There are certain questions that you expect to receive as someone who helps brands with social media and none is bigger than the, “how frequently should I post?” question. I, like many others, have also struggled with this at times. Typical answers range from, “post once a day,” to “depends on the social channel,” to “post as often as you are interesting.” But I have recently changed my theory a bit after some motivating factors. I watched as a pseudo-competitor took 4 months off from posting anywhere on social media and asked myself, “why is it that I post and why is it that it matters?”
I arrived at one giant conclusion, “I post because I care.”
I don’t post because I have some requirement to post once a week or even that I have to fill up the beautiful content calendar that our user experience designers worked so hard to create. No, I post because it is something that I feel like I want to share and I care that my followers see. Too often we get hung up on thinking, “I have to post 5 posts here and 3 posts there,” rather than focusing on making sure that when we make a post we want our audience to feel valued.
Here are a few things I think about when posting, that most brands tend to miss.
- I have specific people in mind when I make a post, even when it’s public. That helps me remember that my audience is people that I’ve talked to, have asked me questions and for one reason or another are interested in the things I say or post. I want to make sure my audience hears me like I know they do.
- Friends are more important than customers. I have many people that I talk to, work with, get advice from and listen to that we have never transacted business together. Their business is just like mine: they have a community to build locally, nationally or wherever their business is focused and those people are not always customers.
- Creativity begets creativity. I had a friend recently who took a boring job and cited working on his creative juices as a reason, thinking that focusing 8-5 on boring things while then having more energy to turn on creative thoughts outside of that. My friends who are creative are simply creative, they are always looking to be creative, whether in a cubicle or out to lunch or having coffee with friends, these are the things that need to be shared with your audience
Again, my hope is not that we would focus all on the algorithms of social media, even though we do focus on that in our paid area… what makes listening to a brand or person fun, is when you get a sense that they care about you. They care about helping you be better at your job, your work and your life. I hope that I can provide value to you and I thank you for being engaged in following me.
-Ben Pankonin
