics and related content goes on and on! Individually, these marketing efforts are all valuable pursuits — but try to do them all, and do them well, and results are diluted at best and abandoned at worst.
To win, there is no “hedging” or “hogging.” Nope, like the hedgehog, you need one thing: focus. But focus where? On what?
At SixEstate, we guide our clients to focus on a centralized Newsblog. Why? We see that the effort invested here pays ongoing dividends. Our “hedgehog” — the Newblogging process — drives a powerful promotional engine. It works daily to extend your thought leadership position. Let’s look more closely at what drives this process: the Newswheel.
Driving the Newswheel
The Newswheel is our shorthand for the people and elements necessary to produce daily content (Newsblogging). The output of additional content comes from this process, too. Here it is (click to enlarge):
These elements work in unison and give your brand news tremendous advantage over scattershot content production.
Gaining Additional Press With Content Marketing
Newsblogging, and the Newswheel, have another benefit: increased press exposure potential.
Kuno Creative (authors of the “Content Marketing Manifesto“) recommends three content marketing tactics to attract press coverage. Boiled down, they are:
- Be an expert in your field.
- Pitch the right person.
- Deliver quote-worthy material (make the journalist’s job easier!).
We think of it as not so much “reaching the press” but serving our clients by simultaneously “being the press” and “assisting the [other] press.” Newsblogging supports all three of Kuno Creative’s recommendations to give your message priority in additional media outlets.
For example, covering niche-specific news in the form of a daily blog does wonders to demonstrate expertise. Assuming you contact the correct journalist (the one who covers your industry or topic), your Newsblog is ripe with supporting content (point #2); and highlights can be quickly excerpted and easily repurposed in other media (point #3).
The last point — making it easy for others to distribute your media — is extremely valuable.
Pulizzi concludes by quoting Jeff Jarvis: “Cover what you do best. Link to the rest.” Jarvis was referring to content curation, another aspect of Newsblogging.
Our content marketing focus is on the Newsblogging process. We know how to drive the Newswheel and deliver brand news daily. All that is missing is you — and your hedgehog.
Image by Kimu_tae (Tae-hyun Kim), used under its Creative Commons license.