JANUARY 2018 SEEDWORLD.COM / 41 I CONFESS — I like to procrastinate. As a result, I force myself to regularly block out some time in my schedule for specific topics I need to think about — things like the general vision of our team, where we’re going as a business, our sales pro- cesses, where we’re at with new projects and current customers, and account management-type stuff. Long-term planning requires us to focus and give serious thought to the road ahead. I don’t need to tell you that in a time when technology has us all moving at a faster and faster pace, spare time to accomplish this planning is often in short supply. But being a procrastinator isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A Columbia University study differ- entiates between “active” and “passive” procrastination. Active procrastinators are a “positive” type of procrastinator. They prefer to work under pressure, and they make deliberate decisions to procrasti- nate, the study says. The results show that active procrastinators make purposeful use of time and control their time care- fully, and this actually improves their per- formance and makes them effective. Many of us, whether we realize it or not, are active procrastinators. But for active procrastination to work, it’s impor- tant to have good data so you can make operational and strategic decisions. Quality data needs to be: • From all areas of the business My Name is Mike and I’m a Procrastinator MIKE DORRIS SALES AND OPERATIONS MANAGER, CULTURA SEED SOLUTIONS @mikedorris1 • mike.dorris@culturatech.com • seed.culturatech.com •  Standardized so that data compari- sons can be made • Accurate • Complete and consistent A good business management system should allow you to record and collate accurate and standard data from all aspects of a business, validated at the point that the operational transactions are performed. It should also provide you with a quick and easy way of accessing this data in useful formats. Procrastinating isn’t always a bad thing. If you’re like me and identify as an “active” procrastinator, making sure you have good data is essential. AS THE NEW YEAR beckons, do you take time to evaluate your 2017 content marketing efforts? Go Long A recent study with Buzzfeed and Curata revealed that content gets more impact- ful and effective the longer it is. Blog posts over 1,000 words are far more effective than shorter posts. Over 2,000 words, effectiveness leaps up again. What’s the reason for this? When you have a longer article you are able to cover related topics and reference relevant issues. This means a single article will rank for multiple keywords and phrases in search engines. That means your content will appear more often, boosting your “expert” status. Use More Visuals Adding eye-catching images to your content can make your content click- bait and increase engagement. People engage with digital devices differently than a magazine and need more context to understand and immerse themselves in written text. It’s easy to get lost in a screen full of copy, but basic additions like pictures, custom graphics and pull quotes can break up text to make it easier to read and understand. Write a “Best-seller” No one wants to read boring content – even if it’s about a technical subject. Readers expect us to bring the topic to life and convey the information they want in a way that’s useful and enjoyable. There are lots of ways to improve the quality of your content, from writing more clearly and concisely, to making sure it provides lots of useful information, to displaying it in a visually engaging way. Harness the Power of Your Employees An often underestimated and over- looked source of sharing is your staff. Research from LinkedIn has shown that only 3% of employees share company content but this generates 30% of con- tent engagement for a typical business. While that stat alone is powerful it also shows how much potential is being left unused. Advocate with your team a shared understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and the benefits differ- ent partners get and build a strategy that makes it easy for your employees to share your content. Re-purpose When you create great content think about all the different ways you can use it. When you invest huge amounts of effort into cre- ating an e-book or white paper, make the plan of how to repurpose and repackage it to get the most mileage from it. For every piece of truly high-impact content that you create, it should be able to translate into at least five other smaller pieces. 5 Content Marketing Resolutions You Should Make Today SHAWN BROOK PRESIDENT, ISSUES INK @IssuesInk • sbrook@issuesink.com • issuesink.com/create-by-issues-ink