Media owners often believe it’s their brand, its reputation for quality content and heritage that draw readers and advertisers, but often it’s the people that write for them - the columnists, the experts and product reviewers, that are the main attraction. In specialist consumer and professional b2b markets, the readers themselves are often experts in their subject, and key individuals at suppliers or advertisers are considered worth listening to as well.  In the new world of social media, it’s individuals that have more success on Linked-in, facebook, twitter et al than companies, as their networks are based on personal contacts. Inspired by a great blog post by Ashley Friedlein of econsultancy on tips for successful paid content businesses, which talks about the value of “hijacking” identities online, I have thought about how this can be applied by media owners to rethink how they promote their content. Here are some steps that could help you to build content around people… (more…)