Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business

Big Fat Overview (Sometimes Called an Introduction)

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms are giving organizations like yours an enormous opportunity to engage directly with your customers or would-be customers. That's a lucky thing, because instead of creating awareness about your company or your brand solely the old-school way (by annoying people with advertising, bugging them with direct mail, or interrupting them with a phone call during dinner), you now have an unprecedented and enormous opportunity.

Now, thanks to the advent of the Internet and, more specifically, the rise of web-based tools and technologies, you can create online content—blog posts, videos, webinars, and web sites—that will attract customers to you, so you won't have to chase after them. What's more, you can entice your customers to share that content with each other, all across the Web.

Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce really great stuff, and your customers will share and disseminate your message for you. More than ever before, content is king! Content rules!

Of course, like most things in life, such luck—the opportunity to have your customers tell your story for you—comes with a hitch. Content may rule, but your online content must be the right sort of content: Customer-focused. Authentic. Compelling. Entertaining. Surprising. Valuable. Interesting. In other words, you must earn the attention of people.

That sounds like work, doesn't it? It is. It's work ...