Social media is maligned, misunderstood and constantly compromised. A “P2P” platform, it’s meant to be a way for humans to connect with other humans. But it’s often adapted by companies as a way to talk to their customers and potential customers… the end result being something akin to handing a loaded bazooka to a child.
There’s usually very little understanding as to how the technology works: and to try and help, I’ve put together seven common social media foibles seen out in the wilds.
Promoting Flowery Floating Heads Flocked With Freakishly Out-of-Place Callouts
It’s a warm summer morning and you are sipping your coffee, scrolling through your social media feeds, and what do you see, but an image of a random person’s giant head, on a colorful background, next to a random quote. “That’s nice,” you think, as you scroll past.
What you didn’t realize is that this content was created by some poor brand who spent hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of dollars, developing this creative as a “compelling campaign” to showcase themselves, their executives, their customers or their partners.
And they’re not alone. This is a default tactic, a lazy tactic, wielded by hundreds of brands just like it. The content all winds up looking the same. And all the same, they all get scrolled past, ineffectually.
When I see content like this, I hear a toilet flushing dollar bills in my head.
Why? No one cares about floating heads and contextual-less quotes on social media.
You are competing with cat GIFs. Act like it.
Listening. Or not. Crisis Management 101
Right now, as you read this, there are a ton of people talking about your brand. How many mentions are there? How many mentions were there this quarter? Last quarter?
What are they saying? What deals are on the table? What customers are you losing? What business insights are you missing?
What tool are you using? How much is it costing you? How good is your Boolean?
If you are a marketing leader and can’t answer any of these questions, you likely aren’t at the forefront of a major business differentiator: social listening.
Here’s a fun, actual, real-world example of a brand's reputation imploding RIGHT NOW.
At this very moment, social media brand Pinterest is under fire on nearly every social media platform: African American and former female executives are coming forward disclosing mistreatment, bias and discrimination.
This for a brand where their primary customers are women.
Traditional news media is poking at the story, but they’re slow and outdated and they don’t yet smell the blood in the water or understand the scope of what’s happening: whereas social media listening tools do.
Pinterest will literally be brand roadkill in a few days, and I can see it coming, but nowhere is this being addressed. It’s like they don’t even know what’s happening: their response appears to be that they’ve hired some ancient law firm to “research their internal culture,” when what they need to do is make huge, sweeping firings at the C-suite and the board level, immediately, before their doom is upon them. I’m going to guess they remain oblivious, until it is too late. Hope you don’t hold Pinterest stock.
Hearing these rumblings as they happen and responding appropriately is key for protecting your brand.
Being Oblivious of User Behavior and the “Window”
Most users consume social media content (ANY social media content, on ANY app) in feed, on an app, on mute. Their window for viewing is approximately :6-:15 seconds if you are lucky.
You need to be visually-first, and convey a powerful message, quickly.
Compelling content might have a 2-3% clickthrough rate if you are lucky. But most of your views are going to happen in feed. So all that beautiful insight you might have in a whitepaper, webinar, blog or piece of content originating from the early 00’s isn’t going to land.
Social is not the right channel. Stop pushing these on social, and focus on snackable video bytes.
And yes, I understand you track MQLs based on your website. I am sorry for you son: I’ve got 99 problems and outdated acquisition tracking methods ain’t one.
Not Listening to the End User
User behavior dictates what gets seen. So if your content is very much about you, traditional, boring, etc – it gets very little traction. All that money you spent in development goes right out the window.
You may really care about the "Bazinga Grabelgock Strepalmerikickiki" that your company just developed, but rather than just shoving it out there as the “Brand new Bazinga Grabelgock Strepalmerikickiki – now with more Bazingas!” you need to have an actual, methodical session with your brand team where you figure out why this product matters, what it’s messaging is, and most importantly – how you’ll frame it to general purpose humans in an exciting way that actually lands.
Pretend the “Bazinga Grabelgock Strepalmerikickiki” is auto insurance.
Now, how do you deliver auto insurance in an exciting, human first way? It’s impossible, you might say! But it isn’t. The brands who care, and the brands who succeed, merchandise and plan for the end user and employ consumer tactics (yes, even if you are an enterprise) such as:
- A cute and or irascible mascot: see, Geico’s Gecko, Progressive’s Flo or AllState’s Mayhem.
- Telling hilarious, real and hyperbolic stories: see Farmer’s.
On social media, you must entertain or inform. You must provide end value for the user. Or, you fail. You fail as hard as a fail whale.
Ignoring the Subject Matter Experts
Every day, at every brand, this conversation happens multiple times.
What they say: “We need to get this out.”
What they mean: “I don’t care if this actually works, I just need to check off a box and tell my boss we did some social media promotion.”
Another one:
What they say: “I am every product manager ever and I have a very exciting business development I want to promote on social media. The Chimmychanga 90000 SuperMXK5000 is live today! It creates actionable, agile solutions for service providers in East Bombay, but only ones who surf and use a certain kind of connective port and electrical standard.”
What the practiced and ethical social media manager says in response: “No, we can’t promote this. Well. We can promote this. But why? What's the ROI? The way this is, no one will interact with it. No amount of merchandising will help you. You don’t need organic social, you need targeted means like email, paid search/social/display: my channel is for awareness and needs to be used for global messages relevant to general purpose humans, or it will slowly tank and die, hurting our entire company.”
What an executive says: “Every product manager ever said you wouldn’t promote this valuable content about the Chimmychanga 90000 SuperMXK5000? Well, you monster, you need to promote it.”
What the practiced and ethical social media manager who wants to remain employed says: “Ok.”
Avoiding Metrics-Based Decisions
Just like Google, there are algorithms at play behind every social media channel that determine what organic social media content gets seen and by how many people, algorithms that care about “signals” to rank and showcase content.
And just like with Google and traditional SEO, content visibility can be manipulated. But at the end of the day – all the signals the algorithms read are out to detect “good content." So "good content" = views.
But what is good?
Well. I can tell you what good isn’t: subjective.
“Good” requires editorial judgement, experience and practice to recognize. “Good” is reflected in metrics: by the number of times content gets viewed, shared, or commented on.
Have a bar for performance: when you see “Good” content, make more of it. When you see “bad” content, stop. Fight to the death to make it stop.
As a social media practitioner, you stand at the gates, protecting humans from primordial content slop.
Only you can prevent forest fires.
Selling Plants, Ties and Business Shirts (For Some Reason)
One of the easiest, cheapest types of content to produce involves slapping a “thought leader” or “subject matter expert” down in front of a window and making them talk for 15-60 minutes. Generally they are wearing a tie or a button up and look like they came out of the 1990s. Sometimes there can even be shoulder pads.
Unless you are selling plants, windows, ties or business shirts, this is a tactic you should likely sunset.
Many brands appear to think that this is the only way to showcase “thought leadership” – so they can demonstrate their expertise in a certain field. But they often do this by creating content around executives or individuals no one outside the organization cares about (or ever will care about).
There are exceptions (say, if you have an Elon Musk type in the ranks), but metrics-wise, most externals will only respond to your CEO, household brands, or incredible stories.
Trying to force your other execs into the limelight is an exercise in futility, and aside from buttering them up, there’s not a lot to be gained for the organization.
There are, however, probably a few thought leaders worth showcasing – say, in engineering. But there’s no kickback from buttering up engineers, and most of them usually hate being on camera. Alas, this is why you see a lot of “thought leadership” content that no one is interacting with.
Alternatively, maybe try showcasing the awesome solution you came up with to solve a very real, very exceptional problem. Do it visually. And in 30 seconds or less :}
Pro-tip: execs and “thought leaders” should maintain their own personal handles, intuitively – versus being shoved out via a brand handle. The all-mighty metrics will show you this is a much more effective tactic.