Content Is Not King

There’s a popular phrase that’s been doing the rounds in internet and marketing circles that ‘Content is King’. Content is not King. The phrase has been troubling me for some time because it’s far too simplistic in its ideology.

Suggesting that ‘content is king’ is suggesting that a website with good content will solve all your problems. What it overlooks is the need for good distribution – essentially communication – of the content you produce. There’s no point in having good content if no-one’s consuming it. It simplifies the fact that anyone producing good content actually has to work hard to make people find it and that the content alone is not going to bring people to your website. Other than with a bit of good SEO. You need to create a community on your website, using the good content you produce, so that people are commenting, sharing your content or even creating their own. Many people have become preoccupied with creating good content without asking themselves who’s reading it and what they’re going to do if no-one is.

I was having a conversation around this with @pbizzle on Twitter and he came up with a new way of looking at it :

This is an excellent concept. Think of your content as the first stepping stone. It’s what you then do with the content that determines whether people will feel compelled to engage with it. Use your content as a commodity to start a conversation and consider the context in which you’re doing so. Content is not king because we are now saturated with good content producers so this isn’t enough anymore. You have to work harder for your visitors now and you don’t have long to retain their attention and ultimately, their loyalty, if they’ve stumbled across your site.

Andrew Odlyzko wrote a paper in 2001 titled ‘Content is not King’ in which he explores the history of communication and how it fits with the internet as a ‘content delivery system’. He argues that what our society historically been about is communication, connectivity. This is absolutely true and demonstrates that this is what companies should be considering and realising that good content alone does not facilitate a connected community around your brand.

It’s also worth considering the revenue model around good content. Many websites and companies are still producing good content but it’s password protected or blocked by a need to pay to consume it. We all know that the freemium model is now the practised standard if you’re leading someone through to content that requires a subscription. But this alone isn’t enough. If I’m going to part with my money for premium content I need to not only trust the person or company behind it, I need to have a relationship with them. I need to have built that up with them through other social tools so that not only can I trust that I’m about to pay for quality content, but that I’m actually willing to pay for it rather than get it for free because I want to support them.

Another reason why content is not king? We are no longer passive consumers. Good content alone is not going to engage me. It needs to facilitate different conversation points external to the site itself and I need to be able to contribute to the original material.

It’s time to stop thinking that content is king and realise that creating a good, active website cannot be defined by one facet alone. Content is one of aspect of this and certainly an important one, but it’s one among many.