2013
Autospeak-Straight Talk contains articles covering digital and social media marketing social communities and events marketing
Sara Callahan recently posted a great piece entitled “Don’t Be afraid of Contentâ€Â On Automotive Digital Marketing. She said that Content is life which is true.  If you think about it content originates through us and content defines us. Our social interactions and life experiences create the content that makes up and defines the society we live in. How we work, play and interact is all creating content which is how we learn and how we are influenced.Content is the byproduct of all these diverse societal interactions and has been with us since the beginning. Content originally communicated through storing telling evolved to include written language. Fast forward into the electronic age from which emerged radio and TV; to the computer and internet as a means to collectively store, make available, and disseminate content efficiently to the masses.
Today Business refines this content into, what I’ll refer to here, as “niche content†and uses it to influence people to buy its goods and services based on trends and societal moods. Business takes into account cultural diversity and emotions such as fear, desire and vanity to influence our buying decisions.
The internet has made it possible for companies to use Digital Marketing to get closer to its market and develop niche content to influence people on a much more personal level.Â
Looking at it in this context, content is and has always been intended to be shared and used to inform and educate us as a society and as consumers. Most writers that publish their work on the internet encourage others to share their work with others. These writers understand that content is meant to be shared to educate and inform.
It is a compliment to the writer that someone thought enough of the content contained in their writing to pass it on and share it with others. Also, there is the conception that posting someone else’s work may in some way work against you.
I have personally and have seen others who have had first page rankings sharing and commenting on the work of others. Therefore relevance and interaction must be how search engines make their determination. I write blogs but I also share posts written by others.
Sarah’s points of writing about personal and professional experiences are by far the best form of content sharing. This original content or storytelling in a traditional sort of way captures ones attention and also projects the human side of the business and lets people know that you are concerned about your customer’s experience.Â
If the content is good and the message is clear, a few grammatical mistakes are not going to annoy most people. It is also true that a lot of writers use punctuation and structure that is not grammatically correct to highlight something or to make points.
In addition to Google Search, another resource is Google alerts. Google alerts is a great tool to search for content. You can create different searches based on a particular subject and Alerts will send you results on a daily basis directly to your inbox. How convenient is that?
Other great resources include subscribing to newsletters and joining groups. These provide a steady stream of updated and industry specific information to draw from. Then there is always the option of buying quality content from professionals.
Content in all its forms is king in media marketing and blogging helps to identify and personalize you as more than just another business but as a contributing part of your local community and a customer centric company.
“Don’t be afraid of content is so true†because we are content and content defines us- and content lives everywhere.
By William Cosgrove