Blogging content is especially adept at increasing in value over time because it seeds search results in extremely narrow niches. The more content that builds up around a narrow niche, the greater the possibility that a brand will be discovered in a related search. As mentioned earlier, research is a primary step in sales today. See: http://bit.ly/1crGz5H
Brand journalism captures the attention of audiences because it offers something of value, namely, informational content that answers a question or solves a problem (as, in Web parlance, the query is “Googled”).
Brand journalists who cover a particular industry beat aren’t typical journalists asking questions and tracking a story. These bylined contributors are already several steps ahead of a typical journalist because they have specialized field experience and/or credentials. Brand journalism offers a platform to develop authority in a given practice or geographic location by presenting news that matters to a specialized audience. With the credentialed expertise and vantage point of an insider, journalists writing for a brand can contextualize and synthesize emerging industry developments.
Brand journalism does not equal blind allegiance to a brand. Singing empty praises without critical thought is vapid marketing; brand journalism should strive to maintain the same ethics followed by traditional journalists to investigate and report fairly. Therefore, truly excellent brand journalism presents many sides to a story and shares all reference materials. Sourcing allows for — and requires — greater transparency.
Excellent brand journalism invites participation of all kinds. Perhaps the best compliment, and ultimately the most valuable to a brand, is when content is shared.
Brand journalism can scale. Brands are increasingly diversifying their news coverage into more finely sliced elements. A clothing brand, for example, might use brand journalism to investigate everything from cloth production supply chains to water consumption and conservation, assigning in-house journalists to a particular beat within the overall mission of covering stories and news important to their customers.
Finally, brand journalism works because it is systemic. As in a newsroom, contributors who work together to develop brand journalism content are themselves specialized: editors check grammar and sources, photographers and art directors provide illustrative elements, search experts optimize for visibility, and so on. These systems are greater than a single contributor, and this is demonstrated by the volume and dependability of the output.
