Content outside of the box

By Lynda Rathbone

With the rise and rise of social networking sites – where people can publish their news, thoughts and opinions and solicit feedback – it is time to think ‘outside of the box’ about your own web site content.

Social networking sites, such as wikis, blogs, podcasting sites and community sites such as flickr (photo sharing) and MySpace (a music community site where you can share personal information, musical tastes and more) have become so popular that a good internet content strategy these days must take them into consideration.

There are thousands – even millions – of users on these sites, sharing their opinions and their daily lives with others. This could be a gold mine for you as a site owner in trying to figure out how to effectively reach and interact with users, promote your own views or to participate in discussions.

I’m not just talking about advertising here. Users these days see right through that. What I’m talking about is actual content – but placed and even authored on other sites.

Take Wikipedia (wikipedia.org), for example, the ‘open source’ encyclopedia and now one of the most popular sites on the internet. It’s widely promoted as an authoritative factual resource, although anyone can post and author content on the web site.

A good content strategy should take into consideration the opportunity for a business to post content there – or augment existing content – to raise awareness of issues or help to re-define concepts that will make readers think about their organisation in a different way. After all, Wikipedia also contains entries about many well-known companies.

A more specific example is Wikitravel (www.wikitravel.org). If yours is an organisation that deals in travel or produces information about travel destinations, Wikitravel is a perfect place to post stories from that destination and give others a

feel for what it’s like to go there. Pair this with a good search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. When folks read the wiki guide and ‘google’ your business name for more information, your site will come up at or near the top of the results list.

Of course, wiki sites, like all community sites, tend to discourage commercial content placement. But for information about providers, it can be a boon for those users that want to find out more – such as how to get there, what vaccinations or visas are required, how to get involved as a volunteer on development projects, and so on. In that way, it’s a great way for businesses to participate in the community with quality content and then have an SEO strategy for the follow-up search.

And if you are thinking of doing really simple syndication (RSS) feeds (subscription-based content feeds for users of your site), which can either be content or audio/video format podcasts, it is imperative that you think about how to get your feed listed on the directory sites as well as on other community sites so prospective customers will know it’s available.

The internet landscape has changed dramatically over the last two or three years and, to be in with a chance to make your mark on that landscape, you must place links with search engines that drive traffic to your site, as well as place links and content on the other sites that direct traffic to your feed.

The feed itself may promote your site or you can take the opportunity to advertise on these listings sites. This is often a lot more effective than an advertising-led pay-per-click strategy, which can yield questionable results. Don’t get me wrong, search engine placement can be a very good strategy. It just needs a boost to compete with all the new social sites springing up and capturing the eyeballs that go there first, before rushing off to other internet ‘destinations’.

Defining your target audiences these days means understanding your target audiences and then understanding exactly what that target audiences is doing on the internet. Word of mouth is back, via blogs and communities, and you should be sure to factor this into your content strategy when planning your site update or thinking about updating your content.

The sophistication of internet users has grown enormously over the past few years, but the ways to reach these users have also increased exponentially as well. Thinking outside of the box is a requirement now for a solid content strategy – plus it’s a whole lot of fun, too.

As always, I welcome e-mails about innovative things you’re doing on your web site and with your content, at lynda@foursquaremedia.net.