A kind reminder that the recent hot trend of saying “Content is King” is actually more nuanced now than it ever has been.
People come for the great content, yes, but it’s the process by which they get there that’s just as important.
The simple fact is this: Great content is produced daily but only a few pieces ever get to your ears (and eyes). Why? It’s because distribution strategies are just as important (some would argue more important) as the content to which it’s linking to.
I mean, we have some of the best “content” out there: A message of hope for a dying world. But we completely suck at getting the word out, or getting the word out in a way that’s wise and effective.
Keep making that great content. Don’t stop. But don’t forget that building a good strategy behind your distribution is just as important.
In fact, perhaps you need to sit down and plan it out. Ever think about that? We’ve done that here at 8BIT and apparently something is working, and we’re not even the experts!
We’ve also had a lot of luck, if I’m honest too.
Thankfully content is not king because I would be in trouble if it was
me too.
GREAT POINT! Amen, amen. Great point! Yes. thank you.
I used to do street evangelism (I know this is a horrible method for distributing the content), but I realized how much people were so against the message before even hearing it. Probably had to do w/ my method & the methods that had gone before me – unfortunately, the message could not be heard b/c of the connotations & presuppositions built over 100s of years of Christians being nothing like Jesus. =(
I wouldn’t necessarily say street evangelism is a “horrible” method, but an ineffective on for most people. I know a few people personally who are fantastic at street evangelism, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
dude. your gravatar is like sexy-hot.
So true. Yes, good content gets people to stay…or better yet…come back.
but who cares if you can’t get people there in the first place.
it’s the truth.
The whole SEO piece is something I’m sorely lacking in intelligence on. Where could I gain a better understanding. I obviously want to keep my blog full of honest dialogue and content, but perhaps there are those out there who will never see it. I should look into this some….any suggestions?
Google has a PDF on SEO. It’d be a good place to start (I haven’t read through it myself, though): http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Thanks, Kevin. Will be reading that after work today.
I have glanced through it and it does look valuable. I figure if the the keeper of the world’s information is offering free tips on SEO that it is probably pretty good.
Good point. I just read a large chunk of it….pretty good stuff.
Hey Josh, we’ve been doing search engine optimization/marketing at OurChurch.Com for more than 6 years ago. Not trying to pimp our services here or anything, but we’ve blogged a lot about what we’ve learned along the way at
http://blog.ourchurch.com/category/search-marketing/
And we put together a site specifically about search marketing for churches at: http://churchmarketingonline.com/
Maybe there’s something in there you’ll find heplful.
Paul, thanks for the link. I will certainly check it out. It’s always good to read from the experience of others.
When I was in youth ministry I had my senior minister tell me that all I really needed to do to be successful in youth ministry was to “Preach the Word.” He also suggested that I try out a lot of the stuff he did when he was in youth ministry in the 1970s. I think he missed the point that you’re making in this post. In order for our messages to be heard we HAVE to communicate it in a way that people will hear/read/see/watch it. The advent of the web and social networking has drastically altered how people receive information.
Distribution is so important. So many people have great content but no one knows about it because it isn’t distributed effectively.
yup. which can be unfortunate.
I’m banking on luck.
Content and SEO don’t seem to do it for me
Having said that, some ppl think I am doing very well.
I don’t think so, but that’s my competitive nature.
A place to learn about seo is seomoz.com, great company based in Seattle, I had a paid membership for a bit amazing stuff and they also have a lot of great free content, or at least they used to
seomoz is awesome.
Another important aspect is design. I know when I click on sites that look like Norcalis, they instantly loose credibility. SEO gets them there, design keeps them there for longer than 2 seconds to read your content.
John, excellent point that content and distribution are equally important. I piggybacked on that theme with a post this morning:
Content x Distribution (SEO) = Success
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2010/03/03/great-content-distribution-success/
I don’t supposed you’d share some of the deets in the distribution plans you put together for 8BIT?
sure. let me put that as a good blog post.
oh wait, anything specific you’d like to see?
Nothing specific. Most people/organizations probably don’t really even know where to start with a distribution (marketing?) plan, so anything would be helpful.
sweet.
i just spent a large block of time today in a mtg where we looked at sites we invested serious time and money on that hid and made the content it was supposed to “share” nearly impossible to find.
hoping more and more people learn to put the user first think about how to get the content to them quickly and easily.
you guys win.