Hey, Content Marketer: Soles Worn Out?

Companies don't run to ex-journalists for content because they write fine sentences.

They run to them because journalists live and breath stories.

I pity content marketers who lack skills in "shoe–leather reporting." They're at a continuous loss for brand stories to tell.

I pity their customers even more. They're subjected to the crap those marketers publish.

Shoe-leather reporting is the journalist's age-old means of unearthing good stories. It requires:

• Leaving the desk to mingle with the hoi polo;

• Burning time dogging leads (many of whom will prove useless); and 

• Embracing a bottomless form of inquisitiveness—the reason it's said, "Journalism is a vocation, not a job."

For content marketers without those skills, content marketing's just a job.

In ASJA Word, freelance writer Johanna Knapschaefer depicts her way of plying shoe-leather skills. Knapschaefer likes to:

• Befriend fellow business travelers, pick their brains, and follow up afterwards

• Get into the field to meet practitioners and follow the leads they provide

• Read and clip religiously from sources both inside and outside her specialty; and

• Reformulate story ideas and pitch them, again and again, with new story angles

How about you? 

Planted at your desk and in conference rooms all day? 

Or are your soles worn out?

FOOTNOTE: In case you missed it, by all means read David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Try walking to a local independent bookseller to get your copy.

Mischmasch

Mischmasch is the German word for "hodgepodge" (an apt description of today's post).

Germans love long compound words, known as Mammutwörter ("mammoth words").

The German word for "laws governing the labeling of pork," for example, is Schweinefleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.

Among the best Mammutwörter are:

Ohrwurm ("ear worm"); the condition of having a song (such as Wayne Newton's big hit, Danke Schön) stuck in your head.

Sitzfleisch ("Sitting meat"); the ability to sit through a long, boring event (or through Danke Schön).

Weltschmerz ("world pain"); the pain you feel over the world's imperfection (commonly experienced by most Americans during election season).

Backpfeifengesicht ("Slap face"); a person who deserves a slap in the face (like some Presidential candidates).

Kummerspeck ("grief bacon"); the weight gained after a romantic breakup.

Innerer Schweinehund ("inner pig dog"); the voice in your head telling you to slack off.

Treppenwitz ("staircase joke"); the snappy comeback that occurs to you only after the conversation.

Erklärungsnot ("explanation poverty"); the inability to explain why you did something, or failed to do it.

Schattenparker ("shadow parker"); a wimp who parks his car in the shade, so the interior doesn't get hot; similar compounds include Warmduscher (a wimp who showers in warm water) and Sitzpinkler (a wimp who sits to urinate).

Lebensmüde ("life tired" ); when you're so weary of life you perform a stupid act (like the one below).

Where's the Thought in Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is to leadership as fast food is to food.

While the stuff served daily through most B2B marketers' Tweets, videos, blog posts and e-books looks tasty and can be consumed quickly, it isn't particularly satisfying. Or good for you.

Although there are thousands of exceptions, most B2B marketers rush out junk, contributing to the deafening "content shock" Mark Schaefer describes.

Plainly, simply, thought leadership shouldn't be advertising. It's supposed to be content that's authentic and that articulates leading-edge thinking, not your marketing department's  social media strategy.

And thought leadership shouldn't be about media. It's supposed to focus on thought, not LinkedIn or Meerkat or Snapchat.

B2B marketers are hacking the system when they publish non-nutritional content, however carefully it's dressed to resemble food for thought.

Ironically, every B2B marketer could contribute thought leadership, if only she trusted the few thoughtful individuals inside her organization—and they trusted themselves. Sadly, neither do.

"Thought leaders focus on crafting ideas, not audience reaction and reach," says digital marketer Walter Adamson in Firebrand. 

He's 100% right. Thought leaders don't lean on vapid videos and tricked up infographics to entreat customers. They rely instead, TEDishly, on "ideas worth sharing."

"Being a thought leader means putting your own personal thoughts out there in whatever form appeals to you," Adamson says. "It’s not about the medium. It’s about the message and it’s about filling in the white spaces which teams of content producers don’t even know exist."

Entering Adjacencies and Bringing It All Back Home

"Entering adjacencies has become the growth strategy du jour," Ken Favaro says in Strategy+Business.

Some companies aren't good at it (remember Harley-Davidson's Men's Colognes or United' Airlines' TED?); others excel (Apple's iPhone and Disney's Cruise Line are examples).

The danger in entering adjacencies is “averaging down,” Favoro says. You may subsist in two markets, but you won't be exceptional in either.

Do people face the same danger when they stray from their core competence?

"We often stop surprising ourselves (and the market) not because we're no good anymore, but because we are good," Seth Godin says. "So good that we avoid opportunities that bring possibility."

Opening yourself to possibility may very well court danger:

• The New York Times lambasted an exhibit of Bob Dylan's paintings."The color is muddy, the brushwork scratchily dutiful, the images static and postcard-ish. The work is dead on the wall."
  

• In its review of Jon Stewart's feature film Rosewater, NPR said, "Stewart shows no signs that he can handle such tonally complex material."
  

• Paul Simon's Broadway musical The Capeman opened to universally poor reviews and ran for less two months. The New York Times said, "The show registers as one solemn, hopelessly confused drone."
  

• Hans von Bülow called one of Friedrich Nietzsche's musical compositions “the most undelightful and the most antimusical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time.”

Compared to the artists' other work, these missteps fairly stink (a lot like Harley-Davidson Cologne). But they prove the artists aren't afraid to change, take risks, or be a bit incompetent.

"Competent people have a predictable, reliable process for solving a particular set of problems," Godin says. "They solve a problem the same way, every time. That's what makes them reliable. That's what makes them competent."

But competent people hate change—even though change opens possibilities of fresh perspectives, disruptions and breakthroughs—because it threatens their reputations.

For people, entering adjacencies—opening to possibility and taking a flyer—is a lot like foreign travel. 

It may very well bring you back home to what you do, not just competently, but masterfully.

A case in point: Before he directed the drama Interiors, Woody Allen spent a decade mastering popular low-comedy films like Take the Money and Run and Sleepers. While loathed by critics (The New Yorker called it an "achievement of suffocating emptiness"), Interiors was immediately followed by 38 years of award-winning comedies.

Smile While You're Making It

Fiction's where I go when I've OD'ed on reality.

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures," Emerson said.

And it's often "the best way to capture reality," Jack Grebski says in Entrepreneur. 

Grebski lists his must-see films for entrepreneurs, and the lesson each one teaches:

• Catch Me If You Can (a lesson in "the good ol’ hustle to reach success")

• Lord of War (a lesson in "ambition, tenacity, and ability to tolerate risk)

• Wall Street (a lesson in "how easy it is to get carried away with the glamorous lifestyle that accompanies wealth")

• Rogue Trader (a lesson in "how money drives all sorts of maniacal behavior")

• Twelve Angry Men (a lesson in "the psychology of group behavior")

• Office Space (a lesson in "leadership, team-building techniques, and career development")

• The Godfather (a lesson in "why understanding competition is non-negotiable")

• The Usual Suspects (a lesson in "leadership consolidation, power and influence, and long-term business strategy")

• How To Get Ahead In Advertising (a lesson in "creative problem solving")

• The Devil Wears Prada (a lesson in "how to work your way up the corporate ladder")

• Thank You For Smoking (a lesson in "how to sell just about any product")

• Glengarry Glen Ross (a lesson in "competition and manipulation")

• The Merchant of Venice (a lesson in "business partnerships, risk assessment and mercantile law")

• Dr. Strangelove (a lesson in "leadership and loyalty")

• Erin Brockovich (a lesson in "the importance of sticking to one’s scruples even in the face of obstacles")

• The Rainmaker (a lesson in "the power of determination and social responsibility")

I'm sure you can add to Grebski's list, if you think about it.

My must-watch film for entrepreneurs is Oh, Lucky Man!, a rompish retelling of Voltaire's Candide set in the UK in 1973, and a lesson in the vagaries and hypocrisies of the climb to riches.

Oh, Lucky Man! is worth the watch just to spot a 28-year-old Dame Helen Mirren.

What's your fav?