Contending with online content overload

With a mile-long list of metrics, and contradiction at every corner, how do you ensure your brand’s content stands out in the scroll when people are flexing their thumbs for literally miles a year?

Making your content work for you

It helps to think of social media as a vast pool of water, your communities are like drops rippling across the lake. You’ll have your closest brand advocates (typically your colleagues and employees), followed by your existing clients and customers, interested parties, wider industry and so on. Each circle gets a little wider and further removed from your brand and therefore harder to engage – but if you focus on strengthening your closest circles of engagement, it will help push your content into further ripples, gathering momentum as it goes.

Social platforms reward this ‘ripple’ effect. The first hour of your post's life often determines its lifetime reach - implying that success isn't about your content alone: it's about mobilising engagement when it matters most. A small, engaged audience of 200 will always outperform 200,000 silent followers. So, as hard as it is, try to resist the siren call of vanity metrics and start building meaningful conversations.

Being first to mind is the goal

Think about the last time you bought a phone or a car. These are significant purchases we make every few years at most, yet we see adverts from Apple and Ford almost daily. Why? Because successful brands understand that building awareness happens long before someone decides to buy something. Most people scrolling through social media aren't looking to buy right now — but when they are ready to make a purchase, they'll remember the brands that consistently showed up in their feeds. This subtle, long-term approach to brand building sets successful marketing strategies apart.

You want your brand to come to mind first when someone is nearing a purchasing decision, or even about to begin researching. By reinforcing the association of your brand with positive, expert, helpful content and presentation online over months, and maybe even years, your brand can be ‘front of mind’ when it comes to crucial buying decision moments. So, steer away from too much ‘buy now’, lead-conversion content in your blogs and organic social media – it turns people off and won’t really land for them at that moment – and instead opt for genuinely insightful, helpful and personable content to build a mental availability for your brand that’ll pay off later.

Quality over quantity

This phrase is trotted out so often it can become meaningless. So, what would quality over quantity look like for your content? It simply means rather than posting every single day for the sake of it, consider posting less each week – but opt for the sort of content you know your audience wants. Whether that’s longer-form posts, carousels, or behind-the-scenes content – defining what ‘quality’ means is different for each brand and is the lynchpin of your content marketing strategy.

‘Quality’ does not mean more technical, or even longer or more complicated media and assets – it just defines which content fulfils your goals of engaging your audience and reinforcing your brand the way you want. That’s different for every brand, so define what quality is for you, then work out what needs to shift to make it happen – and it is certainly going to change over time, so be prepared to ask yourself ‘what’s working?’ regularly and be ready to act accordingly.

Showing up on-platform matters just as much as your content

Remember what platforms want – and make sure to cater to that. Diligent social media management, namely checking in every day, answering comments, reacting to content, engaging with the feed by showing up sends signals to the platforms that you’re active and engaging - and doing that may give your content a boost too. If you’re not spending time each day proactively interacting as a brand on your platforms, you’re doing your content and audience a disservice. Plus, it’s a great way to soak up inspiration, see what competitors are doing and stay abreast of trends.

Most importantly– don’t feel defeated

In an era where it feels like everyone is chasing the latest viral trend, and the pressure is on to try and churn out as much content as possible, it’s hard to feel like you’re making a difference. But if you’re realistic with what you can do, humble about what is or isn’t making a difference, it’s likely you’ll reach a natural equilibrium that balances content that works, and content that people want to see.

We take a strategy-first approach to building communities and running social media accounts that work for our clients – building reputations, engaging communities and cementing your status as brands people want to follow on social media. If that sounds like something you’d like support with – why not get in touch?