Researching work distractions, Part 2, I watched my seventh consecutive YouTube video, dashed to the kitchen and scribbled:

“Dinner will be late. Still too much work to do!”

There. I’d written something for the day. To justify, I decided those videos are not distractions but storytelling insight.

Many corporations attempt the close connection of this “view from the couch” with consumer storytelling. Whenever speaking to college classes about writing profiles, I encourage students to snuggle readers closer to their subjects by including conversational asides that seal universal ties: “No, it had to be more than five years ago, Vera, because we still had Puff.”

A friend emailed a YouTube link of decade-old Seattle square dancing that includes “our old friend Lee Stripling,” my late dad. Once in YouTube, my mind drifted to my other 2009 loss, my dog. That took me to “Intelligent Border Collie Puppy” with 206,271 other viewers, all probably also ignoring deadlines.

In Texshan74’s popular upload, Star, 3½ months, picks out different toys by name to the command “brang-it!” She shuts herself into her own crate for “nigh, nigh” and fetches a newspaper half her size.

Like all the best dog stories, this one has a beginning, a middle but no end. In other installments, Star shines in her first agility test. She holds a paw over her one eye in mock shame when her ribbons, strung like fish, include no blue. We see Star collecting trash at 7½ months, Star’s failure at herding deer, Star leaping on and off her owner’s back to catch a Frisbee at age 1.

No Hollywood script. No high budget. But enough intimacy that soon I envy not just Texshan74′s two-way devotion to this pup but also her brick-red tile, clean house, snaking driveway and off-porch wildlife.

Ties that bind. Evidence grows that we’re hurtling through a creative period rich with storytelling. If Star also celebrates her second and third birthdays on YouTube: I say, “brang-it!”

Postcards of books furthering my journey from old media to new:

Be clear

“Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability,”Second edition, (New Riders, 2006). Steve Krug’s advice on how to design websites that take people where they want to go no side trips to frustration.

The Web Content Strategist’s Bible: Developing Content for Large-Scale Web Sites,” Richard Sheffield, CLUEfox Publishing, 2009). What are the projects, who are the players and how content strategists work their way up the food chain.

Skim, scan

“Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works,” Janice (Ginny) Redish, (Morgan Kaufmann, 2007). People come to websites for content but they skim and scan. Good web content:

• Is like a conversation
• Answers people’s questions
• Lets people “grab and go”

Drive action

“Killer Web Content: Make the Sale, Deliver the Service, Build the Brand,” Gerry McGovern. (A&C Black, 2007).
Content needs to:

• Drive action
• Deliver new knowledge
• Focus on the customer
• Make the core task clear

Ask and listen

“Content Strategy for the Web,” Kristina Halvorson, (New Rider, 2009), $16.49 at Amazon. Brain Traffic’s Kristina practices what she preaches. Dramatically improve content with five principles:

• Do less, not more
• Figure out what you have and where it’s coming from
• Learn how to listen
• Put someone in charge
• Start asking, ‘Why?’

These books have taken me from “Really?” to “I said that in a meeting yesterday!” in five, not-so-short years.

In co-teaching a writing class for financial advisers recently, I expressed the idea that content is the new oil, a “precious resource” with real cost and real value as Gerry McGovern writes in “Killer Web Content: Make the Sale, Deliver the Service, Build the Brand.”

Merriman, Inc., formerly known as Merriman Capital Management, was an early leader in giving away quality content through their fund advice website, financial articles and books (often given free). In return, the company has received national attention, caché and ever-important links to its two websites.

Adding an exclusivity to some client profiles

Merriman is refining its approach to what it wants to give all visitors vs. what it wants to save for existing clients. For instance, my early profile writing was posted on the website. Now, my profiles are published twice a year in a newsletter given only to clients.

Advisers at this meeting talked about the fine line of providing real, usable information as part of their commitment to free educational resources but also the need to save their most comprehensive writing for the exclusive use of clients.

Quality content takes effort and skill. It has value so why not save the best to add value for committed clients?

Or, to continue the analogy: When oil is cheap, fewer people invest in the extra expense of a hybrid.