Content isn't king anymore, Community is!

by Mike Silberg

"Content is King" is mostly attributed to Bill Gates's article from Jan 1996 with that headline. In it, he describes the future of the Internet as a marketplace for content.

For many many years now, the internet is not just a place to share content, it is becoming a place of gathering, of meeting, a place to interact and connect to each other, not just communicate.

The internet today is full of content, making it "cheap". People are not willing to pay a lot for content anymore, people are willing to pay for connections, emotional and professional. People are willing to pay to get a new and better social status, but not just knowledge. We can see it in the physical world as well. No one today pays for an expensive MBA for its superior content, we pay for its lifetime status, relationships, and network.

More and more companies are starting to understand this. It's not enough to inform your customers or share great insights, you have to give them both experience and valuable human connections, and that is what communities provide. When has your company lately invested in building communities?

Follow me and my colleagues at The IS-CL Network.