Partnering with an industry thought leader is a dynamite way to promote a brand, and it can be a real win-win for both sides. But the thought leader has a “brand” too, and each side has to maintain their integrity. If the thought leader comes off as a shill, then win-win can quickly become lose-lose (witness the commercials Willie Nelson did for Taco Bell).

When the partnership goes right, a thought leader can make a huge difference in a content marketing campaign—lending credibility, creating (or curating) content and influencing the campaign’s direction from behind the scenes.

I hope you can stick with me for an interesting marketing conundrum transposed to the surprisingly comparable world of boutique music retail. Here goes!

If you were to think of musicians – and specifically guitar players – as simply a representative sample of the larger U.S. consumer base (which they are), you’d see that their needs and desires span across the spectrum from touring arena rockers to teens working out the opening chords to “Stairway to Heaven” in their bedrooms. And, much like that larger consumer world, a select few “big box” brands dominate the massively lucrative industry of instruments, amplifiers, effects, etc that supposes to cater to all these diverse needs. So, as a marketer, how do you break past the big leagues and find traction? How do you develop a niche or even compete?

You’re a marketing person tired of having your brilliantly conceived messages fall like trees in the empty forest. You’re a journalist, wanting to tell stories but needing to get paid. You’re a consumer living in a world of plastic corporate brands all claiming to be “world class” but leaving you feeling disconnected, alienated.

Marketer, journalist, consumer—you’re all about to die and go to heaven, thanks to a simple notion called “brand journalism.”

In an excerpt from a recent Publishing Executive magazine interview, CEO Chris McMurry discusses the continuing evolution of marketing and the crucial role of content across all mediums.

Certain people just exude confidence and have an obvious, clear path for their company's direction. Chris McMurry , CEO of content marketing firm (in "old" terms: custom publisher) McMurry, is one of those people. His focus and ability to anticipate and adapt quickly to market shifts have led the company to grow "around 50 percent in five years [from $33 million in 2006 to $50 million currently], despite the recession and industry shifts," he says.

At the TechCrunch DISRUPT conference in New York last month, Facebook's advertising chief Carolyn Everson revealed that brands are receiving 50 million "likes" on Facebook every single day. And the truly astonishing figure is this: Those 50 million likes represent just 5 percent of the more than 1 billion "likes" per day that Facebook has been generating since the "like" plugin for Web pages rolled out one year ago. In other words, 50 million “likes” a day is just a starting point, with an enormous amount of room for growth.