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By: Scott Kinser
Content marketing is hot. It’s got buzz. It’s got venture funding. And it’s got the attention of more and more brands, with bigger and bigger budgets.
But like anything with real heat, it’s gotten a bit distorted.
Here are the 5 myths of content marketing.
MYTH 1: BRANDS DOING CONTENT CAN’T TELL THEIR OWN STORIES
Red Bull, the energy drink-turned-media titan, is the poster brand for content marketing. Which is both good and bad. It’s good because Red Bull does amazing content. And bad because Red Bull’s maximalist approach to content leads other brands to believe they have to wrap Kanye in bacon, seat him on a unicorn, and send him sliding down a double rainbow into a cushion made of kittens in order to get any attention. Expectations can be such that brands are afraid to boot up a CMS and just tell a bit about what they’ve done.
Don’t be and share your businesses stories like no one else can.
MYTH 2: CONTENT MARKETING IS THE EXCLUSIVE PROVINCE OF 24-YEAR-OLD COMMUNITY MANAGERS
Consider the community manager, that archetype of our modern marketing landscape, able to update six channels in 32 markets and respond to 64 consumer conversations all before you’ve logged in. Many brands labor under the mistaken impression that all it takes to keep the social fields tended is an army of these folks.
Reality is a lot more complicated. The right, nimble mindset has to flow upstream as well as down. To engage in marketing at the speed of culture, you need to have the infrastructure to evaluate risks quickly and make approvals.
It’s important to have “executive sponsors,” who are execs who can sign off at 6 p.m. on Sunday if there’s a big opportunity in social media that arises.
MYTH 3: SHORT-FORM IS THE ONLY FORM IN OUR ATTENTION-DEFICIT CULTURE
Pop quiz: You’ve got to produce a crucial piece of content and you must choose between two forms: a six-second Vine and a four-minute YouTube video. Think the Vine option is a no brainer? Think again.
Depending on what you’re company is all about, doing a short vine video won’t cut it. You need to have a long form expression (YouTube video) that shows what you’re company or nonprofit is about.
MYTH 4: CONTENT IS JUST EARNED MEDIA
There’s a temptation to think of content as earned media. Avoid this at all costs.
You may have noticed that today’s information ecosystem—i.e. the Internet—is a noisy place.
The blunt reality is that if you want to stick out, you have to support your content with media budgets, perhaps tapping providers like Fusionmarx that will help get your content in front of the right audience.
MYTH 5: CONTENT IS JUST ADVERTISING BY ANOTHER NAME
There comes a time in the life of every content marketer when his or her work is dismissed as merely a repackaging of old ad forms. The antidote to this way of thinking is to tell great stories, write posts, shoot videos or engage with your audience via social media.
Hopefully, these content marketing myths can be put to rest and your business or nonprofit can take these tiny tips and flourish.