Think of content not as 'broadcasting' but as 'leaving it behind'
We live in an era where the world is so saturated with information that it feels like we are suffocating.
When we (in our 40s) were young, we were taught to 'go out and get information,' but I hear that now the advice is to simply ignore information as you see fit.
As someone who puts out information, I try my best to promote it because I want it to reach as many people as possible, but it never seems to reach those who have tuned out.
How do you deliver information that no one wants to receive? It has become a world of Zen riddles that you can't solve without asking someone like Ikkyu-san.
One answer to this riddle, though it is merely a hypothesis, is that information should not be actively broadcast and delivered, but rather gently left somewhere.
Unlike in the past, it is now easy to collect the information you want. Given that, I believe that if you leave information in the right places instead of forcing it upon people, some curator will eventually deliver it to those who are looking for it, or individuals will come to collect it on their own initiative.
Forgive me for talking about myself, but for example, on this note platform, I accumulate articles with the feeling of 'leaving them behind' rather than 'broadcasting' content. I have avoided linking them to Twitter for promotion, constantly liking posts, or following people excessively. (Being lazy is one of the reasons, though...)
Since the content I write isn't exactly mainstream, I am watching with interest to see what happens when I continue to write steadily without actively broadcasting it.
It has been eight months since I started posting on note. As I imagined (?), people have started reading the articles I quietly left behind. For example, there are 237 articles currently published, and 140 of them have seen an increase in page views over the last two days. That means about 60% of my articles have been touched by someone in these past two days.
Of course, I don't just leave the articles as they are; I put effort into how I 'place' the content, such as creating an INDEX article and making sure to include links to new articles. I also think I am benefiting from the recommendation features that note has to offer.
However, even with that in mind, I analyze that the effect of steadily 'leaving' articles behind is indeed showing.
Now, when thinking about how to apply this to real life, what can we consider?
As someone working in the content industry, I recognize that we live in an era where aggressive pushing doesn't work. I believe it is effective to implement strategies where information is placed in appropriate locations in a configuration that allows users to have 'multi-faceted contact' with it. The ideal form is for users to voluntarily seek out the information themselves.
I plan to discuss 'multi-faceted contact' in more detail in a future article.
As for how to use social media, instead of aggressively broadcasting, I simply leave the necessary and sufficient information behind. Instead of persistently running TV spots, I leave information near curators and influencers.
I believe that in this day and age, the better approach is to deliver information naturally to those who are interested, without forcing it.
However, even if this approach is correct, it is all for nothing if the content itself is not attractive. Before deciding on strategies like broadcasting information or leaving it behind, the absolute key remains whether or not you have prepared content that people actually want.
In the past, the deciding factors were content power and broadcasting power. But now, I believe what is required is content power combined with the ability to distribute information so that users can receive it.