People love good dialogue, and websites and brands are turning conversations into new customers with Sidelines
In all the comments on every YouTube video, Buzzfeed article and Reddit thread clogging up cyberspace, it's been determined only 10% of the contributors have anything useful or interesting to say. But because they're lost in a sea of the other 90% - trash talk, trolls and all – those 10% have been essentially voiceless when it comes to using their thoughts and opinions to any real effect.
Two years ago Sidelines came along to give that 10% a home.
Sidelines is a community of contributors who participate in meaningful discussions on a wide range of topics. Sidelines' contributors are experts in their areas of interest, but that doesn't mean they need a Ph.D. to participate. That guy in your office who always nails the fantasy football league and knows everything about every player and every performance during the season? He would fit right in as a fantasy football contributor on Sidelines...even if his day job is crunching numbers.
So says Arka Ray, co-founder of Sidelines. In a recent interview Ray talked about how the contributors to the Sidelines community find their niche – and their voice – in a safe haven for quality conversation. Sidelines' contributors are a mix of bloggers who've struggled to find a good platform for their writing (after all, starting a blog from scratch and building a big audience is no small feat and Sidelines comes with built-in exposure that's 20 million readers per month strong, and well on the way to 50 million) and everyday people who enjoy the social validation they receive from conversing with their peers.
Seeing the enthusiasm these contributors have for the discussions and the engaging nature of the discussions themselves, brands have been working with Sidelines to sponsor Sidelines conversations. Ray, a Microsoft alum who was recruited directly after receiving his Computer Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, describes Sidelines as a “platform for smart, intelligent, opinionated people to share their views with each other and promote active but intelligent debate.” But how does this work for brands?
According to Ray, brands meet with the Sidelines team to discuss their key marketing messages. Sidelines' editors then identify existing discussions that align with those messages, and create new discussions in line with the messages, too. Once contributors get talking and brands give Sidelines the green light, Sidelines begins distributing the discussions – and this is where the magic happens for brands and contributors alike.
The magic of Sidelines isn't just that it's a place where the web's best 10% can go to talk, or even that brands can have that 10% talking about topics relevant to their marketing messages. It's that the conversations they're having are shared across an extensive, ever-growing network of publishers. Companies place Sidelines discussions on their sites as content. Because Sidelines' discussions are so authentic and compelling, visitors fall down the rabbit hole and keep on reading. On average, participating publishers report the time people spend on their websites actually doubles.
By publishing Sidelines conversations websites attract and keep visitors, but they also earn revenue share. It's a win-win-win situation. Contributors gain immediate and significant exposure for their writing (which consists of 100-200 word replies in discussion format). Brands gain traction for their messages. And publishers bolster their website's stats and monetize.
While digital marketers buzz about native advertising – essentially advertising that appears in the context of or related to an article or blog post – Sidelines takes the concept of native advertising and turns it on its head. There's never any guarantee the content that's served to you through a native ad will be valuable or interesting. But when Sidelines content is embedded on a site, it's virtually guaranteed to be topical, timely and incredibly engaging. Readers come to trust the opinions of the Sidelines community, which gives brands an even bigger boost when they're associating with trusted influencers.
Early on in the development of the Sidelines concept, the team was mentored in business development by Disney. No company knows more about making magic happen than The Walt Disney Company. So it's no surprise that Sidelines took a good idea and turned it into gold.
2015 will be an ambitious year for Sidelines as they aim for that 50 million uniques per month goal, and they already campaigns with multiple major brands in the pipelines – including Star Wars. Learn more from Arka Ray's interview and visit Sidelinesapp.com to find out more about how you can contribute, place discussions on your site or sponsor conversations.
About Sidelines:
Sidelines is a community-powered content marketing platform that helps brands reach their audience through authentic discussions from experts and super fans. Founded in 2012, Sidelines one of the 10 finalists for the prestigious Disney Accelerator and is backed by the Walt Disney Company, 500 Startups, TechStars, Social Starts and several other prominent investors. For more information, visit Sideslinesapp.com
