The Nebulous Mystery of "Adding Value" as a Content Creator
What does it mean to "add value?"
It's something we often talk about on these blogging venues and in a sense it makes me happy that we talk more about value than quality, these days.
"Quality" content is a bit nebulous because no matter where you turn it's a bit of a sketchy idea. And not very helpful.
If you consider that when you walk into an actual physical bookstore, very little of what's on the shelves would be what you'd consider "literature quality." So when we turn to a blogging and social content site why would you expect quality content here... where most of the content is generated by just regular people on the street and not professional authors?
Hence, the discussion of adding value has always made more sense to me.
So What Constitutes Adding Value?
In the case of websites that people use for the purpose of consuming content - as opposed to, for example, a commercial website where people's primary purpose is to buy stuff - content could be regarded a bit like shops in the sense that the content we initially show to the greater world is like a shop's front window.
Are we more likely to go into a shop that has attractive front windows that are nice and clean, and the merchandises arranged in a way that looks good to many different sets of eyes? Or are we more likely to go into a dirty shop with a cracked front window and a bunch of boxes just randomly stacked up?
I know, when I "put it like that" the answer is fairly simple to arrive at!
Of course it's not that simple with web content, but I know we can still go by the metric that what people should find here (if they have never been here before) would be something that seems reasonably interesting.
Maybe it's engaging, maybe it's funny, maybe it's entertaining, maybe it's educational... these are all things that are up in the air. But somehow the idea is that if we add value to people's experience of being online then there is a better chance that they would like to join a community. If we just present a jumble of rubbish... why would we expect anyone to care?
But even value is a fairly subjective thing. What adds value for a psychologist is going to be very different from what adds value for a gamer, and so on. However, if we dissect that a little bit further there's still valuable gaming content and non-valuable gaming content and valuable psychology content and non-valuable psychology content.
Which leaves us with a relatively simple metric to look at. When you sit down and consider consider adding something think to yourself "is this going to potentially add value to somebody's life?" It's good to know who your target audience is because then you can more specifically assess whether something adds value to that particular target audience's experience.
It's not an exact science, of course, but at least it's something worth keeping in mind each time we sit down and create our blog post or our vlog or our memes or whatever it is that inspires us to do this...
Just some random late night musings. Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!
How about you? Do you stop to consider whether your content adds value to the overall experience? Do you think adding value matters? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)
Created at 2023.09.19 23:59 PDT
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What is quality content? This is a very difficult question for me. Is a very successful photo taken by a professional photographer quality content? Apparently, so. Will the community appreciate this work? Probably not.
When I joined Steemit I was convinced that The Diary Game style posts were rubbish. "I didn't want to get out of bed, but I got up and brushed my teeth..." - phenomenal writing talent! Later I became a curator and got to read posts like this. It turned out that there are many interesting ones among them. It turned out that there are authors who know how to describe the events of their own lives very well.
Now to the question "Is this particular post of good quality?" it is quite difficult for me to answer. I guess it's always very subjective.
At the same time, I recognize that Steemit currently has little content that is valuable or indispensable to a reader outside of this platform. For example, it is unlikely that we will find any tutorial that would be published only here and nowhere else on the network.
Social content is thus very difficult to evaluate!
After some years, I determined that it is perhaps best to forget about quality and instead focus on value. Does something add value?
In your example of the photographer, I would say it has value because even if someone is not interested, at least most people would be able to to say "yes, that is a good photo."
The Dairy Game posts are a mixed bag, of course. But as you say, some people are good "story tellers," and I remember the earliest days when there was a lot of discussion here about this becoming "the Internet of PEOPLE" rather than the Internet of THINGS.
In the end, perhaps the best we can do is make this place as welcoming as possible, with the tools we have at hand!
I can understand where it is coming from, especially being on such platform like our we always say we support quality content and often we choose long posts like some communities require >300 words, but is that automatically mean quality content? In my opinion, no, because one can write rubbish within those 300 words, but other ones write shorter one but there will be a good thought, idea and maybe something constructive.
The same with comments, some people can write long comment without much to say, but the others like my friend @digi-me has short comments but there is much in it. He is typical Scandinavian type. I do not know if he agrees with me but at least in Germany Scandinavian are famous for their direct and not many words attitude. That was a reason whey I noticed him too.
In general, I agree with you, in order to know each other better and to create lively community we have to communicate and I am really pleased to have our core users in WOX who are engaged and always there when we need them :)
Speaking of Scandinavians, we have an old saying/folk wisdom in Denmark that translates directly as "The priest held a sermon, and said nothing at all."
That's why I like value, because we can more readily ask whether or not something had values. Some memes even have value... the first time we see them. The 563rd time? Not so much.
I do see plenty of shorter content that has value, as well as longer content that has value but perhaps not quality in the traditional sense. Similarly, I can recognize someone's 1500-word essay on the use of some particular blockchain code as quality, but it has little value to me, or to 99% of the greater world. At the same time, I can appreciate that it might have value to the other 1%; the coders.
Curation is really more of an art than a science, but I'm sure you know that very well!
I like this saying, that is indeed wise saying:
Yes, you are about curation, that is why I like it, it is always nice to discover some users who you never expected to and I am glad that we have such opportunity of SCXX accounts that is given to users.
Thanks for the mention @stef1, you are spot on. Had to read all haha, so here are my thoughts.
Agreed @denmarkguy
I think it makes sense, I don't have time to check out thousands of blogs a day, so yes, whatever catches my attention or field of interest, I would check out. How to determine value = the most valuable thing in life is time = I wouldn't waste 2 minutes on a crappy photo, but I would easily enjoy an amazing photo for many more minutes = it's valuable to me, it might not be to someone else, that's okay, there are thousands of windows to look at and you'll probably find something you like = value for you.
And @stef I agree, 300 words is bullshit, value is what you get from the post not the amount of words. I want to say a trader who just posts one picture of a chart and he has 90% win ratio, in other words by following his trading ideas and you earn 500% ROI in a year, that's value regardless of the number of words or photos.
But I think in the end that the most valuable is not what you post, but the person's personality, the relationship, the friendship is more valuable in itself.
I just don't think there is some easy formula that can be applied @digi-me, it's all very fluid and subjective.
However, I do agree with the idea of looking at it as "was this time I spent with this piece of content worth my time?"
And yes, ultimately social media is also about relationships and connections.
Agreed, the value may differ from the eyes of the beholder. :)
I completely agree with that:
It is similar to our real life situation, some people have a lot of friends but others not. When I was young I noticed that and understood that it is important to treat others how we want to be treated myself and that is the key. Here, after few years on being on Steemit we already know what to expect from each other. It was very nice to read your comment, I am always glad when I can make you to express your thoughts and your point of you. Thank you :)
Nice to here. Thank you ;)