Content marketing is not a new concept but it has been a buzzword online in the last few years. An early example of content marketing is the Michelin Guide.
This now-revered restaurant guide was developed in the early 20th century to assist drivers in their travels through France and later other countries. The guide became especially popular when it started focusing on restaurant reviews, as Michelin understood that this was most valuable to drivers. With no Internet, the annual pocket-sized manual started making its way into many French automobiles.
Not all content marketing is so separated from the organization’s core product. Today many organizations use blogs and social media activity as part of their communications strategies. Most of this content is directly related to the organization and its core products or services, and some may even opt to cover their internal workings. The key feature to most organization blogs and social media activity is that they demonstrate the value of content, regardless of the way they are delivered or their core topics. Social media can equally demonstrate this, as the quality of content being shared can have a significant impact on the reach achieved.
Creating high-quality content is important in the way it helps to shape the brand identity of an organization. Whether the content is in written, video or another format, it enables an organization to showcase and highlight what it values. It also goes a long way toward breaking through the noise that is sometimes hiding quality content. Social media, and to some extent the "blogosphere," are unfortunately full of spam and low-quality content, and most of us do not have the time or expertise to filter this out. This is a complex problem, but going against this by producing quality content can make an organization stand out. MPI, along with other industry associations, is a prime example of this. These associations have invested in writers, researchers and producers who are specialists in creating content that cuts through the noise, sparks discussions and plants seeds of innovation in our minds.
Some organizations also dedicate part of their resources to curating content available online. With so much information available there is value in cautiously selecting the best content and highlighting it. This is something that we have been exploring at IMEX with our Online Inspiration Hub. As IMEX’s main focus is to bring the industry together at our trade shows, the Online Inspiration Hub is our way of curating online content from a wide variety of partners, industry associations, bloggers and media, and organizing it into one valuable resource. The content is searchable and tagged in line with the session tracks that take place at our shows. We believe that this curation provides a valuable resource to anyone in the industry, regardless of physical location or industry experience.
With the constant expansion of the content available online, adequate curation is more and more valuable. There are several sites that attempt to automate this process, bringing the most popular stories to the surface (Buzzfeed, Upworthy and now Facebook’s trending news section, for example). This is amazing technology, but its value lies in sourcing the most popular items and not the most valuable. The selection process is click-driven rather than based on intelligent human decisions. Many such websites, including Facebook, are focused on creating an ever-expanding user base, so this technology is a perfect solution for them. However, for organizations focusing on quality content, I do easily use cute cat photos to boost the IMEX Facebook page’s popularity. However, the net result would be that our brand would be associated with cute cats, not trade shows for the meeting industry.
Social media plays a big part in highlighting relevant content, but its power can be further enhanced through creativity. The recent surge in popularity of infographics can be attributed to social media, and increasingly powerful smartphones and tablets. A detailed piece of research is unlikely to be popular on social media, but a well-designed infographic with the same data stands a much better chance. Video footage is also increasingly popular, even when production values are not ideal. A short Vine or Instagram video can convey a powerful message and its engaging short duration format travels very well online. This intersection of high-quality content and creative design is the best of both worlds, and it can exponentially increase the popularity of good content.
Filling your Facebook page with cute cat photos may be an oversimplified example, but it illustrates the value of creating or curating good quality content. Brand perception is, in my mind, a slow and steady race, but one where first impressions are very important. Associating an organization with the wrong type of content in order to expand its reach is a big mistake, no matter how tempting it may seem. The way we use the Internet is constantly evolving, and with digital natives taking over the workforce this is simply the way of life. Investing in the creation and curation of high-quality content is building a valuable legacy for any organization’s brand.
We are very lucky in the meeting industry in the way we get to interact with so many other industries, giving us the opportunity to both learn from them and help them in their face-to-face communication efforts. Content marketing is definitely one area where we can learn from other industries and help share the message. After all, conferences and events can be seen as examples of content marketing, ones where if successful we have participants’ undivided attention. This is the key moment to showcase high-quality content and make a valuable impact on each participant.
