Do people still read?
I have been blogging mainly for business and occassionally for personal reasons since the early 2000's. For years I wrote 3 or more blog posts per week for my business website until I eventually burned out from keeping up that schedule. So now I leverage AI a bit together with a vast bank of written materials to come up with refreshed or fresh content. I like the fact that AI can make the research part easier even if you still need to know your topic and be able to sift fact from fiction and good from bad.
But here is the thing... I like long juicy in depth stuff both for reading and for writing.
Lately I am writing more about AI and posting out some offers for training and consulting in this space seen that I used the past 3 years to upskill and deep dive into the AI consulting side to be able to add to our existing custom design services for gamification towards our b2b clients. My blogs and information about ai offers are falling flat and on deaf ears.
I posted several longer social posts as well as added the carousel graphics that are allegedly doing so well into Linkedin. With 8000+ connections on Linkedin I thought I should at least have a few takers. But I got crickets, tumbleweeds and whatever else you can name 'nothing'. I had the impression I was marked down by the algorithm, so I decided to come out and ask people in a similar post what was wrong with the offer. And some came back this time to tell me that hadn't seen it.
I then put all the offer content, posts etc for review in front of a consultant and he basically turned around and said...way too much reading! Make it short or a video reel.
Now I don't really do video nor do I consume much video. I find it distracting media, I want to be in a quiet place where I interrupt nobody to consume video, whereas I can read anywhere. For context, I am a gen X female, so not born in the video or social media age, rather grew into it as those platforms started to pop-up, had my fun outdoors or away from screens. I always loved reading as well as word games.
Am I just unique in preferring reading, or do you also still read?
When you look at offers from companies, do you want them to be written or in video or something else? I would really love to know.
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Depends on the offer for me. Videos are really popular right now when sharing information long or short. Now as far as LinkedIn goes, they are giving some special treatment to bigger accounts. However, you will also have to look at your audience. Are they active? Look at the purpose of what LinkedIn is for. Are those who follow you a part of the same generation?
If so, they may have the same mindset as you. Video maybe a distraction. If not, then those are the ones who may not like long form written content and are apart of the social media generation. For those who didn't see your content you can try tagging them (@name or @followers).
I am about to go a little bit deeper. You said you like to read, I hope my response helps. 🤓
If you choose to do video content, you have people from various of different backgrounds and education to be considered. Such as those with language barriers and are English speakers. Let me explain.
Even though the US is predominantly an English speaking nation, we have people with different dialects of English especially here in the south. Some may say you are speaking too fast in your video and ask you to slow down. Those speakers would need written content versus video.
I have watched a lot of videos and no matter the platform this is an odd out of the blue sort a speak question that i see often. Most from speakers who do not have English as their first language. But there are those from my side of the US that asks the exact same thing. You are speaking too fast. Could you slow down?
The way to solve this is to have captions activated if you are going to do videos. Or you can create a long format video (1hr or more) and cut it up into smaller digestible pieces 1, 5, or 10 minute short videos.
You can use these short videos to help explain your long written content verbally. Maybe a show and tell of how this Ai software works. This short video can be place Before, in the middle or after your long form written content. I would suggest somewhere at the beginning or towards the middle of your long form written content as it applies to the subject.
Now this is just a suggestion and something that I know I would do. You would base your content around what your audience "receives better." You are a long format writer which would push you more towards the articles, book content and even audio (think audio podcast).
However, I see that you may have concerns about people not wanting to read. I can tell you that we are still here 🤓. I have a closet full of books. 500 or more pages and I would be considered one of your "Targeted Audience." Now how I consume content is a blend between video, written and now audio (Spotify audio podcasts). Mostly long format and some short.
You have been writing for a long time now and you see the change in content consumption as well as shorter attention spans I am willing to bet. Excuse me for my long winded response 😅. But much like yourself I like to get into the deeper explanation of things. Its the teacher side of me. I can't get rid of it lol.
Question for you: Were you ever a teacher?
Continuing on, I can tell you first hand accounts of how teachers are presenting information to students. Im still a student at Full Sail University and our teachers present to us video content mix in with written. I receive it better because this is something that was taught to me 20 years ago as a teenager and a few years before that. 😉
In a way it is just recycled education tactics from 20+ years ago, that was capitalized on and scaled. I said all of this because I do not want you to change tactics unless it is beneficial to your audience and yourself. This comes from a tactic I have read about and created my own version of. Its called "Know Your Customers. (KYC)." Mine is: Know Your Audience. (KYA). And of course video content is beneficial because I just gave you a few examples of how it can be used to explain long form written content.
All in all, if you want to do video content test it first to see how your audience "receives it." You can do a call to action and ask your loyal consumers what they think of the content? Place their response in the comments or do a poll and create your content based on your current consumers response.
Note: You will not be able to please everyone. So, it is important to know the audience who "Will Receive" your content. Do a blend of both. Write long form then somewhere towards or maybe a little bit before the middle introduce your readers to a short 10 minute video. This video will cut down on the text so that the rest of the text will be easier on the eyeballs of those who dont like long text and get easily stressed out by it. 😂
You may have to do several videos like this if you write more than 5k words.
I hope this helps. Im a little long winded. 😅
lol, I love it, nice substantial answer.
I was in learning and development and trained a lot of people, worked in instructional design and gamification so I subscribe to the KYC or KYA way of working. Ironically the consultant given the advice that all my posts and messaging was too long would not be in my target audience. But then the fact I had 0 takers no matter what would tell the story also.
I don't like talking heads training, I think it is the laziest and one of the most ineffective ways of teaching. You want action more blended approach of action, reading, instruction (which can be video), games, implementation, feedback. So yes there is a lot more to a great program than video.
Which is also still different to making offers and sales.
When I look at the latest email marketing things I have opted into, they typically were all long form, text heavy and may or may not have had video on it (which I would have skimmed through and moved through 2x).
I figured you were a teacher! 😂 In one of my articles that I am writing I use engaging Text + Images. So, basically I would ask questions with a line drawn behind the question so that the reader can know to fill it in with their answers.