Plenty of good reading this week as we head closer to the holidays:

Provide a framework for your freelancers (and your staff, too?)

Sarah Rickerd at Content Marketing Institute provided a great framework for working with freelance content creators. One of the key takeaways to me was the idea of “setting the foundation for quality outsourcing.” Any time you’re bringing in a freelance writer, there’s a pretty good chance that person isn’t a subject matter expert – at least not to the extent that you want to present your brand. So make it easy for them to become one! You know what you want to write about, you know who you’re targeting, and you know the outcome you want to achieve; make sure you’re communicating it in as much clarity and detail as possible, and point them in the directions of the tools and resources they’re going to need to achieve that end.

But I think it’s also useful to install that kind of framework in dealing with your internal content producers. Unless you have a staff of paid writers, it’s a good bet your internal content is being written by people who are “self-taught” bloggers (if that). And they all have other things to do than write!

Providing a detailed profile of what you want from a blog – even if it’s simply a format that they can plug in materials for you to polish or ghost-write – can make the whole content-generating process a lot less intimidating.

Thanks to Biznology for the insights — and the book!

I highly recommend Biznology’s webinar “Outside-in Marketing: A pragmatic approach to content marketing”. James Matthewson did a great job of outlining the concept of creating content with the consumer in mind, and convincing C-level clients to move away from the conventional approach of running campaign after campaign with brand-focused intent, and into an approach that’s less interrupting and more relevant to the audience you want to attract.

For extra credit, please look up the term “alliteration.” You’re welcome.

The book is available now, and it’s my next read. I’m currently finishing up The Rise of the Platform Marketer, written by Craig Dempster and John Lee at Merkle.

More Marketing reading ideas for the holiday plane ride home

If you’re looking for gifts and don’t mind the response: “Oh good… a book about work… that’s what I was hoping for…”, CMI provided a list of the Most Significant Content Marketing Books Published During 2016. That should provide plenty of reading material to fill the gaps between meals and bowl games!

Blame binge-watching trend on the zombies!

I read in Ayaz Nanji’s MarketingProfs piece “How Television and Video Viewing Habits are Changing” that “the share of weekly video viewing hours spent watching on-demand TV series, movies, and other programs has increased 50% since 2010.”

As it happens, that’s the year The Walking Dead started. Coincidence???

Keeping an eye on SEO

This week’s Whiteboard Friday from Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin: “Which Page Markup+Tags Still Matter for SEO”

Yeah it’s hard to read… you probably should just watch the webinar!

Because everyone loves lists…

Here’s this week’s “Reading By the Numbers”:

10 *** Cyber Monday & Holiday Deals for Digital Marketers

9 Questions Every Content Marketing Job Candidate Should Ask

8 Proven Ways to Stay Focused in A Busy Office

7 Citation-building Myths Plaguing Local SEO

6 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season in Your Social Media Marketing

5 questions about content marketing

4 Ways to Select the Right Conference for You to Attend

3 Ways to make influencer marketing authentic again

2 A/B Testing Failures and 1 Win

*Editor’s note: As long as we marketers continue to love lists, I will continue to do this, but I’m not above cheating if people aren’t willing to write lists with 8 points.

And one final note…

A reminder of why it’s sometimes better to stop taking notes on my keyboard and pick up the trusty notebook! And in my case, work on handwriting skills…