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The long standing debate over whether a high volume of social media content produces better results for brands than quality focused content has been argued on both sides by industry experts.
Some experts believe that quantity is more important because it allows a brand to be top of mind. In support of this theory, there are studies that show it can take an average of seven encounters or touchpoints with a brand before the consumer decides to make a purchase. When taking that statistic into consideration, paired with the fact that only a small percentage of your earned audience sees your content, it makes sense why some brands post on their social media accounts multiple times per day.
However, if only the above is taken into consideration, confirmation bias happens and brands may begin to believe that quantity is the best strategic move in content production and publication. So let’s look at the facts involved regarding quality, in order to get a better idea of why some experts tend to favor this methodology.
Facebook changed its algorithm in 2018 to give priority to content that fosters more genuine conversation and interaction. They simultaneously pulled back on giving priority to branded content and news publications, unless it fit into the conversational content bucket. The brands who made the strategic shift to producing quality content that followed this new theme, did not see as large of a drop in their content performance.
Instagram’s algorithm has made a similar shift. They decided to prioritize users’ feeds by the type of content that they have historically gravitated toward, instead of who they follow, or how recently something was posted. This means that brands have to work harder to gain the attention of consumers, even ones who already follow them. It wasn’t long until Twitter followed suit.
Things like time decay and posting frequency no longer hold value the way they used to. In other words, it really doesn’t matter all that much how often you post, or how recent your post is. What matters more in getting brand attention, quality leads and making the sale, is that the content is valued, geared toward your target audience, and encourages interaction or sparks conversation.
Summary
The takeaway here is that a balance is needed, with quality being significantly more important. Here are a few ways to find your own branded content balance:
- Have a clear purpose for every post.
- Know who your target audience is.
- Start slowly and scale up with regard to volume and frequency.
- Executing a period of A/B testing.
- Make your content discoverable and call to action clear.