An unlikely content marketing inspiration

Welcome to Content24. Why is it different? Because it’s a digest of the stories that have made an impact over the past 24 hours, and not just a platform for recycled content marketing. Today we’re looking at Buffer and Donald Trump

Buffer puzzled by dive in blog sharing

Buffer, the social media scheduling app, has one of the most popular blogs in the sector. It started because the company felt it had a great story but was unable to get the technology press to write about it. So it produced its own content.

Familiar?

Content marketing may have been the method of last resort, but it has made the brand famous and gained it a million-plus users. In the past, Buffersocial posts had non-tech themes such as psychology or creativity, and general life hacks, which gained thousands of shares.

However, in a revealing post, Buffer has admitted that this trend has come to a sudden halt and it can’t work out why.

Social sharing of Buffer posts has fallen by an average of 45 per cent in the past year. Twitter is down 43 per cent and Facebook down 53 per cent. Possible explanations include posting too much, posting too little or relying too much on how-tos. But it could simply be that social media is changing in ways we don’t yet understand.

One cause could be the “crush of content” forcing social sites to filter posts in order to improve user experience.

It was brave of Buffer to admit it is perplexed by the problem, especially as this is its field. From reading the post – and it is worth taking the time – there’s a feeling that the tectonic plates are moving irreversibly away from organic and towards promoted posts.

Donald Trump and content marketing

This piece makes a virtue out of ignoring the how-tos. Yet it was difficult to ignore when it asks the question: “What can Donald Trump teach us about content marketing?”

At first glance, it’s hard to keep a straight face. Maybe the Trumpster is trying to tell us that merely lending his name to something will provide excellent clickbait.

Be it printer ink cartridges, irons or flatpack furniture.

However, the writer has put a bit more thought into it than that. It distils his life into a content marketing strategy. Bring out a book, create a character, make that a brand, using The Apprentice as a channel to sustain and build it… The only real question is whether there was any design to all this. Whatever his failings, Trump comes across as a person with a lot of energy, a doer who makes what seems like the best move at the time. A long-term strategist he seems not.

But we’ll see next year how right or wrong that is.