Why it’s high time for a Trip Advisor for Content

Separating the good, the bad and the just plain ugly in content marketing.

Spare a thought for the consumers of content out there (aka. your potential buyers).

Everywhere they look there are offers of help. Guides to this. Infographics for that. Ten things they really should know about x, y and z.

You’d think life had never been easier for them. But the reality is most of the time they’re a click away from disappointment. Content that’s half cooked, half arsed marketing baloney dressed up as the most valuable thing since the Magna Carta.

It’s not good for them and it’s not good for us.

However, there’s only so far venting my spleen will go – and believe me I enjoy doing just that (like my Get off the Content Marketing Gravy Train rant).

Perhaps I should accept there’ll always be content good and bad out there. But then again, maybe there is a fix. A way to make life easier for content consumers everywhere. To separate the wheat from the chaff.

So that got me thinking. Isn’t it time there was a Trip Advisor for Content?

Picture this: Instead of holiday reviewers, a willing community of content connoisseurs ranking the content they consume:

1 star: Terrible: “Don’t be misled by the title. An amateurish assessment of the state of the industry and a woeful abundance of hyperbole. A brand this big should know better.”

Let’s just say, I think we’d soon see content marketers everywhere feeling they needed to up their game.

Rating summary
Insight? 1 star
Relevance? 1 star
Presentation? 2 star
Quality? 2 star
Recommend? 1 star

Imagine our connoisseurs – or contentsseurs if you will – being able to search for content on a multitude of topics. Able to find the best ranking content in that field. Able to read reviews that can be sorted by the profile of the reviewer.

See reviews by:
Director Level Executive
Senior Managers
Research Executives
Industry Commentators
Content Creators

Then how about not just being able to rank different content but also the brands that create the content? So brands get an overall content quality ranking. Those that consistently score highly get a nice badge to use on their content – an accreditation as such that says to potential content consumers ‘trust this source’.

And how do we keep potential review trolls at bay – such as antagonistic competitors who want to give their rivals a bad review? How about we get users to authenticate themselves using their LinkedIn Profiles? Or allow others to score the content reviewer – and give them a ranking?

So there you go Trip Advisor for Content. Where content marketers become even more accountable for the content they create. Where buyers and prospects can find the best, most useful content without the pain and disappointment they face today.

Is it time to build it?