It’s very easy to get caught up in the Content Creation Syndrome. This occurs when companies heed guidance from SEO & Social Media experts who expound upon the necessity of creating fresh content to become (and remain) relevant / visible within your industry.
I have mixed feelings on this topic. As president of an SEO / SEM / Social Media firm, we not only recommend to clients that they develop an active pipeline of content, but we do it for ourselves, as you can see from our blogs and social media channels. So, it might be perceived as hypocritical (or bad for business) for me to question the value of ongoing content creation for companies.
One of the primary concerns raised by organizations who are diligently adding content to their sites, particularly B-to-B companies, is that their message is not being heard, due to the amount of clutter and information overload that most people are experiencing today. If you write a great article, develop insightful tweets, etc. and nothing tangible comes from it, does it really matter? Was it worth the time invested?
An analogy that comes to mind is: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it…
The bottom line for me is that SEO / Natural Search remains an incredibly valuable dimension of online marketing as it enables lead flow to a website that is not Paid (SEM). Google and the other search engines are ranking fresh content more so than ever before. Additionally, I believe that when potential clients are comparing you to competitors, a demonstrable effort toward crafting educational content can be a differentiator that will pay dividends over time.
For these reasons, I believe that developing and executing a content creation strategy has benefits for companies in both the short and long term, even if the results are not obvious each step of the way.
Lastly, I chose the title for this article from the legendary Pink Floyd song. Take a brief break to enjoy this short rendition:
