I'm talking about content to a room of business owners, and a hand goes up. It's 2017, and I already know the question, because it's the one I get asked more than any other.
"Is it better to post lots of content, or post less and make it really good?"
Quality or quantity. Which one matters more?
Wrong question
My answer is always the same. Both. But really, it's the wrong question.
It isn't quality versus quantity. It's quality multiplied by quantity.
Spend months polishing the perfect video and never post it, and you score zero. Post every hour of every day and it's all rubbish, and nobody pays attention, so you score zero again. Either way you've got nothing to show for it.
81 per cent beats perfect
Now say your content is 90 per cent as good as it could be, and you share it 90 per cent of the times you could. Ninety per cent of ninety per cent is 81 per cent. That's a score most people would bite your hand off for.
Compare that with the perfectionist. Brilliant work, but so slow they only manage a tenth of what they could put out. They end up nearer 10 per cent, however good each piece is.
It cuts the other way too. Let both slip to 80 per cent and you're down to 64. With so much fighting for people's attention, 64 doesn't cut it. That's why 81 per cent is my magic number.
You get good by doing it
And how do you get better at making content? By making more of it. Every post teaches you something. The more you put out, the better the next one gets. I wrote about the easy way to keep the flow going in Record, remix, release.
Just remember you're not the judge of what's good. Your audience is. A piece you think is a bit rough will often do better than the one you fussed over for a week, because it sounds like you.
Content is worth nothing until somebody sees it. That's where done beats perfect comes from.
Still my magic number
The tools have changed a lot since 2017. You can make a video on your phone in two minutes now, and AI can knock out a post in seconds. The sum hasn't changed. Quantity is easier than ever, which makes the quality half count for more. If you're stuck for what to post, I've got 14 ideas you can borrow.
Look at the last thing you made and didn't publish because it wasn't quite right. If it's 90 per cent there, put it out this week and start on the next one.
First published July 2017.
