Win in Social Media by Acting Like It's a Party,
Not a TED Talk

Many brands treat social media like it’s a megaphone.

The response is often crickets.

For the brand Firestone Tires, our social media team used our brand tone and voice to create more meaningful conversations that kept us engaged with our fans, rather than always interrupting with a new topic. For this post, we simply added to an existing discussion about classic cars.

But how did we figure out the right thing to say?

We created Brand Guidelines with a clear Brand Tone and Voice. This allowed us to quickly create content and get approvals without getting too hung up on rounds of revisions or changing direction. With our Brand Guidelines as our guiding light, we were able to gain followers and grow engagement.

Treat Social Media More Like a Party; Less Like a TED Talk

1. Kept Our Ear to the Street 

Just like at a cocktail party, you don’t want to be the interrupter who ruins the natural flow of conversation.

For Firestone, we used Social Listening to identify and track opportunities by searching keywords and hashtags and setting Google Alerts for relevant news. We tracked these opportunities in a spreadsheet.

One way we used this content was to repost our fans’ content. But we didn’t just repost it. We celebrated and elevated their content by adding our own design elements and copywriting.

2. Saved the Sales Pitch for Lower Funnel

Conversion advertising has its place in the marketing funnel. Brands will too often lead with promotional and sales marketing. That’s like a loud guy who walks into the party and starts pitching cryptocurrency.

This is where communication and coordination pay off. We worked with our client and strategist to add variety to our content schedule. Of course, we also posted about specific products, benefits, promos, sweepstakes—all those great conversational lower-funnel tactics.

However, too much organic social can be a turn-off as well. The balance is tricky. It’s easy to see that the algorithm rewards consistency, but it’s hard to measure the value of variety.

The brand guidelines provided us with an overall view of the brand and helped creatives get quickly onboarded into producing work. The less time spent frittering away on the duds—the better.

3. Nurtured What Grew

Lucky for us, our account team and social media manager had built an excellent rapport with our client. That kept the lines of communication open, so that we could move quickly. For example: when our team noticed that a post was more successful, they’d notify our client and boost the reach—turning organic into paid media with a high chance of success.

That’s an opportunity that’s often left on the table, because there’s often no budget to amplify the reach of successful social media.

Luckily for us, our client greenlit our boost, and that was the secret sauce that made our post go viral.

Most brands also miss the opportunity to take advantage of the full value of organic social media. It can be a powerful market research tool that gives you an honest look at your audience. It also doesn’t require the same hefty investment as testing and research.

Perhaps, what’s working in a brand’s feed today can be the big idea that fuels the campaign for tomorrow. It’s easy to see why many brands fear that organic social is a waste of time. The marketing ratio is always difficult, but for brands that want passionate fans—organic social is life!!!!