Substance and Style

Social media has completely changed the landscape of marketing. Almost everyone uses it because it’s free and the audience is huge. However, if you’re just starting out, it can be overwhelming. If you post whatever you feel all the time on every channel, you won’t meet your marketing goals and you might post things that damage your brand. If you don’t post enough, no one will know who you are. You need brand guidelines for content and a good strategy. Ideally, you have a brand manager or social media manager who approves content (and is not responsible for creating all of it). If you’re not there yet, and one person is doing everything for social media or even all of marketing, or if many people in the organization are posting, you need to make sure the rules are clear. Here are some tips on what to post and not post:

1. Post things that support your established goals. Don’t post just anything. You should already have marketing goals in place, and your content should support them. If your goal is to get more customers, you should be showcasing your products or services. If your goal is to gain support for a piece of legislation, you should be showing the people it will impact. Your CEO spilling a milkshake on himself might be hilarious, but unless your goal is to humanize your executives, it might not be the best video for a corporation’s TikTok.
   
2. Post about your why. People love to know why you are doing what you’re doing. When you share your passion, other people become passionate supporters. They genuinely want success for people who are working to make their dreams come true.
   
3. Post authentic content. Let people in on your struggles and triumphs. Get real with your audience. There’s so much content out there that you have to stand out to get noticed. Being completely authentic is the easiest way to do that.
   
4. Don’t share anything that features customers, clients, vendors, staff, or really anyone at all without a signed model release. You can download a generic one off the internet and customize it to suit your needs. You may think that there’s so much content out there that everyone has been posted without permission. Even if that’s true, you can most definitely be sued for using people in your marketing materials, and you most likely will lose.
   
5. Don’t wait for all of your content to be perfect. The internet is really no place for perfectionism. Obviously, you want to be consistent with your brand (for example, if you run a tutoring service, you don’t want grammatical errors all over your posts). But you have to be able to be ok with it if small errors get by once in a while, especially if you’re producing a lot of content.
   
6. Don’t ever post something that exploits or endangers someone else. This is especially important in the nonprofit world. If you run a shelter for victims of abuse, your feel good marketing story is not worth revealing the location of someone who could be in danger. If you’re working in disability services, don’t give in to the pressure to post “inspiration porn.”
   
7. Post things that show appreciation and support for your customers, clients, and the community. Everyone appreciates being appreciated. You can never go wrong with these types of posts. Side note: if you’re mentioning specific people, ask them first for all the reasons listed above. Some people value their privacy and have very good reasons to do so.
   
8. As always, keep your brand consistent.