I went to my first Boston Content event in the winter of 2012. And, oh man, did I ever need it.

At the time, I was cranking out 4,000 (occasionally coherent) words a day for a local content marketing agency, completely unsure of what my long-term plan was.

After years of trying to cobble together a career on the half-submerged Titanic that was the newspaper industry, I had finally abandoned ship in 2010 and moved into content marketing. Although, at the time, I probably couldn’t have told you what the “content marketing” field was or how I planned to start a career there. I just knew it seemed like a growing industry — one that allowed me to write every day, and almost certainly offered more career development opportunities than traditional journalism. 

We needed someone methodical, inquisitive, focused and patient. We needed someone with a unique perspective — one different from both myself and the rest of the committee — to ensure we are representing the diversity of our membership. Most importantly, we needed someone who cares about Boston Content’s mission and community as much as we do.

Mike possesses all of these thing and more, which is why I am thrilled to announce he has agreed to join me as co-executive director of Boston Content.

First comes the idea, and that can be hard enough to figure out. But once that’s set, someone has to actually create it.

Creating a piece for SEO should never feel unnatural; if it adds value to users, that’s all that matters. But what do we want to see in a piece in order to feel good about its SEO chances? As an editor, this is the charge I would give the person tasked with putting it together: Give me one thing worth noticing. Not 500 words on this, or seven tips for doing that — one thing.