Sexy Is Only Skin Deep

by Sarah Snell Cooke, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Credit Union Times

A minister, a conference organizer and an editor walked into a bar…

OK, it wasn’t a bar but the gist of the story is true, and the names were changed to protect the innocent—or guilty, depending upon your point of view.

The minister walks in and says, ‘I don’t understand why people won’t just listen to what they need to hear. If I don’t rock out Christian tunes on the guitar and tell jokes, no one listens to me.’

The conference organizer nods knowingly and bemoans, ‘I work eight months out of the year to ensure a good balance of need to know content with items for pure entertainment value. After our last event the feedback came in that it was too much hard information and not enough fun.’

The editor cringes and relates that the content that carries most weight on the website is list stories; never mind what they’re about. Make an article into a quick, easy list and people will flock to it.

Recently I’ve had several conversations regarding content and substance of all types from print to online to live or virtual events. The infotainment business always has been a tricky act but never so much as right now when there’s a multitude of information available to consume on the Internet and, yes, even in print. The problem those of us in ‘the biz’ face is that the consumers often only want the spoonful of sugar and forget that it was merely there to help the medicine go down.

Take Newsweek as a case study; I’m more of the camp that the magazine was it’s own problem and not necessarily caught up in the tailspin of the publishing world. They’ve sorta-kinda merged with The Daily Beast, a much sexier and more entertainment-focused web site. It’s an odd pairing that I don’t expect will do well for the core Newsweek followers.

No matter what there’s information consumers need to have and they know it, though some are slower than others to recognize it. Character is king and substance will rule over the now. Credit unions recognize this. It’s how they survived the economic crisis to come back swinging, marking record membership growth and assets exceeding $1 trillion in 2012. So when you’re at a conference on the members’ dime, celebrating the credit union making it through another year of the new economy, remember what brought you there: faith and substance with a little bit of fun around the edges.

Sarah Snell Cooke

Sarah Snell Cooke

Sarah Snell Cooke is principal at Cooke Consulting Solutions, a business and communications strategy firm serving the community financial institutions market and their business partners. She has more than 20 ... Web: https://www.cookeconsultingsolutions.com Details