It’s an exciting time for businesses, but perhaps a little mind-boggling, too. Content Management, my specialty, is more disorderly, dastardly, and densely discombobulated than ever! Where do you start, where do you go, what matters most, and why?
Maybe, most importantly, the big question you need to ask is, “What changes are impacting me the most and what do I need to do about them?”
Let’s face it, change isn’t a word we always want to hear, let alone cooperate with. Change is scary and freaky. But it can be fun and exciting, too. Think of change as improving and feeding your mind and soul with learning new things.
The truth is—at this moment—change is essential. You don’t have a choice about it; you just need to figure out how.
Since Spring has sprung around here, I think it’s a good time to look at the transformation to Season 2 of The Marketing Mirror. I’m excited to share this update with you and to review how the latest season slowly and laboriously began and where it’s heading.
Of course, I want to share the progress with you and maybe offer a little review of the show’s newest content as well. I’m hoping you’ll find each episode valuable and helpful in your business journey, especially as things stand in the new AI-led world of content, marketing, business, and all things digital.
You’ll also learn, perhaps surprisingly, that there’s a rhyme and reason behind what’s published so far. AND, I have a pretty awesome announcement for what’s happening next inside that curious place, The Marketing Mirror, starting next week!
WILL YOU SUBSCRIBE WITHOUT A BRIBE TO SUPPORT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL? 🎬✔️
Business Beckons…But…
I love business, always have, and I imagine, I always will, but after a distress-driven sabbatical (I call it a “Sadical”), coming back isn’t quite easy. As excited as I was in my heart, my head (and the rest of me) wasn’t going along.
A weird thing happened, I wasn’t feeling confident. I kept thinking to myself, ‘I don’t feel like me,’ and worse, my usually unstoppable stream of ideas and especially feelings of creativity (that drive my work) were gone. Oh my goodness.
My first episode of Season 2 may just be me talking myself into trying to find my groove again, and raw-raw cheering myself on to get back in the game. Check it out here!
But I’m also cheering for you, reminding us both to maintain an attitude of gratitude and live our best lives! Right?
The Evolving Content Landscape Collides
Twenty-twenty-six is no time for doubts because, as I mentioned earlier, change is here. Things are drastically different than when I slunk away, what?- a year or more ago by then? Social Media is different. Content. Media platforms. Technology. AI’s impact.
Marketing and business are, as always, evolving, but suddenly at breakneck speeds. Businesses are feeling disruption across the board. So far, this year has been gangbusters! SO much to do, learn, catch up on. And, most importantly, decide.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Here’s where we have to look hard and get serious. This means developing an accurate outline of your key business objectives and identifying specific business goals. Next, carefully align those goals with a customized content marketing strategy and a results-driven content and social marketing action plan.
Researching your strategy is the most crucial phase. As Mike and Matty explain in their video (link in the last sentence), your point of view (POV) is key to identifying your business differentiator. You won’t reach your targets without identifying and creating the pathway to achieve them. Finding your content-to-market fit is the best way to grow your business and channel.
The question of your core content is a biggie. There’s a lot to think about, and everyone’s answer will be different. Sure, competitive analysis and other industry, trade, or product and market research and comparisons are helpful. But knowing who you are and understanding who your customers are is an incomparable competitive advantage.
Thinking about your brand, brand values, and business mission at a foundational level helps you connect with people who appreciate where you stand. It’s how others see you, stand, and speak for your brand that matters most. (This is what I was thinking about for The Marketing Mirror’s next Season 2 quick video.)
Merging Your Key Messaging and Core Content Selections
Carefully shaping your brand’s consistent, core messaging helps attract brand attention, but it’s your customers and community, and how they see you, that determines how your brand is known. You can’t dictate how the market feels about you, not anymore!
The “interest economy” (vs. the “attention economy”) demands careful consideration so your business understands who your viewers are, and it also helps guide your choices for the best media format and optimal social platforms. Where will you be seen and how? What’s your anchor content plan, hub format, and will you take an omnichannel or micro-targeted marketing approach?
My research on current viewing trends and audience analysis over platforms was both surprising and enlightening. We held a LIVE Audio Spaces Event on X to chat about it, and I recorded a portion of the conversation about YouTube’s current positioning, featuring Jaime Shine.
I was having strong feelings about YouTube’s role in business content this year. Enough so that a writer is going to go for it, boldly, using YouTube as a core content hub. I have some pretty big audio/video content ideas I hope to bring you this year!
For the third video of Season 2, I was so inspired by these deep findings from the research that I had to showcase the powerhouse that the YouTube platform is blossoming into for my next share with you. Psst…You may notice in this video that I am experimenting with hot new AI tools for video production, too!
The Research Part for YouTube Business Content
Video content and script writing are their own specialty arts, but for your video content on YouTube, there’s a lot to figure out and discover to understand what may work, what people want, and how the platform functions as well.
Video production is, well, a production! There’s so much you can do and so many ways to do it. But, just like any content, it’s not about producing content haphazardly, or for content's sake, as they say. And here’s where it gets hard again. This is when taking a moment to connect the dots means thinking through a real strategy. A business strategy linked to your entire marketing and content plan.
[At this point, the overwhelm is starting to feel like pressure building. Making my way back into the digital creative world is intimidating enough—maybe more so at the speed of tech over my missing time!—but making the bold decision to move to an audio/video-based hub from the security of my beloved writing space feels scary…and fun!]
Research is my go-to tool and a good way to back your perspectives or track the beat of an industry or trend. AI lends an extra hand to research and offers checks and balances for covering topics and collecting data. I leaned into my favorite AI tool and helper, Perplexity.ai, and as it turns out, research took me deeper. The “Future Tools” guy, Matt Wolfe, convinced me to test drive the Comet browser, which offers Perplexity as the Captain driving the search engine examination of tons of resources I can collect and evaluate as I go. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
More Resources on this Topic: Why Your Business Needs a YouTube Video Hub
Expanding AND Condensing Research with Comet
I was so excited about this new AI/SEARCH environment using Comet with Perplexity built right in that I chit-chatted about it on LinkedIn, and the amazing Stephanie Garcia suggested I make a video about the cool things I’m doing with Comet/Perplexity.
I wanted to make a really good and helpful video…and at least three versions finally became my next video for the new season! Watch it here:
The funny thing is, I’m doing more and more with this tool, and the AI is also growing as we work together in this new research and project management working environment. It may be time for another video, going just a little deeper, though I see no end to the depths we can go in the new AI browsing world.
At this point, I guess I need to mention, I’m now fully blown into oblivion and making a decision, a choice I suppose, to do two things at once, even if this is not exemplary.
I talk and write about it, but I’m letting you know that sometimes it's important to slow down to speed up! I know I’m not ready and have to do the real work, but I still feel compelled to take action. So out front, I’m starting to publish Season 2 of The Marketing Mirror with the videos I’m showcasing here. I’m writing. I’m taking action, but just as I always have, I’m sharing with you what I’m doing and learning.
But in the background, I’m doing the work, thinking through ideas, information, and resources to complete and position a new solid strategy for business. I’m struggling some and digging deeper, but focusing singularly on exactly what I want to do and be now is gigantic, smothering, and limitless at once.
Going Back to the Foundation
Molly Kaiser gave me some inspiration to help me take a breath and zero in on goals and desires, starting from a higher (and longer) perspective. In fact, I talked about ‘creative visualization’ in my last post here!
From my life’s journey to get here… to where things are now is A LOT. Hopefully, you can see and follow the Season 2 video sequence that shows you a living route for finding the keys to business and digital content as they look NOW. What that will look like when it becomes a strategy, and the next stage is yet to be known. But the act of writing, creating, and publishing is, at the very least, taking action and moving forward. That’s better than the frozen place I was stuck in, and there was no motion at all.
Reconnecting with colleagues and hosting a series of LIVE Spaces Audio Events on X—even though I realized after a few, I was doing them all wrong—gave me both confirmation of what’s going on in digital media and marketing, and brought other pro voices and opinions on what’s hot and not in business, marketing, and digital media.
What I know for sure is we all love content and work with and study it constantly!
I created the next videos directly from those LIVE Spaces discussions and topics, which roll in line with everything done so far in Season 2.
I’m extraordinarily proud of the next video creation, using a ton of AI, and finally allowing me to create characters and lip sync them! An achievement that’s taken me at least 3 years to get right (sorta), and I love that it features Jaime Shine of Clearly Conveyed Communications!
(It's so fun to collaborate with Jaime! We have lots of great content in store for you!!)
Bringing Audio to Life with AI Tools
In the video, we talk about all the topics above, rolled into one short but poignant video rendition, taken directly from the recorded LIVE audios.
Watch it here and leave a like or comment on the video, too, if you enjoy it.
One of the things that YouTube dictates, marketing craves, and results reward is the power of story, particularly for your business media and marketing communications.
By investigating it further, we uncovered how the brain engages in story as a message, seven times faster than your awareness of it. The brain absorbs story in an uncanny transformation.* (*Video {unlisted} is created by the Perplexity App, “computer” function…WOW!)
There’s more already in the works about story frameworks, crafting stories to magnetize memory and retention, and how to incorporate story best practices into your marketing and media content.
There’s a lot to look forward to for information and inspiration. We’re planning to test a new concept for our shows with livestreaming, starting very, very soon. The most important component of the plan is the ability to be interactive and gather new ideas and information from different voices.
New and varied perspectives help improve and grow our businesses, not to mention sharing and sparking new ideas and the latest on topics.
Of course, livestreaming adds another dimension to production, and I’m testing a new platform to bring you The Marketing Mirror, LIVE! All I can say is, it’s sure to be interesting. I feel like streaming is shakier (technologically) than it once was for some reason. Making it even odder, I feel like there are a lot fewer shows going LIVE than there were a few years back. But we definitely want YOU to be a part of it!
More Resources on this topic: Why Your Brain Loves Story
Creating Out Loud
Livestreaming is an adventure, though, but it is interactive to include YOU. I’m excited to continue to create, learn, and share out loud.
I’m excited to be coming back, even if I’m not exactly sure where I fit just yet.
I have two livestreaming platforms to test for now, so we’ll see how it goes and if one is better. But let me ask you, are you seeing many livestreams in your YouTube feed? Do you like LIVE shows? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Also, if there are topics on your mind or something you want us to cover, drop them below, too! See you soon…
And thank you. Your support for The Marketing Mirror and its productions is more appreciated than you know… thank you, as always… Sue-Ann