The Hard Lessons We've Learned in the Trenches of Social Media

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There seems to be some kind of collective fantasy about what social media means to the modern business, especially the ones that are still call their work labor. Everyone is told to have a social media presence, and told how to engage their customers with friendly call outs, fun tips and the occasional joke that’s just edgy enough to catch some retweets, but not enough to offend the average mom. Just do that and you’ll be fine, right? That sure wasn’t our experience. Yes, you do need a social media presence, even if you’re working a field service job. But no, building a successful social media presence is not easy, and you probably won’t be able to do it by following any numbered instructions. You’ll need to be able to do it as you go, reacting to rapid changes in prefered content and platforms. This can be really tricky, and you’ll likely make a lot of mistakes before it pays off. We also made a lot of mistakes the first time around, and you might be able to learn from ours. Here are the things we know now:

Relevancy is Fleeting—For Content and Platforms

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to social media is trusting a formula. Tons of people fall into the trap of spending a few months making a major update in their PR approach—building all new accounts, training staff, learning what content people enjoy—only to stick with those changes for years afterward as if they were still relevant after even a month. No doubt, there are still plenty clueless managers out there still dutifully updating a Myspace page. Birthing and rearing a real social media presence will involve constantly shifting your attention to the newest innovation in communication. A few years ago, Facebook was the gold standard. Now, a lot of agile businesses are doing better with Twitter and getting rid of Facebook altogether. Twitter even seems to be giving way to the power of new visual-based social media like Pinterest. It’s not just the platforms that people lose interest in, after all. It’s also the way that messages are delivered. The content has to constantly change and be redeveloped for each place it goes. Sure, this can be exhausting, but half-assing your social media is just as bad as ignoring it, and ignoring it is no longer an option if you want to grow.

Many Fans Probably Aren’t

The early days of developing a social media presence can seem really exciting. This is especially true if you happen to produce some news or content that gets you a lot of attention really quickly. However, when you’re flying high on growing numbers of fans, likes and responses—remember that many of them probably aren’t coming from real people. If you get popular, many people will want to take advantage of your fanbase by using your pages for their own products. Many of these spammers will also create other fake accounts to hype their posts on your page. The end result is that whole lot of your fans aren’t real. This is something you absolutely need to plan ahead for when you’re budgeting what your social media network is worth to your time and money. Judge the worth of your efforts by what it brings you, not how many people have clicked.

People are Insane

There are certain risks you accept when you create a social media presence. One of the biggest risks of all is that with many platforms, you’re giving people the ability to say whatever they want on a giant piece of paper with your name plastered across the top. Your media pro needs to sleep eventually, and that’s when the goblins come out to play. You need to be committed to keeping your pages clean if you are serious about social media. Forgetting to update once in awhile doesn’t just mean losing touch with your audience, it could mean being evaluated by a page that someone has littered with profanity. Most people are savvy enough to know that you’re not endorsing any of it, but it can still look horribly unprofessional.