When trying to wrap my brain around content syndication, the first person I called was technology analyst Geoffrey Bock. He’s spent oodles of time thinking about syndication as he’s helped companies devise strategies for dealing with content distribution.
While he sees plenty of opportunities for the major syndicators moving forward, we also discussed some of the challenges, including the need to create “smart content” that shows up in search engines.
Can Syndicators Deliver Smart Content?
Content Ping: A lot of manufacturers we work with are trying to figure out how to best syndicate their content online. Why is everyone so interested in syndication?
Geoffrey Bock: The concept of syndication is as old as the printing press. Many of us grew up reading Dilbert, Peanuts, and other favorite comic strips in our local newspapers. So then you fast-forward to manufacturers. If an advertising agency launched a marketing campaign, ads would be syndicated to every local market. Syndication exists because content creators are not the same people who package and distribute content.
People are hungry for authoritative content. They want to take that content and repurpose it in useful ways. This notion of repurposing content for different channels is fundamental to publishing.
Content Ping: But now we’ve entered the digital age. What does online syndication mean for today’s manufacturers?
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People are hungry for authoritative content. They want to take that content and repurpose it in useful ways. This notion of repurposing content for different channels is fundamental to publishing.
Geoffrey Bock: When it comes to doing business online, the same model holds. You have many online retailers and distributors who are hungry for content. But you need to have somebody in the content chain who produces that authoritative content and stands behind it.
I had a cousin who was an engineer. About 10 years ago, he bought a laser printer online from somebody that was advertised to print 20 pages a minute. He counted, and the printer was only doing 15, which made him very unhappy with his purchase.
When we go to buy something online, we assume the information we’re reading about the product is going to be authoritative. If I’m surfing the web and I find one description that claims the printer does 15 pages a minute and another says it does 20, I don’t want it. It’s incumbent on the manufacturer to provide accurate, informative product descriptions. If you’re marketing a product, you really only have one chance to get that right. If you don’t get that right, at a minimum you’ll have unhappy customers and bad product reviews. If it’s really bad information, you may get hit with a lawsuit.
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Syndication is obviously what manufacturers need to do. They need to invest the time and the money in sending a consistent and authoritative message across all their online channels.
Content Ping: How can syndication help manufacturers “get it right”?
Geoffrey Bock: Syndication is obviously what manufacturers need to do. They need to invest the time and the money in sending a consistent and authoritative message across all their online channels. Then, it’s up to the individual channels, such as Amazon, to decide how to present those facts as part of how they want to merchandise their products.
Content Ping: Are there any drawbacks that manufacturers need to be aware of when considering whether to syndicate content?
Geoffrey Bock: Well, the main problem or issue with syndication is that this content isn’t all that smart. No one has figured out how to tag it in such a way that it can be found by search engines or used to improve the quality of the customer experience.
WebCollage and their competitors need to deliver content that can be optimized for search engines and enhance online merchandising. They need to be able to define the key tags for the products they’re syndicating if they want manufacturers to use their services. And that’s going to be a technical battle that will be fought out this year.
Geoffrey Bock
Geoffrey Bock, principal of Bock & Company, focuses on digital strategies for content and collaboration. A technology analyst and consultant, Geoff has authored hundreds of in-depth reports, case studies, and articles on the business impacts of content technologies. He advises enterprises on the essential activities for creating, organizing, publishing, and syndicating digitized information to build customer experiences.
