B&M connection May 2021 Where should you place your important digital content? Hint: Not on social or Temporary media.
In the old days, all information could be found bound in libraries and archives that categorized the information by subject and author. Newspapers were bound and stored in print or on micro type readers that only an index could locate. In the early days of the internet Google set out to make it very easy to search for anything. An early mission statement was to “Gather and organize all the world’s information.”
Then advertising followed and companies paid for search to deliver prospects to their portals. One might say Google, from the beginning, viewed themselves on some level as the world’s most comprehensive Ad agency – but in reverse. They had acquired the information and habits of all its users and knew who would be most interested or susceptible to specific types of advertisement marketing.
Today, you are more likely to hear how important content is to your marketing strategy. The hope is that your content will be used by search to deliver the right prospects to your doorstep (bricks & mortar) or portal (website or social media properties). Today, the business world is driven by content marketing or at least that is what those involved in advertising would like you to believe.
Here is the problem. Do you believe the various internet search engines will present your business by offering up your website or do you need to have social media channels to have people find you? Do you wonder what you need to put out there on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and other platforms that are free to create but charge you to be “promoted”?
I do a lot of work with companies helping them determine how best to be seen, heard and found online. In the final analysis, we talk about the differences between permanent media vs. temporary media.
Temporary media is represented by all those social media platforms that require you to interact on a regular basis supplying fresh content and interacting with your ‘fans.” You should start to think of them as the feeder supply funnel to somewhere else. Why? Because neither you nor your “friends” are likely to find that post again easily. Some posts might be scooped up by search but not without effort and dollars invested.
Temporary media is a useful listening post. A place to drop in and observe what others are talking about. You may have a group or a page or you may have an account but you don’t control its future destiny. The social media platform may change its policy or may change how many people you can reach. This happens all the time. We hear about algorithms and rule changes. Takedowns and verified accounts. What that means is you can’t count on yesterday’s rules to work in your favor tomorrow.
I suggest you Join the conversation on social media but if you have something significant to say or a business to run – be sure to have your say somewhere else.
Think of temporary media as a funnel where conversations begin and connections are made with others. Whatever you want to show and share should be within your own permanent media location. You get to track its usefulness and you never have to worry about who controls the information.