Level 5 Content: Go Big or Go Home

What is level 5 com­mu­nic­a­tion — and why is it important?

In this art­icle, you’ll get a brief explan­a­tion of how algorithms are sort­ing away mediocre com­mu­nic­a­tion and good communication.

I’ve been advising cli­ents on con­tent strategies for over a dec­ade. In short: What used to work does­n’t work anymore.

Today, you have to go big or go home.

Here’s why:

Digital is Evolving at Light Speed

“Social media is divid­ing us,” crit­ics claim.

We live in the age of algorithms, and even the lag­gards are start­ing to catch on. We battle many unex­pec­ted issues, from online act­iv­ists to journ­al­ists hid­ing behind pay­walls.

One of many out­comes is the rap­id pro­fes­sion­al­iz­a­tion of the Internet, i.e. the Money Web con­tent cre­at­ors are push­ing the lim­its of fast and agile pro­duc­tions with pol­ished res­ults. The com­pet­i­tion is more chal­len­ging than ever.

While most brands will struggle to keep up with influ­en­cers and social media nat­ur­als, the idea has always been that brands can pro­duce valu­able content.

However, it seems like good social media con­tent won’t cut it anymore. 

What’s hap­pen­ing?

Is Your Communication Good Enough?

Imagine your com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­it­ies grouped into five levels based on PR quality.

Most would agree that it’s reas­on­able for algorithms to sort away lousy, harm­ful, or even aver­age con­tent activities.

But today, the algorithms are also sort­ing away good communication.

We know that com­pet­ing for atten­tion is con­stantly get­ting more demand­ing. For pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­nic­at­ors, it’s not get­ting any easier.

Gatekeepers are Slaves to Algorithms, Too

One might argue that the algorithms aren’t in com­plete con­trol — at least not yet. There are still power­ful gate­keep­ers yield­ing their influ­ence across huge audi­ences.

However, the power of these gate­keep­ers stems from their abil­ity to nego­ti­ate the algorithms.

Journalists are learn­ing what will drive clicks and social shar­ing.
Influencers are learn­ing what will enter­tain their audi­ences.
Site own­ers are learn­ing what will attract traffic and convert.

These gate­keep­ers act like Pavlovian dogs, con­di­tioned by the algorithms. Gatekeepers influ­ence user beha­viour; beha­viours influ­ence the algorithms, and the algorithms exploit gate­keep­ers. And around we go.

Love them or hate them, embrace them or fear them. Algorithms are the back­bone of the digit­al media landscape.

Or, as Marshall McLuhan stated, “the medi­um is the mes­sage.”

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Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”

“The medi­um is the mes­sage” is a phrase coined by the Canadian philo­soph­er Marshall McLuhan in the first chapter of his not­able book “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.” ¹Understanding Media. (2023, September 18). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​U​n​d​e​r​s​t​a​n​d​i​n​g​_​M​e​dia

Despite being one of the most influ­en­tial thinkers in media the­ory, McLuhan’s ideas are often widely mis­un­der­stood. “The medi­um is the mes­sage” is no exception.

“The medi­um is the mes­sage” does­n’t imply that con­tent or sub­stance lacks import­ance, only that the medi­um in which mes­sages are sent will sig­ni­fic­antly impact humanity.

• McLuhan pro­posed that intro­du­cing a new medi­um will impact human­ity sig­ni­fic­antly more than any­thing sub­sequently trans­mit­ted through that medium.

McLuhan views medi­ums as exten­sions of human physiology. Our abil­ity to build houses extends our human skin, as it pro­tects against the ele­ments. This added lay­er of pro­tec­tion and phys­ic­al safety frees up men­tal band­width for human interaction.

So, a house is a medi­um in McLuhan’s inter­pret­a­tion. All human tech­no­lo­gies, down to the camp­fire, are con­sidered mediums.

“McLuhan’s insight was that a medi­um affects the soci­ety in which it plays a role not by the con­tent delivered over the medi­um, but by the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the medi­um itself. […] McLuhan poin­ted to the light bulb as a clear demon­stra­tion of this concept. A light bulb does not have con­tent in the way that a news­pa­per has art­icles or a tele­vi­sion has pro­grams, yet it is a medi­um that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to cre­ate spaces dur­ing night­time that would oth­er­wise be envel­oped by dark­ness.”
Source: Wikipedia ²Marshall McLuhan. (2023, May 15). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​M​a​r​s​h​a​l​l​_​M​c​L​u​han

According to McLuhan, our abil­ity to cre­ate exten­sions of human­ity expo­nen­tially impacts our com­mu­nic­a­tion more than any mes­sage con­veyed as a result:

• A light­bulb is a medi­um (an exten­sion of the human eye).
• A house is a medi­um (an exten­sion of the human skin).
• The tele­phone is a medi­um (an exten­sion of human vocal cords).

And so on.

Why is McLuhan’s ana­lys­is neces­sary? “The medi­um is the mes­sage” is a stark remind­er that a medi­um’s format (and its lim­it­a­tions) will massively impact human soci­ety — and the mes­sages them­selves, too.

We often default to seek­ing mean­ing in mes­sages but for­get to con­sider the medi­um’s inher­ent media logic.

Learn more: Media Logic is Dead, Long Live Media Logic

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And we, as PR pro­fes­sion­als, must change the way we prioritize.

New PR Rules, New PR Strategies

Today, we need strategies based on what’s rap­idly becom­ing the most valu­able com­mod­ity in the world — atten­tion.

We must adapt because the algorithms dic­tate the rules we get to play by. We need to go bigger.

The PR pro­fes­sion must invent new playbooks. 

Because we know it works to pick an epic fight with a stu­pid majority. 

Because Content Themes work.
Because Surround Strategy works.
Because Iceberg Publishing works.

All are big, ambi­tious, bold, yet focused PR strategies.

Go For Level 5 Content — or Go Home

The key takeaway isn’t that excel­lent com­mu­nic­a­tion works bet­ter than good com­mu­nic­a­tion. We already knew that.

The crit­ic­al point is that good con­tent will steal resources from great con­tent — whatever that may entail in your niche. To para­phrase busi­ness author Jim Collins, “good can be the enemy of great.”

In the age of algorithms, the win­ners take all — or at least most of it. Traffic. Conversions. Engagement. Share of voice. Attention. 

We must be laser-focused on what PR object­ives we pur­sue. And we must aban­don everything that does­n’t qual­i­fy as Level 5 Content.

If this means pro­du­cing less good con­tent to make the occa­sion­al great con­tent — so be it.