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Remember me? I've had so many notes and queries about whether I'm still blogging. The answer is both yes and no. For the past several months I've been focused on the blog at the Careers and Industry Guide. It means this blog has been neglected but I'm planning to get back to it soon. (Confession: I've chosen sleep over blogging for these past few month.)

New focus on marketing at The West Australian newspaper
So what's motivated me to get back at it? I'm really excited about a new feature in The West Australian. Starting on Friday of this week, the newspaper will be running a weekly marketing and media page. Here's the good news.

It will focus not just on marketing and the media, but include

• PR
• Advertising
• Copywritiing
• Associated industries such as graphic design, social media and video

How you can get involved
According to Daniel Hatch, the West's new Marketing and Media Editor, the section is going to be a hungry beast with lots of potential for the industry to contribute. He's going to be looking for story ideas, thought pieces, comment, expertise, research, developments, movements – anything to do with marketing. I've worked with Dan on several projects and know he's going to make this a super smart, super fun section.

If you want to contribute, and I urge everyone in the WA marketing space to get involved, you can get in touch with Dan at daniel.hatch@wanews.com.au or 08 9482 3193. Pitch him your ideas, add him to your distribution lists, and set up a meeting with him. He's easily bribed with a cup of coffee.

What's going on in the Perth marketing scene that you think is newsworthy?
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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you heard about the skill shortage in the resource industry? Regardless of where you live, nearly every country with natural resources is battling to find skilled professionals to fill the roles. Australia, Canada, South Africa and many more countries are courting a small, transient, global workforce of engineers, geologists and metallurgists to keep their mining, oil and gas, and energy operations running. What can these major corporations do to secure the right talent? If you're Rio Tinto, you turn to content marketing.

Mine for the Future
Late last year I predicted interactive content would be a big player in 2012. I was impressed to learn the Australian office of Rio Tinto is using interactive content to set themselves apart from the many other companies competing for the same talent pool. The `Mine for the Future' initiative is designed to attract candidates into the autonomous haulage project Rio's world-first technology using driverless trucks and trains in their Western Australia mines.

Multiple types of content
Mine for the Future uses an interactive globe containing an images gallery, video, a game and a jobs board. Visitors to the site manipulate windows on the globe to enter different regions of the site. The highlight of the content is the Truck Controller game. Designed to pull people onto the site, the game encourages repeat visits by running a leader board. Perhaps more enticing, jobs for the Mine of the Future project are posted on the site. I'm not a miner but I would think this approach is a lot more attractive to qualified candidates than dealing with headhunters and recruiters.

New approach for a new market
So are a game and a jobs board enough to attract the right people? According to the Careers and Industry Guide, it seems so.

"Intent on revolutionising the future of mining, Rio is also looking for a new kind of employee wanting jobs in mining. If you're energetic, switched-on, and ready to tackle world-first technology, they want to know about you."

Tackling the skill shortage with better content
I love what Rio has done with Mine for the Future. Recognising the need to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, they've developed content to drive their recruitment campaign and find employees they may not have considered previously. Nothing can be done to quickly alleviate a challenging labour market. A diverse suite of content designed to hook people into coming back over and over again is going to give them competitive advantage over traditional methods of recruiting.

Have you played the Truck Controller game?

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Have you noticed a change in the SPAM comments you're receiving on your website or blog? Over the past two weeks, I've been hit hard and I can tell the SEO crowd is scrambling to combat Google's new `Panda' algorithm. Because original, quality content is now being rewarded in search engine results, some popular methods of search engine marketing (SEM) are no longer effective. Those unsavoury characters trading on SPAM comments are going down swinging. Here are some of the new tactics I've discovered on my own blog.

Plagiarism: The new SPAM tool
If you check out the second comment (boxed in orange) in my moderation queue, you'll see a reference to Junta42, Joe Pulizzi's company. Joe is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and publisher of Chief Content Officer magazine. I was thrilled to see he'd left a comment on my blog – except he hadn't. I plugged the comment into a plagiarism checker and discovered it was part of a blog Joe wrote over a year ago called, How Much Should Brands Pay for Content Marketing. It's the first time I've seen a SPAMMER work so hard.

Obviously, whoever scraped Joe's site to leave a comment on my post was putting some thought into what they were doing. I checked out the link to the website left by the SPAMMER and assumed the company must not be aware the SEM outfit they'd employed was up to no good. Being a good citizen, I filled out their contact form to let them know. The reply I got back leads me to believe they're in it up to their eyeballs.

hi,

BEST REGARDS!

I take no joy in the fact they'll remove me from their SPAM target list and continue on. I would never buy any of their products.

New SPAM techniques
Earlier this year I wrote a post on spotting SPAM comments. With the new release of Google putting pressure on the SPAMMERs, new techniques are in play.

• Volume
  The increase in SPAM has more than doubled on my blog. Just when I thought it would diminish due to Google's focus on original content, the SPAMMERS have stepped up their game.
• Copycat
  Many of the SPAM comments I'm receiving are doing a cut/paste on my own copy. Most of the time it's from the same post but sometimes it's from another article on my blog.
• Broken English
  Because Google is now expecting real content, many SPAMMERS are trying to write their own comments. It's obvious some of these people have little or no command of the English language and are too lazy to use Google translator.
• HTML Dump
  I'm flummoxed by comments containing dozens of lines of HTML code. Maybe they think no one will figure out it's a blatant attempt to get backlinks?
• Friendly comments
  "Lindsey" left this comment on a post called 9 Tips That Improved My Blog:

  Hello, I just wanted to say that your blog has been really useful for me..
  I need all the help I can get, lol.. Thnx

  If you follow her link, it seems Lindsey is running a nasty little online pharmacy with no blog attached. I'm not laughing out loud or feeling the love.

Want traffic? Get content
Google's new focus on content has the SPAMMERS scrambling to support a sinking model. They're getting more sophisticated in fighting a losing battle. Of course, the harder it becomes to leave SPAM comments and secure unearned backlinks, the more these cretins are going to charge their customers. A wiser investment would be developing your own content to attract search engines and prospective customers.

What changes have you noticed in SPAM?

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What happens when someone asks your opinion about a topic you're particularly passionate about? What if they don't put any restrictions around your answer? Every year for the past four years, Joe Pulizzi and the folks from the Content Marketing Institute do just that. They ask marketing experts from around the globe to predict what they expect from content marketing and social media in the following year. It took me about two seconds to dash off an answer because I think exciting things are on the horizon.

Leading marketing experts weigh in
The Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2012 piece contains opinion from over 75 contributors. The predictions give insight into the future of content and what marketers believe will happen in the next year. It's a good read with a lot of variety if you're thinking about content marketing or planning your strategy for the next year.

Interactive content
My prediction is content is going to be become a lot more sophisticated.

"Brand marketers are going to move into interactive content and do it in the biggest way. As consumers became more accustomed to custom content, they also became more demanding, driving the need for better ways to engage.

[color=orange]Interactive content will mean marketers have no choice but to include design into the budget, planning and development of branded content."

Terrific examples
The first time I really understood the power of interactive content was when I ran across an infographic called Get the Facts About Security at the Minerals Make Life website. It's not appealing subject matter – at least not to me – but the infographic lured me into spending a fair bit of time on the site. Each section of the infographic is incomplete until you open more information by clicking a box. Not only did I click on every box, I read every bit of the content as it appeared on the screen. I digested information I wasn't interested in, have bookmarked the page and gone back several times. Isn't that exactly what we wish would happen with all our content?

Another great example is an interactive infographic called Envisioning emerging technology for 2012 and beyond. I challenge you to have a look and not play with the chart.

Why is interactive content so powerful?
Humans possess many different ways of absorbing information. Historically, we've been given our education in some form of text. It's a tried and true method but it's also boring. YouTube has proven consumers accept education and information in video format. The rise of the infographic adds to the mounting evidence we yearn for something different more entertaining and easier to digest. Webinars have become incredibly powerful tools with current research showing the only marketing tactic more effective is in-person events. And then there's social media, the most popular and widespread application of interactive content around.

Interactive content = sticky content
If you view your content as an asset to your business, make it as interactive as possible. (If you don't think content is an asset, you should read my posts on Asset-Based Marketing!) Social media channels, mobile apps and the gaming industry figured out long ago getting audience participation is key to long-term success. Interactive content is sticky. People are attracted to it; they remember the information and they come back to it. It combats the skimmers and engages your target audience. When you think about your content strategy for 2012, think about how you can add some interaction into the mix.

What's your view on interactive content? Have you seen a great example?

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Have you read the Steve Jobs biography? I only ask because I've pretty much been banned from speaking about it at home. It's getting that way at work, too, except one of my colleagues is just as fascinated with the book as I am. One reason I like the book is because it defines visionary and I've been desperate for someone to do that. Here's why.

I've written before about gobbledygook, the irritating habit of marketers to describe everything the same way using the same tired words. Small business owners are particularly guilty of this although plenty of large organizations with big budgets for copywriting do it too. It's that word `visionary' that drives me `round the bend every time.

What is a visionary?
Getting back to my new favourite subject, the Jobs book gives an in-depth look at what it means to be a visionary. Steve Jobs was a difficult man driven by a clear vision of how he thought the world should look. He didn't buck trends; he created whole new markets. He obsessed. He was a bully and completely unlikable. He left a wake of human relations disasters, both professionally and personally. Realistically, he's not the kind of guy you would want on your team. In the brief time he did hold a job, he was made to work alone on the night shift because he was impossible to be around.

Don't you mean missionary?
Compare that behavior to what you do. I see so many B2B companies sell themselves as visionaries. It's even more common with consultants. Copywriters and marketers are not immune to the visionary boast. When you're selling your services, aren't you really agreeing to help people find their way? Don't you help businesses achieve their goals, meet their targets and improve their earnings? Aren't you mapping out short-term and long-term strategies? What about providing services or products to assist in all of these goals? That's what you're doing, right? It sounds an awful lot like missionary work to me.

Trust me on this
Think about the power of presenting yourself to the market as a missionary. What could be more appealing than knowing your service providers and vendors are on a mission to help you succeed? Personally, I don't want a visionary on my team. Yes, I want bright, creative, thoughtful people to help me. I don't want an autocratic, inflexible tyrant. If I could eliminate one word from the marketing jargon of the world it would be visionary. I've done my level best with my own clients but plenty of people don't want to hear it. Steve Jobs was a visionary. You're not.

Am I right about this missionary thing?

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