4 Ways to Build Relationships with Web Content
This is a guest post by Shannon Paul (find her on Twitter, too). A prolific online personality, in her “day job” Shannon is the communications manager for PEAK6 Online.
On the PR/marketing side of the equation we know good products go unnoticed without proper promotion, but we’re often reluctant to make the same admission about content.
If it makes you feel better, I’m not going to blame this problem on the proliferation of new channels of communication brought on by social media, etc. But, please know that great content does not market itself.
Rather than going on about social media and my signal-to-noise ratio, I’m going to show you how many good things went unnoticed with a short list of some of my favorite long-ignored great works of content:
1. Freaks and Geeks: Like most of the world’s population, I missed this brilliant television series when it first aired in 1999. Despite brilliantly delivering on the tagline, “what high school was like for the rest of us,” the show was only broadcast for one season. However, the show was the launch pad for of a lot of talent you might recognize today, including Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and James Franco. Not only was it set in a suburban high school in Detroit (my hometown), but it’s the only sitcom that ever relied on Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Grateful Dead to inform much of the humor and plot.
2. Nick Drake: During his lifetime, not one of Drake’s albums sold more than 5,000 copies. By the time he finished his last album, Pink Moon, he decided to retire from music altogether. He died at the age of 26 from an apparent drug overdose that was ruled a suicide. His music is beautiful. I wish the world had loved his music while he was alive to feel it. Listen to Pink Moon.
3. The Shawshank Redemption: Yes, it’s true that this movie tops most best-ever lists, but when released in 1994 it was a box office dud. There are a lot of theories around why such a great film performed so poorly in theaters, but theories are just that. Rest assured, everyone’s favorite bro-mance between Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins went on to become one of the highest-grossing movie rentals of all time.
Chalk each of these examples to a case of wrong place/wrong time, but I happen to think solid PR and marketing could have made a big difference in each of these instances.
In social media circles, we talk a lot about how to inspire word-of-mouth and connect consumers with one other, but in each of these instances, word-of-mouth triumphed over a lack of good publicity — not because of it.
These days, there’s this notion that if you have a lot of great content on your site, you can sit back and let the content work for you. Great content is a great start, but content marketing is still about relationships.
Four ways to foster relationships with your web-based content:
Outbound links: Yes, it’s true, linking to other content might send some people away from your site. However, most people pay attention to sources of inbound traffic and links since it helps them meet their goals of increased traffic and page rank. While it’s not a one-to-one formula, outbound linking tends to encourage inbound linking. What I mean here is when someone sees your incoming link and recognizes the synergy between your content and their content, they often return the favor by linking to your content.
Comments: Comment on other peoples’ and companies’ blogs with the intention of participating in a conversation they started. Don’ t comment in an effort to steal someone else’s traffic — that’s just rude. Done correctly, the relationship will provide a lot more value in the long-term than a few curious clicks.
Resource-rich Blog Content: While it’s still important to serve journalists content they think will be useful for their readership, now it’s equally as important to create direct-to-consumer content (or direct-to-customer content if your business is B2B). If you’re doing this, remember to talk about something other than your product and deliver something they can’t get anywhere else.
Guest Posting: I’m a guest post here on Todd’s blog, but writing content for others in your industry or customer space helps establish relationships with new readers and with the person managing the site.
If you think I left something out of this list, let’s discuss in the comments.
Much like great products, great content will only find the best people to love it if it’s leveraged well. If your content hasn’t found its sweet spot yet, don’t fret — you’re in good company. Keep trying new angles and formulas for success.
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Shannon –
I love “Freaks and Geeks” and you’re right: It might been more successful with the right marketing. I wonder how the folks who produced the show might have promoted the series if they had access to the online tools available today. Perhaps they would have used some of the same tactics that the marketing team for AMC’s MadMen use.
Cheers,
Kevin
That’s an interesting point, Kevin. I’ve always thought the world simply wasn’t ready for that show, but maybe it just wasn’t able to find an audience using the traditional means of promotion back then. The audience for Freaks and Geeks probably wasn’t the ordinary TV audience in 1999. I just like to remind myself from time to time that lots of great things go unnoticed — I know we love to celebrate exceptions to the rule, but the rule abides: wild fires do happen, but most need someone to fan the flames to get things going. However, creating something then standing back and crossing your fingers in hopes of a wild fire is just silly
Shannon:
Really great post today. I am finding that even a part of a multi-author blogging team at The Buzz Bin, much more time is spent researching and following up to encourage conversation than is spent in actual writing. As a PS, I read today in The Wall Street Journal that in one of the early World Series tilts between the Yankees and Phils, phone company subscribers could call in and receive game updates as a service of the phone company. Early Tweets?
Great articles, though I wont get into an argument about the finer details of Nick Drake
He is a special case, as were Ian Curtis and Elliott Smith, whom despite all the backing still couldn’t help themselves, though I suppose successes in their time.
I always love the stories about people who “forge” a career from the internet, Lilly Allen was one reported as such, but in reality it was the backing from a label and obvious a well-connected father who helped chivvy her career along and become the “success on myspace” that she was.
Well said, Shannon.
It’s easy to get caught up in our Kevin Costner / Field of Dreams mentality on occasion. We built it. They should come. But alas, the headlights lined up for miles in the distance never arrive.
I think one of the best way to drive traffic is to nuggetize your remarkable content. We live in the age of skimmers. People don’t have the time for the whole story. USA Today breaks the main points into headlines, drop quotes and captions. Politicians speak in sound bites. Twitter limits us to 140 character.
Breaking your content into tasty nuggets affords you several advantages:
– your content becomes easier to skim and gist
– you can promote many nuggets of the same article (giving you multiple opportunities for your idea to take root)
– specific nuggets can be targeted to specific audiences
Your post above has more than eight good ideas that can be nuggetized and shared on the interwebs, giving this article life for some time to come.
– @CharlieCurve
“…but in each of these instances, word-of-mouth triumphed over a lack of good publicity — not because of it.”
You are so, so right on those examples, and I’ll admit I’m not familiar with Freaks & Geeks, but the first big example that comes to my mind is Rocky Horror Picture Show. TOTAL dud at the box office, but it was WOM & user-generated content (of its time) that made it become the cult hit that it is to this day.
… and I think that’s a big part of it, too — putting the brand/content/whatever into the hands of the consumer. Whether or not the studio that made RHPC was cool with the fans live-acting simultaneously or not at first, allowing consumers to take ownership of it made it a hit. Throwing rice, toast — that’s pure interactivity right there. RHPC was the social web before the social web as we knew it came to be.
Today those who hold tightly onto their copyrights are looked down upon, yet those who are OK with and encourage mashups of their stuff are applauded. Visit YouTube at any given time to find multitudes of examples.
Thanks Shannon. I had only heard of Shawshank (and then only saw it on video not in a theatre) so point taken. Thanks for insights on how to foster relationships with online content. I could not agree more with the idea that,
“These days, there’s this notion that if you have a lot of great content on your site, you can sit back and let the content work for you”
This may sound obvious but I think one of the other things to remember (and remind top executives/clients etc) is that it takes TIME to build following and get people interested regularly in content offerings. People think web marketing is a quick, cheap fix – which it is not.
Thanks for reminding us that even with interested followers/subscribers etc steps must still be taken to ensure continued success
Shannon,
We were talking last night on #blogchat about broadening content horizons and reach through guest posting on other blogs/communities. The sharing of information today is very different than it was 10 years ago (a la Freaks and Geeks). While I rather detest the overuse of the word “viral” so much discovery is fueled by varying degrees of “shareworthiness” in various online communities. All of the things you’ve suggested as tactics contribute to discovery. I intend to make better use of links and guest posting in the future
Thanks so much for the insight, Shannon. In today’s digital age, it is becoming increasingly important to insist on content marketing and to do it properly.
As marketers, we must not allow the loss of something as wonderful as Freaks and Geeks ever again. Maybe if the marketers behind the show (if there even were any) would have taken a page from your book, we might have continued to enjoy this show for at least another season.
Tessa Carroll
http://www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com
I really enjoyed this blog post. I recently discovered the greatness of the Freaks and Geeks television show from their d.v.d. and wondered why it had only lasted the one season. I am now a huge fan. Content can be wonderful, but without the right PR/Marketing the potential for success can fizzle out. I also think it would have been interesting to see the above-mentioned unnoticed gems with the new social media tools today. I wonder if this would have helped give them the extra kick they needed for longterm success.
All I can say is thank goodness for word of mouth because for these examples, PR/promotion wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Your 3 examples show the reality that there’s a lot of great content that goes unnoticed due to a lack of marketing.
Freaks and Geeks began in 1999 and I didn’t even hear about it until ‘04. When I watch it now, I know that I would have loved to watch it when I was younger and about to embark into all the BS of high school. Sam Weir, Bill & Neil were amazing characters that are very missed. From another comment.. yes, Rocky Horror Picture Show is another great examples of a box office flop that eventually evolved into a cult classic w a huge following. To your second example…Pink Moon is an amazing album that wasn’t well received during its time either.
I’m very surprised to hear that Shawshank Redemption was a box office dud because it’s such a great movie and now, considered one of the greatest movies ever made.
It’s clear that PR and marketing was the problem in these instances bc now people of all ages are renting/buying the only season of Freaks and Geeks, Nick Drake continues to hold a huge fan base and Shawshank Redemption was loved only due to word of mouth. PR could have completely changed the way these were perceived.