There are couple of things that I try to keep constant in my life. One of them happens to be reading Seth Godin’s blog every morning. The post for today caught my eye because of the title, The New Lazy Journalism. The post is excellent because Seth brings up an interesting point that we all need to understand as marketers.
From Seth’s post:
We don’t need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They’re slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.
The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn’t been written about, directing attention where it hasn’t been, and saying something new.
The random mention of paid professionals retweeting was a little off topic… in my opinion. However, it does bring up an interesting point.
In a world where days mean nothing and seconds are everything… how do you create content that is new? How do you create something that will be shared? Not because it is a trending topic but because it is original. And because it helps your bottom line.
There are many social media consultants who talk about retweeting, friending, following, building content calendars, and automating tasks. I’m at fault as much as the next… we create content calendars and systems in order to gain more attention online… and we tend not to focus on the important part of the overall puzzle.
Systems and automation are important but only a small part of the puzzle.
One extremely small part…
The biggest puzzle piece should be – our content. The biggest issue in marketing, content creation, and story telling is the lack of…. actual content. Real content! New content!
Let’s say you are having a dinner with important guests. It is important that you find a professional cook… because frankly… you are terrible at cooking. When interviewing for the meal… are you going to hire a professional cook to reheat the leftovers or create a meal that will dazzle?
The same applies to your marketing.
I’m still an advocate of creating your own content but if you need to hire a professional… talk about real content. What does it mean to them and how does it drive revenue.
Great points Kyle, I've already shared your analogy. Good cooking.
I get your point… but continuing the analogy…
I'm GREAT at taking ramen noodles and turning them into a gourmet meal. I can take a $0.99 frozen pizza, add 3 ingredients, and you'll never know. You can add value when you curate.
I also know that while everything on the menu may be good… or at least sound good… I still ask the waiter, "What's the house special? What are you really known for?" They will give me a personal perspective that's not on the menu, which is all written either to be just basic description, or to make everything sound delicious.
I can't imagine someone reading everything on Mashable. I'd love to have someone I could trust to tell me what's actually interesting on Mashable every day. I can use automation to shorten the list, but eventually a human has to evaluate it.
I have to admit, I hadn't read it till you asked, but then again I usually don't. I approve around 70 triberr posts a day, so I read very few of them, my apologies. However, this is a great post. I totally agree with you. Original content/conversation is always best. That doesn't mean I'll turn left overs away though. Some of the best meals/deals I'v had have been left over, or conversation rehashing someone else's great post. Keep up the good work.
happy new year
So interesting! This issue of recycled content has been on my mind a lot lately. Thanks for the post!
Now for some slicing, retreading and rehashing me thinks!
We all have our own audiences, markets and specialities. Often we can add value, insight and perspective on a subject and make it more interesting to our own audience… and after all, are we not all out there telling our client to share share share!?!?
Thanks as ever for the great content!