Perspectives

Content marketing can be a very effective method to boost the visibility of an organization and strengthen business outcomes.  In a world in which specialization is an increasing fact of life, the terms and phraseology that may be common to one group is often gibberish to others. 'Content marketing' is an example by itself.  It's a term web, SEO and digital marketers will be familiar with but may mean nothing to people outside the communications and marketing field.  It basically means using content posted to the web to grow an organization's visibility and rank with search engines like Google, Bing, etc.  Acronyms are also often industry specific, so 'SEO' stands for 'Search Engine Optimization', which is getting web pages ranked as highly as possible by search engines.  Content marketing uses the specialized language common to an industry sector or service niche and turns it into an asset for web marketing, showcasing an organization's strengths and capabilities and why clients should do business with them.  

North Carolina's biotechnology industry is a success story, built on 30 years of steady support for its development. It is ranked as the third-largest cluster of biotech, pharma and life sciences companies in the U.S., following only California and Massachusetts. It generates almost $60 billion a year. But in the early 2000's, biomanufacturing and biopharmaceutical companies in the state were facing difficulties. The state's capability to train sufficient numbers of workers with the specialized skills and knowledge needed to work in complex, highly-regulated biopharmaceutical manufacturing environments was limited. Companies were poaching each other's workers, driving up the cost of business and limiting the companies' ability to expand. This also negatively impacted companies that had a patent clock ticking down. These workforce challenges were costing billions.  The post below outlines how the team at Integrated Media Strategies played a key role in addressing this challenge and helping North Carolina to grow its economy. 

Sectors like aerospace and biopharmaceuticals are regulated because the consequences can be catastrophic if standardized quality procedures aren't followed. Video-based standard operating procedures (SOPs) that enhance process documentation presents a straightforward method of improving compliance and risk management. The impact of substandard Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) ranges from batch failures all the way through to reduced stock prices or litigation. 

Although not biomanufacturing, the recent fungal meningitis crisis caused by the New England Compounding Center that killed more than 40 people and infected more than 700 patients illustrates the consequences of a lax approach to manufacturing procedures. Similarly, the commercial aviation sector has had its share of mayhem at 36,000 feet as a result of uneven practices within manufacturing or maintenance of aircraft.   

Part of the response to ensure standardized high quality is the use of text-based Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs.

"75% of PR agency owners don't know much about social media"  That's a headline from a recent PR industry survey showing the extent to which social media is impacting some of the traditional ways of doing business.  The survey highlights how 90% of Public Relations owners don't believe social media will replace traditional print and broadcast media, but simultaneously assert that 78% say it's important to offer social media services. 

Pitching a campaign with a social media component tacked on doesn't work.  It isn't culturally sustainable, and can create and expose brand and messaging dissonance with consumers and stakeholders. Tweets say this, practice says that. New media has consequences for organizations who are being caught flat-footed at the speed with which conversations can evolve and communications should be organized - to use a military phrase - to fight today's war, not the last one.

I review how Integrated Media Strategies is doing on Search platforms on a regular basis and for the past few months, we have been holding steady with a #2 ranking on Google for 'integrated media', just behind Wikipedia.  For a startup company less than a year old providing media and consulting services - not some buzzworthy Silicon Valley clone, it is a significant achievement. 

It also shows that it is possible for smaller companies providing good services and who have a sound integrated marketing and communications plan to be able to compete against organizations with far larger budgets.  But it does require some attention to what I call the basics: