We have all heard of the adage, ‘content is king’. It’s a saying that’s especially true in our hyper-digital age, where everything is essentially a click away. The internet’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week nature has affected the way we interact with one another, how companies engage with us, and how we access the plethora of information that’s at our fingertips.
Information, or content as it is also referred to, is abundant online. Here’s an idea of just how abundant it is: 300 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute and 6 billion hours of YouTube videos are watched every month by more than 1 billion users.
It can be argued that the popularity of YouTube and other video streaming sites is their immediacy and sheer variety. Users can choose and play a video on demand on any topic they want. This shift of putting consumers in control of what they watch and when has revolutionized digital media and ushered in platforms like Netflix and Hulu.
The rise of the information age has also given significance to content marketing, a strategy that is surpassing other types of marketing for its engagement, impact and reach. Described as the creation and digital publication of original content, content marketing utilizes blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos to generate buzz, enhance visibility, and put a company or person’s product or subject matter on display.
“When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising,” Entrepreneur contributor Mikal Belicove wrote in 2011.
The internet has also become an invaluable tool for independent artists, actors, comedians and innovators to gain attention and increase their audience base through content marketing efforts.
Social media has proven to be the most valuable resource for companies and individuals who want to access large demographics at limited costs.
According to the latest statistics, Facebook, the most popular social media site, has more than 1.5 billion active monthly users. Approximately 72 percent of the world’s adult population visits the site at least once daily and the percentage of millennials (15 through 34 year olds) who have a Facebook account sits at 91 percent.
While social media has helped in the proliferation of content and exposure, it’s done a relatively poor job of helping content creators monetise their intellectual property. This is in part due to the lack of paywalls and paid subscription options that social media sites feature.
Sub Hub, a subscription based website that launched in 2009, has created a platform for YouTube content creators to monetise their work. Despite turning YouTube posts into a lucrative business strategy, Sub Hub has not been able to help other creators monetise their unique content.
Another social media site that is hoping to break monetisation barriers is ConnectPal. ConnectPal provides an online community that’s similar to other social websites that Internet users are accustomed to. However, ConnectPal is unique in that it allows content creators to charge an access fee for content. This, in turn, helps content creators fund their projects and continue the cycle of innovation.
With a list of celebrities, radio talk show hosts, musicians and other artists as website members, ConnectPal is a content platform that allows users and content creators to engage with each other in a mutually beneficial way. ConnectPal has been particularly popular with radio show host, DJs and podcasters, all of whom have been able to use their ConnectPal page to monetise their content.
“I saw podcast sites with all these fancy graphics,” describes popular radio show host Neal Boortz, who signed up with ConnectPal in 2014. “People don’t care about that. They sign up for what I do. This website delivers on that.”
While content remains king, it’s important to understand that the content we so readily enjoy is not free, and creators and innovators need to be reimbursed for their time, commitment and expertise.
