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Relevant Content
There has always been talk about how content is king on the internet. That, quite naturally, is true.
However, reaching our goals and at the same time best serving our visitors requires relevant content. But
what is relevant content in the first place?
It corresponds to informational demands of the target audiences it is intended for, in correlation with our
specific area of expertise, the audiences' expectations towards us and our goals. Is available to our target
audiences exactly when they need it [timely availability] and delivered to them exactly when they want it
[on-request delivery]. Is accessible exactly to the target audiences that it is intended for, and is not
accessible to anyone else, especially when a certain level of content security needs to be established due
to the nature of the content. It corresponds to content presentation demands of the target audiences it is
intended for, namely in terms of content format (for instance, do they want to read their content in HTML
format, PDF format, Microsoft Word format, Macromedia Flash format etc.), accessibility (for instance, can
the visually impaired use our content as well; language etc.) and understadability (can our target audiences
actually understand what we are trying to convey to them).
The content delivery channel of our choice should answer all or most of these requirements. RSS, for
instance, does. However, relevant content also has a fifth requirement: Is available to our target audiences
using exactly the content consumption channel that best suits their preferences and needs. This basically
means that it's our audiences that should have the power to choose how content is going to be delivered to
them. We should not for instance force our audiences to receive content from us only using e-mail as the
content delivery channel, and certainly not only using RSS, or any content delivery channel for that matter.
This goes for the entire internet as well. The point is that content should be delivered using whichever
channels are the most appropriate for our target audience and our goals, which does not exclude traditional
content delivery channels, such as, for instance, postal mail.
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