Content marketing spreads its egalitarian wings

Content marketing spreads its egalitarian wings. Take content marketing for example. But what the internet, and more recently social media, has done for content marketing is give it powerful new wings. First email, then websites, and then social media have provided content creators with the tools to reach audiences that were only possible via mass media means just a decade or two back. Minimal barriers to entry The best part of this evolution for smaller business operators is that most of these distribution channels can be started and grown at no, or at least little, cost. A blog can cost you nothing. Search engines don’t charge a cent to crawl your blog or social network to increase your prominence in their listings. In other words, your entry costs can be absolutely nothing but the time you invest into setting up and maintaining them. But probably the most important addition to this toolkit is the social media group. Phone number audiences When you consider that just one social media group can contain up to hundreds of thousands of members, it doesn’t take too much applying and creating good content to start to appeal to the kind of numbers previously well out of reach of most smaller organisations.

Author: Craig Reardon / Source: SmartCompany

At a time when misinformation spreads just as quickly as the real thing, it’s important to take information from all but the most credible of sources with a hefty grain of salt.

Take content marketing for example.

Judging by the hype that’s out there, anyone would think this increasingly important form of marketing came shortly after that other relatively recent arrival on the block, social media.

But that’s not the case at all.

An old dog with new tricks

As I’ve pointed out a number of times previously, content marketing has been around since a business operator or spokesperson wrote a regular column in a newspaper, or held a seminar, or had a regular guest radio spot, or even printed and distributed a newsletter.

In other words, it’s been around an awful long time.

But what the internet, and more recently social media, has done for content marketing is give it powerful new wings.

First email, then websites, and then social media have provided content creators with the tools to reach audiences that were only possible via mass media means just a decade or two back.

Better still, they have also given wings to promoting “traditional” content as any event organiser will happily confirm.