Welcome to Digital Machiavelli, a weekly newsletter about digital content strategy, combining content production, distribution, user experience, and everything else relevant to the construction of an effective online presence in 2021 and beyond.
Why Machiavelli?
Machiavelli gets a bit of a bad rap, but he was proficient at studying the strategic wisdom of ancients and relaying it to the leaders of his time (see The Art of War).
Fast forward to the early XXI century, and whether you’re working on text content, multimedia, software, or some novel mix of all of the above, reaching your target audience on the digital battlefield requires strategy and tactics, assuming you want to defeat the ever growing amount of noise out there.
So my goal with this publication is to mimic Machiavelli by studying the shifting digital landscape -- something I already do on a daily basis -- and sharing the insights I glean with you in the form of actionable advice shaped by visceral truths about how we interact with one another and our technology.
What does subscribing get you?
I aim for a weekly posting schedule of insights across these digital content topics:
Digital Strategy (content distribution channels, platform algorithms, and more)
Narrative Design (why storytelling is still as critical today as it was centuries ago)
Information Architecture (for effective competition in the Attention Economy)
Interaction Design (UX that plugs straight into the limbic system)
Who can benefit from this?
Digital production specialists (writers, video editors, podcast hosts, etc.)
Digital marketing professionals (those working with content but concerned primarily with its distribution and performance)
Digital communications people (those who define product voice, develop brand identity, run PR campaigns, or talk to users)
Corporate executives who want to get into the weeds and understand digital strategy in practical terms and in small, bite-sized pieces
Aspiring professionals looking to learn how to think at a higher level to transition from a production role into a more strategic one
But this isn't just some digital marketing blog.
Because at its core, digital strategy is not about how to produce digital content or how to measure its impact, but about how you think.
And should I succeed in my endeavor, then every post here will be a valuable addition to your mental arsenal, helping you tackle more complicated challenges both at work and in everyday life on the vast plateaus of cyberspace terraformed by Al Gore in 1991.
