Having a discussion about #ContentBriefs with Zoe Ashbridge over on LinkedIn,
and I stated that one of the problems with “SEO” in general, is that it’s a poor thief.
(Actually – to be “fair” – it’s all of “Digital Marketing”, not just the SEO sector on it’s own.)
And sadly, it’s true.
And I don’t just mean the staggering percentage of people in the SEO sector that will steal other people’s content, be it straight up plagiarism, or weak paraphrasing, or thinking it’s cool to target all the same keywords, using the exact same titles and slapping out AI content all over the web.
I mean the sector takes terms, concepts, approaches from other fields/sectors/industries,
and runs off with them … but has little real clue about how to use them once they get home with their ill begotten gems of knowledge.
Want to see examples of what I’m talking about?
They stole the Marketing Funnel
Compare the following Google Image Search results:
You’ll notice the strong similarities between the images as the concepts of things like “advocacy” spread and got adoption. And no great surprise – I don’t see any credit or citations given!
And stealing it isn’t enough – no – we end up with adaptations and variations, some of which just don’t make sense (esp. for a “marketing” funnel (note how many in the Digital Marketing space don’t mention Marketing Qualified Leads/Sales?)).
<Note: I’ve never been a fan of the term “funnel” – as it’s not a funnel at all, it’s full of holes, I’ve long preferred the term Marketing Filter System, as it’s a closer fit.>
They’re stealing Brand at the moment
And one that’s all the rage at the moment – Brand and Branding.
(In fact – just about anytime there’s a buzzword, it’s usually purloined from somewhere else!)
The reality is, “brand” is a complex topic, with lots of external influence – but you’ll notice tons of SEOs and Digital Marketers talking as if THEY, the SEO, have massive control over how the brand is perceived!
What a joke! Corporations spend massive fortunes on ad-campaigns, constantly, in an effort to influence consumer perception and reaction. Whereas SEO is often an after-thought, and you typically get to push stuff to the SE’s.
And heaven help us if the SEOs are in charge of content…
They stole your briefs
But the best example – is the one that sparked this in the first place – Content Briefs,
which is a topic close to my heart – as I’m a stickler for details, and having a personal background in marketing and sales, I know the value of a good creative brief.
Which, sadly, is the opposite of what most people in SEO deal with.
They took the name, they ran off with the idea, and ended up with a weak, lame, inferior string of details that has virtually nothing to do with “writing” or “creation”, and focuses only on SEO.
<At this point – I’m sorely tempted to just grab a bunch of “templates” and “briefs” supplied by various DMs, CMs and SEOs – and publicly shame them for how crap their briefs are! * >
We’ve all seen these briefs – and sadly, many of you believe they are “good” or “ok”.
They aren’t!
- Where’s the Persona/Audience definition?
- Where’s the Audience Take-away?
- Where’s the contact details for in-house Experts?
- Where’s the legal/regulatory restrictions?
The reality is – most “SEO Content Briefs” aren’t briefs, they’re thongs or g-strings, and will cover your backside about as well!
<And sorry, but “no”, your “thematic topic outline”, filled with dozens of Headings of just about every semantically related phrase – Is Not A Brief! … at best, it’s a bloated outline/skeleton! If it doesn’t cover the Who, the Why, the Whats, the Hows … then it’s not a brief!!!>
Things need to change!
It’s a part of human nature – to take it if you think you can get away with it.
It’s always been there, in various societies and cultures, through history.
And that’s applied to physical items and abstracts such as ideas and processes.
And Digital has only made it easier.
We need 3 things to happen:
- We need to stand up and call things out
- We need to start doing some responsible learning
- We need to give credit, and accept that not being the source isn’t a bad thing
I appreciate that lots of people are uncomfortable with (1) and dislike confrontation, etc.
But that still leaves (2) and (3), which everyone can do (so long as you don’t have a fragile ego or a narcissistic need!).
So – here’s your chance : Comments are open!
What concepts have you seen stolen and poorly applied?
What do you think would help reduce it?
* Do it! (Ed.)
* Shan’t (Auth.)