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Over 200+ hand-curated content strategy resources: books, blogs, journals, articles, conferences, and meetups - all in one place! Via Robin Good 
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Europe is behind the US in adopting content strategy, but how far?
I found an interesting survey on the Firehead blog (via Fiona Cullinan) that shows -
*B2B businesses and digital agencies are adopting content strategy as a discipline *As yet, chief content officers are rare, and the job of content strategist seems to be added on to other jobs like webmaster and copywriter.
That approach doesn't work for me, and I believe European businesses need to move fast to understand the role of a chief content officer as the 'hub' of the content strategy and the overseer of all things content (as I wrote in this comment piece). http://lizwilson.me/content-strategy-how-europe-sees-it/
What do you think? How do you devise and implement content strategy in your European agency or business? Will you talk to me for a future blog post?
Via Liz Wilson
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Robin Good: Some really valuable and long-tested advice on specific, immediately applicable things you can do to your writing and to the formatting of your content to make sure it looks professional, and it gets more people to read and appreciate it.
The advice contained in this infographic is excellent and I have been using each and every single one of these ten rules for a long time now on MasterNewMedia. If you have not yet started to consider some of this variables, dive into this infographic and start reserving some mental and production space for them too.
Highlights:
A) Impatient searchers Jakob Nielsen’s seminal web usability study from 1997 showed that 79% of web users scan rather than read. Think about how you use the web. You’re in search of information. And if you don’t find it on the page you’re visiting, you click away and look elsewhere. What can you do to engage your readers so they lean into your content, stay on your pages and interact with your information?
B) Make it snappy To write successfully for the web, you need to forget some of what you learned in English composition class. Accept that people scan web pages rather than reading them in detail, and work with this reality rather than fighting it. C) Structure your paragraphs in the inverted pyramid style. This means stating your conclusion first, then supporting it with the sentences that follow. This helps scanners to move from point to point, and decide where they’d like to dive in deeper. 1. Embrace the line break There are few easier ways to make your content more readable. And try writing some paragraphs with one sentence only. 2. Break up your content with compelling subheads Is there a compelling story? Will they get the gist of your information?
3. Use bulleted lists 4. Use deep captions Studies have shown that image captions are consistently some of the most-read copy on a page. Try pairing a strong image with a “deep caption.” Deep captions are two to three sentences long. That’s long enough to intrigue your reader to dig in to your whole article.
5. Add highly relevant links Internal links back to your own cornerstone content will keep people on your site and reading your best material. External links demonstrate that you’ve researched the topic and want to highlight other experts. 6. Use strategic formatting Add emphasis to your web copy by bolding important concepts. You reader will be able to scan through and pick out the most important information at a glance. Emphasize the key points so the scanner can quickly pick them out. 7. Harness the power of numbers Think those numbered list posts are tired? Think again. Numbers are an incredibly effective way to both capture attention and to keep the reader oriented. 8. Check your dual readership path Does the reader get the gist? Have you pulled out the most interesting and relevant words, the words that will pull your scanner in and turn her into a reader?
Excellent. It works. 9/10
By Pamela Wilson -- http://bit.ly/LzBnQm Source: http://bit.ly/LIOp4n Infographic by BlueGlass -- http://bit.ly/LzBNpN Via maxOz, Robin Good
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Robin Good's curator insight,
September 18, 2013 7:18 AM
Andrew Gouty analyzes the history of SEO, while highligthing how increasingly important it is to look less at "SEO tactics" and more at producing truly quality content. The article cum infographic reviews the main five SEO eras, from the 1994-99 Meta era, and through the PageRank years (2000-2003), the Florida era (2004-2009), the Content Era (2010-12) and the Present Day. A good, fact-supported overview of what really counts when it comes to content visibility on the web. Useful. Data-rich. 8/10 Full article + infographic: http://www.raidious.com/content-marketing/the-history-of-seo-effectiveness/ 
Alex McCardell's curator insight,
September 19, 2013 5:48 AM
Good content is not just a trend. Communicate effectively for your users/customers = optimised SEO 
Alexandra Salzedo's curator insight,
September 22, 2013 10:17 AM
Without valuable content the brand risks losing valuable interactions with their community
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Robin Good: If you want to create valuable content online that meets and intercepts your specific user needs, here is a good set of strategies to follow.
In this guide, Rich Brooks shows three approaches that you can use to identify precisely what are the specific needs and issues of your audience that you should cover with your best content.
#1: Be the resource your customers really need
#2: Answer the unanswered questions
#3: Find the questions your customers are asking
From the original article: "If you want to attract and engage a loyal audience to your blog, you need to be continually creating content that is of interest to them, not necessarily of interest to you. By researching your keywords, digging a little deeper and uncovering the questions your ideal customer is asking, you can build a blog that builds your business."
This is
Good strategies. 8/10
Full article: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blog-content/
Via Robin Good
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By Patricia Redsicker - http://bit.ly/xPDu0z
How do you attract passionate customers? What can you do to cut through the noise and get people to notice what you have to say?
The answer is CONTENT—interesting and compelling information that helps solve your customers’ problems.
Why Content?
Here’s an analogy: If a big-time investor invited you to pitch your business idea to him, how much effort would you make to impress him?
I’m guessing that you wouldn’t dare show up without a compelling idea and a well-thought-out strategy. And yet most businesses do just that when it comes to social media marketing.
Given the opportunity to influence an online audience of potential customers, they simply show up without preparing a compelling message.
No wonder they don’t see the results they want with their social media campaigns. http://bit.ly/AkkhCK Via maxOz, Robin Good
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If you re looking for great articles, resources and guides about content strategy and its characteristics, you have found what you were looking for.
Jontahon Colman, has curated an excellent catalogue of the best resources on content strategy resources available online.
From books, to magazines, journals, blogs, articles, forums and events, this annotated list has plenty of valuable resources and it is definitely a valuable reference asset to save for anyone interested in deepening his knowledge about content strategy.
Free to use.
Check it out: http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
So are Content Marketing and Content Strategy the same? No, but they are clearly related, so a better question to ask might be: are these two practices compatible with each other? Definitely!...