As PR people, we find ourselves thinking more like content producers and editors. So, who better to provide some insights than a former PR/marketing guy-turned-journalist-turned-editor? Check out this Q&A with David Griner, AdWeek’s social editor.
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You’ve been writing for Adweek since 2007 AND recently became the magazine’s first Social Editor. What has been the biggest challenge for you transitioning from one role to the next?
I started writing for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak, on the side while I was a copywriter at Birmingham-based ad agency Luckie & Company, and I kept it up all the way through becoming a VP and department head overseeing our digital content team. I’ve always loved writing for Adweek, so it felt pretty surreal when I realized I might be able to switch over to doing it full-time while getting to keep my family in Birmingham.
So the biggest transition for me has just been learning to work from home (or coffee shops, or wherever has good wi-fi) and not in a bustling agency office or newsroom. But I find I get a lot more done now that I’m not always in meetings, on pitches, in meetings on pitches or pitching to set up a meeting to get a pitch. I just get up, make coffee, and start working. Thanks to Gchat and Skype, I’m pretty much in constant communication with the rest of the team, and it seems to be working really well.
Earlier this year, you talked about the need for digital marketers to look offline for online content. What are some of your go-to offline sources for inspiration?
The issue I was trying to raise is that too many digital content pros seem to think they either have to create something from scratch or share what someone else has already put online. That leaves out an important third source for good posts, which is discovered content. If you’re looking for cool stuff to share about your client or your own business, go poke around the archives, the storage closets, the photo albums and the weird stuff coworkers have on their desks. Find the stories that are unique to who you are or what you do.
Now that I’m focused on journalism full time instead of content marketing, most of my offline sources for good ideas are just conversations with really smart, interesting people over coffee or beer. Whenever someone starts a sentence with “I wonder how,” “I wonder why” or “I wonder who,” I quickly make a mental note to chase down the question later, because there’s probably a good story there. And I’m never afraid to rope in some research librarians. They make Google results look like a bunch of second-grade “how I spent my weekend” essays.
Can you talk a little bit about content creation vs. content management vs. community management? More importantly, how can the three work best together?
Doing each one well requires a pretty different skill set. Content creation is about being relentlessly inventive and curious, coming up with new and interesting things to talk about while somehow tying it all back to a brand or cause. Content management is more about being a great organizer and paying close attention to data so you’ll know how to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Community management is about engaging your fans, potential customers and even detractors, so doing it right requires a lot of tact and trust from your supervisors. If all you’re doing is posting content without engaging the people who take the time to respond, you’re not a community manager; you’re just a scheduling bot.
Any best practices to share about creating – and sticking to! – online editorial calendars?
The first rule is to make sure it’s a real team effort, one that’s discussed (and updated) frequently by everyone involved. It can’t just be, “Tracy, where’s the calendar for October? It was due by 5 on Tuesday!” Managers need to be willing to put in the time to review content calendars, give real feedback and pay attention to the analytics (or, even better, actual real-time online engagement) to see whether the stuff you thought would work actually did. If content isn’t working, it’s not just the writer’s fault. The supervisor and client approved it, so they shouldn’t have any grounds to complain. What they should say instead is, “Well, that one didn’t seem to do as well as we all thought. What could we do differently next time?”
If a content calendar becomes one person’s thankless job and no one else is paying attention other than a project manager checking the deadline box, it’s time to take stock of your process and ask the people working on it how it could be improved. Honestly, compared to creating content for CPG brands, garden sprays and fast-food chains, running the social content for a major magazine is a breeze.