Marketing Junto - Silos Are Not Always A Bad Thing

Silos have a negative connotation online, but in the physical world they are helpful to keep grains and other farm materials in one space.

Silos online, though often conjuring up bad connotations, can be a good thing in some cases. A recent study from the Harvard Business School found that during the pandemic, businesses found that employees in groups/silos were actually beneficial and more collaboration happened.

I first heard about this study on the For Immediate Release podcast with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. Both seasoned marketing communicators, their overall take away was, like mine, not all silos online are bad and some can be beneficial.

Even the more famous digital silos, social media sites, provide value among their users. Twitter with their new communities feature and hashtags chats, Facebook with their groups feature, Slack and Discord with their communities. All these silos have both advantages and disadvantages. They both bring people together for collaboration and interaction, but they also put up walls and create division.

Will digital silos hurt engagement as we go back to in-person business? I'm not sure.

Podcast Silos

One aspect of the siloing of the online space that has me more concerned is what Spotify is doing in podcasting.

Spotify had been in the news, it's been hard to avoid, with their exclusive rights to the Joe Rogan Experience. Some shows owned by Spotify have even taken to fact-checking Rogan's show as their sole objective for the time being.

Though what concerns me in the threat to the open nature of podcasting by Spotify siloing content into their ecosystem exclusively. This is only more apparent with their recent acquisition of Podsights and Chartable. Is this purchase a great thing for podcasts on the Spotify platform? Yes. But what it means for the ecosystem in general has me worried.

Full disclosure: Both of my podcasts, Entrepreneur's Enigma and Digital Marketing Dive, are hosted on Spotify-owned Megaphone.fm. So I will be seeing the benefits.

But what does this mean for the democratizing of the medium and the further siloing of podcasting under the control of some key players? I'm really not sure — I'm concerned.

So are silos bad? Are they good? Or are they something inbetween? What do you think? Hit reply and let me know!

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Why I’m Launching SERP Slayer | God Save the SERP

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• There's very good topic over at Elegant Themes' blog about whether or not you should worry about alternate search engines from Google when doing SEO. The simple answer is yes. Especially Bing, because it's the default on Microsoft's Edge browser and often people don't switch browsers in the corporate world. Read on for tips.

How to add your podcast to every podcast directory

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• As a podcaster you want your show discoverable. This article, which has been recently updated with new information, shows you the directories you need to have your show listed. Now get to it!

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How stable is SEO as a growth channel?

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• Another excellent post from SERP whisperer Kevin Indig in his Growth Memo newsletter. In the latest issue, Kevin talks about the stability of SEO as a growth channel. His conclusion is that for a long-term play it's great, but if you're looking for quick wins, it might be to volatile.

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Podcast Of Note

Neville and Shel have been podcasting since 2005. So it only makes sense to highlight them in this newsletter. Their latest episode inspired my monologue above. The knowledge transfer from the hosts to the listeners is immense and worth a listen. They've obviously are on to something having had this podcast in some form since 2005. Check them out at the Marketing Podcast Network or on the For Immediate Release Network.

The Latest Entrepreneur's Enigma Episode

Joe Crandall is a warrior both on the military field of battle and in business. The CEO of Green Castle Consulting, Joe works tirelessly every day to make sure his employees and clients are taken care of. Joe is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and was a platoon commander in SEAL Team Five before leaving the military due to medical reasons. After he left the military he worked in the pharmaceutical space before going into management consulting, where he is today.

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