I’ve been working in social media in some form or another for over 14 years now with some fantastic campaigns and social media projects under my belt so I thought I would share a few of the things I’ve learnt whilst working in the digital world.

1) There is no one right way but there are plenty of wrong ways

I’m chronically online, which means you can probably find me lurking on various platforms just to see what’s happening.

I love it because after so many years of social media in our lives, people still find new ways to engage. I’m inspired by what I see daily. We haven’t yet run out of unique content ideas and innovative campaigns which I think proves there really is no one way of doing social media well.

Unfortunately, the opposite isn’t the case.

There are plenty of wrong ways and it’s important when working in social media to understand what the pitfalls are and learn from other people’s mistakes. Being inspired by great social media is important, but so is learning what not to do.

2) Everyone makes mistakes

I have to admit, whenever a brand on social media made a faux pas, I used to join in with the masses in mocking them for it.

I would show the mistake to others and laugh at how bad they got it wrong.

That was until I worked in social media myself and saw just how easy it is to make a mistake. Even with the best of intentions and an attention to detail, it’s almost unavoidable.

Huge corporations spending millions on their marketing and smaller businesses with a fraction of the budget are all susceptible to making mistakes and that’s because there are human beings on the other end of that social media post.

I’m a lot more forgiving now, being in that same position gives me a greater understanding of what it feels like. (P.S it’s easy to blame the mistake on an intern, but I can tell you now, that it definitely wasn’t an intern)

3) Trends aren’t always made to be followed

A key part of any social media role is to keep up with all the latest trends and technology news.

What’s hot and what’s not changes on an almost daily basis and it’s important to know what’s what, but while websites, social networks and memes come and go, it’s more important to know what works for your audience and trust in your strategy rather than jump on every trend as they come along. You don’t want to risk your audience getting whiplash from so many different things being thrown at them or be confused about what you’re actually trying to communicate to them.

If you want to follow a marketing trend, make sure it actually aligns with your content strategy and try and put your own twist on it.

4) Everyone can’t do it

You hear it a lot when you work in social media:

“It’s so easy, anyone could do it.”

There’s nothing worse than being told your knowledge and skills don’t mean anything.

The truth is that it can be incredibly hard to do social media well. Our feeds are congested with low-quality content, there is an ever increase lack of trust in organisations, organic reach is almost a thing of the past and audiences demand more and more for smaller and smaller budgets. It’s incredibly difficult to have your voice heard over everyone elses. Just because it looks easy, doesn’t mean it is. Lets give those who work in social media a lot more credit for what they achieve on a daily basis.

5) Things don’t last forever

It’s something that can take a while to get use to, or certainly come to terms with, but the shelf life of a social media post is often a lot shorter than you think.

Even major campaigns which reach millions of people can be forgotten and quickly replaced by the next big thing within days. Social media influencers can be here one day and gone the next and even social networks don’t stand the test of time. So whilst it’s important to work hard to be seen by as many people as possible, the hard truth is that you’ll have to keep winning the same people over again and again.

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Do you agree? Let me know in the comments what you’ve learnt.

If you’re interested in my knowledge and skills to help your business, get in touch using the contact form above.