The Value of Content Archives for Brands

I juggle many projects, and it's hard to remember to work on their foundation... Your content archive, whether it's a web site, blog, or collections of videos, should be something that you can and do OWN. Commit to a URL that you're willing to renew for years and years. If you can afford to avoid using a rented platform (i.e., Wordpress)--that's great. Anything original and valuable that you create for social media should be copied there. I use a variety of rented platforms, but I archive out the data regularly. Your investment deserves it! Don't doubt the value of your own ideas.

Attention Matters: Rule 5 - Build your own archive, 2023-Dec-1 by Storythings

This is the real competitive ‘moat’ for your brand - if you are a sector superstar, building the podcast, event, newsletter or publication that everyone in your sector subscribes and looks up to, it will be harder for your competitors to get their attention. There are only ever a small handful of media brands that are essential for a particular sector or audience. As the new era of content discovery shifts from third-part distribution to owning your own audience, we think there’s a window in the next few years to become one of those brands.

More importantly, archives are brand building - they hugely increase the surface area of your content strategies, and make it more likely that new audiences will discover you through multiple channels, including word of mouth and search. Despite a lot of B2B campaigns focusing on sales activation, brand building is just as important as it is with B2C marketing, for the same reasons - buyers need to be aware of your brand before they can even start to consider buying from you. The ‘availability heuristic’ described by Byron Sharp in his seminal book How Brands Grow is one of the key factors in decisions to buy. Building deep, evergreen archives of valuable content for your target audiences will mean they think about you more often, and they will be already disposed to think of you when it comes to purchasing decisions.

Writing is thinking

My excuse for not using chatbots...

"Reading Recession" from Gurwinder’s 30 Useful Principles

There is more text than ever, yet people are reading ever less and outsourcing writing to chatbots. This is dangerous because language is the basis of thought, and if you can’t read or write well, you won’t think well.

Generation Effect:
If you really want to understand a topic, don’t read about it, write about it. The act of explaining something helps connect the dots and commit them to memory far better than the passive act of reading.

Steve Kean, new GHP CEO, touts the Upskill initiative in Houston

The new CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership is going to focus on their Upskill initiative... He was formerly CEO of Kinder Morgan.

Houston Chronicle: New Greater Houston Partnership head focused on opportunity, unity, 2023-Dec-4 by Erica Grieder

Q. In your career in the private sector, you’ve traveled the nation and the world. Have you seen other organizations doing things like GHP, or at the same scale?

A. Not really at the same scale. There are a lot of other similar organizations around the country, but the GHP pulls together a lot of things. It’s not just the Chamber of Commerce; it also is the the economic development arm for the region. Now, there are numerous economic development organizations at the sub-regional level around us, but the GHP helps pull all that together, and then of course participates in the public policy process. There are a lot of organizations that do one or two of those things, but I’m not aware of any that does all the things that GHP does. 

Q. Does GHP’s work feel uniquely Houstonian, to you?

A. It does. The other key thing, along with opportunity: The unity we have here is really unusual for major metropolitan areas in our country, and maybe the world. People tend to come together here. That’s unique, that’s rare and that’s powerful. That’s something that we have to build on. It’s a great advantage for our community....

Q. As you embark on this new chapter, what do you see as some of the top-of-mind challenges?

A. I’ll be spending a lot of my effort on economic development activity and the Upskill initiative. I think that’s really what the partnership contributes. We are a group of businesses, primarily, but businesses and community leaders and educational institutions. It’s about economic development and attracting opportunity here. By having a workforce that is attractive to the people we’re trying to get here, that also creates opportunity for the people who are already here. That’s the big body of work for a business organization to pursue.

Q. Do you think Houston’s growth over the past 10 years has strained the sense of unity you mention?

A. You know, not that I see. There will always be some controversy about whether development takes place here or there, but generally, particularly compared to other metros, this is a place that is open to growth and to development and opportunity. I think it’s largely what people come here for. It’s what I came here for. 

via www.houstonchronicle.com

The Strangest Person in the World

Buzzfeed: This Quote Has Been Attributed To Frida Kahlo For Years, But It's Actually From A Canadian Teenager, 2021-Nov-3 by Ade Onibada

I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you. 

--Rebecca Martin

Also https://www.zenpencils.com/comic/frida/

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Being mesmerized at the Houston Quilt Festival

At the recent Houston International Quilt Festival, I was mesmerized by this huge (22 ft) quilt by Australian Helen Godden. Read her story at https://helengodden.com/gallery-2/my-australia-the-huge-quilt/ or Facebook.

I took iPhone photos of certain details that enchanted me. I hope you enjoy them, too!