Alternative models for content distribution and community building
Plus examples and why I like the word content
I know lots of people have beef with the term ‘content’ but I think it has its place. If art is whatever you want it to be, then content is a useful way to describe everything else. The ideas, work, and information we share on and offline every day.
Dialling down or switching off social channels leaves budget, time, and a need to invest in distributing content and creating connections in other ways. So what could that look like? If your personal or business brand is at the epicentre of your universe, think of sharing creative ideas within the context of an inner and an outer ring.
The inner ring is full of people you are connected to. Clients, customers, collaborators, peers, partners etc.
The outer ring is people you don’t know yet. They could be floating nearby, orbiting someone or something else that shares characteristics with your work and brand. Or they might be totally out of sight.
The work is in attracting people into your wider orbit and nurturing the connection to bring them into your inner circle.
The outer ring: sending signals to strangers
This is about sharing your vibe and ideas with the world via signals that invite people to get to know you.
Nurture your owned channels
Ok boring but this is your digital bread and butter!!! Email, website, your app if you have one, SMS if you know how not to be spammy. Nurture these guys because they’re here for the long run. Keep experimenting and keep things fun.
Design experiences that invite people into your physical world
Global culture marketing and content studio Culture Defined runs supper clubs to bring together people they want to connect and get to know over a meal because “there are no better conversations than the ones around the dining table”.
Create things people can touch
Auste Skrupskyte Cullbrand, founder and strategist of studio playground is currently creating the third edition of her studio’s award-winning Playground magazine. In an interview for Broken Growth last year Auste shared that “lately, our magazine has been our most valuable entry point into literally everything.”
Even if you don’t have the capacity to go all in on a magazine right now, could you create a limited run of a scrappy zine? A limited edition resource? Handwritten notes? Alice Katter from Out of Office weaves physical products into her offerings so well. I recently purchased and am loving the work connection cards.
Build value-based partnerships
Industry is irrelevant. Who do you have audience overlap with and how can you connect?
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The inner ring: powering specific growth
Nurturing the connections with people in your inner circle is only meaningful if it’s a two way thing. Sharing content with people in closer orbit to your brand is focused on connection and trust.
Host events that build peer-peer connections
I sense a general malaise towards panel events that mirror the “spoken at” vibe of Instagram 2020. Think of how people in your community or brand orbit can connect with each other over a topic you represent. Community and content strategist Daisy Morris from The Selfhood hosts frequent co-working sessions for her community. I love that it’s regular so long-term connections can form.
Run invitation-only content co-creation experiments
Run closed pilot programs for new distribution or engagement strategies, where participants can test, co-create, and refine ideas with you before you take the idea to a wider audience.
Create content subscriptions
After a long time not paying for average content people are warming to the idea of paying for exceptional content. There are now at least 3 million paid Substack subscriptions; could you paywall specific content for your inner ring?
None of these tactics provides the huge reach to strangers that social can. But given you probably don’t need to reach billions of people anyway, they could be a lot more fun and fruitful.
Chat soon
Matilda
“None of these tactics provides the huge reach to strangers that social can” — and even if we do reach a bunch of people, it’s next to impossible to reach them the next time we post because of the algorithms!
Totally agree re: content! I remember there was the same beef with ‘media’ back in the day. We need an umbrella term and imo ‘art’ is its own world (with overlap time to time) From a UX & editorial perspective, ‘content’ is pretty accurate.