Most brand content isn’t bad because it’s offensive or incorrect.
It’s bad because it’s forgettable.
Over time, content engines drift toward sameness. Posts get safer. Language gets polished. Ideas get diluted to appeal to everyone and resonate with no one. This is how brands slowly unshittify in reverse—layering on more content while stripping out meaning.
Unshittification, in practice, is the deliberate act of removing low-value content and rebuilding storytelling around clarity, honesty, and human voice. It’s not about being edgy. It’s about being real.
This article lays out a practical authenticity audit to help brands purge content that doesn’t earn attention and replace it with creator-style storytelling that builds trust and relevance.
Unshittification is not about taste. It’s about signal.
Content becomes low-value when:
Over time, this creates a content library that looks active but feels empty.
Unshittification reverses that by asking a harder question:
Would anyone miss this if it disappeared?
The drift is structural, not creative.
Common causes include:
The result is content that checks boxes but never builds belief.
Creator-style content works because creators are accountable to attention, not committees. Brands that want creator-level trust need to audit their content with the same standard.
An authenticity audit is not about judging aesthetics. It’s about identifying whether content earns its place.
Flag any content that:
If the primary justification for a post is consistency, not contribution, it’s a candidate for removal.
Brand voice often becomes a shield.
Audit for:
Ask: would a real person talk like this?
Creator-style storytelling favors clarity over cleverness and honesty over polish.
Every piece of content should leave the audience with something:
If content doesn’t create a reaction, it’s not doing its job.
Low-value content tries to speak to everyone.
High-value content knows exactly who it’s for.
Audit posts by asking:
Vagueness is usually a sign of misalignment, not strategy.
Unshittification is incomplete if you only remove. You have to replace.
Creator-style brand storytelling is built on:
This doesn’t mean founders have to become influencers. It means brands need to sound like people who believe something.
Effective shifts include:
The fastest way to identify low-value content is to see how people respond when they’re allowed to respond honestly.
Community platforms like TYB surface:
Community engagement is a reality check. It shows what resonates without relying on vanity metrics.
When content earns participation, not just impressions, it’s a signal of authenticity.
Authenticity audits shouldn’t be one-time cleanups.
Strong brands build feedback loops:
Less content, done better, compounds faster than constant output.
Unshittification is not about being louder, edgier, or trendier. It’s about respecting attention.
Brands that audit their content honestly, remove what doesn’t earn trust, and adopt creator-style storytelling build credibility that algorithms can’t manufacture.
Community-first platforms like TYB make this process measurable by tying authenticity to participation, not polish. When people engage because they care, not because they’re targeted, content stops being noise and starts becoming signal.
An authenticity audit evaluates whether brand content provides real value, emotional resonance, or insight. It identifies posts that exist for volume rather than contribution and helps brands remove content that doesn’t earn attention.
In brand content, unshittification means intentionally removing low-value, generic, or performative posts and replacing them with honest, specific, creator-style storytelling that builds trust.
Creator-style storytelling prioritizes point of view, lived experience, and clarity. Brand storytelling often defaults to polished language and safety. The former earns trust; the latter often fades into background noise.
Low-value content lacks specificity, emotional impact, or audience response. If content generates no discussion, recall, or reaction, it likely isn’t contributing meaningfully.
Community engagement reveals what content resonates in real time. Platforms like TYB show which stories spark participation, making authenticity measurable rather than subjective.
Regularly. High-performing brands review content quarterly or continuously, treating authenticity as an operating principle rather than a one-time cleanup.
