“Content strategy” can be one of those key aspects of marketing we tend to overthink and, as a result, lose sight of. The phrase itself can conjure up images of quicksand—the more we struggle with it, the deeper we sink. Content strategy can be dead simple, actually, if we keep one dead simple rule in mind.

It’s called the Rule of Thirds, and what makes it so simple is what often makes it so effective as well. Its underlying strategy is to provide a healthy dose of diversity and discipline to a brand’s social content and overall social activity.

Here’s how the Rule of Thirds works:

• One-third of your social content is promotional / transactional. It should promote your business/products/services, create and convert prospects, and contribute to revenue generation in some way.
• One-third of your social content is educational and informational. It should underscore your expertise by sharing ideas and stories about trends, developments and overall issues important to your industry and how they impact your core audiences.
• One-third of your social content should be interactive and conversational. It should engage with your social audiences, especially key influencers, advocates and potential ambassadors.

As this helpful Hootsuite blog points out, some parts of this rule will come more naturally than others—namely, developing and sharing your own branded content. The other two buckets are where things can get a bit more difficult; they are, however, also the areas where brands can derive the most value when it comes to their social presence.

The other beauty of the Rule of Thirds is how easy and relatively painless it is to integrate into an existing social media presence. Any existing content or planned activity should be allocated according to whichever bucket it belongs to. Similarly, any future content planning and development should align equally among these three buckets.

Put the Rule of Thirds to work for your brand—and your social presence may soon rule them all!