I ran across an interesting article at the Information.com site. It’s about how using ‘tricks’ to generate more views 
ultimately fails. The main target are the news generators and the examples they use include Mashable and BuzzFeed but the lessons learned are completely relevant to anyone trying to create a great customer experience. A lot of times when we discuss digital transformation with clients, this is what digital marketers are thinking in order of importance:
- Digital Ads through Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
- Social Ads and potentially content on the social stream
- Other items
- Content
It stands to reason that creating a great experience through valuable content will not receive that much investment if if it’s prioritized dead last. That pushes content creators to choose gimmicks or tricks just to pump the views. Well it turns out that it’s a short term solution to get more view but which doesn’t ultimately drive engagement. Yep, there’s no easy way out here. You have to work with people within your company who are the subject matter experts to consistently put out relevant content that’s valuable enough to drive engagement. Here are a couple of the more interesting quotes:
So instead of scale for scale’s sake, the next phase of the media revolution will be creating content of consequence and value. It will continue to be messy but the trajectory for the coming decade is promising. Listen carefully to what Mark Zuckerberg says of late and you can tell he wants quality content, not just quantity, and one day soon will probably want to produce some of it directly at Facebook. Same goes for Snapchat as it expands its content ambitions.
What’s interesting is that the author, Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico, see us entering a golden age of content and I think that’s a true statement.
Just like the Web destroyed the newspaper world; mobile will destroy the desktop world and on-demand video will destroy the TV and cable world. But from the rubble will emerge a much better, more eclectic, more efficient way for all of us to watch, read and listen. It will be brimming with content we can be proud of—and happily pay for.
So as you work on the front end of your digital transformation, don’t forget that people will pay for value. Unlike the big media machines, value comes from customers who buy your product or service rather than paying subscribers. But the lesson remains the same.
