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A new report says companies will spend $100 billion on content marketing by the end of this year and may triple spending in that area over the next few years in a quest to increase the volume of content they produce and thereby gain attention. But is more information what customers and prospects really want? Our hosts aren’t so sure. The report notes, for example, that 35% of content marketers admit they really don’t know what information customers need.

The “Industrial Marketing Today” blog has an interesting post about How Industrial Companies are Stuck on SEO for Content Marketing Strategy. Achinta Mitra makes the point that the new Google is far smarter than the one many search marketers are targeting. The search engine is now intelligent enough to figure out why users want the information they seek, not just what keywords they use. That’s an important nuance that search marketers need to consider. If you’re just optimizing for keywords, you’re missing the bigger picture and probably seeing diminishing results as well.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has put out a 12-page social media policy that goes into detail on what its 15,000 people can say in social networks. The agency had to walk the line between encouraging advocacy and not running afoul of other rules governing the workplace. Eric goes into detail on how the FDA threads this needle. Paul thinks the policy is dense, restrictive and overly wordy, but Eric says any policy that targets such a large and diverse employee population needs to take into account all possibilities.

About Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin, host of FIR B2B, is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Full bio