Social media is fun, but companies can’t do it just for fun
Let’s be clear: social media is fun. There are times it’s a downright rabbit hole of memes, gifs and laugh-inducing hilarity. But if there was one thing I wish I could get folks in the business world to understand about social media, it’s this: when you’re doing social media on behalf of your company, it’s OK to have fun. But it cannot be just for fun.
Let’s dig a little deeper…
Social media goals should align with your business goals.
When someone comes to me wanting to start a new social media channel, they often struggle to answer my very first question: “What are your goals?” I frequently get vague answers like “to raise awareness” or “to reach stakeholders.” My personal favorite is “I don’t know, but my boss says we need one.” The best way to build a successful social media strategy is to align your social media goals with your actual business goals (sarcastic news flash: social media can help drive your business goals!)
So let’s say for instance you come to me and say Sue, we want to start a Facebook page. I would then ask you for your overall (not specific to social media) goals for this year. Let’s say you tell me “We have three main goals this year: drive traffic through our website by 10%, increase efficiency in our packing department by 5% and acquire 2,000 new customers.” Those are three specific goals that are not only specific but measurable.
Armed with this information, we could then look at how you could use social media as a tactic to achieve some of those goals. It’s important to note that not all goals are going to be a good fit for social media. For instance, increasing your packing department efficiency is something that has nothing to do with social media. That’s an internal operational goal. But the other two goals – website traffic and new customer acquisition – are areas where you could use social media as a tactic to achieve the overall goal for your business. You could then build a specific social media strategy aimed at delivering on those two specific goals.
Bottom line: Align your social media goals with your business goals or you’re just wasting time and resources. Again, social media can be fun, but for your company, it can’t just be for fun. It needs to prove its ROI in a tangible and measurable way, just like all of the other parts of your business. If you don’t view social media that way, or if you start social media accounts because you or someone else has shiny object syndrome, it’s time to rethink your approach. You wouldn’t start a new line of business just because someone thought it was cool, so why would you start a resource- and budget-intensive social media account unless it paid dividends?
So when is it OK to have fun?
Simply put – it’s OK to have fun on your company’s social media accounts when it makes sense. The scenario could be different and it also depends on your brand, your overall communications strategy and what your company voice is like online. Here are a few examples of situations in which it’s OK.
Your company’s brand is fun. If you’re Wendy’s or Disney or Nickelodeon or other brands that are fun by nature, it makes total sense for your social media presence to also be fun. However, it should be fun while still selling burgers, travel packages or promoting the new Double Dare (damn I loved that show when I was a kid). Keep in mind that this strategy for social content only works for certain brands (read “No, we can’t all be like Wendy’s on social media.”)
Your company is trying to seize a fun moment. You may be a serious or straight-laced company on social media generally speaking, but it’s OK to take a slight departure if you’re trying to jump into a larger thing happening online. Memes are a great example of this, and I will again use the example of Crocs jumping into the latest Bernie meme hoopla. Crocs’ social media is fine but generally features product shots of different types of Crocs. The team jumped in on the Bernie meme train quite successfully – and it reaped the rewards. Most Crocs Facebook posts get a couple dozen comments. The Bernie post had 4,000 comments and 17,000 shares. It’s important to note that one of the things that made this work was that they acted very quickly, before the moment was gone. If you can’t move that fast, you’ll just look like a brand that’s jumping on the bandwagon. (Read “Viral moments can’t be engineered – you just gotta feel the Bern.”)
3. You’re using fun to make a point. Yes, that’s a picture of me holding a dinosaur eating a M&M. It’s a completely ridiculous photo. But it’s fun, engaging and I’ll bet it caught your attention. That’s the point. For a blog post about when it’s OK to have fun on social media, it made sense for me to use an image of me having fun. Absolutely brands and companies can have a sense of humor online. It often wins you points with consumers and helps your engagement metrics. Just make sure you are always authentic to your brand and voice and ensure that you are always using good judgement. You certainly don’t want to be the company that made a bad joke on Twitter that then backfires into a PR snafu to be managed. Best rule of thumb: If you have to ask yourself or someone else whether you should post something, you should not post it.
So go ahead – have some fun. But at least for your company’s social media, make sure the fun has a point and drives toward a business goal. Save the fun for fun’s sake for your personal accounts.
And since you stuck with me, here are some bonus shots from the dino M&M photoshoot. (Full disclosure, I’m obsessed with both Jurassic Park and M&Ms, so this photo is so me.)
