Debunking 5 Myths About Content Marketing

The top reason why many organizations and people are holding back from building effective social presences is confusion about what constitutes good content.

They've heard or imagine that social media is very content intensive, and they don't have the resources to feed all the streams.

Plus, organizations tend to view online content as "content about us" that needs to go through approval cycles in the same way Web content is still being proposed on company Web sites.

Take a look at a few and you will see that read one, you have read many. All because best practices are taken too literally.

You see similar introductions to the company and what it does, similar structure to solution or product descriptions. So much so that they tend to all blend in.  Often the content that is most useful to customers is buried several levels down in the site architecture, almost an afterthought.

Social media can help you improve your content and gain an understanding of how to use it effectively.

5 myths about content that need debunking

Because in social media you can see what content people resurface and find useful more easily, you'll be able to refine how you connect the dots for customers by helping them see what is different about you and your business.

As a bonus, you get to connect directly with the people who are interested in what you have to say and do. You don't need a ton of content to get started, although you need patience and discipline to become established.

There are other misconceptions about content marketing.

Myth #1: success is measured in volume

By far the major obstacle for traditional marketers as they have little experience as publishers and when they think about publishing, they think they should get the same audience as the New York Times. In other words, they want to have an audience before they establish themselves.

Instead of worrying about numbers, spend time planning your strategy. Then focus on developing a framework on what and how you're going to produce it. An editorial calendar that connects all your presences is the best use of your time, for example. 

Take away: you don't need a huge audience to be effective, you just need enough of the right people. Remember that ten people who buy and refer you are preferable to thousands of people who ignore you.

Myth #2: action only comes with hard product pitches

PR people don't fare much better, many of them tout the company's products and services to get the word out. You see those blogs and Twitter streams filled with news and information that read just like the company's Web site newsroom.

Instead of thinking like someone who pitches media, you need to think like a media company yourself. The difference is important because with your social presences you have the ability to build an audience, not borrow one that may or may not care specifically about you.

Take away: start with compelling content. As part of your content planning, you need to figure out what you want people to do once they find your content compelling. It's perfectly fine to help direct people with calls to action once they're interested.

Myth #3: follow the unspoken rules of social media

There are no rules you need to follow. Just what works for you. So use successful examples from other companies as inspiration, and spend most of your time thinking about what your customers may want to read about and testing whether what you do works.

Tactics that have worked at a certain point in time for certain individuals who were looking to achieve their own goals may not work for you. Plus, we've seen it recently how a successful case study for a company may be a turn off when repeated by another in the same media.

Take away: it's still very much the early days and the beauty of content marketing is that it helps you attract the people you want to attract. Test and adopt what works for you. Don't worry too much about what others are doing.

Myth #4: write it and they will come

This is a tough one to debunk. Many have received that kind of advice. You start accounts everywhere, put out all that content, and then people will just notice you. Especially in the beginning, if you're not a business established in other channels, you will need to be prepared to promote your content. It's not the same kind of promotion you're used to though.

On Facebook you buy social ads, on Twitter, you join or start chats, publish super useful information or news, make connections and help others, with blogs you incorporate the main search terms for your services or products in your posts and remain active in commenting and networking on other like blogs, etc.

Take away: cut through the noise and give people a reason to include you in their online habits. Telling them how useful your content is can be done by having good manners in online participation as well.

Myth #5: all content needs to be new

And you might add original to that. Consider that there are rarely new ideas. However, there are new executions all the time. You could become very successful as a useful filter, for example. Curating and making sense of the information your customers read elsewhere.

You could provide analysis, commentary, an aggregate all the content in a certain category or field, reports on applications or news from your point of view and experience. And once you become a destination, your point of view and voice will influence whether people read the information on your sites or those of others.

Take away: this is probably one of the main differences between becoming a publisher and writing product bulletins. As a publisher you have many more options to make a point.

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People still notice and follow useful content. You will need to work a bit more to arrange the context around new social presences to start attracting those you want to attract. In fact, the less you try to appeal to everyone with your content, the better at building the right kind of audience.

Follow this rule in commenting as well. Don't waste time trying to appeal to people who are influential in certain circles, if your customers and prospects are not in those circles.

Build your audience first. You may attract the attention of more mainstream publications once you've done that.

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Comments

[Eric Pratum]

In my mind, the number 1 takeaway from this post is "It's all about context." As you say, don't bother with influencers if your stakeholders aren't influenced by those people. Don't follow rules about content because they might not apply to your FFFs. Etc, etc, etc.

If I had to make 5 suggestions/rules/whatever-you-might-call-them to respond to this, they might be:
1. Don't focus on volume. Try looking at a response rate.
2. You have to make people care before you can ask them to take action.
3. Test your topics, language, posting times of the day/week, etc, and find what works best for your audience.
4. Go out to specific people and tell them about your new content or presence. Only reach out to those people, who have previously given indication that they might be interested. Example: @ reply your followers about your latest blog post when you notice they've been talking about a similar topic.
5. New content is great, but some ideas take time to develop, so revisiting old ideas to put a new perspective on them is not a bad thing. Plus, re-purposing old blog posts into a short PDF or infographic, for example, is just 1 way to potentially generate new interest.

[Sarah Arrow]

Great post, enjoyed reading it - yes it is about context and using the right content in the right context.

A follower on twitter doesn't have to be a prospect, they can also be a influencer of potential prospects who will share your content.

I guess the networking part is all.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Eric - it's also about content :) Thank you for running a digest of what might be the positive version. I find that while people identify what not to do, it's harder to follow a specific roadmap for what works.

@Sarah - which teaches us to be nice to all, or "love everyone". You never know who has off line connections, which is where the real stuff gets done.

[Simon Gornick]

Even though we're all ultimately trying to sell something, constant calls to action don't work for everyone in every business. In fact, it's refreshing just to give your insights into your business space. If they're smart, and ring true to your reader, he or she is just as likely to sign on, and might even respect the soft sell.