Content is king. Or so we have been told. Increasingly I find myself wondering about this more and more. Perhaps it is the deeper question of substance over style or as They Might Be Giants have sung “XTC vs Adam Ant.”
A luxury car maker has recently been airing a television ad that has some men trying to justify their outlandish purchases, warthog tusk pens, watches made from the same steel as swords, stereos that reproduce tones only dogs can hear, etc, each of these items representing simply a veneer and the car representing real substance. It was actually this commercial that started me down this path of thinking, well the commercial, an iPad and an episode of NCIS. I think all three ran into each other one night. The episode of NCIS was about a KGB agent that had hidden millions of dollars by purchasing impossible to get books such as an original printing of the Guttenberg Bible. It may have been that the commercial played in that episode and I was playing on the iPad at the time. It doesn’t really matter. The point is it started me thinking about downloading books and how I could download hundreds of classic books for free but somebody would be willing to spend large sums of money on a first edition of many of those books. And of course the next thought to follow was along the lines of: if content is king and the meaning and substance of that content is so important or vital why is so much value placed on first editions or even on physical media?
This question started me thinking about other areas where substance and style may segregate. Places like social media. Is a status update a valid piece of content? Is checking in from the dry cleaners substance? Or is all this just surface, the shell on a creme brulee with the sweet stuff waiting to actually be spooned out only after we have cracked the superficial skin? And the greater question might be is social media anything other than a facade?
I certainly think it has the makings and potential to be much more than that. In many cases it is already being used to great benefit for social good, brand awareness and even somewhat profitable from a business perspective, but as a whole I feel it is currently falling a little flat. We are so busy chasing after the “next big thing” or looking for a better technology we often fail to deliver anything of true significance or even recognize the potential lain at our feet. Maybe the writers of Jerry Maguire were right (even if I hated the casting) and we need to limit our number of “clients” and concentrate on quality of service. What is the churn rate on social networking sites? Meaning how many people sign up and shortly after sign up actually stop using them. I know there are a few I have let go by the wayside (whrrl, naymz, ning, radar). Some people what find these services useful and perhaps if I didn’t get caught up in looking for the next big thing myself I could have concentrated on a few of these services, delivering what I would consider more significant content about my life, job, whatever.
Delivery of substance can take more time then we have patience for, therefore we are willing to be satisfied with the 140 characters or less that are pushed to us no matter where we are. I am willing to admit that I enjoy using social media whether it is facebook, twitter, a blog, flickr, foursquare, gowalla, loopt, etc. I am also willing to admit that right now I think social media on the whole (as I mentioned above there are exceptions) is like a summer blockbuster, lots of eye-candy, light on the story line.
btw im on twttr – @spikep
