Informational snacking might kill you (or your career)

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In the world of nutrition, what does a diet of constant snacking get you? How healthy is the end result of little snacks all the time, especially when the snacks are of dubious quality?

New Year, New Media Party

One of the most popular formats for writing content nowadays is the “snack-sized” content. 5 tips for this, 8 ideas for that, all in as few words as possible because attention spans are supposedly shorter. Twitter, of course, is the ultimate informational snacking tool, with everything compressed to 140 characters (a bit like those profoundly unhealthy 100 calorie snack packs).

These informational snacks are as profitable for content creators as the physical goods are for food manufacturers – and the health effects are about the same. Create less content, package it well, and sell it at a premium price in the attention economy. Coast on brand and reputation. Pack less nutrition, less quality, and less value in them, and as long as you’re selling what people think they want, you’ll do fine.

Want to see the difference? Take a look at your favorite bloggers of today and dig around in their archives. Look back before they were Internet famous and see if their content has changed. I’d bet you in a random sampling of 10 popular bloggers that you’d see some who have stayed the course of serving full, nutritious meals and others who have switched to snack packs almost exclusively.

How do you avoid falling into a snacking only mentality? As a content consumer, take some time (especially over the next month or so as you have some down time to celebrate holidays) to prioritize content creators based on the value they give you. Share and retweet the really good stuff liberally, because attention is the currency of the information economy. Just as it’s vital to support food manufacturers that are aligned with your values with your wallet, so it’s important to support content creators aligned with your values with your attention. The informational equivalent of a doctor telling you to stop snacking and eat properly or you’ll die of a heart attack is an employer who says that your knowledge isn’t valuable any more and lets you go.

As a content creator, acknowledge that while snack packs are great marketing and powerful short-term profit boosts, ultimately you need to provide longer-term benefit to your audience or they’ll mentally starve – or shop somewhere else. Every time you step up to your content creation toolkit, ask if you have the time and the will to create something of value, and if you don’t, step away and come back later when you do. You can absolutely create healthy 100 calorie snacks and you can absolutely create healthy informational snacks, but as with all things, quality takes time and effort.

Ultimately, you have to decide how much informational nutrition you need in your life. If you’re content to live on snacks, that’s fine – but don’t expect to be able to outperform a digital marathon runner. In an economy where job creation is still lackluster at best, you might find that an all snack diet lets everyone else beat you to the finish line.

Comments

5 responses to “Informational snacking might kill you (or your career)”

November 29, 2010

Jason Keath

As a publisher, what if I use the sweet snacks to keep people around the shop so they will invest in our more robust options when we offer them?

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1. November 29, 2010
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  Think about it like any other form of nutrition: a snack isn’t going to kill you (unless it’s REALLY poorly made and contains a lethal dose of arsenic). Even a snack a day isn’t necessarily bad if the rest of your diet is balanced and you have a good workout routine. But if you’re consuming snacks instead of meals… then you want to cut back.
  
  Likewise with digital. If you serve nothing BUT snacks, your audience will starve to death eventually, or look for nutrition elsewhere. If you keep things balanced, with long form content and snacks, then people will likely find great value in what you do.
  
  Reply
November 29, 2010

KatFrench

I think there’s another interesting conversation here about the difference between “distillation” of complex topics, into a more digestible form; and oversimplification.

Working with your nutrition metaphor, there are companies that make nutrition bars that are as easy to consume as a candy bar, but pack the nutrient content of a small, healthy meal.

I don’t think that content necessarily needs to be lengthy to have depth and value, any more than sonnets are intrinsically a more valuable poetic form than haiku.

And frankly, I’ve read lengthy posts that I considered “junk food” as well. Nothing worse than wading through someone’s “magnus opost” to find there was nothing really substantive to it.

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November 29, 2010

David LaMorte

This is such a confusing metaphor. I think we need to focus on quality content and not content quantity. If you can give me something small that is interesting and informative, that’s great.

In my house we have two kinds of food, the food you eat for fun and the food that makes your grow. If you don’t eat the food that makes you grow you become unhealthly.

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December 3, 2010

Tyrell Mara

This is an interesting post and metaphor! Being both a fan and advocate for eating healthy (and more importantly understanding what that means), and leveraging the social media world – I definitely think there are some gems in here (as well as in the comments!)

I think at the end of the day it all comes down to your strategy, values, and motives… If you value eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, you will take the necessary steps to understand what this looks like and make sure you eat and live accordingly… And you will be rewarded with health and energy!

If your true motives are to add value and provide meaningful content through your writing, than this will no doubt be the case… The length and format of your posts may be more determined by your personal style… And again, you will be rewarded with interested, engaged followers. But if your true intentions are not to provide valuable content (ie – marketing tool, self-promotion), than that will show no matter how long or short your content is…

I have found that my favorite authors let their personality and true passion speak through their content no matter what length, style, or format… I can tell they are passionate about the subject and are sharing their knowledge –

Thank you Christopher for a great post!
Cheers,
Tyrell Mara

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