I Spent 12 Hours Last Month on a Social Media Post That Got 3 Likes
Last Wednesday, I did something that made my chest tighten.
I checked the analytics on a LinkedIn post I’d spent an entire afternoon crafting. I’d researched it, written it, designed a custom graphic—the works. The result?
Three likes (two from my own team) and a single, soul-crushing spam comment about crypto.
12 hours of my life. For nothing.
I’m not alone in this particular circle of hell. I see it every day. Smart founders, brilliant marketers, all dutifully "creating content" and "posting consistently," shouting into a digital void. They’re following all the rules from the gurus, and getting absolutely nothing back.
We’re all doing this wrong.
The Dirty Secret About "Just Posting Content"
Here’s what the army of marketing-bros selling you courses won’t admit: “Just create great content and be consistent” is the worst business advice of the last decade.
It's a lie. A beautiful, simple-sounding lie that convinces you that success is just one more viral video or clever tweet away.
The reality? Most business content is self-serving noise. It’s a digital landfill of product announcements, corporate humblebrags, and feature updates nobody asked for. We spend all day scrolling past this junk, only to turn around and create the exact same kind of stuff for our own companies.
That’s not a strategy. That’s a content graveyard.
What Actually Works (Based on Building Audiences, Not Follower Counts)
I decided to burn my content calendar to the ground and start over. No more posting for the sake of posting. No more praying to the algorithm gods.
I started treating content not as a marketing task, but as a product. Here's what I learned.
1. Become a Digital Anthropologist
Stop asking, "What should I post today?" It's a useless question. The real question is, "What are my ideal customers already talking about?"
Your audience isn't "millennials who like tech." Your audience hangs out in specific digital "watering holes"—subreddits, niche forums, Slack groups, the comment sections of industry blogs. You need to go there and lurk.
Your job is to listen, not to talk.
I spent a week in the r/projectmanagement subreddit before writing a single word for a client. I didn't post. I just read. I learned they don't say "improving team efficiency." They say, "I'm drowning in useless meetings" and "My calendar is a dumpster fire."
Use their exact language. Solve the problems they're actually complaining about. Your content will feel like a mind-reading trick.
2. Build an Idea Factory, Not a To-Do List
The world’s best creators—think MrBeast—don't just have good ideas. They have a brutal system for killing bad ones. One top YouTube strategist admits they develop 100 ideas just to find one worth making.
You need to do the same. Most of your ideas are bad. That's fine. The goal is to build a filter that only lets the great ones through.
My 4-Filter System:
The Brain Dump: List 50+ ideas. No judgment. Just volume.
The Resonance Filter: Does this solve a real pain or aspiration I saw in my "watering hole" research? (Cut 80% of your list here).
The Clickability Filter: How do I package this to be irresistible? "How to Deal with Micromanagers" becomes "3 'Manager-Proof' Systems I Use to Shut Down Micromanagers (Without Getting Fired)." See the difference?
The Business Filter: Does this idea naturally lead back to a problem my product solves? No hard sell, just alignment. The micromanager post is a perfect path to talking about a transparent project management tool.
You go from 50 vague notions to 2-3 killer concepts that are almost guaranteed to work.
3. Publishing Isn't the Finish Line. It's the Starting Gun.
Can we be honest? Hitting "publish" is only half the job. Maybe less.
Great content doesn't promote itself. You need a distribution engine.
I saw a perfect example of this last week. A company launched an incredible, in-depth guide and just dropped the link on social media. It died instantly. Why? Because they didn't do the work.
Instead, take your one killer piece of content and turn it into a dozen assets—a "Repurposing Machine."
A 10-minute video becomes:
A 10-tweet thread with the key takeaways.
A 5-slide Instagram carousel.
Three 60-second Reels/TikToks from the best moments.
A detailed LinkedIn post telling the story behind the video.
You spent all that time building a great "product." Now go sell it.
A Real-World Content Product (And What it Actually Looks Like)
For a recent client (a project management software), we stopped "posting tips" and built one content product.
Research: We found their audience (project managers) hated getting blamed for missed deadlines caused by other departments.
Idea: "The Bulletproof System for Never Missing a Deadline Again (Even When It's Not Your Fault)."
The "Product": A 1,500-word blog post with a downloadable checklist.
Distribution:
Shared the checklist in a project management subreddit (natively, not as a spammy link).
Turned the 3 main points into a LinkedIn carousel.
Created a 60-second Reel explaining the "blame-proofing" part of the system.
Total time spent: ~20 hours. Result: 47 qualified leads in the first week and a piece of content that actually helps people. All for less effort than churning out 15 low-impact "daily posts."
The 2-Week Test That Will Stop You From Wasting Time
Here’s your homework:
Block 5 hours this week for "Digital Anthropology." No creating, just lurking in ONE of your audience's watering holes. Take notes.
Run ONE "Idea Factory" sprint. Generate 25 ideas based on your research and run them through the 4 filters. End up with ONE validated idea.
Build ONE content product. Go deep on that one idea. Make it the best thing on the internet for that specific problem.
Spend as much time distributing it as you did creating it.
Cancel your "post every day" content calendar. (Yes, even the one you "need" to stay relevant).
The Truth About Building an Audience That Actually Cares
The best social media strategy isn't the one that checks off the most boxes on a marketing plan. It's the one that creates things people would genuinely miss if they were gone.
Your content should be a product that serves your audience, not a megaphone that serves your company.
The real question isn't "How can I get more engagement?"
It's "Am I making something that deserves to exist?"
Start there. Your sanity will thank you.