I’ve been following this trend for a little while and I’m sure others have too. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article via a comment.
Here it goes…content marketing is all the rage. The two components of content marketing are content creation on your own domain and content curation through social media (sharing useful content).
Creating content on your own domain is nothing new, however, I think we are seeing some super interesting changes in the way content curation works.
For example, Buffer recently launched their “daily content suggestions”
“We added content suggestions in both of these spots – 5 daily suggestions in the Buffer app, 3 suggestions in your email – to make it easier for you to discover great things to share. “
See the screenshots below:
Buffer reports “Right now, these suggestions are kind of a look inside the online reading habits of the Buffer team.”
However, since the company has so much data on how different types of content perform on social media platforms, I can easily see how Buffer could suggest content that is either doing well on social media or that is likely to do well with this new functionality.
As another example, Klout has also recently pivoted to a content analytics and suggestion company.
See the screenshots below. The first is a message in my inbox. The second is from the actual platform:
“Create” “Schedule” “Measure” – Sounds a lot like Buffer to me.
Finally, although these do not fall into the content suggestion category, I think websites like BuzzFeed, Distractify, ViralNova, and UpWorthy hint at what’s to come in online marketing.
These website have learned how to game edgerank and light up the social system. They use social media as their distribution tool as bloggers use google as one of the primary ways to attract new readers. I highly recommend watching PandoMonthly’s interview of Jonah Peretti, the founder of BuzzFeed.
Search vs. Social Media For Content Discovery
In the earlier days of the web, the most important part of content discovery (inbound marketing) was search engines. Search engines are great for finding useful content that answers user questions like “How do I get PR for my startup.”
Usually, they are better at indexing content that resonates well with audiences over a relatively long time-span, as the content accumulates inbound links.
A search engine strategy is obviously valuable, however, particularly for entertainment content, I think it’s pretty apparent that search engines don’t do a good job of showing what content is currently trending or share-worthy.
It’s kind of crazy that if you shared the #1 result on google for a keyword on Facebook or Twitter, it is not guaranteed the content would go viral on that network, even though google ranks it as the most helpful result for a long-tail phrase that is relevant to your customers.
The way in which people consume, discover, and evaluate content on social media is different from search. You must reach them through their friends and individuals they follow, which means your content must resonate with other individuals in a short span of time, rather than with an algorithm that assesses long-term quality via inbound links and other sources.
What does this mean?
Google (computer) = Logic.
Social Media (people) = Logic + Emotion.
Now, this all may seem pretty obvious and basic. I think most people see that this change is happening, but I think that most people also underestimate the impact it will have on inbound marketing, and therefore sales.
If I, as a business, was using software like Buffer to not only choose pre-selected content to share that is guaranteed to get retweets and likes, but to also track which types of content that I produce/share get the most clicks, favorites, and retweets, then over the span of a year, I have a huge leg-up on my competition.
I know what types of content engage customers when my competitors don’t. This can inform my SEO strategy, what products I choose to develop, and the direction of my company.
To people in the marketing world, this is a no-brainer, but when you ask around, the vast majority of startups and established companies aren’t considering this!
Value goes to those who adopt first.
Naturally, the first person who adopted a Blackberry or the iPhone had a huge leg up on his competition. He could easily send emails, browse the web, read up on industry news, and experience apps (which could give ideas for apps) all on the go.
As everyone came to have an iPhone, the “edge” that this new product gave to the first person to adopt it diminished. Now everyone can engage in those activities and the playing field is level again.
In my opinion, this is a great analogy for the content curation apps right now. People who adopt them first will see a huge uplift in their social media engagement. However, as time goes on and everyone shares those same popular social posts, the edge will decrease.
It’s kind of ridiculous to think that just because Buffer suggests an article to share, thousands of people will share it on twitter – resulting in more views to that content and retweets.
This reminds me of link wealth – that articles that are linked to a lot are more likely to get even more links (since they are the top of the search results).
This means that the value of creating content that resonates on social media is only going to increase due to these content curation/suggestion/trending websites.
Diminishing Returns.
You would think that after a certain number of people in the word googled a term, an article would stop being #1 in search results because everyone has read it already. Obviously, this is not the case.
The same is true of social media. I do not experience diminishing returns when I tweet. A tweet that got 20 clicks last week will get around 20 clicks this week (assuming similar time).
To me, this means that if I went back to helpful articles that were getting good reception a year ago, they would likely still get good reception today if the problem experienced by readers is still relevant (and the article still addresses that problem).
I wonder if old content that is good will continue to be recycled on social media, the way google does, or if it will die out.
Closing Thoughts
What do you think about this new move to companies discovering and providing sharable content in your niche? Is content discovery moving away from google? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.