There’s been a lot of talk lately about how social media platforms were designed to be addictive.
The focus is primarily about how devious that was, how the designers and programmers were out to get us somehow, to take advantage of us.
But I disagree.
Like us, they simply wanted their creation (their content, if you will) to be engaging. So they built in some elements that would get us excited and maybe even addicted to the platform.
Rather than angry, we should be inspired.
Is Your Content Addictive?
I was at an event a few years ago, and one of the speakers made a passing comment that our websites should become a habit.
That stuck with me.
I started evaluating content by its ability to make me return to it, play it again, or share the ideas.
Take this video of Mila Stauffer, making fun of her mom’s coffee addiction.
Every time I see it, I watch it again. I love it. You might say I’m addicted.
That’s what we should be aiming for in our content. We should be creating content that’s so engaging and so much fun to read/view/watch, people are willing to stop what they’re doing and play it or read it again.
Ours should be the book that gets read once a year.
Ours should be the article that’s quoted so often, it creates new language for an entire industry.
Like a morning cup of coffee, our content should become a daily routine.
Engineering Addiction
Coffee isn’t evil because it’s addictive.
Neither is Facebook.
And neither is it evil to purposefully create content that’s addictive.
In a world of mediocre content, creating something radically better doesn’t hurt anyone. It only raises the bar.
As business writers, we need to keep informing and educating, but we’ve got to start doing it in a way that makes our content habit-forming.
So let’s shake things up.
Let’s try new things. Let’s stop creating ho-hum content and start crafting articles and videos and graphics that stop people in their tracks. Let’s make them want to share.
Let’s make it funnier, more inspiring, more… what?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What qualities do you think make content addictive? Humor, for sure, but what else?
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