I just did a little test — ran a search on my blog content for the term "context is king". There were two entries — one here and the other here. There was also a third post, with the phrase in the text — and while I am not really a fan of quoting myself, I kinda liked this one:
… in a Web 2.0 world, where context is king, content still speaks baby … as long as you have the ears to listen.
But why is this important?
Just recently I had lunch with the CEO of a leading technology company here in Australia and he was very excited about the direction of his company. But, as I told him, technology is not the answer … having great technology is important and is something that can drive competitive advantage in all sorts of areas (hey, it can even drive sales) — but the technology is only an enabler. Once you have it, if you don’t back it up with a smart content strategy and a clear contextual strategy, you have a dead duck on your hands. And an expensive one at that.
David Armano is also musing on the reasons that execs are stumbling in the Web 2.0/social media world. He was asked about the next "killer app" — and replied "content". And he is right — it is all about content. But it is also, equally, all about context. Finding a way to cohesively integrate content and context — and thereby activating an influence and filtering network that helps shape consumer experience is where the gold dust lies. The technology just makes it work … you can use it to dig yourself a hole — just make sure you don’t fall into it.
Rob Reid of Listen.com is quoted in Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail as saying “Context… not content… is king”. In fact there is a whole chapter The New Tastemakers about context. The problem with context is that it sometimes converts to “personalisation” of a site. Which is pretty well useless if the host is still providing the content and the member is not given a chance to enter the discussion, simply to filter what content they want.
I find the network makes it’s own content and it’s own context. In fact, I would say that the Dialogue is the Content. Or at the very least, If Context is King then Conversation is Queen. Not sure I’m being clear… 😛
Maybe it’s just me, but talk about ‘killer apps’ doesn’t sit well beside a post about oppression and killing in Burma.
I know ‘killer’ is shorthand for ‘world-beating’, but there’s got to be a better term!