The longer I work in social media, the less interested I am in following the “rules.”
After 9+ years working on social media, there are a few things that I no longer believe.
Not because I think I had everything wrong when I started, but because I’ve had enough time to watch what actually happens when you put some of those ideas into practice.
I’ve watched brands chase trends that didn’t make sense for them. I’ve watched teams celebrate follower growth that didn’t translate into anything meaningful. I’ve watched people treat posting frequency like a strategy.
I’ve learned that some of the advice most repeated on social media is some of the advice that needs the most context.
So, after nearly a decade in the field, here are some things I no longer believe.
Marie Dhayes via Unsplash
I don’t believe every brand needs to be on every platform.
Being everywhere doesn’t automatically make you more effective.
Every platform requires a different approach, and maintaining a presence just for the sake of having one can spread a team incredibly thin.
The question shouldn’t be: Are we on TikTok?
It's: Is TikTok actually helping us reach our goals?
Maybe the answer is yes. Maybe it’s no. Maybe your audience is there, but your brand doesn’t have the resources to create something that works there consistently.
So, maybe another platform is a better fit.
You don’t get bonus points for having a profile on every possible network.
I don’t believe posting every day makes a strategy good.
Consistency matters. We all know that.
Consistency and frequency are not the same thing, though.
You can post seven times a week and still have seven pieces of content no one cares about. Or, you can post three times a week with a clearer purpose behind each.
The goal should never be to fill a calendar. The goal should be to make the content worth consuming and following. Sometimes that means more. Sometimes that means less. And sometimes it means realizing that you have a quantity problem when you actually need to solve a quality problem.
I don’t believe a viral post is the same thing as a successful post.
This might be the biggest thing I’ve learned.
Viral is a metric, not a strategy. A post can get hundreds of thousands of views and do absolutely nothing to move the needle for the business.
It can reach people who have no interest in your product, service, or brand. It can generate impressive numbers that look fantastic in a report, while actually contributing very little to the goal.
Of course, sometimes a viral post is incredibly valuable. The point isn’t that virality is bad. It’s that virality isn’t the same thing as effectiveness.
I’d much rather have a post reach the right 10,000 people than the wrong 500,000.
I don’t believe trends are a strategy.
Trends can be great. I use them. I enjoy them. And sometimes, they’re exactly what the brands I’m working with need on their page.
But “we need to do this because everyone else is doing it” is not a strategy.
Before you think about hopping on a trend, ask yourself these questions:
Does this trend make sense for us?
Does it make sense for our audience?
Can we put our own perspective on it?
Does it help accomplish anything?
Sometimes the answer will be yes, and sometimes the smartest thing to do is just let the trend pass.
I don’t believe more followers mean more impact.
Follower count is easy to understand. But impact isn’t for some reason.
It’s much easier to point to a graph and say “we gained 20,000 followers,” than it is to explain how your content changed someone’s perception of a brand, drove traffic, generated leads, or strengthened community or contributed to larger business goals.
Followers are absolutely valuable. But they are a means to an end, not the end itself.
I’d rather build an audience that actually cares about the brand than collect a massive audience that never engages with us ever again.
I don’t believe every piece of content needs to sell something.
Social media is not a never-ending commercial. Sometimes the job of your piece of content is to educate, to entertain, to build trust, to make someone laugh, or to remind people that there are humans behind the brands they follow.
Not every post needs a CTA. You don’t need to drive someone to the landing page every time you post on Insta. You don’t need to explain why someone should buy your product every single day.
People follow brands because they get something from that relationship. Sometimes that “something” is a product. But sometimes it’s just information, entertainment, or a reason to keep coming back.
A good social strategy is making room for all of the above.
And I definitely don’t believe social is “just posting.”
This one I feel the most strongly about.
I’ve been hearing some version of “anyone can do social media” for most of my career. Most of my life even.
And technically? Sure. Anyone can open an account and post something.
But social media strategy is so much more than publishing a post:
It’s audience research
It’s positioning
It’s creative direction
It’s copywriting
It’s platform strategy
It’s analytics
It’s trend analysis
It’s community management
It’s understanding how people behave differently platform-to-platform
It’s knowing when to experiment and when to stop
It’s understanding how social fits into the larger marketing ecosystem
It’s knowing how to build systems that allow all of that to happen consistently
Posting is the easiest part.
So what do I believe now?
After nine-plus years, I’m much less interested in universal social media “rules.” I’m more interested in context.
What does this brand need?
What does this audience respond to?
What are we actually trying to accomplish?
What does this platform make possible?
What does the data tell us?
What are we learning?
What should we do differently because of what we’ve learned?
Sometimes the answer is to jump on a trend… Sometimes it’s to ignore it.
Sometimes it’s to post more… Sometimes it’s to post less.
Sometimes it’s to launch a new platform… And sometimes it’s to stop using one.
Sometimes the strategy needs a small adjustment… Sometimes you need a completely new one.
The longer I’ve worked in social media, the more I’ve realized that good strategy isn’t about having a list full of rules to follow no matter what. It’s about knowing which questions to ask before you make a decision.
Nine-plus years in, I’m still learning. And I hope I always am.
This post was first published on my Substack, If I’m Being Honest.