3 Tips to Become the Star of the Social Media Rodeo

How to get the most from your social media strategy

Most marketing can be as disciplined, precise, and synchronized as Lipizzaner show horses. Social media marketing, though, is more like a Wild West rodeo.

Considering how untamed and unpredictable social media can be, it’s incredibly easy to make a misstep. It seems deceptively simple on the surface, but executing a successful social media campaign is quite complicated. Anything you might save in actual dollars is going to cost you in time.

Some of the confusion stems from companies trying to repurpose content on various channels instead of adjusting their approach for every platform. People want to be cutting-edge and present on every platform available, but they fail to understand what makes each channel unique.

Take something as simple as photographs, for example. People frequently use production shots — professional photos of items in a sterile white environment — on social channels. These photos are perfectly fine for a product page on your website, but this approach doesn’t fly on social media. A static image with a nondescript background doesn’t spark curiosity or encourage comments.

The ultimate goal should always be to showcase a product as part of a lifestyle, demonstrating how people will use it on an everyday basis. Companies often take the “social” out of social media, which is a mistake every time.

Changing the Channel

We talk about social media as if it's a singular animal, but it’s actually a herd of different beasts running vaguely in the same direction. Social media mistakes often stem from a failure to differentiate between the various platforms.

Things can also get muddy when companies classify a social campaign as single-channel rather than seeing it as part of a larger narrative. Let’s say you’ve created an incredible single-channel campaign for Instagram, developing a narrative and images that perfectly pair with that forum. That campaign — even if it’s the most brilliant Instagram effort ever conceived — must be consistent with your branding on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Even though each channel has unique features and engages users in different ways, maintaining the integrity of your brand and message across channels is imperative.

Companies frequently fall victim to the trap that is ROI, thanks in part to a misunderstanding of social media analytics. There has been a wild pendulum swing in the ROI discussion relating to social media campaigns. While people once wanted to explore social because it was cool and new — a stunt with no expected benefit — they now demand hard-and-fast figures on tangible returns.

People have access to a mountain of analytics but are unable to make heads or tails of anything. Marketers must set key performance indicators in advance of any campaign, having a frank discussion about realistic measures of success.

Welcome to the Rodeo

While social media marketing might be an unruly beast, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to tame. You simply need to know what you’re getting yourself into and accept that the ride might be a little rough until you figure things out.

1. Don’t get in the arena without a plan.

Posting your social media content is like strapping yourself to a bull before it’s let out of the chute. It might look like bull riders at a rodeo are barely hanging on — and possibly praying they make it out alive — but they all have strategies. You need to think things through before you climb aboard.

A key part of your social media success is how you respond to the online community. Social media users can be cruel, and negative feedback is guaranteed regardless of what you do. Ignoring these critics will only make things worse. Work with your team to hash out some potential areas of criticism, preparing adequate responses ahead of time.

Spend some time thinking about when and how you’ll engage with any negative posts. Many companies make the mistake of thinking they need to immediately delete or hide critical posts. Instead, think about negative comments as a way to educate people and prove you’re open to constructive feedback.

2. Understand every event’s role.

For the uninitiated, a rodeo is like an Old West version of the Olympics. You have team events, riding events, and even a little roping. Each contest is unique, and competitors must possess certain specialized skills to excel.

Social media channels require similar specialization. You want your content to stand out to a target audience, but you also want that content to jibe with the particular channel you’re using. Ignoring these differences would be like asking a champion bull rider to compete in the barrel race. Things might work out, but it could also lead to spectacular failure.

You could build a Facebook post around a specific action you’re attempting to trigger. You might track when a person watches a video on your Facebook page, noting any click-throughs to your website. Once you have that information, you can retarget audience members with content related to sales events or products that might appeal to them.

Snapchat, meanwhile, is better suited to brand awareness and gradually building up customer loyalty over time. Your strategy for Snapchat should be vastly different from how you approach a Facebook post, as you can’t necessarily track conversions in the same way. Your goal in each social media channel is slightly different, and your content should reflect that.

3. The announcer is everything.

The announcer at a rodeo can make or break the event. The announcer introduces the riders, provides commentary on the contests, trades ridiculous banter with rodeo clowns, and is largely the star of the show. If a rodeo consisted of horse and livestock events without any narration, it could quickly become bland.

Don’t neglect to recruit an announcer when you put together your next social media rodeo. A lot of people think they don’t need to worry about promotion as long as they publish amazing content on social platforms. If the content is strong enough, companies argue, then people will flock to it. Great content is critical, but efforts to target a specific market segment with that content are completely worth any associated costs.

To engage with an audience, you need to first get your content in front of them. Once you’ve successfully targeted a certain population, you can begin to gain useful metrics on that audience. You could monitor how long each user watches your latest video post, or you might track how far users scroll through your Facebook Canvas.

Those user actions provide the true ROI of social media. You can use the precious information you gain from audience behavior to drive sales, but you can’t start gathering this data if you’ve merely thrown your content into the arena and expected a standing ovation.

Like the rodeo, the social media world is not for the faint of heart. There’s an element of danger involved in releasing a social campaign, but part of the thrill is overcoming the inherent challenge. By planning ahead, mastering the necessary skills, and enlisting the help of an experienced announcer, you can saddle the savage social beast and bring audience members along for the ride of their lives.