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Bill to increase speed limits squeaks by House, heads to Scott
Click here to read our Scripps investigation into legislators who have racked up multiple speeding tickets.
TALLAHASSEE — In the closest vote of the legislative session so far, a bill that could result in higher speeds on Florida highways barely passed the Florida House on Wednesday.
The bill (SB 392), which had passed the Senate 27-11, limped out of the House on a 58-56 vote.
Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, caused some last-minute drama when she moved for the vote to be reconsidered.
But House rules require that bills passed in the last two weeks of the legislative session "shall be transmitted to the Senate without delay." The session ends Friday.
The Senate's website later on Wednesday showed the bill "enrolled," meaning it was sent to Gov. Rick Scott for consideration. His office did not indicate whether he would sign it into law.
The bill doesn't mandate higher speed limits; rather, any increase on a given stretch of highway would occur only if state traffic engineers determine the roadway is safe enough for a higher speed.
Current law allows for 70 mph on interstates, 65 mph for highways with a divided median and 60 mph on certain other roadways, including rural highways.
Under the bill, all of these limits could be raised by 5 mph. The maximum highway speed limit could rise to 75 mph. Florida last nudged the state speed limit to 70 mph in 1996.
A host of safety, consumer and law enforcement organizations have opposed the bill, including AAA Auto Club Group. That group cited research showing 30 percent of highway deaths nationally are caused by speeding.
As it did in the Senate, the measure stoked opposition from both sides of the aisle.
Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, inveighed against the bill, saying it's a "threat to our public safety."
He lost his 14-year-old daughter Dori in a 1996 crash. Slosberg previously has fought for mandatory seat belt laws and a texting-while-driving ban.
"You never want to get 'that call,' " he said. "I got that call, and one of the reasons she died was because of speeding."
Slosberg also said he fears that if limits rise, law enforcement will "have to go 100 mph to catch speeders."
Calling the bill "totally ridiculous," he said constituents "didn't send us here to raise the speed limit We have more important things to do."
Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, a self-described "old retired cop," told fellow lawmakers "none of my people in law enforcement want this to pass."
One reason: Higher speeds will lead to more serious injuries, he said.
But the lawmaker behind the bill — Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg — told Tribune/Scripps the measure is a triumph of science over politics.
"Floridians should know their speed limits are set by experts and engineers, not the politicians in Tallahassee," he said.
Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Naples Daily News and Tampa Tribune journalists are in Tallahassee reporting throughout the legislative session in a collaborative capital bureau.
Subscribe to TCPalm.com and our Treasure Coast Newspapers
Need Help? Call us at 1-877-710-6180.
Monday-Friday: 6am-3pm / Saturday: 6:30am-10:30am / Sunday: 7am-11am


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I LaughedMy friend is very caring, sweet and supportive. He has listened to most of my life's stories and has always respected me and shown me that he is there for me no matter what. He does not share as much about his own feelings and experiences, but I have tried many times to understand why he is depressed and pessimistic about himself.
Last night we were together in bed, talking about a couple of last things before going to sleep. We had a wonderful weekend together and everything felt right, when suddenly we started talking about fist fights. I bragged about one of my violent stories when I beat someone and then he suddenly said once when he was around 10 three kids grabbed him after school and started beating him telling him he was a "chicken".
One of his neighbors passed by when this was happening and he screamed for help, but he ignored the fight and just walked on by. I have no idea why, but my first reaction was to LAUGH. He was telling the story in a very casual tone and I had no idea it was something that affected him so much, so smiling I kept on asking for details until he said that when the neighbor did not help him, he "lost all his faith that anyone would ever help and closed himself". In that moment I realized this was a very serious issue and that I had ruined everything with my stupid insensitive reaction.
All I could think about was to get up and go to the bathroom to wash my face. I felt the most stupid person in the world and when I went back to bed he was almost in tears and asked me WHY I reacted like that. I said I didn't know and said I was sorry, and then we turned the lights off and he went to sleep. I was awake most of the night wondering why I did that and feeling terrible because finally he started opening up to me and I am just one more of the people who have let him down.
An hour ago I sent him a text message to apologize again about what I did and he replied that he couldn't understand why I laughed and that he wants us to talk about it when we see each other in the evening. I have no idea what to tell him and most importantly how to show him he can count on me and trust me. It sucks because I know most likely I ruined it all :-(
sweetmeisje 26-30, F 4 Responses 1 Feb 27, 2012
Oh, we never really know what a 'insignificant' incident can do to a person. You are not insensitive. On the contrary. You noticed how it affected him right away.
Give it a chance, see how it goes with the conversation. Be thyself.<br />
Kittie, I am messaging you about this, so I can exlain privately better than I may be able to on here, but please do not feel too bad about this. I am sure he will know you did not mean to hurt him, the times you have spent together will mean something I am sure. I hope and I really do think the talk will clear the air xxx

subset: commoncrawl


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I had always wondered why Jesus never said anything which people COULDN'T have known. Back then, people would have already known the golden rule, it needed no explanation.
Dealing with the incessant shriekers, those foul liberals of exaggerated indignance, again, requires nothing we don't already know.
Every kingergarten student will be able to tell you that if you can't do what you want, then you aren't free.
Our education is based on giving us books, books and scriptures to make us forget what we knew, to cloud our judgement. To make us think we CANNOT know, and we MUST turn to the established authorities for facts, for meaning, for definitions. That was my experience. Race doesn't exist because WE SAY SO. The difference between sexes doesn't exist because WE SAY SO. What YOU observe is wrong. What you THINK is wrong. It is WRONG because you are NOT one of the established.
You are not supposed to use your values. We have the books and you dont. Your judgement, your opinion, was of no value if you didn't have the books and the authority.
This is why I've hearn hundreds of philosophers babble about 'freedom' and never make a point. This is why I've heard gun control nuts talk about how we need gun control to be free. It's all based on words and NOT you and I, and no one ever questions it.
I went to a philosophy event where six philosophers argued about the philosophy of happiness and what it means to be happy, and how to achieve it.
Kindergarteners don't need 6 professors to tell them what would make them happy. This puts them head and shoulders above everyone who went to that lecture expecting some form of answer.


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- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com -
China stocks tumble on credit tightening fears
Posted By Adan On June 24, 2013 @ 9:49 am In Old Infowars Posts Style,World News | Comments Disabled
June 24, 2013
Chinese stock markets have fallen sharply as the country's central bank indicated its credit tightening policy would continue.
The Shanghai Composite SSE index fell 5.3% to 1,963.24 points, over 1,540 points below its 52-week high.
Traders reacted negatively to the People's Bank of China (PBOC) saying liquidity in the country was still "reasonable" and that the era of cheap cash was over.
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/china-stocks-tumble-on-credit-tightening-fears/
Click here to print.
Copyright © 2015 Infowars. All rights reserved.


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I missed this when it dropped the other day but since I just threw up that Michael post figured it was high time I got around to this joint. This show has been seen on video before but this is definitely some of the best footage from that classic night.
MEMORY LANE: Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, & Quincy Jones In The Studio
I don't understand how this only has 16,000 or so views and it's been up since January, but anyway this is a short clip of Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra meeting for the first time ever. Quincy Jones needs a documentary of his life like yesterday.
Yet ANOTHER reason why I miss the mid-90′s era of Hip Hop smdh. Not to sound like a old man, but I rarely get that feeling records like this gave me from most of the bullshit that comes out nowadays. Here goes the classic '95 cut from Smoothe Da Hustler & Trigga The Gambler "Broken Language" which had the streets on smash when most of y'all were in diapers lol. Thank me later.
Came across what I believe is some unreleased Dilla over at Bling47.com while surfing the web and decided to share with y'all. Here's some words from the tracks producer Jeedo:
"Todays stream is of the original version of, "Crushin" produced by me. We have J Rocc to thank for this one. I was Djing with Houseshoes in San Fran with Fran Boogie and DJ Mr. E. We heard J Rocc was staying in the same hotel and went to holla at him. We were talking about Dilla rarities when he said that he liked that version of, "Crushin" I did. I was like what version!?! He played it and it split my melon! I did that beat for Dilla circa 2002 for his MCA project – I assumed he never used it when I didn't hear anything. Turns out it was the original version that he later remixed himself for his then – newly founded label, Mummy Records."
Today we celebrate the life, as well as reflect on the death on the legendary Big Pun. Coming up in a time when Hispanic MC's were practically a non factor for the most part, one Christopher Rios came in the game and broke through that invisible wall to become one of the greatest MC's to ever touch a mic under any classification. To kick off the day, I've decided to share 10 visuals/songs by Pun that I hold the dearest to my heart. R.I.P. Pun, your memory lives on!! Continue reading »
"I got this one on a cassette from T3 circa 1997. I'm not sure what it was for, or why Dilla had this on tape, but I thought it was hilarious. "Shut the F*ck Up and listen to this… this." This kind of style was typical for our crew at this time – we were just finishing up the Fantastic Vol 1 album. It was never about what they said – but instead how they said it. We called it "R.A.W." – Rugged And wild. And that is exactly what this one is – tape hiss and all. -Enjoy, Jeedo"
Props to OKP.
D'Angelo needs to drop a fucking album like NOW!!! Same goes for Q-Tip (as "The Renaissance" was one of the last truly great LP's in quite some time imo). Had this song in my head all day and decided to post for everyone's enjoyment.


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Lincoln Hough is all smiles after winning the State House 135 race. He credited 'an incredible group of people' who volunteered and helped him.
- Filed Under
Missouri Rep. Lincoln Hough of the 135th District overcame a Democratic challenger to hang on to his seat in the Missouri House.
With 97.5 percent of precincts reporting, Hough had 8,425 votes and Democratic challenger Casey Clark had 6,896 votes.
During the campaign, Hough, 30, told voters after his first term in office he is better positioned to benefit area citizens. ...


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Jefferson College of
Population Health Information
The Jefferson College of Population Health (JCPH) is an integral part of Thomas Jefferson University, a premier academic health center founded in 1824 and located in Center City Philadelphia. JCPH offers exemplary graduate academic programming - designed by experts within Jefferson and the broader healthcare community.
More specifically the College of Population Health is composed of the following degree programs: Master of Public Health, Master of Science degrees in Health Policy, Healthcare Quality and Safety; as well as, graduate certificates in Public Health, Healthcare Quality and Safety, and Healthcare Policy
2015 Commencement Ceremony
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2015
Time: 10:30 a.m.
2015 Post Commencement Reception
Lubert Plaza
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2015
Time: Immediately following the Commencement Ceremony
(In the event of inclement weather, Jefferson Alumni Hall, 1020 Locust Street)


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ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" - Season 11
Emmy Award-nominated 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' airs every weeknight ,... Nieuwsfoto'sBeroemdheden,Californië,Druk,Emmy Awards Nominations,Gast,Hollywood - Californië,Humor,Jimmy Kimmel Live,Komiek,Kunst Cultuur en Vermaak,Mensen,Muzikant,Nominatie,Sportiviteit,Televisieprogramma,Verenigde Staten,VerticaalPhotographer Randy HolmesCollection: Disney ABC Television Group 2012 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE - Emmy Award-nominated 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' airs every weeknight (11:35 p.m. - 12:41 a.m., ET), packed with hilarious comedy bits and features a diverse lineup of guests including celebrities, athletes, musicians, comedians and humorous human interest subjects. The guests for WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16 included actor Ray Romano (Madison Garden Foundation event with Wanda Sykes Saturday, January 26th), actress Amy Brenneman ('Private Practice') and musical guest Phillip Phillips. (Photo by Randy Holmes / ABC via Getty Images)) JIMMY KIMMEL, RAY ROMANO


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The Buckeye Show
Tuesday 10/23/12
This is what T-Bone and his wife plan on being for Halloween.
The Buckeye Show is back with Jonathan "T-Bone" Smith at the helm! Join us weeknights 6-8 for up to date news on the Buckeyes, Big Ten, and college football and basketball.
Here's tonight's rundown:
The Buckeyes added a new opponent – and it's another big one.
I'll ask Chris Spielman about the Buckeyes victory over Purdue.
How did last weekend affect Braxton's Heisman's chances?
T-Bone can't decide which story is better. You'll help him at 7:02.
Kyle Rowland, Buckeye beat writer for 11 Warriors joins us at 7:16.
Three Keys to the Buckeyes Victory over Purdue - We'll break it down at 7:31 –the Silver Bullet Points.
Breaking down the BCS – 7:46.
Have opinions or a reaction you want to share?
Tweet at the show @TheBuckeyeShow or at Jonathan @Tbone971. Text "Buckeye" to 22333. Call 821-9710.


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Friday, February 01, 2013
5 comments
I think I can continue with this plan, I am not feeling hungry and I have been doing enough strength training to keep my muscles sore! According to my body page I have lifted 18,084 lbs so far.... Read more
Thursday, January 31, 2013
0 comments
e-mail from bodybuilding.com
Ginger and salmon blend together perfectly. You'll enjoy the flavor almost as much as you will the health benefits! I didn't use any sweetener and don't see any reason for. It was delish!
... Read more
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
0 comments
2.5 feet of snow called for all day plowing on the 29th. I got an inadvertent workout for my thighs getting in and out of the tractor.
Today was dentist day but I did get my workout in, upright rows were only 15 pounds but that's a start. ... Read more
Monday, January 28, 2013
1 comments
Today is my second day of strength training. I set up my body page on body building.com yesterday which was really time consuming but I think it will be worth it. I did all the one rep max tests and was surprised how good I did. My highest wa... Read more
Saturday, January 26, 2013
2 comments
Ginger and salmon blend together perfectly. You'll enjoy the flavor almost as much as you will the health benefits!
��1 tsp Freshly Ground Ginger
��1 tsp minced Garlic
��1/3 cup Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
��1... Read more
Friday, January 25, 2013
3 comments
Found a fantastic sounding recipe
Can't wait till it is done
Chicken Coated in Pork rinds
I crushed pork rinds and mixed in salt pepper basil oregano onion and garlic powder and paprika.
I coated the legs and thighs in that and then di... Read more


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Spinoza's criticism of Descartes' substance dualism
By: Jawad Samimi
Substance dualism is often called 'Cartesian dualism" and is the assumption that mind and body are really distinct substances. Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) was the first early modern philosopher to hold that a thinking-thing is entirely different form an extended thing and mind can exist without the body. Cartesian dualism, which started the famous mind-body problem of causal interaction, has been criticised by many, one of whom was a primary adherent, Baruch Spinoza (632-1677). This essay aims to explain and assess Spinoza's criticism of Descartes substance dualism and see what Spinoza offers instead. I will begin by summarizing the views of Descartes on substance and distinctiveness of mind and body and how they interact. Then I will discuss Spinoza's objections to Descartes views in general but give more details about the ones I believe are more important. I will finish by concluding what Spinoza actually wants out of it and what he really achieves.
Descartes substance dualism
René Descartes, credited with being the "Father of Modern Philosophy", was a substance dualist and committed to the mechanistic conception of physical world. Descartes believed in existence of material things and was, like most of his contemporaries, a mechanist about the properties of matter (Intro, Meditations. P. X.). He also believed, except human beings and where minds are not interfering, the behaviour of all other things which work according to theirs laws, can be explained mechanistically. He rejected the then dominant view of Scholastic Aristotelians of many types of things, each composed of matter plus a particular form in a way that the Form or Soul affects the matter or gives life to bodies. For Descartes "a substance is a thing which other things, such as properties or qualities or states, inhere but it does not...


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(see previous) Rome, November 14 - Police clashed with hardline student protesters in Rome Wednesday amid a pan-European austerity strike. Protesters hurled rocks at a barricade set up to block them from the premier's office, prompting a charge from police. Three officers were reportedly injured. photo: Facebook
Gazzetta del Sud On Line - 1998-2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati - S.E.S. Società Editrice Sud - Partita Iva: 00072240831
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Printing issues
I am ussing safari for browser.
when I press print this page I get this message
HTTPs (the encrypted version) of Todoist is only avaible for premium users
All responses
Hello Adrian,
You're welcome to respond within the original thread http://todoist.com/Support/showQuestion/3954/ so we can better track the progress of this support ticket.
Unfortunately, we can't reproduce this issue. Please clarify - are you using the "print current page" option from the gear icon in the top-right corner? Testing it just now in Safari with a free account, resulted in opening a new popup window wit the print preview ready for printing.
Please tell me - are you using any HTTPS-forcing plugins or other software that attempts to convert each connection to HTTPS? Also, can you reproduce this issue in at least one different browser (Firefox or Chrome)?
Best regards,


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If you are a nature lover and dream about peaceful place the dream might become true with us here in the countryside. You can start the morning by walking into the green grass surrounding the house, do some exercises and take a deep breath in the pure nature or take a short walk before breakfast. After a long day travelling in the Icelandic nature, you will love to relax in the hot jacuzzi (tub) and enjoy the breathtaking view. During the winter time, you are able to see the northern lights from Fagrahli?. The possibilities in the pure nature are endless and our personal hospitality and the dog Bella will make your stay with us unforgettable.
Our Location


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2011 Hispanic Heritage Month Events-34th Annual Awards Gala
CHCI's 34th Annual Awards Gala
Once again this year, CHCI's Annual Awards Gala drew an impressive array of the Washington elite, including important, national decision makers. While CHCI's Public Policy Conference had the participation of Cabinet secretaries, White House officials, ambassadors, and more than 20 members from both houses of Congress, the 34th Annual Awards Gala drew them all, plus Congressional leaders, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, international royalty, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and the President himself for the fourth year in a row.
The Annual Awards Gala is the pinnacle event and culmination of the organization's Hispanic Heritage Month events, which raise the majority of our revenue to fund CHCI's critical activities—Ready to Lead (R2L), Scholarships, Congressional Internship Program, Public Policy Fellowship Program, Graduate Fellowship Program, and our robust online Education Center. The CHCI Gala is the largest Latino celebration during Hispanic Heritage Month and often referred to as the official launch. Not only does this event raise critical funds for our award-winning programs, but it also serves as a national stage to highlight the many contributions of Latinos to the fabric of this nation and honor outstanding Americans in our community.
|Medallion of Excellence
Vikki Carr
CHCI's highest honors this year recognized two outstanding members of the Latino community with 2011 CHCI Medallions of Excellence. Four-time GRAMMY® winner and legendary star of the stage and screen Vikki Carr has captivated audiences nationally and abroad for over 50 years with her melodic voice. Respected as an artist and humanitarian, Carr's commitment to education and leadership development for Latino youth extends throughout her career. She established the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation in 1971, which offers scholarships to Latino students in Texas to pursue their dreams of a college education. To date, the foundation has awarded more than 300 scholarships totaling over $250,000. Her philanthropic support extends beyond the Latino community to many health-related charities, several which benefit children and their families.
The second Medallion of Excellence recipient for 2011 is engineer and astronaut José Hernández, who has been a lifelong advocate of Latino youth pursuing their dreams and offers his own success story as evidence that hard work and education offer lasting rewards. Hernández, who was a field laborer as a child, was the first person to use Spanish language in space through his tweets during the 2009 space shuttle mission STS-128. He founded the Reaching for the Stars Foundation to provide scholarships to students pursuing careers in science and engineering.
|Medallion of Excellence
José Hernández
|2011 Chair's Award
The Honorable
Hilda L. Solis
The Honorable Hilda L. Solis, U.S. Secretary of Labor, and the Honorable Ken Salazar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, were on hand to accept the 2011 Chair's Award. With passions that extend from affordable healthcare and stronger, working families to protecting the environment and promoting clean energy jobs, Secretary Hilda L. Solis has been serving the public since 1985. Her most recent position as U.S. Secretary of Labor—a position she's held since 2009—marks the culmination of a career that has been dedicated to improving the lives of others, especially Latinos. Secretary Ken Salazar has spent much of his career protecting America's natural resources and beautiful spaces. Prior to being confirmed as the 50th secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on January 20, 2009, Salazar served as Colorado's 35th U.S. Senator. He served on the Finance Committee, which oversees the nation's tax, trade, Social Security, and healthcare systems. He continued his service by volunteering on the Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, Ethics, Veterans Affairs, and Aging Committees. Through his work on these committees, he further supported responsible use of the nation's national resources and rights for all Americans.
|2011 Chair's Award
The Honorable
Ken Salazar
The evening's festivities included performances by Prince Royce, Luis Enrique, and Gilberto Santa Rosa. Prince Royce opened the Gala with a melodic salute to first responders through his powerful performance of "Stand By Me." He also performed a moving rendition of the national anthem.
Luis Enrique, who had participated as a guest panelist on immigration during CHCI's Public Policy Conference, delighted the crowd with his charismatic style and compelling voice.
The legendary Gilberto Santa Rosa performed at the post-gala concert to a crowd eager to dance and keep the party going. His special tribute to Latin music icons included Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Celebrating decades of salsa music during the post-gala concert was a fun and fitting close to CHCI's outstanding 2011 Hispanic Heritage Month Events.
President Barack Obama returned once again with a special message to the Latino community. "I don't have to tell you these are tough times," he said, noting that Hispanic families have been particularly hard hit in the recession. "Problems in the Latino community are problems in the entire American community," he said. "Our future is tied to the Latino Community." Click here to read President Obama's entire Gala remarks. He and the First Lady joined members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus onstage for a historic and powerful photo. The President and the First Lady once again enthusiatically greeted guests as they walked the rope line for the second year in a row.
View the Photo Gallery of CHCI's 34th Annual Awards Gala.
Next year marks the 35th anniversary of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and another exceptional series of events is currently being planned. Mark your calendar for September 23-26, 2012, and check www.chci.org later this year for more details.


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Community Action
Who's On The Mat
From The Heart
The Black Mat® Pro is superb! I have never been disappointed by the Manduka mats I have used. I only teach or practice on a Manduka mat nowadays – it is my yoga buddy.
-Joseph Lee
Let's Connect
Rachel Cieslewicz
St. George, UT
Why Manduka?: My MANDUKA mat loves me as I love my MANDUKA mat...Just as I love yoga and yoga loves me!
What does your Manduka help you #practice?: My Manduka helps me practice living my own truth. Love. Courage. Strength. Nature. Humanity.
Yoga Style: Power Yoga, Vinyasa Flow
Practice with me here: BE HOT
Recent Updates
Rachel grew up in St. George, Utah. She thrived in the lovely desert solitude. Rachel found joy with the space to run, dance and stretch under the sun, amongst the beautiful red rock landscape. Here she experienced freedom and oneness.
In college Rachel took her first yoga class. To her delightful surprise it felt similar to the movement she remembered spontaneously enjoying as a child. She was home. Her love of yoga has shone from her soul ever since. Her two most inspirational teachers are her delightful son Canyon, as well as her life force and soul mate Eric. Of utmost importance in Rachel's yoga journey are Jeff Silverstein, Stephen Brown, Peter Francyk, and Dan'a Baptiste from whom she received her 600-hour certification. Sunshine, nature and self-inquiry are also guides.
Rachel recently returned home to St. George after being away for 14 years. She courageously inspires others to learn what it truly means to live and feel love. Her power and vinyasa flow style classes carry the intention for others to find their own inner beauty and strength, and to connect with infinite potential. They too develop the courage and love, on and off the mat, to manifest their dreams and live a beautiful life. Rachel loves teaching private lessons and at retreats throughout the Americas. She also teaches at the BE Hot Studio in St. George.
Rachel holds a B.S. in exercise sport science from the University of Utah. She is an elite athlete whom mentors others as a certified endurance coach. She is a certified Pilates instructor and licensed massage therapist.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc. pfcb said Tuesday it agreed to be acquired for $51.50 a share in cash by Centerbridge Partners L.P. in a deal valued at $1.1 billion. The Scottsdale, Ariz., restaurant chain will become a private company after the deal closes. The price values P.F. Chang's at a premium of 30% over its Monday closing price of $39.69 a share.
Market Pulse
P.F. Chang's going private in $1.1 bln buyout
More News from MarketWatch
Top Stories


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Hi Kristina,
How do you explain the payoff of content strategy to clients?
Hi Kristina,
How do you explain the payoff of content strategy to clients?
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your patience today. I always say, sell to their pain. Find out what's keeping them up at night. See what is making them nervous about the competition. Identify redundancies and inefficiencies in their current workflow structures (or lack thereof). Also, sell to their current hot topic: what's the most recent executive mandate? (e.g. "WE MUST BE ON PINTEREST! NOW!") What book did someone read that they're all fired up about? Is there a new product launching? Is the website being redesigned, and dangerous assumptions are being made about the content?
Then, it all comes down to figuring out what success looks like to them, and tailoring your CS pitch to that outcome.
For example: "We are drowning in content. We have no idea what's on our site, we don't know who owns it, our site search sucks. It's scary." Sales pitch: "A content audit plan will help you figure out what matters now, based on current business objectives and user goals ... then we can see what's necessary, what needs revising, and what needs to go." (Caveat: the content audit example is an easy go-to CS sales pitch, but it's very surprising how that offers a non-threatening first step towards more strategic planning.)
THIS. THIS. THIS. This..... this. Right here.
Ian, we have found great success with providing a 'By The Numbers'. Often times a pitch or sale doesn't work.
It's a great Idea to have multiple case studies that include raw data.
Hi Kristina! So excited you're here :-)
1) How did you get your start in marketing? What do you think are the catalysts/motivators/traits that led to such a prolific and impressive career?
2) Do you have some favorite examples of organizations doing creative content marketing?
3) I've always been challenged to define precisely what content marketing means (especially where it begins and ends). It seems that one could say that everything produced by a company is content - the product, the values, the social media updates, the advertising, the public statements, etc. Do you use a very broad definition or do you try to make it more narrow?
Hello, Rand!
Hey, thanks for stopping by! Here are some attempted answers:
1) I got my start in marketing at a small cellular phone company (when phones were still the size of bricks) (I was 12!) (not really). They were doing all these direct mail pieces that really sucked. I finally was like, GIVE ME THAT, and rewrote one. It had a terrific response. So they basically said, here, you write all the stuff now. And that pretty much describes every job I had after that one: I was opinionated and bossy, and kept taking on more responsibilities, mostly ones that people handed off just so I would shut up.
Catalysts for my career (which, thank you for those kind descriptors):
- Wanting to buy a new car. I majored in theater, and it turns out working in the theater doesn't often equal a livable paycheck. (See: cell phone job.)
- Getting fired right after September 11. (See: bossy and opinionated.) People essentially stopped hiring, so I had to make up my own job. I knew just enough about a lot of things to be dangerous, so I hit on copywriting as one thing I felt confident doing. That worked out prettyw ell.
- Working on tons of website projects where the content was just a total eleventh-hour sh*tshow (to coin Karen McGrane's term). Like so many others, I was an accidental content strategist.
- Most importantly: meeting so many amazing individuals who are SO SMART and SO FUN and SO HARDWORKING. Really I just wanted to keep up with them, which means I have kept very busy. :)
2) No. People ask me this all the time, and I just don't. I need to get a good answer. Do you?!
3) I think I said this earlier, and I just made it up, but I kinda like it: Content marketing is multichannel custom publishing. Whaddaya say?
1) That was awesome - worth the price of admission alone :-)
2) I'm working on a list! I'll definitely publish a blog post about it at some point (so meta!)
3) 10/10 for brevity, I should have asked about "content strategy" which you eloquently defined above.
2. Re: folks doing creative content marketing, I have some recommendations:
Crutchfield (full disclosure: I used to work there) — Okay maybe not "super innovative!!" but solid, incredibly useful content (for those in the market for electronics). See: http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Learn/default.aspx
Mindtouch — They create a yearly list of the "most influential technical communicators." The list gets tweeted again and again. Oh and it just HAPPENS to comprise their target market. Very creative and smart. See: http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2013/04/04/2013-influencers-in-techcomm/
Also, check out Chief Content Officer magazine. It's full of good stuff. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/chief-content-officer/
Hey there, Inbound community!
Thanks for the invitation to participate in "Ask Me Anything"! I've been asked to provide a few ground rules for our time together today:
· I'm here to chat with you about content strategy—setting the course for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.
· I'll be around (more or less) to answer questions between now and 12pm CT, then again between 3-5pm CT.
· Please note that I know just enough about the mechanics of SEO to be dangerous. I can't talk to you about Google algorithms, for example. It's not that I don't care. It's only that I am unschooled in your science of findability.
All right, then. Let's do this thing.
Awesome to see you here Kristina!
As one of the most notable content strategy evangelists there is I would ask can you give us a definitive statement on the difference between Content Strategy and Content Marketing?
I have more questions, but I can't remember what they are so I'll be back!
Hey Mike!
Yes. I can.
CONTENT STRATEGY: a shared set of goals, guiding principles, and success metrics that guides the creation, delivery, and governance of content across an organization.
CONTENT MARKETING: multichannel custom publishing.
Also: have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of the phrase "content marketing"? :p
Hey folks—thank you so much for all of your terrific questions here today. I'm sorry I couldn't answer every last one of them! If you have any particular subjects you'd like to see me expand on, please list them here, and I will work it into my blog editorial calendar ... which I intend to create this week, in the spirit of "walking the walk." Ahem.
In the interim, I will be momentarily, unabashedly self-promotional and encourage you to get ahold of a copy of my book, Content Strategy for the Web (2nd ed. co-authored by Melissa Rach). We've received a LOT of anecdotal feedback from companies of all sizes saying it's been a great internal sales tool for getting people on board with content strategy. Also it's red, which will help people understand that CS is VERY IMPORTANT. #bookcoverstrategy
Thanks again for the invitation, and keep waving the CS flag!
Hi Kristina. Does that mean you won't be coming back to answer the few that are left up to this point at least? That's a shame...
Keep calm and subscribe to her blog: http://blog.braintraffic.com/author/kristina-halvorson/
She may be answering the unanswered questions in upcoming blog posts.
Hehe :-) It's just that in all the previous AMAs so far, the people have made the effort to answer all questions, even come back and answer more. So it's a shame to see so many go unanswered.
Steve - we're lucky to have such a shear number of questions answered in any case!
Follow @halvorson - I'm sure she'll cover some of the bigger topics sometime soon
Many thanks for this :)
One of the key roadblocks I stumble across is wanting to produce content, and making something, but it just flows... or downright sucks. It's mediocre, it won't punch through the noise on the web and it doesn't resonate with our main audience.
I guess that's in part attributable to not being a "trained writer", but that begs the question of what can us mere mortals do to get good at this stuff? So, I have three questions...
1. How can I get really frickin' good at consistency producing amazing content?
2. How can we as an community better explain and help others to want to engage in content marketing AND excel at it.
3. What could Inbound.org do to help members produce amazing content, and help our members help other people produce amazing content?
Hi, Ed –
QUESTION 1: Remember high school English? That's where you learned how to write (or, you were supposed to—heh). And you learned from doing it over and over again. So in terms of getting really good at producing amazing content:
1. Figure out (research, analytics, what's got you all excited) what you want to focus on.
2. Make an editorial calendar for yourself.
3. Set aside writing time for yourself. Honor it.
4. DO IT. Over and over. Ask for feedback. That's it.
QUESTION 2: Well, here is my question: SHOULD people engage in content marketing? Some people should. Some people absolutely shouldn't. So I think maybe the responsible thing to do is start providing people with the right tools to make smarter decisions about a) whether regularly producing content makes sense for their organization (and audiences), and b) if so, how they can make smart decisions (audience research, competitive differentiation, available resources) to do the best, most targeted work with what they have to work with.
QUESTION 3: Any kind of open information sharing—like this forum—is probably the #1 thing you can do. Also, encourage Inbound.org meetups! Those have probably been the #1 awesome contributors to the ever-growing content strategy body of knowledge. Enjoy!
Thanks Kristina!
On meetups, we're hopefully rolling out Inbound Groups in the coming weeks to support meetup groups. Thoughts from a thread yesterday of a place to share "examples" on Inbound too might be useful: http://www.inbound.org/articles/view/here-is-today-superb-example-of-data-visualisation
I guess one more cheeky question - when and where do you go when you want to hire great writers, designers and content producers? Assuming you already have the data, the audience and a broad direction already in place?
We're lucky to have lots of people interested in working with Brain Traffic ... so I'm honored to have "the best of the best" coming to us. (If anyone's interested in contracting with us, please apply here! http://braintraffic.com/contract-positions.html
Hi Kristina,
we appreciate your time. was talking about this w a friend who is an artist lately. how much time do you devote toward editing/returning to a unpublished project before "it's done." some champion the 'published better than perfect' mantra, but that's pretty vague. i mean, editing and more nurturing is important, right? thanks, Anthony
Hi Anthony – well, realistically, it sort of depends on how much time and budget are available for the editing process. I know that's not a very good "best practice" benchmark, but that's sort of how it goes. If you're in charge of when it gets published, then here's my advice: set a deadline for yourself for publication, and DO IT, no matter what shape you feel the article is in. That will train you to figure out your own comfort level for how much editing is enough!
I'd also like to know: other than brains, bravado, and bourbon, what are the essential tools that you and other content strategists use every day? :)
My essential tools: asking questions, listening carefully, smart note-taking and ... wait for it ... Twitter. Knowledge sharing is the best sharing!
Hi Kristina!
How can SEO's help YOU - content strategists? What are some things we should know that would make us more empathetic to your challenges?
Hi Dan – really, the best thing you can do is reach out to a CS and say, "Look, here are my objectives, here's why, and here's what I'm doing to succeed at them." A big part of any CS job is to synthesize a variety of content initiatives throughout an organization ... providing input about your activities and success metrics is really important part of making sure that person is working to help you fill in any knowledge gaps that could help YOU do your job better!
It's like one big content group hug!!
OK Inbound friends—have to step away for a few hours. I can tell I'll be up late tonight answering all your amazing questions, though! Stay tuned...
Thanks Kristina - I'll update the community alert :)
Asking for a friend ;)
What is your strategy for getting all shareholders in an organization on board with the *same* content strategy? Let's pretend you have a developer, a designer, a group of web editors, an SEO analyst and a brand communications manager who all have competing priorities and are all very protective of their "territory." Now that the marketing manager has bought into the idea of hiring a content strategist - what are your best methods of getting everyone to work together?
Thanks for devoting some time to share your knowledge / experience Kristina.
I'd love to know if you had any tips or advice on getting other people in the company to contribute to the overall content strategy of the company.
I find that a lot of these other team members could be providing fantastic content for the company, but often times they either don't know how, don't have time or are standoffish as content creation is not typically part of their normal job responsibilities.
In your experience, what works and what doesn't?
Hi, Vinny! Thanks for your question.
So, the first question is always, "Why do we need this content?" Yes, you likely have colleagues who could be producing fantatsic content for the company ... but just because they *can* doesn't mean they *should*. So, before you start trying to recruit/convert content creators, ask yourself: what do we really need, here? What will help us meet our business objectives? What are our users expecting from us? How can we competitively differentiate ourselves through our content?
Once you go through that exercise—and assigning some success metrics never hurt—then you can begin to put together a realistic content plan. By "realistic", I mean a plan that really takes into account the actual, real-time resources you have to get that content created and published, whether it's internal folks creating it or assigning budget to outsource it. I also mean, once you publish/share that content, do you *realistically* have to time to take care of it in the weeks/months/years to come? Who is going to make sure that it remains relevant, accurate, and on-brand over time?
If you can go to people and say, look, you've told us about the time constraints of your job, we know you're hesitant to commit to anything, but here is an editorial calendar that takes into account your time limitations, and here's the kind of support we can offer you during the process ... and here is WHY we want you to create this content ... then you have a solid business case that also seems manageable to the individual.
Hope that helps!
I LOVE this..
"we know you're hesitant to commit to anything, but here is an editorial calendar that takes into account your time limitations, and here's the kind of support we can offer you during the process ... and here is WHY we want you to create this content"
Thank you! That was very helpful.
Hi Kristina,
Cheers for doing this. My question: What role, if any, would you say data analysis plays in the content marketing process. Do you use data to inform what your going to write about on any given day, or do you follow more of a, I guess, creative gut feel approach?
Hi, Michael!
Well, I think it's definitely a joint effort, here. If you're committed to "content marketing", then why? What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to reach? Where are they hanging out? What do you want them to do? What do THEY want to do?
That said, I think it's feasible to use a blended approach to creating an editorial calendar (which I REQUIRE you have if you're going to do any kind of ongoing content creation!). Use your own analytics to inform what past article successes you can build upon. Decide how you will handle one-off posts in response to today's hot topic or discussion. And by all means, if you have a burst of creative energy, don't stifle it! :)
Thanks so much for hosting an Inbound.org AMA, Kristina!
Many of us content marketers assume "content" = publicly consumable information such as blog posts, infographics, videos, testimonials, etc.
What other content is wrapped into the "content strategy" discipline that content marketers might not be considering?
Also: what's your favorite tool for audience research?
Good morning, Lauren!
Well, I guess I'll say this: part of what really frustrates me about 99% of all content marketing discussions is that marketers are ONLY focusing on the content—its substance, format, and channel distribution. The parts that they AREN'T talking about are the things that will make them successful in the long run: how they're going to create an effective, sustainable infrastructure to create, deliver, and govern this content over the long run.
It's hard for me not to start ranting about "content marketing" in general—it's not really anything different than what we've been telling ourselves to do for the past 15 years ("The more content you publish, the more the search engines will like you!" "You have to start blogging so that you're constantly creating fresh content!" "Get a YouTube channel" etc.). The thing is, we are asking people to create more and more and more content without really telling them, oh, also, this is very expensive and complicated and will likely require some sort of organizational change for you to get it right.
Oh wait. I'm ranting. Anyhow, that's the stuff I don't think is being considered. The one other thing I'd say is that I think marketers really overlook the opportunity for useful, compelling meta descriptions—if your plumbing company comes up in my search results, and the meta description reads, for example:
St. Paul Family Trust Your Home To Minneapolis Saint Paul Plumbing Heating Air For All Your Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning and Drain Cleaning Service ...
...you've lost a big opportunity with me, because you sound like a robot and I don't want you in my house.
p.s. Audience research tool ... I like picking up the phone and asking people what they think. Seriously. Outside of, like, Survey Monkey, we always ALWAYS recommend talking to people.
So you're saying there's no get-rich-quick answers with getting my content popular and shared?! :)
Now I understand why some of my Content Strategy friends squick at "Content Marketing". That, and it's encouraging lots of crap. (http://www.slideshare.net/dougkessler/crap-the-content-marketing-deluge)
I'll add to the rant: just because it's easy to sit at your computer and hit the keyboard on a word processor and throw that text up on a website doesn't mean content strategy should be taken any less seriously. I feel like, for many organizations, content strategy is still a hard sell.
But thanks to advocates like you, it's come a long way. So, thank you! And thank you for this reality-check answer. :)
You mention content marketing's focus on "substance, format, and channel distribution" like it's a bad thing. It seems like you're suggesting that content marketing and content strategy are competing terms, and content marketing has left out some really important pieces.
To me, they are complimentary and content marketing is serving a useful purpose. I would even go a step farther and say that they both need each other to be successful.
Content marketing will become a fad that passes if it doesn't have its roots in content strategy. Organizations need to understand when content marketing is appropriate in their content strategy, otherwise you do get a lot of crap.
On the flip side, content strategy won't survive as a useful practice if it doesn't help companies achieve their goals. Since those goals almost always lead back to revenue, marketing is a necessary element. Otherwise, you get great content that is never seen.
For me personally, I was able to get greater focus on content strategy in my organization by showing them how it connected to our content marketing efforts. Rather than fight the two terms, I showed them how a content strategy made our content marketing efforts more effective. So it's more of a parent-child relationship, and less of a sibling relationship to me.
Lauren, I agree with you wholeheartedly, here—the "parent-child" analogy is a good one, I think. That does, however, refute the idea that content strategy can't exist without content marketing ... I think you can *execute* strategy with custom publishing tactics, and there are plenty of people who are doing it brilliantly. It absolutely can serve a useful purpose.
My primary concern is not that content marketing has "left out" useful pieces, but that too often it's presented as a silver bullet (as marketing trends often are), and—like we did with social media, too—companies are jumping on the bus without really understanding what it is they're committing to. I am always the Debbie Downer in these conversations. In fact, I was invited to participate in an "innovative content marketing" seminar for a Fortune 100 company, then disinvited when I told them I intended to talk about infrastructure instead of "innovation". Sadly, that is a true story.
At any rate, I very much appreciate your comments and would encourage you to share more about your own efforts raising CS's profile within your organization! Well done.
Excellent point about content strategy surviving without content marketing. It saddens me to hear about your experience, though! I think they can be such a happy combination.
I will try to share more about the work I've done! It's certainly been exciting.
Thanks so much for the dialogue today.
When we talk about great content and effectual content marketing, we tend to get caught up in the better known brands that do things well (your AirBnB neighborhoods and Coca Colas, for example). Do you have any examples of really great content strategies being run at a smaller or local level? You know, people doing well without huge marketing budgets. Thanks!
My biggest challenge is localization. The big companies I've worked for start with English and then translates to other languages. I think it's just too expensive to have dedicated teams in all the countries we support, so we have sub teams. <rant> And I can't tell you how much I hate to be limited in English because it won't translate well in ten other languages. </rant>
Oh Jim, I feel your pain. I wish I had some easy answers about localization—I've heard a few terrific presentations on how ecommerce companies have expanded, but you're right, everyone starts in English. Let's hope those who are doing it in new ways that *won't* limit you step up and share their successes, and soon!
Hi Kristina
Having followed and been part of content strategy myself since 2008 - I would love to know what your take is on the explosion of content marketing over the last few months.... is it a good thing or bad thing?
I have heard and read so many posts about this "new" channel of marketing and so much of it is quite "thin" in its context (I have found myself recommending your book so many times, I should be on commission :-) ).
I have concerns over the web becoming awash with "content" for content sake and many brands not using metrics to truly measure whether the content they are pumping out is successful or not... be good to hear what you have to say!
What I have to say is: I agree with you on all of this. I mean, I'm glad people are talking about "content", and I am VERY glad that people are starting to talk about the necessary tools (e.g. editorial calendars, style guides, new roles within organizations) that are required to do content right. But I hate the articles that are like "5 ways to attract new customers using compelling content"—that just muddies the waters, because of the things you articulate above.
Hi Kristina! I have two questions:
1) What kind of repeatable post-types do you find most valuable? E.g. list posts, group posts, polls, etc.
2) What is the most important aspect of a piece of content in order to make it widely shared (if any)?
Good morning, Troy!
Thanks for your questions. My answer: it depends. (Don't you love it when people say that?)
For #1: do you mean, valuable in terms of improving search rankings or content findability? Unfortunately, I don't know. It depends on what you're talking about, who you're wanting to engage in conversation, and what your desired outcomes would be.
For #2: I guess I'd have to say, relevance to your audience needs or interests. I should offer the caveat, here, that you have to KNOW what your audience likes/prefers/needs, not assume. I've seen so many marketers chasing results based on their own assumptions of what people want or need. Audience research isn't just nice to have ... it's necessary.
Does that help?
Hi Kristina!
What is your single best piece of advice regarding governance? Our site needs to step up its governance game.
Hey there, Melanie!
Well ... my best advice is to figure out who your most important site contributors, stakeholders, and sponsors are, and get all those people in a room. Get a neutral facilitator to lead a conversation about big pain points. Why focus on the pain, you ask? People turn to the idea of governance because things (people, process, website, social media properties, all of the above) are in chaos, and they want to feel a sense of control. So this gives you a chance to open up lines of communication to identify the biggest areas of opportunity for site/workflow improvement.
Above all else, governance provides the framework for smarter decision-making across an organization, so people need to have a sense of shared ownership in whatever "playbook" you decide on. That makes your first meeting the most important—early buy-in is key.
So the "who" (the people involved) are more crucial than the "what" (the plan). Common sense, yet it clarifies a lot for me. It's easy to get distracted by tactics before we even get started. Thanks!
Hi Kristina, thanks for doing this.
Regarding the promotion of linkable assets (such as infographics specifically), how do you measure success? I know that it is contingent on clients/posts/etc. BUT, fighting the urge to say 'it depends,' what would your gut say? As a general measuring stick, how many social shares and unique root domain links feels "right" to you?
PS - if you have any time to write about your experience as a woman in this field (or just on inbound.org!) that would also be very valuable.
Sounds wonderful, thank you! Any forum would be welcome to me :D
I would love to hear the response as well!
IMO, I think measuring the shares / root domain links is only half of the measurement, the other half should be traffic and conversions from it.
Your thoughts Kristina?
Popping back in to say that I agree, Alan. "Success" can mean so many different things, each depending on the project, but I'm really interested in how folks articulate that feeling. Maybe this could be a separate discussion post sometime too!
Yes. How to determine that is a whole separate discussion.
Hi Kristina from Spain.
As an SEO, who has moved from pure and only SEO hands on consultancy to a more strategic one, what would be your tips and tricks for the most profitable collaboration between SEO and Content Strategy (while not forgetting the existence of Social Media Strategy). Or, better, what are your suggestions in relation to what could be the best way to design the synergy between all the areas of Inbound (Content, Social and Social) from a strategic point of view?
My best advice: get everyone around the table for a few hours and talk to each other about what you're doing, why you're doing it, where the gaps are, and how you can start finding ways to collaborate. It's incredible how much work can get done in conversation. That said, I also recognize that some companies fall prey to the "talk a lot, do nothing" syndrome. Make sure someone assigns accountability around the table for how people are going to start sharing information about their independent strategies and activities.
Finally: somewhere, at the leadership level, someone has to be committed to pulling these initiatives together under the "content strategy" umbrella. Shared principles, goals, and success metrics are key.
You mention the difference between content marketing and content strategy. How can we as a community better evangelise and educate people about the difference between the two, and get this graph of trends to converge? http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=content strategy, content marketing
Ed, I'll be blunt and say that I'm pretty pessimistic about ever getting these two trends aligned. Most marketers aren't paid to work on strategies—they're paid for getting tactical initiatives done, for showing short-term results, for launching things that are "new and innovative!!!!" Content strategy is decidedly unsexy work, and it takes time. And money. And, at the enterprise level, executive sponsorship. These things are hard to come by.
Content marketing is just the new term for doing what we've always tried to do: deliver smart, relevant, interesting, entertaining, useful information where and when our customers want it most. Websites. Blogging. Search engines. YouTube. Facebook. It's all the same damn thing, and it requires some serious resources to get it done right. But putting that infrastructure in place is messy and political. Instead, let's just talk about 5 Ways to Engage Your Audience Through Content Marketing.
Man, "content marketing" really sets me off. Let me be clear: there are people doing outstanding work in this area of marketing. I'd guess they don't really call what they're doing "content marketing," though. They might call it "executing a content strategy." Just saying.
Truth. Geez... this really puts it into perspective.
Hi Kristina. What would your approach be to a company that is anti-theory? That is, how would you engage with a client that wants to boost engagement, but would run a mile if they were presented with, sometimes, quite abstract notions of content strategy?
Sometimes I find the culture of content strategy quite abstract and unhinged from practical application...
so how do you influence at a fundamental level a culture that is anti-theory?
First of all, DO NOT SPEAK OF THEORY. Ever. Ask good questions that point to content challenges. Point people to practical seminars on content strategy (e.g. "here is how to do a messaging architecture" or "here is what governance looks like in a large organization"). Describe CS as a way to create a shared language and framework for working through content problems, and as a way to build out common principles and processes for making content work for your company.
Secondly, can you give me some examples of how you feel like the CS culture is "unhinged from practical application"? I will point you in the direction of a different CS culture ... one that wants to get good work DONE. :)
Hi Kristina!
I just want to say that it's so great to have a strong, smart, female role model right here in town! As a woman in tech, I'm always excited to see the great things other women are doing.
How do you balance between privacy concerns, and the need for real user data? How do you get a professional, highly educated audience to participate in surveying/other data collection that would help understand web analytics and if content is useful and meaningful?
Hi, Dani!
Thanks for this question. Unfortunately, I don't think I can answer it without really understanding more about what you're trying to achieve with the data you're gathering. I guess I'd say that the real question is, which tools are going to feel the safest for the audience you're approaching? For example, I will happily talk to a company I know and do business with via email, or I will even fill out a survey for them if they send me an email with the link. However, I have never (and will never) answer a pop-up request to participate in a survey when I visit a website.
Does that help?
I guess I'm looking for the why behind my what. Is my content useful to my audience.
Yes. Only research and conversation with your customers will help you understand for sure!
Also, I failed to thank you for your kind comments about my role as a "woman in tech"—I do my best. :)
Hi Kristina,
Thanks for doing this!
My question is: How do you factor competitors into content strategy? Technically, "strategy" in a classical sense is about creating a sustainable competitive advantage, but I don't hear people talk realistically about competing with content in markets where competitors are actively dedicated to content strategy too. How do you suggest creating content "strongholds?"
What do you make of Coca Cola's ahhhh campaign? Brave branded entertainment or a temporary suspension from TV?
1. Now that everyone is content marketing, how can smaller brands that are less trusted get cut through?
2. You're almost run out of budget on a specific piece. What do you invest your last £££ in?
P.S: The book has been v. useful so cheers for that :-)
Hi Kristina,
Thanks for taking the time to do an AMA :-)
What 3 pieces of content have blown you away recently? What were they about, what type/style of content (e.g. blog post, infographic, etc.) and what made them so special in your eyes?
Hi Kristina, this is slightly along the same lines as Michael Curtis' question...I think I'm stealing a content strategy idea of using site search data to devise a content strategy (take the most searched for phrases and devise content to cover these).
Who am I stealing this idea from and do you know of any, or can think of any, flaws or pitfalls with this approach?
Hi Chris –
Well, I don't know if you're STEALING it, but you can find out a ton of great information about this approach in Lou Rosenfeld's book, Search Analytics for Your Site: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/search-analytics/
Lou is going to be a much better resource for you on the flaws or pitfalls here. Regardless, I think site search analytics are too often overlooked as an extraordinary input to any content strategy!
Awesome, thanks Kristina. Hope to see you again at the next Confab - which was outstanding.
Hey Kristina, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us here on Inbound.
I'm really looking forward to Confab, your Content Strategy conference, coming up in June. Could you tell us what the genesis for that was, what the first Confab was like, and how you put it all together?
I'm baaaack.
Well, the vision was this: get all the people who shape content within an organization—editorial, technical, UX, SEO, etc.—under the same roof so we could all talk about our shared content challenges.
The more work I do with clients, the more I believe that there are really a finite set of challenges around content, and although we are each dealing with our own cultures, organizational structures, unique content products, technology sets, and so on, there are CS tools and processes that can be applied in a variety of settings, flexibly and effectively. That's what Confab is about: collaboration, conversation, community. Any good conference should be!
How did I put Confab together? Erik Westra, Sean Tubridy, and Lauren Cramer from UIE ... and everyone at my company Brain Traffic who made the conference "go." :)
Hi Kristina!
How far along is the content strategy industry with metrics? I see a of work produced by content strategists that have the wrong metrics identified or they're flat-out missing metrics. Now, having read your book (it's right next to me as we speak, actually), I know that metrics should be a part of any content strategist's plan.
When you talk with content strategy folks, do you get the sense that both content and metrics are embraced equally, or are certain strategies within the discipline evolving at different rates?
Josh, there is an ongoing discussion in the CS community (and beyond, of course) about the importance of quantitative data—not only collecting it, but ensuring you're gathering the *right* kind of data, and that you're applying smart analysis to it.
The tougher area to discuss is "qualitative metrics"—figuring out how to measure whether or not content is any good, in general. And that is something that's always going to be under discussion. The nature of anything that's qualitative is that it's subject to opinion.
Side rant: my opinion is that we're all constantly looking for "best practices" to model our work on because, ultimately, we're wishing for a "one-size-fits-all" set of metrics. "What's everyone else doing? Let's benchmark against that." This seems like lazy thinking to me. What's working great for one company may very well make NO SENSE WHATSOEVER for you. Get aligned on your own objectives and desired outcomes, and get to work on figuring out which tools in your tactical toolbox make sense to use.
That's kind of the sense I get. Thanks for your insight, Kristina. We should grab coffee sometime and I can share with you some of the things we've been doing around qualitative data, task completion, and satisfaction.
Hi Kristina! Great of you to offer to answer in this community. Was curious if you have any data supporting length of content for ranking purposes. I've read a few case studies and hope to put together my own case study suggesting the length of content is often proportional to the success of it in driving traffic to your site from organic search. Would love to hear your thoughts and/or stats on the topic. Here's the original article that got my wheels turning.... http://thinktraffic.net/proof-that-epic-content-works
Hi, Kaila – you know, I'm sorry, but I don't. I think that's likely a subjective metric based on audience preference, channel, topic, frequency of posts, and so on. If you come across anything, let me know ... I'd be curious to hear more.
1. What are the common elements I should consider when writing a content strategy?
I figure channels (where to get traffic), customer segment, goals, and timing. Anything else?
2. What do you use to communicate strategy? Powerpoint? Is there a framework or template you like?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts. What is the best way to coordinate content enterprise wide across an organization? We have a lot of contributors, but it doesn't seem like everyone talks to one another. What is the best content strategy for a large organization?
Another question, Kristina:
You mentioned several months ago via Twitter that if someone wants to start a much-needed content strategy business, they should open a content auditing agency. Why? And have you seen a shift toward this since?
Hi, Do you know of any metrics that could help generate trended content that sells your business. Keeping in mind your content shouldn't really be commercial! your thoughts would be appreciated!
Hi Kristina, any advice on training new hires in content marketing strategy from scratch?
Hi Kristina, I hope I am not late to ask a question.
One of the biggest problem faced in content creation is finding a topic, asking a content writer to write on technical topic is an over estimation of his abilities, and promoting a technical website without them is impossible. Should we go after the developers to start writing blog posts for us.
Shucks. Hopefully this makes the editorial calendar because I read through all the comments to see if anyone brought it up...
I am interested in understand how a brand voice guideline works hand in hand in a content strategy and content marketing. It seems to me with so many competing voices/intiatives in the company that those voices get lost in the mediums unless they are united by a tuned brand voice.
You sparked the thought by talking about the board room "Come to Jesus" meeting between all the different marketing folks in a company. I immediately started thinking about brand voice...
My questions:
1. What level of businesses (small, medium, large) need to be concerned with brand voice and how deliberate and thought out does it need to be?
2. Any best practices or "how to" guidelines you'd suggest in developing a brand voice guideline for small businesses? Medium? Large?
Any book recommendations would be awesome as well :)
Hello Kristina. First of, I want to thank you for giving such awesome insight about content strategy and content marketing. Got tons of golden nuggets from your replies (and the people engaging as well).
My question is, what are the 3 top most important elements of content marketing that marketers shouldn't ignore. And why? Thank you in advance for the answer.
If you have 100 euros, in what kind of content you will invest this budget?
Hi Kristina! What is the biggest challenge you face when devising a blog post strategy or overall editorial calendar approach and how do you overcome those issues (tools, techniques, etc.)?


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View more icons on your TouchPad app launcher (homebrew) 9
This tip is only for devices running webOS 3.0.5 and higher
Each of the three major versions of webOS has had its own unique version of the app launcher, with features being both added and removed in each subsequent version. The stock webOS 1.x app launcher was very limited, but was highly customizable with patches, such as giving you the ability to add or remove pages, resize the app icons and change the space between them, or even add page names. Many of these features were added to the stock webOS 2.0 app launcher, but the ability to resize the icons was lost due to the change in the way the launcher was coded. Finally, webOS 3.0 on the TouchPad saw a total rewrite of the App Launcher, removing most of the built in features added in webOS 2.0. All that was left was 4 tabs with pre-defined names, each with a visible grid of 7 by 4 (in landscape) or 5 by 6 (in portrait), and a quick launch bar with 5 icons plus the launcher icon.
Despite the limitations of the stock app launcher on the TouchPad, the homebrew community has come to the rescue to give you some options on how to modify it to your liking. You can use the SubOrbital homebrew app to add, rename or reorder your pages, and now you can also install the More Applauncher and QuickLaunch Bar Icons patch by WknThDg to view almost twice as many icons on your launcher pages and add additional icons to the quick launch bar. According to the patch description, here is exactly what the patch does:
- Enables Landscape/Portrait to have 9x6/7x8+ (56/54+) icons per App Launcher screen & up to 8/6 QuickLaunch Bar icons.
- Reduces App Launcher horizontal & vertical icon spacing and vertical icon-to-icon label.
- Lowers QuickLaunch Bar vertical height & icon positions.
- Raises QuickLaunch Launcher Button above QuickLaunch Bar so 8th/6th icon won't overlap it.
- Retains original icon dimensions displayed & App Launcher icon name font size.
So, without changing the size of the icons, you can see a significantly larger number of icons per page and more icons on you quick launcher bar (8 in landscape, the first 6 in portrait). One note of warning: make sure that you remove icons any extra on your quick launch bar so that there are 5 or fewer if you uninstall this patch. Otherwise, you will need to reinstall the patch, remove the extra icons and then uninstall it again.
9 Comments
Sniff...I wish I could have more icons on my Pre2 running 2.1...biggest thing I miss about my Pre+ is 5 columns of icons and jumping from one page of icons to any other one in 2 taps.
I know, I'm off topic...sort of...so sue me! Wait, don't really...
No worries, Rockbeast, we're not talking about Apple here so the threat of lawsuits is greatly reduced.
Awesome.. THANKS!!!!
Caution: you need to remove the "No laucher icon" Patch befor you install this one.
We need a patch that will enable up to 9 icons for QL, or to get that built into LunaCE, as LunaCE will automatically resize the QL dead space.
I tried this patch a few weeks ago. Too many icons, too busy. I wish for a patch that would enable 8x5/7x6 (40/42) icons (portrait and landscape, respectively).
The additional QL icons in the patch are just right though.
I'm the opposite. I do not like the QL with all the icons and the adjusted launcher button but completely dig the actual launcher pages. I need to spend the time and 'adjust' the patch to remove the QL items, but have not found the time. BTW, for those with Opal devices, the patch does work on those as well (as does suborbital).
For those who want more icons, but don't want the chaos of having all those icons being contiguous, I've posted a transparent, blank icon on the forum thread. Combine this with the homebrew Shortcut Launcher app, and you can create blank launcher icons that you can use to space out and arrange your app icons. Yeah, it's a kludge, but it works--and once you're done, it's wonderful.
Wow – nice I had already installed the SubOrbital and love that freedom, now with the "Patch" I can really rock – thanks guys.


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This Week's Slashfood Stories 2009-08-20 04:30:42
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- How to make a classic potato salad that's light on the calories and right on the money.
- Why you should always ask your server for his or her recommendations.
- Sullivan University boasts the world's first personal chef diploma program.
- Bright-eyed idea: make reverse iced coffee with milk and frozen coffee cubes.
- What food do you hate that everyone else loves?
- Molten chocolate cake gets a Summer splash with the addition of grated zucchini.
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If you build it, they will come. Really?
When Ray Liotta whispered the now famous words, "If you build it, he will come", he probably never imagined them becoming one of the most misquoted lines of our time. Many of us have used the sentence countless times, mistakenly substituting the word "they" for the word "he". In the movie Field of Dreams, Ray was referring to Shoeless Joe Jackson, a real life baseball legend from the early 20th century. Today of course, we use the quote when talking about venues, attractions, and all sorts of commercial construction.
Back in the late '80s, it became the mantra for luring Major League Baseball to the Tampa Bay area. Both Tampa and Saint Petersburg launched major campaigns to bring a team to their city, courting existing clubs like the White Sox, Mariners, and San Francisco. As with many other major issues historically, both cities worked hard to one up the other in its attempt to win a deal for their town. When Saint Petersburg convinced it's taxpayers into building an arena, even before landing a team, Tampa's bid became a moot point, and soon thereafter baseball came to Pinellas County.
Stu Sternberg, the owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, has announced that the team will begin actively considering a new stadium site for the team. Sternberg said he will be open to any new location in the area, regardless of the county. To which Saint Petersburg's mayor, Bill Foster replied, "hold up just a minute there". (OK, maybe not those exact words) The Rays current deal with their arena, Tropicana Field, runs through 2027 and prohibits them from even talking to another city about relocation. This brings us back to our original quote, "if you build it, they will come".
Saint Petersburg built a baseball venue and was awarded a team. But soon after, low attendance became an issue. And a new catch phrase emerged; If you win, they will come. Well, the Rays have had two back-to-back winning seasons and attendance is still a real issue. This year the team has been at the top of the standings and spent more promotional dollars than any other team in the MLB. Yet attendance remains far below expectations. So what's the excuse now? Economy? Yes that's a legitimate factor, but the economy also affected many other baseball cities who still manage to maintain larger attendance averages than the Rays.
It would seem that Sternberg has a well-founded reason for wanting to move the team. Fortunately he isn't talking about considering other markets. You can be certain that those "other markets" are already brainstorming ways to lure the Rays to their city.
So what's the solution? Whatever it is, it won't happen soon. But decisions need to be made to get the wheels in motion. And as all sides begin to assemble their legal teams to hash out an agreement, one thing really needs to be considered; who benefits from all this? If you answered Tampa Bay, you win a free cowbell. And there lies the solution.
The tri-county area; Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, even Manatee, would all be affected by any decision on where the Rays end up. So why do our cities insist on fighting over where the team plays? Aren't they the TAMPA BAY Rays? I realize that the Trop was funded by city tax payer dollars, (as well tourist dollars). So whatever the outcome, some sort of decision needs to be made about that arena which will become a white elephant and a possible reimbursement to Saint Pete if the team relocates across the bay. Keep in mind even moving to Tampa doesn't guarantee more fans in the seats, although statistics show that attendance is directly affected by location and population density.
I think our cities need to leave their respective egos at the conference room door, and start thinking as a strong unified major market. We can't risk losing Major League Baseball to another state. Nor can we continue to bicker over binding contracts and lawsuits. We need a solution that will keep the Rays here – in Tampa Bay – long past 2027. We need private sector parties to step up to the plate with ideas and money. We need city mayors to put away their differences and work together on this issue, the same way they should be working on a viable solution to funding mass transit in the area. But I'll leave that for another day.
That's my take. What's yours?