Posting more is not a social strategy.

Being active, is not the same as being strategic

Many moons ago when I was a young 20 something in the late winter months of 2006, I’d just been hired as a creative copy writer to write blog posts for a digital first agency. The blog posts were for what we called ‘Web2’ back then, which soon became known, within the nomenclature that we all know and love today, as social media. First came the geeks, then the creative geeks, then came the marketing managers.

Back then when we were all just trying to ‘get it’, trying to understand what social media could be as a marketing medium, I remember a quote from a CEO somewhere, he was asked, ‘What’s the point in doing social media?’ and his reply stuck with me ever since, ‘What’s the point in putting pants on in the morning?’. The idea being of course, that some things are just necessary to function in life. Social media quickly became that channel that just ‘needed to happen’, it took a long time for brands to catch up to that, it took even longer for them to strategise the content they created. Some still to this day haven’t quite figured that out.

Social these days is pervasive, integral and expensive. To get the most out of it, you don’t just need to post regularly, you need to understand what audiences want. It feels like the inflection point has come and gone, but for those at the back, listen up, it’s no longer just about wearing those pants, about ‘being on social’ because it’s there, it’s about ensuring you know how to help audiences move somewhere meaningful.

Discovery and decisions are now social

Content needs to be more than ‘just there’ today. Social is more than a place where people will see and follow brands, and really, it always has been. Social is where people search, compare, sense-check and build confidence.

Social search is now a core discovery behaviour, driving audiences down the funnel through to verified official channels. Content isn’t just about catching the eye, grabbing that follow, pushing a new product or service in a post, it’s about answering real audience questions and then pointing people to somewhere useful.

Creative needs to be strategic

Whether it be for the last remaining ebbs of organic reach and engagement, or ensuring the most comes out of paid campaigns, social is now dependent on hammering out the plan, ensuring creative quality, and aligning with the research done. AI is here, it’s coming for delivery systems, and alongside today’s forever hungry algorithm, ever increasing pressure is being put on creative variety that is strategically based.

There’s no longer a ‘we’ll fix it in targeting’ get out clause, strategic advantage is upstream with stronger creative inputs that fuel more useful learnings.

Build brands and activate as one system

I am here to tell you, paid and organic performance requires searchable content, strong creative, and clearer measurement. The opportunity is there to connect social innovation back to discovery, reassurance, conversion and campaign learning, and here at SMRS, this is what we do.

We help our clients turn social from scattered activity into a connected strategy for content, paid activation and measurement. Creating attention, building trust, learning from behaviour and turning that into better next steps.

Let’s talk

As the old saying goes, more haste, less speed. Social is about creating amazing content, yes, but if you’re busy and not moving audiences from discovery to confidence to action, then it’s strategy that you need.

So, if your social needs to get moving, let’s talk strategy.