Content vs. Conversation

“Power out? No problem.” Four words created one of the most talked about Superbowl moments in the championship’s history. Retweeted 16,000 times, the tweet included a picture of a lone Oreo cookie and copy that stated, “ You can still dunk in the dark." The sharp and timely wit displayed by Oreo earlier this year sparked an incredible buzz across social media outlets everywhere after the world famous game was delayed by a power surge in the lighting. Brilliant content sparked massive conversation. The debate between content and conversation’s importance in the social landscape continues to escalate with no satisfactory answer on the horizon. There are two different schools of thought.



Michael Greenberg argues, “[Think] of social as purely another mechanism for distribution and taking one step back and viewing yourself as a content publisher [allows you to] really take the best advantage of social marketing” (Greenberg, 2009). Four years later, Greenberg’s argument still stands as a popular one. Many would say that if you lack good content, there is no subject for conversation in the first place. The second school of thought champions conversation as the indicator of social success. “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising,” states Catherine Novak (Novak, 2010). The conversation is what makes social media what it is. Content must be created with conversation in mind. Marketers are responsible for crafting messages with compelling calls to action.

With strong arguments for either side, which one wins? Is content still king or does conversation trump all? Ultimately both sides know that one does not survive without the other in our new, socially connected world. The argument for one over the other is pretty silly. Conversation requires a topic, and content should never be created to sit on a company’s front door step, not to be seen by anyone. These two things go hand in hand.

In the case of Oreo, we saw great content created in the blink of an eye as a response to an isolated event. But Oreo had been working on their campaign for two years prior. As they approached their 100th birthday, Oreo decided it would do something on social media every day rather than just occasionally. Another significant success took place seven months earlier on June 25, 2012. In an effort to support National Gay Pride Day, the cookie company took an Oreo and created multiple layers of different colors to present the gay flag. This post was an incredible success for the company and generated countless shares, retweets, and mentions online.

Content that is not shared lacks a social purpose online. Content creators must work hard to produce work that excites and motivates their audience to interact. This statement, in and of itself, demonstrates the importance of both sides in this debate. Content and conversation need each other to ensure social success online. Marketers would be wise to focus less on the debate, and more on what they create.