This report from Altimeter Group introduces a five-step content maturity model, complete with real-world case examples, to guide organizations from “standing” to “running” with their content strategy. A self-audit tool, content channel review, and actionable recommendations are also included. (Five FMP employees helped inform this report.)

Federated Media Publishing and Zemanta have announced a strategic partnership that will use technology to make it easier for bloggers and companies to connect, increasing opportunities to create targeted content marketing campaigns.

Federated Media represents a select portfolio of influential blogging sites that the company connects with brands looking to develop content campaigns. Zemanta has created a web engine that helps more than 80,000 bloggers identify trusted sources of information related to their posts, including background research, images and links to other websites or blogs. Zemanta’s technology can be used as a plug-in on a wide range of programs, including WordPress and tumblr., or can be installed as a browser extension for those who work on multiple blogging platforms.

Last year, we had our windows washed at the office. The serviceman arrived with his squeegee in hand and a massive tattoo on his arm reading, "I love windows." Like a bumper sticker on a bicep, his passion for his work was literally written on him - permanently - for the whole world to see. While most people wouldn't exactly brand themselves on their flesh like he did, many brand communities have equally passionate advocates who are so engaged and in love with your brand that they will go lengths to help you be successful. This kind of advocacy can't be bottled, but it can be utilized in new and interesting ways to magnify the impact of your community and the power of your brand.

The online advertising market is booming. The display market in particular is likely to have hit $9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 – a growth spurt that even on a steep chart looks like a right angle. That’s the good news. The bad news, from a publisher perspective, is that much of that spend is consolidated by a relatively small number of companies (Facebook, Yahoo!, AOL, Google, and Microsoft). This condensing ad spend runs counter to what the internet is about and why we as consumers spend so much of our time immersed in it.

“Your first and last name is on your credit card,” says Federated Media CEO Deanna Brown. “[They’re] on your birth certificate. But they’re not necessarily your currency in a kind of conversational or branded world.” As social media increasingly allows people to become brands—and brand influencers—themselves, she says, she sees brands warming to consumers with digital clout who prefer to use alternate identities online.

P&G is bringing digital executives to its Cincinnati headquarters for a March summit, including Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and executives from Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Federated Media, in addition to executives from fellow marketer Coca-Cola. (This event is being programmed and produced by FMP.)

Amid the rise of Facebook, there’s a risk that some are sounding: It could kill the Web. Not totally, but it could further splinter the open Web of the Google Era into several large private fiefdoms, epitomized by the approaches of Facebook and Apple. That’s a threat to the media ecosystem, warns Federated Media chairman John Battelle. It’s already a pain for the ad system. There’s no way to use standard tools like Google’s DoubleClick ad server on Facebook. 

Zemanta’s inked a deal with Federated Mediathat could make brand advertising via blogosphere contributions scale higher, faster. Federated Media lets independent bloggers participate as partner-publishers in programs to build brand engagement. For example, for Dockers, Federated Media had publishers with a strong male following write articles around the theme of men crafting lifetime legacies, which were used to increase page-views and clicks to, and reader interaction with, Dockers.

“If a brand is an expert in a certain topic, their reputation might make them a credible source of information,” said Neil Chase, svp of editing and publishing at Federated Media. “But if a company that makes toasters gives health advice, they might not be credible. If they’re sending out recipes, that’s a reason to trust them.”

At Federated Media, CEO Deanna Brown is aiming to make the company a top five media company in 2012. She said the company's acquisition of Foodbuzz and BigTent lifestyle properties contributed to the increase in 2011. "Unfortunately comScore does not measure/give us credit for the long tail sites that we work with as a result of our late 2011 acquisition of Lijit Networks - which serves more than 125K publishers," she said in an email interview.

What's more important in business, the idea or the execution? Well when it comes to digital marketing, if ideas are currency then execution is the Federal Reserve. Great execution is all about a having a strong vision, clear communication, a defined set of processes, and relentless attention to detail. The system falls down without the inherent trust that good ideas can and should be executed.

Another possible, but more remote angle to this acquisition has to do with the 500,000 websites that 33across says uses Tynt technology. The company could end up echoing the strategy of a Lijit (acquired by Federated Media), for example. Lijit provides a search engine to long tail publishers as well as an ad network.  33across could provide its Tynt tools and then start an ad network business where publishers could install media placements sold through 33across. But, the company isn’t going there quite yet - at least publicly.

Even as Facebook woos brand advertising dollars from television, the bigger near-term shift in brand spending will be from fading portals Yahoo, MSN, and AOL to emerging brand-safe venues such as Facebook, YouTube, Zynga, and perhaps networks of prime Web sites run by Glam Media, Federated Media Publishing, and others. One big reason for this: a concerted push by advertisers and at least some publishers such as Facebook, along with industrywide initiatives such as Making Measurement Make Sense, to use well-known metrics like television’s Gross Rating Points with online ads so that marketers can measure impact more or less equally across media.

Conlon was right on. Federated Media Publishing (FMP) surveyed 1,200 online publishers and bloggers this holiday season and found that the Apple iPad, tablets and MP3 players are in demand. “These bloggers spend all day sharing their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions with their readers, so naturally they would have some opinions on holiday trends,” said Deanna Brown, CEO of FMP, in an email interview. The survey’s results indicated that bloggers are saying cookbooks, books and magazines are also hot gifts to give in 2011.

If you ask the average community manager how they got their current job, you will likely get a wide variety of answers. A rapidly emerging field without traditional training paths, those looking to hire are often at the mercy of their resourcefulness when it comes to locating and hiring talent to fill this important role.