What Would A Content Marketing Degree Look Like

What Would A Content Marketing Degree Look Like What would a content marketing degree look like? Obviously, you dont need a degree to take part in content marketing. But if it were going to be your profession, what would you need to know?  Ive been stumbling onto blog posts and articles that try to pin down whether universities ought to offer actual degrees (or at least classes) in online content marketing, or whether there are certain types of courses someone ought to take in order to prepare for a career in content marketing. A Content Marketing Degree Im an art major, and while people often joke about the usefulness of that particular degree, I would point out that it is a degree that taught me important core creative principles that easily translate into other fields. It wasnt limited to the mechanics of drawing and painting, but included learning to give and receive critique, solving problems with my own ideas, working through a problem–good stuff to be able to do. In other words, some college degrees are about more than just their official title, building skills and qualities that translate well into other careers. Should universities offer specific content marketing degrees? #discussRather than worry about universities offering degrees for content marketing specifically, though, two better questions might be: What skills and knowledge would someone look for in hiring a content marketer? What kind of a training should you have if you want to pursue content marketing on your own? There are things every content marketer should know, and it doesnt take a university degree to learn them. What Every Content Marketer Should Know Content marketing is about writing, creativity, marketing, sales, data, and being socially engaging. Thats a lot of skills. How do you approach getting them? There are six core areas of knowledge that a content marketer should have a fair working grasp of, and if there were a content marketing degree, it might look a bit like this. 1. Psychology, Sociology, And Anthropology Psychology is the study of how we behave, and what motivates us to take action (or non-action).  Sociology  is the study of human social behavior, organization, and institutions.  Anthropology  is the study of people using social, biological, and natural sciences, as well as the  humanities  (studying human culture through a speculative and critical lens).  A special focus on  cultural anthropology  will give you insight into the customs, culture, politics, laws, religions, and language of a particular people group, which helps you understand a bit better why and how they react to things that other cultures perceive differently. Whew. All of that to say this:  You need to understand why people do what they do.  You need to know how to motivate or convince them to behave in the way that you want them to. If you are creating content that you want people to notice and share, take action on, and engage with in some way, you must know what causes them to do so. As a content marketer, youll need to know about: Pinging their emotions. Lets say there really are four basic emotions (happy, sad, afraid/surprised, angry/disgusted). Do you know which emotions encourage sharing? Which emotions get people to buy? Which emotions create loyalty? (Psychology) Pinging their motivations. Do you know what motivates people to take action? What verbal cues they look for? What visual cues they want? What turns them off right away? (Psychology) Banking on the group. Understanding how people act in groups or packs is important because that is exactly what social media is. It gets the individual to instigate something to the group. We talked about social proof, and how important it is to build that for your content marketing. Do you know how to leverage the group? (Sociology) Offending their sensibilities. Understanding your audiences culture is paramount. We all view the world through different cultural lenses. What might be offensive or crass in one culture might be admirable in another. Additionally, cultures arent purely based on geopolitical boundaries. They might be startup culture, mommy blogger culture, Star Trek culture–or all of the above. You should know your audiences culture well if you have a niche blog. (Anthropology) Culture affects marketing. Know the zeitgeist you are operating in. Culture determines so much about how content marketing works. Whats trending? Whats old news? Whats hot and what has become passà ©? (Anthropology) Youll see a lot of content marketing blog posts with a psychological or physiological (how our brain responds to stimuli) bent these days, but Ive always felt that, until recently, anthropology was lacking in mention despite having a very large role in how people groups act. The outcome of psychology and sociology sometimes gets altered when filtered through anthropology. Suggested Reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer Any of Dan Arielys books on behavior and rationality. Anthropology, Inc. by Graeme Wood The Atlantic, Feb 20, 2013. Anthropologys Contributions To Marketing by Charles Winick, Journal of Marketing, July 1961. Cultural Anthropology In Marketing by Marketing Profs 3 Things Marketers Could (And Should) Learn From Anthropologists by Mitchell Osak, Financial Post, March 4, 2014. Psychology for Marketer: 9 Revealing Principles of Human Behavior by Ginny Soskey, Hubspot Blog 2. Creativity And Problem Solving The need to create content of all types, for all occasions, means that youll need to be on your creative toes. A how-to guide on creativity is a bit hard to nail down, since we all approach it differently with habits, systems, preferences, and experiences. As a content marketer, youll need to know how to: Develop a system. Creativity and problem solving are concrete concepts in that they actually do tend to happen in the same way in each of us. We often get the idea that creativity is accidental, on a whim, and not predictable, but this is not the case. Will your system use brainstorming? Will you schedule creative time? Do you understand how creativity works? Do you know how to approach a problem that needs solving? Work through blocks. Sooner or later, youll face a dead-end when it comes to ideas, and this is when youll be glad you took the time to learn techniques to help you get past that. Maybe you have writers block, or cant think of absolutely anything to do for the next video. Really, when you think about it, problem solving  is  creativity. Suggested Reading: Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results by Drew Boyd Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fools Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie An Easy Way To Increase Creativity  By Oren Shapira and Nira Liberman, Scientific American, July 21, 2009 3. Journalism And Creative Writing Journalism and creative writing both have a place in content marketing. The journalist approach–getting the important facts and presenting the data with impartiality–mixes well with creative writing, the telling of a good story. As a content marketer, youll need: Research skills. When you approach your blog posts like a journalist, youll start to make use of serious research tools to collect necessary data. The New York Times has compiled a great list of resources you could use to do this kind of research, as has Poynter. Interview skills. Even if you are not doing an outright interview post, you still need to know the art of interviewing because that is really just the art of asking the right questions. Sometimes, when doing research, you are interviewing yourself, asking yourself the questions so that you know what answers to find. Storytelling skills. Do take the time to practice the art of storytelling, which mixes in many of the elements of psychology that motivate readers to keep reading: suspense, emotion, connection, and curiosity. In a sense, both journalists and creative writers are storytellers; one just has tangible facts that must be included with a goal of informing and educating the reader, while creative writing approaches the same goal through a more winding path. In the end, all great writing, no matter what form or style it takes, tells the truth to and about the reader.

Stubby Squid Facts

Stubby Squid Facts The stubby squid, or Rossia pacifica, is a species of bobtail squid native to the Pacific Rim. It is known for its large, complex (googly) eyes and reddish brown to purple coloration, which turns wholly opalescent greenish grey when disturbed. Its small size and striking appearance have led scientists to compare it to a stuffed toy. While they are called squids, in fact, they are closer to cuttlefish. Fast Facts: Stubby Squid Scientific Name: Rossia pacifica pacifica, Rossia pacifica diagensisCommon Names: Stubby squid, Pacific bob-tailed squid, North Pacific bobtail squidBasic Animal Group: Invertebrate  Ã‚  Size: Body length about 2 inches (males) to 4 inches (females)Weight: Less than 7 ouncesLifespan: 18 months to 2 yearsDiet: CarnivoreHabitat: Polar and deepwater habitats along the Pacific RimPopulation: Unknown  Conservation Status: Data deficient Description   Stubby squids are cephalopods, members of the Sepiolidae family, the subfamily Rossinae, and the genus Rossia. Rossia pacifica is divided into two subspecies: Rossia pacifica pacifica and Rossia pacifica diegensis. Diegensis is found only in the eastern Pacific coast off Santa Catalina Island. It is smaller and more delicate, has larger fins, and lives at greater depths (nearly 4,000 feet) than the rest of the R. pacifica species. Stubby squids look like a combination of octopus and squid- but they are actually neither, being more closely related to cuttlefish.   Stubby squids have a smooth, soft body (mantle) that is short and round with a separate head marked by two large complex eyes. Radiating out from the body are eight suckered arms and two long tentacles which retract and extend as needed to grasp dinner or each other. The tentacles end in clubs which also have suckers. The mantle (body) of the females measure up to 4.5 inches, about twice that of the male (about 2 inches). Each of the arms has two to four rows of suckers which differ slightly in size. The male has one arm with a hectocotylized sucker at the dorsal end to allow him to fertilize the female. Stubby squids have two ear-shaped fins and a slender, delicate internal shell (pen). They produce a great deal of mucus and are sometimes found wearing a Jello jacket of mucus to protect themselves from polluted waters. A man holds a stubby squid which begins to secrete a mucous as a defensive behavior. West Seattle, Washington. Stuart Westmorland / Getty Images Plus Habitat and Range Rossia pacifica is native to the northern rim of the Pacific Ocean from Japan to southern California, including the polar reaches of the Bering Strait. They spend the winters on sandy slopes in moderately shallow water, and the summers in deeper water where they breed.   They prefer sandy to mud-sand bottoms and are found in coastal waters, where they spend most of the day resting at depths of 50–1,200 feet (rarely 1,600 feet) below the surface. When they hunt at night they can be found swimming at or near the coastlines. Preferring to live in shrimp beds near their main prey, they dig themselves into the sand during the day so that only their eyes are visible. When disturbed they turn an opalescent greenish-gray color and squirt out a blob of black ink- octopus and squid ink is usually brown- that has the shape of a squid body.   Disturbed stubby squid swimming. Scott Stevenson / Getty Images Reproduction and Offspring   Spawning takes place in deep water during the late summer and fall. Male stubby squids impregnate females by grasping them with their tentacles and inserting the hectocotylus-armed arm into the females mantle cavity where he deposits the spermatophores. After accomplishing fertilization, the male dies.   The female lays between 120–150 eggs in batches of about 50 eggs (each under two-tenths of an inch); the batches separated by about three weeks. Each egg is embedded in a large creamy white and durable capsule measuring between 0.3–0.5 inches. The mother attaches the capsules singly or in small groups to seaweeds, clam shells, sponge masses or other objects in the bottom. Then she dies.   After 4–9 months, the young hatch out of the capsules as miniature adults and soon begin to feed on small crustaceans. The lifespan of a stubby squid is between 18 months to two years. Conservation Status   Studies on the stubby squid are difficult, since the creature spends much of its life in deep water, especially compared to its shallow-water Atlantic Ocean cousin Sepioloa atlantica. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the stubby squid as data deficient.   The stubby squid appears to survive quite well in polluted urban bays, even those with highly polluted bottom sediments, such as the inner harbors of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. It is often trawled in large quantities off the Sanriku-Hokkaido coasts of Japan and other subarctic Pacific regions, but its meat is considered inferior tasting to other cephalopods and so has low economic value.   Sources Anderson, Roland C. , Stubby squid. The Cephalopod Page.  Rossia pacificaDyer, Anna, Helmstetler, Hans, and Dave Cowles. (Berry, 1911). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Walla Walla University, 2005Rossia pacificaGoogly-eyed Stubby Squid. Nautilus Live. YouTube video (2:27).  Jereb, P., and C.F.E. Roper, eds. Rossia pacifica pacifica Berry, 1911. Cephalopods of the World: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Cephalopod Species Known to Date. Vol. 1: Chambered Nautiluses and Sepioids. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005. 185–186.Laptikhovsky, V. V., et al. Reproductive Strategies in Female Polar and Deep-Sea Bobtail Squid Genera Rossia and Neorossia (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae). Polar Biology 31.12 (2008): 1499-507. Print.Montes, Alejandra. Rossia pacifica. Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan, 2014.  Rossia pacifica Berry, 1911. Encyclopedia of Life. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.