We’ve seen our fair share of bad social media advice. A lot of “best practices” advice don’t take into account the human, practical side of social media.
Some advice might seem good on the surface, but only works in the short term. If taken too far some advice can end up hurting your brand or leading to burnout.
So here are some alternatives to consider when following social media advice.
“Posts Often (Even When You Don’t Feel Like It)”
Regular posting is an important part of any good social media strategy. You want to stay relevant to your fans and continue to grow your following. However, posting without a strategy will end up hurting you in the long run.
Sharing content because you feel you have to will lead to burnout and post fatigue. When posting is a chore, your followers can tell and are less likely to engage. Though regular posting is key to becoming successful on social media, sometimes you just can’t fake it.
What To Do Instead: Keep a few genuine selfies, pictures and good content ideas on hand. Not every piece of content you make has to be shared ASAP, so save less timely content in a folder for the days when you don’t feel like posting.
“Automate & Use Bots To Save Time”
As social media managers, automation is a part of our strategy. But, if you cut out the human aspect of social media altogether, you run the risk of spamming your audience or coming across as insincere.
What To Do Instead:
- Use automation as a way to optimize posting times and for elements of your strategy that don’t need the human touch.
- Write tweets, captions and other copy by hand.
- Check in on queued content once it goes live to make sure there are no glitches in the process.
“Be On Every Platform”
It was once thought that you should be on every platform to maximize your reach. But, some platforms suit your content better than others.
With 10+ popular platforms and rising, it is impossible to cover your bases on all of them without experiencing burnout.
What To Do I
The skills you learn about taking good pictures, reading analytics and writing engaging copy will transfer to other platforms.
“…don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to maintain an active presence on every single social media site. Research and learn about the makeup of the audience that populates each social network so you can figure out where you should focus. If your audience isn’t there, don’t waste your time.” – Hubspot
It is relatively easy to switch or move content strategies over when another platform starts to gain in popularity. You know your audience best, so let your intuition guide you.
A good social media strategy is all about balance and setting yourself up for the long-term.
Applying blanket statements over all your social media, regardless of context, is a recipe for disaster. Finding the correct post types, frequency and times is unique to each platform and each company.
So, be thoughtful about your strategy and don’t be afraid to question advice, even if it seems right on the surface.
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