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Apparently I need to clear my cache, because when I went back to Mack Collier’s blog, I didn’t get redirected to his new site.

Instead, I saw this title: “The idea that ‘content is king’ in blogging is total bullshit”

According to Mack, “Being Social is [king in blogging]”

The idea that good or even great content is not enough. Besides, “Good” or “Great” content isn’t even actionable - it’s too abstract. So let’s get concrete.

What makes good content?

1. Applies to your target audience

2. Findable or discoverable by your target audience

3. Helps or is otherwise useful to your target audience

For example, if you were trying to launch a new boutique geared towards teens/early 20’s demographic, you’d want to offer clothes they’d want to wear. You’d make your retail location accessible to them and you’d make it easy for them walk in by literally leaving your doors open.

One company that did this well? Abercrombie & Fitch, which changed its business from offering outdoors gear to offering clothing for the Tweens/Young Adult demographic. They even got a mention in LFO’s summer hit (’99), “Summer Girls”

Same deal with online marketing.

1. Provide germane (relevant) content - answer questions your audience may have or give them information they want to know.

2. Findability/searchability means that search engines can crawl AND index your content. If your content can’t be found, your audience can’t find you.

3. Helps or is otherwise useful - the call to action is so valuable for this reason. If you let people know what to do next and they want what you’re offering, you’ve lowered the barrier for purchase, adoption, etc.

So why does being social matter?

1. You get invaluable feedback loops from others - your content can improve based on customer/user feedback. You learn what resonates with people and what they think is worth repeating. Given the speed of publishing social media, you can iterate more quickly - concept to publishing no longer takes weeks or months.

2. You enable people to find out about you sooner, rather than later. Trust takes time. If you’re hanging out by yourself online generating amazing content, search is basically the only channel by which others can discover you. By leaving your blog, going to others’ and leaving insightful (not spammy!) comments, you’re creating other channels for people to discover you.

3. By adding or providing value (ie - being useful) you start building trust. Intention matters. Be open and honest about who you are, what interests you, and what you find interesting.

Good content is the minimum barrier to entry and great social content helps you learn, grow and refine your thinking.

Thanks to Deb Robison for the conversation that spawned this blog post and Mack Collier for his thoughts.

CRAVE has invited Danielle Morrill and I to speak at this month’s Coffee Chat, called Twitter Talk.

Learn about how Twitter came into existence and how it fits with other social networking and social media services, such as Facebook, as branding tools. Even if you’ve never used a service like this before, discover the power and simplicity of sending short messages (140 characters or less) to a group of friends and followers interested in what you have to say. This talk will include discussion of how to create an engaged community on Twitter, how to develop an audience of relevant Twitter users, and how to share valuable information about your products and content in an appropriate fashion - often referred to as “Twitiquette” (Twitter etiquette). 

It’s this Sunday, 4/19, from 2-4pm, at Dreamclinic, 902 NE 65th, in Seattle. Register at Seattle 2.0 or on the CRAVE Web site.

Hope to see you there!

The Facebook – Scoble – Plaxo controversy from this morning prompted members of the Twitter Community to tweet about it as it unfolded, and murmurs continued after Robert Scoble’s facebook account was reactivated. Jeremiah Owyang blogged about his Q&A discussion with Plaxo’s Joseph Smarr and John McCrea regarding Plaxo’s technology and its use to scrape data.

The discussion continued on Twitter, with @joywang asking “By you sending me an email (and me responding) we’re in a social contract. Can I use the content of an email without your knowledge?” I tweeted back with some questions, and @jasonalba made the point that consent to share information occurred when one accepted another’s friend request.

Jeremiah Oywang raises a great question, one worth more than 140 characters. People use the content of emails without others’ knowledge when forwarding it on to friends: John Fitzgerald Page found this out when his email exchange ended up on Gawker and other blogs. Should they? That’s a different, more interesting question. Jeremiah’s opinion, in part, is:

“There’s a unsaid social contract that if you become my friend, I expect you to use my information that I share with you justly, and most of all, be considerate. On the other hand, what’s happening is just the taste of what’s to come, this is the year where the social graph will become portable, whether containers like Facebook or Plaxo allow it, or other tools come around to scrape it.”

I would expect people with apprehensions about the online availability of their personal information and want to maintain control of it would be less likely to post it online. Their friend networks or social graphs will likely be populated by those they met offline before establishing an online connection. Contrast that with those who actively seek to make connections online first, which may then translate into in person connections. Would the latter group be more likely to share their information freely? At what point does the social media embracer decide that while he enjoys connecting with others online, he does not want to share personal contact information online?

Taking responsibility for your online information entails proactively monitoring your online profile and making easily accessible already public information. Perhaps this is idealistic of me, but I hope that my respect of others’ information translates into their respect of mine. Apply the Golden Rule to others’ information available online.