Fulcrum Point's Content Garden

The New Fulcrum Point is a media content garden, published by IDG, and sponsored by brand partners such as Dell. The site features over three hundred posts, on the topics of technology, security, productivity, global services and the efficient office.

Content is sourced from paid content writers; originally the content was curated from other websites. Now the writers review what's happening in the technology community as it relates to the themes of the site, and the paid writers post articles from what they find on the web.

In addition, there are write ups of interviews with community members, and posts featuring interviews with IDG employees and brand partners. As a media content garden, with brand partners who sponsor the site, part of the value of the site is to include the brand partner in posts and community events on a regular basis. Interviews typically involve video chats that are republished on the site, along with text posts.

There's an accompanying Twitter chat called #itchat that runs weekly, where the sites community manager, Jeff Cutler, encourages the wider technology community to join in discussion that drives links and community to the site.

The primary model for content sourcing is community driven interview content via video, that's sourced by paid writers, while the outreach effort for the weekly twitter chat gives opportunities for fresh content, and interaction with community members. The social content and interaction in social networks also gives the media company the opportunity to involve research experts in community content, and involve brand partners in any social discussions.

I was particularly interested to learn about the video interviews with community members, while not an old idea, content sourced in this way, helps to introduce the site’s content to new influencers, and encourages them to share with their community. The new relationship may also give an opening to future outreach for columnist articles from past interviewees. Though there are no plans to allow columnists at this time.