Trust: The King of Content Kingdom

How to Develop Consistent Readership for Any Media

The battle for garnering attention has been a constant power struggle for the media industry since the advent of newspapers. The psychology behind what grabs the most eyeballs has been puzzling people even in present day. As people’s habits of consuming content has changed, so have all the rules of the game.

In the digital age, it is not just the big media houses like Ogilvy & Mathers or JWT that have control over ads and content for TV and print media. Today, people have been empowered by the internet to be powerhouses of content generation. It can be considered that the one-way communication on these conventional media platforms has not able to create a rapport with the young audiences as much as their digital media counterparts. Now that everybody has a device in their pocket to generate content on the go, there is a deeper sense of belonging.

This has made content creators puzzled about the secret ingredient of constantly engaging content creation. Here’s why TRUST is the ultimate secret ingredient for increasing constant readership.

Saturation is the Mother of Invention

Even though the dynamics have changed, the psychology behind content consumption has remained the same. Any individual faces saturation using all common forms of media. Too many TV channels, too many blogs, too many people on social media and too much information to consume that is not enough for several lifetimes.

This saturation makes the reader gravitate towards content providers that seem consistent and trustworthy. This includes content that has helped the individual in the past to get smarter than their peers or just get through with daily challenges. Successful content providers that don’t rely on clickbait content focus on building a long-term readership through building of trust.

What Social Media Can Teach Content Providers

What people consume on social media is mainly content created by the people, for the people. The catch is that people do not consume content from all users or accounts that they follow. This relies on an algorithm that tracks the time spent on the posts and the likes that are posted.

The phenomenon is relevant throughout Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and others. This creates a system in which users tend to consume the content from people that consistently provide interesting content or there is a mutual relationship present. The lesson for content providers is to incite healthy interaction from your readers.

Give People a Reason to Read Your Content

When people have a constant option to switch from your content to other at any second, grabbing attention becomes a challenge. The type of articles that get read entirely are mostly How-to articles that help a reader by providing relevant information about a problem the user is facing.

If the reader does not get the fish-hook of benefit, they are bound to float away to another blog or social media channel. This does not mean to publish clickbait content on your page because a reader will not constantly read your content if you always post fluff pieces on clickbait. Even Huffington Post, the infamous pioneer of clickbait said it in their 2016 article that ‘clickbait is dead’ because readers have got smart. The saturation of clickbait has made people impervious to the psychological bait and they are looking for consistently helpful and engaging content.

Be Simple but Significant

To engage readers of all types, its necessary to not let your metaphorical deer get lost in the jungle of jargon. It is okay to delve into terminology if the subject demands it, but it’s safe to have links for explaining these terms (plus points for referring to reputable sites!). By being consistent in language and by references to trusted sites, the domain trustworthiness of your site also increases.

It’s also important to carve a niche for your readership that is related but not restricting. For example, if you write for doctors, its not necessary they are always interested in medicine. Something that is related and interesting helps build an extensive keyword cloud and also keeps your readers engaged.

To sum it all up, give your readers what they want by following these simple rules to build trust with them. This approach is a slow but steady approach to building a loyal base of readers that will read and engage with other readers in any platform you post your content on.