The war on Content vs Attention
Content and content creators are plentiful, and our interaction with them is constant. Old newspapers are trying to transfer their ways to new digital models. Despite their efforts, new incumbents like Buzzfeed keep siphoning readers and ads away from traditional media.
Nevertheless, for many heavy users of Social Media, having to skim through massive amounts of content of dubious quality, is a serious problem. The question then is, how can we achieve quality content that at the same time engages the users and retains their attention?
Welcome to the war waged between content crunchers and quality content creators.
During the last 12 months, there has been plenty of movement from the biggest players in the field. All of them are trying to get a lead on who brings and retains the larger audience. Medium is becoming The reading platform, Facebook is pushing hard on Instant Articles, Snapchat keeps developing their Discovery stories, Twitter is advancing with Periscope Live and Facebook just released Video Live Streaming in the US.
One of the latest to come to the fray was Snapchat. Gary Vaynerchuk explained not long ago, why Snapchat is the best tool to capture the attention of users. The content is fresh, it’s generated intra-day, and disappears 24 hours later. All these and the fact that the teenagers own the network is fueling the massive growth of Snapchat.
What is the future for content generation and the ongoing war between quality and volume? I see two different types of consumers. The basic or average consumer. One that’s happy with the common story, the fun video or the lulling cats. Then there are the power consumers. People that act as information connectors. These are precious as they’re the ones willing to pay for content. For them to chip in, they require the best stories and the most shareable content for height value influencers.
The choice is yours. You can read more from Buzzfeed, or you can start reading better content in Medium. You can watch the best user advice on Snapchat or watch Periscope’s Live Streaming of events around the world. Finally, you can switch between regular content or quality stories from Facebook Instant Articles.
Where is Google in all this business? They aren’t. They’re absent from all the content wars waged right now. The only property Google owns that’s in the game is YouTube. But YouTube needs to be wary. New players like Twitch.TV are crushing it as the new Game Streaming platform. Twitch.TV commands more viewed minutes every day than YouTube and the gap is widening as we speak.
So what is the fate of this content war? For me, those that manage to capture the power user’s attention will be the real winners.
