I’m not very good at taking my own advice when it comes to blogging on a regular basis. After looking after everyone else’s content needs, for me, it’s a matter of finding the time to research, write/record/edit or design that sees me creating my own content on my days off or late at night. Today’s one of those days.
Interestingly, I’ve been observing a few social media content ‘experts’ of late who seem to have taken hold of the idea that quantity is better than quality when it comes to posting. I saw one recently comment they aimed to be “prolific not perfect”.
Added to this, I read a post by Chad Pollitt on Relevance last month that said:
“…Google ruined content marketing. That’s right, ruined it. Some might even go so far as to say it’s created a race to the bottom – rewarding quantity over quality.”
In the bid for Google rankings, some content creators have taken to generating as much content as they possibly can, posting it as frequently as they possibly can.
Yet for those individuals and small business owners who don’t create social media content for a living but use it as one part of their marketing strategy, it’s become a case of either too much or too little – too few actually finding the happy medium.
Content hasn’t peaked
There are many commentators out there more qualified than me who will say the stats don’t lie – content generation is growing.
- The number of Google indexed pages has grown from 1 trillion to 30 trillion in the last seven years.
- WordPress has also shown steady growth in published content since 2006. In July 2016 nearly 70 million new posts were published – over two million each day.
Automated content
Added to the complexity of this scenario of quantity over quality is automated content with new technologies and algorithms producing content and multiple versions of the same content to either test the most popular version for further use/optimisation and/or for multiple niche audience interests (long tail marketing).
The Washington Post publishes 1,200 posts each day…
The big guys of the digital marketing world are pushing the boundaries of content generation and we’re told it hasn’t peaked yet. For example, The Washington Post publishes 1,200 posts each day…Yep, each day.
What’s it mean for me?
Can this be scaled down to something manageable for small businesses and individuals keen to publish content as part of an effective marketing strategy? Content that entices, entertains or educates to ultimately engage an audience long enough or just enough to act (assuming you have a conversion in mind).
I’m not convinced at this level you can afford to be as prolific as The Washington Post. If for example, I managed to find a way to publish 100 pieces of content a day, distributing links through five different social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn and maybe YouTube), I would still be at risk of spamming the feed. I might get away with 10 pieces of content (or variations of the same content) though IF it aligned with my marketing objectives, my audience and their needs, and my ability to resource the creation of this content.
Despite evidence indicating high-frequency posting does generate increased web traffic and boosts page rankings, my final thought remains: QUALITY does trump QUANTITY. If you can’t produce content that is planned, relevant, enticing, entertaining or educational for your identified audience (including any niches within your market), then you are just noise and aren’t in a position to take advantage of any of the leads generated in the process.
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Kim V. Goldsmith 