We can’t know you until you share.
Or, more precisely, what you share. Because it’s not “who you know.” It’s “what you know” and what you know is your own story.
Wait…what?
The old paradigm of “who you know” probably still exists in some real-life circles but content trumps connections in this age of digital information sharing and creativity.
Content marketing is just a somewhat more expensive-sounding way of saying, “share your story.”
Yea, sure, we know…some of us have been focused on that for years (and it’s a core principle of Relevanza), but on the digital spaces of 2017 and for many more years to come your content – what you share about you, your business, organizations or institution – will be the premium currency (sound expensive enough?).
Call it any term you want but telling your story – and the stories of others – has been resurrected from generations of history, reframed and put back to work in the age of the InterWebs and the social media. Tell your story. More importantly, through good service and good product maybe others will want to tell your story, too!
The question becomes, then, “how” to tell one’s story? The answer is, of course, on a well-done website which features one’s blog. That’s right: a blog. It doesn’t need to be that scary. It’s really no more difficult than writing a letter to a friend or making a note in a journal or talking on the phone.
One’s blog in the core of one’s marketing efforts on the digital spaces. It is also the only place on the internet where the user is in complete control. It’s home base.
Be social online
Be social online, for heaven’s sake, engage with others!
It’s called “social” media for a reason. Get out there and mix it up a little!
We preach this gospel of content marketing all the time at Relevanza.
Tell your story, have something of value to say, inform (and, sure, toot your own horn when it’s warranted and authentic). But, mostly, tell your story. Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?
As the online universe expands – as it is so very rapidly – we have to also remember that content alone doesn’t get us where we need to be.
We must follow up content with context and, most important, engagement. This is digital marketing, after all. One can’t be social without engaging others in the dialogue.
We often explain social media to clients and friends who are confused, if not completely overwhelmed, by using the metaphor of the front porch. We’ve all had those glorious experiences of sitting around on the front porch, talking with friends and family, discussing everything and nothing at all.
Social media really is, for the most part, just like those treasured conversations on the front porch. Except with social media the front porch can be the entire world!
And just like those conversations need context, sometimes, so does your social media content. In this rapidly growing world – just for a quick example – your online content needs to be able to travel well between the various platforms and, even, devices. What looks and reads well on a desktop or laptop computer must also look and read well on a mobile device, a phone or a tablet.
We call this, “data persistence,” or, “content persistence.” You want your content to travel well, hang around a bit, appear to jump fluidly from one social platform to another; be as relevant and understandable as possible from one platform or device as to the next; maybe even to when and where your community might see you, read you, hear from you.
Finally, engagement is also key. Don’t just broadcast your message. Be ready to listen and talk back to those who reach out to you.
Over 80 percent of all Americans are engaged in social media at one level or another. Most of those joining the 2 billion worldwide on the king-daddy of social networks, Facebook. There is a lot of conversation in which to be engaged online, through the social channels. But like any good conversation, one must be actively participating in it.
And at least 80 percent of all online folks in the U.S. are engaging on their mobile devices.
Tell your story. Make sure your story travels well. Reach back when someone reaches out to you.
Need help with all that? Sure you do. Reach out to us. We’ll reach back. We can chat.
