What Matters!

With a title like that, I could write about almost anything. There are a lot of things in life that matter. However, since we make media, I'll try to narrow the scope just a little.

I've been a student of media of almost all forms for years. Even as a child, I was fascinated not only by what I saw but by the methods of communicating. I learned a lot of tricks of the trade through observation, reading, and education. As I got older, I continued to expand my repertoire into publishing and some web design. I learned a lot of really cool techniques to catch the eye or ear.

One of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons was Mr. Plow. Homer hired an expensive ad agency to make a television commercial for him. It was visually stunning with a lot of lighting techniques, cool camera angles, and stark imagery. At the end, Lisa turns to Homer and asks, "Was that your commercial?" Homer answered, "I don't know." It was full of the latest techniques and trendy styles but there was no valuable content.

No matter the medium, content must always be king! There is a place for techniques to make an ad, post, or other media stand out. However, no matter how cool the it looks or sounds, if there is no cohesive message then it will fail to produce results. People may remember it but will not likely connect it back to a product, service, or anything else.

This is more than just content marketing. If you are unfamiliar with the term, essentially it's the idea that customers and clients enjoy real information and tips from a business beyond just sales advertising. For example, when I was managing the online presence for a family owned mobile dealer, every week I wrote reviews of different apps on the company blog. We didn't make a dime from the sale of apps, especially since I focused on free apps. By the time I was done with the job, that section of the company site was the most popular and did generate traffic into the stores. We were providing value and building a relationship with our clients by helping get the most out of their devices. This is just one example of content marketing.

Content matters! Commercials, shorts, and social media posts, no matter how short, need to say something even if it's just an announcement of a sale. In the midst of everything that goes into putting together an ad of any kind, the message must be simple and central to the piece. Ignore content at your peril!

It's not just in advertising that content matters. For podcasters, ministries, and writers, content is the product (for lack of a better term). The nature of the material isn't as important for the purposes of this discussion. What matters is the quality of the message and how well it's communicated. The trick is to know your audience and how to communicate with them. Is what you have to say something that they will value, enjoy, or both? Will they understand it?

For example, say someone, we'll call him Bub, wants to do a podcast on Christian heavy metal. Bub loves metal and wants to tell the world about how awesome it is. In his first episode, he shoots video of himself head banging to his favorite band and looking a little odd. It gets a lot of views so he thinks he's hit on something. He does more and behaves more and more ridiculous in each video. For a while, he gets a lot of attention but most of it is from people laughing at his antics. He receives a lot of views but he's no communicating what he wants to say. There's no real content or coherent message. After only a few episodes, people get tired of his antics and move on to the next thing that makes them laugh.

Bub is back at square one and has not added one new metal fan and was a joke on the internet for a while. Maybe he became a meme which isn't necessarily a good thing. Time to recalibrate.

After a break, Bub tries again. This time, he's done his homework and spends each episode talking about a specific artist and a couple of their better songs. He mixes in the band logo and where their music can be found. When he has permission, he uses short segments of the music for his viewers or even clips from music videos. It's not an overnight sensation but Bub starts to build a real audience for his video blog and accomplishes his goal of sharing his love for Christian metal with the world in hopes of making new fans.

There is a place for good production values. The message can get lost with poor visual or audio quality or bad writing. There are a few basics that need to be followed but even if everything is done right, poor content will always be a killer.

Remember, content is what matters!