I am always learning. While I have accrued expertise in many areas, my knowledge is never static, never authoritative, always subject to improvement. I learn from doing. I learn from interaction and I learn from reading just a ton of stuff (including information design sites that feature Game of Thrones Decoded).
Professionally, I am focused in defining a new type of marketing which I will choose to call ‘social content marketing.’ Call it whatever you want, for me it’s all about creating more valuable content or content experiences. I read some pretty obvious sources routinely and some not-so-obvious sources to try and get a bit smarter every day about this emerging world. I wanted to share a few.
The Usual Suspects on Content Marketing
The Content Marketing Institute – This the closest to a “trade” source on content marketing from Joe Pulizzi and company.
The Content Strategist – Essentially Contently’s blog, they do a great job of thinking of the interests of the brand-side digital marketer
Imedia Connection – Clearly these guys are talking broad marketing (digital) but that’s the point, Content marketing is marketing.
Not-so-obvious Content Marketing Inspiration
Beyond these strong but obvious resources, I have also found three other sources that I read all the time. They are featured in my Netvibes dashboard which remains my preferred news reading interface.
Next Gen Journalism: Nieman Lab
From the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, these folks are routinely exploring what journalism becomes next and all sorts of innovations around content. Their story on the latest mobile app from The Daily Beast that features a different way to quantify what you are reading or “skipping” is a great example. So is their story on how finance journalists are starting to set up camp on the famously anti-commercial social network, Ello.
Real Information Design: Information is Beautiful
The site from David McCandless, author and information designer, is just beautiful. The site curates some of the most interesting and stunning data visualizations. It will instantly refresh your appreciation for great data visualizations in a world gone infographic-crazy. Just check out their recent awards that crown the best of the best. They include The Weather Radials which “not only tell the story of the four seasons of 2013 on a global scale —they also illustrate what it means to live in Reykjavík, Los Angeles or Seoul, all in one iconic visualization.” And the Game of Thrones Decoded which is a “visual refresher which shows the characters’ many allegiances and animosities— and everything in between.”
Disparate Voices: Open Culture
File this under “I never would have expected that.” Sometimes I just need something different; I need to be surprised; I need a bit of left-field culture. Open Culture is part online university, part archive of the weird attic of our culture. This is the place to hear Jeff Bridges narrate a history of Dylan’s the Basement Tapes or Tim Burton directing Ray Bradbury’s The Jar on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1966. It’s like getting access to The Library in that great Star Trek episode. And it expands my ideas of what content can be.
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