7Summits Agency

Content may be King, but EXPERIENCE is Queen

The best content is genuine, not automated. It is posted with the intention of not only being viewed but talked about. The question is, how do we get readers to talk about our content? And how do we get readers to share that conversation with us so that we can participate and further engage?

As patrons of the social web, we now have access to an endless amount of interesting and FREE content, so much so that content quickly becomes nothing more than a commodity. Content is shared, copied, altered, and distributed through an endless number of channels.  This mass distribution ultimately removes any sense of exclusivity of intellectual assets as well as the ability to track a reader’s allegiance to any one source for content, if they have a preference at all.  Great content alone becomes not enough to keep people coming back; it now must be combined and interlaced with an alluring, value-adding user experience that is appealing to the audience.

A great deal of businesses spend a significant amount of time and resources creating content to share and engage their audience with, but many don’t know how to turn that content into an all out experience.   At our agency we see many companies using sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, as distribution channels for their content, integrating and linking their accounts to automatically redistribute information with little thought as to how it could be used to create a worthwhile experience for their reader.  While open social sites can be a valuable platform for increasing visibility, they should also be seen as a platform for interaction and an extension to a user’s experience with that company or brand.   As discussed in a previous post, content should be designed to travel to the social web.

I like to compare this online interaction to meeting someone for the first time.  After all, that’s what you’re doing with your content, meeting a reader with the hopes that you will hit it off and meet again another time, whether with further content or at the point of purchase.  To engage in a meaningful introductory conversation, you might ask the other person questions about themselves, invite them to share their opinions, or even increase your likeability by sharing a weakness and asking for their advice.   After engaging in this initial conversation, you would promptly respond to the other person’s comments and questions, creating a TWO WAY conversation and a personal experience for your cohort.   After the initial conversation (or visit to your website, blog, or profile), you would hope to keep in touch, and would make it easy to do so by exchanging phone numbers or email addresses.  In terms of content, easily keeping in touch could take the form of a prominently displayed signup page for your RSS feed, or links to your Facebook and Twitter pages.

That being said, we are extending our hand for a virtual shake.  Please provide a comment telling us how you create an experience surrounding your content for your readers, or possibly choose to keep in touch via subscribing to our RSS or visiting and interacting with us on our other social sites, as we would love to learn more about you, our valued reader.  It is very nice to meet you.

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