Today’s Web 2.0 world and its social nature demand that companies continuously create and market content to draw users back to their Web sites. But that can be intimidating to many marketers.

“Where are we going to get content?” they moan.

The fact is that many companies are sitting on treasure troves of high-value content, but they just don’t know it. If you want to find out how you can use existing marketing materials to create content for your social media use, check out our free e-book.

Oh, and by the way, creating an e-book is just one way to repurpose existing materials into great content.

You’ve gotta love Facebook status updates. As I scrolled voyeuristically through my network’s personal “news” today, I spotted the following from a former editorial colleague:

“Things I don’t have time for: press releases unrelated to my magazine; follow-up calls from PR folks 2 minutes after they sent a press release; 45 gig press releases that fill up my Outlook storage capacity … Accckkk!”

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Not many public relations and marketing executives have had the luxury of knowing what exactly goes on behind the gilded doors of editorial. As someone who spent the first part of her career climbing up the editorial ranks of a trade journal, I’d thought I’d dish a little dirt.

Being an editor isn’t glamorous work. Only a select few sit behind mahogany desks sipping designer cappuccinos while penning their memoirs. Many editors can be found working in a maze of cubicles, sitting in uncomfortable desk chairs parked at ergonomically incorrect workstations. They toil through planning meetings, sales meetings and art meetings, where they haggle with respective departments about what’s “right” for the magazine.

Add to that the day-to-day tasks of interviewing, writing, editing and fielding phone calls, and an editor’s work is rarely done.

In this first installment of From the (former) Editor’s Desk, I’ll tell you about how editorial calendars are born in trade media.

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In my post last week, I discussed how B2B companies can begin to eke out plans for a corporate blog. This week’s installment completes the article and gives some guidance on how to maintain a blog and earn readers once it is built.

Taking a swing
Creating content that meets the needs of a company’s target market is the next step. Each B2B blog is a venue for showcasing a company’s unique expertise in its industry niche. Blogging builds corporate and personal credibility, positioning a company as having few credible substitutes in the marketplace. Blogs also provide a glimpse of what it may be like to work with a company, which helps reduce perceived risk in the minds of prospective buyers.

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Marketers need not be baseball savants to recognize the expression, “If you build it, they will come.” For the past 20 years, executives in board rooms across America have proposed countless ventures by utilizing this maxim, which originally emanated from Ray Kinsella’s cornfield in “Field of Dreams.”

The success of a company’s marketing enterprises is only as great as the number of prospects that see them. This is especially true for the corporate blog, notably one of the most challenging marketing ventures for which to attract an audience.

Blogging is a challenge that companies are not handling well, according to a 2008 Forrester Research report. The study, which reviewed 90 business-to-business (B2B) blogs, determined that most blogs are uninspiring, and almost three-quarters of them don’t receive comments because they don’t engage readers. Further, more than 70 percent of B2B bloggers do not imbue any personal insight or experience in what they write.

Those are only the first three strikes against corporate blogs. Fortunately, with the expertise of an outside B2B marketing agency, blogs can hit a homerun.

While a business shouldn’t entirely outsource its blog to an agency, a company can rely on its outside marketing team to play a vital part in developing and maintaining the blog. From strategy and competitive research to feeding content and monitoring results, an agency can recommend the right elements to keep a company’s blog in line with its brand.

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Admittedly, I’m a bit late to this party. Ad Age posts a weekly update on what viral videos people are watching and how the videos’ standings change week to week.

I’m also reminded of last week’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice, when Donald Trump challenged contestants to create a viral video. Ultimately, both teams failed to create a worthy video. This episode led me to wonder, “Can you actually set out to make a viral video, or is it just a video?”

Understandably, you have to create a buzz and target the right audience. But what else?

Opinions? Please comment!

As a newbie to the Twittersphere a few weeks ago, I was unsure of the protocol for tweeting about clients and client PR. After carefully monitoring my Twitter feed to see what other PR and marketing execs had to say about clients, I tread carefully into the social media waters last week.

Datastrip manufactures mobile biometric readers for ID verification. Because I had not seen much of a following for biometrics on Twitter’s search page, I attempted to start one. With the mighty hashtag (#) in hand, I began posting information I had on the biometrics industry and appending it with #biometric/#biometrics.

Admittedly, I haven’t tweeted enough on the topic to draw attention, but I did get a few followers interested in biometrics and security. I was also able to network with some folks planning to attend this week’s ISC West show in Las Vegas, as well as pitch/place a case study for Datastrip in a leading industry publication.

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In surfing my RSS feeds this morning, I came across this gem from Valeria Maltoni at the Conversation Agent blog. Rather than wax poetic about my findings, I urge you to read this yourself. Bottom line, you can help your clients avoid marketing fluff by actively consulting with them and helping them find a point of view.

Sweeping generalization alert: Based on what I’ve seen floating around the newswires recently, it would seem PR writers don’t consider basic reporting methods when announcing client news. I’m not just talking about AP style here.

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The hot talk around the water cooler this week was, of course, the outcome of season seven of American Idol. For those of you with better TV shows to watch, the winner was David Cook, a bartender cum rock-n-roll star from Missouri. In my opinion, the best, most marketable contestant won.

But this blog isn’t about why anyone should have won or lost. It’s about how American Idol’s audience demographic has shifted remarkably since the first season, and how producers have adapted to create an enduring brand.

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