How to Win the Content Creation Game: Quality AND Quantity

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies because today I happen to be recording the episode in the middle of two arguments. So there's some people outside to the left having an argument in English and then outside to the right having an argument in Hausa. Now, this was not planned. It just happens to be, you know, how it is. I mean, I'm devoted to making my podcast recordings whenever, wherever I can afford to.

So I just go ahead and I record it. So if you hear anything bleeding in through the background, it happens to be the, yeah, the arguments. So for those of you who understand how so, I hope you don't get distracted by the details of what these guys are arguing about to the right of me. So we apologies out of the way. Let's get straight into the show. Today I'm going to look at the quantity. Oh, sorry, no. Today I'm going to look at rather why quantity and quality are both important for content creation.

Now, this is not a listener question. In case you haven't noticed, I've taken a break from questions for a while now because I have a list of topics that I would like us to talk about over here on the podcast. And that list has been growing and growing. And, and some of the questions that we've tackled over the last 2-3 days and what we're doing today are related to social media content creation and those sorts of things because the our ability to use social media to put out content can impact the kind of sales conversations that we have with business.

So these things are important. And so that's the reason why I'm taking time out to address some of these. And maybe after I knock off a couple of these issues, maybe five or six, then I can go back to to the questions. So today on the show, so excuse me. So today on the show, we're going to be looking at why quantity and quality are both important for content creation. If this is your first time of listening to the show and you've always worried about things related to content creation,

then you're in for a treat. Lucky you because what we did yesterday was also content related and the day before was also content related. I can't remember the topics, but once you're done listening to this, skip back listening to the last 2-3 episodes and you'll be better off for it. So quantity and quality as it relates to creating content. And by the way, this is your first time listening to the show. Every single time I say content on this podcast.

What I mean is anything that you're putting out over on the Internet, whether it's audio like I'm recording now, whether it's video for those of you who like Reels, or if it's photographs for those of you who are still using Instagram as a way to show our photographs. Or whether it's video for those of you who are putting our stuff on YouTube or maybe putting videos on your website. So if you create it or there's some element of creativity that goes into it and it goes up on the Internet, we are going to call it content for now.

Easy, simple definition. So now why are we talking about this? We're talking about this today because the content is important for business growth. But I should point out that content is not a necessary component. You can build a business without social media and there are lots of people, whether in America, the UK, Niger, Afghanistan, Australia, wherever, that do build businesses without using social media. So I am not saying that you have to be on social media.

I run into business people every other month who have successful businesses and they don't do gang, they don't do anything on social media. In fact, back in my event photography days, one of my biggest clients, a high spender, a High Roller, he's in the agro space, does nothing on social media, but is a certified big boy with the houses, with the cars, with the everything. So you don't have to be on social media. Excuse me to build a business,

but if you choose to, it is going to be an important part for helping you achieve business growth. But it's not necessary component. Now, the reason why content is going to help is because we business people are always looking for ways to facilitate conversations because the more conversations we have with people, the more money we make. Content is just another way of facilitating those sorts of conversations. So for those of you who sell kitties products using Instagram, let's say you sell pajamas or you sell certain kinds of cream or certain kinds of toys, is the stuff that you put up that causes mummies and daddies to hit you up in DM to say how much do you have it in size 14?

This one looks like it's a girl's colour. Do you have it for boys? My boy is a 14 year old, my girl is a three-year old. So that's the whole point of content, to facilitate those sorts of conversations. I've seen your stuff, I like it. Are you free? How much is it in this size? What are the side effects? All those kinds of conversations. That is the reason why content is important for business growth. But yes, I'll repeat it again,

you don't have to use social media to build your businesses. OK, Now the reason why I'm I'm delving into this quantity versus quality debate is because people usually fall into two extremes. There are some people who say, and rightly so, that look, volume is the name of the game because there's no how you are going to get the algorithm to work in your favour if you're only creating one post a week. Depending on the industry, it ain't going to happen.

It was a highly technical space. Like there's a fellow that I came across, not Nigerian anyway on the podcast. And what he does is accounting, tax accounting, but a very niche tax accounting thing in America where there are people in certain industries in the, in the contractor space, you know, people that build houses and do heating and ventilation and these sorts of things. So there's a particular, there are particular kind of tax problems that these people fall into.

And this guy's content is related only to that. So he doesn't do general tax accounting. He doesn't do wealth building. He doesn't do this is how to save. This is how to invest. No, the only puts our content on those very specific issues and a very specific niche. So for someone like him, that is extremely niche, it's extremely valuable. Excuse me. So if he's only putting out one piece of content every week, sorry about that guys.

It's the like I said that time of the year. So my kids, you know, the cold and the sore throat has done its round on them and has passed through. So I'm the one who's kind of battling now. So I'm halfway there, halfway not. So I was like, yes, I have. So for people that are making that kind of niche and specialty content, if they're only putting out one thing a week, it might be fine because it's going to be highly sought after by people who want that kind of thing.

But for people like you, I mean that are doing things kind of generic or kind of general, because I am talking about business advice in general. And if you sell kiddies stuff over on the Internet, let's say you sell pajamas or baby cream, like I said, it's also kind of general. You're competing with a whole bunch of stuff. So people like us, we need the volume to be able to fight against the current trends in the algorithm because the algorithm is going to serve up what is the most popular.

That's just how it works. So for regular folks like us, we need volume. So because of that, some people rightly say, look, we need volume. And so because of that, they start pumping out things every day and then they end up creating mediocre content. That is one extreme, people who recognize the volume, but then they emphasize only the volume and then they get mediocre on the content. Then there are those people who fall on the other extreme, which is we are going to be about quality.

And I can speak first hand about these sorts of people because back in my wedding photography days, a bunch of them were my friends. They would only put out quality posts. They would only put out a picture that they think is quality that is the best composed. Well, Eddie said, well, let's see what else. You know, all the technical criteria put on, you know, for a perfect photo. And that's an extreme. So excuse me. OK, sorry about that.

I had to hit pause very well and go and hack and clear my throat because I think it was getting disrespectful for me to keep hacking into you guys ears. So I was like, yeah, so I'm talking about people who fall on the other end of the extreme and only insist on producing quality content. Now it's also an extreme because the whole thing about quality sometimes becomes arbitrary. You're producing what you think is quality, not necessarily what your your potential audience thinks is quality.

And then you fall into the trap of not producing enough. And so because of that, not enough people are seeing what it is that you produce. So those are the two extremes, and that's the reason why I'm delving into the debate today. So should you recognize volume and run the risk of creating mediocre content or should you recognize only quality and run the risk of not producing enough content that is going to be seen organically on social?

Because with the way the algorithms work, depending on who is talking, you know, I'm not professional when it comes to social media. So it's just just I'm hearing the here and there. I've heard that some people say it's like 5% of your audience. Some people say it's only 2% of your audience that get to see what it is that you post. But either way, it's not fantastic if you have 2000 people follow you on Instagram and only 5% of the people, if I

have a chance of realistically seeing what it is that you post, I mean, do the math. What is 5% of 2000? It's not great. What is 2% of 2000? It's not great. So even the odds volume is also important. Now we also need to figure out what is the goal of having content on social media. It depends according to which heuristic that you use. Some people are coming from the KLT mindset, KLT that's know like and trust. So they want to create know like and trust.

They want people to know them. They want people to like them and they want people to trust them. And of course, the whole point of know, like and trust is it should make business conversations a whole lot easier. So if you sell pajamas on Instagram or you sell babies products like cream for a nappy rash or whatever, you want people to pick up the phone and call you or send messages in the DM and they don't start pricing Groundnut, you know, so that you guys have productive conversations and you go ahead and do what it is that you do best.

Some people, the frame mind for having content on social media and engaging on social media is to remain on top of mind. And that is because not everybody is in the market for your product or service right now. So I'm under no illusion that if I have 1000 people listening to this podcast episode right now, I'm under no illusion that not, in fact, not even up to half of the people who are listening to the episode right now currently require the services of a business development consultant or a sales coach.

You know, it just doesn't happen. So another thing, depending on who you ask, depending on which industry, which countries or people say is anything between 5% and 7% of people that are currently in the market. So in other words, if I have 1000 people listening to this podcast episode right now, realistically speaking, that 7% or 5% of 1000, those are the people who need my my services right now. But then again, of course, the people who are listening to the podcast right now most likely are going to be considering two or three other service providers.

So even that 7%, it doesn't mean I stand a realistic short of closing business with them because they're talking to other people. So that is what this whole thing of remaining top of mind is about. The remaining 93% or 95% or 90, whatever percent who are not in the market right now. If I keep making these podcast episodes, if you keep putting up pictures of cute pajamas for those of you who sell kiddies pajamas, and if you keep creating educating content about this is how you deal with nappy rash or this is how you deal with nipple rash, or this is how you deal with postpartum skin dryness or whatever.

If you keep putting on that content, then over time when the remaining 95% is now in the market and they are ready to go ahead, they think of you and they send you Adm or they give you a phone call. So those are some people. The benefit of social media remaining top of mind, that is the key way that they're looking at it. Some other people, the reason why they're using social media is for brand building. And that is because long term branding activity makes it easier for future sales campaigns to work.

And I've been in those situations where I'm having a conversation with someone and the thing about my podcast comes up. Maybe the person is a Lister, maybe the person is not, but it seems to give some credibility that, OK, this guy's been in the game for a while, has over 800 episodes. These things make conversations a whole lot easier, makes you look like a credible alternative. So that is one of the reasons why people engage on social,

social media for brand building. And then the other people who are just trying to be really pragmatic because they're thinking of point of sales opportunities, they want more avenues for people to reach out to buy when they're ready. So that's the reason why they're on TikTok, on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook, on website, on everything. So that no matter where you want to make a purchase, they're there and they can take a purchase.

So that is the goal of having content on social media, depending on how you look at things. If you're a KLT person, you're trying to build, know, like and trust. If you're a top of mind person, you're trying to remain top of mind so that when the other 90 something percent of the people are ready to purchase, they think of you. If you're a brand building person, you're doing this over the long term because you know that you build a sufficient enough brand.

It sets you apart from the competition. And then when people see you, they be like, oh, you're that guy or OK, you're that girl. And it makes it easier to have a much more interesting conversation. Then let's look at this whole thing of quality versus quantity. What is quality? What is quality content on social media? Now, quality just means the thing that your audience finds valuable. I am not going to stress that because I already made a podcast episode yesterday or the day before about, you know, this whole thing of how you decide what is valuable, how you produce what is valuable.

So when you're done listening to this episode, skip back. Listen to that one. And you'll be brought up to speed. You get the larger context of what we're talking about when we talk about value. Now, this is something that I have to stress. I stress then and I will stress again. Quality content on social media is the thing that your audience finds valuable and not you necessarily. Back to the photographer example. Like I said, there are photographers back in the day when I started who would only put out quality content in quote quality.

That means the perfect portrait that is perfectly composed, perfectly lit, depth of field is perfect, contrast is perfect, composition is perfect, everything is perfect. And then you put that. But people don't give a hoot about your perfect photography. Maybe people are interested in other kinds of things or maybe you do different kinds of stuff that people like, but for some reason you think that that is beneath you.

Look, we all have those moments. And for me too, it was also a thing because I believed that it was only was only spontaneous content, not pose, you know, things like that. That is the best. And I didn't like having errors up on My Portfolio. But for some reason I noticed when I was dealing with mothers, my standard for error and the standards for error was quite different. Because I remember one lady I did photos for and one headshot for the baby was out of focus.

So I looked at it and the professional photography in me said this thing is blurry. So I removed it to be deleted later. And of course after everything, mom was wondering any more photos. I said it's just error shaft. So nothing good. Let me see the errors. And then I showed her and then she looked at the photo and she's like, oh, my God, see my baby. This is so fine. Are you there? You're wicked. So you didn't want to show me this photo.

See my baby now? Isn't this a good photo? And I'm like, the photo is is is blurry, is out of focus. You say, no, it's not of focus. I see the effect is so soft. You saw this. You saw that. And like, OK, she likes it. So I gave it to her. What I'm trying to illustrate here is just that what do you think is quality is not necessarily not necessarily what your audience thinks is quality as well. So there's some push and pull.

Have your own professional standards, but also try to keep an eye out there to what people find to be valuable. For instance, the podcast that I'm making right now, there are people arguing to my left, sorry, to my right in Hausa and to my left in English. Now, my, the people that I started off with in the media game, they will say that these episodes are terrible. And realistically speaking, yes, from a from a professional point of view, my podcast episodes are terrible because you can always hear something.

A bird, a cat, a chicken, my children, my wife, a cow, cars in the background, what else? This one I tried to record outside the airport and then that's when the plane happened to be landing. So you can hear everything. So I know that professionally speaking, from a technical point of view, my podcast episodes are crap, I know. But I focus rather on the content, on the quality of the content. And I'm taking a gamble that you guys, even with the technical deficiencies, are listening because you find the content that I'm producing to be valuable.

So it's both ways. I do the best that I can given the circumstances to minimize noise and distractions. But I'm trusting that your definition of quality is different than my own definition of quality. Someone who's coming from a professional background. So there's always the tension. So quality is what your people find to be valuable. Let that be your guiding light. And why is quality important? Quality is important because remember, I'm saying quality now not just from a technical point of view, but what your people find to be valuable or what are they, what they're interested in, what they will engage in.

If it's not valuable to them, if it's not relevant to them, it is not tailored to them, then they will not engage and you will not achieve your purpose. Your brand building efforts will come to 0 because it's not relevant to them, so they will not see, watch, listen, click, download or share. If you're trying to remain top of mind. But they don't find the content to be tailored to them, to be relevant to them, to be entertaining to them, to be valuable to them.

You will not achieve top of mind because they will ignore, ignore, ignore. And after a while, they will click on block or I think for Facebook and Instagram, they'll click on those 3 red dots and then they'll select show less of this. Then Facebook will ask reason reasons why and then they will select I'm no longer interested in this. And then that's it. You never come up in the person's timeline again. So top of mind strategy 0.

If you're trying to achieve KLT know, like and trust, but excuse me, you're not focusing on content that they find to be valuable or relevant or tailored to them, then know like and trust. It's not going to work because they won't know you, because they don't see, they don't engage, they don't share. No one like you because you're irrelevant and they're not going to trust you because who are you? They don't know you. Why would they trust you?

Then? Quantity. I've already said it at the top of the episode that quantity is important because there are lots of things on the Internet and the algorithm selves of the most popular stuff, you're competing with all kinds of random content content. So quantity is the only chance that you have for being noticed. I had to tell someone who was thinking of getting to the podcasting game. I had to be up front with the the person I look, there are lots of podcasts out there in Nigeria.

A lot of them are just podcasts and that's what you're up against. And the truth is it's hard to compete with that kind of content. I'm here. I'm talking about sales and business development. But then they do and the other people on the Honest Bunch. Oh, and I love them. I listen to that podcast is a nice way to step down. But they have all these episodes where, you know, like they do was talking about a Nigerian actress who supposedly had sex with the snake at Transcope Hilton Hotel.

Now let's face it, if most people are faced with the prospect of figuring out who was that actress and listening to my own show, you would think, OK, yeah, Tavi Shiman show is nice. I'll get back to that later. Let me just listen to this gist now about this disease and that, that, that, that. So there's other stuff that we're competing in and quantity is the only hope that we have, the only chance that we have for being noticed, being constantly in the stream.

And that gives us a fair shot because there are lots of other things that algorithm is going to serve up, which happens to be much more popular because the thing that other Nigerian podcasters are talking about are much more popular. OK, sorry about that. Over 10 minutes. I'm trying to keep the episode short. OK. So anyway, let me just move on. So this is the crux of the matter Now, this whole quality quantity thing, does this mean that you have to produce content every day and quality content every day?

Because you want to do quality and quantity, it means that you have to be producing content every day, right? And it has to be good quality content, right? Do you have to do that? The answer is no, because it's hard to produce quality content every day if content is not your business. There are some people that content is their business. They wake up, they set up the computer, and then they produce content for themselves or for other people.

It's their business. You produce content every day, then, Oh yeah, sure, you can produce quality content every day. But for the rest of us who are parents or maybe even single. But The thing is you work in Zenith Bank and this thing is you're 95 or you're producing content because you're trying to promote your, your cakes, your, your baking service and things like that. You know, baking is your main job, not really sitting behind the camera and editing and all of that.

So it can really be tough. So this is what I recommend to people that your social media strategy for content should be to create quality now, great quality right now. You don't have to create it tomorrow, but the one that you've created today, repurpose it for as long as possible. Repurposing is simply another way of saying reusing it, rekeeping it, repackaging it, re sharing it, reposting it, re whatever in it. Hope you guys get the point.

So produce quality now, today or Monday. But you don't have to produce quality on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But what you produce on Monday, you can repurpose it on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday. And then you wake up next week Monday and produce quality content again one day and then repurpose it on Tuesday and Wednesday and and you see how it works. So you might find that you spent a whole month and you only produced 5-6 quality pieces of content.

So actual production days was only five or six in a month. The rest of it is just repurposing. That way you have the quantity you need to be able to compete on the algorithm and then it has the quality so that when people see it won't be just like, oh, this one that produced was nice, this one that produced was rubbish. So if you're a Carpenter, you're trying to promote your carpentry business using social media, you can spend today, Monday and produce quality video.

If you went and did a high end job for a developer, maybe while you guys are doing it, you took some videos for behind the scenes or whatever. And then on the final day you go through with the camera and you know how you do that walkthrough, you know, record everything and all that. So you do all of that and the video is recorded once today, on Monday, after everything is finished and cleaned, you now repurpose the video in several ways over several days.

You record everything on Monday. On Tuesday you can do BTS behind the scenes while you're walking through talking about, oh, this is the level of care. This is the consideration I'll put into this project. This is the creative consideration. This is this is that you know, you're showing people the kind of artistry and skill that you bring to your work. Then the day after would be Wednesday you can feature only the bedroom, bedroom showcase.

Then Thursday you can do only living room and then Friday you can do show off the kitchen detailing and then talking about that maybe Saturday we now share photos from the set and write some interesting captions. But you can see how one day's worth of videos and photos and everything can provide a week's worth of content if you have a good repurposing strategy. It all rests on repurposing. So it's the same sort of thing I'm doing with my experience, my experience with the podcast.

That is how I produce both quality and volume. That's some people who think I record everyday and there's some people who think I record several times a day. So no, I actually try to record as many days as possible. If it's everyday, fine. It was only twice a week, fine. But The thing is, I am on LinkedIn multiple times a day, and you can find quality episodes, multiple episodes on LinkedIn if you follow me every single day.

That is just because I record a podcast episode once and my aim is to repurpose it in perpetuity. So long as I live, I will still keep republishing some episodes, sharing some episodes, reposting some episodes, you know, and when I put money behind it, boosting some episodes. This is something I spoke about in my conversation with Gina because, sorry, not Gina and Xena Xena's delicacies. Yeah, from yesterday, the podcast listener that I shouted out to, the one who is based in pH University Uni Uniport.

So as an example that I gave her, currently I have about 880 episodes of the podcast. If I'm going to share 10 episodes everyday on LinkedIn, it's going to be at least 88 days if I did my math right. That's roughly 2 1/2 months if I did my math right. If I did my math wrong, I studied law. Don't blame me. Yes, I know. My wife also studied law but she's also doing Cfas so I guess it's no excuse. I should stop saying that laughing.

So any so my guest 2 1/2 months before I get to repeat another podcast episode. But The thing is, who is going to remember that? Hey Bros, this episode you shared today, you actually shared the 2 1/2 months ago. Who's going to remember? No one. And even if you're adding fans, remember for them, it'll be a good reminder. So I told her, look that don't be afraid because on your Instagram you have these, you have close to 1000 photos on your phone, you have more than 1000 photos.

Like what are you afraid, afraid of? Repurpose, reuse, reshare, recycle, re re, you know, all the rethinks, redo the thing. Nobody, nobody's going to remember. If you're doing one photo every day, you have over 1000 photos, 1000 is OK, 365, blah, blah, blah. So that that would be like 2 Abby, that was like 3, three years. That's over like three years before you repeat the same photo. So stop being scared. Some of you already have quality content that is sitting on your phone.

You don't want to be. You don't want to be. What's that? Is repetitious? Is repetitious a word? You don't want to be repetitious. You don't want to be, you don't want to appear still or whatever. Just come with a good republishing strategy and you'll be fine. You have both the quality and you will have the volume. So in summary, what I'm trying to say is that quality and quantity of content don't have to be in opposition to each other because you guys are going to come across some folks on the Internet who will pitch their camp one way or another.

They'll say, look at how to be on social media and every day I just want to create one quality post, ma'am, and then put it out there. I'm a professional and then some other person will be like look who professional don't help as in I have to conquer this algorithm. So I'm going to put stuff out every day whether it is subpar or not and then they do that. Sorry, one moment, guys. OK, sorry about that. I had to attend to someone briefly and I'm back.

So I think I was summarizing before ending the show that quality and quantity. Yeah, it doesn't have to be in opposition to each other. You can do both and this is how you can do both. You have a republishing strategy. If you don't believe me, keep listening to the podcast, pay attention, maybe follow me on LinkedIn and you will see how my republishing strategy means I always have quality content in the time stream, even if I am not.

So I see time stream, what was it called in the you know what is now as when you scroll and then things come up and come up is that time screen or timeline or time view, whatever it is. So I always have quality stuff and I always have quantity of the stuff out there. And that's the reason why I don't have to record quality everyday or produce quantity everyday because the quality in quote that I recorded last week, I'm going to repurpose it forever.

So as long as I'm alive, the quality that I recorded on the 200 or episode 150 or episode 2 or episode 700, I'm going to repurpose it, reshare it, reuse it, reclip it, repost it, reboost it, re whatever it for as long as I'm alive. And that's how you solve the problem of quality and quantity. So for those of you who have been nervous about what should I do, should I do every day and it's going to be subpar or should I just do it once a week And I've created a masterpiece.

You know, that's, that's your actual solution. You can do it once a week and create that masterpiece. Just find a way of reusing that masterpiece, repurposing that masterpiece, re sharing that masterpiece. I mean, those of you who do video content, it's a strategy that you guys do already. You record only one video and maybe the full video is released on Instagram on Monday. But then Tuesday, you take a small clip and share a nugget of wisdom.

Wednesday, another small clip, Thursday and Friday. So that's, that's what you do. So that's all for today, folks. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. Also connect with me on LinkedIn. The name is Tavishima Ayede. You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from the link where you're currently listening to this episode. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys in the next episode and hopefully I won't have two people arguing to my left and to my right. It looks like the English argument is over and the House of conversation has toned down quite a bit. Maybe I should learn how so, so that, you know, when I hear people arguing like this, at least I'll have some nice juicy gossip to shout my wife when she gets back home. Like, hey baby, you know what you know in the day, this guy and this guy into a quarreling.

And this is what the choir was about anyway. So enjoy your day. Catch you guys soon.