By Scott Frangos, Managing Editor, WebHelperMagazine.com
Has “Content Marketing” surpassed Search Engine Marketing? Newt Barrett has a website (ContentMarketingToday.com) devoted to teaching how to “connect to your customers.” In a number of thought provoking articles there, he makes a case for “content marketing,” being much more important than Google marketing — SEO/SEM. While “content is king,” as they say, I’m not sure that it is “static” content (articles, posts, etc.) that is more important than Google marketing, but a instead, a synergy of all of the “Five C’s” listed below. Of course, Google and SEM are still a necessary factor in your overall marketing strategy.
Content engages your audience; Community involves your audience; Conversation empowers your community; Connection builds associations; and Convergence brings evolution.
You need a conversation to really engage and involve people in this kind of connecting. A blog is important, and even MORE important, at times, is the comment sections of popular blogs. Have you ever considered what you can learn from the conversations that go on there? If you really want to get the “back story”, on a topic you value… dig your way through the comment section on an active site. But there’s another very important factor to the comment section of blogs — they build connections. Connections with whom? Your key target market… that’s who.
The Five “C’s” are: Content. Community. Conversation. Connection. Convergence.
So the formula goes something like this: Content engages your audience; Community involves your audience; Conversation empowers your community; Connection builds associations; and Convergence brings evolution (not just technologically, but socially). Powerful stuff.
Update: Let’s say you get into the conversational blog commenting thing. Pretty soon, you ask yourself, “how do I keep track of all of these conversations?” Sure, you can subscribe by email — but who needs more clutter in the old in box? Well, at least one company has an interesting answer — provide a service to keep all of your comments in one place with organization tools. Take a look at CoComment.com. I’m trying it out, and it works great.
The Web is a Content Marketing System…
Glenn Nicholas of OM4.com.au (he’s in Australia — the connection is Global, of course… and therefore so will be the convergence), has written an article on content marketing versus traditional SEM. Content marketing wins every time, Nicholas believes. He presents the following points in the article (Content Marketing vs. Search Marketing):
Search is a Last Resort.
Avoid Dependence on One Source of Traffic.
Quality is More Important than Quantity.
Mr. Nicholas has some important points. Again, he is pointing us away from glorifying Search Marketing, and toward what he calls “content marketing.” I agree with his general point, but I think he’s missing the hidden energy of community interaction. True, the good old comment section in a blog can help build links (you need to visit your commenting guests’ site, and reciprocate with a comment which links back to your site, etc.) to your website. But that’s just an HTML link. Good for SEO? You bet.
But, I propose that human networking still trumps site links. Why? Feedback. Adapt. Action. You get feedback from key constituents in your market. You adapt your website, business mission, ecommerce goals, etc., based on that feedback. Then, your target group takes the action you want which could be everything from just becoming a member of your forum, to clicking on ads to support your publishing effort, to buying services and products from you. Heck, it could mean that they begin to recognize you as an expert in your field — you might get invited to speak at a convention. Ka-ching.
And your job is to manage all of this interaction energy using the web — the web is a content marketing system, which used wisely, can take you anywhere you want to go.
Here comes the Convergence…
Convergence in Social Marketing is evolution happeing every day now — mash-ups, combination services, etc. One example of this is DISCUS — a service that captures your blog comments, re-purposes them on a forum, and makes it all “portable.”
You’ve probably heard of PodCasts (basically a recording of a radio-type show which you can listen to on your computer, or an MPEG player), and you may have heard of Skype — a way to call other people over the internet (for free, as long as you connect to another Skype user on a computer). Put the two together… and you get “SkypeCasts” — a sort of recorded conference call… perfect for a multi-host PodCast. Plus, it works great for PodCasters who want others to call into their show, since you can list a time for others to join the SkypeCast conference call. Did you know eBay owns Skype (and they also own PayPal)? Hmmmm… ponder an even wider “convergence.”
How will you use the Five C’s in your Content Marketing System? I look forward to the conversation.
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The Five “C’s” of Social Marketing….
Has “Content Marketing” surpassed Search Engine Marketing? Newt Barrett has a website (ContentMarketingToday.com) devoted to teaching how to “connect to your customers.” In a number of thought provoking articles there, he makes a case for “content marketing,” being much more important than Google marketing — SEO/SEM. While “content is king,” as they say, I’m not sure that it is “static” content (articles, posts, etc.) that is more important than Google marketing, but a instead, a synergy of all of the “Five C’s” listed below. Of course, Google and SEM are still a necessary factor in your overall marketing strategy.
You need a conversation to really engage and involve people in this kind of connecting. A blog is important, and even MORE important, at times, is the comment sections of popular blogs. Have you ever considered what you can learn from the conversations that go on there? If you really want to get the “back story”, on a topic you value… dig your way through the comment section on an active site. But there’s another very important factor to the comment section of blogs — they build connections. Connections with whom? Your key target market… that’s who.
The Five “C’s” are: Content. Community. Conversation. Connection. Convergence.
So the formula goes something like this: Content engages your audience; Community involves your audience; Conversation empowers your community; Connection builds associations; and Convergence brings evolution (not just technologically, but socially). Powerful stuff.
Update: Let’s say you get into the conversational blog commenting thing. Pretty soon, you ask yourself, “how do I keep track of all of these conversations?” Sure, you can subscribe by email — but who needs more clutter in the old in box? Well, at least one company has an interesting answer — provide a service to keep all of your comments in one place with organization tools. Take a look at CoComment.com. I’m trying it out, and it works great.
The Web is a Content Marketing System…
Glenn Nicholas of OM4.com.au (he’s in Australia — the connection is Global, of course… and therefore so will be the convergence), has written an article on content marketing versus traditional SEM. Content marketing wins every time, Nicholas believes. He presents the following points in the article (Content Marketing vs. Search Marketing):
Mr. Nicholas has some important points. Again, he is pointing us away from glorifying Search Marketing, and toward what he calls “content marketing.” I agree with his general point, but I think he’s missing the hidden energy of community interaction. True, the good old comment section in a blog can help build links (you need to visit your commenting guests’ site, and reciprocate with a comment which links back to your site, etc.) to your website. But that’s just an HTML link. Good for SEO? You bet.
But, I propose that human networking still trumps site links. Why? Feedback. Adapt. Action. You get feedback from key constituents in your market. You adapt your website, business mission, ecommerce goals, etc., based on that feedback. Then, your target group takes the action you want which could be everything from just becoming a member of your forum, to clicking on ads to support your publishing effort, to buying services and products from you. Heck, it could mean that they begin to recognize you as an expert in your field — you might get invited to speak at a convention. Ka-ching.
And your job is to manage all of this interaction energy using the web — the web is a content marketing system, which used wisely, can take you anywhere you want to go.
Here comes the Convergence…
Convergence in Social Marketing is evolution happeing every day now — mash-ups, combination services, etc. One example of this is DISCUS — a service that captures your blog comments, re-purposes them on a forum, and makes it all “portable.”
You’ve probably heard of PodCasts (basically a recording of a radio-type show which you can listen to on your computer, or an MPEG player), and you may have heard of Skype — a way to call other people over the internet (for free, as long as you connect to another Skype user on a computer). Put the two together… and you get “SkypeCasts” — a sort of recorded conference call… perfect for a multi-host PodCast. Plus, it works great for PodCasters who want others to call into their show, since you can list a time for others to join the SkypeCast conference call. Did you know eBay owns Skype (and they also own PayPal)? Hmmmm… ponder an even wider “convergence.”
How will you use the Five C’s in your Content Marketing System? I look forward to the conversation.