Don’t think of content as a way to ‘wow’ an audience but let them find their own ‘wow factor’, say Karim Refaat and Sofia Sacre
Manly voiceover: in a world dominated by content, it is up to marketers and creators to keep the digital space exciting and relevant. End voiceover.
This essay caters to anyone who creates digital content, from small time bloggers to producers and anyone in between, including brands. We will have succeeded if we manage to leave you thinking about the content you are creating and what you should be creating.
ACT 1: SETTING THE SCENE
The big bang of connectivity has allowed many creators around the region to showcase their talents, publish their stories and put out original, funny and relevant content. The influx of stories places us in a current reality: if your content doesn’t speak to your fans, someone else’s will.
When we talk about content we must stop looking at ourselves as marketers, brands and agencies and our viewers as fans, followers and customers. And instead, accept that now, we are producers and directors and we must put together the best possible story for our audience.
This audience has an average attention span of less than eight seconds; don’t be fooled, this doesn’t in any way mean they aren’t willing to hear you out. As producers though, it is our job to teach brands and clients the power of the five-second rule: you must capture your audience’s attention fast, before they move on to the next piece of content in their feed. A film is only as good as it’s trailer.
The big question though is how?
ACT 2: BRING ON THE DRAMA
Let’s start with what we consider content to be. Simply, it is anything you put out into the digital sphere. A text, an article, an image, a video or a series of any of these.
You could be lucky enough that one piece of content would just be the ticket; but more often than not, it is storytelling, through a variety of content pieces, that really showcases your key message.
Another point to consider is that each content piece should be able to live alone and as part of the overall story. Building your audience’s intrigue is one of the elements that is key to a good story. You need to get your audience to start thinking more on the lines of ‘what-if’. You want to create content that will bring out a reaction within your audience – be it emotional, functional or simple curiosity.
With the above having been said, content should be flexible enough to adapt to the audience’s reactions and extended enough to allow them to pick and choose the bits or pieces they liked the most, allowing for a natural engagement point to happen where audiences will themselves create and share their own story around your content piece. We must stop thinking of our outputs as our own and instead think of it as their own.
ACT 3: NOT THE FINAL ACT
Never think it stops here. The beauty of digital is that it has no boundaries. There are new platforms, new creators, new technology and more content every second giving your story a chance to live in different places, and reach new people who create new amplification to your message.
You’ve succeeded in creating an engaging story, if the brand message is left as a subtle realisation that the audience comes to by themselves. Don’t think of content as a way to ‘wow’ your audience or show-off the big budgets but let them find their own ‘wow factor’.
However, it is an uphill battle for agencies and digital marketers in the region today. And your first task should be to push clients and brands out of their comfort zone and into the reality of the digital atmosphere. This also entails understanding that digital content has an element of shooting in the dark; it is still hit-and-miss when publishing content that fans might take viral. Your big production cost isn’t what they are looking for and the smallest elements might create a reaction that could surprise you.
You might have guessed from the title of this act that, as with any other content, it is up to you the reader to make your own opinion on the points put across and hopefully have a think on the content you will be generating. We’ll leave with this final message: the best art of digital content is not to finish what you started but to extend it.
Karim Refaat is group account manager and Sofia Sacre is social media manager at MEC Access
