Social Media in 2023

1. Posting too much can hurt your numbers.

It tanks engagement, and reach and you get unfollowed. It’s very common to post more than you think you need to, there is no “expectation” of you, so stop worrying about it. So many times we’ve been hired to help folks run their social media channels to help improve them and all we do is recommend posting less, but more deliberately.

Post less, post what matters.

When you have to post daily it waters down your content. The exception to the rule is if you have enough content to be posting daily (tourism organization, sports team, Cirque Du Soleil). But more of these organizations don’t have a problem with their social strategy.

If you’re not wasting so much time coming up with all those posts, you can focus on creating posts that matter. Stop posting more as a strategy, maybe it’s not at all about what you’re posting.

2. Interacting/engaging with people is greater than simply posting

We’ve known this for a while now but it’s becoming more and more evident with the adoption of A.I. in everything. Coming up with a beautifully designed post, developing the best caption, and posting at the precise time your audience is online can only get you do far. And if you’re relying on just your content to grow your account you’re going to have a bad time.

There’s so much more to social media than just posting. Talking to people, following people, supporting organizations and companies you love. Being active on social media is how you actually get results out of it.

3. Quality control matters, but not in the way you think. 

Your content can’t be too bad OR too good. Yup, too good is bad as well. People stop trusting when they view your content as too polished. If your Reels look like a 30 second spot that’s meant to be on TV you aren’t going to get the engagement you think you deserve.

Sure, your videos need to be clear and shot in high quality, but there’s a diminishing return to how much editing and professionalism you need in your content.

Bring back cell phone videos!!!

4. Edit the photo, we know it’s edited, and we like it better that way.

This has been a debate in the halls of StratLab ever since Instagram came out with filters. Edit your photos. Don’t over-edit them though, we don’t want too much editing, just enough to show your audience you care about their attention.

The subconscious signal you’re sending when you edit your content is that you care about it and your audience. If you don’t care about what you’re posting, then don’t edit it.

5. Open up, and be yourself.

What trumps a well-designed post? Something personal, something meaningful. Post things that you care about. Your audience will appreciate it. Sometimes the best way to measure this is how many DM, comments, and offline remarks you get about a post.

Remember, being vulnerable is still the easiest way to gain the trust in your audience.

6. Don’t get too “salesy” or preachy. Your customers can decide on their own.

You don’t need to sell. Assume your customers know what they want to buy and all you need to do is move them along the continuum of becoming a raving fan of yours.

Strangers < Friends < Customers < Sales People

Educate, inspire, help, inform, just don’t sell. They’ll make up their mind when they’re ready. And if you treat them right, the ultimate is turning your customers into salespeople.

But Jeph, what about that “Go for No” book on sales you should be shooting for a “no” from your potential customers! Yes, I’m aware of this book. What the author doesn’t account for is what happens when you upset or offend someone who could have been a customer. I’d rather not “go for a no” with potential customers, again, assume your customers are smart enough to tell you when they want to buy.

7. People are GREAT bullshit detectors.

When you use stock images or other images from the Internet that aren’t yours, you’re signalling to your audience that you’re lazy and don’t really care about them. Sound harsh? Well, STOP USING STOCK IMAGERY!!

In a workshop, we were talking about A.I. and I was showing the group images, some were photos we had taken, and some were stock images. In a split second people in the room could tell a stock image versus an original one.

You don’t need a professional photographer, you just need to teach your tech/marketing lead how to use their iPhone properly. Don’t worry! There’s a workshop for that!

8. Ask yourself, “Why would I want to follow me?” 

It sounds trivial but it’s very important, why would someone want to follow you? Not to be facetious, think about the reasons as to “why” someone would want to follow you. Is it your talent? Your eye for photography? Is it your wit? Your captions are funny? Do you inspire people? Do you make people feel good? Are you real?

Whatever it is, don’t sit back and say, “There is no reason people follow me”, you need to come up with something and stick to it (and yes, contests can be a reason to follow you!).

9. Remember rule #6 (and there aren’t any other rules!) so stop taking yourself so seriously!

From the book The Art of Possibility, I love the idea of not taking yourself so seriously. Most problems can be stemmed from someone taking themselves too seriously. Upset about a post? Did someone make a mistake in a caption? Don’t freak out, mistakes happen.

People get upset about social media or things they don’t like on social media. Stop complaining and simply unfollow them instead.

People will always complain online, and they will continue to be negative, as Scott Stratton once said, “Stop worrying about other people on social media, you aren’t the Jackass Whisperer!”