There has been lots of buzz recently about what I see as two different sides of the same coin. Some call it “content marketing“, and say it is the New PR. Others use the term “inbound marketing.”
In either case, the objective is to get people to find out about your company, product or service by publishing compelling content. Content marketing in the online world translates to inbound marketing through links that direct the reader inbound, i.e. to your website or blog (as opposed to outbound marketing tactics like telemarketing or advertising).
Blogging combined with Twitter can work together and comprise pillars for a powerful content marketing system. Your blog offers the persistent content hub, while Twitter provides a platform for quick, conversational updates – some of which include links back to the blog.
I find that many are enamored of Twitter. It is the shiny new social media “toy”. Clients often ask me how to get the most out of social media after being infected by the Twitter buzz – but before they have committed to an effective blogging strategy.
As Heidi Cohen wrote very eloquently in yesterday’s ClickZ piece Use Blogs to Extend Social Reach and Drive Online Sales:
While not as sexy as other social media formats, blogging can
effectively utilize text, photographs, video, audio, and PDFs to fuel
other social media interactions, most notably Twitter and social
bookmarking. By using other communication channels, such as RSS and
e-mail, to distribute blog content, you can extend your reach. To be
effective, blogging requires ongoing work, commitment, and time to
yield benefits.
Now, after hitting the “Publish” button, I will promptly issue an update via Ping.fm – which will in turn update my Twitter and social networking accounts – which will no doubt result in some traffic to this blog and demonstrate content marketing in action.
