While the\u00a0business digital divide\u00a0\u2013 at least in the marketing and media industries \u2013 feels to be closing, there\u2019s another rift less discussed:\u00a0 a divide between those with digital influence\/share of voice and those without.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a rift that grows wider daily.<\/p>\n
Many businesses and individuals who embraced\u00a0content marketing\u00a0years ago are seeing strong returns and are\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0ahead of those starting today.\u00a0 I started pondering why this is and jotted down the following list:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 The web rewards a long term commitment.<\/strong>\u00a0We\u2019re weary of companies and people not only new to us, but new to a network.\u00a0 For example, even if a company you know creates a digital channel, they\u2019re still in many ways starting from scratch for creating a\u00a0digital reputation\u00a0and interacting through social technologies.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen this to be true across channels and networks.\u00a0 While in the future we will see no difference between a company\u2019s digital and physical presence, (they will merge) today this is not yet so.\u00a0 Since we\u2019ve not realized this yet, many experience growing pains and may or may not push through them to see real rewards.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 More content = more potential entry points, more links.\u00a0<\/strong>It kills me to see companies again and again misunderstand the web, and miss the benefits of creating archives of digital content by removing or deleting material.\u00a0 Yet, those companies who comprehend the value of building out their content over time just continue to accumulate more digital influence and steadily gain greater share of voice.\u00a0 More content = more hooks in the water for search, more potential pages for users to share and helps establish a brand as referential.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about quantity or quality alone \u2013 you need both.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Those who have been at it awhile have refined their digital processes<\/strong>.\u00a0 This takes time, especially if you\/your company are unstructured for it or are technically unsavvy.\u00a0 Although I would argue at this point you don\u2019t need someone such as a\u00a0social media expert, you just need a good marketer (all marketers should understand the web by now).\u00a0 As an aside, how any company can hire marketers\/PR pros who are not fluent in digital\u00a0<\/em>media is beyond me.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Savvy individuals and companies have already built a tribe.\u00a0<\/strong>Those with comprehension of what a digital society enables have been building an organic, opt-in subscribers base for years.\u00a0 Many are reaching tipping points where those subscribers are producing strong ROI for that company or person.\u00a0 In many ways, a subscriber base\/community provides the ultimate marketing advantage over competitors.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Key\u00a0relationships\u00a0with other influencers have been formed organically\u00a0<\/strong>over time by showing a long term commitment.\u00a0 In addition to a subscriber base which allows for influence at scale; intimate, personal relationships (the non-scalable kind) with others on the leading edge of the digital divide creates mutual growth.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 More iterations of campaigns leads to better marketing<\/strong>.\u00a0 Those who have been engaged in digital marketing for nearly a decade or more have an innate understanding of leveraging the web for end business objectives.\u00a0 There is no replacement for experience.<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 Understanding of how\u00a0pull PR\u00a0works.<\/strong>\u00a0While some companies continue to engage in the cat-and-mouse game of media pitching, a few smart marketers and even media organizations are embracing a pull strategy.\u00a0 You could do both, sure \u2013 but so few companies have the faintest idea\u00a0how to pitch a blogger.\u00a0 Smart push tactics do work, but they should still feed into a pull strategy.<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Attraction of web-literate team members<\/strong>.\u00a0 Marketing\/PR agencies and companies who\u00a0cling to the past\u00a0are not going to attract the same talent as those pushing boundaries.\u00a0 Web-savvy communication professionals want to work with other web-savvy professionals.\u00a0 It\u2019s really frustrating not to, and with\u00a0hiring paradoxically harder\u00a0in a downtown yet\u00a0no slowdown in demand\u00a0for talented digital marketers, there is no reason they have to.<\/p>\n 9.\u00a0 Marketers who take a \u201chead in the sand\u201d approach to digital hold companies back.\u00a0<\/strong>Social media is not new, and if you think it is you\u2019re already devastatingly far behind in digital influence.\u00a0\u00a0Ignore the social web at your own peril\u00a0\u2013 companies who take a wait and see approach have already yielded a lot of ground to agile competitors.\u00a0 Marketers who treat\u00a0the web as an experiment\u00a0thrive.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0 Others have already grabbed SERPs\/domains\/social sites.<\/strong>\u00a0Those on the wrong side of the digital influence rift are facing challenges such as reputation management issues on search engine pages, loss of brand name URLs\/profiles and missing the chance at having a community.\u00a0 Users may have already decided how certain brands should be perceived digitally before that company is able to carve out a reputation for themselves.\u00a0 This also applies to professionals:\u00a0 how many of you don\u2019t own your name on key channels, or appear on page one of searches?\u00a0 It\u2019s a loss of incalculable value not to have these.<\/p>\n This is a (very) short list of items explaining the widening divide in digital influence.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve got more, add them in the comments, I\u2019m curious to hear.<\/p>\n In a future post I will address how companies, individuals and artists who are new can overcome these issues and embrace strategies to put them on the\u00a0path of rapid growth.\u00a0 Be sure and\u00a0subscribe\u00a0so you don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While the\u00a0business digital divide\u00a0\u2013 at least in the marketing and media industries \u2013 feels to be closing, there\u2019s another rift … <\/p>\n