A common issue, when working in social media day in, day out, can be a lack of perspective. We’re too close to the action. We can be so focused on chasing that elusive engagement that we forget to step back and think about what it is we’re doing. As a helpful reminder to all of us, I’ve put together some of the most common things that get lost or forgotten when we work with social media every day:

It’s about quality not quantity.

There’s already too much content being churned out online everyday. There are blogs and videos and podcasts and stories and article. It goes on and on. It’s just not possible for us to consume the amount of content being produced. When you’re having to post new content on such a regular basis, the quality can be lowered. Instead, produce less but raise the quality of it.  Would you rather people consume something of quality that you worked hard on or get fed up with too much poor content being thrown in their faces?

The Social in Social Media

Again and again, the interactive part of social media is the first thing that gets forgotten. The feeling like new content must be produced on an almost daily basis means that there’s no time to actually talk to people or respond to the comments that have been left for you. It means the main social media channels just become a place to broadcast and you won’t really get to know your followers. What do they want to see more of? What value could you add to their social media experience? Don’t just wait for people to come talk to you either, go find them! You’ll be amazed at how much more interesting and engaging social media is when people actually have conversations!

It’s not about how many followers you have

Keeping an eye on your follower count can be quite addictive, especially as it nears a milestone number. But we need to remember that we could have 10 highly engaged followers or a 100,000 followers who barely interact with the account. Follower counts might be an easy key performance target to add on to plans and reports and senior staff might be happy with the results but in the end we need to remember that the number of followers we have is meaningless if they don’t like and engage with our posts.

Social media does not live in a vacuum.

It might feel like that sometimes, but social media should always be part of a wider plan. If you’re running a marketing campaign you need to think about what’s on your website, what physical products you might need to create and how it all works together. For example, a poster for an event should include social media handles. It’s no good spending all your time looking after your social channels if your web presence has been neglected. Look for ways you can bring the online and offline worlds together in a more holistic way.

It’s not a competition

Another account has more followers than you? Or maybe they publish more posts? It’s so incredibly important not to get caught up in what other accounts are doing. Knowing what other organisations are up to is a good way to be inspired but don’t turn it into a competition. It’s so easy for senior managers without a good understanding of social media to push you to compete or copy but don’t let them. What is working for them might not work for you. You don’t know what budgets and resources they’re working with. If you’re constantly trying to be like another account, you’ll never truly be focused on what’s best for your account and your followers.

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Do you agree with my five? Got any more to add?

Let me know in the comments below. Get in touch if you are interested in social media support using the contact form above.