Content Strategy, Editorial and Community Engagement – Listed here are just a few of the dozens of projects I have spearheaded or have been a part of while working for Everest Poker, CIDC and the BetClic Everest Group. My focus has been in several key areas, including social media content strategy/creation; training and presentation of new features and tactics; SEO and SEM; blogging content and copywriting; and community engagement.
Everest Poker Quick Seat Lobby Promo Video
This is a recent promotional video for a new feature release within the Everest Poker software client called Quick Seat Lobby. I delivered and defined the concept, preliminary storyboards, presentation/pitch and content strategy. Video production and additional storyboarding were completed by Manny Flores. Copywriting by Kim Hart. Final copy was delivered to partners, players and affiliates in HD.
Blogger Relations and Content Strategy
When Everest Poker wrapped up its annual Live the Dream competition in 2010, it had an additional 10 sponsored players serving as brand ambassadors for live poker tournaments and other events. Sigurd was one of the most successful of these players, having cashed at a World Series of Poker side event in the summer of 2010. For this project I worked with the ten players to generate design ideas and content for their blog. Collaborating with the in-house Everest Poker Creative Team, we then conceptualized a series of personalized blogs for our players that reflected their tastes, quirks and other interesting traits. Sigurd’s “Viking” blog is one such example of how this process looked when completed. As with May Maceiras, below, I provided guidance, troubleshooting and content ideas for this network of players as they traveled Europe to participate in live poker events. Art Director: Kevin Lee (Now at Inphantry)
Main skills and platforms: Content management, writer training, SEO training, interviewing, CMS, WordPress
May Maceiras is a sponsored Everest Poker pro. In 2008/2009 we began work on a blogging strategy that would see ten of our sponsored players writing posts and creating visual content (video with Flip Cams, Photo Galleries) and serving as brand ambassadors. I personally drew up documentation and conducted teleconference training sessions with these Europe-based players. As the network matured, I oversaw the players as an advisor, content monitor and basic QA representative. Players were free to design the blogs as they saw fit, host them on local domains, and host custom poker promotions. As an advisor and content manager, I updated blogs with social tools like Twitter, Formspring and others as they became available, or as they were requested by the team members.
Main skills and platforms: TypePad, social media (Twitter modules and Facebook integration), Formspring, Blog widgets, blog training, blog content strategy and management.
The Everest Poker Face is an interactive social media campaign designed by an outside agency to measure a poker player’s “poker face” for signs of emotion. Using a webcam, players would view a series of funny or disturbing images, and the software would measure their facial responses to produce a score. Players would then share this score and a link to the Poker Face app, which was hosted on EverestPoker.com/de. The campaign boosted brand awareness and effectively created viral, user-generated content that reinforced the Everest Poker room as a fun, community-focused online poker room. This interactive app is still live today. Give it a shot.
Skills and Platforms: Facebook app integration, project management, creative copy and conceptual work.
Blog/Content Strategy and Copywriting
The Dutch site Poker.nl provides players with basic industry news and educational tips related to the world of online and live tournament poker. Content is written by sponsored pros Steven van Zadelhoff and Koen de Baker, two of the more well-known poker pros in the Dutch market. Working with the Creative team we were able to design a simple, defined blog experience for these two players and their readership. Optimized link anchor text, copy and calls to action (e.g. download button) all served to increase player acquisition numbers and improve SEO for the Dutch-based poker sites affiliated with this project.
Skills and platforms: WordPress, content management, copyediting, social media training. Interactive designer: Justin Girard.
SEO Viral/Linkbait Content and Copywriting
In the Everest Poker Community Section I conceived of and now manage an editorial SEO “linkbait” section called “Flopping Nuts” that hosts a number of poker articles and columns written by our sponsored players. The goal of this project was to create low-cost, quick-to-execute content that would generate inbound links to the Everest Poker domain across all supported languages. We also cross-post this content to Facebook, where our players are free to share, generate links, and improve their poker game with the help of our pros. The articles are translated into all major European languages, which in turn creates even more content for the site and potential link-building opportunities.
Main skills and platforms: Plone CMS, project management, copy editing, headline writing, freelancer management, Google Analytics