Once upon a time, content was called “King”. We all bowed in awe at this supposedly new concept. We spoke at events, made shiney slides, and set up agencies with the sole purpose of aiding the industry in learning about this “new” concept. We spouted stats, changed our LinkedIn profiles and chased the regal dream.
Soon, we learnt the error of our ways. Content isn’t king, it’s actually just the glue that holds marketing together. We forgot a few key things: integrity, authority and, at times, relevance. We somehow continued to just keep shouting our old messages, fooling ourselves into thinking we were “storytelling”.
But all was not lost. Some quiet voices started telling their stories, using the wonderful channels we already used. These voices got a little louder, and a little more brazen. They were “nobodies”, they were unpaid sages of the zeitgeist. They shared their favourite things, and their worst. Product managers realised that they could ride the wave of these quiet voices, who weren’t so quiet after all.
We all love a good story.
We all love a real personality.
We love to trust…
Word-of-mouth advertising. Who would have thought this oldest form of marketing would add such a brilliant sheen to our kingly content? And so, influencer marketing was born. Or reborn. It’s always been around, we are all influencers.
Mistakes have been made, people and products have been shamed. We learn, we evolve.
But what now?!
How do we engage? How do we create? How do we build our trust? How do we infuse our content marketing plans with something new.
Well, here comes the apex of our little story. The hero enters, perhaps promising to make things different. Will they succeed?
Independent News and Media have just launched Creators.ie. It’s the town square in the village of Ireland; and the single place where those quiet voices can be heard. It is a blog aggregation site. It is a space for content magic to happen. No-one needs to be king, the villagers decide who is crowned on any given day. Indeed, the villagers can choose whose voice they listen to. And, marketers and brands can choose how they would like their story told. With integrity, authority and relevance.
The wind changes direction. We talk directly to the creators. We trust them. They trust us. We give them an even bigger channel to share their voice, dialling the volume up.
So how does this story end? We don’t know yet. But I love this village square, and you really don’t want to miss out. Check out Creators.ie. Get in touch, if you are a voice or a brand. And let’s see how we can all be kings.