When you read the phrase “house style guide,” do you think it’s time to replace the office carpet? Many employees don’t know anything about their company’s style guide, or even that there is such a thing as an established writing style for a business. That’s a missed opportunity, because many customers find your business online and in print—not in physical offices and brick-and-mortar stores.

For marketers, attracting eyeballs is a perennial challenge. You can create the best content in the world but if no one sees it, it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest. So much content is produced every day that it’s getting increasingly difficult to reach your target audience, much less generate leads. Word of mouth is the communication channel most trusted by B2B audiences, but for that to work you need to inspire people to share your content. How can you do that?

According to a recent Salesforce report, the three most pressing business challenges facing B2B marketers are:

1. New business development
2. Quality of leads
3. Demand and lead generation

So how will these B2B marketers overcome their biggest challenges? One indication is where they plan to invest their budget in the coming year. And according to the same Salesforce report, 68 percent plan to increase their spend on content marketing—more than any other single budget item.

In an age when the average smartphone user reportedly has an attention span less than that of a goldfish, you might think that the shorter a piece of content is, the more likely it is to engage its intended audience. While there is definitely a case to be made for brevity, long-form content also deserves a place in your content mix. 

The infographic is dead; or if not dead, it's going extinct. At least according to Fast Company.

Rating: *****

In January, editors from Vox.com sat down with President Obama for a wide-ranging interview on several domestic and foreign policy topics. Vox has earned high praise for their innovative formats and use of data “to explain the News" and clarify complex topics. After reviewing "Obama: The Vox Conversation," I can say that the high praise is justified. 

The much-anticipated Apple Watch has arrived at last, and though early reviews have been mixed, many publishers have been eagerly trumpeting plans to produce content specifically for the wearable. The New York Times announced plans for one-sentence stories and The Guardian announced its own watch-sized offering called "Moments." These are but two of the publishers rushing to adapt content for the latest Apple form factor, a move that looks like 2010 all over again. Yet in merely re-sizing content for the watch face, content providers risk missing a huge opportunity.