I’m struggling with this. A lot.
I absolutely realize I’m a stick in the mud, here.
But more and more, I’m finding that I don’t fit the aesthetic of the outstanding “content marketer”, whatever that means.
For example, more and more blogs – including typically excellent ones – are using the whole “tweet this” thingie in the midst of their posts so you can quote a bit of their brilliant prose (a bit that they’ve determined is ‘tweetable’) and post it on Twitter.
An increasing amount of material, from posts to presentations, seems to be more concerned with being ‘sound bite’ worthy than being substantive. We want people to post and share and spread our stuff around, so some of the content gets watered down to the least common denominator and everything ends up being a collection of the same 12 points, repackaged to suit the personality of the presenter but most assuredly designed to spread.
Sometimes, I’m pretty sure we’re designing content to spread instead of to educate, inform, or teach.
Entertainment is a worthy goal of content, sure. But I feel like we’re lowering our standards to the point where what we’re saying is becoming homogenized, and the only distinction is how clever we can be while saying it.
That just feels so….icky…to me. And frustrating, because I think great content serves an amazing purpose in the world of empowered, informed people that are the fabric of today’s workforce, our customers, our clients, and the partners we hope to work with someday.
As for me, I’m such a shitty self-promoter it’s not even funny. I have probably sacrificed a good bit of business over the years because I suck at pimping my own work, and there’s this weird line where I feel like I’m playing to the game instead of focusing on my purpose. I can’t draw it in the sand. It’s like pornography. You know it when you see it. Or at least, I do.
I feel it when I’m trying too hard. I don’t want to be a “content marketer”. I want to be a successful business owner. I believe content plays a role in getting me there, but my goal isn’t to get retweeted a hundred times when I give a MasterClass on social business. My goal is to have someone walk out of the room and go kick ass at their job tomorrow, armed with all kinds of ideas and perspective they didn’t have before I got there. The tweets are great, but not if I’ve totally swung and missed when delivering the real value to my clients.
Is this train of thought weird? Especially with the hype around all things content? Are content excellence and sound-bite success mutually exclusive?
I know there are millions of ways to skin the proverbial cat, so perhaps not.
But man, while I once felt like social embodied the spirit of so much of what was wrong with marketing and promotion, it’s adapted itself to the same old mold in so many ways, with clever promotion in a web-savvy “content” wrapper that lacks substance in the quest to be everything to everyone and to get one more pin or share or download or buffer or whatever.
I know I’m generalizing. I’m sure there are lots of exceptions. But it’s something I’m furiously wrestling with these days.
I still believe that social is an incredible catalyst. Hell, I built a business on that potential. The ability to share, provide commentary, and shape the experiences around you is immensely powerful and will still compel lots of changes to the way businesses operate, the way people work, and how we continue to communicate with each other. Those shifting expectations are where the meat of the evolution sits, and I have some pretty big bets on that truth.
But there’s a breaking point somewhere when we’ve sold out, when we’ve taken our eye off the real prize and settled for cheap thrills and short-term attention instead of the investment in the long, perhaps less-glamorous-and-fewer-like-buttons game.
It’s probably different for everyone, but I’m sure feeling it around me. That elusive balance between staying visible, staying relevant, and yet staying grounded.
Are you feeling it too?
This is a great post, Amber. And it’s a phenomenon that I often struggle with. Do I write the stuff that gets re-tweets with sensational titles that have little (if anything) to do with the fabric of the post? Do I write for the ever-changing influx of newbies who want to know the top 5 tips for getting more Twitter followers or do I create my ‘proverbial’ art? Do I aim for a higher quality stimuli and significantly less, but potentially more impactful, readers?
I think the second we start writing for the feedback and not for the sake of creating our art, we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice. As Seth says, “If we’re in love with the feedback and trying to manipulate the applause we get, we’ll cease to make the art we’re capable of.”
I don’t want to be a puppet controlled by what the masses want. I want to write the things I believe in, to unpack things that delve below the surface of the industries I’m passionate about. I hope that in doing that I’ll attract people that care about those things as well. And if I don’t, I’m learning as a result of my writing rather than regurgitating the same nonsense as all the other ‘gurus’ seeking page views.
Thanks, Ryan. Look, we all want attention for our work, otherwise we wouldn’t be putting it out there publicly. I get that, and I’m there too, and all of that is great.
But there’s that invisible line for me when I know I’m trying too hard. When my own agenda and ego is getting in the way of what I’m trying to create. Which isn’t necessarily evil per se, it’s just not *my* thing. I like Seth’s quote. It’s very apt.
Amber, such a timely post. Just this morning I was having a conversation with a new client about why I don’t think writing the blog post to “key words” is the best way to do it. Give me your best stuff, I can figure out the key words for the SEO. Write from your beliefs not like a robot. Good content wins out over just any content.
I’ve never paid attention to SEO. That’s the honest truth. Which means I probably suck at it. But then again, I don’t make money from my blog directly so I can afford to not be at the top of the rankings.
But the crux of the matter is when you sacrifice intent and purpose for mechanics. For me, I absolutely have some selfish intent (why else would I write publicly?), but I’m contemplating the criteria that tell me when I’ve tipped too far to the side of writing for self-serving purposes versus what I originally set out to do: make people think, help people solve problems, and provide a unique and unfiltered perspective on things I care about.
“Good” is always subjective, as is motive. But it’s something that makes me reflect all the time.
Yes! I started blogging 2 years ago for the express purpose of eliminating the self-editor in me. I wanted to write and share what was hopefully interesting, informative, educational, fun, thought-provoking material…not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily all those things at the same time:)
Oh, I read ad nauseum about all the SEO, keyword, backlink ad infinitum advice, and although some of it made perfect sense, I just wanted to write. I wanted the words to feel as if they were directly for the reader…yes…that one unique individual who’d perhaps smile, nod in agreement or disagreement, think slightly differently, feel better having read the post than before.
I’m a Renaissance woman living in the digital world, and although I strive to use the tools at my disposal, not at the expense of simply writing. One of my new mantras, given to me by a friend is: “Just write, baby. just write.”
I’m a successful business coach who simply wants to do what she’s always done: make a difference in the lives of those I touch, to help them be the best they can be. Whether that’s online, on a phone call, in person or by pony express, the tools are tools: it’s what we say and convey that matters. Cheers! Kaarina
One of my favorite writers, Joan Didion, uttered one of my favorite quotes: “I write to discover what I think.”
That’s still very much true for me, though that isn’t necessarily everyone else’s aim. Some people may absolutely be all about driving traffic because that translates into some quantifiable goal for them.
My post probably sounded rather preachy, but really I’m sharing my own self-reflection on this because the answer is NOT simple. There are as many worthy goals as there are methods to get there. And my perspective and taste is only one view in a sea of many viable ones.
I just know that I’ll never be a powerhouse content person because there are certain practices that seem commonplace now that I can’t wrap my head and fingers around. That’s ok.
Not preachy at all, and more than OK. We need to follow our own heart and path…and your post resonated with me fully. To forging our own paths. Cheers! Kaarina
Great quote. I often decide to write about topics that I have an opinion on, but need to be much more fleshed out. Sometimes, I end up at a conclusion that even I did not see coming. This is the fun part of content marketing.
It’s true, though, that too many of us are just checking out and writing shallow content. I think the following Slideshare (not mine, no affiliation or selfish promotion involved here) summarizes my sentiments perfectly:
http://www.slideshare.net/dougkessler/crap-the-content-marketing-deluge
Excellent ( and timely ) post.
Thank you!
BRILLIANT POST. exactly how I feel. thank you! it seems too many folks are more concerned with promoting their business on social media and less concerned about having a viable, useful, and awesome business in the first place.
Paul, most definitely. We’ve hyped the machine an awful lot, but the machine only works when you’ve got the right engine to start with. Thanks for the comment.
I’m torn on this topic because as usual I see it as a complex picture. I think much of this topic is embedded in ‘purpose’. Content may look alike, it may have similar topics, etc. but it’s *purpose* may be completely different. Perhaps what I’m selling *are* soundbites or entertainment (e.g. If I’m predominantly a speaker, top line author, etc.), or on the other end maybe I’m selling depth of service, or…. My point is that we often judge content relatively based on its surface but don’t always perceive it’s underlying purpose. I don’t think the overly manipulative tactics to forsake depth for the sake of reach are *bad* per se, I just think they’re not *me*.
That’s really the issue. It’s finding out what’s “me” and what’s not (which changes over time). I’m not really trying to say that something is “bad”. But I am saying that some balance of activities gives off a particular (subjective) impression, and knowing what that is is important, I think. There’s manipulation that’s benevolent, and manipulation that’s not so much. We talked about this before, but is someone tweeting their clever quips really hurting anyone? Probably not. Then again, we look around us all the time and see just how much those soundbites form the basis of people’s beliefs on the strategic direction they should take, or what they “need” to do because someone talked about it. So maybe they’re not all harmless after all.
Reach tactics may very well match up to a perfectly suitable objective. But surface judgments are realities, and I’m conscious of that in my own work, so it’s got me thinking.
Here’s the way I look at it, Amber. There’s an old saying that you fall in love at the exact moment when you aren’t looking for it. The more we try, the more we fall on our faces. If we just let it come to us naturally, good things might happen. This is the same way I feel about people who try too hard to be soundbite-ish or make their blog post into an f***ing keyword salad because golly gee, then the Almighty Google will just love us. Please. We need to focus our efforts on the quality and substance of the post first and foremost. If you want to go back and optimize – within reason so that it still sounds like a human wrote it – go for it. But to me, it’s writing for substance first that sets the table for greater potential sharing to occur. Taking the road of writing that wacky headline that more often than not is misleading as to reflecting the actual content within? Pass.
Hmm. I’m not sure about “letting it come to us naturally” in all cases, but that could easily become a pedantic argument so I won’t get all nitpicky. Suffice it to say that I think most things happen with a balance of discipline *and* letting them unfold as they will (like writing).
But yes, no ‘keyword salad’. And while I wasn’t specifically talking about SEO, mostly because I know less than jack about it, the larger issue you describe – substance – is the thing that’s got my gears turning. But like anything else, substantive to me could be useless to someone else, and vice versa.
I’ll admit, I struggle with this.
I hear your cry. Absolutely. I’ve written similar things on my agency’s blog, about how in our effort to produce content and hop on the content marketing train we’re producing total and utter crap. There’s no real learning happening, we don’t take the time to fully examine topics, we just create and release hoping that 20 meh posts will equal more than one post that’s actually be researched and stands for something.
Obviously, this is content marketing done wrong.
But that doesn’t mean (in my mind) that there’s merit to those little “tweet this” buttons that send out a line or lining your presentations with soundbites. As marketers, content people, whatever, it is our responsibility to help our content fly. To make it shareable. And to insert those soundbites to purposely give people something to hold on to.
That should be the goal of your content marketing. Giving the best stuff a chance to fly higher.
I like the way you put that, Lisa. And the emphasis on the ‘best’ stuff is important to me, I think.
Not all of my content is awesome. Some stuff has merit, other stuff is just me on a soapbox ranting about shit that doesn’t matter. Some of it is lazy, or half-baked ideas.
And I certainly share my own stuff and promote it, so I clearly believe that getting the word out has value in itself. I like the idea of always asking yourself whether your content marketing is really helping get your best ideas out into the world for a purpose. What that purpose is is, most assuredly, different for everyone.
So like I said at the start, it’s a struggle. And my struggle is going to be different than someone else’s, just like my tolerance and tastes will be different than theirs.
What I will say is that for every day I want to pull all my gray little hairs out in frustration, I have three where I’m inspired and encouraged by others’ struggles and what they learn, and excited to keep kicking stuff around. I’ve barked about plenty of other things in the past that I’ve changed my mind on since.
I want to give people something to hold onto, but I also want that something to LEAD to something else, something more meaningful than landing me on some kind of list of experts or getting a bunch of retweets. Not all of that is within my control (you can lead the horse and all). But I can sure as hell try. 🙂
There’s a simple disconnect at work here.
Traditionally publishers separated the content producers from the promoters. Take a newspaper, for example. The reporters were trained to focus only on their reporting and coverage and getting the scoop, NOT recruiting new readers. There were specialists trained to do that.
To some degree, this distinction’s already been adopted by the larger content marketing outfits, where you have content creators and content “pimps” for lack of a better word – with only a healthy amount of exchange between the two (as they obviously influence one another).
There’s no way around it though. Both jobs matter. And one can’t live without the other. It’s just tricky when both jobs need to be done by the same person (or people).
A very savvy observation, Ryan, and true. But I also think that part of the power of content’s evolution IS the fact that the author is so much more accessible and in many ways accountable for their own stuff. So you got it, it’s tricky when both jobs need to be done by the same people, but that’s part of what makes it all work I think.
Amen to this -> “I don’t want to be a “content marketer”. I want to be a successful business owner.” A hugely important point that many people miss. No point having hundreds of bits of content being sharing and lots of slaps on the back if your business isn’t thriving. A shift of focus to serving people and being an effective business owner should be the driver.
The business has to be the outcome, otherwise there won’t be any budget left for content time. 🙂 I think they feed each other, it’s all an ecosystem when it’s done well. But the temptation to grasp for the easy, visible success (look how many people shared this!) is driving a more diluted quality of material, I think. And that’s what I’m struggling with. Am I contributing to the mediocrity and the noise? Or am I doing something valuable? Subjective, I know, but I don’t want to write list posts just because that’s what people click on.
All the talk of relevant content, content curation, content marketing is very exhausting! I agree, it’s a balance to stay relevant, true to yourself, organic, yet have the ability to educate people in your field. I find myself sometimes looking for stuff to put out there, just for the value of the retweet, etc. Thank you for this honest perspective.
I obviously care about people reading what I have to say. I want to help, educate, and learn a few things myself through dialogue. It just feels like you have to lower so many standards to do it these days and I’m struggling with it mightily.
Pendulum + Learning Curve + Journal =This digital/social era.
The pendulum of change for this era is still swinging in one direction, some of us are further along the learning curve than others [always the case in change] and our learning curve experience is acute by having what used to be private learning journals now posted publicly. Add to this that the kind of learning that used to be offered through structured sources (educators/curriculum designers etc.) is now on offer for whoever figured out how to package and sell their ‘social’ {expertise} to the general publics awareness that they do indeed need to jump on the plane/{bus}. It will all, as the history of humans suggests, shift back to a less confusing place, at some point. And it is people who observe and offer commentary such as this post of yours that will help swing the pendulum somewhere a bit smarter.
I hope you’re right that things will settle to something less confusing at some point. It sure feels like a noisy minefield out there these days, and with very little of substance. Heck, the effort required to sift through all the flotsam to get to something meaty is sometimes exhausting. The good stuff is out there, but it’s drowning in a sea of mediocre. That’s the hard part for me.
Always a fan. Always a fan. 🙂
You’re a peach. 🙂
I agree Amber. Far too often do we content marketers look to the Rand Fishkin’s of our world and think that the spread of content via social channels is the only end goal and it’s not. Like you said, content that is visible and relevant to your audience is key. We must remember that we are creating this content for a business purpose, not for popularity points.
And I fully accept that the business purpose is different for everyone. Hey, maybe someone CAN tell me that all those shares and likes and whatever has translated into brand lift for them or better leads or whatever something. That’s awesome.
People like me are always going to struggle with that engine, though. I’m not in a mass marketing business, I have a niche firm that’s high-touch with a few clients. I don’t need nor want 4,000 leads on a web form to sift through, frankly. So content for me (in a business sense) has different aims.
Personally, I’ve totally shifted direction in my writing here at BTT over the last year or so, and that’s ok. I’ve lost a bunch of people along the way, and gained others. But I’d rather do that than stay stagnant and rely on the same old formula to deliver me readers that don’t inspire me to kick over rocks once in a while. 🙂
Another great post and discussion. One of the issues at play here is that content marketing and social media are being hyped by many as the newest “must-have” marketing tools. Hey, everybody’s doing it! So, a lot of people jump in without fully understanding it — what it is, how to use it effectively, etc. They see it as a promotional tool to push out their message. And they do it without real business purpose other than self-promotion — not relevant, informative, REAL content that makes a difference to the audience. They see the “Top 5 Whatever List” getting a lot of attention and they mimic it. Amber, don’t apologize for your perspective on this. The rest of the world needs leadership, honest perspectives, someone to show them the right way to do content marketing and have a social business, and a general kick in the ass to market and communicate with purpose and meaning.
Purpose and meaning. I guess that’s what I’m striving for. I love to write, to blog, to share ideas. I love what content done well is capable of doing for a business. I love what it can do for ideas and discussion and people.
I hate what it encourages people to do and sometimes how it encourages them to act. I hate that we’re turning into content factories, publishing anything and everything that will get tweeted or pinned and caring more about that brief flash in the popularity pan. I hate that I’ve stopped reading so many formerly thought-provoking writers because they’ve simply jumped on a bandwagon to keep their numbers up. I hate that it means that some weeks I have tons to say, and others I struggle to put words on paper that I don’t despise.
I’m not good at mechanizing content. Personally, that will probably impact how good I am at that part of my job, and it will also impact what I’m willing to invest in for my business. I suppose only time will tell whether that will be smart or epically stupid.
Great post. I’ll admit that I come to this topic from a different angle – I’m the owner of a small consulting firm. We do create content for the sake of learning. When someone comes to my website, reads our company blog, or downloads a white paper, it should be because we’re going to teach them something and demonstrate our knowledge of the topic area so hopefully they’ll engage us to help them.
We pride ourselves not only on how many people hit our website but how long they stay – at present, an average of almost 7 minutes, which means they’re finding something worth reading.
To that end, I’ve really never seen the purpose of Twitter except perhaps to publicize our new content postings. You can’t explain the complexities of managing complex software projects in 140 characters, nor would I ever want to try.
Mardee – As a longtime Twitter devotee, it has *immense* value for conversation and connection far beyond simply sharing content. You’re not going to be able to deliver your services in 140 characters, but you can make lots of meaningful connections that lead to longer conversations and relationships. I know because I’ve done it, many many many times. I’ve gotten work, clients, speaking gigs, writing opportunities, and even just great friends through Twitter, including my now-business partner. So, I can attest that it has far more than simply promotional value for amplifying stuff.
But good for you for focusing on delivering top quality content that’s useful for your clients and prospects. In business, that’s sure to help an awful lot. And it sounds like you have a good balance for yourself figured out.
Interesting comment – perhaps I need to give this Twitter thing a bit more thought. From what I’ve seen so far, it mostly seems to be celebrities bragging about every aspect of their day (and frankly, My Dear Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. 🙂 ) But if it has business value and can lead to deeper relationships, it might be worth exploring.
We had a few good years where the signal-to-noise ratio among content marketers was pretty high, and it was easy to use social proof to figure out who really knew what they were talking about. With so much focus on spreading and “growth hacking,” it’s easy to overlook that building relationships on deeper idea exchanges can be far more meaningful (and profitable) than trying to scale on those same 12 bullet points.
We’re not patient. Deep idea exchanges don’t move fast. They often don’t move business needles quickly enough to hit the bottom lines, and the attribution is a bitch. So, we reach for things that are easier and more concrete.
But I dunno. I look around me and feel like lots of people are just phoning it in. They’ve got their formula, and they stick to it. No rocking boats, unless it’s a dramatic headline or controversy for visibility’s sake.
It’s hard. I realize I’m going a little against the grain here. It’s just bugging me, and I’m not quite sure what to do with it yet.
This resonates a lot with me Amber. My blogging is slowly fading as i struggle to really create something that i feel isn’t selling out in some way or following a trend that most social media influencers have jumped onto. Every time I write a headline I’m like ‘too obvious’ or ‘selling out’ or ‘being overly dramatic to gain traction’ – the list goes on and I often talk myself out of publishing a post.
When I see the social media ‘greats’ using infographics in every blog post or using ‘7 top tips to’ or ‘the guaranteed win from…’ headlines, a bit of me dies inside, it’s all getting rather desperate. It’s so noisy out there now that the shouting is getting louder, not better, imho.
Within agencies running Facebook pages, I also see an alarming amount of ‘Like/comment/share this post if…’ posts, just desperate to gain engagement from a diminishing pot rather than being truly creative.
It leaves me feeling rather unsettled and a little sad and I don’t know where I fit in with it now. Yesterday i stumbled across a blog post with 50 of those ‘tweet this’ links in it, I nearly cried!
Thanks for your honesty, keep it up!
Desperate is a good word for it, and I think that’s what turns me off. We’re leaning on hyperbole to get people to read, and so often the substance of the posts or ebooks or whatever don’t deliver on their sensational headlines.
I’ve just never found endless navel-gazing super useful, yet the most successful “content marketers” seem to do an awful lot of it. Maybe *I’m* the outsider that sees things differently or that just hasn’t got the stones to do what needs to be done to get ahead. I LOVE creating content (specifically writing, not so much with video and things) but I want to keep enjoying it, and some of these tactics will surely kill any desire I have to keep writing. For me, that’s a problem.
Attention is one thing. In many ways, it’s a necessary thing if we’re hoping our ideas will get out into the world. But it’s a balance. And I’ll always be the one that errs on the side of less. Which who knows? Maybe that’ll be my downfall.
‘just hasn’t got the stones to do what needs to be done to get ahead’ – oh boy, that hit the nail on the head. I’ve got to the point that I can predict which pieces of content will come from which commentators at what time of the year, I keep telling myself I don’t want to be a part of that but am i shooting myself in the foot by not doing it? good food for thought Amber, thank you.
I’ve noticed a few things missing here. There’s a subtle difference between selling out and creating content for the sake of attracting people to the prize. Musicians do it all the time. In order to attract an audience, they have to write relatable songs so people will listen to the music they take the most pride in. It’s something that we as content creators must do in order to grow and maintain our communities.
Another key to consider is measurement. Is the content performing in the ways that we need it to? What metrics do we measure success with? If the content isn’t performing, we need to reevaluate our execution and our goals.
The most important thing to remember, and my personal mantra, is that it’s my job to tell people things that I want them to hear, but do it in a way that they want to hear it.
Isaac, remember that I’m talking about *my* experiences here, but in theory I’m with you. It’s the balance I’m striving for that I mentioned at the end – relevance, visibility, and my own level of confidence in the quality of the content itself. Not everyone has the same goals for ‘performance’, and I can tell you that mine have shifted dramatically over time and as the role of this blog has changed for me.
So I suppose I’m sharing my own journey in self-discovery to encourage others that might be feeling a little lost, too. No one has all the answers. The best we can do is share with each other and all find the balance that works for us.
Spot on.
The biggest issue here in my opinion is that most marketers have embraced content (and social) for their traditional marketing purposes. If it isn’t driving leads or sales (or at least likes and follows), it is a failure.
Somehow, all of us consumers are falling for it, liking, following and buying anyways. Since marketers just measure the outcome, not the people they pushed away (ie GoDaddy), they continue on, seeing the success without acknowledging the potential collateral damage.
This mindset isn’t limited to content and social, it pervades all of marketing. I’ll submit as proof the one of the horrific insurance ads I continue to see, auto-built with today’s date to make it seem timely. Gah!
Great post, thank you for sharing.
— @wittlake
Let me be clear: I believe that content *should* drive leads and sales. It may not be a direct channel, but it should influence the buying process somehow. If you’re developing business content, it needs to have a purpose.
But bad marketing is just bad marketing, whatever form you put it in.
Amber, thank you for clarifying, I didn’t mean to say content shouldn’t drive the business. Rather than purposes, I should say they have embraced content and social with their traditional marketing mindset.
Thank you for clarifying.
I really struggle with this as well. Obviously, we want people to support our work and share our message, but how can we do this if we begin emphasizing volume over quality (which is what I see in a lot of the content marketing chatter)?
This is one of the reasons why I tend to push back on demands to create/curate MORE content; to just have more stuff in an effort to get people to look at us, regardless of whether or not these are the right people. I firmly believe that related content (in the same area/field) does not mean relevant content (solving our community’s problems). We need different metrics, different goals that demonstrate that we are helping the organization by helping our audience.