Five Reasons why Content Strategy comes before Social Media

Get Content Get Customers is just hitting bookstores now (you can read the news release from McGraw-Hill here). When Newt and I first started putting the book together in late 2007, content marketing was a relatively unknown term. Now seemingly a household phrase (at least according to Twitter), brands are still struggling with exactly what it means to develop a content marketing strategy.

Ah, but social media is all the rage. Is social media working for you? Are you struggling to figure out how to make it work for your customers? Could it be that your content strategy isn't driving your social media initiatives?

Here are five important reasons why a content strategy needs to be considered before integrating social media into your marketing plans.

1. Social media does not work unless you have something valuable to say! Developing a content marketing strategy is about understanding your customers' pain points, and then delivering multi-channel content that solves those customer challenges. Without having something to add to the customer conversation, how is it possible to leverage social media tools where you can help guide the conversation and position your brand/company as a trusted advisor?
2. Publishing is marketing, marketing is publishing. If we've learned anything over the past few years, it's that the majority of new media marketing efforts rely on a keen understanding of publishing. That means that you (the marketer) need to take your sales and marketing hat off and put on your publishing hat. Instead of features and benefits communication (look at most enewsletters, which are most times product or offer driven), are you delivering information like a publisher does to readers? The publishers of the future are not going to be media companies, but companies that ultimately offer a product or service. That includes you.
3. Social media activity does not mean you are accomplishing your marketing goals. That's where content strategy comes in. What is the purpose of your content? What are your key messages? What content assets do you have and what do you need to acquire? All the social media interaction in the world won't answer these issues for you, which should be completed first.
4. It's the content that is ultimately shared through social media. Valuable educational and amusing information is shared through social media. So many brands have rushed into social media wondering why they don't have the right kind of Twitter followers, or why they don't have enough comments on their blogs or within their communities (or what they are getting out of social media in the first place). Understanding that it's the content plan that drives the spreading of your ideas is the first step.
5. Social media = I hear you + I'm listening to you + I understand (thx @briansolis). Now replace "social media" with "publishing" or "content strategy". Works, right? Now try this...content strategy = I hear you + I'm listening to you + I understand + successful marketing goal and content measurement. This cements the fact that you are producing this content, not only to be shared by your customers and prospects, but to accomplish a significant marketing objective.

Ultimately, it's not about just experiences and interactions through social media. It's about creating meaningful experiences and interactions. It's about creating valuable, relevant and compelling content on a consistent basis that positions your brand as the trusted expert to your customers. When that happens, customers and prospects want to talk to you, and want to share your content.

Ah yes, that is where social media is so important. Social media is where the magic can happen. But consider content as all the upfront work, research and practice that it takes to put the magic show together. Social media is the Abracadabra.

So, I urge you, step back from your social media initiatives for just a second, and consider the following:

• Where are the content assets in your organization that provide the editorial information for your content strategy? Do you need a content audit?
• Do you have experts in your organization that can write from a journalistic perspective? This is not features/benefits content. It needs to be the best of the best on the topic you are writing based on your marketing goal. If it's not the best, can you honestly position yourself as the expert? Hire a turnkey content provider to help you that understands this. Quality content counts!
• Who owns the content strategy in your organization? Where is that individual at - marketing, PR, communications? Without ownership, creating a consistent message to your individual customer segments is a challenge at best.

If you are new to the content strategy game, I urge you to check out our book, which includes dozens of examples from companies that are putting successful content strategies to work.

Developing a content marketing strategy is not easy, but necessary.

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Comments

[Daniel Oyston]

This post is bang on the money. I work for a consulting firm and have some "rockstars" in our field.

Content is what helps me get them front and centre and position us an an authority.

This post has been sent to some key staff to reinforce my view that SM isn't a magic bullet and that we need to be helping customers and providing value (through content :)

[Joe Pulizzi]

Great Daniel...keep me posted.

[New Media Strategies]

As many internet marketing expert says "Content is king!". We should make it a point to have a quality and relevant content. Social Media are just tools to spread our content and our brand.
Great Post!

[Margot Bloomstein]

This is terrific Joe. It's frustrating to see new trains leaving the station without anyone considering where they're going, if there's enough fuel, and if the track is even laid. Too often social media campaigns are on those rails and lack the planning and analysis content strategy can provide. Great to see you call it out!

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks Margot...actually, when I started writing this I thought it was too basic, but I'm continually amazed at how many brands just jump into social media without a clue of what they want to say and why it's even important to customers.

[Dan Haley]

Thanks, Joe. Regarding Margot's "new trains leaving the station without much consideration," I've always wondered why the web commnunity--and thus, its clients--hasn't really taken content seriously all these years.

It may be because web folks are restless creatives: they like to develop, play with something for a little while, hand off to clients, and move on.

Web content is handmade, and good CS or CM requires the long view. You have to be disciplined to see content through well past launch, and diligently, assiduously tend to it hourly. This is where the web community--and as a result, its clients and their sites--have failed, and continue to do so.

Anyhow, just a theory full of broad brushstrokes and generalizations. :)

[Vince Giorgi]

Thoughtful post, as always, Joe. And congratulations on the book.

For some crazy reason (possibly overwork, or too much potato salad too early in the season?), lately I've been visualizing the relationship between social media and content strategy in terms of metaphors involving insects.

A colony of ants, for example, streaming out from a hill. Bumping into each other. Climbing over one another. Exchanging antennae rubs. Impressive amounts of kinetic energy and potential on display.

Then, abruptly, the scene changes, and those seemingly random interactions start to signal there's something important or valuable going on back at home base.

Suddenly, what appeared to be mostly a scramble starts to assume purposeful patterns. Queens get nourished. Eggs get laid. Tunnels get dug. The colony and its inhabitants flourish. And...

...this comment gets even deeper into a weird area.

So what say we wrap up this week's episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Content Kingdom right there.

After all, supper's ready. And we're having potato salad again.

[Ambal Balakrishnan]

Joe and Newt: Congrats on the release of the updated version of Get Content. Get Customers. I absolutely loved the Harvard Business case study approach you had taken in the earlier version of Get Content. Get Customers. Your latest book is on my must read list for this month and I can't wait to see what you have put together.

[Jenny Pilley]

Great post, well done. I think the first point you make really strikes home. Why will people want to read what you've written if you have nothing to say? I think sometimes people forget that content has to be valuable to be worth anything otherwise it is not only a waste of your time but a waste of what could be potential custom.

[Lindsey Annison]

Great post. It is all about understanding what your customers want and providing it, before hitting the marketing main line.

Too many sites just focus on sell, sell, sell instead of thinking holistically and realising that they could cut the support calls if they provided How to manuals, webinars for customers on how to use the products post-purchase, guides on alternative uses for the products or how to maintain them for longer life etc etc etc. Then, when you have those, you can go Tweet. Not jsut to your community of users, but to grow brand awareness that here is a company who not only have something to say that isn't marketing spiel, but actually respect their customers.

[Jordan Levy]

Great Post Joe. You articulated something I have been wrestling with these last few months.

Wherever I go, if people find out that I'm in the web biz, they ask me about social media: How to create a blog, Facebook account or what about twitter? I can tell that they are not thinking about strategy, and have no idea what to do with social media. They just know everyone is talking about it and they need to be part of it.

It kind of reminds me of 1996 - 1998 when everyone wanted a web site, but had no idea what to do with it or what to put on their site. Lots of brochure-ware sites were created with out being thought out in terms of goals or strategy. I see the same thing happening in the social media web space.

Thanks for the great article - I'm going reference it when I talk to clients. Congratulations on the book.

[abril]

Nice article !...but.. I’m a new blogger and I'm confused u_u , all webpages talk about making money for hosting videos, but not all of them are good and I have a lot of ideas. My brother recommended me to visit www.vismomedia.com, he said I’ts a good webpage for bloggers. What’s your opinion ¿?

[Simon Stepsys]

Excellent post and very true.

Great content creates a lot of followers and soon to be buyers.

Thanks for sharing this great post.

Simon

[Dawn Willson]

I truly could not agree with this blog more. I have been creating content for ten years for television, the web, marketing pieces, content pieces - you name it. I learned every avenue of content production that can exist, but realized a lot of the stuff I had to write did not have a gold nugget of wisdom to share. However, this is now an educational process that needs to be given to every client we talk to. The best part? THEY GET IT. They know they need it and they absorb it all and invest. I honestly don't think I have ever been happier in my career as a producer, writer and marketer until now. I was ahead of mine ten years ago when I created interactive television content for technology that did not exist. I'm so glad to find my people that speak the language. Rock on!

[so shife]

planning is the essence of all seo methods.

[Liverpool Builders]

I did many seo projects before, I agree with "the content is always the king" using good optimized content we can get higher ranking in search engine results, thanks

[Pilar from Pickaweb.co.uk]

Giving something for free away can make a huge difference to your social media.

[Kelso]

I think with the way social media is going.. the internal websites will be just as needed.