Note from Jennifer: Thanks again to everyone who bought my book during the week-long celebration of blog’s 5th birthday last week! It was the Amazon Kindle #1 New Release in Small Business all week! The sales have just blown me away and I am so grateful. Today and tomorrow, while I’m at the 2018 ASJA Annual Conference in New York City, the print edition is discounted to just $10 on Amazon, so pick up a copy if you like to flag pages and scribble in margins. If you’ve already started working through the book or have questions, join our new Facebook group to get even more advice and make connections with other writers. 

On the blog today, I’m excited to share another guest post by Chuck Leddy, an insightful content marketing writer who has written here before.  Be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his website after you’re done reading. 

By Chuck Leddy

As someone who crafts digital content for a living, I’m always happy to hear marketers and my clients proclaim that “content is king.” But I don’t think it’s true, or at least not entirely so.

Can content be great without the litmus test of reader engagement? In other words, can I declare content great in isolation, before anyone has read it? These are important, not merely philosophical, questions. I’ve spent many a lunch hour discussing them with other creative types.

Content is a Shared Interaction

I make my own quality evaluations about the content I produce long before it ever gets shared or read by anyone else, but I know that content is a “shared creation” between writer and reader. Writers need readers, and the willingness of readers to appreciate, act upon, and share content is part of what makes content “high quality” in my view.

So my simple goal as a content creator is to produce inherently great content that also gets validated by connections with readers and online communities. Sharing has the dual role of validating content quality and creating communities around that same content.

Does this mean that I pander to “virality,” that my goal is simply to tick the boxes that catalyze social sharing? The answer is a complicated one, but is generally “no.” First of all, nobody really has a formula for creating viral content. There are no simple hacks available for creating viral content. What worked last week or two years ago, such as the ALS ice bucket challenge, won’t work today. Part of what drives virality is doing things differently, working against yesterday’s blockbusting success.

Don’t Pander to Trends

Today’s discerning, content-flooded readers will recognize pandering and justifiably despise people who create content in such an inauthentic, manipulative way. I’ve said it a million times, “you need to be your authentic self, and act like a human being.” This is especially true for marketing folk and politicians, who are assumed (often justifiably so) to be inveterate liars and Machiavellian schemers.

When I write, I always treat my reader as an equal. We are in this together, asking questions, seeking to learn, scratching our heads in unison, and sometimes finding our way in the dark, in tandem.

Content can’t be truly great if nobody reads it. The word “great” is a judgement bestowed upon content by another. I can call something I wrote “great,” but the word rings hollow unless others read it, gain something from it (useful insights or entertainment or a sense of connection), and perhaps share it. Content can’t be locked in a basement, nor can writers inhabit cloistered places or put themselves above others. Writers, like bus drivers, bakers, and candlestick makers, are a part of the larger community.

Good Content Drives Connection

Content and connection are inextricably linked. Even if it’s a single writer (me) connecting with a single reader (you), we need interaction and community—and the best content offers that. Content is just a person talking, and great content has the feel of two friendly neighbors sharing news over the back fence.

I can tell a great story over the back fence, but what’s the point if my neighbor isn’t listening and (hopefully) adding her own take on the topic. We need communion, mutual engagement. Content isn’t king if it’s talking to itself behind castle walls. The goal of content is to trigger human conversations. We all want to be informed, entertained, to learn things, to share things. We need fewer “content kings” and more friendly neighbors.

I can’t tell you how to craft content that becomes viral, because nobody can. Today’s trendy topic is tomorrow’s yawn-inducing conversation killer that will have people checking their watches and fleeing from you. Don’t be trendy; don’t try too hard to please everyone. Heck, even videos of kids and kittens can get boring.

I don’t think “content is king,” but I do think that great content is the first step on a journey to what is king—greater connection with the wider world. Content is a conversation, or it’s nothing.

Do you have any quick tips for creating content that builds connections?