5 Things I Wish I Knew About Social Media
Do you ever wish you could go back in time and give yourself the wisdom and knowledge you have right this second? There are definitely a few decisions I would do over, given the chance. But barring magical Deloreans or hot tubs, I guess I’ll have to settle for imparting my wisdom to you. Here are 5 things I wish I knew about posting content for agency clients 10 years ago.
1. You should mirror the purpose of the organization.
When I started doing social media for agencies, it was the dark ages, so I had to figure out a lot of it myself. I worked for a ticket broker who liked my personal page and handed me the login to Twitter. I started out with the idea that I would simply educate our audience, which was the advice I was getting from the info available. Here’s the rub: our job wasn’t to educate our customers, it was to entertain them. Once I switched up the foundation of our strategy, the content worked like magic.
2. Don’t try to look like everyone else.
You might notice that my content is a little, ummm, different. That’s because looking like everyone else is a great way to get buried in the feed. Your clients will resist to some degree, but it’s vital to figure out a way to stand out. Whether that’s post medium, copy style (incorporating humor or specific language), humanizing your brand with your team (ain’t nobody else got your employees), or posting content that’s different, be a snowflake.
3. Be realistic about your social goals.
It took me a long time to accept the shift from a few years ago, but the hard, cold truth is that growing and selling via organic social just isn’t as easy as it used to be. The goals I tell my clients to have today for social media are vastly different. They typically include the TOFU stages: awareness, agitation, education, and lead generation. The degree and timeline of success can be improved with paid strategies, so be mindful of that as well.
4. And timelines.
Speaking of timelines, hang onto yours. If a client comes to me and says they need immediate sales, I will not recommend organic social media. That’s because it takes a minimum of 6 months to get traction with organic social (and it’s more like a few years, if we’re being honest). That’s why I recommend using social media as a reinforcement of other activities and distribution for a solid content strategy and not as a sole sales platform, especially in the B2B space.
5. Sometimes it pays to go to opposite world.
Remember what I said about standing out? Sometimes the best way to do that is to swim upstream. So, for example, if your clients are in a B2B industry, finding their target market outside of the usual channels is a really smart way to stand out. There are a million makeup influencers on TikTok, but not many people talk about tax planning or IT security. And while you might not get the same traction as Justin Danger Nunley (LISTEN, did you know??), it just might be easier to reach your niche. Ya dig?
You’re not wrong. And just keeping up with the best practices, latest tactics, and newest data (let alone implementing it) is a full-time job. So if you think you have bandwidth for your clients, that’s cool. My team is champing at the bit to help you do all social things.
