Content is king now. This is the best time to be in content marketing, especially in India. The tide is in our favour. But with this exciting opportunity there are big challenges to overcome too. We need to always be aware of these challenges when we’re creating content, planning campaigns or user-engagement exercises. Once we’re super aware of these challenges and focus all our actions towards doing the right things, that’s when the magic happens. Let us create magic by knowing what we should do.
Content, content everywhere
Did you know that Facebook can potentially show you 2,000 posts every day? If it starts showing so many posts daily, what will you do? You’ll stop using Facebook; there’s too much to handle in life already. That’s bad for business for the social media platform and so they curate (with the help of a newsfeed algorithm) and show you only what’s relevant to you. Take the case of WhatsApp, where there is no filtering. How many WhatsApp groups do you have on mute for an entire year? I have muted every single group, from family groups to old school friends to alumni groups. If they gave us the option for muting the groups for a lifetime, I’d be the first to mute them all. This content chaos is what we sift through daily. In some cases, platforms filter for us and show us what’s relevant (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, for example), in others we do it ourselves (the WhatsApp mute, for instance). Today, on social media newsfeeds, there is an overwhelming amount of content chaos.
‘Today, on social media newsfeeds, there is an overwhelming amount of content chaos.’
Even in metros, everyone is busy consuming content. The sea of commuters is hooked to their shiny glass slabs – some playing games, others almost always watching videos. It made me realize that all the effort put into creating content or videos, be it a $2 million project with a celebrity production crew or a low-budget video shot on a phone, is gone with one swipe up of the thumb. Every brand or content creator is competing to stop that thumb from swiping. The sheer volume of content available adds to the chaos in which the user lives. Further, user behaviour in Tier I cities seems different from that of Tier II cities. For example, Hindi and regional-language content tops the charts in Tier II and Tier III towns, compared to big cities.
‘All the effort put into creating videos, be it a $2 million project with a celebrity production crew or a low-budget video shot on a phone, is gone with one swipe up of the thumb.’
Our focus must be to keep in mind that our content will live in chaos, and must be designed to stand out, hold the users’ hand and take them on a journey.
Too much competition
Another big challenge facing content creators and marketers is that there’s too much competition in the newsfeed as well. Everyone and their cousin can create content today. Heck, everyone has got a smartphone in their pocket and can shoot HD videos. When the number of content creators increases on a platform, the organic reach keeps decreasing. Since everyone is competing for user attention, platforms start monetizing the reach, their core business pillar – ‘distribution’. Platforms incentivize content creators by giving them a lot of visibility in the beginning, which brings them their audience (the user base). Once there are enough content creators, and user behaviour becomes all about spending more time consuming the content, platforms start monetizing the reach. Facebook did it earlier, and now LinkedIn is doing it – giving a lot of visibility if you post videos right now, and, once it becomes mainstream, it’s moolah for them, and a chance to milk the ‘content distribution’ cow.
We can either spend millions to reach your user base (most big-budget brands do that, with lousy ads shoved in our faces all the time, on every platform, until their budgets run out) or make your content so incredibly powerful that it spreads like wildfire, is shared like crazy and becomes ‘viral’ regardless of a low budget. This is the reason why so many start-ups are killing big brands on social media. As a start-up, when you have little to no budget and are without resources, you’re forced to improvise. Creativity shines in times of scarcity. Today, start-ups have the balls to compete with brands with deep pockets because they don’t just get customers but evangelists – people who share their content and talk about them. Big brands aren’t scared of other big brands today, but rather of teams of eight in a basement somewhere, who can knock their socks off. For the fact is the digital world is extremely democratic and open to all. Anyone can be a success. for today, even a simple start up has the same access to the market as a leading global brand.
It would help if all of us logon to the online world and then move forward to become global success stories. This is surely possible with the internet being accessible to all of us. This would of course be beneficial for our personal growth as well as our careers. For, we are as good as dead if we cease to think and by extension, learn. The new world encourages and makes it possible for us to be eternal learners and move forward. We all, whether students or professionals can begin any time to remain relevant and add more value to our own selves and that of our organisation, if we belong to it. It is time we understood the world is now completely digital and create relevant content to attract all. This is what we all need to learn else we may be left behind. This is why we at IDM ensure all aspects of the digital world is completely understood and applied in live projects. We do this both with students and MSMEs and are partners in their digital journey. For, their success is our success. This is also why we are one of the few companies who give 100% job guarantee in writing.