"In a web world where you want the content to flow freely, how do you use exclusivity - holding content back - to your advantage?
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Information is abundant, and almost any content can easily be found for free. For any person or company trying to monetize scarce or premium content on the social web, there is always somebody else out there willing to provide the same webinar, video, or eBook for nothing, destroying your idea of a scarce resource. Chris Anderson's book Free: The Future of a Radical Price codifies this idea by basically saying "get used to it" - you have to find adjacencies and other revenue streams because people expect Internet-based content and services to be free.
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Is there anything scarce on the Internet?
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Yes, there is, according to digital marketing savant Christopher S. Penn of SHIFT Communications. "Scarcity is actually more powerful than ever on the social web," he said. "While content may be free, what has become extremely scarce is time, attention, and influence. These are hot commodities, rare commodities. As an example, I have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter. I can't tell you the number of direct messages and tweets, Facebook messages, and emails I receive every day asking, 'Hey, can you promote my whatever' because they know that it means something. Moving content creates true value. So in that regard, scarcity is a weapon that is in play like never before." On the other side of the coin, providing exclusive or limited access to content can create the perception of scarcity that can make the content move. [Moi ici: Claro que isto é exactamente o contrário do que se faz, cada vez mais manchas noticiosas obtidas no supermercado low-cost da Agência Lusa que todos serve igual e comoditiza. Onde está a especialização? Onde está o profissionalismo?]
O mesmo se passa com a sua empresa, o mesmo se passa com os suinicultores, o mesmo se passará com o retalho tradicional perante os deflacionistas do retalho online.
Trechos retirados de "The Content Code"