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What’s Your Word for 2023? [Rose-Colored Glasses]

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What's Your Word for 2023? [Rose-Colored Glasses]

Happy new year.

It’s that time. You dust off the journals neglected in the end-of-the-year rush. You locate the gym membership card and wonder if it will still scan since it’s been a few months – or maybe a few years, given the concern about being around people. And you create New Year’s resolutions.

Or maybe you don’t.

Have you come up with your 2023 word yet?

Resolutions seem so old school. Instead, pick one word to summarize your intentions and hopes for the new year. I’ve been doing it for about 20 years, and it’s worked well.

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My yearly word sets the foundation for where I want to focus. It acts as the root of all the intentions I write in my new year journaling.

My word for 2023: balance.

But it may not be the balance you think.

@Robert_Rose’s word for 2023 is balance. But it might not be the definition you think via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

When you think “balance,” an image of a scale with two equal weights providing perfect symmetry may come to mind. So, when saying things like “work-life balance,” “resource balance,” or even our “balance sheet,” you believe it’s about adding or removing the force of one to equalize everything.

Now, that’s not wrong. It’s the first definition in the dictionary – “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.” But the second definition fits my intention for the year – a “condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.” (The emphasis is mine.)

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Striking the right balance

Finding the correct proportions for my work is my focus for 2023. But the question is, “Proportions of what?”

I’m not looking to make a calculated decision on the amount of work I do in one area so that I can focus on some new innovative project. Yes, I’ll reconfigure my activities (as we all do), but that’s just determining the weights that fill my containers of time.

That’s not my focus this year. My focus is on balancing the meaning of each of those weights.

I’ll ask myself about my balance of satisfaction in how I do those activities, so I can build my life in the way that feels the most rewarding.

Let me explain.

Whenever I told my grandfather I was unhappy at my job or frustrated developing a skill, he would ask: “What are you building?” Then he would tell me this story:

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A man happens upon three stonecutters. He stops and asks what they’re doing. The first stonecutter pauses and says, “I’m cutting stones. I’m doing my job. I’m making a living.” The second stonecutter never stops hammering as he says breathlessly, “I’m cutting and polishing the best-crafted stones in the entire country.” The third stonecutter takes a moment, points to the horizon, and smiles, “I am happy. I’m building a cathedral that will one day stand there.”

Most know they don’t want to be the first stonecutter. Most people want more than simply “doing the job” or “making a living.”

However, it can be easy to get lost as the second stonecutter. You fool yourself into thinking you’re working toward something worthwhile – the equivalent of beautifully polished stones. That was both 2021 and 2022 for me.

Are you building a cathedral or cutting the best-crafted stones (i.e. stories)? Too many strive for the latter, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Worthwhile or worthwhile?

There are years when you end up with a lot of what seems like quality work and perhaps a full bank account to show for it. But you constantly pushed, forced, and sweated your way to that destination. You’re a living embodiment of the mantra I hate: “No pain, no gain.”

You believe the pushing is worth your while. You’ve got the best-crafted stones. You’ve balanced your activities optimally to get there. But, maybe, if you listen just a bit more closely, you realize it’s “worthwhile” with a little “w.”

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There was nothing bigger in your mind. There’s no satisfaction in contributing to the larger picture you hope to see painted, even if it may be painted over after you’re long gone.

When you’re in this mode, you may move from job to job, taking your commitment to excellence and frustration with you. It doesn’t matter if you “quiet quit” and give yourself that side hustle that embodies the opportunity you think you want. Instead, you push and push, still feeling frustrated and like it’s not enough.

Which stonecutter will you be?

Last month, I talked with the CEO of a content marketing technology startup. He was as frustrated as he’d ever been. A former journalist, he now runs a venture-based company looking to grow quickly. He wasn’t frustrated by the usual startup challenge of feeding the growth engine. He knew he could create a company that made money. He was frustrated that he didn’t know how to change the industry.

He said, “Increasingly, I see myself separate from my business, polishing some separate jewel instead of feeding my passion. We are now wholly focused on building things that will sell or satisfy growth rather than the things we think are meaningful.”

I told him the story of the three stonecutters and asked, “What are you building?”

I asked if he might consider adapting some of the same aspects of his new job that he was less comfortable with. I asked him if he might rebalance the meaning of his business so he didn’t see himself as separate from it. I asked him if he might ask his team to consider why they are cutting stones. I said, “It’s not just balancing which activities you’re doing; it’s rebalancing why and how you do them.”

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I asked him to consider the same question I’ve asked myself: How do I allow for the right mindset to create more satisfaction?

People (including me) often try to force solutions. They think, “If I just push harder, sell more instead of writing more thought leadership, or say no to more things then I’ll get better results.”

I’ve found that things can “get better” even when I still do #allthethings. Approaching them with a different intention allows me to rebalance their meaning in my work.

That’s what I want to remember by making balance my word for 2023.

What’s your word for 2023? Let me know in the comments. I hope whatever you choose gives you the satisfaction of knowing you’re building cathedrals.

It’s your story. Tell it well.

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Get Robert’s take on content marketing industry news in just five minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

Watch previous episodes or read the lightly edited transcripts.

Subscribe to workday or weekly CMI emails to get Rose-Colored Glasses in your inbox each week. 

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute



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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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