Old school, traditional stereotypes view journalists as creative but slightly obsessive types, willing to do anything to scope out the next story for their respective publication. Journalists have the capability to write stories that enthral, educate and most important of all, pique the interest of their target audience, regardless of channel. Eg.writing for the high-end website The Guardian and gossip-mongering entertainment site Digital Spy requires a journalist to adapt their style for two vastly different audiences, but they still need to construct interesting content.
Fast forward to 2012 and the advent of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wi-Fi, Skype, smartphones, tablets and many other technological services have revolutionised the way we talk, share and deliver content to others, especially in the realm of journalism. In fact, it has become commonplace to see journalists using microblogging service Twitter by promoting links to their articles, gathering other news stories and airing their personal views. However, while technology is continuously shaping the world of journalism, in effect not much has changed.
Content still needs to be delivered to relevant audiences in order to have the desired impact. Readers still want to feel engaged, informed and up-to-date with a subject which interests them. While both the technological landscape and the sheer number of channels for a journalist to utilise has increased, the end game is still very much the same.
Enter content marketing
A relatively new player in the digital field, content marketing shares a number of ideals with that of journalism. Delivering engaging, interesting and relevant content is the beating heart of content marketing, a focus that journalists can identify with. The emergence of content marketing, coupled with the countless number of sharing platforms rearing their heads on the webosphere (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest for example), gives marketing managers a number of channels to cement their presence as a publisher and a leading industry authority through professionally written articles.
Considering that readers can access a plethora of relevant content from anywhere in the globe, it’s important that brands get their content strategy in order. Brands want readers to be looking at their site for authoritative news, not a rival’s site. That’s why journalist-powered content marketing is so important. As one of the most powerful ways to capture an audience, it’s no wonder firms are trying to create their own take on a content marketing strategy. However, it could be more profitable to outsource their efforts to a firm that uses real journalists to create content.
That’s because journalists know how to craft a story to a specific audience. The theory behind the English language, deploying the Five W’s (Who, What, Where, When, Why…and How) in a story and citing sources is Journalism 101 – qualities that you may not be able to find in an in-house marketer with no writing background.
Neutral content travels much further
That’s not to say marketers and copy writers don’t have their place in the marketing mix. Of course, their efforts within the marketing sphere are very much welcomed. Journalists, however, are fully practised at writing 100% commercially-neutral content – something in-house marketers making a sideways move into writing may not be familiar with. Neutral content has a better chance of connecting with people in the research stages of the buying cycle and will travel much further than self-promotional content, making the publishing of the articles an attractive proposition for social media managers.
Thus, some firms have capitalised on an ever-swelling journalist base to complement their content marketing efforts. By combining the core targets of journalists and content marketing into one, some firms are able to deliver professionally-written articles written by ‘brand journalists’ to a consumer base that wants to read them. Journalism by nature involves tracking the latest events happening in a particularly industry so firms hiring a professional journalist know they’re going to get a return on their investment in the form of highly developed writing skills, engaging written content and an eye for a story.
Brand journalism is the future
Journalism is constantly changing – that’s just the nature of the beast. However, at its core, it will always be about writing compelling content for a specific audience. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of brand journalism. It’s a fascinating world, perhaps daunting to those still part of the old guard but believe you me, it’s the future. Professional, tailored content delivered to a relevant audience – you’ll wonder how you ever coped without it.
Let us know your thoughts below!
I would find it easier to agree with you if it were not for the state of the media and the partisan and biased excuse for reporting that passes for journalism so often now.
There are good writers and bad writers who are journalists and are not journalists – or maybe they are they are just not technically carrying the term.
And yes content needs to be well written, factual and useful p – not just the rubbish that so many are putting out there. On Facebook for the past two days I have been watching a thread of realtors discussing content purchase and costs from less than a dollar per article to a few dollars more and I ask you how is that possible to get content that is worth buying from exploiting people? The answer is simple. You don’t. Simple mathematics should make that clear.
We need much better writing from bloggers, content writers (coud be the business owner too) and journalists. Something to which we can look forward?
Naturally, publishing top quality content requires a bit of movement on the budget front, rather than just a dollar here or there. Like you say, you aren’t going to get engaging, professionally-written content by exploiting people. Publishing poor content actually does more harm than good.
That’s why business owners need to put their money where their mouth is if they are deadly serious about publishing useful content. If you’re willing to invest, finding top quality brand journalists shouldn’t be a problem.
Glad to see someone has wrote about how I feel in my current role.
Like Lindy said!!!!
This is a well written article that suffers from one major problem. It assumes facts not in evidence. The idea that only a trained journalist is truly capable of navigating the tricky waters of digital content marketing is so easily tested and refuted it’s laughable.
Here is my supporting evidence; our company just improved a clients ROI by 625% in 2011 using content marketing strategy and tactics and there wasn’t a TRAINED JOURNALIST anywhere near it. And, if it pleases the court, I would like to present additional evidence in the form of the world’s first internet only radio network (which I founded and developed the content for) drew an audience of 50 million unique IPs per month with but 2 TRAINED JOURNALISTS on staff. Most of the content was produced by radio creative types and, no, it wasn’t just audio. Our staff had to produce blogs (before there were blogs) and a metric ton of other written content to support the webiste.
This article is remarkably self-serving, transparent and completely without supporting evidence.
Is this an example of how capable the exalted profession of Journalism handles such things? I sincerely hope not.
:)
Scot, what I’m trying to say is that journalists are trained to tell a story through their writing whereas copywriters are trained to write sales copy. I haven’t said those who aren’t journalists can’t get some form of results. As content marketing involves writing commercially neutral content, journalists are better placed to work in the sector because they are trained to tell an engaging story.
Ashley, as one who has worked as both a journalist and a copywriter (since 1977) I believe I’m in a position to authoritatively say, “nonsense”. A good writer is capable of writing advertising copy for one project and neutral, news style content for the next. It’s all just communication and those who do it well are capable of doing it in more than one style. Journalists are hardly alone in the storytelling business; there are short story writers, writers for film, writers for documentaries, etc., etc. All can tell great stories.
The reason I tend not to use journalists is their breathtaking lack of creativity combined with the conceit that they are, somehow, better than everybody else despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Also, your headline implies people should use journalists exclusively … which also implies that writers from other areas are inferior and will supply an inferior product leading to inferior results. It’s that “Only” word in the headline that really causes you the trouble. It says, “unless you are a journalist you are incapable of correctly executing content marketing content.” I have shown you two instances where this was not the case which renders the claim untrue.
Perhaps if journalists spent less time pretending to be better than others and more time in a logic class working through a few truth tables they might be more useful in content marketing.