For brands, that doesn’t mean you can simply move your blast advertising campaigns into social channels. You actually have to make real conversation with real people and help them get what they want. That means knowing your prospects well enough to understand what they want. It also means creating content that’s helpful, entertaining, educational, or all of the above—content that helps them make a decision; content they want to share with friends.
Smart brands have noticed that we’re moving to a “connection economy,” and they are producing ongoing content that meets the new search “relevancy” standards. They’ve studied their audiences, listened to their social conversations, and have developed plans to use that content in their social profiles to emotionally connect to their audiences and encourage conversation. When it resonates, it gets shared and receives comments and likes, which makes that brand more visible.
What it all boils down to is that in the new world of content marketing, the Content “IS” the Ad. Sharing, conversation, and emotionally connected content will be the ads of the future. Instead of thinking in terms of “Convince and Convert,” start thinking in terms of “Converse and Convert.” Helpful content gives your customers reasons to stay engaged—not just react—and also increases brand advocacy.
So start thinking like a publisher because the more relevant, helpful content you create, the better you can drive engagement. And as my Return on Relationship (#RonR) formula illustrates…
Content drives Engagement, Engagement drives Advocacy, and Advocacy correlates directly to Increased Sales. #NoLetUp!
Hey Ted,
We demand budgets and resources from our clients in order to produce content. We are hungry for and passionate about content. And not just content that will rank for keywords, but content that will be remarkable content that will earn links and content that will convert users into customers. We should care about content marketing. We should understand how it works, how brands produce content, and what innovation looks like. There is rumbling within the SEO industry towards more cross-disciplinary inbound marketing and as we make this shift and become involved in these projects, it will become crucial to understand how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.Content marketing is undergoing massive growth right now and we’re seeing a revolution take place across all aspects of online marketing.
The most difficult yet rewarding approach to social media is a brands ability to create unique, compelling content. While this is a challenge across all channels, the challenge for brands on social media is related to the challenge of telling a story that is worth sharing on a daily basis. The biggest challenge that brands are met with when it comes to social media is recognizing that the content they share can’t be focused around them and needs to be focused around the community they are developing. Eventually, thanks for sharing your worthy thought with us.
With best regards,
Amar kumar