You’ve probably heard the phrase: “content is king.” This morning I read “The idea that ‘content is king’ in blogging is total bulls***” by Mack Collier on The Viral Garden. He’s got a stark reminder there–a picture of an empty theater–that content doesn’t mean diddly if nobody sees it.
Many bloggers view their blog as their stage. Nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t make sense to walk behind a podium, start talking and expect the room to fill with an attentive audience. Chris Brogan had a great post on this today (and read @KathySierra’s comment), and the point he kept making is that the difference between an audience and a community is the direction that the chairs are facing. Many bloggers act as if they are addressing an audience, when they want an interactive and passionate community. This is a disconnect that the idea of “content being king” feeds into.
This is an excellent reminder for anybody looking to build a business around content. It takes a marketing strategy to make that work. Make sure you have a type of person or business you’re trying to reach, a message and a way to get that message to them.
Mack makes a different but very important point about the “social” in social media. In his world, it’s about commenting, interacting and developing community, which amounts to the same thing as marketing. Is marketing, in fact, in a lot of one-person content-driven business.
Thanks, Mack.
While I was at the Viral Garden, I browsed some of the posts. Then I added that blog to my blogroll here on Up and Running. Good stuff. And I was amused, while adding the link, to note that his URL there is “moblogsmoproblems.” Hmmm . . . somehow I find it easy to imagine the circumstances in which somebody would register that name. But that’s a different post.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
