by By: Cassidy Stevens
Quality matters more than quantity. This is a key truth in the world of digital content. Carmen Hill, principal strategist and writer at Chill Content, emphasized this message in her talk to the class this past week. Hill discussed the importance of strategizing brand content rather than just posting mindless content. Brands can utilize social media to reach their goals and audience if they use it strategically. This means having clearly set goals, reaching your audience the correct way, and knowing what relevant topics will resonate with them. Brands that use resources to post strategic content will ultimately succeed more so than those that do not.
This Forbes article discusses the importance of brands creating quality content over mass amounts of low-quality content. The average consumer is approached by more than 5,000 ads a day. Out of all those ads only 12 of them engage the consumer. This proves that companies should not be keen on putting as much content out into the digital world as possible rather, they should strategically create and post content that has been thought through. Brands should produce content that is aimed at a specific audience, with a specific goal in mind, that contains relevant subject matter, and is sent in the right place at the right time. Content that has all those traits is quality content and will ultimately lead to success.
Brands that don’t overwhelm consumers with loads of untargeted social content and make an effort to strategically reach their goals will stand out. Standing out among the thousands of pieces of content that people see everyday is a crucial goal in digital marketing. Think of an ad or a social media post from a company you’ve seen recently that resonated with you. What was different about it? What made you remember it?
I recently came across an Instagram post from Bon Appetit magazine. This company does an excellent job at maintaining a consistent but also strategic brand voice on Instagram. Their posts usually consist of beautiful and colorful meals with a witty and occasionally informational captain. Every post contains well thought out quality content. With 3.5 million followers, 51,085 likes and 384 comments on this picture, they prove to be a great example for using successful quality content.
With the explosion of social media platforms and the noise that comes with it, it becomes harder for brands to make their voice heard. That’s why there’s people like Carmen Hill, whose job it is to help companies create strategic content that resonates with a specific audience. After hearing her talk and learning more about quality over quantity content, would you consider doing this for a job?
Find me on Twitter @cassidyystevens or LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/cassidystevens
Hi Cassidy!
I found your article regarding quality content very interesting because you are right, there is a lot of content being posted online by companies and brands that is not strategic and without certain targets and goals in mind. It is important that brands using digital social media are well versed in the purpose of their content and the audience they are catering too. If brands are familiar with their target, they will be able to create the most quality content that will lead to the success of their brand and image.
Hi Cassidy, I really enjoyed reading your post! I think that with the recent explosion of social media, companies initially felt the need to produce as much content as possible to try and be seen in a saturated market. I think that successful brands are realizing that it is no longer a numbers game. Just like a business plan, content creators and brands must be strategic in the vision and mission on social media. Viewers and consumers are picky with their time and must be strategic with what they choose view. This means that brands must do an even better job of targeting their social media.
Hey Cassidy, I like this post and totally get why brands and companies now need to be more strategic with the amount of content they are posting to social media. While I usually see IG being underutilized by brands, Twitter is usually (not always) the opposite, where companies post or re-tweet too much and too often, so the important messages get lost in a mess of watered-down posts. Most intelligent companies create social media calendars and stick to those rather than just going crazy and posting constantly, which in turn allows their brand voice to actually show.
Hi Cassidy, this is a great post not only for social media, but for life in general. I can confidently say that I absolutely hate reading long emails that go off in different tangents, or individuals who “use up all their capital” too quickly. When something truly important comes up, users should do their best to showcase a post and not get lost in the shuffle. This article has given some thought into the “Mute” button. Why do people mute others on social media? Is it because they want to retain a loose connection but they are annoyed by an account’s quantity over quantity.
Hi Cassidy, thanks for sharing. I totally agree with you, in today’s world of curated feeds it is now more important for brands to share quality content that resonates with a specific audience. With the amount of information that we are exposed to every day, sharing mediocre content on social media is no longer enough to capture someone’s attention. Now, brands need to focus on creating something that will stand out enough to capture the user’s attention and convince them to stop scrolling on their phone to engage with the post. If a brand shares too often or shares content that isn’t relevant to the brand’s followers, people may engage with posts less frequently or even unfollow the brand’s account.
Cassidy,
This post was highly informative and very relevant given the amount of content we consume on a daily basis. I was most surprised to learn that of the 5,000 ads consumers see on a daily basis, only 12 stick with them and that is definitely something to take into consideration when it comes to producing content that you want to be remembered. A book that I read for J452 called “Made to Stick” is a really good resource to learn more about the concept of producing quality content that resonates with people. It highlights the concept of simplicity in advertising but with a strong and memorable impact. I recommend it to anyone going into the industry or anyone that wants to better their communication skills.
Cassidy,
Great blog post! I completely agree with you and I think the quality of pretty much everything should be prioritized over the quantity. Content nowadays is so mass produced that it actually has to have depth and strategy to it in order to be seen or heard. Post after post after post annoys consumers and pushes them away. I also liked the Forbes article and magazine you found that correlated with the topic!
Quality over quantity is always going to be most important in consumer engagement. But I believe the money maker is a combination of both of these: quality and quantity in posts. In creating lots of quality content, you will find most engagement and increase in followers.
I do agree content needs to have a specific target and voice and strategy behind it, but if you are not producing content often, your brand will get lost in the clutter. Gary Vaynerchuk suggests brands need to post 100 pieces of quality content every day! (https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/create-content-100-pieces-per-day/) He knows this is a very difficult task, but if you are not constantly in the feed of your target, you will not be top of mind. This is also an aspirational goal. Unless a brand has a dedicated social team, this is difficult to do, so the goal is to increase your social posting count and quality.
Cassidy, great post! It is so important to focus on posting quality content rather than focusing on how much content you are putting out. From personal experience, when I see an ad for a company numerous times on social media, I tend to not want to engage in them because of how frequently it comes up on my feed. I am much more drawn into ads that have quality content and are eye-catching. Also, being concise and to the point is key when trying to increase your following and engagement. The longer the content, the less likely a person will want to engage in it.
Hi Cassidy,
I have always thought quality over quantity and that is because I would rather use all of my time perfecting one piece of work and throwing out multiple posts or projects that are just absolute garbage. I have also thought if you were posting multiple times a day and they content was not good by any means then people will stay away from your material even though down the road you could be putting out the best piece of work you have ever drawn up, but no one will see it because they were tired of seeing all of the low quality posts from the past.