Content Creator’s Creed Line 1

We Believe…the best content comes from individuals rather than organizations

This conversation was used as the source material for a corresponding blog post.

Content Creator’s Creed Line 1

Grab the entire Content Creators Creed series (9 short episodes) on iTunes.

Transcript:

Shayla: We’re talking today with Dave Young, the founder of Shortcut Content. And, Dave, we spent the last podcast talking about the Content Creator’s Creed; a very important document that you’ve created for your company. And I want to hear a little bit about the first one. Let’s just break down each one. The first one says ‘the best content comes from individuals rather than organizations.’ Break that down for us.

Dave: Well, we believe that. We believe the best content comes from individuals rather than organizations. And by that, I mean there are so many companies that just sent information on the company letterhead without anybody’s name on it. You know what I’m talking about? You see press releases and things like that. And if you think about the most important information, whether it’s about a company or anything else that you ever hear, it usually comes out of the mouth of somebody that’s speaking on behalf of everyone at that company or organization. Okay. Apple is probably the biggest example and it’s a tradition that that company has carried on now even after Steve Jobs’ death, is that they don’t announce things in press releases. They do keynote speeches, they do live stage product unveiling. When you think about the I-phone, when you think about the I-pad and when you first heard of it, it’s typically going to be in a video that somebody shared that had Steve Jobs standing on a stage, pointing at it and sharing it and talking about it.

Shayla: Right.

Dave: And even through their newest products we’re, at this point, waiting on the Apple watch and all of their other things. They always have a person, whether it’s Tim Cook or somebody else from the company, standing on a stage, showing you, sharing it and it’s never just, hey, we’re Apple, it’s always somebody from Apple that you can name. Think about the White House. You hear a lot of press releases, things like, news comes out of the White House, but when they have something important to say, it’s never in a press release; you trot the President it and put him in front of the cameras and he says it. That’s how information is relayed. And that’s usually the best content coming out of that organization is whatever is coming out of the President’s mouth when he’s standing in front of the cameras.

So, I mean, my contingent is most content that we remember, that’s endearing, inspiring, motivational, life-changing, it’s got a name attached to it not a company. And that’s how we remember it. We remember how it made us feel, we remember who it was and I think there are very few companies that can actually get away with an exception to that rule. And they’re typically really big companies. And they’re companies that have such a clear vision of their purpose that they can be an exception to that rule. Nike is a good example. We’ve seen Nike ads with the “Just do it” message that can move us, that can bring emotion to the story and we don’t necessarily have to have a name attached to it. But when Nike does attach a name to it, it’s usually not somebody in Nike, it’s somebody that’s using their product, right? It’ll be a shoe on the foot of Tiger Woods or somebody famous that’s known in the sport that they’re talking about. So it may not be the company, but it will be an individual that’s bringing it.

Shayla: A press release isn’t going to make us feel anything.

Dave: Exactly. Press releases never made anybody, ya know, made your heart skip a beat. Amazon and Google kind of come to mind. Even though we know that Jeff Bezos is the head of Amazon, typically what happens is they do some kind of innovative, amazing things and everybody talks about it because they’re woven into the fabric of our lives so tightly. Google is a good example of that, as well, because if you use Google, they’re everywhere; they’re on your phone, they’re on your computer, they’re on your I-pad, they’re everywhere. And if you’re a user, you’re going to know about things. People share it all over the place. So it doesn’t necessarily have to come from a specific person at Google and, in fact, you probably couldn’t name somebody that’s ever come out from Google and ever talked about a specific product.

Shayla: But yet Google has a face because it is so intertwined in your life and you do get a feel from Google, even if there’s not actually a face. It feels individual.

Dave: In some creepy way, we’re almost all the face of Google.

Shayla: Oh, yeah. Good point, Dave.

Dave: One that comes to mind that I think can get away with it, as well, is Proctor and Gamble and the reason for that is they’re just such a huge company. It’s hard to put one face on there. So they’ve been doing some pretty innovative storytelling, but it’s almost like movie making. They’ve been experimenting for several years with some long-form, kind of, inspirational, little short film kinds of things where at the end it was brought to you by one of their shampoo brands. So things like that, they’re just so big that they can hardly tie one person to the company because they have so many brands. I think, unless you’re a clear-cut exception, your company needs to follow that rule that the best content is going to come from individuals, inside your company or users of your company, rather than out of the mouth of your corporate voice, whatever that is. It just never seems real. It never feels like I’m being spoken to one-on-one. So, good content, bring it out of your individuals in your organization.

Shayla: Just like we’re doing right now, Dave, just having a conversation and if anybody out there is interested in having that conversation themselves, how are they going contact you, Dave?

Dave: Email just about anything at ShortcutContent.com and I’ll get it or Dave@ShortcutContent.com works really well. And if you just go to ShortcutContent.com there’s lots of ways to contact us.

Shayla: Perfect. Thanks, Dave.