Take Away from SyFy’s Sharknado Premiere
Sharks, Bombs, Tornadoes and Content Strategy
Ok, so everybody seems to be having a lot of Tweet fun over Thursday night’s airing of Sharknado on the SyFY Channel. I’m particularly pleased by this bit from comedian Patton Oswalt.
But as with other—um, great?—popular culture phenomena, we are morally obligated to look critically at viral splashes such as this, and identify those key morsels that “define a generation,” leave stamps on the American psyche or simply inspire us to be better than we have been.
Just look back at history (no order):
- That genius who thought Keith Richards needed a hug
- Snoopy choosing Charlie Brown over Lila in “Snoopy Come Home”
- “You sweat, you die” and other life lessons shared by Less Stroud
- WKRP’s sobering Thanksgiving Day revelation
And now, thanks to the wizardry of director Anthony C. Ferrante and hardware-worthy skills of Tara Reid and Ian Ziering, Sharknado gives those of us in the Content Marketing industry a pearl of wisdom—disguised in Quixotic metaphor, of course—that compels us to strive harder to reach audiences in newer, more fulfilling ways. And here it is:
Instead of letting live sharks rain down on people, we’re going to get in that chopper and throw bombs into the tornadoes.
Classic, no? But let’s examine…
S0, they’ve identified the problem and decided on a course of action. Only there’s a small problem: it’s a really dumb idea. In fact, God only knows what the result will be. At EVG, we see the same kind of thing (minus the sharks, bombs and tornadoes, of course) with many of our prospects. It goes something like this:
- They have a problem, usually strategy-related, with their web content
- They’re concerned because sharks are falling from the sky (really, traffic’s down and their competitors are beating their socks off)
- Desperate, they try link-building “secret sauces,” content farms and other tornado bomb-worthy short cuts
- #3 doesn’t work
- Panic sets in
As we discuss each week in this blog, if your web content isn’t performing well or has been pinched by Penguin and Panda, you’re probably not facing a quick fix. No, what you’re likely facing, whether you want to confront it or not, are questions of quality and commitment. Is the quality of your web content where it needs to be? If it’s not, are you committed to doing what it takes to get it there? You are if you can say “yes” to these things:
- Site Audit that evaluates everything, top to bottom
- Competitor Analyses that compare your stuff to your rivial’s
- Content Strategy that addresses what you have, what you need, and where, how and when you will roll it out
- Content Creation that requires a commitment of resources and talent to execute the plan
- Measurement strategies, so you know what works, what doesn’t and why
If your company or organization is in a bind web-wise and you’re ready to bypass the snake oils peddled by industry black hats, give us a call. We’ll be happy to sit down with you and your team to figure out the next step.
Until then, trust me: despite what Hollywood tells us, throwing bombs into twisters won’t make the sharks stop falling from the sky!
Joseph K. Hall – VP, Content Marketing
