Create Trust Not Spam

In 2019 the volume of content put out on social media is only slated to increase. This will create even more decision fatigue and disinterest among followers across all social media channels. In this position anyone trying to get eyeballs on social is faced with a choice: to be authentic or to be clickbait. You can build trust with your followers or you can spam them into looking at the content you produce.

Let’s say you get eyeballs with clickbait and dramatic titles that draw your audience in like a magnet. That will work. Your views will go up and the engagement will show. For a time you will be satisfied with the results. But after awhile, any true fans you had will become annoyed with the misleading titles and over dramatized images. They will start to wonder whether your brand or feed is a credible source of information of entertainment. How much more trash can they take? Clickbait works well in the short term, but it is a sign of desperation. Get eyes in the short term but lose the respect of your audience in the long term and risk being labeled “fake news”.

Now let's say you take the road less traveled and focus on creating an authentic brand story to tell your audience through social media. The start will be rough. You won’t have a lot of followers and won’t get much in the way of engagement. You will have to try different types of content to reach your desired followers and they won’t always like what you have to say. Persevere. Once you find the right audience your page will grow in both following and notoriety. There will be no crash and burn, just slow methodical growth that will build over time. To really reach people with your message given all the content out there, this approach of trust will win out over trust every time.