Page 153 - The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business - PDFDrive.com

The impact of advanced filters on content ignition

I have seen the future, and it’s Zite-like.
Zite is a mobile application that “learns” what content I enjoy. It customizes

an evolving delivery system based on what it’s learning about me. The more I
use it and view content through the app, the better it gets. In fact, it’s doing such
a good job delivering intensely amazing content that it has become addictive.
I’ve already abandoned many other sources of online news and insight.

But this is not an ad for Zite, which is just one of many innovations to help us
navigate through our information-dense world. It’s merely a call to action to
consider the marketing implications of a new wave of radical content filters.

Five years ago when you did a search on Google for the best deal on an
automobile or a review of a new car model, you would get similar results …
probably the same results. But over time, Google has made its search results
highly tailored to your environment. Where are you? Who are you? Who are
your friends? This information has resulted in an ever-tightening bubble of
personalized results. The results you would get today are almost certainly
different than what I would get looking for the same information in my town.

Zite is an even more extreme example of this idea, as it actually pushes
content to you and only you, radically constricting the scope of possible content
you see. Let’s say you’re trying to create content about automobiles that will be
discovered organically by a high-potential customer like me. To get through this
filter, you don’t have to just ignite your content so that it wins the Google race,
you may also have to get it through the Zite algorithm … and all the other Zite
competitors crowding into this increasingly important space. Will that require
different strategies? Perhaps we won’t just be concerned with SEO—we might
also need to consider Zite Engine Optimization. : )

This new era of mega-filters will also present a challenge to any organization
or brand trying to introduce a new idea or product. Today when I read an online
newspaper or news feed, I’m also presented with many alternative content
choices. This content might be way out of my normal comfort zone but
interesting to me nonetheless. I like reading about new things. I mean, how else
would I learn about twerking?

But as information density increases in my busy world, I can see a day when
I spend almost all my time with my own personalized filter. I would rarely see
things outside my comfort zone because keeping me in my comfort zone is
exactly what these filters are trying to do! If Zite figures out I’m politically
liberal, it probably won’t offer an editorial with a conservative viewpoint. That
would be a Filter Fail. Every online organization is collecting data about us and