Award-winning Australian journalist and thought leader Waleed Aly has warned media companies against chasing viral content, claiming it will ultimately destroy trust with their audiences.

Today the Brand Newsroom team takes a close look at ‘short-termism’. Is being hungry for likes, shares, views and follows degrading our brands and risking our relationship with our most important asset — our customer?

Here are some key take-outs:

• Brands are losing focus on their business and trying to work out ‘how can we go viral; how can we get more likes?’ It’s better to focus on your business goals.
• Audiences have got to a point where they’re ‘dumbed down’: they’re used to the “fast-food” version of content. We should still be tackling the more complicated content and creating it in a way that still appeals, and helping build the audience appetite for that.

‘Marketers are now behaving like advertisers used to behave, but without the finesse’. — Sarah

• With the media collapsing there is less and less good information out there. That means now is a great opportunity to create quality, information-rich content. Brands can own a niche and become the world’s foremost authority in their area.

‘The media cycle is only going to get faster. You think it’s quick now, wait until you see it in six months from now’. — Nic

• Mix in the ‘fast-food’ content with the quality content.
• Brands don’t have to get caught up in the short-termism that’s plaguing traditional media. Keep producing quality content. Not every piece of content will be a winner with the audience, but keep creating excellent content as this will build trust with your audience when they do engage with it.
• Long-form content is some of the most successful content that’s out there at the moment.

‘If you keep feeding them rubbish, you’re going to get rubbish at the other end’. — Nic

Here are the links you might need:

• Here’s an article about Waleed Aly’s speech.

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic spoke to Bernadette Jiwa about putting more love into your marketing.

And here’s a discussion about building personal brands.

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