Creating content is vital for commercial and social activities. Brands need to create content, media and news agencies also need to attract attention of the public with providing content. Websites with variety of goods and services to be delivered to consumers also have the same subject. And with the decentralization of the media, many individuals started to create content to observe attention of the public and monetize it.
So, there will be a lot of content on the atmosphere! what about consumers' right to read the RIGHT content?
I will discuss the difficulties you may face, to find out what content is what you where looking for online and how can you trust what you read.
Commercial content
Marketers are in a daily struggle to create meaningful content through internal means, forced by the marketing managers and coaches. The stress on them is too much that it makes the borders of judging quality, a vague and unaccepted by all parties!
In the end, creators think they spend too much on content and consumers think they have been fed with old and less than their expectations quality, so they engage less!
Therefore, in the last couple of years, marketers turned from sites like wikipedia to facebook and twitter where people can, and will, engage more.
Why you need engagement?
let's give this question a simple answer and a more complicated one! first things first, let's go with the simple one:
If you invest all of your time, energy and capital into telling your consumers (with creating contents one way) that you’re really great; they won’t believe you!
Corporate websites and informative websites are like that. a one way flow of information, to tell them you are doing fine at their interest, and obviously no-one cares your claims!
Another trap at the one way speaking websites is, the supplier may put lots of information with great details on their products and services, which... will result in: SOPHISTICATION! you will eventually confuse your customers with their decision.
The more complicated answer to the question above, "Why you need engagement?" is:
when you engage someone in to your discussion:
1- you will have time to learn
2- you will enjoy the opportunity to study your target market
3- your consumers join your TRIBE as they talk about you
4- eventually, you will spend LESS on creating content!
And let's get wiser. to attract people listening you, you need to LISTEN to them and TRUST them. if you do not let them engage with your marketing campaign, none of two wise things happens!
I can see everyone fully convinced! now:
How to obtain our clients' engagement?
The first question was "How to trust a content on web?", so why we talk so much of engagement?
- as you can see, this post will be delivered in two parts, actually the main question will be answered in the second part
- engagement itself, will bring trust and brand loyalty.
Imagine you are reading a posted content (commercial or non) with no-one talking about it (either positive or negative), and compare the situation with another piece of text, which people before you, have discussed in comments or their own channels and it has gone viral, attracted many before you.
YOU feel at the safe-side in the second situation, being able to make better decision whether you can trust the info or not. So, marketers have left with no choice, but trying to obtain that engagement!
Challenge accepted? now how!
Forget about channels, make the mesh
The word channel is way too orthodox for marketing! the mentality behind this word, is inherited from the age of radio and television dominance on media!
Though today still we have marketing channels, they actually look like a mesh of nodes, with brands, individual content publishers and all audiences at each node, with same importance of position but with different weights.
Engagement: A goal or THE goal?
Engagement is the answer to make your content marketing efforts and expenses, worthy and affordable. So it should be considered a goal, a very important goal; but not the goal!
It is marketing managers and content contributors' big challenge. But more importantly, is how your brand’s content is performing.
In Part two of this post, I will discuss the individual content suppliers and then we move to the main part: How an audience can assume the content is trustworthy or not.
I am sure you are ready to take your content marketing to the next level, if you think I can help, I will be delighted. contact me by commenting here or drop me a line at my linkedin or twitter account.
