Social Media is All About Balance

If you’re a business and you’re on social media, you may have the urge to push your product or service as much as possible, in order to get maximum exposure and reach as many people as possible. That may sound like a great idea, but I’m here to tell you it’s not only a good way to turn potential customers away, but it could also hurt you in the long run.

Like a lot of things in life, social media is all about balance.

Just as the name ‘social media’ implies, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others are all great tools that allow you to get in touch with your customers and potential customers alike, talk to them, and you guessed it – be social.

Whether it’s providing helpful tips for your customers, sharing posts from other businesses, or sharing a great review from one of your existing customers – there are plenty of ways to have good content from other sources on your platform that isn’t a push of your product or service, but still falls under a branding strategy. Don’t worry – you should be including a sales post as part of your social media mix, but only once in a while.

We at Quadsimia always like to follow the 60/30/10 rule when it comes to social media:

60% of your content should be content from other sources other than your company/brand.
Examples: articles related to your industry, or shared posts from other businesses that run in your circle.

30% of your content should be original content created by your business or brand.
Examples: photos or videos from around the office, blog posts, your team at events, or national/novelty holidays.

10% of your content should be your hard sell.
This is your time to really push that product or service (not every day!)

Why not every day? Why not every other day?

People tune out very easily on social media. It’s actually very similar to a real-life conversation that you might have at, say, a networking event. Say you were in a room with some of your customers, potential customers, or peers. When you start a conversation, are you going to walk up to them, introduce yourself, and immediately offer them your product or service? No! And why would you? That would come off as very pushy, most likely awkward, and turn the person away to talk to someone else. You should be thinking of your social media platforms in the same context. The ‘conversation’ should be friendly, make sense, and be a back-and-forth or balance of the customer’s needs (your nurturing content) and your needs (your sell). Otherwise, you’ll be seen as a walking billboard, very quickly ignored by your followers, and possibly unfollowed or unliked. There’s also a good chance that you could be pushing them away to a competitor who knows how to hold a better conversation.

Social media is not meant to be a billboard or constant series of commercials.

Remember – it’s all about balance!

Your social feeds should be a carefully curated mix of different, strategic branding elements working in conjunction with each other – not the same thing over and over.

Seem overwhelming? That’s what we’re for! Quadsimia can help you create, maintain and use your social media profiles to your advantage, meeting your goals, while enriching your followers’ experience. Ask us how we can help your business thrive.