With Q4 looming in the distance, we marketers know this is a busy time of year, and content marketing is no exception. Come fall, our calendars ramp up with end-of-year initiatives, seasonal content and just about everything else happening at the office level.
That may make your content calendar look impressively full, but then you have the quintessential angel and devil sitting on your shoulders. The angel says, “Your calendar is full. Life is good.” The devil asks, “But is it strategic?”
Unfortunately, the devil has a point.
Answering that question is imperative to successful content marketing.
Being On-Brand Isn’t the Same as Being Strategic
Now, you may be thinking: What do you mean, is it strategic? It’s all content that relates in some capacity to our brand.
And yes, while that may be true, it doesn’t automatically mean the content aligns with your brand’s overall strategy, tone, voice or the message you’re trying to communicate.
Now more than ever, it’s important to value quality over quantity. Just about anyone can log in to the AI platform of their choosing and generate 10 social media captions that include the name of your brand. But not everyone can position tone and voice to align with your brand message and guidelines, ensuring consistency across platforms that work together to magnify that message.
In a digital world increasingly covered with AI slop, be the pristine gemstone. That’s what will make your brand stand out.
Right Content. Right Platform.
Another question we can ask ourselves as social media marketers is: Our content calendar is full, but should all of this content live on every platform?
I’ve been asked time and time again, “How do I know what content works best on which platform?” There is a baseline of simplicity we can use to answer that question, but some of the answer also has to come from analytical research into your own brand’s social channels.
Start with your audience.
Facebook continues to have one of the broadest age distributions among the major social platforms, making it particularly valuable for brands trying to reach audiences across generations. Instagram and TikTok skew younger, while X also sees greater adoption among younger adults than older age groups. LinkedIn is its own animal. It’s a professional environment where business conversations, industry insights, recruiting and thought leadership naturally have a home.
Now that you have those general demographics in your back pocket, your wheels can start turning about your own brand. What is your target age demographic? Where are those people spending their time? That can help you select the platforms that deserve the most attention.
But demographics aren’t the whole story. Think about the type of content people expect to find when they open each platform.
Let’s say I have a video of my office staff participating in the latest TikTok trend. We know that will live on TikTok for sure. But will someone scrolling Facebook know the trend and understand the context well enough to find it funny or relatable? Or will it come across as unserious and potentially deter that person from watching, engaging or following?
And should that TikTok trend make its way onto LinkedIn?
Probably not. Let’s keep it professional, people.
The point isn’t that content can never cross platforms. It absolutely can. But being strategic sometimes means adapting the message, format or creative for the audience you’re trying to reach instead of automatically hitting “publish” everywhere.
Your Analytics Are Trying to Tell You Something
Let’s hone in on engagement and how that plays a role.
Once you’ve shared your fair share of content, you have something extremely valuable at your disposal: your own data.
Go back and look at your consistently top-performing posts on each platform. What topics generated engagement? Which formats performed best? Did people watch your videos? Click your links? Share your posts? Did one type of content consistently outperform another?
Apply that knowledge to your future content calendar. That’s a strategic move.
You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with content simply because you have something available to post. At the same time, you want to remain active and relevant enough that your audience remembers you, engages with you and, hopefully, gives you that good ole follow.
The goal isn’t to fill every empty square on your content calendar. The goal is to make the content occupying those squares earn its place.
Strategy Over Volume
To sum it all up, strategy is a pillar of content marketing that can’t be ignored, especially today.
We have more tools than ever to create content quickly, but speed and volume aren’t substitutes for strategy. Your content should showcase your brand through a message and tone that feel intentional and consistent, while still accounting for the different audiences you’re reaching across channels.
So this fall and winter, when you’re planning content (yes, you should have a plan!), take a second before adding another post to the calendar.
Does this support our brand strategy? Does our audience care about it? Is this the right platform for it? What are we trying to accomplish?
If the answer is no, don’t use it. If the answer depends on the audience, pick your platform wisely.
A full content calendar may look good.
A strategic one works harder.
Let’s make Q4 your strongest content yet.
