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| Gartner's Hype Cycle, Where is Content Marketing now? |
Content Marketing is a new field in the world of internet marketing. As a new term, most domain experts in related fields, seem to think differently on what it means. The term itself, reflects the technical social media site owners. Social media sites essentially give us a framework to connect and contribute content. Their view is: if we build a friendly and easy to use "frame", the "content" will be "contributed" by the users. Facebook is an excellent example, the structure is provided by the site, the content is user contributed. Content Marketing does not rely on user contributed content. The method uses writing, graphics, video and linking (or quotes) to influence readers to take action. Content Marketing methods usually provide information and show examples of how products are used. Sites like Amazon are a great example where publishers and manufacturers create extensive amount of information on products. Amazon has been so successful using this technique, many people consider the site as a reliable source of information. In many product categories, not only books (i.e. electronics, photo equipment, white goods), the site has more information than even the original manufacturer's sites. Also, with deep product information in a product category, comparison shopping is easier then in almost any other site.