I can’t get an idea out of my mind that I think is profound for this social media age. Recently I blogged about giving your customers and prospects the opportunity and the permission to start a dialog with your brand. Here’s the important follow-up to that idea …. don’t do it with banner ads or other roadblocks!
Create content that doesn’t interrupt users as they explore what they’re interested in. Instead, create the very content that is what they’re interested in so, by definition, they are interacting with your brand.
You will see this more and more as marketers create better and better content rivaling that of traditional media houses. A great example of this is Greg the Architect, which is both a blog series and a video series. It is so in tune with TIBCO’s SOA product that it has become a rallying cry within the organization. It also has the side benefit of positioning the company’s brand perfectly against the competition.
This is a great example of pull content rather than push content, let’s say. And that’s really the goal of new media …. create the nexus for your brand and the media it takes to make that brand experiential.
Related posts:
- People Want to Connect with People… Not Companies
- Should Average Joe Name Your Product?
- Targeting the People Who Matter
- MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum: It’s all About the People
- People Don’t Buy ‘Run of the Mill’ Anything Anymore!
Tags: Advertising, Branding, Buzz Marketing, Social Media
Excellent articulation of this concept. Seems like common sense, right? We just had a battle in the real estate blogosphere about people wanting to write about everything but real estate. I agree that writing what your target visitor is interested in (which in the case of buyer and sellers would be real estate) is crucial to attracting search traffic, retaining readers, and converting that qualified reader to a lead or buyer. “Pull” content is the way of the future- completely aligned with the needs and interests of the readers. I love it.
Thanks REBLogGirl
I think it puts a lot of pressure on marketers to crank out quality content which puts us ever closer to becoming publishers in our own right!
I agree that marketers need to offer compelling content that pulls. This however is only part of the story.
The next step and the one we are all struggling with is transparent engagement. Once people start interacting and conversing marketers need a whole other set of skills. I can see classes springing up in “Guided conversations”
What’s next then? What would be the next logical step? Where is this thing headed?
Levon
I think the next step is marketers become closer to being publishers
I think we need to think more like them in the sense of having a calendar of great content that can be produced in a very coordinated way that all ties together
gone are the days of just scatter shot collateral production