We are so programmed to constantly think of going bigger that it’s not surprising that we think that way on social media. Chase after bigger influencers, get bigger engagement and more. Makes sense, right? But what if I told you that in most cases it’s better to think small when it comes to social media?

I’m obviously not telling you to go after smaller engagement and reach numbers. But both of those numbers can be increased when you have on eye on the small.

What does that even mean? And why will it make your job easier? Let’s go!

Think small on content

This is the mistake I see most often on social media, and it’s also the habit I find the hardest to break with clients. So what is that mistake?

Let’s say you have a topic that really resonates with your community. So you give fans all of the information you have on that topic in one post. For example, a nonprofit brand wants to release a research paper they commissioned. To do that, they post a dense paragraph with technical terms and all the takeaways from the research with a link to the full paper. Raise your hand if you think you’d read a couple hundred words on a social media post. *looks around and sees no hand raised* Exactly. But making too much information into it and giving away all of the takeaways from the link? That kind of post will just fail all around, and it’s very unlikely that your fans will get anything from it.

What to do instead

In the case of this research paper, you want to set yourself up so that you can post about it several times. Why? Because you want to make sure it has as much reach as possible so everyone in your community gets the information.

If you just post the same kind of information over and over again, it’s unlikely that everyone in your community will read the whole paper. It’s simply a timing issue. When we click on a link, we don’t always have time to read what we clicked on and it’s very unlikely that we’ll go back to read it. And I know with my mom brain that I will remember clicking on a link with certain information and not click again when I see that same information posted again.

So make it a little more exciting. Find a different angle each time you share it. Keep it as small as you can so you can even go back to share a similar but different angle if a certain one is super successful.

In the end, when you’re keeping your content small, you can go back and back to dig from that content well. It will make your job loads easier since you always have lots of small information to share from the much bigger well.

Think small with influencers

There has always been this idea that the bigger the influencer, the more results. So these really huge numbers are demanded by the biggest influencers just for a single post. And the results end up being less than stellar.

What is going on? Bigger reach should equal more sales or whatever your goal is, right? So why is it absolutely failing in this case?

As it turns out, these bigger influencers have LOTS of companies paying for ads on their channels. That means they post a lot of ads. Their followers expect it and are tuning out the ads, which means they aren’t really taking action on many of them.

What to do instead

I always look around in a client’s existing fans when I’m putting together an influencer campaign. I don’t even look at follower numbers or engagement. That’s not as important as enthusiasm. I can buy reach, but I can’t buy enthusiasm. So I’m looking for who has the most for the organization and in addition who has the right tone for the mission.

Once I have this list, I add on people who have the right kind of following and numbers in our community and beyond with the hopes I can get some enthusiasm from them as well.

People can smell those who are mercenaries for the organization. They just won’t take them as seriously as those who have actual passion for what you do. Including those who do have that passion and enthusiasm will always make your influencer campaign more successful. People will respond to that emotion.

Think small with video

More is simply just more. And yet people still post these long videos to social networks expecting big results. It gets especially depressing when it’s obvious that they spent a lot of money on the video. Because no one is going to engage with that fifteen minute video.

What to do instead

Ideally, a social media video is less than a minute long. You don’t really have all that time to get a lot across. So staying focused on one specific topic is vital. It can be a great way to get people interested. You can then put a link in the caption for them to get more information. Think of it as first date material. It’s specific enough that your date (or fan) knows it’s true and they’re intrigued. But you don’t get too bogged down in the details at the same time.

And remember, just like with other content, you can keep going back to the same well. Keep digging out these smaller bits of information for other videos. You aren’t just stuck with one video on a topic. You can do an infinite number. And when you have a content well to dig through… it just makes your work easier.

Flipping the script on what we do naturally can sometimes bring big results. This is definitely one of those cases. Not only can you expect your engagement to grow bigger, but your audience will be more likely to retain the information since it will be in a smaller more digestible bite. And all while work is just a little easier for you. This is the definition of a win-win situation.

How are you keeping things smaller when it comes to social media?