If you build it, they won’t come

That line from the Field of Dreams movie – “If you build it, they will come” – is the worst advice a PR pro or content marketer could ever hear.

It may have been true at some point. But not in today’s fiercely competitive attention economy. If anybody is telling you that all you have to do is put out great content and let it take off, you should run.

Each new communications channel quickly gets saturated. And now, with the backlash against Facebook, we’re even seeing simple user frustration boil over into outright rebellion. If you think Snapchat will be different . . . or podcasting . . . or whatever comes up next, you’re wrong. If you are having an easy time producing content and getting engagement, then very soon everyone else will find out and crowd into your space.

I’m not here to be dire. There are still ways to stand out and get your brand’s great content noticed. They’re the same two ways as they have always been:

-Pay to get it in front of audiences. (Used to be commercials on network TV or ads in local papers, now it’s Facebook ads or YouTube ads or whatever. Will always be this way.)

– Find ways for it to meet the self-interests of gatekeepers who have bigger audiences than you do.

Number two is where you come in as a PR pro.

Coming up with great content or story angles is a minimum standard now. The battle is won or lost by the expertise and commitment of the people who pitch that content to gatekeepers.

You can have some killer news, but if all you do is post a news release on a wire service, you’re most likely hurting more than you are helping.

The way you get more than your share of attention is to carefully determine which gatekeepers can reach your most important audiences. Then figure out how to help those gatekeepers do something they can’t do on their own. And then usefully, cheerfully, politely, and persistently stay in front of them until they see that themselves.

That’s why YOU are the secret weapon for brands who either don’t have the budgets to compete with advertising, or who have already reached the point of diminishing returns with advertising. Your skill and commitment to pitching your content is the difference.