Wasn’t 2020 something? 

I think it’s fair to seriously say we’re all forever changed, and it’s my hope that [for so many of you] the aforementioned “forever change” has a lot of associated good change.

To speak about the changes from a social media perspective, and in particular content marketing [because that’s my specialty] I can honestly say that the big changes I’ve seen online is the pivot to consumption being from a listening perspective.

Let me unpack that a little more, yea?

Raise your hand if you either dipped out from social media entirely last year, or flexed regular social media breaks, or – at a bare minimum – entirely changed up your consumption habits?

Us too.

And guess what went and happened? Everyone did, and it has [and still continues to] changed everything in terms of content marketing and how people are [now] consuming content online.  And as a result? It’s our humble opinion that 2021 [and perhaps beyond] has become “the year of listening”.  And if we could flex a humble opinion that little bit more? … I’d like to suggest that people have pivoted to listening, because they’re burnt out from consuming the content the way they used to pre-pandemic [and especially during the pandemic].

They’re a little burnt out from the imagery [particularly highly edited imagery].

They’re a little burnt out from all of the captions [and different opinions].

And they’re definitely burnt out from the comments threads [we all are].

And so consumption has changed, and they’re listening now [‘ello podcasts, and Clubhouse, and IG stories with your ear phones in while you’re mornin’-walkin’].

So if consumption has changed in this way, what does this mean for your content?

Well, we’re stripping our [static] content marketing schedule

See these changes coming to life across TDP’s social platforms here.

[and by up to 50% tbh]

Because the post-pandemic fatigue is so real, and we’re hardcore empaths with a vested interest in not just social media … but psychology and social media, and we can whole-heartedly say we feel the content fatigue [across multiple accounts and across multiple industries].

Will this be forever? No.  I honestly doubt that.  Eventually we’ll all have recovered from our 2020-pandemic-fatigue [but we won’t forget it], and consumption habits will change [again!] … but for now? I’m all over here > watching everything change online > very-much-so understanding why it’s changing so much online > and [true to content specialist style] meeting my audience’s needs where they’re [currently] at.

And so … I’ve stripped our static content by up to 50% and incorporated more listening elements [with more to come].

And so on that? You’re gon’ need to pivot to quality over quantity

As you can see here, we make sure we include content our followers actually want to say in amongst our content schedule, which we ensure is 80% dedicated to educating and entertaining, and 20% dedicated to promoting our thangs.  This particular post attracted 700+ engagements, as well as countless invisible engagements like saves and shares.  2021 is quality content over quantity for us.

And that’s not me presenting any new information here, I’d like to think it’s always been about quality over quantity … but with such a big change to consumption habits, and your audience’s appetite shifting from being able to consume a lot to being able to consume very little? This is an incredible opportunity to go even more ‘less is more’ than you ever have before, and hone in on the quality of your content.

What does this mean? Well, please [like, for the love of God!] stop carbon copying every piece of content you create for one platform [and it’s usually your favourite platform] to: Facebook, your private FB groups, your Instagram presence, and your LinkedIn.

There are some people I follow online who – by no later than 10am – have subjected me to the same bluddy piece of content across six different social media platforms.

Sure, it might’a been quality content … but now you’ve showed up with quality content and still successfully made me sick of you by 10.06am thanks to having seen it six different times on six different platforms.

With TDP reducing our static content schedule by up to 50% … it means we’ve never had such a golden opportunity to amp up the quality of our content [again], and then go a little harder on “listening content”. #elloTDPpodcast2021 because it.is.TIME.

And so on that? … does this change anything for you? Does this make you wanna incorporate listening elements into your digital strategy?

whilst we’ve reserved our Clubhouse name? We’re not yet ready to drop 20+ hours per week pouring through rooms / contributing to rooms … mostly because it doesn’t yet fit into our 2021 strategy

Because work-from-home isn’t going anywhere [thank you, 2020 legacies], and when the endless 2020 scrolling increased? … you better believe that so too did the screen fatigue, and people subsequently looked for a new way to consume content that ultimately went and fit into their [new] pandemic [and post-pandemic] lives.

Enter listening [like, s’no wonder ol’ mate Zuckerberg dropped into Clubhouse … and is – *cough* – now working on a replica for FB.  But of bluddy course, ha!].

Does this mean TDP are currently flocking to Clubhouse? No.  Honestly.  Because truthfully? We considered Clubhouse and landed on coming to the beautiful realisation that it would just be another platform to add to our mix / we’d devote extra time to it [of course] / and the gain would be that we [might] attract people to our website, who’d be looking to book into service offerings we’re at capacity with [and for].

With anything new? … we always think about the strategy behind it before we become [yet another] social media expert telling y’all online that “if you don’t carpe diem on this channel right NOW, you’re missing out on its glory days”.

Instead? We’re going all in on a big TDP podcast that’ll speak to everything we want to speak to: industry disruption, big thought leadership narratives, inclusivity, quality digital marketing chats, radical transparency, and so much more [you’ll have to wait n’ see].

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The year of listening.

Maybe this blog post made you exhale a little [or a lot?], because you’ve realised now that your audience is wanting a little [or a lot less from you] … and it might be that golden opportunity to come up for air a little and really focus on quality over quantity.

That’s certainly been the case for us, and we’re all ‘ere … fully embracing that.

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If this makes you wanna reconsider your strategy this year, we’d love to welcome you to our one-day strategy deep-dive [help virtually over x2 three hour sessions, because #ZoomFatigue].

You can see more info about that here.