Back in September of last year, I posted a question on Facebook that was bugging the crap out of me. It was one of those chicken and egg existential questions that you either shrug off or spend way too much time thinking about. I asked my network:

When it comes to social media, which comes first: content or connection?

The responses I got impressed the hell out of me. They came from folks like Judith Perrolle, Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern; B.L. Ochman; John Cass; Shel Israel; David Parmet; David Evans; Matt Searles; Scott Monty; Todd Defren; Catherine Marenghi and several others.

I share the details of the feedback below, but the conclusion from this panel of 15 social media experts was clear: content rules! These results were validated in March when AdAge reported (subscription required) on research from the Online Publishers Association (please note the potential bias here), indicating “that consumers actually spend a relatively small share (only 7.5%) of their time online with community sites….”

According to AdAge’s article, the OPA’s Internet Activity Index showed that “42.7% of consumer time online is spent with content sites, 28.6% is with communication sites, 16.1% with commerce sites and 5% on search sites.”

Francois Gossieaux challenged this whole line of thinking, or at least the research methods, arguing that treating community the same way that you treat

content, communications, search and commerce, is like comparing apples and oranges. Or better yet, comparing apples and oranges with air or water. Communities are combinations of content, commerce, communications and search. And communities affect the usage pattern of all the above categories and vice versa. So if I am spending time on Amazon.com, am I spending time with commerce, content, search or community?

Jim Nail of Cymfony poked a few more holes at the argument that content trumps all.

So where does this leave us? I’m still torn on the issue, but here’s my two cents:

Community comes first, but content is ultimately more important. There are really two questions, which comes frist, and which is more important. It’s absolutely critical to get out there and be known, and that means community. It doesn’t necessarily mean creating a community, it means joining a community, and interacting with them. But you very quickly have to be able to contribute more than the occasional witty riposte in order to grow your presence. Ultimately you need content, backed by relationships with the right online communities. Content may still be king, but without a community, it has nothing to rule over.

The results of my Facebook survey follow. While I’ve removed attributions, feel free to play the game of who said what. I will say one thing, Catherine Marenghi was the one with the great literary analogy! I think I have comments from Doug Haslam, Awais Sultan and Sandy Kalik mixed in as well.

PRO-CONTENT SENTIMENT

• Definitely content comes first. the beauty of social media is the ability to connect to new people whose content is interesting.
• Content is king! Period! Although connection will, in some cases, shape and dictate content. If you have nothing useful to say, who cares who you are saying it to.
• Content is king. Show me a single site where connections rule. Even LinkedIn is primarily focused on content, especially for recruiters.
• Yes. But seriously, I think there are a couple of different levels of social media we’re talking about. One is the digital manifestation of face-to-face relationships; the other is creating relationships from scratch. For the latter you need content.
• Great question. Likely answer is that it depends on the individual. I am sure my 15-year old would say “connections” (all his friends are on FB or MySpace), but in my own experience, the “content” of my blog led to many connections I never woulda made.
• IMHO, it is content. Content is the prime driver of the connection. Without content even the strongest connection gradually becomes an acquaintance, then an affinity, then a remembrance.
• Contention

PRO-COMMUNITY SENTIMENT

• There is nothing social about content. Giving content that others appreciate is social. Connections as a way of keeping score is of dubious value to me. Connecting with people who share a common interest, now that comes first in my book.
• Connection. Content is a commodity. Connection is what social media is all about.
• connection–if my friends weren’t on facebook, I wouldn’t be!

NEUTRAL SENTIMENT

• Social structure and culture give rise to both of these.
• Both are equally important.
• Both are equally important. Either existing connections are made stronger with social media, or content builds new connections.
• It seems like a metaphysics question, there’s a sense where the organism and the environment, if you really want to understand them, are not really discrete entities.. there distinctions have more to do with what question we ask then the thing in its self
• There’s a line from a Yeats poem — how can we know the dancer from the dance?

Special thanks to Jeff Connors of Orange Notebook for pointing me to the Ad Age article.

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