Thinking about content.Content is king, they say. Too much crap on the Internet, I say.
It seems that everyone is rehashing old content and publishing anodyne missives. How dull.
Flat content is generally not that interesting, we’re more likely to be engaged by strong opinions, criticism and quality narrative. So why is so much of the content on the web so very dull? You can probably blame Google, and a drive towards to volume of content over old-fashioned SEO techniques.
As Google struggles to define quality, it’ just easier to produce volume. Companies that used to reprint their brochure once every 2 years and release a handful of press statements in a year are now driven down content plans that requires daily releases of content.
Companies are driven by social media and react to the thoughts and actions of individuals. So, wouldn’t it be good if we all had an explicit “thumbs down” button on our browser so we could openly show displeasure it the quality of some content.
Writing is an art, a skill – and one that I profess I am not very good at – so to turn dull content into something readable you need a good writer, not an intern fresh out of Teesside University.
Or you can write something contentious, from the heart, and pick a fight.
