Unless you’ve been hiding under the proverbial rock these past few years, you may have noticed a certain pattern emerging among the businesses you see show up in your social media news feeds.
Social media posts that read like a highway billboard. The sales pages are formulaic – the copy from one page to the next nearly indistinguishable.
Every ad feels the same. They all play into your fears about how much you could be missing out on if you don’t take this limited time offer (as if we believe it’s truly limited) and snag this one eBook that will change your life for $37.
There is this certain feeling of inauthenticity in advertising. When everyone is saying the same thing, does anyone truly have anything of value to say at all?
This phenomenon isn’t limited to businesses, of course. In a time when our society needs real connection and authentic community more than ever, we state our opinions – poliical or otherwise – via meme or gif. We don’t do the hard work of digging deep and analyzing what it is we actually want to say as a brand or as a human being.
Perhaps we are too afraid to put our collective feet down and take a stand beside what we believe. Instead, we live in the safety of simply regurgitating someone else’s thoughts.
There is this certain feeling of inauthenticity in advertising. When everyone is saying the same thing, does anyone really have anything of value to say at all?
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The reason so many of us engage in perpetuating inauthenticity isn’t always a nefarious one. Sometimes it comes down to the simple fact that as small business owners, we have a lot to lose. It’s our livelihood at stake. We simply can’t afford to alienate potential clients by taking a stand.
This is a Confession
I’m writing this not to point fingers or make you, my fellow small business owner, feel bad about yourself. I’m writing this as a confession – I’ve fallen into the same trap.
In my years in the marketing world, I’ve experienced the full spectrum of marketing tactics and methodologies from the sublimely ethical to the downright dirty. I’ve watched as social media algorithms work diligently – albeit unintentionally – to force us deeper and deeper into our echo chambers, and I’ve used those algorithms to make my clients and employers money. I’ve watched the division between us get wider and wider, while most of us are none the wiser.
I’ve helped businesses position themselves as upstanding members of society that were anything but.
So when I decided to launch my own company, I battled with myself over how to reconcile the big feelings I have surrounding the state of our world and my place in it with a small business owner’s need to not alienate potential customers.
I’ll admit that the result of my first stab at writing a blog post from which to launch this company was dry, lacking depth, and deeply inauthentic.
This is not a time to be inauthentic.
Though society needs real connection and authentic community more than ever, we state our opinions via meme. We don’t do the hard work of digging deep and analyzing what it is we actually want to say as a brand or as a human being.
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I decided to take some time, do some digging, and do that hard work I spoke of – the work of understanding “the big why” behind iHartContent.
I do, of course, “heart” content. I love telling stories, and I love helping small businesses and solopreneurs find their voice and be heard in a very noisy world. But it’s bigger than that.
I believe content marketing and brand storytelling can help bring humanity and authenticity back to the internet, and our lives.
How Content Marketing Can Create a Better World
Content marketing changing the world may sound a little silly, but I believe it’s possible. Hear me out.
Let’s first take a look at what content marketing is. Now, there are a ton of definitions out there, but the one I’ve found that hits the nail on the head in a big way is fellow content marketer Cole Schafer’s definition.
Content marketing is creating robust high-quality marketing that is so valuable to your customers that it is practically a product or a service in itself.
Cole Schafer
If anyone has committed wholeheartedly to authenticity in their own messaging, it’s this guy.
These days, content marketing to most people is a vague idea that maybe means something between blogging and posting a few things to social media. But it’s truly so much more than that. It’s about telling a story. Your story, and your brand’s story.
Good content marketing is personal. It makes you feel something, and it adds to your life in some way. It isn’t simply posting generic updates to your website or social media. It’s making sure that what you put out into the online world provides real, concrete value.
Over the coming months we’re going to go deep down the rabbit hole and explore why and how taking this approach to content marketing is actually fantastic for your business (and yes, your bottom line)
Good content marketing is personal. It makes you feel something, and it adds to your life in some way. It’s putting something out into the online world provides real, concrete value.
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For now, as we begin this journey, I ask you to consider that what we’re doing here at iHartContent is content marketing with heart (see what I did there?) My goal for this company is to be unapologetically authentic in my communication. To tell real stories that matter. To be truthful, and to provide exceptional value in everything I publish.
I want iHartContent to become an indispensable resource for your business, even if you never pay us a dime.
Find your voice and tell your story. The world needs it.
I encourage you as a small business owner to search for your big why statement. Ask yourself what legacy you want your business to leave behind? Who do you want to impact? Dig deep and find your reason. It’s so much deeper than “I just want to make money” – I guarantee it.
In a world drowning in a lack of authenticity, your story matters more than ever. I’m here to help you tell it.
3 Responses
Love this so much.