Jim Murray

6 years ago · 8 min. reading time · 0 ·

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Is Content Really King on Social Media… Or Just the Joker?

Is Content Really King on Social Media… Or Just the Joker?

Jim Murray, Strategist, Writer
& beBee Brand Ambassador
I work with small to mid-sized businesses,
designers, art/creative directors & consultants

to create results driven, strategically focused
communication in all on & offline medio

| om also @ communications mentor, lyricist

& prolific op/ed blogger Your Story Well Told
mail.com | Skype:This is the 27th Installment of our He Said He Said series that started more than two years ago now, over in the Lumpy Kingdom and carried on right here on BeBee. Conditions for writers have deteriorated on LinkedIn's publisher but a surprising number still continue with the uphill work of page views & engagement over there. Guess there is no shortage of intellectual masochism in social media. However...in this installment we take a look at content and try to figure out what's up with the old chestnut "Content Is King".

c7b1de04.pngPHIL: Almost every day, we read one post or another or maybe a half dozen about how ― dum dee dum dum ― “CONTENT IS KING!”
Sometimes the statement is made by the ownership or management of a social media platform. Yet, I rarely, if ever see that dictum being converted to action.
To the contrary, I see actions undertaken that work counter to treating Content as an important piece of the digital publishing puzzle. Why do I say that?

Because if Content were truly King, LinkedIn would never had dismantled those parts of its system which supported writers and bloggers. And LI would never have undermined the operation of its Groups ― where in the first decade or so of LI’s existence, literally mountains of engagement were generated. But it did.
"If Content were truly King on social media, beBee and other SM platforms would be finding ways to encourage writers to produce bubbling brooks of high-quality content rather than raging rivers of Insipidipity. But they don’t.

As I see it, in the deck we’re playing with on Social Media, Content is
not King. The Joker, maybe. But definitely not King.
If anything is King on social media, it’s Quantity. The more you can post, the better. And the greater common denominator you can reach, even more so.
Because contrary to all the wishful claims made on behalf of algorithms and “Artificial Intelligence”, the most that can be accomplished by social media stats collectors is to quantify ― in other words, count ― posts, comments, likes, clicks, etc.
And since the stats form the basis for monetizing a platform, well, you can understand why
Quantity is King. And nowhere is Quality given more than lip service.
Does that state of affairs trouble you, Jim, as much as me? Do you ever wish for a digital self-publishing environment that was primarily writer- and reader-centric? Do you think that such is even possible, given the large investment necessary to launch, build, and maintain a social media platform that does not require you to pay if you want to play?
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JIM: You know, on this topic, you and I both may view it with a bit of a jaundiced eye, because we are professional writers. We are among the ones who felt the pain of the LinkedIn claw hold first and most emphatically, because both of us were pulling decent numbers there and making some good connections.
The other issue is being writers we both tend to think of ‘content’ as primarily long format blog posts. And while that may be an important ‘type’ of content, it’s certainly not the only type.
Look at what made somebody like Candice Galek a superstar on social media, for example. Chicks in bikinis up the wazoo. Look at all those big-time life coaches. It’s mostly video content. The list goes on.

You and I are writers and are really writing the stuff we do to build an audience and create awareness for what I euphemistically refer to as our personal brands.
So for us content is absolutely king IMHO. Because we are in the quality content generation business.

And here comes the 80/20 Differential that states: In no uncertain terms is any more than 20% of all generated content ‘quality’. It’s mostly crap. And for that reason alone it’s hard to consider it king of anything other than some dung heap.
But to sustain the metaphor, I honestly don’t give a shit. To quote Trump. “The system is rigged’. Social media sites need to post as much content as possible so they can con people into believing that there’s all this activity and all these willing customers, when we both know that’s bull chips.

And the so called ‘content creators’ think, wow, there’s my audience, just chomping at the bit to read my latest insight about nothing in particular. And so they dash it off. And yeah, they have a platform and probably should be grateful for that. But crap is crap and eventually they go away and more crap show up to take its place.
But you know what, it all sorts itself out in the end.

I consider the blogging that I do, a) A gestalt that keeps my blood pressure under control, b) A bit of a PR tool, and c) Potential chapters for my next book, whatever that turns out to be. It’s also fun. I genuinely enjoy doing this. Because writers write.
Having said all that, I can only hope that I have managed to convince you that for me, at least, content is a small k king, maybe a jack, but not, in the case of quality content, a joker. What sayeth thou?

52a7924a.pngPHIL: It sometimes concerns me that the things you say make sense to me. But I’ve learned to live with that.
Contrary to my gut instinct as someone who came to social media from the print magazine sector, I do recognize that “content” includes more than just writing. And while I find most of the self-produced video posted on social media just plain poor, some of it is quite good. For example, the
videos that Melissa Hughes does are excellent from the standpoint of script and presentation. Smooth and polished.
But I gotta tell you, most of the rest I see are… uh… um…kinda… ah… jumpy and… um…generally not… uh… very good. Especially the “live buzzes”. Which fact, I believe, supports my original point.
The “live buzzes” are extemporaneous videos, self-shot, and non-editable. Which means they are, in effect, video selfies, quick shots suited to attracting the narcissistic Instagram and Snapchat users. They are not effective in attracting the consumers of quality content.

Consider that a top-flite writer like
Robert Cormack says he takes about six hours to draft and edit (two or three times) one of his written posts. A guy like Cormack would never, I venture to say, even consider doing a live buzz ― precisely because you can’t edit or polish the product before publishing it.
And that tells us that the live buzz feature is designed for those who want to publish vanity videos of themselves, not for those serious content producers who want to present professional-level work to an audience.

Hey! Wake up there, you under that Panama hat. Doesn’t that tell you if Content were truly considered King, and not just quantifiable and measurable fodder for positive stats, live buzzes would not be the fad content gimmick of the moment?
Put another way, if the management of a social media platform genuinely respected Content, would it, at every turn, encourage the posting of videos of inevitably low quality?
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JIM: There are those who would argue that this is Phil Friedman at his snooty best. And I can’t disagree. But what I will say is that I did not fabricate the definition of content. Somebody else did and I just happened to agree with it.
As for quality, especially when it comes to video. I would imagine (and I’m not bad at that) that it could, and probably will, be argued that it’s not about the quality of the content per se, it’s about the ‘authenticity’ of the person making the content.

I have personally never made a live buzz, and I probably never will for the same reasons that you point out in your Robert Cormack analogy. Because I do not and never will equate spontaneity with authenticity.
In point of fact, writing this with you is the most spontaneous it gets for me, and even then, I have to think about it for a while.

I believe what we are both coming to terms with is the fact that content is only king when it is quality content. And quality content only happens about 20% of the time.
But…this is not to say that even crap content is not without some merit. For one thing, I believe, for some, it’s a necessary part of the process. You have to crawl before you can walk. That sort of thing.

For others, maybe the realization dawns on them at some point that crap is as good as it gets for them. And they move on.
I was thinking about this yesterday when I wrote a piece that I’m not sure I will publish here. I was thinking about all the people I used to notice on social media but don’t notice anymore. Where did they go? And why did they go?

Maybe, just maybe, they came to terms with the harsh reality that while content may be king in the broad, self-serving, keep providing us with content sort of way that most social media sites espouse, that it wasn’t really king, or even any level of royalty, for them.
I have never been a big believer is generalizations. Because I am a proponent of individuality, and broad sweeping generalizations like Content Is King, smack of what you referred to recently as hive or collective mentality.

So yeah. Content is something. It’s not king unless you think it is. But even then, it’s questionable. Strong personal and business relationships are, IMHO, the real King.
Am I still making sense, swami Phil?
81e4d457.png
PHIL: Snooty? Snoooo-teee, you say? Are you accusing me of being a literary snob?
Well, I’m not. I hate the work of E. M. Forster. But love the writings of John Sandford, especially his Virgil Flowers series.

Me snooty? That’s like accusing a World Wrestling Association fan of being a cultural Brahman, Mr. Panama Hat.
And you know, we’ve kicked “authenticity” around before ― coming to the conclusion, as I remember, that being authentic doesn’t help you a whit, if you’re an authentic horse’s ass.

So where does that leave me? Well, one place it leaves me is with you, cranking out installments of He Said He Said, which readers seem to continue to enjoy, at least enough to keep us going. The question is why.
I agree with your observation that the face of posting on social media changes continually, with a lot of the “early voices” falling silent, one by one.

We tend to think that digital self-publishing platforms have been with us forever. But they haven’t.
LinkedIn’s long-post publishing platform was fully launched in April, 2014. BeBee’s Producer in Spring, 2016. There were a few before that period, a few more during that period, and a number following after. But the fact is long-post self-publishing on a social media platform, as opposed to one’s own or someone else’s website, has only been around for a very few years. Consequently, we don’t really know what a reasonable life expectancy is for a social media writer or blogger.

I suspect the writing and blogging attrition we’re witnessing ― and we are witnessing it ― is the inevitable result of so many would-be writers and bloggers simply running out of things to say. For how many times, and in how many ways, can you say “Think positive and you can accomplish anything …”?
You want to know what I really think? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.

I think that most of the would-be writers and bloggers who are responsible for the vast body of “inspirational” flotsam found on the ocean of social media (Egad! I’ve been hanging around too much with the Metaphor Gang) are, for the most part, speaking to themselves. And when the advice they so readily mete out fails to help them in their own real lives, they’re “production of content” dries up. Because what they never learned is that the
lifeblood of high-quality content is stimulation.
People read or watch “content” for a variety of reasons ― to be educated or entertained or figure out how to pick up men or women or perform self-ablative brain surgery. But rarely, if ever to be put to sleep. Unless, of course, they choose to watch re-runs of old Jack Lord Hawaii Five-O TV shows, which will put you to sleep every time in no more than ten minutes.

And whether content can stimulate depends on whether or not it has
substance, that is, meaning, interest, or intrinsic value.
So the fact is content is not king, substance is. Which apparently is something a lot of people have still to learn.
All comments are welcomed. Phil will, of course, speak for himself. Me too. Hope you enjoyed this installment. Be sure to tune in next time when we take some, as yet to be decided thing apart, and put it back together.

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If your business has reached the point where talking to an experienced  communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.
Download my free ebook Small Business Communication For The Real World here:
 https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/

All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page



All content Copyright 2017 Jim Murray & Phil Friedman.


Comments

Jim Murray

6 years ago #12

#10
I don't disagree Lance \ud83d\udc1d Smith. It's all about preferences. I know people who do great live and scripted video content. I prefer writing. So we do what we prefer. Fortunately Phil like writing too. Ergo, we could go one forever and probably will as long as there's some sort of audience. So far so good. Thanks for your comment.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #11

#12
Thanks Chas \u270c\ufe0f Wyatt. Yeah we prefer to talk and interact with the literate.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #10

#13
I'm pretty confident that Phil and I could both be speakers, and in point of fact have done in the past. I personally have no interest in standing up in front of large groups of people and telling them what's what. I would much rather do it from right here in my Fortress of Solitude. I had 40 years of presenting and selling, and enjoyed it immensely. SAlsmot as much as I ejoy what I am doing now. Thanks for you comment Jerry Fletcher, and your ongoing support.

Jerry Fletcher

6 years ago #9

Gentlemen, Some of us walk in both worlds. Professional speakers, good ones, will spend days and weeks developing and rehearsing what appears on the platform to be spontaneous. Because we have singular stories and illustrations we use frequently there is a clarity not apparent in "selfie videos." The way my ex described it was like "pulling the string on a Chatty Kathy doll." People that understand that all the world is a stage have thought their way through answers and can present them well. Most selfie videos defy the possibility of a rational thought being involved IMHO. One of the strategies I teach clients is 30-Second Marketing. It allows you to answer the question, "What do you do?" in away that is memorable and leads to a conversation not a commercial. And that my friends is what exposing ourselves on social media is all about--conversations.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #8

#5
Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee, will you be calling it the JimmyPhil format, or the PhillyJim format? :-)

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #7

#6
Actally, Michael, one of the problems with the Internet is that NOTHING EVER disappears. So are the things we publish here on beBee durable? On LinkedIn? On Google? You betcha it is. Of course, that does not mean it is worthwhile preserving. And we should never confuse what is with what should be. IMO. Cheers! :-)

Pascal Derrien

6 years ago #6

For the record on the question of live self videos I have zero interest in watching them let alone do one :-), the trending forced march will pass me by I am afraid....... well if people like them fine its like fast food it does not really feed the soul isn't it
#4
Jim Murray this is great format. I LOVE IT. In fact we are developing a nice collaborative publishing platform for you :)

Jim Murray

6 years ago #4

Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee When you talk about live buzzes and videos, you really have to understand what the objective is for doing that. What's hot in 'social' media is not always hot in 'business' media. Phil and I are both writers. We write. We are not performers and we are certainly not your typical social media types. We also seem to do fairly well in terms of engagement here without the benefit of videos. And that's fine with me. A lot of this has to do with the fact that what we are writing about does not lend itself to being boiled down into a live buzz or even a short Ted talk. That's why we do it in the format we have chosen. So the people reading, and there are a lot of them, get the full benefit of what we have to say. I have nothing against live buzzes, They're fine,. but most of them are pretty fluffy and that's OK too. Phil and I, for those who have noticed, are not in the 'fluffy' business. We're just in business, and are working hard to attract other people like us. Because it's our belief that this site can do very well if it maintains that balance.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #3

#1
I agree that live buzz is not for everyone to do, just as live TV or live theater is not for everyone. And obviously, some people will be better than others at live performance. But I believe that we should not confuse spontaneity or ad hoc performance with authenticity. Nor should we underestimate the power of the durable written word, published after consideration and reflection. There is no doubt in my mind that live (unrehearsed, un-edited) video is tranding on social media. The question is whether we should chase the trend or seek to be the trend-setters. IMO. Cheers!
Another great live buzz from Andrew \ud83d\udc1d Goldman https://www.bebee.com/content/1459264/1299826 A video is better than a thousand words. People love People. Content is King , Content Marketing is about Video, Podcasts, Long Posts, Infographics, eBooks, --- and others https://www.bebee.com/producer/@javierbebee/content-marketing-for-non-believers
Streaming Video is about spontaneity with authenticity. Here you are two great professionals https://www.bebee.com/producer/@javierbebee/bring-freshness-to-bebee Probably not everyone is able to do it ;-) ! I love authenticity !!! thanks Andrew \ud83d\udc1d Goldman

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