Content Dumping
kän-tent dəm-pi
The practice of creating excessive amounts of content without
a clear strategic purpose or quality control
More Isn’t Automatically Better
Peter Behrens, the world’s first industrial designer, famously coined the phrase “less is more,” which was later popularized by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Today the phrase is used in business and communication to helps organizations and individuals achieve better results by focusing on what truly matters. It’s a point Zoetica Media founder Kami Huyse drives home in her livestream where she talks about content dumping.
Ban Content Dumping
For years we’ve been hearing the mantra that we need to create content in order to build our brand, improve our visibility on search engines, and generate leads. But rather than create high quality content, over time focus shifted to volume. Content farms became big business.
And now, with the explosion of AI, things have become even worse. As Forbes describes it, “Today, anyone can use AI to generate an article in seconds, and with just a little bit of technical knowledge, can set up a ‘content farm’ designed to churn out and publish online content 24/7.”
Kami finds this development hugely problematic. “Something that has been kind of bugging me lately, which is the amount of content that people are telling us that we have to create to be successful on social media.”
She mentions a well-known entrepreneur who says people should post multiple times a day, specifically between 5-15 posts every day across three to four platforms. She feels this is a sure path to burnout. “My problem with this particular way of thinking is that it will absolutely wear you out. You will be worn out if you do this, unless you have a big team and you have…a very specific plan in place to do this.”
Aim for Good, Not Perfection
She warns about avoiding the siren call of perfection as well. “Can you imagine how much stress that puts on you to think that every time you turn on the camera or do a blog post, that it has to be [perfect]? That is way too much pressure, in my opinion,” she says.
So while seeking perfection is dangerous, “you want your content to be good, you want it to be engaging, you want to make sure that you're not boring people to death.”
There Is a Better Way
Rather than focusing on churning out more and more content to meet some arbitrarily set number, Kami recommends focusing on creating one to two pieces of key content, as she teaches in her Smart Social Mastery program.
She suggests people concentrate on “the things that you talk about the most, the things that you're known for the most. [Ask yourself] how can you create content around those and do less.”
Focus on Key Content and Repurposing
This is an approach she uses for her own agency’s content. Kami records a livestream every week and then drafts a blog post out of it, embedding the livestream as video. She also creates social media reels and posts from the recording.
Going forward, she plans to create short video clips from each livestream, using Opus Clip or a similar tool, thus further expanding the content generated from the original key piece.
Once that production cycle is completed, Kami places all the content in an ‘evergreen’ category. “You can use it again, like next year, the year thereafter. My point is, we really need to stop thinking about making more and start making things that have a point of view,” she says.
Stand for Something That Is Uniquely You
With the volume of digital content available to audiences, it's also more important than ever to create engaging content that captures and maintains their attention. The best way to do this, Kami argues, is by differentiating yourself from others by standing for something.
“It has to be a point of view that people can dig their teeth into,” she says. Focus on “creating a brand voice, creating a voice for yourself that kind of stands out in the marketplace. So your personal brand voice or your brand voice for your company.”
Set Realistic Goals
Yet she points out that there is a danger of aiming too big and then feeling discouraged if we don’t meet this self-imposed audacious goal.
Referencing a psychologist who talked about goal setting, she said,”if you have a goal, cut it in half, and then cut it in half again, because we tend to quit if we overcommit ourselves. So that is what I don't want you to do, I don't want you to overcommit yourself, I want you just to commit to one piece of content…”
Take Action
If you are a consultant or coach and want to learn how to apply this to your own work, consider joining Kami's Smart Social Mastery membership program. You can learn more here.