I’m writing this post within hours of speaking to a packed theater for Social Media Breakfast Ottawa 20.

With my first event behind me, the book tour is officially underway for Content Rules and I know that Ann and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

There was something perfect about the indie theater vibe, complete with set pieces around me on stage. Some speakers would freak at the set up, but I actually thrived in it. Being someone who loves to act and doesn’t get to be on stage nearly enough as I’d like (in the acting sense) I think I might have had a permagrin on my face the whole time.

I’m still digging through the tweets, but it looks like people left inspired, energized and ready to tackle the content beast and that is what I had hoped for.

Thank you to Ernst & Young for sponsoring the event and a special thanks to SMB Ottawa organizers Rob Lane, Ryan Anderson, and Simon Chen for making this event happen. The hospitality (and campfire building skills) of the people in Ottawa really shined through and it is a city I hope to return to again.

Photo Credit: Alexa Clark

Earlier today, Ann and I both got our first copies hot off the presses. We’ve both been on emotional highs ever since the packages were delivered.

Then, moments ago we got notified of the first other copy in the wild from our friend (and fellow Wiley author) Steve Garfield.

We had no idea that anyone else would be getting early copies like this so it was VERY cool to see. Especially from someone like Steve.

When you get a copy of the book, we encourage you to take photos of it and wherever you post them tag them with #ContentRules and letting us know about them.

As always Steve, thank you for the support.

You may not know that I’m a bit of a photography junky. It is pretty much a guarantee that anytime you see me, I have a camera of some sort on me and I’m constantly taking pictures of the world around me. My favorite are faces and people in general. If curious you can view my photos on Flickr.

So when Ann and I wanted some photographs of the two of us together I wanted to be sure to choose a photograph that I knew would be able to capture our unique personalities and I knew that my talented friend Derek Wilmot would be perfect for the assignment. He is known around New England as a top notch event and portrait photographer and I’ve been lucky enough to get to know him over the past few years and love his work.

These pictures were taken to use in promotions for our book tour, in newspaper and magazine articles and by you to help spread the word about the book. If you do use them in any way, you must be sure to credit Derek and link to his site at http://www.derekwilmot.com.

As we talk about at length in the book, giving proper credit for any content you use is not only the legally right thing to do, but it is a common courtesy that you should never forget. Thanks for the great photography work as always Derek!

Of course, now the real question remains. Which one is your favorite?

We just gave our first interview about the book as guest on The Quick’n’Dirty podcast.

It was a blast to do an we hope to do a lot more of them in the coming weeks as we ramp up to and then release the book.

Listen to it online or download the MP3 so that you can take it with you. Either way we hope you enjoy hearing a bit about how the book came to be and the proper way to say the title.

We are both big fans of Grammar Girl and the empire she has built around herself. Truth be told, Ann is a bit of a fan girl, so when she found out that C.C. actually knew Mignon and would be getting on camera with her, you should have seen the flurry of text messages. *grin*

But, we were excited to be part of her Behind the Grammar podcast and to talk a bit our decision to not give away lots of free copies of the book while marketing and what we decided to do instead.

Did we make the right decision? What do you think? We’d love to hear your opinion.

I have a pretty clear definition of what content is in my head. But, I also know that it is something that is hard to put into words when you need to so I was curious how others might describe it.

While attending Blogworld Expo last week I carried around my video camera asking friends and strangers to complete the sentence “Content is ____”. I had a blast sitting down this morning and pulling out some of the nuggets to share with everyone. It was fascinating how many different directions people went with their answers.

You might see some familiar faces in the video like Scott Monty, Todd Defren, Maggie Fox, Steve Hall, Jenny Cisney, Ewan Spence and Steve Garfield. Thanks to everyone who allowed me to film them. I ended up with so many great answers I couldn’t fit them all into the video.

Now, if I asked YOU the question how would you answer? What is content to you and how do you describe it? In the comments answer the question: Content Is _____

Update 11/19 – Adding links to content that people in the video are creating. If I forget someone, please let me know and I’ll add them.

• http://www.averagebetty.com
• http://foodieslive.com
• http://www.adrants.com
• http://tpnrock.com
• http://jennifercisney.1000words.kodak.com
• http://thecampdirector.com
• http://jeremyvaught.com
• http://jessicarmurray.com
• http://socialmediagroup.com/category/blog/
• http://www.scottmonty.com
• http://www.stevegarfield.com
• http://www.pr-squared.com
• http://fororchestra.com

One of the key messages of Content Rules is that creating content as a cornerstone of your marketing offers your organization an enormous and unprecedented opportunity. Among them:

• To engage directly with customers (or would-be customers)

• To communicate with personality, empathy and real emotion

• To create value

• And also: To have a little fun

It’s tempting to dismiss that last point, maybe. Who cares if your content is fun? Does fun make the cash register ring? And, anyway, what if you’re a B2B company selling dead-serious stuff? Won’t it undermine your credibility, marginalize your message, and disrespect your products if you don’t approach your marketing with solemn gravity? (more…)

Part of any good content strategy is to insure that you are not the only one creating content around whatever it is that you want to raise awareness for.

What I mean by that, is if the only people creating content about our book is ourselves, then that isn’t very successful. It is always better when people are excited enough to create the content for you in their own voices. This can often scare a brand who is use to the old days when they could control every word and visual about them. That is no longer the case.

So recently when I was having coffee with my friends Mike & Christine from Awareness and they asked if they could film a quick video interview with me about the book I said sure. As you’ll hear, there seems to be a trend of filming on busy streets when it comes to this book. *laugh*

Be sure to read the whole post that goes along with this video and learn more about all the other great content they are sharing on the Awareness Community site.

We are big fans of the team at Awareness and as a special inside scoop, there are rumors that we’ll be doing a webinar with them later this year. Shhh….it is our little secret. *grin*

C.C. and I are in the home stretch of finishing the book!

The manuscript is due July 1 July 15 Monday (!) (thank you for your patience, Shannon and Beth!), which means that this little corner of my office is where I’ve been spending all my waking hours lately.

If this photo had audio, you’d be hearing persistent, intermittent knocking on my office door. That would be my family, “Hello in there! When are you coming out?” Good thing it doesn’t; you might be more tempted to answer it than I have been. (Sorry, guys.) (Also, it would be embarrassing for me to have you witness my grouchy response.)

Anyway, I thought you’d enjoy the annotated (“Ann-otated?”) version of my writing space:

A few notes:

• “Critical reminders from DM Scott” are Post-It notes from the first conversation I had with David about this book, last January. He said, “Write for rock bands, churches, B2B, B2C, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, consultants, individuals, and so on. Don’t limit yourself to the world you know best.” So we haven’t. (more…)