The Value of Online Content: One of the few things COVID couldn't shut down

While your life has come to a virtual standstill over the last 365 days, there’s one thing – besides the COVID 19 virus – that has traveled unchecked, unhampered by business shutdowns, travel bans and closed borders. It’s your online content!

THE EVIDENCE

Plenty of evidence – some quantitative and some anecdotal – shows that the online content you share keeps on giving. One source likens the lifetime value of blog posts to annuities, because they provide value over time. It’s estimated that it takes as long as 700 days for a blog post to max out on its total impressions.

MY EXPERIENCE

Once upon a time (four years ago to be exact), I wrote a book, and I set up a Facebook page to share content. Life got busy, promoting my book fell down the list of priorities, and I quit writing content. Still, my Facebook page gets 10 or more new views each day. How can that be?

It’s the lifespan of content, and it’s a beautiful thing.

If you’re like me, you get discouraged when you spend time writing new – and presumably great – marketing content. You post it on LinkedIn or Facebook, and you wait. You’re mortified when you check back, hour-by-sad-hour, realizing that you received four likes – and that’s on a good day. No comments. No shares. Just four likes.

But hold on! Remember that the value of content is not always in the moment. Instead, the value of content often increases over time.

 Granted, I should have shut down my book’s Facebook page a long time ago. It’s not exactly good business when someone shows up to learn more, and instead they find broken links and a handful of outdated posts. Very irresponsible of me, and I’m going to fix that, as soon as I post this blog.

THE LESSON

So maybe 10 new views a day is nothing to celebrate, but it is proof that something I wrote 1,460 days ago is still getting attention. Not bad, considering the research says my content peaked at least 760 days ago.

Knowing that blogs have such a long lifespan motivates me to write and post more, even if you don’t give it a “thumbs up,” make a comment or share it.

In 700 days, you just might!

P.S. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you did like, comment or share...just saying.