distributor
In the ever-expanding cosmos of online content, four distinct classes of interactors have emerged. Yet unlike classes of affluence that we are familiar with, these classes are much more like gradients of grey. One may wear a hat that is a unique blend of multiple classes simultaneously. This article will help interactors with online content to evaluate his or her current place in the inter-ethers.
There are four primary classes of online content interactors. The first is the most obvious: the Content Creator. Whenever someone writes a joke or an essay, a song or a sonnet, that is intended to be shared online…that person is creating content. This content can either be intended to be shared freely, like a photographer who takes a picture and then shares it in the Wikipedia image commons as public domain. Or it can someone who intends to sell a song for profit online via Soundcloud or Beatport. The financial aspect does not change the fact that content is content. We will discuss content creators in more detail later in this article.
Content distributors are a class of interactors that make content that has been made by content creators easily accessible. They can either charge for their services or else distribute content for free. Some examples of content distributors would be YouTube for distributing video content. Bandcamp distributes audio content. Overidon.com distributes articles and other information. Wikipedia distributes massive amounts of knowledge via its website in several languages.
The main difference between a Content Creator and a Distributor is that the Content Creator makes things for interactors to experience and a distributor makes sure it gets to those interactors.
Another important class of interactor is the Hype Generators. These people are extremely important for any successful meme to enter into the greater internet cosmological consciousness. A person who is a Hype Generator sees or hears or reads content that was created by a Content Creator and then shared by a Distributor. Then perhaps even after just glancing at something very quickly they share the link to it on their Facebook. Or else they tweet about it. Or they send a txt about some cool music video they saw to a friend. Or else they chatted about a great niche blog on AIM.
Hype Generators are different from Distributors because they don’t actually host the content. Hype Generators primarily spread the word about something by either talking loosely about a subject or phenomenon, or else by directly linking or embedding content hosted by a Distributor.
Another important difference is that Distributors of content can charge for their service or for viewing content. Or in many cases the Distributor simply gets advertising revenue related to their sharing of content on their respective websites. This is different from a hype generator because hype generators primarily do not profit from sharing links and ideas. The main thing that hype generators get is increased attention, respect and virtual “Street Cred.”
Now there are many websites that act as a forum for both distribution of content and acting as Hype Generators. This is an important thing to bring up because these classes of interactors are not black and white. Most people are a mixture of all 4 classes…with some extra emphasis in an area. There is rarely two interactors in the entire internet that are exactly alike.
A Hype Generator is extremely important when a piece of content is about to get “Viral.” It is necessary for people to share and talk about the content autonomously and without prodding or persuasion. The content itself must warrant the buzz.
Interestingly enough, there are some people who actually get paid a salary to be Hype Generators. Although their title is usually something completely different. But they end up doing almost exactly what was discussed above.
The fourth and final class of interactors is the Absorber. Absorbers are without a doubt the most important part of the entire online content process. For if there is no one to listen to, and appreciate, or read the work of the Content Creator. Then there truly was no need to publish that material on the Internet anyway. It could have stayed on a LAN and had the same effect.
Technically, all of the above mentioned classes of Content Creators, Distributors, and Hype Generators are also Absorbers.
An Absorber is someone that may see a link that was posted by a friend on Facebook for a music video. And then after reading the friend’s description that says, “This song makes me think of goat cheese for some reason…” the Absorber thinks to him or herself, “Hey! I want to think of goat cheese too! I’m goona click this right now!” (*individual results may vary)
The information got passed from the Hype Generator to the Absorber. And now the Absorber is viewing the music video that was made by a Content Creator. And the Absorber is using the Distributor’s website and bandwidth and is looking or clicking on the Distributor’s ads or is at least considering viewing the Distributor’s other available content.
Let’s go into more detail and engage in a case study.
His name is Jonathan Campos and currently his middle name is Ferret. Jonathan is a blend of all four classes of content interactors. He writes original jokes, music and does Photoshop art (usually of himself) and all of which are generally either amusing, hilarious, rousing or all of the above. So that makes him a Content Creator. He also sells his music via Bandcamp and other mediums. So even though he doesn’t technically own Bandcamp, he gets a percentage of the profits of the sales from his bandcamp page so that means he definitely is at least partially a Distributor of his content.
But the main area that Jonathan Campos really is extremely prolific is in his role as a Hype Generator. Jonathan sends out multiple tweets and facebook status update and links with often radically entertaining and or amuzing links and original anecdotes. So much is the case, that it is rare when Jonathan Campos speaks, and many do not comment, respond, hit the like button, or else insult the man. His personality and breadth of influence among his friends and fans stimulates conversation and usually ridiculous introspection and he is a must have for anyone who appreciates uncomfortably poignant and politically incorrect humor.
Yet at the same time there is a side of him that adds Hype Generation to more serious issues like economic issues of unemployment or social issues. So his character has depth and intrigue that makes Absorbers like myself want to read each status update without fail, oftentimes scrolling through previous pages in order to hear something good.
And it is obvious that Jonthan Campos must be at least absorbing some of the content that he is Hype Generating because so much of this information is funny. He isn’t just spitting out links at random. There must be some sort of preview process that happens here.
So what is going on is that you can probably see by now that all four of the content interactor classes are symbiotic and complimentary. If your strong point is being prolific and created a tremendous amount of content, then do it. Just try and make friends with good Distributors and Hype Generators that will be able to share your content with a large or at least focused group of Absorbers.
If you love Absorbing great information and having fun conversations at parties, then having a friend like Jonathan Campos would make a lot of sense. Because he is going to be giving you ideas and thinks to mentally munch on that may send your clicks in a different direction than your standard YouTube auto-suggestions.
The key to understand is that even though this online content system appears to be a competition, it really isn’t. There are so many potential Absorbers out there, that it is a much better strategy to make real relationships with Distributors, Hype Generators, Content Creators and other Absorbers on as large of a scale as you can handle safety wise and mental spam bombardment wise.
One thing that I’ve noticed is that there is no cookie cutter model for success. Some Hype Generators are super positive. Others are negative. And there is no real way to tell what people like more. I guess you just need to choose a voice that is tolerable for YOU most of all. Because if you get sick of your own comments then it is pretty likely that so will your friends.
The fun part about these classes of interactors is that one can change at any time. A person who is a huge Hype Generator may find that he or she has the perfect fan base for promoting a new piece of content. Or else someone who is a consistent Content Creator may have attained the respect of Hype Generators which may after a long or short period of time propel that Content Creator into the limelight and attract the attention of a powerful Distributor.
This entire Internet Content cosmos is changing and growing so the rules can change at any time. But these classes may help people articulate their online content interactions.
-Tyler
