7 Common Myths About Digital Content
Written by Matt Clement
April 19, 2016
The internet is amazing! It has the ability to connect people of all walks of life, demographics, geographic regions, and beliefs. More than ever you can share your ideas and find like-minded people.
However, with that comes mixed messages and insecurities on how we should process all this digital content. Hopefully, the myth busters below will help shed some light on the big and vast world of digital content.
Before we start, for the sake of this post, we’re defining digital content as any media you encounter on the internet. This could be social media posts, websites, blogs, digital publications (our favorite), or the latest cat GIF.
With that in mind, let’s look at some common myths surrounding digital content.
Myth One: Digital content is only read and accessed by young people
We are seeing a growing trend of middle-aged and older adults accessing digital content. According to Pew Research Center, young adults are most likely to use the internet, but seniors show faster adoption rates.
Myth Two: You have to be on social media to access digital content
To some people, the internet is Facebook and nothing else. While the bigger social media sites are a great place to find and engage with digital content, it is just one area of a vast network. As long as you have internet access, you’re good to go. Start exploring new sites outside of social media. I can guarantee you that if you have a hobby, there is a blog all about it. Find them and sign up for their newsletters. Email newsletters are a great way to learn and engage with digital content.
You can start by signing up for our Nxtblog email newsletter!
Myth Three: There are hackers everywhere!
Actually, the majority of the internet is very safe. Nxtbook, for example, has never had a breach. To help you feel secure, look for sites that begin with http://. The ‘s’ stands for secure.
It’s also important to use secure passwords. Check out the infographic below from ZoneAlarm about the most common passwords and some tips on picking more secure passwords:
(click to enlarge)
Myth Four: Everything costs something
When it comes to digital content, there is an endless pool of valuable resources available to you at no cost. Here’s a tip, just try Googling what you are looking for and put the word ‘free’ in front of it. It’s amazing the digital content out there that is open and available for you. For example, websites like Coursera.org offer “universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.” Many of the courses are free and open to anyone.
Myth Five: Print will always give me more value than digital resources
Although it is nice to have that tangible document in hand, many times you can get more value for less out of a digital product. Digital is not confined by permanent print and distribution. It can be changed on the fly. We call our Nxtbooks a living document. You can update it and republish as needed. Digital also allows you to include multiple types of media in one place. A digital publication can include videos and images or links to a different website.
Myth Six: ROI is only measured in clicks
This applies more to those of you creating your own content. In the digital world clicks are not king. (Really.) If you’re one of the lucky ones that can get clicks with an ad than more power to you. What you should be focusing on are impressions and time spent. Impressions refer to the number of times your content was seen. For instance, if you created an ad for your latest and greatest product, it may only be clicked 5 times but seen 10,000 times. The 10,000 number refers to impressions.
For time spent, you’re looking at how long someone interacted with your content. The longer they stay on a webpage, or inside your digital publication, the better the engagement.
Myth Seven: People love my content
I’m sure your content is amazing! The problem is that there is a lot of amazing content out there on the interwebs. To stand out, you need to add value and give people a reason to keep coming back. In digital publications, this can include audio, video, slideshows and many other forms of rich media. Adding this type of media to your words is a great way to break things up and keep people more engaged. Speaking of videos, have you seen our latest series, The Nxt? It’s an exaggerated view of our life and culture at Nxtbook. The first episode is below:
So there you have it! Seven common myths about digital content.
