Billsrhink's comparison table. Click to see the full table at the original post
Google made a big, highly-anticipated announcement last week about it’s Nexus One mobile phone that set blogs and Twitter abuzz. Being an avid gadget freak, I followed many of the conversations and posts about the Nexus One and found one that stood out – Billshrink’s comparison table of the total cost of ownership between the Nexus One vs. iPhone vs. Droid vs. Palm Pre (above).
This is a great example of a simple but effective content strategy: piggy-back a hot topic to raise awareness. Upon reading the article, I was curious to explore Billshrink’s blog further to see if they had any other cool titbits for me. Despite not even being in the country they serve, I know now that Billshrink makes personalized recommendations for US customer’s mobile, credit card and petrol bill–wish we had a similar service here!
Putting on my marketer’s hat, I also noticed that Billshrink has done this comparison before, comparing Droid vs. iPhone vs. Palm Pre vs. MyTouch 3G and Android G1 vs. iPhone 3GS vs. Palm Pre. They’re also active bloggers, churning out about 5 posts per week. Where each post has an average number of re-tweets and Facebook shares, the Nexus One post had over 700 re-tweets and 350+ shares.
Buzzworthy Moves
Here are some lessons we can learn from Billshrink’s strategy.
Act fast! Take advantage of the buzz before it dies out. Billshrink literally published the post minutes after Google’s announcement. So quick on the trigger they were that they had to update their original table twice to make updates due to the 100+ comments on the blog.
Make the content easy to share. Their blog has share and follow buttons everywhere, and in this case their content is just a JPG image which anyone can link to. They even provide the HTML code for you to copy and paste.
Keep trying, more content is better. Billshrink has been writing posts like this for a while, but I only noticed their service with their latest comparison. The lesson here is to keep trying and not to give up.
Add value to the conversation. Finally, be sure that you’re not just blowing hot air. There are too many people who just hijack a trending hashtag to advertise their latest get rich quick scheme. Consumers will block you out in an instant if you try a stunt like that.
I hope this Buzzworthy post inspires you to get started with your content strategy. If you need help, you can always contact me or give me a shout on Twitter – @blogjunkie.
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