Everyone is a Publisher
If your company has a website, blog, eNewsletter, Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc then the answer is yes. Everyone is a publisher today. From 130 web sites in 1993 to 1 billion web sites in 2013 and growing. Its amazing, how the web has changed the way of consuming information in two decades. Today 2.1 billion people seek information from the web every day. Publishing has evolved from print media to corporations sharing stories with their consumers.
The first one to recognise the fact that “Everyone is a publisher” was Bob Evans from InformationWeek on June 2005. At the time he wrote “Notice how many sites are posting video on their home pages instead of hiding it behind registration gates or charging for it? They’re doing this because online video is surging forward and becoming a normal way of sending, receiving, and evaluating information; it’s mainstream because millions (tens of millions?) of consumers expect it. Publishing is no longer the domain of untouchable grandees like Citizen Kane perched atop Xanadu–it’s here, it’s now, it’s all around us, and it’s playing an increasingly big role in disrupting the way business in done in lots of industries.”
I started researching after hearing Larry Kramer, USA Today Publisher, presented at Chennai 2011. I was fortunate to get Larry’s book “C-Scape: Conquer The Forces Changing Business Today”. The book explains in a straight forward manner how web technology has changed the way companies’ communicate (publish) to consumers and why content really matters. In short, all businesses must learn to act like media companies and become curators and trusted providers of content.
Larry highlights many relevant examples and practices to marketers on how to maximize content. A must read for any company implementing content marketing.
Red Bull is a Publisher
A typical Fortune 2000 company produces more content than any book publisher any given year. This includes training material to yearly reports and more. Now they start to apply practices from traditional publishing houses including editorial processes and ways to publish content in multiple channels and devices.
Let’s take a look at Red Bull. They publish five magazines, run three TV stations, host several online sites and operate several production houses for music and TV. They produce content profitably while selling 5.2 billion cans of their power drink. The Red Bullet is their popular magazine with 3.1 million distribution, while their radio program Red Bull Music Academy radio programming has been licensed into 50 countries.
While a giant like Red Bull does publishing and content marketing in a big way, a small “garage” like Gas Monkey Garage can too. This does not mean that we all need to start a production house however we can all publish relevant and informative content through our marketing channels and web pages which include stories, newsletters, sales literature, customer cases, training material, facts, etc.
Make an Impression in 8 Seconds
Let’s look at two facts. First, there are 1 billion web sites in the world and second, the average attention span of a human has dropped to 8 seconds today. Visual communication is imperative to your content marketing. Every marketer knows visuals are important and that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images engage, enlighten and connect with your reader emotionally. Visuals increase readership by 94%. Keep in mind photos and videos are shared more than text. You can make an engaging impression in 8 seconds with no words at all.
by Petri Rahja