> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://kelfordinc.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Can your content keep a secret? — Kelford Labs Weekly - URL: https://kelfordinc.com/can-your-content-keep-a-secret-kelford-labs-weekly/ - Published: 2026-09-24T11:06:32.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-24T11:06:32.000Z - Description: What does it say about others? - Author: Joel Kelly - Tags: action, anxiety, attention, camouflage, challenge, content, help, linkedin, messaging, problem, reveal, Weekly Labs, writing “Leads come from lurkers, not from Likers.” Or, put another way, the content that gets you leads is often not the content that got the most public engagement. That’s one of the most important pieces of content marketing advice I’ve ever heard, and it’s important for this reason: **Often, as advisors, consultants, or non-profits, the content that we create *can’t* be Liked, shared, or commented on publicly.** Why? Because in doing so, the Liker would be revealing that *they* have the problem the post is marketing a solution to. If you do bankruptcy consulting and you write a post about your services, for instance, someone might be afraid to publicly acknowledge it, lest everyone else think they’re in financial trouble. Even if all you do is provide marketing support, a post about how marketing works might be kryptonite for your prospects, because they don’t want everyone to know their own marketing is struggling. See what I mean? **Sometimes marketing content actively discourages engagement, because people don’t want other people to see that they need help.** A consistent trend of poor engagement on marketing content, like social media posts, can then lead an organization to think they just can’t do marketing at all. Or, and perhaps even worse, they decide to merely copy the bigger name in their space and do the same things they do. But since they lack the resources and brand recognition of that bigger organization, their content appears as a weak simulacrum of another’s efforts. **Which makes their content not just unengageable, but invisible to boot.** A lot of our clients once started in that position. They deal with sensitive financial, wellness, or family issues that most people have an instinctive urge to hide from others. So they wonder if marketing content is even an option for them. **But, we then assure them, it really is. You just have to think about it from the prospect’s perspective.** What instead often happens is the marketing team at a given organization is thinking strictly from the algorithm’s perspective, the board’s perspective, the funder’s perspective, or from their own perspective. They think the point of marketing content is the public *reaction*, not the end *result*. When *that* is where to start: At the impact, not at the engagement metric. **What we recommend these organizations do is swap *“what would get us Likes?”* with *“what would help our prospect take one step closer?”*** Go take a look at your last post that didn’t perform how you’d hoped. Read it again, and then ask yourself: “If I had the challenge this post is supposed to help me solve, would I want everyone to know?” If the answer is *No*, you have your answer to its low engagement. And you’re halfway to a solution. **Because you have two choices, two ways to balance your content:** 1) You can give your audience and prospects a *private action* to take that gets them *closer to your organization* without publicly embarrassing them 2) You can give your audience and prospects *and their friends* a public action they can take to *support someone else* **So what that looks like in practice is pretty simple:** One of our clients is a large non-profit that helps people struggling with mental health and addictions. Their marketing content, historically, got very low engagement. Because, well, people felt uncomfortable publicly revealing that they had a challenge the organization helps with. So one of the first things we did was pivot the content so that *engagement matters less*. We started putting the organization’s contact information (like their toll-free and SMS number) right in the content, with an appeal to save the post or write down the numbers. That led to an increase in saves and outreach, without meaningfully increasing public engagement on that content. But then what we *also* did was start creating more content aimed at the “asking for a friend” angle. Content that provides people worried about *someone else* with a post they can Like, share, comment on, or send to someone in need. Even if that person is *them*. **By aiming the content at *others*, it opened the door for public support and engagement.** For this particular client, in working with their executive director, we realized that one of the things holding people back from reaching out was worrying that their problem was “too small.” So we created a whole content campaign around reaching out for *any* reason. That content allowed more people to save, share, and publicly support, because it didn’t reveal anything about the person engaging with it. Other than that they cared about someone. **Just think about these two posts side-by-side:** One says, “Like this post if you need help.” The other says, “Like this post if you know someone who needs support.” Which one are you *more likely* to Like, even if *you* need support? It’s the second one, right? **So here’s what I’d like you to think about today:** - Is it possible your content isn’t “performing” because nobody wants to publicly acknowledge their need? - Is it possible the content is still working, just invisibly, without public engagement? - Can you aim more of your content to be secretly saveable, and more to be publicly shareable, and simply balance the two sides of this content coin? Content is pretty bad at keeping secrets. **Because what we engage with says something about us, and often it’s something we might not want others to know.** But if we need support, if we need the help your organization provides, you can help *us* by making content that’s easier to share, easier to engage with. **Which makes it more likely to help.** *So, would you mind sending this to a friend or colleague who’s worried about their marketing content?* --- [***Kelford Inc.***](https://www.kelfordinc.com/) ***are content marketers for expert advisors. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract your ideal clients,*** [***we’ll show you the way***](https://kelfordinc.com/contact/)***.***