content development and marketing

a #flashbackfriday holiday greeting

Posted on December 6, 2019February 2, 2020 by Russ DeVeau

My holiday greeting content this year includes a few ads I developed during my undergraduate years at Central Connecticut Statue University (CCSU) where I earned a degree in communications and marketing.

This is when I was working as the advertising and promotional manager at the Comet, one of Connecticut’s most unique restaurants and alternative dance clubs.

The Comet was located in a stylish and tastefully restored Art Deco diner – the original home of the Aetna Diner – on Farmington Avenue in Hartford.

The dance club was on the lower level of the diner and was often compared to Studio 54 in New York City.

I came across a series of these fun ads in a Provincetown attic box where they were stored for nearly 15 years. The ads were published in a wide range of media outlets in Boston, Hartford and New Haven.

I am still a fan of this ad. I like the layout and the simple and somewhat elegant black and white design.

Barring a few tweaks based on today’s graphic and production technologies, there’s not much I would change about this ad if I were promoting the Comet in print and on social media today.

The piece generally follows my best practices for generating social media results, which include ensuring messages stand out and are easy to read on any feed and from any device.

With this post I’m wishing everyone – especially those who remember the Comet – a very happy holiday season.

Take a look at my design, content and copy page for more on my design philosophies and a few social media best practices I’ve developed during my career to date. – Russ DeVeau

Machine learning tools for content creators…curation

Posted on February 22, 2019April 9, 2019 by Russ DeVeau

russ deveau machine learning for content creators russell deveau Speaking of machine learning tools for content creators…

Curation is an excellent example of a machine learning tool content creators and marketing teams can implement today to help realize a wide range of community building, positioning, search and visibility goals.

I’ve been using curation technologies for well over a decade. My first successes with curation came during the years when I served as the content and public relations lead for the launch of Kantara Initiative.

Back then we incorporated Yahoo Pipes technologies into Kantara’s community page to continuously showcase digital identity news and trends on the Kantara website.

I show an image of what the curated Kantara site looked like in the post, Yahoo Pipes and web aggregation as a strategic communications strategy and talk more about curation strategies in the posts, Russ DeVeau on curation attribution and Curation in the era of fake news.

Fast forward to today and curation platforms continue to evolve and improve significantly – and these improvements are due largely to automation and machine learning.

I launched the Sustainable ICT Daily several years ago when I was managing content development and marketing for Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI). The pages – made up of content I personally curated – were an important tactic for placing messages and showcasing CSCI executives and initiatives on a regular basis.

I launched the Edge and Fog Computing Daily last year when I was managing community and content development for the OpenFog Consortium. It took a while for this platform to deliver the results I wanted to see mainly because edge and fog were relatively new subjects at the time. There wasn’t enough content on web and social feeds to regularly produce and distribute a high-quality curated page on edge and fog computing.

Machine learning processes continuously improve based on a steady stream of quality data. As the edge and fog computing conversation moved more into the mainstream – driven in part by the content I developed for OpenFog and Fog World Congress 2017 – the Edge and Fog Computing Daily became a valuable and widely distributed resource for aggregated news and content on edge and fog computing.

The experts at Adobe have stated that machine learning tools for content creators will save time. The Edge and Fog Daily is automated based on my preferences for key words and hashtags. Machine learning allows the curation process to regularly improve results. Beyond a review of the headlines included in the daily report, I don’t spend any time on the curation or distribution process.

Curation has proven to be a valuable component of many of my most successful communications campaigns and programs. Machine learning helps ensure the results are exceptional. – Russ DeVeau

–A fog computing content development and marketing case study and portfolio

–Artificial intelligence and machine learning for content creators…not yet, but it’s coming

Artificial intelligence…a job killer for content creators?

Posted on January 30, 2019June 2, 2019 by Russ DeVeau

I’ve been blogging and tweeting quite a bit about how artificial intelligence and machine learning are positioned to dramatically change the way marketers and social media teams create and distribute content.

Many content development tools based on these Industry 4.0 initiatives are in the relatively early stage of development and use.

Content curation however, a tool I have leveraged for over a decade to add strategic value to a wide range of proactive programs in the cloud, data center, edge computing and security industries, is one excellent example of how machine learning is delivering value to content creators and marketing teams today.

I write about machine learning and content creation in the post, Machine learning tools for content creators…curation.

Matt Cimaglia, founder of Cimaglia Productions, offers another perspective on how content creators are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning today in a feature story published last month in Entrepreneur.

The Future of Video Advertising Is Artificial Intelligence offers a candid and detailed look at how artificial intelligence is transforming video production. The story outlines how videos have been produced historically and describes how the process changes when an algorithm is thrown into the production mix. From the article:

The algorithm can cut a different video ad in milliseconds. Instead of taking one day to edit one video, it could compile hundreds of videos, each slightly different and tailored to specific viewers based on their user data. Then, as the video analytics flows in, the algorithm can edit the video in real-time, too — instead of waiting a week to analyze and act on viewer behavior, the algorithm can perform instantaneous A/B tests, optimizing the company’s investment in a day.

Cimaglia goes on to boldly state that artificial intelligence will make human video editors obsolete.

That’s quite a transformation story and a great example of how artificial intelligence is dramatically changing the content development industry today.

I am generally a fan of promotional videos that are educational, somewhat fun to watch and relatively short in length.

This was true 15 years ago when I launched my first promotional video on YouTube, just as true during the time when I was managing content and video promotion for organizations such as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, the OpenFog Consortium and the Open Data Center Alliance, and remains true today as advertising and promotional videos populate feeds on every major social media platform.

As a key message development expert, I tend to judge promotional videos based on how well messages are communicated.

Key messages always matter – no matter what the medium – but are even more critical when many of today’s marketing and promotional videos range from six to 15 seconds in length.

Some of my favorite key messages tend to be those that are conversational, easy to repeat and clearly stand out on social media feeds.

Will artificial intelligence take over the key message development process?

If the adoption of artificial intelligence continues in the marketing industry at such a rapid pace, I’m betting the answer to that question is yes. – Russ DeVeau

My Hartford College for Women blog…

Posted on July 11, 2017October 14, 2018 by Russ DeVeau

I’m honored to say that my Hartford College for Women (HCW) blog has recently been recognized by Scoop.it as “highly recommended” in the history interest section.

Scoop.it is one of several curation technologies that I have incorporated into client positioning campaigns in order to support a wide range of search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives and as a tool to proactively place messages and stories.

I started my HCW blog to create a digital record of the years when I worked at the college as director of marketing and public programs. The blog has been incredibly successful in driving a wide range of search results and serves as a case study I point to whenever I am asked to speak about best practices for content development and SEO.

My job evolved significantly during the five years I worked at HCW. I had roles in facilities management, arts and public program development and in developing marketing campaigns to increase the visibility of college fundraising, community relationship building and student recruitment activities.

I had the opportunity to collaborate on conferences, educational and public programs with organizations such as the Connecticut Forum, the Hispanic Health Council, the Hartford Ballet, the Hartford Club and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.

I also had the opportunity to develop, manage and promote events featuring a wide range of activists, celebrities and educational and political figures such as United States Senators Chris Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, Gloria Steinem, Ellen Goodman, Billie Jean King, Deborah Norville and Sarah Brady. These programs regularly generated significant media coverage in print and broadcast outlets and brought a wide range of new and diverse audiences to HCW.

The image above is from my HCW blog. The top photo was taken on the main green of the HCW campus in the spring of 1995. I was standing to the photographer’s left when he took this picture. My team and I had just finished installing the first Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame exhibition in the Miriam B. Butterworth Art Gallery when this picture was taken. These women came to HCW to preview the exhibition before it opened to the public and before they participated in the Connecticut Forum’s American Women in Focus event that took place later that evening at Bushnell Hall. From left to right, Sarah Brady, Faye Wattleton, Eileen Kraus, Ellen Goodman, Billie Jean King, and Debra Norville.

The bottom photo is a picture of a Hartford Courant press clipping of a story covering Gloria Steinem’s visit to Hartford as part of the Women Connect educational and networking programs. I had an early role in producing Women Connect, working shoulder to shoulder with my pal Sandra Bursey, who at the time, was director of membership at The Hartford Club.

Check out my continuously evolving Hartford College for Women blog here. – Russ DeVeau

– Java, women in technology and Hartford College for Women

– Forest Hills Stadium summer concert series

– Promoting future presidential candidates and President Obama’s tech guru