Systematic 257

Brett: [00:00:00 ] [00:00:00 ]

[00:00:06 ] this week’s guest is Tris Hussey, a freelance content marketer. How’s it going, Tris?

[00:00:12 ] Tris: [00:00:12 ] Brett, It’s great. And we were just talking last week about stuff. So it’s, it’s an honor to be on this podcast.

[00:00:18 ] Brett: [00:00:18 ] that the,

[00:00:18 ] Tris: [00:00:18 ] So flattered.

[00:00:19 ] Brett: [00:00:19 ] the easiest way to get on systematic is to have me on your podcast first.

[00:00:24 ] Tris: [00:00:24 ] All right. So then if I want to be on again, do I have to have you on again? Which would be fine, but

[00:00:30 ] Brett: [00:00:30 ] I don’t think it works twice.

[00:00:31 ] Tris: [00:00:31 ] no. Okay.Ok.

[00:00:33 ] Brett: [00:00:33 ] you have to wait for the rotation, come back around. Like after I took a year off of systematic and then. Since starting it back up. Most of my guests have been people that were on like five, six years ago and like catching up with them. But, uh, it turns out you’re okay.

[00:00:52 ] So I, I feel like we’ve known each other in a digital sense for a long time. And I had it in my head in my head that you had actually [00:01:00 ] been on systematic before, but you haven’t.

[00:01:02 ] Tris: [00:01:02 ] But I haven’t. No, but we have known each other in the digital sense for a very, I think probably almost 10 years.

[00:01:08 ] Brett: [00:01:08 ] How did we, how did we first connect?

[00:01:10 ] Tris: [00:01:10 ] Oh, it was, I think it was, well, I was still a professional blogger and tech journalist and doing a lot of writing and I think I, I might’ve stumbled on nvALT. And, uh, then quickly saw Marked, the first version came out and scoop that up in a heartbeat. And then when Marked 2 came out, I grabbed that and then I’ve just kind of followed the stuff you do.

[00:01:39 ] Not that I understand all of it because when you and Christina Warren were talking in your last overtired episodes, like, wow, I have no idea what they’re talking about, but it sounds so cool. I wish I could do those things.

[00:01:52 ] Brett: [00:01:52 ] Yeah. That episode, like w our audience is by and large super nerdy. But then [00:02:00 ] again, when I say things like that, I realize I work off of assumptions. And we don’t get a lot of like data on who actually listens to the show other than like random tweets. So, you know what? I don’t even know what my, my primary demographic for this show is.

[00:02:18 ]Tris: [00:02:18 ] I would say humans who are interested in learning new. Things, if the, if, if the episodes that I’ve seen

[00:02:25 ] are any indication. Yeah.

[00:02:28 ] Brett: [00:02:28 ] Curious humans. That’s that’s my, that’s my target demo.

[00:02:32 ] Tris: [00:02:32 ] Curious humans, they’re, they’re all usually the most fun humans. So

[00:02:36 ] Brett: [00:02:36 ] So what, uh, how do you define content marketing?

[00:02:40 ]Tris: [00:02:40 ] Uh, I, I think it is the, the teenage version. Of professional blogging, which means you’re, you’re creating content for a business to help them meet some kind of, [00:03:00 ] some kind of business goal. Whether it’s more leads or more app downloads or just thought leadership in general. Um, any, any of those things. And I really do it.

[00:03:12 ] It did come right out of professional blogging. When I’m asked about that as well, I’ve been content marketing for 16 years and people look at me or, you know, the raised eyebrow goes up. It’s like, well, I know it wasn’t called that back then, but that’s what it was when we were business blogging. It really was, it was content marketing.

[00:03:27 ] We just didn’t realize it yet.

[00:03:29 ] Brett: [00:03:29 ] So w w what is teenage version mean?

[00:03:32 ] Tris: [00:03:32 ] It means we still have a lot to learn. And I think we have a lot of angst. Um, yeah, I think content marketing is, it’s kind of, maybe we’re almost ready to graduate from high school as in content marketing, but I don’t think we’ve hit our stride. And I think there’s a lot of experimentation going on, which is great, which is what all your teenage years are about.

[00:03:57 ] Um, there’s certainly the emo crowd in [00:04:00 ] the, in the, the, the popular kids crowd and, uh, the, you know, the drama and band group in, in the geeks, in, in content marketing who are. Seeing where this is going to go. Cause I think it’s too early to really pigeonhole it because we’re still figuring out what really the best things are.

[00:04:23 ] Because not that long ago, people only thought about content marketing, I think as blogging. And they didn’t look at the whole picture, which is like podcasting and audio, um, and webinars and those expanded versions, or even, you know, posting on LinkedIn, um, and other social media, like people didn’t think they thought, uh, early on, you know, Twitter, you know, like I’m going to share this on Twitter.

[00:04:50 ] And it’s not really part of my content marketing, but it is, it all has to be part of the same story. The story has to be all part of the same thing. So we’re still figuring it out. And I think once, you know, we, we [00:05:00 ] finished high school, we’re getting into college and we, uh, go into our, maybe our, our philosophical phase.

[00:05:09 ] Right. We’re going to hang it around drinking, um, obscure imported beer or smoking clove cigarettes. And, uh, talking deep thoughts about the true meaning of content, then we’re going to kind of mature and be… Have things figured out because I think everyone’s still figuring stuff out, like where, you know, how, what metrics to measure and how to measure them and what are important, what are just the vanity metrics versus actual metrics, you things that things that we don’t.

[00:05:42 ] We don’t really, if you look at the digital marketing world and ads, that’s pretty mature. I mean, we’ve been doing it since the late nineties. I mean, we’ve, we figured that one out pretty well, but content I think is still evolving.

[00:05:54 ] Brett: [00:05:54 ] Do you, if you had to pick one medium that you thought [00:06:00 ] if a client could only afford to hire you for one medium, is, is it still blogging? That’s kind of the primary, uh, most effective.

[00:06:09 ] Tris: [00:06:09 ] Yeah, I think so because it has the most potential to spin off into, in support other things. So if you have a really good solid blog and you. W, uh, set up a good story. What’s your brand stor