Hello folks,

The idea of launching a book club has been discussed over the past weeks here on SME clubs. In fact, you may want to catch up with this thread about it: Interested in joining SBBC – Small Business Book Club?

Thus, the first book review shall be Content Rules, co-authored by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman. This thread is therefore dedicated to discussions that will take place around this book.

For your information, there will also be a live chat for those of you who wish to discuss in a true “book club” format. Time has been set for Thursday February 16th, 5pm EST. @karenolenick will be moderating this discussion, but we are still ironing out the mechanics, wondering if a G+ hangout is preferable over a Skype chat, or if there are better ways to do this. If you have feedback regarding this part, please comment directly on the other thread: Interested in joining SBBC – Small Business Book Club?

In order to facilitate this exchange, I suggest we discuss the book in this thread as per its three parts:

1. Part One: The Content Rules
2. Part Two: The How-To Section
3. Part Three: Content That Converts: Success Stories (With Ideas You Can Steal)

Starting with Part One, which chapter did you find most interesting, and why?

(As discussions flow, we shall start discussing parts two & three later on)

Hey, Paul, did you read through the thread that Fredric posted about this? So glad you can join in on this. We are all going to learn so much. The books that are going to be studied and discussed are all ready printed, but thanks for the offer. @ptwylie

@clararobin @karenolenick @dongrandy @russellallert @snouraini @rachelagheyisi @stefaniefrank @moinshaikh @fierce_living @fernandocortes @roryramsden @charlottewood @atlantarobin @deairby @charlottecharleehanna @aremorch

Thread for the first book review is now up & running, with a first question posted yesterday (see above). For those of you who have already read the book, please feel free to comment. For those of you who have not yet read the book, I’d ask a different question: What have you heard about this book and how do you feel it can help with your present business needs or concerns?

Fire away folks!

Buying the book tomorrow and will make sure I read at least a third before I sleep! Can’t wait to jump into this discussion, so thanks again Frederic for putting this together!

Robin Carlisle
@fredericgonzalo

Here’s my take on the first part of the book (the rules part)

Those of us who use content in our own marketing (meaning practically all of us) and those who create content for a living (folks like me who develop business reports in the b2b space) must have seen, read, or heard of most of what’s in this portion of the book before.  Probably not verbatim, but in one form or another.  So for me, this part of the book is not novel.  However, it does help to have a compilation of proven success tips (the rules) in one space — for easy reference.

Having said that, I do like the reiteration on the importance of having a good content creation strategy.  A good strategy is like a good compass to guide the other key components of the content creation/marketing process, including:

• self/target audience analyses (to help match tactic with target)
• how to allocate resources (time, people, money)
• how & what to re-purpose (stroking the campfire, etc)
• how to measure progress, etc, etc, etc.

Overall, I like the emphasis on spending time to develop a clear content creation strategy.  After all, in content creation/marketing as in life, knowing where we’re headed is half the journey.

Great feedback, folks.

Now, looking at the second part of Content Rules, the How-To section, which chapter did you prefer and why? Here are the topics covered in this section:
- Blog
- Webinars
- Ebook vs Whitepaper
- Case studies
- FAQs
- Videos
- Podcasting
- Photography

Did any of you actually change your approach in business due to reading any of these chapter? Any stories to share?

@deairby @dongrandy @rachelagheyisi @stefaniefrank @atlantarobin @charlottewood