What happens when “being great” isn’t enough?

When I started teaching university social media marketing classes more than a decade ago, I used this model to explain content creation on the web: RITE.

• R is for Relevant. You don’t want to confuse people.
• I is for interesting. You have to make it worth your time.
• T is for timely. Stay on top of things.
• E is for entertaining. Make it lively to earn attention and keep it.

In the early, less crowded days of the web that was a good start. If you did good work you had a chance to stand out and earn an audience.

Around 2014 I realized that these rules didn’t apply any longer. You could create RITE content consistently and still stall. You needed something else. You needed to be great. In fact, your content needed to be superior — the best in your niche. If you weren’t the best in this new era of infinite media you would be abandoned.

So I added an S to my class presentation — RITES, S for Superior.

But now, that doesn’t seem to be enough either. Even great is not enough in a world that seems stacked against us. Do you feel it, too? Are you doing your very best work and it’s still not getting through?

So what’s next?

The case for momentum

This is a great topic for discussion and that’s exactly what Brooke Sellas and I do on our next Marketing Companion podcast episode. I make the business case for momentum.

By the way, we are now in our ninth season of this show and its episode marks a first — we recorded this in front of a live audience on Clubhouse and then took questions from fans of the show. We’ll be doing this on Clubhouse every Monday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern time for the next five episodes as an experiment if you want to be a part of the show.