These two questions put together, subject matter and value, are keys to great content. Is the article news to the reader? Does the article offer readers something to consider trying on their own? Can the reader find sources for help within the article? In other words, does the article promote who or what you are selling? If yes, then the content is marketing you or your brand.
Results from content marketing are long-term investments, by the creator and by the customer. If what you are selling or promoting is just a short-term project then content marketing is not necessary. If you are looking to build your brand, then content marketing is mandatory. Can the writer you hire do the job? Only time will tell.
Knowing what to write about in the first place takes a subject matter expert, someone who knows the field or the product in depth and who communicates that knowledge in an understandable way. The expert also needs to know what other relevant subjects might be interesting to the reader. Context and originality go together in making a valuable content marketing strategy.
Using random articles cobbled together from other web sites is poor business practice. Avoid the cheap brokers and scammers like you find on freelancer.com or guru.com when you put together a content marketing strategy. Just saying “I need x number of articles about ….” is poor business practice. You cannot expect the creators of those junky articles to be experts without giving them unique and original information about your business. Your potential customers reading the articles will not become experts, either, if the topic is presented poorly.
This is where a curator comes in. A subject matter expert curates the content on your website like a museum curator manages her exhibits and collections. Having subjects written about in an original way means hiring someone who can test the existing landscape of a subject, the trends and popularity of the material to be exhibited, and the lasting value of that writing. Only someone who knows the ins-and-outs of a particular business or professional field can do that.
Making the most of the content takes time for finding, organizing, and presenting the material. Would you trust that someone you do not know knows the field to write about it? Checking the curator’s ability takes a little of your own expertise and feeds it back into the community. By knowing the curator’s expertise compared to your own, you can be assured of quality content. Having some unknown writer, who knows where, provide your content is a risky business.
This is where someone like Alvin Toffler has described comes in; someone who can learn, unlearn, and relearn a field. Your investment in a content curator will pay off if you hire someone who can do those things; someone who has experience in several fields. Hiring someone who has interests other than what she (or he), is writing about helps, too. Focusing so tightly on one subject limits the curator’s perspective on the larger context of your customers’ life.
NPM
© 2012 N. P. Maling – Zen C&SMM
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