Here, I outline the reasons Two-Minute Reads came about as a new business idea and the ambition behind the brand.
When social media was new and had so much promise
I remember when Facebook was born and industry watchers and commentators were trying to get their heads around what social media would do to society, marketing, advertising, and the publishing industry.
It looked to some like we'd just opened pandora's box. For others, it was the dawn of a new socially conscious age, where individuals could hold governments and greedy corporate brands to account.
Certainly, for all, it was a watershed moment.
Whether you're a fan of Facebook or not, nobody can argue that it has set the pace in the social media industry, and has been instrumental in upscaling user experience design, the ambitions of entrepreneurs, and redefining the marketing industry. I'm not here to criticise social media, but to highlight what it's become for communities around the world that began to use tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to socialise their ideas, articles and news.
Social media is a troubled publishing channel
Visit popular social media channels like LinkedIn today and the sheer volume of social conversation, commentary and causal messages has overtaken the value of its useful content.
Think of a good cause that's in the news, and you'll find it somewhere on social channel streams.
Deserving causes like Women in IT, diversity, charities, wars... all getting thousands of supporting posts from individuals and companies. Absolutely nothing at all wrong with that... it's what social media was born for... and yet, if you are a community of interest trying to share insightful information, newsworthy content, etc. All that gets in the way.
What makes Two Minute Reads something new?
Two-Minute Reads is a digital publishing platform, a place for people to snack on easy-to-find, topic-curated news and articles on subjects they care about. We've designed it for writers and publishers who want to serve a community of interest with the well-written abbreviated content they're looking for.
Our ambition is to make Two-Minute Reads the new place people go to snack on news; The perfect accompanyment to the morning coffee, or commute, the only app you want to make sure you have loaded on your phone, the ony accompanyment you need to pack for your flight.
For writers, we want to create a place they wanted to work and perfect their art. Additionally, we want to supply all of the modern tools and enablers that make it easy for writers to author good content that gains the nod of both their community of interest and Google--arguably, the only opinion that matters these days!
Advantages of using Two Minute Reads over blogs and Social Media for publishing your content
Two-Minute Reads is not a Social Media channel. It doesn't suffer the challenges of social clutter, and yet it offers a welcome up-ramp of content to both social media channels and newswire services.
For publishers, it extends their potential audience way beyond the limits of their social media followers.
Rather than spend your day trying to beg more followers to jump on your company page, you can spend it growing your business, engaging your influencers, doing something that's more rewarding and productive.
Benefits for Search Engine Optimisation
Writers and publishers care about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Why would they not? What's the point in writing content others won't ever see.
In a digital world brimming with content and offers, the most probable risk for any writer or new business is not the loss of intellectual property, but obscurity.
Publish on Two-Minute Reads, and Google will love you; because it's all about fresh, interesting content. That increases your website's authority when you link to it. And the backlinks you produce add to your off-page SEO!
Click here to read our follow-up article to discover how Two Minute Reads works.
