Content As Conversation
A typical day of conversations with brands content.
6:45am I start my day with some background noise — Facebook, Twitter. This is the content that is so present & consistent in our every day life we have now tuned it out, we are engaged in passing, but never truly engaged. This is a conversation overheard.
7:30am I’m on the train to work and having a conversation with some brands I love. They’ve reached my through Snapchat, they’re telling me a fun story and I’m engaged back with them.
8:30am I’m having a deep & meaningful — reading my email from Crew & Belle Beth Cooper, these conversations are like a teacher imparting knowledge.
10am I’m discussing my own works content. Physical discussions with team members about where to take our brand to, what it means, how we talk to people.
1pm I delve back into background noise — the lure of social media is strong.
3pm I’m researching website design. Many of them are talking to me, but very few can hold my attention, where is the “wow” moment? This is a story of a conversation lost — opportunity never reached.
4pm I’m on Medium, here are chats with friends, content to stimulate, challenge myself with, learn with. It’s often unfocused, but it’s valued. This mixture of content makes for a truly great conversation.
6pm I’m on a train heading home & I run into a friend. I admire his new sneakers, he launches into a story to describe his buying experience & the channels he went through. He doesn’t describe it like that, but it’s what he’s doing. This is the content I value most.
7:30pm I’m seeing ads scroll by on TV, this content is lost of me even more than social media, less than background noise. This is the old world of content.
10pm I’m in bed again, watching Twitch. I see streamers talking to me, their content is engaging, personable, comfortable, a perfect end of day comfort. They live & breath it every day, so we live and breath it with them.
It’s easy to get lost in Content Marketing. Treat it as disposable, a castaway piece, those annoying social media posts you get up, then ignore for another week/month, that blog post you write, push to your website & forget about.
Yet good content is a conversation, it’s always on. The brands who realise this are winning, the tools that enable it are on the rise.
I don’t read/watch/engage with content without expectations. I get involved because I want a conversation, I want to be part of something.
So next time you’re writing that post, making that video, publishing that piece, take the time to find me, to reach out through the right channels, to start a 2-way conversation that will benefit us both.
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