The Content Conundrum

Every few years those attempting to predict the latest interactive trend will come out and make a statement like “Content is king.” In Google’s case that statement might read “Context is king,” and for the fake blogs, it would be “Conversion is king.” In 2009, with the entrenchment of the recession, the trend thus far proving true is “What’s old is new.” Inexpensive display media and a general desire for authenticity, for example, have enabled not just fake blogs but review sites such as best-teeth-whitening and other pre-2000 looking sites to achieve unexpected performance in some of the most traditionally difficult channels. One “old is new” area gaining more attention is the never sexy, makes a good spouse but not enthralling lover, natural search. You can’t really wine and dine natural search. It doesn’t care what car you drive or in what part of town you live. It likes the scholarly approach to life – the world of academia, of publishing, and intellectual capital. Search can still get awestruck, though, placing a little too much weight on the sizzle instead of the steak. But, it generally catches itself and returns to a cooler heads prevail attitude.

We’ve always taken search for granted. It’s the antithesis of so much in direct marketing. It’s pretty much indirect marketing. Spend months of time for uncertain results. Take media arbitrage on the other hand, and its promise of instant gratification. While not as easy to start as it once was, plenty of places allow you to begin advertising today and see results today. Within hours you can start to see whether your efforts have produced money or not and begin formulating a plan to improve it. Such is not the case with natural search. Twitter, Facebook, status updates on Meebo, LinkedIn, etc., all emphasize the now. Now is now. Now is not natural search. It tries to encapsulate the now because it has to, but it values more the marathon runners not the sprinters. Sprinters can pay per click, but it wants to reward with “free” traffic those who appear to not only have a vested interest but those whose opinion seems to matter to others. Whose opinion matters, though? Is it the steak or the sizzle? The scholar or the star? The steak is the meaty content – well thought out, obviously articulate, and defined by its lack of attention getting text. The sizzle is anything but. It’s the headline grabbing titles. The celebrity gossip of content that draws eyeballs and attention, spurs conversation but often lacks substance.

The challenge with search is the people searching. In theory, search should reflect what users will find valuable and what they tend to gravitate towards. The problem of course is that this assumes the two go together, that some rationality on the part of the user exists. That’s a challenge for the search engines, because it means that while they want the steak, the sizzle all too often looks like the steak. The sizzle is the world of link baiting, of writing content that deliberately draws attention and thus links. It’s the proactive form of authority versus the more reactive form, where content owners discover good writing and reward it with links. It’s a gray hat tactic to many, a discussion years old now, but is it really wrong? Is it logical to assume that if people link it has some value, and they wouldn’t link unless they thought users found it interesting? Such attention grabbing fluff might seem a tactic spawned in cyberspace, but a quick look to the original “content is king world,” of offline media shows us that the content dilemma is truly another case of what’s old is new and that originality isn’t king.

In this issue we have some great examples of offline link bait. Who wouldn’t want:

• Success without stress and to discover their happiest, healthiest self

• To lose their belly, with results in as little as 12 days

• 15 fat-burning power foods

• More energy instantly

• Flat abs. Firm butt. Lean thighs.

Fast forward two months. Here’s what this issue holds in store:

• The no diet solution – Flatten your belly in two weeks

• More energy instantly

• Less stress, more money

• Flat abs. First butt. Lean thighs. Fit in just 7 minutes a day

• 25 instant beauty tricks. Discover your prettiest self.

• Your holiday love plan. Our perfect gift guide.

Looking at the two lists, what we see is almost depressing (or energizing to a direct marketer). It’s all the same, and in some cases exactly the same. The trick isn’t being truly creative. It’s really like that magnet word game – just switch some basic things around. It is part fake blog tactic

• i.e. promise things that are not as easy as they sound, e.g., a no diet solution, and part review site, i.e. creative lists, e.g., “Top 10 this, 25 must know that, and so on.

It’s no wonder that the behind scenes battle still wages on between those who feel that good content is not marketing driven content and those who can manipulate interest and feel the spoils should go to the winner. The real winners though are those who have figured out either, because 50% EBITDA businesses are in short supply in the media arbitrage world