Content from a FUFISM perspective

CONTENT FROM A FUFISM PERSPECTIVE

To be able to discuss content from a FUFISM perspective we first need to clarify what is content and then elaborate on the purpose, aims, objectives and related issues of different types of content.   When discussing content from a FUFISM perspective we do need to remember that the primary focus will be on marketing within the online arena

CONTENT

There is very little difference between content and information, and these two terms can quite often be interchanged, with out distorting the meaning of the sentence.  That being said content and information are not exactly one and the same thing, as content contains information, but information does not contain content.

Content comes in a variety of different disguises and then in various combinations of these different disguises.  Each different type of content has its own subset of different media where it is found, and these are listed in the second list labeled content medium.

CONTENT TYPE 

1. text
2. images
3. audio
4. video

CONTENT MEDIUM

1. printed material (books, news papers, magazines, files, flyers and posters)
2. Radio (audio)
3. television  (audio visual)
4. digital and online  (computer files  /  web sites  /  blogs  /  social media  /  forums)
5. verbal speech and telephone conversations  including interpersonal communications (lectures / teaching / meetings / customer interactions)

For us to be able to transfer information from one person to another or to groups of people this information must be known and understood by the originator, then  converted to a document / file using one of the four basic content types or a combination of these, then made available to the receiver of the information through a medium and  in a manner that the receiver will be able to interpret  and take some desired action, as in the call to action statement within that specific content.

Most information that a company has, is stored in basic text format and kept in files either printed or stored in digital format within the company intranet, which is accessible by the company staff.   This content is used to formulate policies and work flow issues as well as for general administration and management of the company or organisation.

As far as this discussion is concerned we will deal with a very small subset of content, which is created and managed, specifically for the purposes of marketing, advertising and related management of company marketing and advertising issues from a FUFISM perspective.

The marketing cycle

The management will establish procedures to create more content, which is purpose orientated to achieve specific goals, aims and objectives, and establish rules for the distribution of this content to specific target groups to further the purpose, aims and objectives of the organisation or company.

Now that we have established the basics of content we need to establish the purpose, aims and  objectives of having a FUFISM based content policy, and then establish a means to implement this policy so that we can use the company's existing content to create, curate and manage a FUFISM based social media marketing machine that will allow you to do your marketing and advertising from a well informed and properly managed base of operations.

So just to ensure that you are up to speed with what FUFISM is all about take a short detour and do some revision of what is FUFISM here

All marketing starts with (or rather should start with) a brief from the management to the marketing department discussing the product / service that they want exposed to the public along with the public's expected reaction and how this is expected to be managed further down the line by other departments such as sales, production, Public relations and general administration staff.

The marketing team take this brief and then begins putting in place the necessary content that will be managed, manipulated and configured into a format that is suitable for the chosen medium or media and then distribute this content according to the developed plan.  This is quite a lengthy procedure and needs to be properly planned so that the content can be created then released in a co-ordinated and well managed manner.

Content development Stage one

The first stage of content development starts  with studying the marketing brief and identifying as well as documenting the product / service to be marketed,  then analyzing this to determine a target market or group of different target markets.  Next step is the listing of the different mediums that your selected target market groups  use followed by calculating which media will be used to convey your desired call to action statement to your intended target market, and documenting this.

Target market research and documenting the the target market trends, practices and habits as well as their preferred communication channels and language use is an essential part of stage one in the content development cycle. 

Content development stage two

Now that you have a target market and the desired medium that your content will be channeled through you will need to start developing a content strategy plan that will entice your selected target audience to take the desired action on your call to action statement in a manner as dictated in the original marketing brief. This usually involves

1. a web site 
2. a blog
3. one or more social media platforms
4. Optional extras
• news paper advertising  
• Radio advertising
• magazines advertising
• billboard advertising
• distribution of flyers
• TV advertising
• other branding  / advertising options

Each of the items listed in the list above will have their own content creation issues, and have their own content management plans in place that will all need to be co-ordinated and managed by a single person who will ensure that the FUFISM principals are in place so that these different efforts can work as one collective campaign with a few different micro campaigns doing their bit to entice your desired target audience to follow through the entire conversion process as determined in the original marketing brief.

Content development stage three

The four  pillars of your content strategy listed in content development stage two need to be evaluated carefully and then you need to adjust the content of each specific sector to match up and back-up all the other sectors, and repeat as is needed. This is essential and needs to be done as a collective effort by all who are working on your content from various different angles before it is published for the first time.  Plan your content publishing schedule carefully and ensure that these take place in the planned order, and that all cross linking is active and functional.  ensure that each piece of published content is functional and displayed online as it was designed to be, fixing all errors as soon as discovered or reported.

make any adjustments as needed, and follow up with aggressive social media support marketing. Be sure that you have briefed all staff who are in the call to action value added chain, and that everybody in the conversion chain has the necessary content to answer customer queries and solve related customer issues in the shortest possible time frame.

List of pages used during research for this post.  this list is not complete, but each link here is a worth a read.as it will expand on some issue around content, content creation, content curators and  content curation

http://fufism.info4u.co.za

http://4ubrand.blogspot.com

http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2014/02/01/curation/

http://www.softalkapple.com/blogs/factminers-more-or-less-folksonomy

http://d20innovation.d20blogs.org/2012/07/07/understanding-content-curation/