The Future of Microcontent and Hyperlocal Media
Pay close attention to these two trends when it comes to making your own media or working for an organization: microcontent and hyperlocal media. I believe that these two segments will become the leverage point where people can create meaningful content, and where media can remain social, useful, personal, and impactful. Let’s explain this just a little more, so that I don’t lose anyone along the way.
Microcontent: Think “small bites.”
First off, by microcontent, I mean really small bites of content. I mean things a little bigger than your average Twitter post. I mean piece of information that are short, succinct, and useful, either directly or in a remashed way. For instance, what if you were writing fiction for a cell phone? It’d obviously have to be much smaller. Flash fiction. Nothing new, and yet, even smaller format. Micro fiction. Further, what would nonfiction look like in this format? Even smaller, that’s what. Hint: my typical blog post is too big to be microcontent.
Unless. you. chop. it. up.
Maybe each sub-heading becomes a segment, a blog post, a standalone thing. If so, what should I do differently? Add tagging to each micro segment? Yes. Add contact info somehow to the base of every microsegment? Yes. NOW you get the sense of what needs to be considered with microformatting.
Video? Smaller. Faster. Shorter. Make intros faster. Make outros faster. Make it segments I can chunk into other video clusters. Make it something non-repetitive. Cut down the intro so I can consume a lot of them quickly.
Hyperlocal Media
It’s not good enough to do a news article about Massachusetts. I need to know how Andyman coffee stayed alive while three other coffee shops died. I want to know why my town wants to slice $1,000,000 out of the budget as a tax cut, which will just put all these other services at a deficit right out of the gate.
Make your media matter to a locale. Make at least SOME of your media matter to a locale. This is how you win against Google. This is how you drive something of value. And no, there aren’t really easy-to-follow business models for this kind of hyperlocal media just yet. Some of the earlier frontrunners crapped the bed when they tried. But don’t give up. There’s a way to make it work, and it must.
Look at YOUR Media
And also the media you consume. Does this make a difference? Do you see the value in having small, short, brief, mash-able content? Is your stuff somehow NOT conducive to this? Why? What is it about your stuff that couldn’t/shouldn’t be shoved down smaller? Why aren’t you covering your immediate neighborhood in your media?
What do you think about all this?
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Comments
The microcontent angle is at once illuminating and disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I *love* small, tasty bites. It’s amazing what you can compress something down to when you really try. Twitter taught me that! Just the facts, ma’am. But is there a future for long-form content?
I heard that very question asked regarding feature-length films during a live feed of a panel discussion at the New Hampshire Film Festival last week. It’s something to think about. Has the whole world of content become music-video-ized?
Great post Chris. I think there is room for both microcontent and longer content posts on blogs.
I like reading Lifehacker because the posts are short, sweet and to the point. I know by the post title whether or not the post is relevant to me. It also leaves room for people to comment and add to the content.
I think longer posts are useful for indepth reviews. I do want a summary upfront to let me know if the review is worth reading. Profy.com, TechCrunch, Read/Write Web and Mashable provide such content.
As for hyperlocal media you have given me an idea for the apartment community I live in which has recently been purchased and under new management. Rumors have flown all summer long because no one knows what the future holds for long time residents. A blog for our community would be great and something I am going to talk to management about…thanks for the inspiration.
One question for you is why you put the two ideas, microcontent and hyperlocal media in one post. Why not break it down into two separate posts?
I feel as if micro-content, when used correctly can either be a collection of content that forms a longer version of the same song or it pushes folks to think or write about things in long form. At least for me I find Twitter the most valuable when I go back and forth with someone several times OR I click through a link that has been provided OR I gather all of the Tweets on one subject and see it as a collection of thoughts.
Micro-content can often times be the beginning of something larger and perhaps more sustaining.
/kff
[…] out the post from Chris Brogan this morning on “The Future of Microcontent and Hyperlocal Media.” I left a comment on Chris’ blog post, but wanted to expand a bit here because I feel […]
As usual Chris you are spot on - especially with the hyperlocal. This is definitely a trend I’m on board with.
For many years now our street puts on an annual street sale followed by a block party. We spread the news with flyers dropped door to door. A couple of years ago we changed the format of these flyers to be more of a newsletter, called “The Bingham Loop” after a local landmark in the form of a street car loop at the bottom of the street.
This month we are launching - OK I am launching - a blog so now we will have year round communication. We will publish good news about our street, announcements of birthdays anniversaries, new arrivals, people moving out , etc etc. As we also have a disproportionate amount of media types on our street we will also have a lot of video and other media on this blog.
I’ll keep you posted as to how successful the neighbours take to it.
@Jason- you’re practically the role model for what I’m discussing. Thanks and keep us in the story.
@Joe- There’s some interest in long form content, and it will continue, but I think the lion’s share of content, especially in the Internet-delivered space, is destined to be micro. Why? Because our attention is deeply bent. We’ve got too much to do.
@Ellen- I see microcontent and hyperlocal media to be related insofar as that if you’re producing blogs, audio, or video, I think these two trends need to be considered together. You might choose to implement one, both, or neither, but I think they BOTH need to be considered by media makers.
@Mike- Sounds great! I think a neighborhood blog isn’t complete without a neighborhood Flickr group, but what do I know? : )
Honestly, if you focus on local, but your audience/readership is national, then you are doing yourself an injustice.
Hyperlocal currently scales very poorly for national and for volume-driven business. The student loan industry, for example, is a volume play. You make cents on the dollar at best - about one and a half - so you need billions of dollars from millions of people to make it work. Hyperlocal can’t accomplish that.
It’s not that EVERYONE needs to be hyperlocal. It’s that you have to consider it. : ) Some things have national and international appeal.
Niche and local will all work- it’s about filling neds not already being filled elsewhere, and expanding information.
On intros, I have heard someone I respect in broadcasting mention a 20 sec rule. This caused me to get out a stopwatch and time the intros on public radio before interviews. Interestingly enough, most “intros” before the conversation and meat starts are between 20 and 40 sec. max. Maybe this will help people as they look at the header/footer/bumper issues.
Micro-content: http://deekdeekster.com
Hyper-local: http://five.org (2005 elections, my local constituency = the first of its kind)
Catch up, guys!
love etc x
Chris,
Great two points here. I think Starbuck’s cups “The Way I See It” are a great example of micro-content.
It is something that I can read while I sip my cup of coffee. They also give a call to action and drive the reader to the website for more of these.
As far as Hyperlocal - I know there is huge money to be made - and great stories to be told. The big question is how do you scale it? If you can’t make a living at it - it must be a passion - but passion doesn’t put bread on the table.
Joel Mark Witt
… I also think that Rural areas like the small 6000 person town I lived in for 3 years would love hyperlocal content. Every town (no matter how small) could have their own “nightly news” in a sense.
You’ve got my wheels turning.
You know Chris, this post has been buzzing around my head for the last few days and I can’t drop the thought. It’s the microcontent bit that’s gotten my juices flowing. I think that it fits in quite well with something I’ve been thinking about for an opportunity I have to make an app for a campaign website for the heart & lung patients’ society in Sweden. If it pans out I’ll drop you a line about it.
Re Hyperlocal media
I think this is spot on. I started doing a hyperlocal podcast about the village where I live. We get so much feedback and engagement. People are really pleased to have a local show and items become a talking point. I think this is going to be interesting for the local elections! People are really engaged with this, they know some of the people and want to know the others.
In the past I never thought this would take off. I think the clear channel paradigm has limited our view of what is possible. The mist is clearing, the world is waiting to listen to the voices of the villages.