It’s been predicted that visual media will become one of this year’s biggest content marketing trends, and it’s easy to see why. Humans are hard-wired to respond to imagery, and there’s value in leveraging this instinct for brands. As Fast Company wrote in a story late last year, “Two years ago, marketers were spreading the maxim that ‘content is king,’ but now, it seems, ‘a picture really is worth a thousand words.'”

By now most brands are tapping into sites like Instagram and Pinterest to engage with clients and customers in a visual context. There are, however, alternatives to this approach — along with supplementary tactics for enhancing it. What follows are five strategies for effective content marketing with visuals to start you on your way.Continue Reading

Everyone has a personal brand, and if we have any desire whatsoever to nurture it, it very likely lives online. It’s comprised of the content that we publish, along with the things that are published about us, and it’s critical to our public persona, both online and off.

Whatever our objectives are for marketing ourselves (establishing a reputation as an industry expert, selling a book we’ve written, or finding a new job are just a few ideas that might apply), our personal brand can help us familiarize our target audience with the facets of our character that make us an appealing investment.

In other words, they reflect our personality.Continue Reading