This might break your heart, but… no, you can’t just post funny cat videos all the time and expect to find social media success. “But,” you might say, “the cat videos perform so well because everyone’s laughing!” That may be true, but it’s not enough to carry an entire campaign. Here’s why:

Content that quickly grabs people’s attention can absolutely be useful to a social media campaign. After all, standing out and getting people to follow you is a major part of what any digital marketer aims to do. Of course, this goes for more than just cat videos. Simple, easily-shareable content can be great for hitting account metrics, but here’s my question for you:

How many people who engage with that content are actually interested in what your brand has to offer?

Remember that gaining engagement and followers on social media isn’t (in most cases) an end in itself. The end-goal is to get people to truly engage with a brand and, eventually, become customers.

Of course, I’m not saying that cat videos (or any other similar content) doesn’t have a place in your campaign—it absolutely does. However, you can’t rely on it to carry a campaign. 

In fact, you might be surprised to learn that serious topics are more “shareable” than anything else. Some of the most-shared content is related to politics, business, and medical topics. 

This is actually great news for clients who work in fact-based industries. In fact, this is so surprising that it’s one of the reasons why some people don’t jump on board with social media. “Who wants to hear about anesthesia on social media?” A lot of people, as it turns out!

The truth is that social media is for everyone, and it’s possible for any brand to find its audience with the right marketing. So, the next time the thought “Nobody wants to read this on social media” comes across your mind, you can forget about it.