Three reasons to stop throwing [content] mud at social media walls

Oh no! Yet another bloomin’ blog post about content marketing. Well not quite. I won’t be suggesting you produce more. Please, let’s create less.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 92% of B2B companies say social media is a key content marketing tactic. And weirdly, slightly less, 77%, of consumer brands say they do content marketing (I expected it to be higher!). Either way that is a lot of organisations, producing a lot of content.

With so much noise in social media, brands are increasing their volume. They are getting louder and louder in social. But is this an effective strategy? The same research shows that only 6% of B2C and 5% of B2B brands are very successful at tracking ROI. In fact, study after study shows that marketers are not measuring the value – so have no idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Sort of reminds me of the well-known John Wannamaker quote:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”

Scarily, it seems that for social content even less is known about the results. The time has come to turn down the volume, use the insanely measurable digital world to track, assess and analyse what works and doesn’t. Yes, it will need investment in tools. Yes, you will need time. And, yes, you will get better results and save money. Three reasons to stop throwing content at social media:

Content can suck up budget

If 70% of marketers are creating more content than they did a year ago then that is an awful lot of budget invested in design, development and copy.  Focusing in on what works for your customer and delivers results can help you trim that budget – or at the very least ensure you only invest in the stuff that works

Missing the customer mark

If you don’t know what is relevant and when, how can you plan to engage your customer. I don’t just mean broad topics, but detailed analysis of where social media sits in the customer purchase journey. Look at what drives consumers through your funnel. Get into the detail. Monitor and analyse. You would be surprised what you will discover that can help you hone your content into a sharp marketing tool.

Creative, clever content needs people

A big challenge right now is in finding great content resource. Not just content creators, but content creators who understand social. Innovators too, who can jump on the latest social media shift, such as Periscope, and adapt messages and campaigns. More content simply means more people (or overworked people). Better to have your smart folk, working on the content that actually makes a difference.

So really there are no excuses for not planning out your content to deliver value to your company. And just maybe you can produce a little less, but with a great deal more ROI.

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