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It Pays To Be A Good Listener
 Because we’re changing the way people traditionally think about creating content, our story can sometimes take a little bit of explaining. In fact, we recently debuted a mini-documentary to narrate our unique content creation process through the words of our writers, filmmakers, editorial team members and valued advisors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always make sense for me to pull someone aside and show them the video – so I’m always looking for ways to explain how we create and distribute useful and relevant content in the fewest words possible. Luckily, as I was sharing the Demand Media story with a potential business partner recently, he summed up our bold vision in just seven short words: “It pays to be a good listener.” He’s certainly right – we’ve built our platform model on our ability to listen. In fact, point number one of Our Manifesto is “start each day listening to the customer.” But while most people focus solely on how we listen to consumer demand, specifically how we listen to web users to discover what types of content they’re looking for, that’s really just the beginning of what we’re trying to accomplish. We also listen to advertisers who want to get as close to their customers as possible, and offer them relevant, real-life solutions for everyday problems. Next, we listen to thousands of qualified freelance writers, editors and filmmakers (including the ones in our video), who tell us they’re looking for flexibility, steady pay, great bylines, and the chance to work on topics they love. Just as importantly, we listen to the editors who publish our content on their sites – whether they’re partners like USA Today or our own properties like eHow and LIVESTRONG.COM – who insist that every article and video meets or exceeds their rigorous editorial standards. We listen closely to the people who visit our sites, whose clicks, comments and ratings let us know how we’re doing. And finally, we listen to experts among our peers, including the members of our Editorial Advisory Board, who counsel us on best practices and emerging ideas from across the world of media. Fortunately, all that listening isn’t just in one ear and out the other. We’ve worked hard to build a platform to capture all that listening in a way that simply isn’t possible in the offline world. Our platform allows us to learn from everything we hear, and we’re using what we learn to keep improving our products and processes. Again, Our Manifesto says it best: “On a daily basis we translate this mandate into a repeatable approach that gives users exactly what they want, attracting an audience that advertisers desire and that can be delivered with a sustainable cost structure. Some people act like this is revolutionary, or even heretical. We think it’s just common sense.” Importantly, we still see lots of value in listening to real-world feedback. In the past year, for example, we’ve used feedback from advertisers and publishers to guide the development of our original programming and recruitment of top talent through our Talent & Experts Network. We’ve figured out how to offer our network of freelancers twice-weekly paychecks and special high-profile assignments. And we’re continually refining and improving our processes and approach – based on learning what works in this new age of the media business. So while “it pays to be a good listener” certainly sums up Demand Media in just seven words, we can also do it in three: “Listen and learn.”
Tags:
content,
studio,
listening,
freelancers,
video,
Manifesto,
platform,
eHow,
LIVESTRONG,
USAToday,
editorial,
advisory,
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experts
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