Data Never Sleeps: 7 Questions to Ask Before Posting Anything Online

Think it’s hard to get the attention of your target audience now? Wait ’til tomorrow! Before adding to the cacophony of digital content as show in DOMO’s Data Never Sleeps 2.0 infographic, make sure your content can say “yes” to these seven questions.

Data Never Sleeps So Make Sure Your Content Passes these 7 Tests

All content is not created equal. Here are seven questions to ask before posting social media updates, blog articles or web pages that can help you improve the quality of your content and make it more effective at doing its job: Reaching your target markets.

In February we broke down the data provided by the original DOMO infographic: Data Never Sleeps; but that was months ago! New numbers just in from DOMO and a brand new infographic: Data Never Sleeps 2.0 demonstrates just how important it is for brand marketers to pause before posting and make sure that their content can say “yes” when answering seven key questions.

DOMO Infographic: Data Never Sleeps 2.0

As we did before, we calculated what the statistics from Data Never Sleeps 2.0 equate for a given second, minute, day, month and year (notwithstanding the fact that the data is already becoming obsolescent as the digital world continues to expand!)

Each and every second, on the internet:

• More than 66,667 Google searches are performed
• 41,000 Facebook updates are posted
• 4,167 Tweets are posted
• 3,600 photos are uploaded to Instagram
• 440 reviews are added to Yelp, and
• 58 new photos are pinned to Pinterest

Each and every hour, on the internet, that translates to:

• Over 240 million Google searches
• More than 147 million Facebook updates
• More than 16 million Tweets
• Nearly 13 million Instagram photos
• More than 1.5 million Yelp reviews, and
• Almost 210,000 new Pins

After reformatting our spreadsheet to allow for all the extra zeros, we discovered that each year on the internet, that adds up to:

• More than 2.1 trillion Google searches
• About 1.3 trillion Facebook updates
• Over 145 billion Tweets
• More than 113 billion Instagram photos
• Nearly 14 billion Yelp reviews, and
• More than 1.8 billion Pins

By any measure, that’s an awful lot of data!

Data never sleeps, so do we really need any more data?

For brand marketers, the answer is yes. To get found by buyers online, brands must continually refresh existing content and add new pieces of content to the internet, because that’s where the buying journey begins. The question isn’t whether new content should be added, it’s whether a particular piece of content should be added, whether that content is a social media update, blog article, web page, or some other form of online data.

Data Never Sleeps So Ask These 7 Questions to Improve your Content’s Impact

1. Is it relevant to the audience (note, not: is it relevant to me)?

The true value of digital content lies in its relevance to the reader, not the author. Only insomuch as your target audience connects with your content will it be consumed, liked, shared or considered as influential.

2. Is it interesting?

Are you putting readers to sleep? You might need to tell readers what to look for, use attention grabbing headlines, add compelling statistics and spice up your content with graphics, video and other more interactive delivery media.

3. Does it change anything?

Content that drives change will do so because it satisfies one or more of these criteria:

• delivers new information
• puts a new spin on old information
• persuades
• changes minds
• is thought-provoking
• is disruptive; changes the game
• moves people to take action

4. Does it call for action?

Your content should always tell the audience what to do next. Give direction as to the possibilities that exist as a result, the solutions they can access, the social actions they can take (and who they should tell).

5. Is it consistent?

Just because content is audience-relevant, interesting, brings something new to the discussion and drives action, doesn’t mean it’s ready to post. Before you add digital content to social networks, your blog, website or other digital properties, be sure that you have made it consistent with your brand identity. Determine whether it is consistent with your brand’s:

• goals, and aligned with strategy
• mission and vision
• values
• point of view
• voice

6. Is it appropriate for the media?

This is where best practices comes into play. Be selective about where you add content and how you promote it. Your content strategy will be most effective when your approach is tailored to the particular media you plan to use.

7. Is it optimized? Make it as easy as possible for members of your target audience to find the content that is most relevant to their needs by formatting and optimizing appropriately for search engines, social search and search within your blog or website.