When we think about the heightened pace of updates and news happening on TikTok and, okay, nearly every social platform out there – I instead present to you a lateral solution: thinking about your content first, not your channel. Maximizing what we can control versus overplanning on what we can’t.
Good content unlocks half of your potential impact. Your audience, your channel, your message does get you the rest of the way.
But absent good content, it doesn’t matter what channel you’re on.
Today, you’ll learn:
Three simple steps to reframe how you think about content
How to think about 2025 channel planning
The one thing to ask yourself when writing or reviewing social content
How to think about content
Understand the ask.
Everyone is busy these days. Know what you want from your viewer – and make it one thing. You can’t expect someone to read a paragraph of social copy AND watch an animation AND click on your link. Commit to one action. And if that singular engagement is to watch the video - put everything into the video.
If you feel confident in your content, you don’t need to tell someone to click on a link and “Learn More.” The drop-off will be huge and you run the risk of having the majority of your captive audience not knowing the content you have gated behind the link.
Instead, have your social post cover what they need to know in a way that enables and empowers them to learn and be curious for more.
We all know how important digital storytelling is. Important to unlocking its power is leveraging how people consume and interact with existing content. Remember: Most people scroll social not expecting to see your post. They don’t know what your post will be about. And it’s important to prime them to stop and consume versus to ignore and scroll past.
Historically, the common thinking was that the first 3 seconds of a social post were important; now, I’d argue given how frictionless social experiences are that the split-second perception of a social post determines your success.
This means leveraging existing trends to remove as many engagement barriers to your social. Of course, in our industry, I’m not referring to the latest pop song or viral meme (although… 👀). Instead, I’m referring to what people already engage with:
Long-form content through vertical video and video podcasts (the next generation of earned media)
Frictionless user-generated content (UGC) in the form of polls and social AMAs
Carousels – awful on websites and brilliant on social (when done right)
Understand the barriers.
🥴 A text post with a half-dozen corporate hashtags. Next.
👻 A 10-minute long ghostwritten LinkedIn article. Next.
😩 A paragraph of copy next to an auto-play animation with even more copy. Next.
😱 Horizontal video. NEXT!
More on content formats in a future edition.
Okay… so what about channels?
All right, yes, yes – so, let’s say your content is great.
From there, the channel does matter. Let’s consider the two that will get a lot of attention this year, and where you should focus your attention (at least for now).
Instagram Reels: Healthcare companies should begin understanding how to create Reels content to attract, cultivate, and engage an interested userbase. This is huge untapped territory for disease state awareness campaigns. In order to accomplish this, companies need to work with Creators well-versed in creating and editing Reels and other social-first content; both in-house teams and agencies need to invest in growing this current-generation discipline as part of the makeup of a modern-day marketing and communications team.
YouTube Shorts: Many industries – ours included – are vastly underestimating the current and future potential of YouTube. It’s where paid dollars go a long way. It’s where the next generation of influence is happening. It’s where many people go to learn: to learn something new, to deep dive into something interesting. On YouTube, there is no need to get someone’s attention in the first few seconds of your clip; instead, YouTube is the platform to get them watching your content for half an hour, an hour, or more.
What do these two channels have in common? They leverage algorithmic video just like TikTok does, and are not dependent on growing a huge follower base to get your content to the masses. If you have interesting content, you can get millions of views with a limited follower base. Even with a sub-1% engagement rate, that still translates into thousands of dedicated and intentional actions.
More on Reels and Shorts in a later edition.
And now… the one question to ask yourself
This sounds like magic but I promise you it’s not. Whether you’re writing content or reviewing it, the question to ask: If I were the intended audience, would I do what this post is asking me to do?
Would you like the image? Would you watch the video? Would you click on the link?
It’s liberating to land on a scary answer here: No, I wouldn’t.
But there’s a power in saying No to understand what it takes to get to Yes.
And now, I digress…
✌️ J
