International Content Strategy Insights From John Yunker
February 10, 2011
John Yunker is a US based internationally recognized expert on global websites. He runs the boutique agency and research firm Global by Design. And is best known for his annual web globalization report; who better to ask a few questions about the state of content, and how content strategy is evolving.
John C: Welcome, and thanks for being willing a few questions. Let’s start off by me asking; how do you see content strategy evolving?
John Y: One of the most interesting developments that I see is that of companies coming to the stark realization that little of the content they produce is worth sharing. Creating content that people want to share with one another is really difficult. And Facebook and Twitter are forcing companies to take a more personal (and, hopefully, honest) approach to their content strategies.
John C: That's great... one big issue for me is how important sites structure their content. Whether it’s generated by journalists, or free contribution columnists; you'd mentioned that it was important to think about writing content that was sharable. How does the structure of how content is developed on a website influence the ability of site's to make more social content?
John Y: For large companies I'm seeing individual contributors becoming more prominent -- beginning as Twitter authors and then, in some cases, migrating to blogs. But blogs are still rare. Twitter integration seems to be about where many companies are right now.
But I should qualify that I'm thinking more of tech companies (where users need a great deal of support). I’ve also been impressed by what Best Buy has been doing in social.
And did you notice Samsung's new home page (.com) design? Social elements take up nearly half the page.
A general rule of thumb when going global with Twitter and Facebook is to NOT try to squeeze multiple languages into one feed. Better to create language-specific feeds. This also applies to countries in many cases. Starbucks, for example, has a widely popular global Facebook page, but also has a large number of country specific Facebook pages.
John C: That's interesting, what you say about Twitter. Why do you think it's so tough to find individual contributors? And do you think there's a natural progression from twitter to blogging?
John Y: I think much of it is due to the legacy within companies of only allowing PR folks to communicate externally. There is unease, particularly in some markets where culturally it's wiser to not stand out too much. In the US it's probably less of an issue, though I've even encountered global PR people who weren't happy to find employees within various groups launching Twitter feeds. There is this sense of losing control that bothers many. But given what Dell and others have done, I'd say the train has left the station.
I think Twitter can be used to lead to blogging, but I have no proof. With Twitter, you really don't have to worry about typos or bad grammar -- everything feels so ephemeral. So perhaps it's less restrictive feeling than blogs, which are static and long-term. But I'm just guessing here based on what I hear. Blogs are tough to maintain but I believe they offer greater long-term return. After all, what do your Twitter folks link to? If you don't have a blog post to announce whatever new product you have? But that's just my two cents...
John C: That global perspective is helpful....can you give me a gauge of where the rest of the world is compared to the US on social?
If you look at ZDNet, Mashable, Social Media today, those are all sites that have some sort of mix when it comes to content generation through various means. ZDNet has some journalists on staff, but a lot of free contributors, and/or analyst firms, Mashable has 90% journalists, 10% free contributor columnist content, and SMT is majority syndicated content from members blogs, with some unique content from the lead names on the site.
The web appears to be evolving into a place where publishers try to reduce their costs of content generation through social and free contributions. How do you think brands are embracing these ideas here in the states and across the globe? Are you seeing sites that think seriously about how they need to develop content from outside the walls of the company?
John Y: Boy, it's hard to generalize about the world as social is so uneven. Also, some companies are more decentralized than others, which give local offices the freedom to try social feeds. But I'd say UK, Brazil, Italy, Spain are all hot markets. Asian markets are very hot, but not necessarily on Facebook/Twitter, though Japan is definitely embracing Twitter lately.
In terms of content, I see the more mainstream consumer companies still preferring to create product-specific content themselves, but integrate users to provide input (product suggestions) and to share product news/etc. But there is a gray area there with, say, a Microsoft MVP, which has been in existence for some time -- in which the MVP program has a blog and describes new MSFT products in depth.
John C: Do you think the product specific content is effective for mainstream consumer companies?
John Y: Regarding other companies, so hard to say. I did sit on a presentation awhile back regarding Fiskars and how they've engaged their users via a Fiskateers club ( www.Fiskateers.com ).
Very impressive given the product!
John C: Thanks John, good to chat, and let me know if you see more examples of content mix on an international level.