How much time do you (or your content marketing team) spend on what your social network stream looks like? You might not even know what we’re talking about. It’s OK. Most content marketers look at the stream as the final destination. Keep it filled and you’re good. That would be wrong. Here are five mistakes that will compromise your social networking stream. And one tip that lets you make mistakes and still have a dynamic network.
Don’t make your stream a cesspool
In keeping the social beast fed, you might be tempted to dump in a few random posts, or madly retweet things that are culturally or personally interesting. Please be selective. Or risk a stagnant pond of no engagement.
Don’t make your stream a supermarket ad flyer
The next time sales or marketing makes you use a social network account for promotional posts, remind them that there has to be a different touch than in paid media. Write a headline. Use an interesting graphic. Mix it up.
Quality over consistency
People who win with social media keep at it and post regularly. But if the posts don’t feel like they come from the same company, it is best to back off and be a bit more selective.
Don’t just share easy 3rd party content
Early on in content curation, it was cool to grab stories from Forbes, FastCo, NYT and share them as a useful feature of your stream. Now you need to find real gems beyond the trending stories.
Don’t just share easy 1st party content
If you only talk about yourself what happens? Don’t be the guy at the cocktail party who corners someone and only talks about himself. Share your ideas on other people’s ideas.
How to Master the Art of the Social Network Stream
BLENDING and sequencing
If you just took all five don’ts and spread them out in a sequence you’re already ahead. If you take a little more time and craft each of your posts for quality and brand, things start to really gel. Now it’s time to take a super perspective view and put yourself in the eyes of your social media followers. When they look at your stream, do they see the same things over and over? Or do they see a carefully crafted and strategic approach to win their follow and their confidence in ever interacting with you on social again!
Imagine your social network stream as ‘easy’ research for a prospect.
- Make a post that shares category expertise but doesn’t sell.
- Next, share a newsworthy post.
- After that, you’ve earned the right to post an original article, press release or video.
- Then you can humanize the organization with some event shots.
- And finally, you have an opportunity to promote, even sell.
When someone scrolls through your social stream they will have a 30-second impression of you as a thought leader who is a human being that generously shares ideas and isn’t spammy. And who wouldn’t want to click on the promotion appearing in that stream?