Content IS the product or Be the Publisher
December 20, 2011 | 
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One of the ways publishers think differently from normal business people is that they eat, think and breathe content. It’s a natural reflex to say, “Hey, that’s a story!” The desire to tell something you discovered to lots of people is the same as say, an engineer to solve a problem in constructing a bridge.
“But, that’s not my business!” You protest. You point out you are a musician or a kayaking teacher or building contractor or whatever. You point out that you wear enough hats and that content creator just can’t be added.
Well, Anne Handley in her book, “Content Rules” tells the story of Marcus Sheridan, one of there owners of a pool company who has started to create new business opportunities for his company by blogging and creating videos teaching people the best way to buy and maintain a pool. She quotes him as now saying that, “Today I see my business as a content marketing company.” He’s found a way to, using nothing more than the knowledge he already has, (and a little video production sometimes) create extra value for his customers, create extra trust by his customers , and do so without having to re-create the product.
So, what this really is, is not about creating extra work for you, but creating extra value in your company, which is something, I’m guessing is something you want for your company.
But what that then means is that content creation becomes a job; not the thing you’ll get to in a week, or when this big project ends or when the seasonal slowdown starts, it means that, just like a publisher, you, or someone you employ, has to create content on a routine basis, and it has to be content that you worry about just as thoroughly as your music, or kayaking lessons or thate cost-overruns on that home-remodeling project.
It’s not enough to just “Think Like a Publisher,” you have to “Be a Publisher.”
A deadline… and value awaits.
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Good-Bye to the Yellow Pages Mindset
As Seattle and San Francisco officials consider saying good-bye to the yellow pages, it’s time we all say good-bye to the yellow pages mentality. While people in those two cities reason the Yellow Pages is needless waste of paper and no longer useful, it’s time to examine why the old-school mentality fostered by the Yellow Pages and other old media is a dead-end thought pattern.
The thought pattern goes like this? How big of an ad can I have and how many people will see it? The pattern is similar for broadcast and has extended into New Media via banner adds.
The larger the ad, hopefully the more people would see it and sales would increase enough to afford next year’s ad.
People confused being seen with being bought because clever advertising salesmen, successfully fudged the two for 50 years, to the point business people just assumed it was the same thing.
You might see a correlation between icreased ads and more business, but you could not find the cause of the increased business. This was acknowledged in the old saying, “Half of my advertising is great, trouble is I don’t know which half.”
To make it more difficult, people want to know more about you and your product. They can ask a hundred of their Facebook friends or Twitter Followers for recommendations, or search your company’s name for complaints. If they’re unhappy, a clever complaint online might reach a hundred thousand people in a couple of hours.
That’s where content marketing and story telling comes in. You need to show people how other people use your product or service. You need to explain the ups and downs of your product. Whatever you do, it isn’t perfect, but it is likely solving a problem or filling a need. Today, you need to do a better job of explaining it, and that yellow pages philosophy of a name, a slogan, an address and phone just doesn’t cut it today.
