When advertisers put crap on television, it’s clutter. When it’s online, it’s called content. We hate clutter on television, in-store and on our highways, but, apparently we all want more content online.
Content. An awful word. I hate it. It diminishes what we do. Writers and art directors painfully consider the words and images they use to surprise and delight. All of that is traded for lazy drivel that clutters our online world. Content insults the people we want to engage with. As if we are so important that whatever we have to say, you, the man on the street cannot wait to see it. You’re so bored that you love our posts and you’ll share them.
In reality, online behaviour is extremely personal and selfish time. It’s my time. I am highly engaged in what I want to see. And that is exactly what digital first people don’t get. It’s people first every time. And we are not interested in what you have to tell us.
I am online to see what I want to see. I will watch something that interests me. If it makes me smile or laugh or cry or angry, I may watch or read it. If it gets in my way, I get annoyed and will reject it. I am annoyed by all poor communication, but in my online time, when I am searching for recipes and places to go for a weekend away or a sport score. That is when I hate “content” (read #$%@*) most. We all know the rules when we make TV ads, posters and brochures. This year, apply them to online communication too.
