Content isn’t king, Context is King

I’m sure everyone reading this has heard the old (by internet standards) saying, and maybe even said it themselves, “content is king.” And certainly, at one point this was the case. More content, more more more. It is the way of the world. More more more. But our world, and certainly our attention spans, are running out of space. Content is quickly becoming noise, especially as we move into a world where people, and machines, are creating content quicker than we can ever hope to consume.

We live in the information age, and therefore that information and content is a commodity that we trade and make a living from daily. It’s a “thing,” something that is created, traded, consumed, and more and more often than not ignored (the digital version of “disposed of”) as it becomes obsolete, faster, and faster, and faster.

Content that doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter. Mayor of Sante Fe and Fast Company Magazine founder Alan Webber explained it best, so let me paraphrase him quickly. Content is that Powerpoint we have all seen, perhaps even made, that is full of data and information. The employee that brings it to you, is a very low value employee. They can be replaced (and probably will be by artificial intelligence). What people really want, and what they’re really paying for, is meaning — what does that information really mean? Why should we care about it? What is the story behind the data?

Context is that meaning. It adds value, it asks why, it tells the story and makes sense of information.

During the rise of the internet, the publishers that made the most money were the ones that posted the most content first (I know, I ran one as a kid). After the internet bubble burst, news websites that died off (I know, I ran one as a kid) were the ones that just reported facts. “So and so did this and that.” The ones that have succeeded and continue to be relevant (I know, I work for one), are the ones that delve in deeper than just the facts and thus provide context, because context adds meaning and meaning builds connection and community.

So how can we create content that has context and therefore matters? It begins with an audience lead insight, which I wrote about here. Identifying a need. A purpose. That insight provides context, which in turn gives what we create meaning — otherwise it is just noise.

Content without insight is a waste of time and energy. Facts without intelligence are low value. Context is King.

“Facts are facts. Stories are how we learn.”

Originally published at itsmikeski.com on May 2, 2018.