Look, I don't want to start off 2009 preaching, so just think of this as some friendly advice.
Here's the thing: no one cares about your website. Not really. People care about your content, sure. But your content or your data isn't the same thing as your website.
I'm talking about your URL, your homestead on the web. The place where you (and likely your agency) want to drive traffic to.
It's a bit vain, don't you think? Requiring that people visit your website over and over again to get what they are looking for. Why don't you just free up your content and let your customers pull it to them? Offer it up. Set it free. Give it to your fans, to your detractors, to all-comers. Let them embed it, share it, heck - let them even remix it.
And here's the really important part ... let them take the credit for the content. Well, more accurately, let them accrue the social capital that comes with finding and sharing great content.
Because both you and I know that your content is simply a means to an end. That end? Selling more of your product. And there's nothing wrong with that. We all need to make a living. But don't confuse your content with your product.
This is something I spend a lot of time talking to my clients about. Freeing up content. Socializing content. Moving from a destination mindset to a syndication mindset.
Recently I saw a campaign/project from 3M Privacy Screens that cried out to be freed from its website destination and syndicated. It's the Airport Havens Contest. The idea is that privacy can be hard to find in an airport. You can look up where to find a user-recommended haven in a number of US airports to get reccos on quiet spots to relax or get some work done.
This content wants to be syndicated. At the very least, why can't I subscribe to a feed for the airports I frequent - to see when new havens are listed.
The content is also desperate for socialization. First of all, submissions are re-written in a weird third-person speak - they don't keep the original voice of the submitter which is really unfortunate. The content becomes much less genuine and trustworthy. See an example below ...
James from Brookfield, WI
At
gate 34 in LAX, James discovered a hidden lounge which no one seems to
know about. There is a nice, soft sofa on which you can spread out and
get some work done. The noise from the walkways is faint, and with
ample Wi-Fi coverage and no interruptions, it's a great place to work
comfortably at one of the world's busiest and most hectic airports.
James writes in the same voice as Jack and Esther who have also shared recommendations about LAX (a page I can't directly link to because of the way they have created the site. Ugh.). But aside from preserving the original voice of the author, 3M could do other things to support the socialization of this initiative. Easy things like user voting or commenting on initial submissions. Picture submission of the havens - start a Flickr group for cross-polination. And give some love to the submitters - a link to a blog, twittter account or linkedin profile would go a long way to encouraging sharing. Plus, of course, a way for the submitter to link directly to their submission so they can share it with their network.
There are a dozen or more other tactics that could be used to free and socialize this content. The exercise here isn't so much to tell 3M what they did wrong, but take a good idea and apply a social media lens to it. And help you reframe your thinking about your content.
What content is on your corporate website that you could free up and socialize? And what barriers stand in your way?
Photo Credit: edwardleger
