The Biggest Mistake Organizations Make With Social Media
Imagine you are meeting up with a date for coffee. You go in, introduce yourself, and sit down to chat.
They seem super excited and friendly! They jump right into talking about their job, then their family…favorite books…world travels…but all of a sudden it's one hour later and they STILL haven’t asked you even a single question. What was originally meant to be a conversation has turned into a boring, forced lecture.
This is the exact same mistake companies make when it comes to social media.
Organizations are hesitant to shift from this mindset of “Me, Me, ME!” because it can seem like that shift defeats their social media purpose of promoting the company. But here is the thing—that mindset will only get you so far, just like a person on a date who won’t stop talking about themselves. Eventually you get bored of them droning on and on, showing no interest in you. So you leave.
Here is what steps companies can take to change this:
First, take a look at your current posts.
How many were crafted to get to know your audience? If the answer is none, you should consider creating campaigns to analyze your audience’s intent and engagement. You could have AMAZING content to share but if you don’t give it to your audience in a format that they want then you will miss out on tons of engagement. Take ‘success stories’ for example. See if your audience would rather read your testimonies as a blog post or watch as a video instead. You might be surprised by the results.
In addition, create experiments for analyzing the types of content your audience wants (and chooses) to follow you for. Remember that every person makes a conscience decision to identify with your brand—so give them content that they are able to identify with and share. Do they like inspirational posts that they can share to their timelines? Or do they like to ask questions on Facebook Live with the CEO? Knowing what their intentions are will maximize your overall reach.
Craft intentionally.
Once you have an idea of your target audience and their intentions, you can begin to tailor your messages accordingly. This is the most conflicting step in the process of creating content that isn’t all “Me, Me, ME!” because this is the step where there tends to be most push back. To craft intentionally, you are customizing a message to that specific audience—which means some details might get overshadowed or left out. THAT IS OKAY. Crafting a specific message with a specific intention means you will be able to cut through all of the clutter and make an immediate connection with your audience. Here is how this works:
Your audience comes first. What do they want to know? What do they expect or want to see from you? How will they want to engage with this?
Now, what do you want your audience to know? Pick the message you are trying to get across.
This is where most mistakes are made. Don’t just add Step 1 and Step 2 together. Use Step 2 as a guiding tool for creating content in Step 1. For example, you want your audience to know that you serve 10 million customers a year. Your audience is status-driven and likes the luxury status of being a customer.
Self-Serving Post: “We serve 10 million customers a year! Thanks for choosing us as your preferred company!”
Crafted Intentionally: “We’ve created a special Facebook profile frame for the 10 million amazing customers we have served this year. Share your new profile picture in the comments below and we will put your photo in our collage this weekend”
See the difference? The same message gets across but one is self-serving and the other is created thinking about the audience first. As a result, your company still gets its intended message out but without shamelessly shouting about why they are so great and getting tuned out by their audience.
Share relevant, external content.
Some companies might find this counter-intuitive, and I get that. Why promote anyone else when it is YOUR company’s page? It’s hard for organizations to repress that naturally selfish tendency. But the reason why they need to learn is content marketing. This is where you can get ahead of the competition, because most organizations focus on sharing content that’s useful to themselves versus content that’s useful to their audience. Sharing others online content has several benefits:
Encourages relationship-building between you and other organizations, like local news stations or businesses.
Shows that you are knowledgeable in the industry, as well as confidence that you aren’t afraid of “driving traffic away” (because you actually aren’t—remember that you are providing your readers valuable content which keeps them coming back to YOU). At a networking event, do you stay with one person who promotes themselves only? Or do you look for someone else who can connect you with others?
Saves time! Chances are if you have limited resources you don’t have the ability to be producing new, high-quality content around the clock that hasn’t already been shared.
Lastly, CONVERSE.
One way companies fall into the trap of “Me, Me, ME!” is posting the exact same content across several channels without a strategy or customizing it according to that platform. Think of it like taking 1,000 of the exact same flyers and dropping it from a tall skyscraper…how far is that going to get you?
Television is meant to be a one-way broadcast—but social media is not supposed to be like that. It is meant to be a way for businesses to connect with their followers. A lot of times companies skimp out on having genuine conversations with their followers because they forget that they are individual people and end up just thinking they are a big blob of people online. Make an effort to engage with your followers by asking questions, showing gratitude, and creating posts FOR them.
