Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon explain why all businesses also need to be in the business of producing content. They talk to Tony Cecala, head of the DFW WordPress group in Dallas about the need for using a search engine friendly content management system on the web that makes it easy to upload blogs, photographs and videos.
Transcript
Robert: Well for those of you out there in business, who are trying to figure out this stuff, WordPress is a content management system and you have got to be a publisher if you want to be successful online. The cool thing we like about WordPress, we use it ourselves, we recommend it to clients, is that Google likes it and it is very easy to do compared to any other system.
Brad: It is like website management for dummies.
Robert: Yeah.
Brad: I mean it is basically cut and paste.
Robert: Here’s Tony.
Tony: If you are building a media company, whether your company sells cars or sells Red Bull, you are a media company in the new world. If you want to market digitally you have to think of yourself as a media company. So why WordPress? Well, the New York Times finds WordPress to be a great platform for all their blogs. Huffington Post uses WordPress. Lots of people use WordPress as a publisher, that is the number platform for building your method online, it is pure, it is fast, it is built with all the standards inside it to make publishing a wonderful experience, not some technical thing you have to worry about.
Robert: Alright, I want to underscore what Tony said, that if you are in business today you got to be a media producer. In the old days when I was in broadcast journalism, I was the gate keeper. Now, there are no gate keepers.
Brad: Everybody is a media producer.
Robert: Right, if you notice, if you look at anything coming on television these days, what you see? You see cell phone videos all over the place. You know if you have the will and determination you can be a media producer. And if you are not, you know, somebody is going to tell your story and that story is being told on mobile.
Brad: Yeah and one of the things that people forget about in mobile is, you know, one of the first things you think of when we say mobile, is what? We will wait. Right, phone. But guess what, this is mobile too, the tablet. This is now my new toy, this is an iPad Pro, yes Apple you’re welcome for the promo. I am getting away from a laptop; I am not going to carry a laptop anymore because this pro will do everything that my laptop will do. The deal is when you think mobile you can’t just think phone. It is tablets too; it is also in that category. And as Tony mentions, over 50% of people nowadays are gathering information on mobile so that is phone and tablets, and that is what you have to remember.
Robert: And so does your website work on mobile? We had a founder of a law firm….
Brad: Do you got to sit there and do this?
Robert: Yeah. But we had a founder of a law firm say I don’t think anyone would ever look at our law firm on a cell phone and I said well how they are going to find directions to your office. But….
Brad: What’s the first thing they are going to do if they say, “Hey Brad, I am looking for a lawyer, you got any?” “Yeah, call Bob over here.” What are you going to do, what is Bob’s number, what is Bob’s website? You are going to look at it right there and you are going to Google it.
Robert: And I am going to get more information off the tablet. My wife sits in front of television and shops off the tablet.
Brad: Uh oh.
Robert: Yeah.
Tony: Why mobile? That’s the next question. When you are thinking about publishing you have to think to yourself when everyone is going to be on the move, looking at their phone, way more than 50%, we use mobile to access the information so you have to understand finding the right way to publish in a format that is fast and easy to digest is the next big wave. That is why Facebook has Facebook Instant Articles and Google has Accelerated Mobile Pages. They understand that people want the information fast so learning, building a team that will help you create mobile media, create information that goes out quickly, that is the number one task for this modern era.
Brad: So I think the final piece is critical for businesses to think about when they are thinking about not just online, just in general right, in today’s world because we are touching people everywhere but mainly online and through their mobile strategy is if you are not out there telling your story, your competitor will. And….
Robert: Yeah, don’t let your opponent define you.
Brad: Correct, that is basically what it comes down to. We call that here at clarity, we call it accidental brand. So if you are not controlling your brand message, someone will and you will have a nice little brand out there online. So be sure to take some of this, think about that mobile strategy, if you are in business, you better be producing content. If you want an easy way to do that, do it on a WordPress site.
Tony: So if you are in business and you are not a media producer, then someone else is telling your story. If you are hoping your advertising agency is going to tell your story, you are hoping your PR guy is going to tell your story, the PR is competing with every other PR guy, your advertising agency is competing with every other person to send out that advertising messaging but if you develop your message like Red Bull or like any company that has grasped social media, Will It Blend, I mean these people, they sell blenders and they are blending up iPhones and people are watching. I never heard of Blend Tech before but now I know Blend Tech because Will it Blend, their videos were so popular. So you have to think like a media company because the way to get the message out these day to these people is through their phone, that is where they are looking. It is a simple, it is a simple answer but learning the ins and outs of it is not easy, it’s tricky but focusing like a laser on getting the message out in that way, whether your choose Instagram, or you choose YouTube or you choose Facebook, be excellent at that delivery of the message and you will be successful.