Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, provided this presentation to the Vocus User Conference in Baltimore, Md. (2012).

1. The company as media outlet:
Your role in the age of Brand Journalism and Content Curation
Mark Ragan
CEO, Ragan Communications

2. The history of corporate communications:
CIRCA 1968:
• Employee publications
• Press releases
• Face-to-face
communication
• Bulletin Boards
…and when I say bulletin board, I mean…

6. CIRCA 2011:
The communicator's toolbox in the age of social media
 Online newsletters
 Social Media press release
 Intranets
 Social Networks
 Twitter
 Facebook
 FourSquare
 Tumblr
 Podcasting
 Yammer
 Blogs
 YouTube
 Flickr

7. And you. . . .

8. And today?
Content is no longer merely important.
It’s the king of the forest.

9. Content is at the very center of today’s brand strategy . . . .
Intranets Social Networks
Corporation
Blogging Facebook
FourSquare Twitter

10. What has changed?
• Free distribution channels:
YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter, Google+ and
more…
• Understaffed newsrooms:
Fewer reporters to feed
the media beast
• Reporters now tap into
social media channels for
stories
• Technology has removed
many cost barriers

11. The original model:

12. How it is today:

13. What does all of this mean for
Communicators?

14. 5 qualities of the new
communications superstar:
• Expert in all things social media
• Become a leading content creator (and curator) for
your organization
• Practice the fundamentals of good writing and
refrigerator journalism
• Effectively produce an online newsroom
• Build relationships with traditional and new media

15. The New Formula:
Great Content
+ Engagement
= Success

16. Change in thinking:
Your new role as Chief Content Officer
• Content producer
• Reporter: Ferret out
the stories
• Conversation starter
• Community Manager

17. Payoff
• Lower costs compared to
traditional advertising
• Higher brand recognition
• Increased efficiency
• More influence within
the organization

18. Every organization
has a story:
Your job is to find
it and produce it

19. But remember the #1 rule in the
Age of Content
Never bore people

20. The Problem:
Corporate and consumer information worlds are colliding

21. What content consumers love:
•Helpful posts that practice
'refrigerator journalism‘
•Compelling video
•Voice and personality
•Social Media integration
•Conversation
•Integrated customer service

26. What's the problem?
With most corporate sites

27. Too much content, none of it filtered

29. Clunky navigation: Too many choices

30. No grumpy editor making the tough choices:
What stays and what goes!

31. Endless Rabbit holes

32. Spotty, inconsistent or nonexistent social media
integration

33. Writing that doesn't get to the point quickly!

34. No voice, color or sign of a human

35. Doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up:
Am I a shingle site or a knowledge leader?

36. Great content

38. Imagine what a customer might say:
• "I'm not wading through
content on Mashable, why do I
have to on your site?”
• "Why can't you be more like
my favorite news site or trade
publication?”
• "And while I'm at it, why can't
it be entertaining and human
as well?"

39. What you'll be hearing:
The new buzzwords of the day

40. Company as media outlet: Traditional newsrooms are in
decline and media is now more fragmented than ever.
Why not fill the void?
"The mantra is that every company has to be a media company in
their own right, telling their own stories not just through websites
but through branded entertainment, video, iPad and mobile
applications. Big companies are going directly to the consumer to
engage them now, rather than through display or spot ads and the
traditional means of trying to reach consumers. You can't just be
out there shouting at people about your brand, you've got to
engage with them quite carefully, and the editorial skills that I can
bring can help with that."
--Stefan Stern
veteran journalist for the Financial Times and head of strategy for Edelman

41. Content Curation: For a fraction of the cost of
advertising, you can become the chief content site in
your business.

43. Objective
• Position HSBC as
resource to
businesses selling
abroad.
• Establish expertise in
International Trade
• Provide helpful tools
to readers

44. Editorial Resources
• Five full-time staffers working
on site
• Uses syndicated content from
Bloomberg/Wall Street
Journal
• Custom content from the
Economist
• Contract editor to keep
distance from HSBC

45. Philosophy
Provide great information and tools and the customers will follow.
“You don’t know who’s a
potential customer, right? It
could be a business that may
be milling around going, ‘I’m
not getting any growth in
Iowa. Maybe I can sell meat
pies in Canada.’
-- Clinton Riley, vice president of
public affairs for HSBC North
America.

46. Brand Journalism: Using the principles and approaches
of journalism to create rich content for your customers
and prospects.
• Credibility
• Trust
• Storytelling
• Breadth of coverage
• Timeliness
• Integration with social media

51. So is brand journalism just a theory?
The proof is in the hiring

52. Who heads digital strategy for IBM?
(It's not a coincidence!)

53. Who is the new communication strategist at
SAP?

54. What he says:
"In my specific case, my ability to tell stories about the impact that
technology plays on business innovation and strategy and competitive
balance and global supply chains and real­time operations and cloud
computing and more is enhanced by my being employed within a
large, highly profitable, and truly global organization with more than
100,000 customers and deep troves of case­study expertise across
thousands of corporations in more than 20 industries. As an SAP
employee, I have more access to more information and expertise that
can be shared with audiences than I did in my former position on the
'light side'."

55. Roadmap
• Create simple, compelling news site that
engages customers and prospects by providing
daily news, analysis and video features for
your market
• Editorial team headed by a managing editor
and team of reporters
• Publisher: Manages all business aspects of the
site and acts as bridge to senior management
• Social Media editor. Integrates content into all
social media platforms and manages
communities both inside and outside the
firewall
• Director of measurement and search engine
optimization

56. Benefits:
• Become the leading thought
leader in the industry
• Simple and efficient way to
generate leads, track progress
and bond with customers
• Build brand recognition among
key decision makers and
influencers
• Bolsters social media presence by
providing hot content to share
• Gives global sales force tool for
connecting to customers

57. Go To Site

58. Go To Site

63. Go To Site
In your face
social media
integration
63

64. Go To Site
64

65. Content by
employees

66. Talk back
forum
Interactive
features
Curated
content

67. Personal
tales of
success

68. Great content + engagement = success

70. Easy to
measure
ROI!

74. Go to site

75. Integration--Tie everything together
Ban the Scatter Gun Approach

76. In your
face social
media
Make it
easy to get
content

77. Fish where the
List fish are!
headline
Easy
sharing
Great
visual

78. So what's YOUR strategy?

79. What is my content?
• What is my niche, i.e., cancer
research, energy, specialty steel,
banking?
• What information do my
customers or employees need?
• Decide ratio of 'curated content'
to original
• Social media integration: How
will I foster sharing
• Engagement: How do I keep them
wanting more?
• Measurement: How will I prove
it's a success?
• What's the frequency—Less is NOT
more

80. What resources do I have?
• Freelancers or staff
• How many
reporters/editors do I
need
• Partnerships with
bloggers and other
content creators
• Technology

81. Go To Site
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=OEdVfyt-mLw

82. PinkGlove

83. Go To Site

84. Go To Site

85. Go To Site

86. Providence St.
Vincent Medical
Center’s PINK
GLOVE dance,
owns Google’s
search results for
Pink Glove.
17 of the first 35 results
and 7 of 11 on page 1

91. Contact
Email: CEO@ragan.com
Twitter: @MarkRaganCEO
Phone: 773-456-1376