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Content is key

I picked up a free newspaper this morning and quickly regretted it. There was little actual news and a lot about celebrities and clearly regurgitated press releases.

Lunch yesterday was a very swanky affair at a nice restaurant everyone raves about. I've had a few poor experiences there before but I was willing to give it another chance. Shouldn't have bothered. The food was average at best and I left feeling ripped off rather than indulged.

What both of these experiences have reminded me is that content is key. A newspaper that loses sight of what is really news is bound to disappoint. Similarly, a restaurant without great food is bound to be more than half empty on a Monday lunchtime when other places in town are thronged.

I'm working on some really interesting projects at the moment and it's great when one of my clients really 'gets' content and comes up with some good ideas. It makes delivery so much easier. Over the course of just a few weeks, we've begun to clarify their values and together come up with ideas for content across their website, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Some say we're becoming overloaded with information. I don't think it's all information, I think a lot of it is puff. That's not great content that might actually make a difference. Find great content and you can unlock great relationships with your customers, suppliers, employees and even competitors.

If they asked me, I could write a book.

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