User Generated Content & Content Marketing

Public relations is concerned with the interests of the company – its public image and reputation – and not, in contrast to content marketing, the interests of the customer. Public relations is defined as “the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person” and predominantly relies on strong media relations and management to fulfill its brief. But with content marketing , the company becomes the media and publishes directly to the target market, creating and curating content that adds value by providing good quality information, news, and education that helps the reader solve problems and make better decisions. It is corporate journalism, with very different values, aims, and objectives to public relations. There is no overt promotion or publicity garnering, nor does the company take or defend a position with content marketing . It does not walk a corporate line. Content marketing is about creating and publishing news, in...

User-Generated Content & Content Marketing User-generated content is usually information posted by members of the public, including “hearsay” and “thoughts” and is inherently valueless – except for gauging opinions and perceptions. “As brought out in Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur”, when everyday users are allowed to report the news anonymously and are not held accountable for anything they say, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction. Professional journalists and editors, even those with immense fame, can be criticized and even fired for false reporting. However, the contributing user can write anything and is never held responsible. In addition, everyone can post something online, leading to an unprecedented information overload in today’s world. – PC Magazine There is one form of user-generated content that does have value. People trust their peers because they don’t perceive them to have any “skin in the game”. So when it comes to user-generated con...