{"id":654852,"date":"2013-04-27T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=228552"},"modified":"2013-04-27T11:00:28","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T15:00:28","slug":"its-not-just-tumblr-most-social-networks-dont-understand-original-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/654852","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just Tumblr \u2014 most social networks don\u2019t understand original content"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent shuttering of Tumblr\u2019s Storyboard<\/a> highlighted the discrepancy between online communities and companies\u2019 efforts to produce valuable original content for them.\u00a0The problem isn\u2019t that “Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter are sharing networks, not publishing companies,” as one writer\u00a0suggested<\/a>. The problem\u00a0instead lies in substance and delivery.<\/p>\n

Community-inspired initiatives, much like journalism, need a sense of purpose, passion and objective urgency \u2013 the ability to look unflinchingly at a subject and capture it in a way that\u2019s surprising and insightful.\u00a0With that in mind, here\u2019s how some of the most popular communities and social networks are experimenting with original content — and what works and doesn’t.<\/p>\n

Tumblr<\/h2>\n

Storyboard sought to surface and report on interesting stories and users within the Tumblr community, applying a kind of branded journalism and marketing mix that\u2019s becoming increasingly commonplace.<\/p>\n

<\/b>The failure of Storyboard was in its inability to find an editorial voice that resonated in the community. Tumblr users communicate with a pidgin lexicon of reaction GIFs, memes, and blog entries, but Storyboard took a more print-oriented approach. The content (and layout) was reminiscent of an in-flight magazine, as if trying to sell the reader on a particular destination.<\/p>\n

Of course, Storyboard did produce a variety of laudable content in partnership with esteemed publishers, most notably its Letters from Newtown<\/a> project with Mother Jones and WNYC\u2019s look inside the New York Times morgue<\/a>\u00a0(and the Daily Dot syndicated a significant number of Storyboard articles). But the numbers don\u2019t lie and Storyboard’s most popular posts hover around just 6,000 notes \u2013 surely a factor in the decision to shutter it.<\/p>\n

Facebook<\/h2>\n

Like Storyboard, Facebook Stories is a branded editorial effort that relies on publishing partners and user submissions.\u00a0Last month, former managing editor Dan Fletcher\u00a0proclaimed<\/a>\u00a0the social network “doesn\u2019t need reporters,” because there\u2019s “no more engaging content Facebook could produce than you talking to your family and friends.”\u00a0To be blunt, it’s almost\u00a0as if Fletcher hasn\u2019t seen a typical Facebook post. The most talked about pages on the social network are dominated by image spam<\/a> and mindless posts about “teen swag<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The greater \u00a0problem with Facebook Stories has been one of approach. It publishes monthly, a bizarre strategy that utterly defies the very best characteristics of the site and is obviously in direct conflict with the online ethos. Content on Facebook is instantaneous and reactionary; it\u2019s about celebrating small moments not just milestones, and any editorial effort should mirror that.<\/p>\n

Facebook Stories needs to take a cue from Upworthy<\/a> \u2013 a comparable editorial effort centered on inspiring content \u2013 and focus less on presentation and more on how\u00a0content should be packaged and shared<\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

YouTube<\/h2>\n

YouTube made headlines when it invested $200 million in original channels and programming last January<\/a>. Then, after cutting its losses on 70 percent of those recipients, it promptly dropped another $100 million in November<\/a>.\u00a0The few shows that actually succeeded \u2013 most notably, Philip DeFranco\u2019s SourceFed<\/a>, Felicia Day\u2019s Geek and Sundry <\/a>channel, and the VlogBrothers\u2019 Crash Course<\/a> \u2013 were the ones that understood how to connect specifically with a YouTube audience and what makes content succeed on the platform. Notably, none of them\u00a0are TV veterans.<\/p>\n

The quick lesson is you can\u2019t fake authenticity on YouTube, and celebrity status often doesn\u2019t translate to subscriber counts. The content has to be immediate and impactful.\u00a0As Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers (SciShow, CrashCourse) noted in a recent\u00a0Tumblr<\/a>\u00a0post: \u00a0”Online video isn’t about how good it looks, it\u2019s about how good it is.”<\/p>\n

LinkedIn<\/h2>\n

The career-oriented network is oddly the rare success story of implementing original content. Even before LinkedIn\u2019s $90 million acquisition of popular news-reader Pulse, the professional network was making all the right moves in terms of content creation and curation with a leadership board in the form of LinkedIn Influencers and a daily news feed that distributes third-party content selected by users.<\/p>\n

Where the company has invested in original content, it\u2019s done so by popular demand, tapping proven influencers like Virgin CEO Richard Branson and ex-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for exclusive articles that cater specifically to the network\u2019s business-savvy audience.\u00a0As Jennifer Van Grove noted<\/a> for CNET, “content is quickly becoming the new connection on LinkedIn.”\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Outliers<\/h2>\n

The web is becoming one big imageboard, where the emphasis is placed on viral sharing. That can be seen in everything from Facebook\u2019s redesign to LinkedIn\u2019s revamp. A recent study of Reddit found that 86 percent of the posts on the social news site were easily disposable: image macros, photos, and videos.<\/p>\n

The challenge facing that site, not to mention communities like Pinterest and Instagram \u2013 whose content strategies thus far have been comprised mostly of curated tags \u2013 is to create something of permanent value for the community, to offer more than a temporary spotlight.<\/p>\n

Simply put, you have to add value. Social networks need to support the native content efforts of their users and accentuate it where they can. But if they are going to provide editorial content themselves, it must be in the spirit of the community, not forced from outside of it.<\/p>\n

Austin Powell<\/a>\u00a0is assistant managing editor of\u00a0The Daily Dot<\/a>, which calls itself the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web.<\/em><\/p>\n

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