Collective Content – six-month progress report

Collective Content – six-month progress report

June 12, 2012

 

June 12, 2012

 

Collective Content – six-month progress report

WRITTEN BY

Tony Hallett
Managing director

Tony set up Collective Content in 2011 so brands can more easily become publishers and tell stories. This built on 15 years in media, from reporter to publishing director at Silicon Media Group, CNET Networks and CBS Interactive.

How are we doing as a business? Pretty well, I’d say, though you’d need to ask our clients.

Since this blog kicked off at the start of 2012 I haven’t taken the chance to use a post to talk about Collective Content. Probably should have.
Work has been split across some areas we expected – custom content creation and consulting to online publishers – and some we didn’t.

Within that latter category falls ‘content marketing’, a discipline many in North America are now comfortable with but which is just taking off in the UK. (And which means more than just custom or brand content.) I’ll be talking lots more about that and related opportunities over coming months.

Also unexpected has been the demand from smaller businesses. This covers various marketing agencies needing content or consulting services but more surprisingly small businesses outside the media getting to grips with online.

Typically they’ve spent a decade offering things through a website, maybe including transactions and customer service. Then in the last couple of years they might have become social media savvy. So they created Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn groups and more, in part to attract new business – and then wondered what else they’d point to apart from their static site or other people’s pages.

They’ve typically tried Google AdWords but found that either isn’t enough or it’s too expensive to scale.

This is where content – fresh and useful, ongoing and enduring, SEO-friendly – is gold. So now Collective Content is working with businesses that get this. (Often ahead of their larger competitors, we should add.)

That is why we’ll shortly be launching a new, off-the-shelf blogging service aimed at businesses who simply want this taken care of. Content creation isn’t what they want to spend valuable time on. Let us help. We know how to scale it, for everyone’s benefit.

And of course there’s much more to do.

We’re happy with our ‘We tell your stories’ tagline and our logo, which first came into being back in March. But we’re not so pleased with the design of the Collective Content website where you’ll see both those things and are probably reading this. Lots to do there – and soon.

We published our first e-book – Everything In Moderation: How to chair, moderate and otherwise lead events – which is a practical, sometimes humorous look at the world of live events. But again, there are other subjects we’d like to cover, more about the world of e-books to learn and of course more copies to sell.

Our first newsletter is up and running, as are our social channels on Twitter and Google+ (yes, there). But we’d like to reach more people and be more useful.

And the idea of partnering – including our list of Collectivists – working with the best people in related fields, is happening but can go much, much further.

Finally, I wanted to mention two more things.

The depressed and depressing economic climate make many people question working outside a large company. As some of you know, I’d never been anything than an employee in my career. But I would highly recommend it. It’s been six months that’s crammed in six years of experiences and, for all the milestones so far, still anything is possible.

Others got on with supporting me in more ways than I can mention here. They’re helping with Collective Content, with other endeavours and by just being good friends. You know who you are – thank you.

Tony, June 2012


Follow us on Twitter – @ColContent or follow Tony’s personal account @tphallett .

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