True content marketing is calculating page value

I see so many articles on the subject of content marketing it makes my head hurt. They nearly all just witter on about blogs, infographics and social media, but hardly any even mention one key thing... return on investment.

Its like we've stepped back once more to either around 2008 (when social media gained a lot of attention) or the early days of the dot com bubble in the 1990's. Both were a time when a lot of people lost a lot of money, by not focusing on value.  The value of what you're doing compared to what you get out and the value you're adding.

So before rushing into loads of content marketing efforts and wasting everyone's time and money. .. ask yourself "do I know the value of this page I'm either creating or maintaining?".

If you don't, might I suggest you stop right there and work that out first?

Now anyone can be a Social Media Expert

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that yesterday I had a bit of a rant about an email for the upcoming Internet World Expo:
http://twitter.com/#!/haydens30/status/55941006662713345
http://twitter.com/#!/haydens30/status/55941454043947008
The email is here and it has the amazing claim:

Social Media tuition from Facebook and LinkedIn... Become an expert in just 1 day

Now last year you may have read my post where I mentioned that I saw the potential for a new Internet bubble to arise.

Back nine months ago you suddenly had the appearance of a number of agencies and individuals all claiming to provide Social Media services (usually after they’d all read the same case studies, etc.). Yet back then there was little client demand and it was clear the market stood a good chance of imploding upon itself.
Well, three quarters of a year later the dynamics of the market are now very different.
What’s changed? Well…

1. Clients now have a demand for Social Media (and money to spend)
2. The Social Media Agency market has matured (a little)
3. Traditional agencies have moved to adopt Social

However, the success and popularity of Social Media as a discipline now comes with another problem…. The appearance of the Social Media Expert and the desire for everyone to become one overnight.

And quite frankly, Internet World Expo haven't helped the matter!

Is the Social Media bubble about to burst?

I've lived and worked through the dotcom boom and bust years in the late 1990's. I was there when the bubble burst and trust me it wasn't fun or pretty. I therefore have an interest in making sure I never experience that again.... so I write this post with one eye on the past and one firmly open in the hope that I am not right about the future (never have I written a post before that I truly hope does not come true).

An economic bubble is caused when a combination of factors come into play at the same time:

• Hype takes precedence over fact and thought
• A market fills to the capacity of this hype... not the demand of the buyer nor the quality of the supplier
• People and companies of varying quality and expertise rush to reinvent themselves, to take advantage of this mythical un-tapped revenue
• Everyone chases each others tails, thinking that someone else has found the foot of the rainbow (along with the appropriate pot of shiny yellow metal)

And what we now have with Social Media feels a lot like that situation back on the 1990's. A situation that Paul Williams likes to call the Social Media "goldrush"

Social media is our gold rush. With the zillions of tweets, Diggs, blog posts, and Facebook updates all panning for attention I’ve only heard of a few who have ‘struck it rich’ as a result.

Sure its not exactly the same as a dozen years ago.... but in various ways it resembles the time just before everyone started realising that there was precious little client or customer money around to support all the crazy valuations placed on these dotcom darlings. Just before the investors saw the digital emperor actually didn't have many clothes on... and what he did have was pulled to shreds and fought over by too many people on over-inflated salaries and opinions of themselves (along with some rather expensive & illegal habits).

But that would never happen now would it?

We'd never make the same mistakes again....

....surely?