Nothing like a good contrarian view to cap off the week, right?

On Wednesday, Rob Stott touched on content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi’s presentation at ASAE’s 2014 Marketing, Membership, and Communications Conference, where he brought some business-world strategies to the association-focused content marketing space.

But the Strategic Communications Group’s Maggie McGary says it’s not quite that easy—in fact, she argues, associations have a lot of differences the for-profit space doesn’t have to deal with.

“It may seem like an easy fix to someone who hasn’t worked in the association world—just create a mission statement for your content, create a content marketing strategy, then create an opt-in subscriber strategy,” she writes on her Mizz Information blog. “Done. Let me get right on that, said every association staffer ever. I mean, never, because this strategy would probably never work for actual associations.”

Among the things she sees as potential issues are differences in resources and stakeholders—less of the former, more of the latter.

Agree? Disagree?

Oh, Canada

FAQ from @Informz on the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) taking effect 7/1. #assnchat http://t.co/BWZssuEz3B

— eBallot (@ebvote) June 19, 2014

We’re less than two weeks away from Canada Day, and if you’re an online marketer, that’s a big deal—as we recently mentioned.

Canada’s Anti-Spam Act, a law described as one of the world’s most restrictive, goes into effect July 1, and even if you’re not Canadian, it still matters to you if you have any email subscribers in the Great White North.

A couple of months back, association-focused email firm Informz wrote a nice roundup of what you should know about the new law, and it might be worth looking at its FAQ to ensure you’re ready for the changes—before they come back to bite you. (ht @votenet)

Other good reads

“Refusing to match an outside offer does not mean you don’t value that employee. You may simply no longer be able to afford her. That’s just reality.” David M. Patt offers straight talk on bidding wars with other companies over employees.

There’s a good chance that, as a meetings pro, you travel a lot. Because of that, having a handle on frequent flyer miles is key. LifeHacker has a breakdown.

Forget #FollowFriday. Now it’s about #ThrowbackThursday, an Instagram-born hashtag trend that’s hip with the kids. Steve Drake explains.

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