Don’t be so hard on yourself, marketers and content creators. One piece of content is just one piece of content.
Have you ever agonised over the final edit of a short video? Or drafted and redrafted to craft the best words for the text of a post? Or pulled your hair out over which hashtags you use for your motivational image?
If you work in marketing or content creation at all, you have. We’ve all thought we could have executed something better and we imagine that if only a few small things got tweaked, the outcome would have been greater.
But it’s (mostly) nonsense.
Why?
In many ways, social media is a numbers game. No, not data, though that can be useful too. The number I’m thinking of is about posts, of individual videos, photos, website links and articles. The number of discrete pieces of content that make up your brand’s strategy.
Think about it: There is so much content going out every day across all the platforms, filling our screens. And there will be more coming tomorrow. Getting too wound up about any one individual piece is misguided. You’re missing the bigger picture if you’re only focused on one brushstroke.
Social media content is about getting the attention of your followers, fans and potential customers. (As Gary Vee says, attention is the asset.)
What will hold their attention and keep them coming back for more is consistent content. Not one great video every second month — unless that’s your model (see below) — but daily pieces of content that will engage and entertain your audience.
Remember, the algorithms these days mean that many of your followers won’t even see some of the stuff you post. Which is why it’s important to keep posting. You never know which post will hit big, after all.
And as long as you’re not annoying them, your audience will be thankful for the diversity of content — and of the consistency of your output.
But, but, but…
I should add this caveat: sometimes it is the right strategy to focus on only a few high-quality pieces of content.
Large companies used to a more traditional marketing roll-out strategy will usually cycle their social media posts around a current campaign. And that’s fine — if that’s their strategy.
But for a smaller business that’s more agile and able to take advantage of social media, it’s less about any one piece of content and more about the overall branding impression.
Quality control
None of this is to say you should abandon quality. Not at all. You should strive for a high level of quality not matter what you do.
Nor am I suggesting you don’t need to put money behind your content so it can reach more people.
On the contrary, you should be boosting posts and creating ad campaigns both to gain followers and to sell your products and services.
What I am suggesting is that when you try to craft one piece of content to be the solution to your marketing problem, you’re not thinking about it the right way.
Individual pieces of social media content are like buses. There’s always another one coming down the line.
So don’t be so hard on yourself. Be consistent, do great work — but don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
If you want help with social media content creation, get in touch with us today.
