While Uber and Lyft have popularized the concept of the gig economy, the truth is that gig, freelance, or contract workers have been around for a long time. In fact, I’ve been one of these since 1981, when I first started writing business articles for a wide range of trade and business publications. I’ve worked remotely with publishers and editors for years—most of them I’ve never physically met! My interest in the gig economy, which traditionally had been referred to as telecommuting, led me to research and write a book on the topic some years ago. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Content Marketing’ Category
Hiring Freelancers and Contractors: Tips and Best Practices
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023Generative AI and Copyright Issues: What You Need to Know
Tuesday, November 14th, 2023
Generative AI (ChatGPT is one popular example) holds a lot of promise for researchers and content creators of all kinds, but it may also pose some risks that have not yet been fully explored, such as the risk of copyright infringement. As an AI tool crawls the internet and digital sources for information to respond to users’ queries, the information that’s pulled often belongs to other content creators. What risks does that have for those relying on this information—sometimes verbatim—especially when it might be inaccurate? Here we take a look at written content generated by AI and the implications content creators need to be aware of. (more…)
Opportunities for Building Generative AI Into Work Processes
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
If you’re involved in content creation or management and you haven’t heard of ChatGPT by now, you must be living under a rock. ChatGPT is a form of generative AI—“a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content including text, imagery, audio and synthetic data,” according to George Lawton in an article from TechTarget.
It holds a lot of promise but also, potentially, a lot of peril for users.
Direct Mail — The “Snail Mail” Kind — Never Goes Out of Style
Friday, September 1st, 2023
A number of years ago, a colleague of mine gave me a book on fractals to read and it was fascinating! At least I thought so. It was all about how nature is made up of fractals that operate in a systematic way to create patterns (in clouds, in leaves, in trees—in everything!). It’s all very mathematical (and I didn’t understand much of the really technical content…) but the images were fascinating and the idea that there are patterns—often predictable patterns—in everything around us, was (more…)
Vetting Freelance Talent in 2023
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023The use of freelancers and contractors is on the rise, and this trend is likely to continue as hordes of workers are laid off or decide they simply aren’t willing to give up the freedom and flexibility of remote and hybrid work to return full-time to physical workplaces. Freelancers can offer great benefits to employers who know what to look for, what to look out for, and how to effectively evaluate talent before bringing them on board. (more…)
10 Specific Tips for Writing Compelling Email Subject Lines
Thursday, August 17th, 2023
Despite sentiments to the contrary, email marketing is still a go-to tool for both B2B and B2C marketers. But, especially in the B2B environment, it can be challenging to break through the gatekeepers. Even if your email message gets through organizations’ firewalls designed to combat spam, you still need to capture the attention of your desired recipient—or land in the circular file! (more…)
Shining a Light on the Dark Funnel
Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
Chris is in the market for a new car. Chris, like most consumers, is broadly aware of the many types of cars on the market and can see them on the road, on car lots, in advertisements, and online. While deciding which car to buy, Chris not only draws on his own awareness that has been created through these channels, he is also likely to become much more proactive in seeking information—asking family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues for their advice; perusing review sites; following hashtags on social media channels; gathering information through Google searches; and, eventually, visiting car manufacturer or dealer websites to help narrow the choices. Then Chris is likely to visit a local car dealership to take a test drive and talk pricing. (more…)
The Marketing Content Continuum
Thursday, July 27th, 2023
Content marketing remains a high priority for organizations of all kinds today as they struggle to stay relevant to customers while keeping ahead of the constantly changing algorithms of search engines like Google. Companies clearly need to generate a constant flow of high-quality, relevant, current content, but continually creating and updating content can take a toll and drive up costs. And finding a qualified staff that can keep up with the demand isn’t so easy these days.
The solution for a lot of companies today is (more…)
The Power of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in Writing Promotional Copy
Friday, July 21st, 2023
It’s not uncommon for students in both high school and higher ed to question whether what they’re learning will actually have relevance in the real world of work. There are three concepts, though, from several speech classes I taught at the undergraduate level, that I’ve found to be extremely helpful in creating content designed to resonate with various needs and preferences of the target audience: ethos, logos, and pathos. Before I lose you, trust me, these are really simple concepts that you can use to create and evaluate your promotional content. (more…)
ChatGPT: Opportunities and Risks Related to AI-Generated Content
Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
AI-driven content-generation tools are nothing new. But if the hype around the release of ChatGPT is to be believed, this new offering is something special. It is purported to have a heightened ability to create quality content for a variety of applications, including social media posts, marketing copy, business reports, customer-facing documents, and a variety of other written materials. As OpenAI, the creator of the ChatGPT model, notes on its website, (more…)
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