"Read This or the Kitten Dies!" - The Problem with Disposable Content
by Kate Bordwell, head of strategy at Equator
Kate Bordwell, head of strategy at Equator.
In 2010, digital marketing was excited about ‘disposable content.’ Gone were the big production budgets. Fast and furious was the way to go. Quantity mattered more than quality. If people didn’t read today’s list based article – or ‘listicle’ – then there was always the chance they’d see tomorrow’s.
The net was awash with excitement about building brands in a granular fashion, by storytelling on the web. The idea was that the whole became greater than the sum of its parts, with the ‘parts’ being lots of little pieces of content that all added up to give a rich and vivid picture of what a brand was all about.
The trends agencies convinced marketers that the people wanted listicles and infographics, that they wanted things to share and talk about, things to enlighten and inform them, in easy, bitesize chunks. And they were (mostly) right. There is a massive appetite for this kind of content. People like to snack and graze rather than commit to one big meal. Social timelines soon were – and still are – chock full of snacks and snippets of amusing/surprising/shocking content as our friends and contacts see something and think it worth sharing. It’s easy to share something you’ve just read, or half read, or seen part of the headline and the picture of. Click.
The problem was, or is, there is so much clutter it’s not that easy to tell what’s important, or meaningful, or useful. And there are a few even bigger problems with some content, perhaps most importantly, whether it’s even true or not.
And so towards the end of 2013, the value of this type of content came under question. The backlash began and a cynicism set in. Disposable is a dirty word once again. The source of the problem is four-fold:
1. Lists, lists, lists
Yes, people like lists. They are easy to read and scan. They make it easy to get several points across. SEOs love lists too. But just because people like lists, articles shouldn’t necessarily always be written in list format. People also like haiku and long-form copy and everything in between.
2. False urgency and hyperbole
There’s a lot of ’10 things you must do before…’ and ‘If you don’t see this you will…’ as well as ‘The most amazing/best ever…’ which doesn’t deserve all the superlative attention. Basically, people are getting disappointed that their life hasn’t been changed by a kitten video or inspiring quote, either because it’s not the best thing ever, or because someone else tweeted it last Thursday already.
3. Truth – or lack of it
This is a serious issue. The nature of some content being made or shared by reputable brands means that they get a lot of traction and reach vast numbers of users before suddenly it is revealed that it’s been a hoax or there is more to the story than meets the eye. As more of these falsehoods are exposed, the more duped people feel and the less likely they are to trust what they see.
4. Emptiness and general laziness
Perhaps this is the biggest content-related crime of all. How many ’10 new ways to lose weight in January’ articles did you see last month? How many of them said the same thing? How many bandwagons did irrelevant brands jump on? The internet is cluttered with this pointless click bait and it’s time to take a stand against it.
We’re not saying content marketing is dead. Far from it. Content is, and always will be, King. But we are saying that, as marketers, it’s time to take more responsibility about content strategy and production and make stuff that is, to paraphrase the great William Morris, either ‘useful or beautiful’.
Here’s a non-ironic, totally serious list of five ways you can ensure your branded content is useful and beautiful:
1. Work closely with your client/digital agency to formulate a content strategy and stick to it. If you’re a client, make the most of your agency’s strategy and creative team. They usually have a good, hopefully more objective, view, of how lots of content can work together to build your brand and reach your target audiences effectively. Above all, be clear about what content is doing to build your brand’s story and what touch-points or channels you want to build it in.
2. Create a production team for content in order to ensure you can deliver planned content in good time – to tie-in with campaigns or your calendar – and have resource ready to respond to the latest news quickly.
3. Content should respond to the zeitgeist and be real-time where relevant – but don’t jump on bandwagons just for the sake of clicks – always have a reason why your brand is talking about content on this topic.
4. Understand whether content is disposable or evergreen, and place it somewhere suitable for its purpose. Share it somewhere sensible, with relevant audiences too.
5. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, put your audience first. What content from you is going to help them in their everyday lives? What are they likely to share because it is genuinely useful or beautiful? What can you give them that will stay with them (in a positive way) for more than a few seconds?
These points might seem obvious but following them closely can make all the difference and help you become a reputable content provider, and give your brand the meaning, richness and depth it deserves.