• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 12, 2016

Marketers need to think of content, rankings and paid-search advertising as a series of checks and balances. Despite the millions of dollars invested in creating content last year, output per brand rose 35% to 87.5 per social media channel in 2015, but content engagement fell by 17% -- dropping to a mere 2.19 interactions per post per brand. These brands had about 1,000 followers on average, according to the report released this week. 

Engagement with content dropped across all major social networks, but fell hardest on Pinterest. Twitter is the notable exception, where engagement rose slightly throughout 2015.

The idea that content drives Web site traffic and search engine rankings isn't new, but it's driving a higher interest in mobile advertising and is likely one reason that Verizon will take a closer look at acquiring Yahoo's core assets.

From CBS Interactive to small advertising and media agencies like Rauxa, the creation of content and use to drive traffic from hosting sites like YouTube to branded Web sites continues to skyrocket, especially from mobile devices. In fact, Cisco Systems estimates that by 2020 video will drive 75% of mobile traffic, up from 55% in 2015. In North America it will drive 75%, at a 49% compounded growth rate, and a growing percentage of brands will rely on the content to improve rankings and support paid-search advertising.

The analysis from TrackMaven, released this week, shows the state of digital content marketing for brands in 2016 and provides insight into how marketers should rethink content. The company uses its software platform to analyze the impact of 12 months of marketing activity for 22,957 brands across all major industries. Collectively, this analysis included 50 million pieces of content across six digital marketing channels — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and blogs — with a combined total of 75.7 billion interactions.

While the analysis suggests that marketers need to create channel-specific content, I disagree. Similar to Web sites or display advertisements, the content needs to become dynamic with the ability to change and adapt to the channels in which the person searching for information will view it. Verizon, AT&T and other telecom carriers discovered that early on as they set out to make their content delivery systems dynamic with the ability to convert one file to serve in a variety of formats.

Don't confine the content to social sites. TrackMaven's analysis only analyses content on social sites, but there are other hosts such as YouTube, Vimeo, Brightcove, and a brand's Web servers.

How much content are brands creating? Twitter sported the greatest increase in monthly output per brand, rising 60% from 49.1 posts in January 2015 to end the year at 78.5 posts per month on average. It doesn't include retweets or replies.

Facebook came in at No. 2, with a 31% increase in monthly posts per brand across 2015.

Brands post between 72 and 92 pins monthly, about two to three times daily, on Pinterest, including repins.

On LinkedIn, brands post between 10.2 to 13.7 times per month on average, or about once every two to three days. In 2015, the output in LinkedIn content per brand grew 11%, tied with Instagram pictures. And while brands post only a handful of Instagram videos per month, posting Instagram photos is a near-daily activity grew between 24.2 and 26.9 per month on average.

Join us at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit May 4 through 7, to learn how to increase engagement with less content.