Thought leadership and content marketing: how to build a newsroom

THE NEWSROOM: A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTENT ENGINE

WEBINAR30.06.2016

WHERE WE GOT OUR CLIENTS PUBLISHED WITH GUEST CONTENT:

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Content is a proven way to:

• Increase reputation

• Generate leads

• Drive sales

• Build organizational knowledge

• Establish leaders as visionaries

• Increase influence for the organization among key stakeholders

WHY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS

Challenges & constraints:

• Time

• C-level & experts have very little time, and writing well takes time

• A long turnaround time increases danger of external events changing – meaningyour content becomes obsolete

• When you start a piece of content, aim for a 3 – 4 week turnaround time max

• Political capital

• When you start, it’s a new, unproven process

• You need to show result and success as fast as possible to build confidence

CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS

THE BLUEPRINT

This process was built and refined over the years to assure:

• Smooth handovers

• Clear long and short term goals, to do’s, no dropped balls

• Lean work: work flows in one direction only (no rework!)

• Total production time of 10 – 15 hours for 800 – 1300 word blog (excl pitching)

• Turnaround time 3 to 4 weeks

THE PLAYERS

(Ghost)writerStorytelling

CEO or expertVision & leadership

Corporate communicationStrategy & message

MONITORING THE LANDSCAPE

PHASE 0

Who?

What?

• Start following the news in your industry and beyond.

Why?

• If you want to become a thought leader – or create one in your organization – youneed to know what’s going on.

• What’s hot, what’s not?

• Who’s new?

• And so on.

MONITORING THE LANDSCAPE

SOURCES > PEARLTREES

FEEDLY.COM PEARLTREES.COM

SOURCES > PEARLTREES

The best writing offers opinion, but is fact based. Your facts are only as good as

your sources.

Create a feed of sources and keep track of the best source material in Pearltrees:

• Thematic & contextual

• Versatile

• Searchable

MONITORING & BOOKMARKING

In industries with a lack of ‘hard news’:

• HR

• Communication

• Design

• Finance

• Consulting

• …

It might be better to search Google Scholar for recent, surprising research.

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

THE NEWSROOM MEETING

PHASE I

Who?

What?

• 30 minute meeting

Why?

• To ideate 1 viable idea

NEWSROOM MEETING

• What’s new in your industry?

• What are some questions that stakeholders have asked you lately?

• Which phenomena (even if marginal today) have the power to change your

industry in 10, 20 or 30 years?

• What are some things that you believe or know about your industry that very

few people know or believe?

• Are some phenomena that people in your industry misinterpret today?

QUESTIONS TO ASK

A headline

• “Here’s what everyone has wrong about Tesla”

Key insights & points you want to make

• “Tesla doesn’t want to be a car maker, it wants to become a market leader in

energy storage”

A gold medal media outlet

• “It will be perfect for Quartz”

OBJECTIVES:

NEWSROOM RULES

ONE EXPERT

NEWSROOM RULES

• Multiple experts in the newsroom meeting will derail your meeting.

• No “exits” for your expert: maximum social pressure.

• If expert or CEO thinks they can get out from under their homework, they will try toget out from under it – and blame you for not delivering thought leadership.

• Take away this false security

REASONS FOR THE “ONE EXPERT” RULE

NEWSROOM RULES

ONE SUBJECT!

NEWSROOM RULES

1. “Cheerleader effect” for ideas

• You’ll feel good about having a list of ideas, but they will be weak

2. Cumulative flow: ‘Little’s Law’ (cumulative flow)

• It takes 3 weeks to finish 1 piece of content

• It takes 10 weeks to finish 2 pieces of content

• It takes 20 weeks to finish 3 pieces of content

3. Multiple subjects bleed into each other during research & writing

4. Multiple subjects offer an ‘exit’ for your CEO or expert

• Maximum social pressure

REMEMBER THE TICKING CLOCK!

VALIDATION PHASE

PHASE II

Who?

What?

• A stress test for your idea

Why?

• Because of the “ridicule factor”

NEWSROOM MEETING

STRESS TEST YOUR IDEAS

• Find supporting facts & proof points for your idea

• Look for facts & proof points that disprove your hypothesis

• “You shouldn’t fact check a good story to death”

• True, but the idea should be somewhat healthy to begin with

• Check the requirements of the media outlet you want to pitch

• “How to be a guest writer on 11 popular sites”

• Did the outlet already write this story?

• (It’s more common than you think)

STRESS TESTING YOUR IDEAS

PUT ALL YOUR FACTS IN A MIND MAP

MINDMEISTER.COM

PUT ALL YOUR FACTS IN A MIND MAP

OUTLINE

PHASE III

Who?

What?

• A skeleton of your story

Why?

• Because you’re not ready to waste time on writing

NEWSROOM MEETING

DO YOU THINK THIS LOOK COMPLICATED?

THEN WHAT ABOUT THIS?

THE LONDON TUBE - CROWDSOURCED

LONDON TUBE - OUTLINED

1. Information

2. Structure

3. Words & phrases

AVOID REWRITES AND FRUSTRATION

1. Information

2. Structure

Presenting a CEO or expert with 3 layers of information will overwhelm them.

People who are not used to writing will:

1. Get emotional (panic, anger, frustration)

2. Start rewriting

3. Create a mess

4. Drop the ball

5. And more bad outcomes

Outlines prevent this. It’s clearly recognizable as “work in progress” and is less

threatening.

WHY?

• 7 to 12 bullet points for 1000 words

• Be precise

• “I will talk about the importance of backlinks for SEO”

• “SEO depends 47 % on backlinks and 15 % on social signal”

MAXIMIZE THE STORYTELLING

GREAT CONTENT HAS A CLEAR GOAL – THESUMMIT. BUT IT OFFERS TWISTS, TURNS ANDSURPRISES ON THE WAY TO THE TOP. MORE HERE.

MAXIMIZE THE STORYTELLING

BEWARE OF THE SPEEDY APPROVAL

SPEEDY APPROVAL OF YOUR OUTLINE = “I DIDN’T REALLY LOOK AT IT AND I WILLREWRITE YOUR DRAFT INSTEAD”

BEWARE OF THE SPEEDY APPROVAL

Not really, but almost. Your work is 99 % done.

DRAFT 1

PHASE IV

Who?

What?

• A finished piece of text

YOU’RE AIMING FOR THIS:

NO DETOURS

YOU’RE AIMING FOR THIS:

• 700 – 1300 words

• Now, spend time on phrasing and wording (not too much though)

• Find a good introduction to grab the reader’s attention

• Find a good “sendoff”

• Check headline: does it still fit?

• Do you need to add a “curiosity gap”? (Don’t overdo it)

Because all facts are checked and storyline is approved, writing should take 1 to

2 hours max for an experienced writer (if they were involved in earlier process –

otherwise 3 to 4 probably).

THE FIRST DRAFT

FINAL DRAFT

PHASE V

• After feedback from CEO or expert: implement comments. Should take no

more than 1 hour.

• Polish the text a bit.

• Proofreader (optional)

• Send to graphic designer or art director (illustrations & photo)

• And then:

YOU ARE NOW READY TO PITCH (MORE ON THAT LATER)

Feel free to tweet remarks to:

• @rafweverbergh, @FINNbe or @kris10vermoesen

Also, we’re HIRING: http://finnpr.com/about-us/are-you-interested-working-finn

• Entry level PR

• (Junior/Medior) Account Manager PR/PA

Also, check out our all new version of Mustr, the easiest way to do stakeholder

and influencer management: http://getmustr.com

THANK YOU!