It is with mixed emotions that we at Smarter Shift announce we are stepping away from our popular Twitter chat about content marketing, #ContentChat. We're handing the reigns to Lucy Rendler-Kaplan, who will continue on as solo moderator.
Three years ago Smarter Shift President and friend Mitchell Beer engaged me as the company's content marketing strategist to create a chat that would bring together members of the content marketing community for thoughtful discussions and shared education about our profession.
Like so many great content marketing tactics, we saw this as a win/win for everyone: it contributed to the community, while helping us to keep abreast of the latest tools and methods in a rapidly evolving field.
In the beginning...
We began with a modest but passionate group of chatters. Often in those first months, only a handful of people joined the chat. But those folks brought a lot to the table and quickly made #contentchat a regular part of their weekly routine.
Over the years the chat grew exponentially and featured such content marketing rock stars as: Dennis Shiao of DNN Corp.; Lilach Bullock of Comms Axis; Kathi Kruse of Kruse Control Inc; Dino Dogan of Triberr; Tom Treanor of Right Mix Marketing; Michael Brenner of Marketing Insider Group; Ann Handley of MarketingProfs; Maddie Grant of Social Fish; social media author Neal Schaffer; social media presenter Erika Heald; Carla Birnberg; Ted Coine' of The Extraordinary Influencer Network; Twitter marketing consultant Madalyn Sklar; Chris Barrows of the #WhyISocial Podcast and Aaron Kilby of #MediaChat.
Life started to get in the way a little for me this past year, and when I found I needed some help I asked loyal community member Lorrie Guerrieri to act as regular co-moderator for the chat. Lorrie helped me find guests and handled the chat on her own when I couldn't be there. In June, Lorrie's work began to prevent her from attending the chat, so she recommended regular community member Lucy Rendler-Kaplan to moderate in my absence.
Lucy was a brilliant choice. Over the past year, she and Lorrie both brought new excitement to the chat. Participation grew so much that the weekly discussion began to regularly trend on Twitter.
When I was able to return to the chat, I asked Lucy to continue on as my co-moderator and she graciously accepted.
A shift in focus
Now Smarter Shift is honing its focus more sharply on the content curation arm of our business, and on climate and energy communication. Continuing to host a wildly popular content marketing chat falls a little bit outside that focus.
Our first chat featured Microsoft's Scott Lum who shared his expertise on the topic of "What Content Should I Focus On?" So it was only fitting, though purely coincidental, that the final #contentchat that Smarter Shift sponsored featured Brian Honigman discussing "How to Determine Topics to Cover in Your Content Marketing."
We are thrilled that Lucy Rendler-Kaplan has agreed to continue the chat. The community remains strong and provides needed help and education to those interested in learning about content marketing.
I would personally like to thank my friend Mitchell Beer for giving me the opportunity to create and host this amazing Twitter chat. It has been fun and so educational. May all content marketing pros have the privilege of working with clients like Mitchell: folks who have the vision, trust, and confidence to support their efforts.
I would also like to thank the #contentchat community for its loyalty, warmth, generosity, and never-ending passion. You all have inspired me beyond words. May you all continue to receive as much from your interaction with each other, as I have received from knowing you.
Our archived #contentchat summaries will continue to be available here.