Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Content marketing? That takes a lot of time, doesn’t it?

Are you in a hurry to get somewhere? Yes. Content marketing takes time. And getting it right takes a lot of work, and by work, I mean practice, not research. You can look at demographics all day, but if you really want to get going, you’ve got to start doing, start failing, learning where to avoid the failures if you can, and keep going.

Pick Whatever Platform You Want

Have you seen Vine yet? Twitter just launched it. It lets you record six second videos. Like this:

Sweet yet healthy treat. Micro cooking show. vine.co/v/bJtLu2VYeDa

— Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) January 29, 2013

Can’t see the video? Click Here.

I just started using it. There’s probably a few ways it could be useful. I thought of one right away, and some of my friends are already making their own version. I promoted who was on my radio show like this:

Radio show guests this week on hbway.com/radio vine.co/v/bJMtr7EbqwL

— Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) January 28, 2013

Can’t see the video? Click Here.

So maybe little six second videos aren’t your thing. Maybe you prefer text? Great! Blog. And keep a great newsletter going.

A photo person? Swell! Use Instagram. Or Facebook. Or Flickr. Who cares? Pick whichever platform you want.

But How Do You Find Ideas?

You try things. You see what people are asking about. I dipped into Twitter and saw people asking about details of social media for customer service purposes. Pow. I could write a post about that. I looked on my free health and nutrition group and lots of people are asking for smoothie and juicing recipes. Maybe I’ll make a quick ebook and pop it into the Amazon store. Or I’ll have a live Hangout on Air and share recipes in real time with people from my kitchen.

Ideas are all around you. You need only scratch a tiny bit to find them. But you also have to have your “and this relates to the people I share things with like this” hat on.

Content is a “Pick and Scratch” Process

If you’re looking to build media and get some attention, you need to produce more content than just a little. Where do you find the time? You pick at it. I wrote this while I waited for a YouTube video I was uploading to process. Where did I find time to do the YouTube video? I had a space between two meetings and I knew I needed to shoot this particular video so I got things ready.

It’s the same answers I can give you for living in a little house. You find ways to keep everything functional instead of wasting it. Small houses save space. Content marketers find time. It’s related.

Serve Your Community Passionately

I think about you when I sit down to write. I think about how I can help you. I think about whether I can educate or inspire or instruct. You’re the only person I think about when I create. I don’t wonder what my colleagues are doing. I don’t wonder what’s trending. I work on finding something I can share with you to be helpful. You’re the focus. And that makes it work.

Here’s a formula I love to remember daily: First, earn an audience. Second, nurture a community. Third, empower a network. (feel like tweeting that?) If so, then maybe I’m doing my job well. If not, I’m still on step 2.

You Must Be Responsive and Fast

Gone are the days of “working on a blog post in drafts for the last week.” If the idea’s worth anything, post it. Even unfinished if you have to. You’re not being graded. You’re being consumed, absorbed, and if you’re lucky, passed around. If you don’t have time for the best blog post ever, what are you doing with your time? Reading Mashable? You have work to do.

Utterly stuck? Go for a walk. Ask yourself over and over again what your community wants. Don’t have a community of your own? Write for the community you want to serve! ( tweetable).

This is bigger than “just business.” This isn’t an avocation. This is a path. Are you willing to put in the work to earn what you want?

It starts with a passion. In this case, Jacqueline Carly was a native New Yorker who felt compelled to move to action and help people with a gesture of some relief supplies for Hurricane Sandy.

She connects with her loudmouth boyfriend (me). I have the “loud bullhorn” of a platform. I ask for a place to stage a supplies drive collection.

It requires a community-minded place with their ears open: Microsoft New England Research and Development center (Microsoft NERD) comes to the rescue. Immediately. Late on a Saturday night. And in force. I have no idea what Sara Spaulding feeds those people over there at Microsoft in Cambridge, but they are fast, ready, nimble, helpful, and they went the extra distance.

It requires the community: you (and others). Without the actual supplies, the drive doesn’t matter. We had help from far too many people to name (and I will forget some of you), but Sara and Audrey and Jen and Lois and Marshall and Andrea and Walter and Keith and Nivas and Scott and Chris and Jeremy and John and Kevin and Anthony and Kerry/Dan and the many people who found a way to drop off supplies at the drop of a hat. The amount of help and feet-on-the-ground we had were amazing.

It requires research. Jacq finds all kinds of small DIY networks of people all over NY and NJ who are sourcing materials and supplies. People like Jennifer Iannolo were quite actively filling their Facebook profiles with all kinds of pointers to local communities of need. Jacq sends hers to the Unitarian Church of Staten Island and into the hands of the wonderful Reverend Susan. I forget where Jennifer took hers. And more are to come.

Then, it’s a matter of communication. I ask for a vehicle in case we get more than we can carry in Jacq’s car. We get another driver, Jen, and then Mike Bavuso from Big Foot Moving & Storage volunteers two guys and a truck and labor to take the rest of the supplies down to NJ. This happened via Eileen at Yard And a Half landscaping, who follows me on Twitter. Mike has no idea what he’s getting himself into, but he goes for it. We get an amazing pro moving company (who you should hire for your next move in the Boston area), who help us greatly.

We ask where to ship supplies to New Jersey, and Deb Ng finds the answer by the mayor of Newark himself, Cory Booker. So that’s how that gets done. I was talking with my small town’s mayor about what Mayor Booker did, and he was excited for the possibilities, because this kind of accessibility and this kind of velocity is what will power the next wave of active government.

And what’s it like to deliver these goods? Here are some words from Jen, our second driver:

“Delivered goods to New Hope Church in Newark earlier today. Never been hugged or blessed so much. Watched a woman with an infant get blankets I brought. Then went and reloaded with stuff friends collected and hit the shore area. Creepy! Large stretches of no lights, trees down, and boats tossed right up on land by the roads. Was able to do so all because you got an idea and ran with it. Got to personally bring generator gas and a birthday cake to a family in real need. It was a long, tiring, awesome day.”

That’s what YOU did. Jen helped, but you did it, too.

The Recipe

Without the passion, nothing starts. Without the platform, no one responds. Without the big-eared community anchor, we have no place to work. Without you, we have nothing to fulfill our passionate hope. Without the research and on-the-ground networks, we have no way to deliver. Without the “last mile” teams, we have no success.

Use this recipe if ever you’re compelled to movement. Find the actors for this and you will succeed.

We are indebted to you, because without you, there was no adventure, no story, no learning, and most importantly, no relief to those still fighting to get back to this century. And their struggle continues. If you want to help, there are many ways. The easiest? Text REDCROSS to 90999 and you’ll be donating $10 to ongoing relief efforts. And thanks.

This past weekend, I had the privilege to attend and keynote the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. I spoke to a crowd of 1000 people that Chris Guillebeau and J.D. Roth had assembled for their event. Both gentlemen have a much larger overall following, but what I was witnessing, it felt, was Kevin Kelly’s famous 1000 true fans in living color.

1000 True Fans

This event is a must-attend event, if you are someone seeking to build a business of your own, especially if you’re seeking an uncompromising solopreneur lifestyle. Guillebeau and Roth attract all kinds of people who seek to live life on their terms and build business that meets their needs, interests, and criteria. And the attendees were every bit as powerful as the folks on stage. Take, for instance, the fact that this is the first conference that C.C. Chapman has paid to attend in years. I feel the same way. Jacq and I will go next year, no matter what.

The speakers reflected this, too. Jacqueline and I had a chance to talk with one of Jacq’s favorites, Danielle LaPorte, who certainly fits right into this tribe’s mindset.

It was just a very well curated, well-produced, well-attended, and passion-filled event. I’m writing this post solely to encourage you to get on the mailing list at the event’s website, so you might have a chance to get a ticket for next year. They sold out in minutes for the 2012 show.

Watching Magic

Oh, and one more thing. Some anonymous contributor (an attendee from the previous year) helped add to the profits that the event made. But Chris and J.D. didn’t bank these profits (I would have!). They put $100,000 into 1000 envelopes and handed everyone in the crowd who paid to attend $100 as an investment in them. Why? Because Chris is the author of the freakishly bestselling The $100 Startup (affiliate link), and of course, this is the perfect way to symbolize his (and J.D.’s) commitment to this tribe.

Watching 1000 people get an envelope with $100 with which to start a new dream was a touching and powerful gesture. I was truly blown away. Sure, $100 isn’t much, but have you ever attended a conference where that’s happened? Not me. And it won’t ever happen at mine, so to me, it was totally beautiful.

Hats off to Chris and JD and the over 80 volunteers and others who helped put together an amazing event. Put this on your calendar. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget.

I was at a live performance the other night where Jacq sang and played with Girish, and I had a great conversation with Reggie, the drummer for the night. (I am SO sorry that I don’t know your last name, Reggie.) We talked about the fact that his typical drum kit for events is usually like 30 or so pieces, but that he decided to go minimal for the event. He had a kick drum, a snare, a tom, two cymbals, and a cowbell.

What Reggie said was something like this, “I really enjoy this, because it means I really have to use what I have to get the expression I’m aiming for. I can’t just lean on all the gadgetry. I’m using my skills and coaxing that expression out of these few tools.” That’s my translation of what Reggie said. He actually said it better. This isn’t the real conversation. This is just a tribute. (If you just smirked a bit, thank you. If you have no idea what I just said, move along. It’s okay.)

Work Within Constraints

With many things we do in life, there’s this little continuum. We start with something smallish or nothing, we then adapt and develop newer or bigger or more (or some mix). You start with a point and shoot camera and then you need a digital SLR camera. And then you need this amazing $3000 lens. And then, somewhere, at some point, oddly, you decide to go 180 degrees in the other direction. You think, “I bet I could get amazing photos out of one of those crazy cardboard box kit cameras.”

Constraints are magic, if you learn to embrace them. Learning how to write within 500 words is powerful. Learning how to take just one great photo with a simple point and shoot camera is wonderful. Learning how to get music out of two sticks and a bucket is wonderful. You can do a lot by learning how to embrace a lesser set of tools. You can learn a lot by saying, “This is all I have to work with, and I’m going to do that.” Jason Fried wrote a great book about that, by the way. Rework.Read also A Lesser Photographer manifesto. (Thanks to Michael Schechter for sharing this with me.)

What Are Your Constraints?

Are you working within a very tight budget? Do you not have enough time? Are you a cruddy writer? Bad on video? What’s your set of constraints? For instance, in music, I’m constrained by my lack of knowledge and ability with my use of Logic Pro and Abelton Live. Knowing this, I sometimes come up with hackish ways of creating a sound I want, because I don’t know how all the cool kids do it.

Where are YOUR constraints? And let’s think about this: there are constraints you just have (like my lack of knowledge) and then there are constraints you can choose for yourself: I like to write sub-500 word posts.

And what will those DO for you?

That’s the conversation.

Are you a collector? If so, of what? I’m not, but I know the culture. I grew up reading comic books and buying music and haunting bookstores. in all cases, there’s always a sub-tribe of collectors, the kind who scour bins, sometimes seeking the rare and expensive, but other times, seeking the rare and cast off. These are the bin-pickers, the type who must stop at yard sales.

I had all these thoughts, random thoughts, and they could all be blog posts, or they could be nothing. Some of them take time to absorb. Not all of these apply to you. Pick through these as a kind of bin full of tapes and bits you could use to mix into your own stories and songs.

Future Scratches: The Discount Bin

You, the talent, must find the business that supports your storytelling. The studio no longer knows. Replace “studio” with “publisher,” if you’re an author.

No platform? No problem. It’s just harder that way. Start somewhere. Get known for something. Nurture that community and grow it slowly.

If you’re not serious about content creation as a tool of your business-making, you’re not serious about using the web as a business tool.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not serious. The web can just be fun. Relax, if that’s what you want.

You can be the creator, the distributor, the servicer, or maybe the commentator. You can even be all. But knowing which brings you business is the whole value game.

Start. Start. Start somewhere. Worrying or thinking or doubting are all soap without a bubble wand.

On my phone, I can create music, read a magazine, have conversations, write stories, sell things, accept payment, and more. If you’re not configuring your business to face the mobile everything-maker, then you’re skipping the most obvious big sector of potential digital growth for your company.

Picking any one thing and working on that is better than thinking about working on something.

If you’re not making it easy to buy, people will oblige you and not buy.

Stop waiting for your big chance. Those come when you make them happen. They come when you dare to say what you really think.

You can read about sex all day. It’s still not as fun as having it. Same thing with most business experience.

The world is tapas. If you’re waiting for the perfect amount of time, you’re going to miss the big meal.

If you fancy yourself a business owner, start thinking like a business. And by that, I mean, “how do I grow relationships with my best potential partners?”

The most successful people I know lead with, “Tell me more about you! I’m dying to know.” They rarely talk about themselves. That’s why they’re successful.

You are very wonderful and worth it. Here’s a cookie. Now, do the hard work that it takes to eat off the bigger plate.

If you think your product or service or YOU are boring, it is (you are). That’s your vote first, and you’ll help influence us.

None of this matters. What matters is you taking action.

Lastly

If you’ve had even one or two little twinges of “a-ha,” then I’ve done my job. Thanks for picking through the bin.

Lastly, I want to ask you to sign up to my free newsletter that comes out weekly. I promise to challenge you even more in there. We get up to some really interesting things there weekly, and it’s a very personal back and forth experience. If you’re seeing the word “newsletter” and thinking “information about social media” or “news about chris,” then you’re missing the greatest trick the devil ever pulled.

And thank you.

Hats off to Bertucci’s (of all places) for shooting this really compelling pre-roll ad. Think about this. The ad runs for about 2 minutes as pre-roll. Now, because YouTube is smart, they let me click off after about 5 seconds, but Bertucci’s started with something funny and out-take-like at the VERY BEGINNING that set a tone (which, by the way of my only complaint, never really stayed in that vein of funny). I watched the whole commercial, which ended up being tips on how to handle herbs at home.

What did I take away? I found myself thinking, “Huh, so Bertucci’s wants me to realize that they have real chefs and that these people are food professionals, and I got all that. But what I really love is that they made me the hero, by teaching me how to deal with herbs at my own house.”

That’s what I thought.

See the whole commercial here:

Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE

To me, there’s a lot of value in picking apart what Bertucci’s is doing here. But also interesting, note that YouTube lets me +1 a pre-roll advertisement now (which I did). That’s interesting. I bet that will really get some play, should YouTube actually send people those metrics in reports. Don’t you agree?

What do you think? Am I giving them too much credit? I think they’re onto something here.

Numbers are a tricky business. I was just thinking about Twitter, and asking myself what would make it more valuable. I’m curious if you agree on these ideas, so I thought I’d put it out:

Stats I Want from Twitter and Other Services

• Top 10 people talking about me.
• Top 10 people talking about my product (or search term).
• Top 10 people responding and engaging with me (measured via # of replies in a set amount of time).
• Top 10 people I talk about.
• Topics I talk about most often.

Why do I want those stats? If I’m MolsonCoors, I now know who’s excited about my beer, or who hates my beer. If I’m the UPS Store, I know who’s talking the most about printing needs, so I can service them. If I’m Dollar Shave Club, I can try to gauge how many people just talk about me versus how many people are bought in.

It seems that the least useful stats are followers and following, don’t you agree? Who cares how many people follow me or how many people I follow? That’s a test of relevance, but it’s also something easy to game, as evidenced by people who show up and three months later have more followers than I’ve amassed in over five years of organic growth.

When Will Stats Grow Up?

When will we start getting useful statistics that let us measure business? If Twitter and Facebook and Google+ and others are touting how great they are for business users, why don’t they provide more ample reporting the way enterprise technology vendors are required to deliver? The last thing I care about is how many thumbs up I got on my YouTube video, but I’d love a report that shows me which URL people chose NEXT after watching my video.

Heck, MOST of us would PAY for this. It would be a revenue stream for these companies.

Am I wrong?