#CMWorld: GE's Katrina Craigwell On "Content As Currency" – TrackMaven

#CMWorld: GE’s Katrina Craigwell On “Content As Currency”

TrackMaven has landed in Cleveland! With this much marketing talent in one place, Content Marketing World 2014 offers the opportunity to learn directly from the marketing minds behind some of the most creative and innovative content strategies.

We connected with one such Marketing Maven — Katrina Craigwell, Global Manager of Digital Marketing at General Electric — for her take on the trends and changes in strategic content marketing.

  • Content Marketing means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What does it mean to you?

Katrina Craigwell: I think for us, we think of content as currency to earn a seat at the table, to be able to talk to people who love science as much as we do, love technology as much as we do, love big, shiny machines as much as we do.

From a brand perspective, it’s not so much about the quantity of the content that we churn out, but it’s about the quality of the experience that we can build for an audience from that content.

  • What’s the biggest mistake you’ve seen brands make with content marketing?

Katrina Craigwell: We’re all doing our best. But I think the challenge we face it — and everybody faces it — is how do you make sure that you’re focusing the voice and experience so that it’s consistent whether you are on Twitter, or YouTube, or you’re seeing something on TV?

I think that’s hard — first, because the space is new, and, secondly, because when you look inside organizations, there are so many players, and everybody’s working on content in some form. How do you bring that together so that you’re getting the same voice from all of the content sources? That’s the greatest source of friction in content marketing.

  • Name two brands you think are killing it with content right now.

Katrina Craigwell: Since it falls into our world a little bit, I love the Caterpillar videos. They did a giant Jenga video with their machinery that was amazing.

I think the content NASA does is also amazing. And Elon Musk — every time Tesla or SpaceX publish a social media post or put out a GIF to show that their piece of technology really does work, they do such a great job. And every time Elon Musk puts out a Tweet that is confident and on the nose and talks about a major issue that the company might be facing.

I find that really interesting because there’s not another example where you have leadership who just seems fairly comfortable in the space. That’s a cool thing to watch.

  • And finally — what’s your 2nd favorite breed of dog? (Besides Corgis, of course!)

Katrina Craigwell: I’m an auntie to a Dachshund and a Cockapoo. I have to say both of them.

Did you attend Katrina Craigwell’s Content Marketing World session, “How GE Determines What Channels Make the Most Impact”? Tweet us your takeaways at @TrackMaven!