— Marketing (&) Mischief

Social Content Loop

Listening to Kristina Halvorson (CEO of Brain Traffic) at Web 2.0 Expo last spring got me thinking about content on the web. Kristina is on a mission to make brands understand that content on the web is much more trickier to create and master than content in non-interactive media. If you have not yet checked her presentations and thinking – do it now :)

What Kristina’s presentation got me thinking about is how you could make your content not only satisfy the needs of your audience on your own site but how can you make that great content even better by letting it leave home and go out there and make an impact in the world wide wild web? And how could you link it back to you in a way that increases the relevance of the original content for you and especially your audience? So that you don’t just create good content and let it live it’s life out there but instead spark ongoing conversations that lead to transforming your content from good to killer.

Here’s what I came up with. I call it the Social Content Loop.

This is how it works:

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1. Spark
   You act as the catalyst. Sparking conversations and reactions with everything you do: Offline, online, marketing, comms, r&d – everything should be designed to be a spark.
2. Disseminate
   Build platforms that are geared for disseminating your content – spreading your sparks. All campaigns, all activities need to let your audience take part and spread the word.
3. Nurture
   When your sparks have left home you need to look after them. Make sure they grow in to bonfires by fueling the discussions. By nurturing them.
4. Aggregate
   And don’t stop there. It’s good to have bonfires but you should also get some of that fire and warmth back home. Aggregate the discussions and show them on your sites. Be transparent. Highlight the valuable comments and the discussion on your own site.
5. Filter / rate
   Ask your audience to filter and rate everything to help you gauge what is important and relevant for them. Listen and learn and then go out and create more content, more sparks that you know your audience wants.

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What the Social Content Loop allows you to do is keep your own house warmer even when you don’t have the budget, time or means to keep sparking and lighting new bonfires. And it will also help you make your bonfires bigger and longer lasting.

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