4 Kinds of Pointless Online Content

“Content is king,” we’ve heard time and time again, and it seems truer by the day. More and more business owners are coming around to the idea that creating good, value-adding content is one of the very best ways to build their brand’s authority, visibility, and prestige. It cultivates customer loyalty and name recognition, and it gives your brand a voice and an edge over the competition. The benefits of great, original, reader-focused content are truly numerous.

Of course, there is such a thing as bad content. Grammar Chic recently blogged about some of the telltale signs of awful content, but the frustrating thing is that not all bad content is so obviously symptomatic. In other words, you may think you’re doing the right thing, creating the right kind of content—you may even be 90 percent of the way there—but the content may still come up short, and end up being a bit of a waste of time.

There are four main types of content that fall into this category—content that may seem helpful but in truth is wasting your time and your content marketing dollars.

• “Just for Something New” Content. Certainly, it is important for content marketers and business owners to keep their blogs buzzing and their social media feeds fuelled with new content. Fresh, up-to-date posts are important for maintaining your visibility, your brand presence, and also for feeding the online content monster. With that said, new content just for the sake of new content—just for the sake of seeing your company page atop the Facebook news feed or the Twitter rundown—means nothing in and of itself. Content has to offer actual, substantive value to users for it to be effective; content posted just for the sake of novelty won’t ultimately engender any engagement, or build brand loyalty. It’s hollow, and people will recognize that.
• “Just for Links” Content. Winning links from other blogs and websites, pointing back to your own content, is certainly a great way to boost and enhance your online presence. With that said, content that’s developed solely for links—a link-filled press release or blog entry, for example—is going to come up short for the same reasons mentioned above: It simply doesn’t offer the reader any value.
• “Just for Keywords” Content. See above. No, there’s nothing wrong with including some strategic keywords in your content—but when the keywords are all you care about, then providing informative or educational insights is obviously not the top priority, and the content will suffer because of it.
• “Just to Promote” Content. There’s nothing wrong with letting people know about a new promotion or sale you’re running—but content that doesn’t offer any context, that doesn’t educate the reader—content that simply focuses on how great you think your brand is—won’t really have legs.

There’s a fine line between well-intentioned yet pointless content, and content that really makes your brand shine. To learn more, contact Grammar Chic today: Call 803-831-7444, or visit http://www.grammarchic.net.