Why I am betting on long-form content (WWI 11)

“Welcome back, everyone! I hope you had a great holiday.”

That’s what thousands of students heard the past few days. Schools have started, and amidst all the new curricula and courses, a new source of endless wisdom has emerged.

5 courageous early adopters (including myself 😎) have received the very first WWI delivered by email.

Jup, schools are back. And so is Wessel’s Weekly Insights. Your favourite LinkedIn series that’s so disconnected from pop culture that it had to hear about the GTA VI trailer through the NOS journal at 8 o’clock. (I knew information travelled slower in Zeeland, but I didn’t know it was that bad…)

But we’re back, and to celebrate, I want to share why I reintroduced this LinkedIn series in the first place. Because if you’re aware of the trends in media/marketing, longer-written formats seem like the complete opposite of what ‘you should be doing’ right now.

Noticed the shift towards more video content (mostly shorts)?

If you’re a marketer, when was the last time you received a brief for a blog or newsletter? Jup, everyone wants Instagram or TikTok campaigns, because that’s where the attention is, right?

Well, I don’t think so.

Yes, we spend more time (doom)scrolling on our phones. Yes, (short-form) videos generate more views. But not all views are created equal. Which person do you bond more with? The creator behind a random Reel, or the one behind a written article?

How many of the reels/tiktoks/shorts you saw yesterday do you remember? For how many of these do you remember the creator?

And for blogs? Do you remember what blogs you read recently? Do you remember the creator/author of these?

Chances are you remember the blogs better. Here’s why.

The longer we spend with a piece of content, the more effort it requires from our brains. And the more effort it requires from our brains, the better we tend to remember it.

Longer-form content also gives consumers more time to get familiar with the person behind the content, which leads to a deeper connection and more trust.

And together, these reasons lead to more value for the consumer. Ideas and insights stick better, they have a better idea of a person’s expertise, and their already invested time makes them more likely to actually act on the content they consumed. That’s a win-win-win!

The takeaway:

Not all content is created equal.

So, before you create your next piece of content, ask yourself: what do I want to achieve with it? Don’t make things because everyone else is doing it. Most people don’t have a clue what they are doing. They get obsessed with vanity metrics like views and likes. Which is fine… IF that’s your goal. But views and likes are rarely a good predictor of brand connection, educational value and/or (overall) impact.

So, if not awareness, but one of these is your goal, look at your content, and ask yourself: is this actually making a memorable impact in someone’s life, or is it just something they would scroll through without much thought?

What is the next piece of content that you’re making? And what do you want to achieve with it?