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#1 Tip for Creating Your Social Strategy: Don't Trust Everybody's Research

 •  Jun 8
Each day the most reputable sources release articles announcing new research about the best content, ways, and times to post on social media. Who can you trust? A-Side's got your back, read on and be enlightened.

The simple truth.

You can only trust yourself.

Look at your own page metrics and test different times of day to see when it's best for you to post. There are several services such as Buffer that will determine the most responsive times to post to your community and help you to schedule posts for that time. Recently, Facebook has also added the ability to schedule posts made to Facebook Pages.

Aim to learn from other companies strategies, not to copy them.

Some people like to post just before or after their network is at its peak, because everyone trying to reach that audience is generally shooting to post at the peak time. Posting while the network is still active, but less saturated, can be effective. However, also try posting at peak time and compare your results.

Don't assume a study with an average of how/what/when most companies post is the right fit for you. Even the most reputable sources can lead you astray.

I read an article on Mashable that briefs readers on, "Facebook’s Advice to Marketers: Post Stuff About Your Brand". Here is a quote that features two examples of posts you can make to your Facebook Page. The article then gives reasoning as to why one post is more successful at engaging fans than the other:

• For example, a post by a cruise line marketer (Facebook did not disclose which brands exactly were involved in the study) stating “I decided to go on my first cruise because ____,” performed better than one that said, “Hang in there everybody. Monday will be over before we know it.”

The article suggests that the first post performed more strongly than the second because the post was on topic. That could be the case.

It's much more likely that the first post was more effective at engaging fans because it asked for a response. The second post was a rhetorical sentence, of course there weren't many responses! The article further makes my point by suggesting brands "post a clear call to action (“Like this if…”) to increase comments".

It's hard to see a site as heavily rooted in social media as Mashable make such a glaring error, but that brings us to the #1 tip for creating your social strategy:

Be skeptical of everything you read. Take it all in and process it, but don't automatically assume what you read is the best model for you. Use common sense when planning your strategy, but know that even your intuition may mislead you. Learn from the best practices of others, but test ideas on a small scale before committing in full.

Martin Smith
Social Strategist, A-Side Worldwide
Ready to kick your social media into high gear? Email me.