Conversation vs. content

It’s fascinating, hindsight. You get to track how you got somewhere, even though your destination was a mystery when you first set out. Two weeks ago I wrote down a couple of sentences, half-formed thoughts, which felt like they were the start of something. I was setting out for somewhere unknown. At the time, I couldn’t see where those sentences were leading me and, paradoxically, I don’t think knowing the destination would have got me there faster. But now, having not known the way, I’ve arrived.

Those couple of sentences were about conversations and content marketing. They’re two topics that have had plenty written about them already, which made it hard to see where I wanted to take them. So I let them sit, tucked in the back of my mind, and carried on moving.

Then things happened.

Last week on the train I listened to Wallace Chapman on RNZ interviewing Roman Krznaric on the topic of empathy, and how many people today have lost the skills that allow them to hold a fulfilling conversation. One on one, if a person isn’t an empathetic listener, it’s hard for them to build a genuine bond with the person they’re talking with.

Then, as I drove to work today, I listened to Simon Sinek with Debbie Millman on the Design Matters podcast. One of the things they spoke about was the addictive nature of social media validation – the dopamine rush that comes from every like, share or retweet.

Two great pieces of content, both talking about the importance of conversation. Signposts on the way to forming this thought: that too much of the content brands create is just a one-sided attempt at conversation, driven by a desire for the dopamine rush of engagement metrics.

When social media took off, it brought with it incredible potential. Here was a platform for letting people on one side of a brand engage in conversation with people on the other side. Both taking turns to listen, and turns to speak.

But like a conversation in the real world, we’re often too eager to speak and not listen. I know first hand, because I’m guilty of it all the time. Mouth engaged, not ears. My thoughts, my stories, my experiences, tumbling out one after the other with no pause to hear what the other person has to say. And when we do listen? Sometimes we get to hear the one crucial thing we needed.

That, I suspect, is where my couple of sentences about conversation and content marketing have taken me. To a place where I worry that the potential of content marketing to have a two way conversation is often being missed, and that many brands are really just becoming that person who always talks about themselves, craving likes and shares and retweets, and never listening.

Perhaps we need to find new ways to let others into the conversation, and hear what they have to say. Here's one idea: imagine creating content that gives a competitor an opportunity to talk about your brand, or their own, in the interests of generating an insightful conversation. Could that work? Where would that wander? Maybe together, by having a conversation, two brands could solve something for everyone.

Personally, I think it would be interesting. But I could be wrong. So I’ll stop talking now, and start listening. Because this conversation could be about to get interesting.