Brand Managers Must Break These Social Media Rules

Featured article by Calvin Page, IT Specialist

Rules are made to be broken, and in the world of social media for business, this could not be more true. Professionals in digital brand management and marketing have had the so-called ‘rules’ of social media drummed into them during academic or extracurricular study, whilst rogue marketers will definitely come across them in any Google search related to social media. However, as the window for innovation continues to open, how are we able to continue to work within these confines of the profession? To break the rules, it’s first essential that you learn them. Knowing when the benefits outweigh the risk is key to knowing when and when not to break these social media rules.

The 80/20 Rule

This rule states that only a quarter of your business’ social media content should be used to directly promote your brand, but are you aware of the roots behind this strategy? The Pareto Principle states that 80% of output will derive from just 20% of input, and is a standard that guides a lot of our current thinking on work-life balance. Before breaking the 80/20 rule, ask yourself these questions.

Why do our fans find and follow us? Is it because we are a thought-provoking source of leadership and meaningful engagement, or is it simply because we provide a medium to relay brand information? What output are we seeking? And, are we over promoting simply because we are not creating enough content?

Twitter is an Information Network

Although in 2011 the former VP of engineering for Twitter stated that the platform was an information network rather than a social network, there is a lot that has changed since then. More and more brands are turning to Twitter for engagement, and consumers are showing a tendency to value engagement over impressions when following brands on the network. Are you using Twitter as an information or a social network? Do you value engagement or impressions more?

Images Boost Engagements

One of the most integral factors for 2015 social media success is most definitely having a good visual strategy, and any report will show that content which includes an image or images usually outperforms content without.

However, it’s important to ask whether you are actually building a visual strategy, or simply using images? There is a difference between the two – and simply sharing images is often not enough. Don’t just stick to this social media rule, instead aim to outperform the industry standard by integrating GIFs and videos to boost your visual strategy when static images are not performing well enough.

Timely Content

When it comes to beating the tricky Facebook algorithm, timeliness is definitely a crucial factor. However, on its own it is not enough – evergreen content trumps all other factors for organic success on Facebook, as experts such as those from Lead to Conversion will tell you.

How many of your posts are timely vs. evergreen? For better success, focus on the actual content of your post rather than the timeliness of posting.

If you’d like to mention any further social media rules that should be broken and why, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.