More letters, more brains / BeSpoken

As I was surfing the Internet – I know, I’m sorry… – I bumped into two interesting reads. Jason Miller, head of content & social media marketing at LinkedIn and author Andrew Davis both hold a plea for more letters and more brains in external communications. Wise words, fi-nal-ly!

Jason Miller is not Mister Nobody. As head of content & social media marketing at LinkedIn, he has a lot to say when it comes to external (marketing) communication. Well, now he is fed up with all these short, meaningless messages. ‘You used to have to write nine million blogs and a bunch of e-books to rank. Now it’s a matter of being smart. It’s brains over budget.’ He is holding a strong plea for the return of brains in our content. To make your brand noticed, it is no longer a matter of big budgets, but rather of more insights and wisdom. Smart will win from expensive.

Meanwhile, we read the words from author Andrew Davis (at the ‘Content Marketing World 2018’): ‘to make content shorter, we deleted everything that could make it interesting and differentiating.’ Davis wants the return of longreads, miles away from the readymade 140 signs tweets. More letters (characters), please!

We like to bring both readings together, and make our own conclusion. Please, refocus on content. Should this imply longer reading? So be it. More letters, more brains please. In the world of journalism, this plea seems to make sense. Why doesn’t it seem to do so in corporate & marketing communication? Or are we just an old-fashioned ‘man of words’? Avec plaisir. Thank you.

Read the words of Jason Miller here.
Read more about Andrew Davis’ speech at the Content Marketing World 2018 here.