Stock and flow is an economics concept referring to static value (stock) and transactions over a period of time (flow). This is a useful metaphor for producing content on the internet.
Flow is like the ephemeral feed of content we create on social media and forums. Stock is the evergreen content we create like blog posts and essays. Flow spreads quickly (viral sharing), but is short lived (pages out of the feed in hours). Stock spreads slowly (Google search), but grows steadily over time.
See also:
- The blog post this comes from by Robin Sloan
- Effects of note blogging on SEO that talks about the advantage of search traffic over social media traffic
- The Garden and the Stream is a similar, but different metaphor about content creation
Links to this note
-
With so much of our time spent with computers and the internet, we ought to think about the quality of our digital lives. What makes for a good digital life? How do you achieve it? What should we do to improve it?