Great Content Isn’t Enough For Crowd Culture

Have you ever made a great video, white paper or podcast and then been disappointed with how few views, shares or likes that it received?

In this Vlog, Grant explains the reason is that just making good content is simply not enough.

Have you ever made a great video, white paper or podcast and then been disappointed with how few views, shares or likes that it received?

The reason is that making good content, in and of itself, is simply not enough.

In order for your content to be well received and to get the shares and views that you want, you need to understand crowd culture.

The groups, tribes and communities that form online come together around interests, values and concerns. By understanding the issues that are currently playing at the front of the mind of your audience and that you can authentically align with, you can then start to create content that’s going to matter to them.

The ice cream maker, Ben and Jerry’s are very good at understanding the concerns of their audience and dovetailing into those cultural issues. For example, flavours such as ImPeachMint, Empower Mint, Pecan resist, are not just fun, but they give the crowd a way of expressing themselves and the issues that are worrying them.

When the deodorant Lynx, also known as Axe, made content and adverts around lad culture, it wasn’t just that they were making funny material, it was that it resonated and connected with a crowd who thought political correctness had gone too far.

Similarly, Dove’s campaign for real beauty wasn’t just a good idea, but they understood that there was a whole crowd of women who are fed up with the photoshopped thin models that were being used, who didn’t reflect modern society. By connecting with that crowd, Dove managed to get their material shared far and wide.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting a business is mercenary about this and just goes after an issue or challenge, does it think it might have a good effect for their business? It has to be authentic. It has to be an issue or challenge that a business particularly believes in and also is relevant to the offering that they have.

Nevertheless, if you want to get your content to really get shared and be seen by the masses, then you have to understand which crowd you can dovetail into and work with in, an authentic way. Just making content in isolation, even if it’s good, won’t get you the audience that you desire.

And now please excuse me. I’m off to complete my white paper on Victorian age stamp collecting, which you’ll see on my LinkedIn profile very soon.