“Content is King” is an oft-uttered “secret” to success in social media and while I don't think content will become unimportant any time soon, it is also becoming increasingly clear that just offering content, even good quality content, will not be enough any longer if it ever was.
“Context is King” is an alternative statement which has grown in popularity. The focus on context reflects the need for not just the right content to be provided but that it also needs to be made available to the right people, on the right platform, in the right conversation, at the right time, with the right tone, in the right quantity, etc. Sounds like logistics, right?
Anyway, even when you have also taken care of the context, there could still be formidable barriers ahead of you to stop your content from being accessed and shared further. One of these spells trust. Simply put, people will not be as likely to cite, like, click, share, and engage with content from unknown or dubious authors that they don't trust even if said content is provided at the right time in an appropriate format, etc. Search engines are also looking into ways to promote content from sources with high author rank.
How to achieve such trust is a topic for another post but for the time being, let's roll with “Trust is Queen!”
(Photograph by Michael Gwyther-Jones on Flickr under CC license)
