Writing for the Now Media is always about creating the right combination of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, email, copywriting and many other formats.
Given such a dizzying array it’s easy to 1.) get overwhelmed and then 2.) mash a bunch of things against the wall and see what sticks.
Both will eventually lead to early-onset dementia, no matter your age.
If you’re trying to create a career in “social media” or Engagement, as we call it, it’s really important to keep the media platforms and their purposes straight. And by straight we mean “separated” (although both could be used as a “status” on some media sites, no?)
Then, because the platforms are all digital and, let’s face it, tremendously competitive, they change fast.
An example: Facebook’s latest move to, for practical purposes, no character limits on a blog post. Yes, supposedly there are limits. But they’re in the zillions at this point.
Your pithy, short and (hello!) engaging status update can now be as long as a blog post. Or profile description. Or ebook chapter. Or long copy direct mail piece.
But should it?
In today’s tutorial Locker Gnome teases out some of the details of that question and adds perspective of his own.
The takeaway? Facebook is going to do everything they can to 1.) squeeze every minute of attention out of you while 2.) simultaneously squeezing every possible competitor out of the Now Media platform space.
All while, of course, rolling and roiling and rollicking in your data.
Locker Gnome makes a great point: Facebook is not a blog. It’s not a direct mail piece. It’s not an ezine.
But it’s going to try to act that way, because that’s how it serves adds.
This is really all about the wall separating Facebook and Google. The more Facebook can get you to generate content inside its walled garden, the less content that gets indexed inside Google.
If you’re writing for the Now Media, then it’s really about where you’re going to get the most …um… engagement.