When the content is worth less than zero: more visibility as a new advertising

A reflection that you have the time (for example, here we have Jesus Encinar in 2008 , and we can not forget our Gonzalo Martin) and that these days seems to come alive. The growing presence of brands in generating content simply speeds up the process a little more: the amateurs produce content, trademarks as well. More supply, lower prices.

Is it something so new? In the background are not. The recipes have been gifted with a long tin cans or bag guides you gave them away some banks. But there was something so massive and the battle for visibility so intense.

Given the overabundance of content there are two approaches:

• Of those who have to make money with your attention (media seeking to generate page views or views)
• And ... of those who want to make money with your attention (brands that want to be loved and we buy, of course)

Traditionally the latter getting the attention by buying the former, now they want (or must) win on their own.

In this complex way to get attention spent on generating content relevant, interesting, quality, etc.. etc. etc. We also give it more visibility in many cases paying. So that the lines between paid media, earned themselves and sometimes they become too diffuse, so that it can be difficult to tell where we are.

Philosophical considerations aside, let us examine some cases:

• Extra visibility as a means of monetization: Last week, Facebook admitted to be testing a system for promoting content through micropayments. This system (still in testing phase) is characterized by the possibility that any private user who wants to get high visibility for a particular content, to ensure a greater presence in the newsfeed of your contacts by paying a small amount (currently using Paypal as a payment gateway). It seems clear that Facebook continues to seek alternative funding models, and that with such intense competition will not be enough to create good content but it will have to pay to increase the visibility of the same.

• Content generated by the user and advertising: a good example of this model was discussed by Jeremiah Owyang few days ago in your Google Profile +. Bazaarvoice has stepped its monitoring platform becoming the views of users in advertisements in the form of and banners as they have significantly increasing conversion rates of this type of ads using the "word of mouth".

• Advertising is content: full debate on the effectiveness of Facebook Ads as a tool for bonding, and Ford taking the opportunity to beat General Motors where it hurts, it seems necessary to defend the claim that only by putting creativity at the service of the strategy and customer, offering quality content and useful services and differentiators can be capable of generating true linkage. In this case, Tippex last year showed us that not all advertising is boring and to generate links from good content is possible. (And repeat success a year later ;-))

Beyond the boundaries between advertising and content you can blend, is an undeniable trend that the price of the latter tends to zero. The passionate (and classical) debate about whether blogging is an interesting job or not those opinions Versvs , Gonzalo Martín and Antonio Ortiz - revived these days is just another manifestation of it. Charging for content is becoming more difficult.

Many brands do not only contribute to the dissemination of foreign content, so original and generate relevant and often invest additional amounts to have greater visibility.

In this situation where we've been engaged for several years, the general contents compete fiercely for a few seconds of our attention. However, niche content is becoming increasingly specialized, increasingly need a good focus on what and how we want the content strategies work for our brand.

As personal brands also compete for those bits of attention. Nothing new, okay, but should not forget ;)