The content shock on social media is both the objective and limitation of content marketing.

It is the prime objective for any marketing department — or marketing agency — in 2020 is to craft and distribute brand messages. 

This would include, but not limited to, a content marketing strategy. But while social media has become a common channel for companies to circulate content, it has also become oversaturated.

Companies all develop different strategies, almost all are using some form of content strategy. Even if the strategy is no strategy; some just sling anything they can at it — in hope that something sticks. 

The result is that businesses and consumers alike are now bombarded with a never-ending stream of messages assaulting them everywhere they turn. And as a result of this, in part, according to author Mark Schaefer, ‘Content Shock,’ is simply unsustainable. However, his reasoning is deeper than just his quote below, as explained in this article. 

This upward trend of content consumption is not sustainable because every human has a physiological, inviolable limit to the amount of content they can consume. I believe as marketers, we have been lulled into a false sense of security thinking that this consumption trend will continue to rise without end. That is simply not possible. – Mark Schaefer

Content Shock Impact on Social Media

And as exciting as it may be for a company to see its content splashed across multiple platforms, the reality is that on average, most of that content is going unread.

According to research, most of the content out there have limited traction. According to investigations by Moz and Buzzumo, blog posts were getting less than 10 social shares (and 0 links from other domains) for the 75% of blogs they analyzed.  

And if you think you’re ready to tackle your company marketing strategy by reading a blog post (or several) that steer you away from bad practices that will yield little results, no such luck. For every strategy out there, there are also opposing opinions from one expert to the next. So sorting out all the advice is almost as difficult as sorting out the tactics, strategies, and tools available.  

As such, our opinion is that it’s best to devise a plan, test it, and then adjust accordingly. And this is our approach to all of our marketing services. 

We build a roadmap, though it will vary client to client since they all have different objectives, agendas, target customers, budgets, and reach.  

What happens in one minute online?

SmartInsights compiled an infographic to illustrate how extensive content is every 60 seconds across the Internet.  This visual shows Content Shock across email, social media, messenger, and websites.