Ellen DeGeneres crashed Twitter with her Oscars selfie, but your business does not need access to Hollywood A-listers to make your own mark. On March 25, author Jay Baer and Anna Hrach of digital agency ethology showed how simply providing useful content can make your brand more valuable to your audience.

In their webinar “Help Not Hype: How to Create Content Your Customers Actually Want,” Baer and Hrach asserted that the key to creating customer relationships in the digital world is providing content that is inherently useful to people instead of pushing self-promotional advertising that might capture interest for a moment but fails to create long-term engagement. According to Hrach, formulating a strategy that balances the goals of your brand with the needs of your audience is essential to understanding how to support your business by providing content that your customers actually want and need.

Source: ethology

Baer drew upon his book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype to state the case for why brands need to focus more on the unsexy attribute of being useful to hold the attention of your audience. Because both consumers and businesses are flooding the digital world with their own content, ironically businesses are competing with their own customers for attention. The solution for businesses is to avoid the temptation to simply stand out for a few seconds with marketing stunts and hype-filled headlines but rather become trusted utilities that people will want to come back to time and again for useful information that enriches our lives.

Source: ethology

“You must do more than create content,” he asserted. “You have to make youtility, or content so useful that people would pay for it. Youtility is marketing that people cherish, not tolerate.”

For instance, through its @HiltonSuggests Twitter account, Hilton Worldwide provides helpful tips to travelers such as the best places to enjoy afternoon tea in London. The account responds to Continue reading →