Stop Apologizing for your Social Media Program
It happens a lot. I meet with a potential client, and I outline that I start with an audit (aka, a deep dive) of their existing social channels.
Insert nervous shifting in seats, possibly joined with the shuffling of papers.
“Ok, we know we haven’t done a great job at (insert thing here).”
First up, yes, of course. If everything was divine and your social program was working, I probably wouldn’t be meeting with you.
Organizations with excellent social programs typically don’t need consultants like me. They have a whole lot of people behind the scenes people and tools making their excellent social programs happen.
But more importantly, let’s stop the hot nonsense about feeling BAD about your social program. Because here are a few things I believe are true:
Despite what you’ve probably been forced to accept by osmosis and told by people who call themselves “gurus,” “ninjas,” or “rockstars” over the last decade or so, social media isn’t easy. It’s hard, and it changes all the time.
Having a social program requires an investment - and not just a monetary one. It’s an investment that requires time, transparency, and a willingness to ideate content across your organization,
It also requires a process that makes all the social stuff happen as expected.
Not just once.
Not just twice.
But over and over again. (Ad infinitum, until we turn the lights off on the Internet, maybe?)
Knowing those things, and a lot of other stuff about social media programs that I won’t go into today but have before and probably will continue to do for a long time, I rarely judge any social media programs because I have ZERO idea what is going on behind the scenes with any organization.
And if you, like so many organizations, haven’t invested the time, process & budget in developing your social program, not having the World’s Most Amazing Social Program isn’t a surprise, and YOU CAN STOP APOLOGIZING FOR IT RIGHT NOW.
What can you do instead? If you want someone to guide you, you can give me a yell, but since it is VERY LIKELY we just met, I’d recommend taking baby steps:
Talk to your team and think about how you might proactively come up with content for the future.
Look at your existing marketing calendar for opportunities to create posts consistently (once a week is better than nothing a week, you know).
Document your processes as you go so you can figure out where your stopgaps are and how you can make things easier for yourself & your team.
Finally, remember that it’ll take time. Nothing is built in a day, or even a week, except maybe badly made reality TV renovations.
And stop apologizing.
