When numbers like followers and shares drive our world, it can’t be what gets a brand message out—and keeps it out there.
In content marketing, brands are constantly striving to strike a balance between meeting engagement metrics and putting out high-quality content. While engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments are essential for driving traffic and building brand awareness, focusing too heavily on these metrics can often lead to a decrease in content quality.
There are ways for brands to find the right balance between engagement metrics and quality content, analyze patterns in viral content, and discuss whether going viral is beneficial and sustainable in the long run.
Quantity and Quality Balancing Act
Engagement metrics are a key performance indicator for any brand’s content strategy. These metrics can help brands determine the success of their campaigns and identify areas for improvement. However, when brands become too focused on meeting engagement metrics, they may start to prioritize quantity over quality. This can lead to a decrease in the quality of their messaging and content, which can ultimately harm their brand image and reputation.
The quality behind these metrics is also worth looking at. It’s one thing to say a post got 1,000 comments but what percent of those comments are spam or bot-generated versus those from real accounts? If your brand page sits at 20,000 followers but your engagement rate dipped to below average, there might be something amiss in the content you’ve put out.
It’s also good to know what stage your brand is at. Are you a start-up breaking into the market or a legacy brand trying to introduce yourself to a newer, younger audience? Anchoring your campaign on strategy can drive you holistically toward meeting your numerical metrics. Not only does this kind of knowledge make your brand function smarter, but it can also help you set expectations with stakeholders as to what to expect realistically.
To strike a balance between engagement metrics and quality content, brands should focus on creating posts that are engaging, informative, and optimized for the target audience. Metrics can be met while also ensuring that messaging aligns with who your brand is and what it values.
For Clout’s Sake
At a time when information moves faster than ever, trends come and go, and the Internet is king, it seems everyone wants to make themselves heard. For brands, it’s a competition for attention and going viral might be the way to go.
While going viral can be a significant boost for a brand’s engagement metrics, it’s not always beneficial for a brand in the long run. To create viral content, brands should look at patterns in existing viral content and identify common elements that drive engagement.
Some of these include humor, emotion, controversy, and relatability. Brands can create content that utilizes these elements while still maintaining quality messaging that aligns with their brand’s values and tone. It’s important to note that not all viral content is appropriate for all brands, and brands should always ensure that the content they create aligns with their brand identity and values.
Techniques like shock marketing or stunts require well-planned strategy and execution, as well as preparing for potential backlash and controversy. It’s important to take into account the social and cultural context the campaign exists in, the target audience, distribution channels, and supporting efforts if the project fails.
While going viral can provide a significant boost in engagement metrics, it’s important to consider whether going viral is beneficial and sustainable for a brand in the long run. Viral content can often be short-lived, and the benefits may not outweigh the potential risks. Brands that prioritize going viral over creating high-quality content may also harm their brand reputation if the viral content is inappropriate.
There are many pros and cons to going viral but it can’t be your brand’s only objective. To avoid chasing viral success for the sake of going viral, brands should focus on creating high-quality and sustainable content that leaves lasting impressions and potentially lead to conversion.
Balancing engagement metrics and quality content can be a challenge for any brand. By focusing on creating high-quality content that stays on message to meet objectives, brands can build a sustainable content strategy that drives engagement while also avoiding the risks of chasing clout.
M2.0 Communications is a public relations agency in the Philippines that has been helping brands tell meaningful, data-driven narratives. Alongside our PR advisory and reputation management services, M2 is also a creative agency that offers content creation and ideation services for brands to creatively tell their stories and engage their audiences. Visit our case studies page to learn more about our work.
