In an era of sharing and collaboration mania, when anything that is "User Generated" or "Shareable" gets everybody's attention, a presentation on marketing got my attention. The content looked interesting to me and I clicked.
I found this was a corporate presentation by Salesforce.com. It was put-up in slideshare and one could share the presentation with others. But as I read through the presentation, I really started questioning if I would share it with others. Let me tell you why:
- First, it was company speak. So, why would I want to share it all?
- The logic of the presentation(though relevant) was very biased towards the company's mission, goals and products. Would I pass it on? Never
- It lacked a customer point of view or a customer voice. Hence, did not look interesting enough to be shared
- It had a "talking down" feeling in terms of the messaging in the slides. So, it left me a little cold for it to be shared.
To be shareable, I believe the content must
- Be interesting
- Have a tone of voice that's peer-to-peer
- Have a "Build-On" feature. Imagine if one were able to add-on to the content and make it richer - Collaborative content generation is critical.
- Differentiate Viewership( ability to just read and know) vs Ownership( ability to add and develop)
- Buy-in vs Selling - Can't afford to jump the process as people first "buy-in" into the belief and benefits first. Selling starts a little later in the chain.
Take a look at the Presentation. Would you share it at all?