Content That Works

Creating content simply because you (or your boss) think you should will keep your site or blog or Twitter feed full but may not satisfy your readers. Frank Reed, owner of FT Internet Marketing, argues that it's more important to create content your readers actually look forward to receiving.

Statistically speaking, the number of people who really look forward to your next installment likely represents only a fraction of your total traffic. But Rich notes, that fraction comprises the true believers, the true fans - think the 80/20 rule.

But they tend to be overlooked in the drumbeat to peg SEO goals - which is a sure way to squelch their interest. "They are your most valuable customers yet they are sacrificed in most marketers’ attempts to get bigger numbers rather than a better (albeit smaller in many cases) audience of true fans," Rich writes.

So, Rich says, hone your content creation to cultivate that loyal fan base. "The old axiom of 'Quality beats quantity every time' holds true in the content world as well," Rich concludes.

This post appeared recently on the eminently snarky and cynical website Overheard in the Newsroom: "Social media editor: “I’m too busy. I can’t use my brain.”

If your organization has leapt into social media, the people responsible for that may well feel that way. But it's something they have to do every day, because a day online is like a month (or more) in more traditional marketing.

It's also important to take the time to analyze your social media's effectiveness - if for no other reason than to justify your efforts. Just make sure you use meaningful metrics, and understand what those metrics can and cannot say about their success.

For example, if you or others at your group blog, notes Galen De Young at ProteusB2B, business bloggers need to look beyond metrics such as numbers of visitors or RSS subscribers.

"In my opinion, one of the best ways to gauge the success of a B2B blog is to analyze how much traffic it’s generating, and to analyze how hard those blog pages are working for you," De Young writes.

Those measurements include how people found your site, where people land on your site and how much time they spend there, he notes.

At Hammock, we call that a Content Marketing Intelligence Report or CMIR, and it's what we do for every client at the start of a relationship and at regular intervals thereafter. That's how we measure up.

One of my editors back in my newspaper days had a sign above his desk: "Everybody Loves a Dog Story."

Lesson learned: If you can work a cute puppy into your marketing message, people will come. Oh, they will come...

It takes more than establishing a presence on Facebook or Twitter, or launching a corporate blog to make effective use of social media. As Heidi Cohen points out, it takes a lot of work to make your social media marketing plans work.

As the new shiny thing on the marketing block, social media is filled with both mystery and promise. Many businesses are just beginning to get to acquainted with it, and may be infatuated with what it seems to promise.

If you read this blog regularly, though, you know we've said all along that social media is not magic. It's a tool and like any tool, it takes time and effort to wield effectively and to learn what it can and cannot.

Cohen's post summarizes points about effective social media that you'll find in other posts on Hammock.com. These include:

• Frequent updating
• Consistent messages
• Participation by management and employees
• Clear guidelines for contributors
• Dovetailing online and offline efforts
• Buy-in and commitment by leadership

She doesn't bullet-point it, but running through Cohen's post is a point we cannot stress enough: Your social media need targeted, meaningful and creative content—content that instructs, informs, motivates and, yes, entertains those who access it.

We'd also add that media such as blogs and websites should embody good, functional design that makes them easy to navigate and to find desired content.

Each of Cohen's tips suggests metrics to measure the effectiveness—or lack of effectiveness—of your social media strategy. That's something we do for clients—we call it a Content Marketing Intelligence Report or CMIR. Measure early, measure often, and respond to what you learn.

[Part 3 of a Series: See: Introduction. See: Links to other posts in this series.]

One of the ways you can measure the importance our culture places on different kinds of content is by observing the awards associated with them. For example, film and video have all sorts of awards that lots of people seem to care about -- even people who don't watch that much film or video. Music has all sorts of awards, and not just Grammys or CMAs. In the headquarters town of Hammock Inc., Nashville, almost every day there are short items on local websites about parties celebrating Gold or Platinum Records (or whatever they call "records" these days).

However, I've decided to use the Wikipedia entry Metal umlaut as the example for today's "lesson." If you're curious why, it's because many years ago, Jon Udell used this entry's history to demonstrate what a screencast is. Also, after the first draft, I felt this post needed more cowbell.

So here's what you can learn from a well-done wiki entry about the elements needed in great "research" content:

[Part 1 of a Series: See: Introduction. See: Links to other posts in this series.]

Business people do lots of things on the internet other than read or watch or listen to content. So when I say that only two kinds of content matter to them, I don't mean web-based applications and email.

I mean the kind of content we typically think of as news and information and advertising and the stuff now called "post-advertising" -- the kind of content that marketing people and journalists and bloggers and Twitter users create and add to the internet. The kind of content that companies hand over millions of dollars to Google so that business people will click through to see it.

I've given these two kinds of content that matter most to business customers the following names:

The posts also examine ways in which different types of content and different communications channels and platforms can work independently or in a complementary, integrated fashion to help companies reach specific business objectives.

[See also: Table of Contents for this series.]

Over the coming months, I will be writing a series of posts that focus on the role of "content" in how companies and customers connect with one-another. (Of course, when I say "companies," I also mean associations and governments and churches and schools and candidates. And when I say "customers," I also mean members and alumni and supporters, etc.) But first, I thought I'd provide an introduction.