Ann Han­d­ley is all about con­tent. If it’s not worth say­ing, don’t say it and go out and find some­thing that is worth say­ing and that will sup­port your brand and mar­ket­ing efforts at the same time.

As chief con­tent offi­cer for Mar­ket­ing­Profs it’s Ann’s job to get a han­dle on blog­ging, pod­casts, video and writ­ten con­tent and show her clients how to get the most out of their online mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. She’s def­i­nite­ly a fig­ure worth watch­ing if you’re in media jobs.

Where’d It All Start?

Han­d­ley is a dig­i­tal vet­er­an, with over 13 years expe­ri­ence man­ag­ing con­tent and help­ing busi­ness­es and indi­vid­u­als devel­op rela­tion­ships with their clients through the clever use of infor­ma­tion. An alum­ni of Sim­mons Col­lege and for­mer free­lance cor­re­spon­dent at the Boston Globe and asso­ciate edi­tor at Banker and Trades­man, she’s also the co-author of ‘Con­tent Rules: How to Cre­ate Killer Blogs, Pod­casts, Videos, Ebooks, Webi­na­rs (and More) That Engage Cus­tomers and Ignite Your Busi­ness’ and she has a pas­sion for using emerg­ing new media tools and tech­nol­o­gy to devel­op and add value.

But how does she think mar­keters can make sure they stay rel­e­vant in a world that’s gone social and tech crazy?

She says: “The eas­i­est way to stay cur­rent and rel­e­vant is to read Mar­ket­ing­Profs… We see our mis­sion as edu­cat­ing mar­keters on what mat­ters. We are con­stant­ly sur­vey­ing the mar­ket­ing land­scape and bring­ing our read­ers infor­ma­tion and know-how on the stuff they need to know, and not just the stuff that’s cool. In oth­er words, we pay atten­tion to all of it so you don’t have to… Isn’t that a relief?”

Pri­or to join­ing Mar­ket­ing­Profs, Ann co-found­ed ClickZ.com, one of the first online sources of mar­ket­ing news and com­men­tary and before that she spent more than 10 years as a writer and busi­ness edi­tor for a num­ber of local and nation­al trade and con­sumer pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing the pres­ti­gious Boston Globe. She also con­tributes reg­u­lar­ly to the Huff­in­g­ton Post, Entre­pre­neur Mag­a­zine and Mash­able. She’s a lead­ing light in the world of strate­gic mar­ket­ing – you can tell because she has almost 150,000 fol­low­ers on Twit­ter and when Ann speaks, they all listen.

What’s Ann Like?

Stu­dious and pro­fes­sion­al, yet with a dis­arm­ing and endear­ing alacrity, Ann is very enthu­si­as­tic about con­tent and is pas­sion­ate about ensur­ing busi­ness­es and those that mar­ket them­selves online are clear about the need for qual­i­ty over quan­ti­ty when it comes to con­tent. She is how­ev­er, a firm believ­er in hav­ing a strong sense of humour in busi­ness and looks for these attrib­ut­es in poten­tial employees.

“I do think hav­ing a sense of humor and fun is crit­i­cal,” she said. “I’ve been talk­ing for a long time about what to look for in a con­tent hire… But I think the most impor­tant qual­i­ties include train­ing as a jour­nal­ist, writer, or sim­i­lar, as well as busi­ness acu­men, social DNA, and an amateur’s passion.

“Espe­cial­ly that last one: Is the per­son you want to hire already cre­at­ing con­tent just for the love of it, and not just because they get paid to do it? Have you heard them utter phras­es like, “I am soooo blog­ging that…!”