AWS is bad at social media. And yes, they should feel bad.
But before I go any further, I want to clarify that I’ve got no beef with AWS. Nothing against them. They are a perfectly fine cloud provider. But they’re awful at being a brand successful on social media.
This blog isn’t personal. It’s data-driven.
For a brand, success isn’t just a number. It’s not just a follower count. That’s part of it, for sure.
Are people actually looking at your content? Are they sharing it (so it gets “amplified” and seen even further?)
Are they commenting on it? This is a brand “touch” after all -- just as significant as handing out swag at technology conferences (remember those??)
Why does this matter? All of social media channels are built on a “next gen,” active version of a search algorithm, much like Google, Bing and Yahoo from back in the day. They look at behavioral signals from users to determine what gets seen. And what doesn’t.
If your metrics are bad, you are bad. Case closed.
What are the metrics? Here they are. And yes, AWS, you are bad and should feel bad.
Technically, AWS is the most bad at LinkedIn, but since they have a closed API, we'll focus on what we have public data on.
So: what should AWS do? Test more, see what’s working, do less of what’s not.
To the AWS social media manager(s): if someone from upper management is hurting you and making you do this, please screen cap them some metrics and beg for leniency to fix what is a very blatant problem.
If you want, have them call me and I can yell at them for you.
Do a search for “AWS” on LinkedIn. Do it. I double dog dare you.
What do you see? About 40 irrelevant results. And none of them are actually AWS’ official page.
No one at AWS is doing something we in the industry call “channel governance.”
And randos from within and from without of the organization are running amuck,spinning up branded channels, making the ACTUAL AWS brand channel difficult to find. Which means AWS is going to have a heck of a time connecting with its actual user base.
This “ranking” (aka, AWS not showing up on the LinkedIn search results) is also an indicator that the LinkedIn social media algorithm does not find the official AWS LinkedIn page valuable.
LinkedIn in fact finds it less valuable than…. at least other forty other AWS-related pages.
Solution: this isn’t insurmountable: this can be rectified by fixing the problem above (the content/value challenge -- the algos do reward GOOD content with findability), AND, in having a quarterly or annual handle audit, and working with representatives at the platforms.
How does such an audit work? You look around for people who have rolled up handles with your brand. Then, a conversation something like this ensues:
“Hi Twitterer Twitterton, person at Twitter who manages our paid spend of $5 million a year. I would like some help getting rid of some hot garbage that’s been rolled up in our name. These accounts are as follows (can you please suspend them?)
Governance is annoying. But it can be done bi-annually, and really doesn’t take much time.
It just takes discipline. And no one at AWS is doing it. Why?
They're too busy mindlessly posting content that doesn’t elicit any sort of feeling.