The age of online opportunity is over
Now we’re just paying for beach parking and it sucks
Last week I had a wonderful conversation with a print publisher whose organization has been struggling to stay relevant amidst the rising tide of diverse digital media.
We spoke about the woes of monetization and click-bait strategies — the Faustian bargain of putting boobs and cats around your “serious policy work” to get noticed. We talked about the difficulties of retention when someone with a Tumblr can easily copy your content’s style and do one thing better, magnifying their reach and minimizing yours. Thanks to the internet, most media is transient these days and publications lacking substance or institutional respect ultimately go the way of Buzzfeed.
It was a great talk. The downside was he was asking what his organization could do better online to stave off the inevitable. Essentially, was there creative opportunity available and how could they use it effectively? I couldn’t say yes with a straight face.
From freeware to adware
The mistake was probably thinking we could ever keep the nice things Google and Twitter gave us FOR FREE: databases of unimaginable power and scale, and features that allow users to connect instantaneously with each other, sharing information and media. It was a perfect (and successful) ponzi scheme.
But who could blame them? No one starts a restaurant hoping you’ll come in and munch on the free bread and water, right? They want sales! Revenue! Monetization! It was we who were stupid enough to think nothing would change.
Suddenly it’s 2007/2008 and the major social media platforms are scaling at an exponential rate. People are filling the beach and it’s a beautiful thing because the beach is remarkably big. Start a channel on YouTube or a page on Facebook and you could easily be the next Numa Numa guy or Rebecca Black. Just do something a “little” avant garde or different.
When hardly anyone is at a big beach, you can show off your volleyball skills or sculpted biceps. Suddenly when everyone’s at the beach, optics change and you’re desperate for your 1 x 1 square foot of space for a towel.
The only thing left to do? Start charging people to talk to each other OR put giant billboards on people’s backs. Pay to park.
Suddenly the platforms changed, taking on different personalities with different incentives, and morphing into companies that sell attention instead of fun. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame Facebook, Twitter, or any of them for moving towards sustainable business models. It’s the nature of the game. I just find it amusing that people out there still think they can effectively “juice” the same machine of the early 2000’s to produce remarkable reach.
It doesn’t work like that anymore and we’re all dealing with it. I just want people to stop harboring this idea that the internet can still make you great (with the exception of Trump, I suppose).
The playing field is equalizing by the day and communities are only provocative springboards insomuch as they are untapped resources. As soon as a company monetizes its platform, it’s probably time to step up your ad shop, tone down your organic curation, and head for the next sparse medium sized beach. That’s just my two cents.
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