{
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    "title" : "The Content Corner: The Content Wars |Digital.gov",
    "description": "The Content Corner: The Content Wars",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/27/the-content-corner-the-content-wars/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"The Content Corner: The Content Wars","summary" : "One of the most interesting trends forming at the start of 2015 is the rise of new digital publishers. Online entities from Facebook to GE are continuing their strong forays into the world of content production. This shift, especially among social media platforms such as Facebook, Linked In and Snapchat, could significantly alter the digital","date" : "2015-04-27T10:56:28-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"tyrus-manuel" : "Tyrus Manuel"},"topics" : {
        
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "social-media" : "Social media"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-04-27-the-content-corner-the-content-wars.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/04/2015-04-27-the-content-corner-the-content-wars.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-27-the-content-corner-the-content-wars.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-27-the-content-corner-the-content-wars.md","slug" : "the-content-corner-the-content-wars","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/27/the-content-corner-the-content-wars/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-400-Woman-holding-digital-tablet-closeup-scyther5-iStock-Thinkstock-ThinkstockPhotos-455273179.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Woman holding digital tablet, closeup\"/\u003e\u003cp\u003escyther5/iStock/Thinkstock\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most interesting trends forming at the start of 2015 is the rise of new digital publishers. Online entities from Facebook to GE are continuing their strong forays into the world of content production. This shift, especially among social media platforms such as Facebook, Linked In and Snapchat, could significantly alter the digital landscape turning content partners into content competitors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"no-longer-just-an-aggregator\"\u003eNo Longer Just an Aggregator\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLinkedIn’s decision to grow their original \u003ca href=\"http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/10/02/follow-people/\"\u003eInfluencer\u003c/a\u003e program from such respected names as Bill Gates and Richard Branson into a full digital publishing suite \u003ca href=\"http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/02/19/the-definitive-professional-publishing-platform/\"\u003eavailable to all their members\u003c/a\u003e in multiple languages may have been the watershed moment of this new age of content publishing. A social media entity decided it was no longer sufficient to simply be a place for content sharing, and they needed to develop their own content to drive and keep traffic within their network.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLinkedIn has continued to grow their professional content offerings via their internal blog called \u003ca href=\"http://marketing.linkedin.com/blog/\"\u003eLinkedIn Marketing Solutions\u003c/a\u003e and by \u003ca href=\"http://www.cio.com/article/2911194/social-media/why-linkedin-spent-big-on-lynda-com.html\"\u003espending $1.5 billion to acquire Lynda.com\u003c/a\u003e. If they weren’t dominant already, LinkedIn is certainly close to being the singular digital platform for all professional growth and networking. As LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner put it, the acquisition allows LinkedIn to significantly “\u003ca href=\"https://press.linkedin.com/site-resources/news-releases/2015/linkedin-to-acquire-lyndacom\"\u003echange the way in which people connect to opportunity\u003c/a\u003e.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"the-big-get\"\u003eThe Big Get\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-400-Social-engineering-concept-scanrail-iStock-Thinkstock-ThinkstockPhotos-148059517.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Social engineering concept\"/\u003e\u003cp\u003escanrail/iStock/Thinkstock\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFacebook already holds significant power in the social media space by driving \u003ca href=\"http://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/26/in-one-chart-the-story-of-how-facebook-came-to-take-over-the-media-and-marketing-worlds/\"\u003eone-quarter of all Internet referral traffic\u003c/a\u003e along with 1.5 billion users, and they now want to leverage that strength to draw in existing publishers, starting with one of the most recognized: The New York Times. They are also in talks with \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/business/media/facebook-may-host-news-sites-content.html?_r=0\"\u003eNational Geographic and BuzzFeed\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI find BuzzFeed’s reaction and next steps especially interesting as they have started to firmly establish themselves as a real news/media presence (or \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/20/401005384/buzzfeed-deleted-stories-after-complaints-from-advertisers\"\u003emaybe not\u003c/a\u003e), and this move towards natively hosting their content within Facebook seems somewhat cannibalistic to me. This could represent a significant shift in social media’s role in content sharing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"it8217s-not-your-friend-sharing-anymore\"\u003eIt’s Not Your Friend Sharing Anymore\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs demonstrated by Facebook’s high referrals, one of social media’s main roles has been a facilitator for the sharing of content. Some have even turned this sharing of content or content curation into a second (or third career) such as \u003ca href=\"http://mashable.com/2012/04/20/george-takei-social-media/\"\u003eGeorge Takei\u003c/a\u003e. But either consumers or digital media companies (or both) have decided that shared content is insufficient. I’m not sure I’ll ever get my fill of cute puppy pictures, but I do find myself liking and clicking through to more traditional publishing entities such as The Atlantic (who interestingly enough just refocused themselves to be a “\u003ca href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/the-atlantic-unbound/391116/\"\u003ereal-time magazine\u003c/a\u003e”).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut the question that platforms such as Facebook are asking is: why click through at all, why not just stay here? And the question for publishers who don’t agree to post their content natively to Facebook (or other social media sites) have a bigger question: what happens to us?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"the-coming-of-8220socialgeddon8221\"\u003eThe Coming of “Socialgeddon?”\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the impetus behind this move to natively host publisher content ,according to Facebook, is \u003ca href=\"http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2015/03/facebook_s_deal_with_new_york_times_buzzfeed_why_the_media_should_resist.html\"\u003ecreating a better user experience\u003c/a\u003e and in response to user complaints regarding too many clicks and poor loading of content that links to an external site. Facebook has already started to strongly suggest \u003ca href=\"http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/\"\u003emedia companies post their videos natively on Facebook\u003c/a\u003e and Facebook’s algorithms now strongly prioritize natively hosted videos within its results. Is all content soon to be prioritized the same way unless you, as a media publisher, begin to post your video and text content natively (just as the much-hyped and feared Google’s “\u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/15/mobilegeddon-government-edition/\"\u003eMobilegeddon\u003c/a\u003e”)? It is a not-so-subtle coercion: Facebook won’t block your content, but if you don’t comply with their wishes they will make it much harder to find. When you control over 1.5 billion pairs of eyeballs, that is a serious concern for publishers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf limits were placed on the content you could personally share and link to on any social media platform or if the only content you can share is content that is natively posted, then what does that platform become? Do they morph into something more like LinkedIn’s evolution, where it is dominated by community-created content and LinkedIn-owned entities? And then is it really social media or is it just a digital media site like Medium, where they publish user-generated, curated content with sophisticated social media tools baked in?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRegardless to the answers to these questions, one thing is clear: the war for eyeballs is escalating rapidly, and content has been firmly established as the most effective weapon. Content can be used to convey trust and build relationships, and it can be used in place of blatant advertising that \u003ca href=\"http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2397648/84-percent-of-millennials-don-t-trust-traditional-advertising\"\u003emillennials are especially resistant to\u003c/a\u003e. And now it is being called upon to further differentiate various social media companies as they compete for referrals and intelligent advertising revenue.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStill not convinced that social media platforms are serious about this and things are changing dramatically? National Geographic is a publishing partner on Snapchat…I’ll just leave that there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou’ve just finished reading the latest article from our Monday column, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/content-strategy/\"\u003eThe Content Corner\u003c/a\u003e. This column focuses on helping solve the main content issues facing digital professionals, including producing enough content and making that content engaging.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}