Kevin LambKevin Lamb

Recently I was speaking with a friend of mine who is in brand marketing. We were talking casually about the state of social media, and the continued shift of marketing resources by brands to digital efforts. I mentioned a recent article that reported more than half of companies plan to increase their investment in social media marketing in 2016.

My friend, a career brand marketer, observed that the trend points to increased competition for eyeballs, and proposed to “just post more content to make sure we’re in front of consumers.”

The comment caught me by surprise; not because of its seeming simplicity, but that it indicates the continued existence of frequency as the solution for brands fighting for every eyeball.

It would appear that The Frequency Fallacy is still alive and well.

Look, I get it: more marketing dollars to buy more space in front of more people more often than the competition. Easy.

But it simply isn’t the case in social media. In fact, both higher reach and greater engagement are correlated with smaller audiences rather than large ones. And the dossier on frequency continues to grow pointing to a drop off in reach and engagement after a certain frequency of posting. Beware the frequency cliff; it may lie just over that next post.

Separating from the volume approach and recognizing the frequency cliff can have broader impact on the efficiency of marketing spend. We’ve all seen the headlines on the demise of organic reach across platforms: Facebook’s organic reach has plummeted, Twitter’s introduction of an algorithmic feed strategy, Instagram’s engagement leveling off -- it points to the continued shift towards paid content marketing within the platforms. Social media is indeed not free.

However, recognizing the frequency cliff within this changing marketplace can be a welcome proposition for brands – if they can uncouple themselves from the volume-based mentality.

At the end of the day, no one can tell you what your magic number is. But emphasizing quality content to engage a smaller, but far more passionate audience, trumps the traditional marketing arms race (and resource requirements) of more, more, more.

Focusing heavily on meeting the needs of the core consumer, and serving as a storystarter for them by providing content they really care about (not that you want them to care about) is a path that helps you steer clear of the frequency cliff. It’s true that you can always pay for attention but, as always, you have to earn advocacy.

And that starts not with yelling louder and more often that everyone else, but perhaps maybe talking less often and with more focus.

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Kevin Lamb is senior vice president, social media, for Coyne Public Relations, Parsippany, N.J.