The shape of Content Marketing in 2020s: Diffusion
Instagram is working on a new feature: “Blend”. It will let a user have a private feed with a friend, based on what they share with each other on DMs. How will your brand find a place there?
In yesterday’s article, I’ve proposed several metrics for content success.
Almost all of them are valid for specific strategies.
One of them, Diffusion Rate, is always valid for any strategy.
👉🏼 Diffusion, the term I use for “content’s ability to spread through various channels”, will be the key to marketing success in the coming years.
Why?
Because social media is getting more and more out of reach for brand accounts and paid ads.
In July, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri gave a great interview:
He said
“People think of Instagram as a feed of square photos. If you look at how people share, all of the growth has been in Stories and DMs over the last 5 years. (…) If you look at how teens spend their time on Instagram, they spend more time in DMs than in Stories, and they spend more in Stories than in Feed. Yet people think of Instagram as a feed.”
Most content strategies solely focus on social feeds and SEO. Yet, private and group messages are where content thrives these days.
Many online friends share more content with each other than actual messages.
All these private fields are closed to ads and any other type of brand action. But they are all open to diffusion.
Moreover: they are designed for diffusion.
And social media is adapting to this new reality.
Once or twice a month, I teach Social Media or Digital Marketing to a group of 20–30 marketers from different levels, backgrounds and ages. I always ask them whether they use TikTok. Most of them don’t.
Then I ask them whether they see TikTok videos on other channels. Most of them do.
Letting people download content made TikTok the winners of diffusable content.
They surfed the wave.
Like many other people, you probably spend much energy on what to post and much money on impressions.
Do you complement these resources with voluntary reach from users?
When you reach someone with your content, do you think they would carry it over to others?
Do you have diffusability?
Consider these:
Is your message compatible with screenshots? Does your product webpage fit into a single screen?
Is your Instagram post meaningful without “Read More”, or are you relying on a long text nobody sees?
Does your website market your content as a link? Does it have meaningful thumbnails, titles and descriptions when shared?
Do your Instagram, YouTube and TikTok settings allow users help your reach?
To sum up in a single question:
Are you relying on your own reach, or are you aiming at diffusion?
It’s time to empower users on your owned channels.
It’s time to use impressions less as a paid channel, and more as an earned one.
It’s time to consider content quality and relatability as must-haves.
Diffusability might be your best investment for the years to come.
