August 21, 2008 63 Comments

Creating Honest Content Marketing

Yellow Place Content marketing has an opportunity, should you decide to take it. Instead of going the route of old marketing, you who create content with the intent of building business relationships could try going the route of being honest, being genuine, being human. It’s no more difficult than the alternative: crafting something that’s dishonest but perhaps shinier. The thing is, if you start with honest and genuine, there’s a chance that people will give you extra points for it, in the longer run.

In a recent post, Seth Godin offers some storytelling suggestions, and the best of it is at the bottom of the post:

Start with the truth. Identify the worldview of the people you need to reach. Describe the truth through their worldview. That’s your story. When you overreach, you always fail. Not today, but sooner or later, the truth wins out. Negative or positive, the challenge isn’t just to tell the truth. It’s to tell truth that resonates.

In her post about a series of viral videos created by OfficeMax, B.L. Ochman quotes Vinny Waren about how words get shifted one notch higher in marketing speak: “..funny becomes HILARIOUS. and interesting becomes FASCINATING.”

That’s exactly where the troubles start.

Keith Burwell writes on Better Closer about GM’s employee discount pricing program, and the fact that we all know that just means they’re not selling enough cars.

See a thread here?

Make your creations honest and open. Why not? It strikes me that most things would work better that way. Am I wrong?

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  • http://copyfighter.blogspot.com/ jeannie christensen

    So glad this is in your “Best of”. So simple and on point. A classic.

  • http://copyfighter.blogspot.com/ jeannie christensen

    So glad this is in your “Best of”. So simple and on point. A classic.

  • joramarentved

    No, you don't seem wrong to me, you're onto something, & even if my experience is that money can officially exist as no true ↔ happiness, for your own sake, please re-ceive some more info of mine, so that I can of course tell & e.g. help us both etc. find out, what a future is, based on, why we're honest, even with ourselves, each other etc.
    Greetings, 'J.A.,' Santiago, Chile.
    arentved@in.com.

  • kcheyfitz

    Here's the problem, Chris. Like you, I believe in and practice honesty and nothing but honesty. But I think we all need to come to grips with the power of a lie to resist truth-telling, especially if the lie fits with someone's preconceived ideas.

    The current national debate over health insurance reform — a debate being conducted across all media — is a great lesson about truth and lies. The Harris poll on September 21 startled me by reporting that “large numbers of people…believe damaging misinformation about the health care proposals…” Specifically, Harris cited a few complete untruths that are widely believed, including:
    32% believe the president’s proposed reforms would phase out Medicare
    25% believe the president’s plans would “promote euthanasia to keep costs down”
    And so on….

    I was surprised, frankly, that such large numbers of people believe such patently false assertions. But there it is.

    I'm convinced, of course, that this kind of magical thinking extends well beyond healthcare. Unfortunately, lies can be indistinguishable from the truth and no one can rely solely on the online zeitgeist to keep the record straight. Quite often, large communities are dead wrong about a fairly large number of things. The common wisdom is not always wise.

    What do we — as people, citizens, marketers — do about this? Well, naturally, we remain open and honest. But beyond that, we need to create a renewed respect for information over disinformation; a new community of support for verifiable facts.

    Any ideas about how we do this would be welcome, of course.

  • kcheyfitz

    Here's the problem, Chris. Like you, I believe in and practice honesty and nothing but honesty. But I think we all need to come to grips with the power of a lie to resist truth-telling, especially if the lie fits with someone's preconceived ideas.

    The current national debate over health insurance reform — a debate being conducted across all media — is a great lesson about truth and lies. The Harris poll on September 21 startled me by reporting that “large numbers of people…believe damaging misinformation about the health care proposals…” Specifically, Harris cited a few complete untruths that are widely believed, including:
    32% believe the president’s proposed reforms would phase out Medicare
    25% believe the president’s plans would “promote euthanasia to keep costs down”
    And so on….

    I was surprised, frankly, that such large numbers of people believe such patently false assertions. But there it is.

    I'm convinced, of course, that this kind of magical thinking extends well beyond healthcare. Unfortunately, lies can be indistinguishable from the truth and no one can rely solely on the online zeitgeist to keep the record straight. Quite often, large communities are dead wrong about a fairly large number of things. The common wisdom is not always wise.

    What do we — as people, citizens, marketers — do about this? Well, naturally, we remain open and honest. But beyond that, we need to create a renewed respect for information over disinformation; a new community of support for verifiable facts.

    Any ideas about how we do this would be welcome, of course.

  • http://absolutpurpose.com/blog Brian Cox

    I completely agree here, social media is marketing for the people by the people. I wish there were better ways to limit the amount of spam created through twitter along with other social networks to make it a more human network. Some companies are creating products which address the problem but I would like to see less automation and more genuine connection.

    Recommendations from people I know are human and trust, make me 10 times more curious and accepting of the product or service.

    Plus they don't exaggerate like ad companies.

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    That is exactly the point, thank you.

  • http://www.savetubevideo.com youtube downloader

    Make your creations honest and open. Why not? It strikes me that most things would work better that way.

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  • Cobussen

    Old post, but still very relevant, good stuff.

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