It is so very easy to fall in the trap of using your online channels as conveyor belts for your content.
The distinction between community management and content syndication seems obvious, I know, but in my experience it is a case of it becoming habit: Content. Check. Publish. Check. Share. Check. Smile and wave. Check.
Still, not to dispel the value of content syndication, it has an extremely vital role to play in the broader community management process. Case in point it is the very first pillar of The Heavy Chef Project’s Community Management Grid (pictured below):
There is value in creating channels dedicated to content syndication though.
Take for instance The Wall Street Journal’s Breaking News Twitter profile (@wsjbreakingnews). It’s sole purpose to feed through breaking news headlines from around the world. No “engagement”. No “listening”. A straight-forward news feed. It’s fine. It works, because the 20,338 people following @wsjbreakingnews know what they are in for. It has clarity in it’s purpose.
Indeed, it is only one cog in the WSJ’s broader online community.
To what extent are you spreading your content? Is it perhaps over-shadowing your community management activities? Or is it adding value in the purpose it should have?
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I think it’s important to note that pushing original content externally is great if it’s on your blog first – at least you own the content. It would be foolish to publish externally first.
The platform is irrelevant Bev. Your content needs to be where it will best be valued.
With so many “contact points” it is becoming increasingly difficult trying to be at every possible place. Prioritizing becomes critical.
Stupid question potentially, is it then worth having more than one twitter feed for your company? Following on from that, do you then structure the content on each feed (the links back to blog posts etc) to specific places as in the wall street example. How do you then ensure that the correct info gets to the right part of your audience online?
I guess I am asking a rookie question here that is as simple as..if all your content is going through one place, are you then expecting your audience online to do the sorting for you?
If I make no sense feel free to ask me to leave
I am new at a large amount of this online stuff.
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