It’s not always about the numbers.
I’ve noticed over the last few weeks a plethora of posts updating us all on everything from the numbers of people accessing the internet by mobile (answer; lots and more than last year) to today’s publication of a list of magic words (follow, submit, please) that apparently will see your content shared more widely.
It’s my view that both examples kind of miss the point about how people use media and what drives great digital strategies. Starting with the numbers, I really don’t understand the continuing value that people put on, for example, the number of people on Facebook. That extra 5 million really doesn’t matter. I’m an avowed advocate of knowing your audience, but basing any strategy on Facebook purely on size definitely misses the point. Like media planning through the ages, you should include digital media channels into your thinking based on the specific audience your business targets and with a clear idea of how you want them to act.
I mean, who really wants to take 77,000,000 phone calls from Facebook users globally anyway.
And in terms of magic words, Google search and all that, it’s just so critical that people see that as an element of “production” and not the starting point. Whether it’s today’s version of the tag cloud or something entirely subliminal, all that stuff needs to be buried out of sight so that people can get straight to your content. Using “magic words” can only work if they are 100% in sympathy with the content.
A good example and one which may well be controversial is the way that newspapers online nowadays use “linkbait”, ie headlines to stories that are the modern equivalent of the “man bites dog” story to get us to stay on their websites. The theory goes that any headline that is shocking and provocative enough to make people click is a “good thing” because clicks make money. Trouble is, after the third and fourth time of being sucked into clicking a headline that turns out to be a nothing story, readers will start to get cranky. And go to another site. Especially if the link is to yet another story about Kim Kardashian.
Whatever the numbers, whatever the context, the content that will be famous and shared will be the content that is genuinely new, unique and useful. It’s no coincidence that the biggest trend in publishing in the last 15 years has been the signing up of big name writers, the kind of people whose name on the masthead will make you buy the newspaper and magazine over another. Famously, UK research shows that the pull of having Jeremy Clarkson as a writer on the Sunday Times is enough of an incentive to make thousands of people choose it over the 11 Sunday competitors.
The secret to someone like Clarkson producing great content is unerringly simple. It needs to inform, entertain or educate (all three is good) and it needs to understand and identify with its reader. Clarkson’s greatest appeal? Once the Deputy editor on Performance Car (yes, really) he’s now a multi-millionaire Ferrari/Jaguar/Porsche driving writer who knows his stuff and speaks his mind. In an informative, educational and entertaining way. And like all great brands, it’s consistently good, week after week.
Equally, my good friend David Hepworth’s blog (whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com) has a variety of content and no obvious market. But it’s consistently good. David is well known in the UK having presented Live Aid and the Whistle Test and launched both Q and MOJO so knows his rock’n’roll. But to paraphrase one of his own jokes, I’ll tell you the secret to the success of Dave’s blog.
It’s really, really good.
Produce stuff as good as that and leave the tag clouds, magic words or whatever to your tech people.
#simples.