The big football content debate: Quality vs. quantity
Everyone likes to think they’d go with quality over quantity if given the option.
In reality, however, that is rarely possible in the world of football content. Competition is fierce with everyone scrambling to find their niche in a crowded market. There are no guarantees that the work put out there will be the best or the one that readers prefer.
Page views, clicks, sessions; whatever you want to call them, they are what ultimately pay the bills for many companies.
So, like many people do when cooking at home, the temptation is always there to have backups. Not only is it a safety net for if something goes wrong, but it is also a way to spread the risk.
I’m not joking, I double up when poaching or boiling eggs. I’m not the only one, either.
It may only be a children’s story, but had there not been three lots of porridge for Goldilocks, she would’ve gone hungry.
Readers are the same. They might not be interested in a news angle on a potential signing and instead want a feature profile. Outlets need to cater for everyone and everything.
This can quickly turn into something of a vicious cycle.
Instead of allowing writers to focus their time on a single piece of content, they’re tasked with producing two pieces of work in that time in a bid to cover as many bases as possible.
Research time can take a hit, pieces then lack the context required to educate the reader and you end up losing them to another website offering deeper insight. To make up for that initial loss, more pieces are published and so on.
On the flip side, there are publications that focus primarily on the big features and add a sprinkling of opinion to keep the website ticking over. This really only works with historical subjects.
In the fast paced world of football, it is almost impossible to produce detailed analysis that is still topical.
A signing is announced on a Monday, a writer spends Tuesday piecing it together and it is published on Wednesday. Regardless of whether it is the most thorough article on the player, those who might’ve been interested would’ve gorged themselves on propaganda in the previous days.
There is a middle ground, somewhere. There has to be.
One potential solution is Twenty3’s Content Toolbox. Not only do the tools within enrich the content being produced, it also turns every user into an expert.
And it does all this at speed.
In the past, we’ve talked about how it takes just 90 seconds to find a unique angle and produce a branded graphic. Users are able to download a rankings graphic inside of 20 seconds and a customisable shot map takes less than 40 seconds from start to finish.
In the space of two and a half minutes, the Content Toolbox can give you a crash course on a player you might have known nothing about. It allows you, the writer, to scale detailed content in a way that means you no longer have to decide between quantity and quality.
A perfect example of this was when David Ornstein revealed Liverpool were working on a deal to sign RB Leipzig defender Ibrahima Konate.
The transfer news guru posted the exclusive at 8:01am.
Within the same hour, when everyone was still reporting the news, we were able to produce a detailed thread on what Liverpool fans could expect from the Frenchman and why the Reds might have put him at the top of their summer wishlist.
Nobody within our company is an expert on Konate. He’s barely played for the best part of two seasons. Yet with the help of the Toolbox, we could confidently build a profile on a player, inside of 60 minutes. Had we wanted to turn this into pieces of written content, we could’ve done. Just as we did when Thiago joined the Premier League champions.
The Toolbox gives content creators the option to be first and be the best. It enables users to produce quality pieces of content, but without output taking a hit.
We help our customers maximise the potential of football data. Whether you’re a data novice or expert, the Twenty3 Toolbox gives you the tools to do your job quicker and better.
If you think your organisation – whether in the media, broadcast, agency or pro club sector – could benefit from our product, you can request a demo here.