I knew the time would come. I’ve finally cracked. I give up.
- My RSS reader has over 1,000 unread items and I’m not going to get around to them all. I just marked them ‘all read’.
- I have music in my iTunes that I haven’t even played once. This is a far cry from my cassette collection in my teenage years which literally chewed itself up from overuse.
- My (soon to be) father-in-law wrote me a list of amazing podcasts to listen to. I subscribed to them with good intentions but haven’t listened to one yet. I’ll have to master the nod-along when we talk about them
- My Amazon wishlist is still sitting there with dozens of books waiting to be read. I just have to get through the eight beside my bed first. Sorry trees.
- I’ve already broken my New Years resolution to watch AT LEAST one TED talk a week. I don’t even deserve to say the TED name out loud anymore.
- When I log in to YouTube, the suggested videos laugh at me: “Ha! You’d love to watch us but you don’t have time. Now get back to that social media statistics video.”
- At home, we’ve got three downloaded TV series on the go. There’s three others waiting to be watched and more to come (including a new season of Mad Men in March!)
- My Twitter feed whizzes past me with interesting links that I try and grab like one of those crazy people in wind tunnel cash grab competitions.
That’s why I give up. There’s so much great content being generated which is mostly free and easily accessible. Even if you want to, and you try your very hardest, you can’t possibly read, watch or listen to everything. And as advertisers and marketers this is what we’re up against – a tidal wave of amazing content tailored to the interests of every person on the planet.
So how do you get in there? Recommendations. With so many media choices available, people prioritise giving attention to content that has been recommended to them by like minded friends. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that we trust our friends. If we have a choice of reading Book A or Book B with the choice of one, one meaning it is unlikely we’ll ever get the time to read the second one, we’re going to take our friends’ advice because there’s less risk involved.
The second is that we are social creatures by design (despite our my love for email). We like to discuss things that we are interested in. If you are the only person who has watched that video, the enjoyment factor decreases because you don’t get the added benefit of discussing, debating and sharing that experience with those close to you.
That’s why recommendations are crucial in ensuring media is prioritised and consumed. And that’s why social sharing should be at the heart of all communication messages we put out there. Giving people a reason and a platform to share your message with their friends is crucial in making sure it rises above all the other media alternatives we’re tempted with. It’s not easy but it is crucial if you want attention.
Alright, gotta go, there’s a video called ‘Sh*t Nobody Says‘ that I’ve seen four of my friends share on Facebook and I’ve got to check it out.
Nathan Bush is BCM’s Head of Interactive Strategy
Great post Nath.
I know Google are fascinated by the idea of social search for the reasons you mention, but I have to wonder how long before Facebook, who own ‘social’ don’t add a ‘social search’ functionality, to their services.
Great article Nath. I can definitely sympathize.
I’ve had your article open for a good part of the day any only just got around to reading it.
Love the the twitter link/cash grab simile!
I will now promptly recommend this article to my friends who will hopefully read it based on the influence I have in my interest circles
You’d think they’d have to soon Kev – they’re native search function is horrible. If they don’t, they’re really opening the door for G+
Cheers Pauly, does this mean I have to read it again if you tweet it? It’s a never ending cycle!
LOL!!!
I too have stupid amounts of content that I’m never going to get to, my gmail has over a thousand unread emails and I think google’s priority inbox feature speaks to the truth of what you’re saying here.
It’s funny because despite this being the case, my mind is still conditioned to the idea that good content is rare and available on someone else’s terms, and so I consume it in a slightly confused frenzy whenever I have time as if it were a fleeting thing. But like you I have several entire series of television shows sitting there ready to watch, that I know to be great content because of recommendations from reliable sources.
My suspicion is that you’re bang on the money and that curation of content and social recommendation are going to evolve quite rapidly and to profound effect.
Ultimately this is what I think the whole semantic web/3.0 thing is going to be about more than anything else, with server-side meta data taking on a social aspect such that when we’re looking at a particular piece of content, be it a new series of Mad Men or just a cat video on youtube, we’ll be able to see its score relative to our own personalised recommendation criteria i.e. whether the guru we’re following on twitter or our fb friend/s have watched it, rated it, shared it etc. and each having an assigned value.
Until then, though, I’m going to be frantically grabbing at largely random bits of content that whiz past me in the intertubes too.
Poor Nath. On the upside, I promise you life gets way simpler once you’re married with kids, so hang in there mate.
Hi Everyone,
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Sunny and I applied for a position with BCM a few months back and found this gem while researching about your organization. I have been an ardent reader of ‘twocents’ ever since. You can call me the lovable ‘twocents stalker’.
I love this post and couldn’t agree more with Nathan. I have the same problem but it also extends to the gadgets to consume all this content. I am getting to a stage where I am overloaded with all the gadgets around me and am petrified at the thought that I cant do without. From downloading my emails and feeds to my Galaxy s2 while driving in my car as my GPS reads them out to me to remote desktoping (if that’s a word) my home media PC from my work during lunch hour so I can download the show or movie I want to watch that evening. We all thought that when we have smart phones/TVs/ tablets etc. we would need less gadgetry but that is not the case. My Smart TV has built –in apps to find restaurants and clubs… REALLY?? … So I need to turn on the TV to find a restaurant when my smartphone or tablet cracks it?
Having said that, there are many perks. One, which I should mention, is the astonished (but cute) look on my wife’s face trying to change the TV channels with the normal remote while I mischievously but playfully control the TV sitting on my iPad and she says “why did we have to get a SMART TV where you can download things etc.?.… Look! now it has got a virus!” … Don’t worry she got a big hug for my mean stunt.
My question is … is it really too much? or are we just adapting and evolving. I remember my grandfather used to say, “You kids got everything nowadays” (referring to my NES)… “We had to make our fun with sticks and ropes “(not quite sure what he meant… throw the rope at the stick and try to hit it??) ” … Wonder what he would say if he saw the Kinect or similar stuff ☺
Ok, so that’s my ‘twocents’.
Please keep them coming… I can’t imagine my morning coffee or lunchtime without perusing your great updates.