![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.theidealaunchlab.com\/emails\/b2b_twitter_success.jpg\" "\\"twinkie\\"")
Creating fresh, valuable content for your company\u2019s website not only improves your search rankings and gives your brand a voice, it also shows your customers, your prospects and your industry that you have something to say. And, more importantly, it shows you\u2019re listening.<\/p>\n
Content is king, long live the king. Digital content lives forever.<\/p>\n
There is, however, a downside. I call it the \u201cTwinkie Effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all seen it: That blog on a company\u2019s site that has been abandoned since 2008. March 10, 2008, is right there in print, along with the overly optimistic announcement about \u201cour new blog.\u201d<\/p>\n
All dated and dormant content, from dusty blogs and press releases to obsolete industry news and old-fashioned site design is like a shelf of old Twinkies. Visitors can still consume it and won\u2019t die, but it won\u2019t do them any good either. And they won\u2019t be back.<\/p>\n
How many business sites have you been to where it feels like the door was left open and the lights are on, but no one is home? There\u2019s a welcome mat, some pictures on the walls and books on the shelves, but no one\u2019s there. So you hang for a moment to look around, and then you leave. They never knew you were there and, apparently, don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
Maybe you find a business or individual representing that business through social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. The colorful lineup of logos for each might even be displayed on the site. \u201cFriend us on Facebook,\u201d \u201cFollow us on Twitter.\u201d Why? The most recent post was months ago, and you can tell they don\u2019t listen, engage or follow back. And if it\u2019s active, it\u2019s sometimes just a stream of cheap treats or robotic repeats. It\u2019s nothing but promotional junk food.<\/p>\n
What are you serving on your site today? Are you offering helpful and creative content via social media and inbound links? Is your site full of content that attracts and holds a visitor\u2019s interest? Are you converting that traffic to leads and passing those leads to sales? Are you listening and learning from others in your industry, including your customers? Are you sharing your knowledge and adding personality, passion and promise to your brand\u2019s positioning? If you can\u2019t honestly answer most of these questions with a yes on a regular basis, and invest the time to show it, you aren\u2019t ready for content marketing.<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t fill your site and your inbound social media with fresh and fulfilling content that is topical, relevant and as much for your visitor\u2019s benefit as yours, it\u2019s not a dynamic business site that attracts interest and converts leads. It\u2019s just a shelf full of old Twinkies.<\/p>\n
Billy Mitchell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Creating fresh, valuable content for your company\u2019s website not only improves your search rankings and gives your brand a voice, it also shows your customers, your prospects and your industry that you have something to say. And, more importantly, it shows you\u2019re listening. Content is king, long live the king. Digital content lives forever. There … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,695],"tags":[25,552,844,843,842,845],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-billymitchell","tag-brand","tag-content","tag-digital-content","tag-rankings","tag-valuable","tag-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1915,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}