Would you propose to someone on the first date?

Probably not ;)

Social media can be a lot like dating.

Okay, let me explain.

When a person finds your content, they have two choices - engage with it (excuse the pun) or ignore it.

If you go ahead and ask them what you want (which may or may not be marriage) and they have no idea who you are, what you are about and whether or not you are a bit of a creep - most likely they will ignore you.

Same goes for if you blast a sales message or go in and hit them with your objective the first time you meet them.  

So, this is where content has such a big part to play.

Think of each piece of content as a part in the courting process - the bigger pieces like video might be your dates. The smaller pieces like images might be a text message or a phone call. Each piece has a huge part to play, building up to the time when it's right to pop the question.

"Popping the question" in this instance, would usually be a sale, or a click to your website, or their attention during a video - regardless what your objective is, your audience won't readily take it up without doing their homework, so you have to do.

It is now more important than ever to create compelling content. No longer is it okay to put out sub par content and wonder why sales are not coming in. Every piece of content has to be strategically created and posted knowing where along the journey (or the courting process) your audience is. Also, more importantly, you need to know what to say at each stage, to get them to move along to the next stage ;)