Our businesses give us a platform to seed and amplify radical ideas on social media. That can be pretty exciting, but it can also feel scary to put yourself out there in that way. 

We’ve searched our feelings and analyzed our bounty of client data, and compiled some engaging content prompts with a social justice bent to seed your thinking:

1) A bold statement that advocates for change within your industry or community: a lot of us started our own businesses after working in corporate, and experiencing firsthand exactly how much the cultures of patriarchy, racism, and ableism hurt all of us. Say it out loud, and spark that conversation.

2) Cultural observances that matter to you: dates like Juneteenth, Pride Month, Trans Day of Visibility, Women’s History Month, Black History Month, Latinx Heritage Month, and AANHPI month give us great opportunities to uplift strategically undervalued populations, and talk about creating a more just world.

3) Book or media recommendations: share your values by telling your audience about books, articles, and even podcasts that explore important societal issues.

4) Businesses that share your values: this could mean talking about a business you partner with, but it can very easily be simply highlighting local businesses you love, especially if they’re Black-, Indigenous-, POC- and/or Queer-owned.

Content like this has consistently felt genuine and rewarding to share, both for us and our clients. They’ve also delivered measurable results, time and again!

Want to learn about other ethical ways to market your business? Join us each week for The Radical Marketer. Or if, after this year’s events, you’re looking to give your online marketing a complete overhaul, check out The Social Shift.

Obviously, you want someone with professional graphic design experience and a discerning eye, who knows how to create beautiful, made-for-you content. But more importantly, they should also be someone you can trust to make smart decisions for your business, and put your business first.

Those are just the basics of what makes a good Social Media Manager. But if we dig a little deeper, what else should you look for to find your perfect match?

Look for the expertise you don’t have time to learn.

You’re a busy business owner! You may be social media savvy, but you don’t have time for it and you certainly don’t want to spend your limited time on: brainstorming content ideas, researching trends, panicking about making a reel with your face in it, creating and scheduling a consistent flow of social content, and spiraling into a state of overwhelm because the choice paralysis of what to say on social is real. 

When you hire a Social Media Manager, that person is there to give you back time you would have spent managing your social. Give yourself permission to set boundaries with your social media time and only spend what you genuinely want to dedicate to it. Being freed from that responsibility is a huge gift and will give you time to do what you truly love in your business. 

Look for social media skills that get you noticed fast – but not too fast. 

A Social Media Manager has tools and strategies to create content that resonates with your audience and build you a loyal following. That being said, if your business is brand new to social media, you should be wary of someone who promises to provide you with a large amount of followers in a short period of time. You could be signing on for shady tactics like using bots, or even buying followers!

Unpaid, organic growth on social takes time and a lot of careful planning. With the right Social Media Manager, they’ll definitely get you followers–it probably won’t happen overnight, but those followers are real people who will stick around because they love what you have to offer.

Two is better than one – in fact, three is even better!  

It goes without saying that a Social Media Manager who is part of a marketing team, will give you more bang for your buck than a solo Social Media Manager. When you work with a team, you get multiple eyes and creative minds collaborating to make awesome social content for your business. 

A team also has a process set in place in which each team member plays a key role. In this way, a team has the ability to manage multiple responsibilities that would be too overwhelming for a solo Social Media Manager. 

A project manager (like Anna) gets to know your business and what you’re specifically looking for in terms of social media management. Then the Social Media Manager (like Kaïa) collaborates with you to create and schedule tailored social content. Meanwhile, a Creative Director (like Sarah) jumps in at multiple points during the process to brainstorm, provide creative guidance, edit designs and copy, and otherwise ensure everything is meeting your expectations. A team gives you a seamless social media management experience. 

Go beyond overrated trends and traditional marketing strategies. 

Find someone who isn’t just following the crowd. When you rely too heavily on trends and traditional marketing strategies, you fall into the trap of doing what everyone else is also doing to get noticed on social media. The latest TikTok trend may seem like it’s everywhere, but does it even fit your brand? 

When you go against the tide of trends and traditional marketing, you can discover your own innovative ways to market your business. Not only will you challenge the norm, your content will also better align with your brand, and thereby make you stand out. 

Find someone whose values align with your own. 

Do you care about building an ethical small business? You’ll have a far easier time working with a social media team who shares your values! 

People who share your values will more automatically “get” your perspective and your voice. You also won’t have to waste your precious time explaining things like social justice, business ethics, or other issues you care about. 

We believe in community over competition. We know we’re stronger when we work together. We see that Portland needs your expertise, unique outlook, diversity, and yes… weird quirks too! Your business helps make Portland a place worth calling home and we want to help you spread the word.

—Vivian Ward, Pretty Woman

Whether we like it or not, social media is an important part of modern marketing strategy. 

To be as visible as possible you need a strong, consistent, focused social media presence with engaging content and strategic messaging. You’ll have to regularly post new information, engage with your audience, and keep up with the latest trends and best practices.

And who, exactly, has time to do that and run a business?

You can DIY it for a while, but eventually, you’ll a) get burned out by having to keep up with posting or b) grow enough that social media needs to play a larger part in your business, or c) both. 

Social Media Managers to the rescue! Posting powers activate! 

Having someone take over your social media needs is one of the best things you can do to save yourself time and energy. 

But… what does a Social Media Manager do?

As Upswept Creative’s Social Media Maven I say what we post, when we post, and how often we post. 

Follow me for a peek into what it’s like to have me on your side!

Social Media Strategy

One of the first things I do as a social media manager is evaluate your current social media strategies and figure out how to make them better. If you’ve been flying solo with posting you might not have much of a strategy, but believe me—it’s a whole lot better to have a plan.

Your strategy is individual to you and your business, but includes a few key things:

• What are your goals with social media? 
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What are they interested in and what do they like?
• Where and when are they on social media?

All of these questions determine which social media platform is best for your business and what kind of message will speak to your particular audience. 

Optimize Your Social Media Accounts

Do not neglect your bios! 

If you only knew how many times I’ve seen bios with no information, outdated information, or irrelevant information…

You don’t want to be that person, and I won’t let you. I’ll optimize your accounts to be the first impression that grabs attention. Social media algorithms pick up keywords in your bio that can direct more people to your account. 

We’ll work together to make sure any images, profile pics, or logos are up to date and relevant to your audience and your branding.

And I’ll check that your accounts are all set up to be as effective as possible.

Set Up Social Marketing Tools

There are hundreds of tools, platforms, and software that all want to help you streamline your social media marketing. Researching all the options and learning how to use them is a giant time suck as a business owner.

I’ll help you choose the tools that fit your budget and your needs. And I’ll figure out how to use them!

Social Media Content and Branding

Not all Social Media Managers also create content, but it’s generally part of the job description unless you work with a dedicated marketing team—as is branding.

Your brand is how you show up online. It’s your story, your personality, your voice, and your look. My job is to bring your social media content in line with your brand. 

When someone looks at your social media, they should automatically be able to tell it’s yours. The colors, style, and tone of your posts should be consistent and cohesive across platforms. 

As a content creator, I aim to get your message across in your voice—whether it’s funny and irreverent, serious and business-like, or cute and bubbly. 

Social Media Analytics

How do you know your social media strategy is working? 

As part of my job as a Social Media Manager, I keep a close eye on what’s getting engagement and what’s not. Tracking, tweaking, and testing different kinds of content or different scheduling strategies helps me know what your audience wants more of. 

We’ll meet at certain intervals (monthly, quarterly) to discuss the analytics and what direction we need to take. 

Analytics is one of the most intimidating parts of social media for people to learn, so it’s helpful to have someone else take that on. 

Do I Need a Social Media Manager?

If you want to grow your social media presence and make the platforms work for you, you can totally do it yourself. 

But the time commitment necessary might be more than you’re willing to give. And social media might not be in your wheelhouse. I definitely can’t run a foundation, bake a wedding cake, or any number of things that our clients are amazing at!

If you find yourself overwhelmed and unsure about what to do with your social media, check out our Social Media Strategy Session! We’d love to help you figure out what your next steps should be.

Follow us on Instagram for more social media info and tips.

(Just About) Everyone is Online Now

Once upon a time, online-only entrepreneurs were more exceptions than rule. In the wake of major changes in our economic landscape, more businesses have shifted to an online-heavy or online-only footprint.

According to the Census Bureau, over 4 million Americans filed paperwork to start new businesses in 2021. While this statistic does not necessarily translate to 4 million new online-only businesses, the rise of platforms like Patreon and OnlyFans does indicate rapid growth in the “Creator” sector.

That rapid growth also means more competition in the digital sphere. Which means your offering has to show up and stand out online.

Getting Anti-Social (Media)

Of course we’ll see exceptions to how businesses show up in the online space.

Remember the great Facebook outage of 2021? While it wasn’t connected to an increased number of users, we can say with certainty that more than a few small business owners felt the pinch of lost exposure, engagement, and sales.

We’ve talked before about ensuring you have more control over your digital audience. With concerns about security, privacy, and misinformation, there’s no time like the present to consider changing how you show up online.

Blogs, email newsletters, videos, and podcasts are all viable digital tools to introduce you to new audiences and keep you in touch with your tried-and-trues – all while allowing you greater control of how you engage with these folks.

If you can’t imagine doing business today without Instagram, remember that companies like Lush have already cut the social media cord! That could give you the nudge you need to rethink how you show up online.

Less Work, More Life

Let’s think about those 4 million-plus new businesses. You likely recall the myriad changes in our work worlds that gave rise to this influx of entrepreneurship. Mass layoffs and furloughs, as well as shifts away from in-person business, had many of us rethinking our notions of work-life balance.

Nowadays it’s not enough to pay lip service to ideas like family-friendly work policies and unlimited PTO. Workers want to know they’re being legitimately respected and cared for by their employers. If that isn’t the case… well, we clearly see they’re unafraid of striking out on their own.

If you manage a staff, there’s no time like the present to establish – and practice – workplace values that will help your business stand out. (Shameless plug: we actually know a pretty rad agency hiring right now!)

Before you get too stressed about adapting to all of the new trends on the horizon, keep in mind that not every trend will be as impactful or lasting as predicted. Some of those trends may not make much sense with how you do business, either!

We’ve said it before: it’s better to pick and choose what works for you than to try to be everywhere and do everything–and if you could make it work for you with some outside help, start exploring what that support could look like.

Prime Time Is All The Time

Folks are spending more time online, for both professional and personal reasons. Knowing this, it’s worth taking a look at insights to double-check when your people are logged in, and whether your current posting and engagement schedules line up.

On a related note: also consider that some members of your audience might be trying to adjust how much time they’re spending online. With an increase in screen time might come an awareness of burnout or a need to be more mindful about engagement. Again, taking closer looks at insight details can help you plan content and posting times more effectively.

Create Connection Online

In our opinion, this is standard practice even in the very best of times. Right now, though, as our ability to socialize in person has become extremely limited (or even impossible), the virtual connections we make and foster work double-time to make up for more direct contact.

Just over half of online consumers (53%, if you’re looking for specifics) spend some of their time participating in interest-based communities (cat meme Facebook group, anyone?). People want to connect with others who share their interests. If you haven’t taken advantage of groups connected to your offerings, now is the time to do it!

Can you craft a communal experience with your audience online? Be creative here! Use live video to help replicate the experience of working with you in person. Follow up with relevant calls to action so folks know how they can continue to engage with and support you.

Let Your Values Flag Fly

We’ve also spoken at length in the past about how important it is to be clear about the values connected with your business. 2020 has been (and continues to be) a banner year for stating this importance. According to Facebook’s reporting, 65% of US-based consumers take a brand’s values into consideration when deciding to make a purchase. Don’t shy away from creating content that explicitly states your values, and where you stand in relation to the topics and concerns of the day. Being clear about your values can help elevate your business’s reputation and also increase engagement with like-minded customers.

While these trends may not be much of a surprise, having data to back up what feels right can help you feel more confident when creating content and reaching out to your audience. And of course, as always, we’re here to help!

When I did this, I made the assumption that this magical algorithm played fair: an assumption that’s far from the truth. Algorithms are not so much objective as they are “opinion embedded in math.” We can’t have an algorithmic metric for success unless someone dictates the definition of “success.”

Despite the fact that the algorithm is machine learning, its genesis stems from the human mind. Even the most well-intentioned among us have our own agendas, our own ideas of what should be represented. 

The worlds of computer and data science reflect the whims and ideologies of their participants. Traditionally, those participants are already well-represented, and they are often seen as the standard-bearers: white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, non-disabled. Even though this demographic is changing, the change comes slowly in relation to how quickly information is shared and how that sharing influences the algorithm.

Also, a paradox to consider: it’s challenging for each of us to consider bias in our social media feeds because the algorithm works. We only see our own feeds, which also means we only see the pages and people with whom we engage. The information we receive is designed to reflect what the algorithm thinks we want to see… which is basically reflecting our own selves back at us. How does that help us consider and listen to voices that are not our own?

Make The Algorithm Work For You 

If you’ve been following us for a while, it’s safe to say you know our commitment to antiracist actions and to amplifying diverse perspectives. We’re guessing you share those values and goals as well. So how do we ensure that our social media feeds more accurately represent the full spectrum of awesome that’s out there?

Take time to discover the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) creators in your industry. Give them a follow, and follow that up with direct engagement. The algorithm tends to respond by showing you more content from the accounts you follow most recently. Take that up a few notches by liking their recent posts and leaving appropriate comments.

Let this also extend to adding more queer/gender-expansive creators, as well as folks with disabilities. Generally speaking: look outside your own sphere as much as possible.

Reflect Before You Collect

A common refrain I heard from BIPOC creators and activists after the #BlackoutTuesday and #AmplifyMelanatedVoices efforts was that their follower counts grew exponentially, but they did not see that same growth in engagement. If anything: increasing follower count without meaningful engagement likely deprioritized their content. 

Take a few moments to ask yourself: did you rush to follow more Black folks online without considering how you wanted to interact with them?

If that’s the route you took: no shame. Now’s the time to review your feeds, show extra love to the folks you want to support and elevate, and consider unfollowing accounts you’re not engaging with. That last suggestion might sting for a second, but again: we want followers who actively and genuinely support our work.

But Also: Collect!

An Instagram-specific tip for y’all: make the most of saved posts and collections. It’s rumored that Instagram’s algorithm favors saved posts more than comments or likes. 

Here’s how: Take a gander at any post in your feed, and you’ll see a small banner icon at the bottom right. Click on it to save that post. If you hold the banner icon, this allows you to create a collection folder that you can name whatever you choose. 

Think about how you can use this feature to keep tabs on your favorite accounts while also helping boost their visibility. One way is to create a collection of content you want to share! Remember that sharing posts also helps engagement! This is especially helpful for posts that include calls to action; saving this content allows you to take action when you’re able, and reminds you to share the actions with others. 

Do All Of This Within Reason

Your mental health counts for a LOT, friends. We won’t tackle the major issues in our world via social media alone. Take ample breaks from your feeds. Engage with the best members of your community in more direct, offline ways as you’re able. 

Also: don’t hesitate to block and report malicious, spurious, and abusive accounts or pages as necessary. This helps make more room for the voices and perspectives we want to celebrate while also prioritizing safety for all. 

Our increased dependence on the virtual world makes eliminating barriers online just as important as removing physical obstacles, even on social media. To that end, here are some ways to make your social media feeds more welcoming and easier to navigate.

Show And Tell

If you’re anything like me, you pore over photos looking for just the right graphic for your feed. You want it to match your written content and flow with the rest of your images. Important considerations, for sure, but it’s equally important to include details for your blind or visually impaired followers, too. 

You can do this by giving as much attention to alternative text (or “alt text”) as you do to the image itself. Alt text can be read by assistive technologies, ensuring everyone visiting your feed understands the intent behind your content. 

Ask yourself: what am I trying to convey with this image? Answer with a brief explanation using simple, direct language. Avoid using the word “image” or a full file name with extensions, as screen readers will read that and create redundancy and confusion.

Both Facebook and Instagram add machine-generated alt text automatically and give you the option to edit it for accuracy. Consider the sharing aspect as well: including image descriptions in captions or comments will allow that content to be shared when reposted. Twitters users can access alt text generation in your settings, and LinkedIn allows you to add descriptive text to images yourself.

Caption This

Videos can generate amazing engagement and interest. By adding closed captioning, you can also capture the interest of your deaf or hard-of-hearing followers, and make your video content more accessible for all. We’re not always in a place where turning up the volume makes sense, and some folks might prefer the readable option. (An interesting stat: adding captions can increase views by 12%!)

Keep the same considerations in mind for your videos as you would for your images: give clear explanations with precise language. For pre-recorded videos, having a transcript ready to go makes captioning easier.

YouTube does offer auto-generated, editable captions. You can upload your video there, make appropriate changes, and export your subtitles file (also known as an SRT file) for use anywhere. (Worth noting: YouTube will discontinue community contributions to captions in September 2020.) iPhone users can take full advantage of the Clips app built into the iOS to create captions as you speak that can be edited later. Other options include Kapwing, Clipomatic, and paid transcription services like Rev.

#PayAttentionToDetails

Be equally mindful of your written words, especially if you post shareable content. If your caption includes a hyperlink, use a URL shortening tool to reduce the number of characters. Add bracketed text to indicate when links lead to [AUDIO], [VIDEO], or [PIC]. Best practices for this additional written content includes sharing mentions, descriptive hyperlinks, and/or hashtags at the end of the caption (or tweet, for my Twitterers).

It’s especially important to tend to your hashtags! Many of us simply follow the hash mark with a multi-word tag in all lower case letters. Next time you take a good look at a hashtag, think about reading it out loud as one entire word… because that’s what screen readers will do! Sometimes that can have unintended consequences that are humorous at best and completely unintelligible at worst. To avoid said consequences, and to increase readability, use camel case (also stylized as camelCase) when necessary, using capital letters to delimit each individual word.

These suggestions are by no means exhaustive, but hopefully they give you places to start making your social media content more accessible and inviting to all. 

Oh, what we wouldn’t give to go back to those seemingly simpler times! 

In all seriousness, though: adaptability in the face of changing circumstances is crucial to keeping your social media presence effective and successful. How can you learn from the unexpected? We’ve got a few ideas for you.

You Don’t Need To Start From Scratch Again

Even without a global pandemic, the life of your business can take wild, unpredictable turns. Your social media strategy needs to respond to these turns no matter what. There’s also no guarantee your best-laid plans will land with your audience as you hope. Having a framework already in place gives you an idea of what content is still usable and what might need to be shelved.

Folks who follow Upswept on social media know how much we love our animal friends. While we felt it important to shift our professional focus towards helping people get service-oriented businesses online and make their social media feeds more agile, we also didn’t want to completely abandon our light-hearted side. Sarah took our #FurryFriendsFriday hashtag from weekly photos to a weekly live video, giving our followers a closer look at her handsome kitty, Zergling, while also continuing to share business-relevant content (and hyping some of her favorite local makers!).

Talk Less, Listen More

What are your followers saying? How are they engaging with your content? What else is competing for their attention? Your strategy should be customer-focused at all times; what you share should add value while also respecting their experience. Continue to remain engaged by paying attention not only to interactions they have with you, but also to the cultural conversations happening at large. Make sure your contributions to these conversations don’t come across as insensitive or tactless.

Be Real, Be Relevant… Or Be Reserved

This suggestion might frighten you for a brief second. Consider letting down your professional guard, and giving your followers a glimpse of your side of the struggle. By now, you know well how Team Upswept bristles at the overuse of words like “authenticity.” (If we had a nickel for every time it was used insincerely…) Right now many of us feel unsure about our futures, regardless of our work situations or our experiences in isolation. Acting like you can operate business-as-usual will likely ring false with your fans and friends.

As circumstances continue to shift, you may find new best practices for serving your community. You may also find that your voice isn’t the one that needs to be loudest right now. That is also okay. Don’t drop off the face of the social media planet, though. A heartfelt message of empathy and concern goes a long way. Make sure you pause any planned campaigns or posts that don’t match this tone.

Reduce Stress and “Recycle”

Let’s be honest: trying to stay on top of the 24-hour social media cycle can be draining. Resist the unspoken obligation to create brand new content if you’re spending more time online. Take a moment to dig through your own archives for content you can reintroduce with a new perspective. Also, don’t be afraid to tap into your own social connections! Are there others in your field telling great stories? Give them a boost and re-share. This is also an excellent time to consider user-generated content. As you pay attention to what your followers say, ask them to contribute to your conversations with their experiences.

Your focus should always be on your community and how you can best serve them, global crisis or not. Let this experience remind you of the importance of engagement, honesty, planning, and flexibility. Our team is always here to help you adapt your social media strategy or any aspect of your business; we’d love to hear from you!

OKAY terrible jokes aside: what exactly is the algorithm, and why does it matter?

I appreciate the simplicity of this definition from Pedro Domingos’s The Master Algorithm: “a sequence of instructions telling a computer what to do.” Really, friends: that’s it. As you engage with social media on various platforms, they get hip to your patterns of engagement and the magical algorithm kicks in, reprioritizing content to deliver what it deems most interesting to you. 

Let’s say you follow an account or page highlighting adorable puppies. Next thing you know, you might start seeing more puppies in your feed. You engage with one of these accounts, and before you know it: the platform shifts your feed so that account’s newest content pops up first, maybe even before your aunt Alice’s vacation photos.

That’s it! That’s the magic of our good pal Al. Now the question is: how do we make Al work for you?

As I hinted at in the previous paragraph, the algorithm is powered by two factors: interest and relationship. By following an account, you indicate interest and create a “relationship”, and that triggers the sequence. What you see on your feeds will likely be a collection of the friends with whom you interact most, the stories or videos you watch most, and the content you “like.” The best and most efficient way to make the algorithm work for you is to engage with the accounts you love/trust/endorse, and to share content regularly that makes your feed lovable/trustworthy/endorsable.

Tips for helping the algorithm to work for you:

1. Create a consistent posting schedule. To be crystal clear: this does not mean you need to post every day or several times daily. Find a rhythm that works for you, your business, and your goals, and stick to it. The best posting schedule for you is the one you can maintain with relative ease. This also means learning a bit about when your followers and fans are likely to be on the platform, and scheduling posts accordingly.
2. Engage with consistency. A tip within a tip here: all engagement is good engagement (okay… trolling notwithstanding). Comments, likes/reactions, reshares, and video views all count as engagement. Comments need not be novellas, either! Al views simple emoji responses the same as lengthier screeds. Make sure you’re as active with your friends and fans as they are with you, and you’ll stay top of feed and top of mind.
3. Analyze as you strategize. Another sneaky tip within a tip: the type of content you share won’t necessarily trigger the algorithm differently. Photos and videos hold equal weight to start. It is, however, worth your time and effort to pay attention to which of those options gets a better response. If more folks engage with your video content, future videos will get ranked higher. Keep an eye on your feeds’ insights and analytics to help inform future content decisions. 

We hope this brief glimpse into our pal Al Gorithm’s personality gives you some encouragement and insight into what can help you social media feeds stand out. Want to know even more about him and how we can make him work for you? Reach out and let’s strategize!

If you haven’t heard this industry tidbit – or if you’re scratching your head wondering what this all means – let me explain.

Instagram’s test involved removing the total number of likes on photos and videos a user views in their feed. The creator of the post still has the ability to view the number of likes on their content, but that number won’t be displayed to the account’s followers.

But, Like… Why?

Instagram understands the strong influence its platform has, especially with younger users. “The idea is to… ‘de-pressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition” CEO Adam Mosseri offered at the WIRED25 Conference this past November. This isn’t a wild idea, if you think about it: one 2013 study suggests the wealth of information available to Facebook users can exacerbate feelings of envy and diminished personal satisfaction. While the study did not include Instagram, it’s not much of a reach to consider how repeated exposure to curated photo content might have similar effects.

What Could It Mean For Your Business?

Whether you are an influencer or rely on one (or more), the idea of hiding the relative success of an Instagram post can feel a bit unsettling at first. That number can certainly feel like a badge of success! First things first: your content will still be seen! Followers liking and engaging with your content will still influence Instagram’s algorithms and ensure it stays visible and prominent. The key word in that previous sentence: engaging. In 2019 and beyond, those double taps are not enough to keep your account at the top of folks’ feeds. Creating content that your customers want to engage with regularly – in the form of comments and sharing with others – is key.

Stop Worrying About Likes and Start Getting Real

You’ve likely heard us lament the overuse of “authenticity” as a marketing term. While we haven’t found the perfect alternative in our thesaurus yet, the concept still stands: your customers want to see the real you, and know about the real skills and gifts you have to offer. Letting go of the need to create content that “performs” gives you the freedom to be as authentic as you want to be… which ideally leads to more genuine connection with the folks who like what they see. 

Of course, all of this is speculation right now, since Instagram is only testing this new feature with a limited number of its accounts (if you happen to be one of those accounts, let me know!). That said: don’t be afraid to run some tests of your own! Free yourself from the notion that your content has to perform like your competitors or your peers, and see what happens. You can always reach out to me for help, or for ways to measure its success.