Content Rules

My boss lent me a pretty interesting book:

"Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business" <- longest book name ever!

I haven't quite made it all the way through the book yet but so far it's intriguing and Chapman and Hanley's approach is unique. They discuss content in terms of their kids and how the small principles of nurturing are needed for new ventures (social media). And the way to keep the momentum going is to "feed the beast".

I jumped a couple chapters to the section about webinars for two reasons. First, a large part of my field includes attending webinars and web-based meetings. And second, because of the title "If Webinars Are Awesome Marketing Tools, Why Do Most Of Them Suck?" it totally sums up my opinion of webinars nicely. I find most of them tedious to sit through or frustrating because something always fails to work properly.

Anyway, the chapter defines what a webinar is and how they underperform on a regualr basis. But they also make sure to outline what you should consider when you do decide to put on a webinar.

Now I understand that webinars aren't the most appealing mainstream social media option but when done properly I think they are effective business to business tools. If tracking is done properly (number of registrants : number of participants : number of leads generated) webinars can be an effective way to monitor messaging and business growth.

Links:
Google Books "Content Rules"
C.C. Chapman