But Where are the People, Man?

I recently returned from this year’s New Media Expo in Southern California.

Well, it feels like recently, but I guess the show wrapped almost a month ago now. It’s fitting though, because that kind of pace seems to just about fit perfectly with the world of new media that we’re seeing right now.

Meeting with people at the show and just hearing about some of the ideas floating around, it’s obvious that as the barriers to access keep getting lower and lower for people to live life in a mixed media world, the potential for excellent, creative content is basically limitless. Even watching the light come on for some long established companies about what’s possible was really a lot of fun.

I have to ask the question though; how is this content going to get to the masses?

Now granted, a ton, and I mean a ton of user generated content is meant for the creator and their friends/family/facebook list, etc. No matter how big a list that is, it’s clearly not intended for mass consumption.

Even the greatest Jimi Hendrix Air Guitar Maestro has a limited audience.

But what about the content that is intended for the masses? How do the masses find it? There is more and more new content to sift through everyday. Throwing your ‘viral’ (and I use that term almost dreamily) video into the World Wide Web hoping that people will come running is a bit naive, at best.

The scary truth of it is, if you want mass consumption, you have to market. That’s never going to change. What changes is how you market, and who you market to.

There’s a boatload of fantastic content producers working today, but before you go to the trouble of getting great content, make sure you know what you’re plan for it really is.