Warning: Social Media Conformity May Lead To An Unintentional Game Of Hide And Seek

Author:Texas Creative
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Remember the childhood game that brought us laughter and hours of chasing, tracking and hiding? Hide and Seek was fun because everyone was eventually found or could at least jump out when you were tired of hiding. Now think how different this concept is received when you apply it to social media content. At the current height of the digital age, content is often hidden among the masses and knowing that it may never be found (let’s face it, consumers generally don’t seek out branded content) can be a little disheartening. Sure there are tons of ‘experts’ offering best practices on how to gain visibility, but the double-edged sword of the Internet is that while you’re using that information to get ahead, so is everyone else. If you follow the same best practices and share the same type of content (in the same way) as everyone else, you won’t stand out … you’ll become part of the new norm.

Lost In Translation

Don’t get us wrong, there are certainly a few basic best practices all social and digital peeps should follow, but that’s as far as the mirroring should go. For instance, this article wasn’t written with your specific audience in mind. It’s up to you to think through your target and their social media behavior. Think about their pain points and generate content based on what will be the most helpful to them. Remember, best practices are a good starting point, but they should always be fine-tuned.

5 Tips For Tailoring Your Social Strategy

1) Google Analytics. Know it, use it, love it! This will help you understand your brand audience with information like demographics, interests, behaviors and geolocation. 

2) Use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest Analytics. These show when your audience is online and allow you to schedule content accordingly.

3) Test your content. Your followers may prefer video to white papers or blog posts, so try all three and use social media analytics to see which had the best engagement and reach (it’s equally as important to use different types of content and not limit yourself to one or two — people get bored easily!).

4) Follow your audience. Learning what types of content they share on their personal profiles gives you a good indication as to what interests them.

5) Share content by popular publishers. Develop your brand’s personality by sharing relatable content by outlets like Mashable, Buzzfeed and Time.

Let’s be real, “one size fits all” doesn’t work with many things, so don’t think it will for your social media. Every audience is different, which is why we encourage you to use these tips to turn best practices into better social media strategy for your brand.