Quality vs. Quantity
Which is better when it comes to content output? There are compelling arguments for both.
Some debates are likely to run until the end of time, or at least the end of beings capable of debating. What’s better: Quality or quantity? Style or substance? Knowledge or ignorance? Buffy or Charmed? Barbara or Bette? Star Trek or Star Wars? We may be tempted to say “por que no los dos?” like the little girl from the famous meme asks. Why not both?
‘Why not both’ does not answer the question of which is best and when it comes to questions about quality vs. quantity of output for things like social media posts, YouTube videos and podcasts, the question becomes important to answer because you can rarely have both.
Let’s take the issue of podcasts since I am a podcaster and this is the Podfluence Weekly. On one side of the debate, we have people like Mark Asquith of Captivate.fm (who I am interviewing next week) who says on his shows that podcast and YouTube creators should focus more on putting out quality content than frequent content.
On the other side are people like Adam Adams from The Podcast on Podcasting (who I interviewed this week) and Russel Brunson of Click Funnels who come down on the side of quantity when it comes to output of shows. RB actually favouring daily shows! (No thank you).
I can see the arguments for both. Mark suggests that we are at a critical point in podcasting, where churning out any old content just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Adam and Russel both believe that the fastest improvements and quickest results will come from a higher frequency of output.
Where do I stand on the quality vs. quantity debate? Having played with both, I’m more inclined to put out less but make it better. I listen to a lot of other people’s podcasts when I am considering shows I want to appear on and so many are, in my opinion at least, lazy and doing the same thing everyone else is doing. Asking the same questions, using the same formats, publishing awful sound quality, not editing and worse still. Who deserves to win the day; the podcaster with the most episodes that aren’t very good or the one that has honed their craft and puts out better quality content.
There’s still room for both but I do think it will ultimately change in time for the same reason I am ditching my Netflix account, there’s not enough there to make it worthwhile. I still think success will mostly land with those who are better marketers and promoters but I also think if you focus on making content that is worth sharing, people still will. Anyone can do quantity (with commitment) but not everyone can do quality and certainly, they won’t do it the way you will.
I take the same approach with podcast guesting now, since speaking with Alex Sanfilippo from Podmatch and Podpros. You can listen to my chat with him here:
Knowing that Alex only selects to go on podcasts he likes and prefers to be selective goes further to convince me that quality delivers beyond what quantity is unable to do.
I’m not saying you can’t get results from being ubiquitous, you still can but what kind of results do you want? What fits best with your professional brand? Do you want to be seen as someone who will show up on any show and say the same things over and over again or get selective by showing up on quality shows with hosts who care about putting out quality content and are committed to their craft?
You can have a mix of both to a point but a balance between the two is really just a compromise that serves neither objective fully but perhaps if you’re unsure which way you want to go, a mixture of the two could help you determine your direction?
Part of my own differentiation has been to introduce some book review episodes to my podcast to examine the best books for me on influence and persuasion. I’ve recently covered How to Win Friends and Influence People and my second review is The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. You can take a listen here:
Even as a guest, I think we can do a lot more good for our professional image to make sure that we show up prepared for the shows we go on rather than repeating our stock answers to the same old questions that the majority of hosts ask but it will be interesting to note whether the people who are churning out content will do better or the people who are focusing on differentiation.
So… quality vs. quantity, which will you choose? Will you try for the middle ground or go all in one way or the other? Let me know in the comments.
Whichever direction you choose, make sure you put some heart and soul into it and let this 80s belter from T’Pau help you get into a great mood.
Originally published at https://presentinfluence.newzenler.com.
