8.4 Factors to consider before writing and posting
Jasmine Roberts and Andrew Frank
Identify the message goal
As with all purposeful communication, it is counterproductive to create social media messages that do not have a specific goal. Furthermore, social media message goals should reflect the organization or individual’s overall mission. Message goals can include increasing brand awareness, creating a favorable perception of an organization, and convincing an audience to buy a product. The goal should be clearly articulated in the content. It is also important to select the social media platform that would be the most effective at reaching the intended audience and accomplishing the message goal. Each social media tool has specific characteristics and audiences, which will affect whether the message goals are achieved.
Identify the target audience
Similar to other forms of public relations writing, social media messages need to be targeted. After identifying the key audience, examine what they’re talking about: their interests, attitudes, and beliefs. Social media content should reflect audience analysis and research findings. As you tailor the content of the message to this audience, do not exaggerate attempts to be interesting or relevant. Because social media messages are audience centered, they’re not necessarily grounded in what you personally think is appealing.
The lack of attention to audience analysis can have serious consequences. One example (and a good contrast from #BellLetsTalk) is a series of tweets from Sunny D in 2019, as explained by Inc.com in an article titled, “The 10 Worst Social Media Fails of 2019”:
“After Denny’s paved the way for brands to post outlandish, random (but good-natured) content for attention, it’s the norm for companies to try to be funny. But some jokes don’t land, especially when they make light of a mental illness that affects 300 million people worldwide.
That’s what happened when citrus punch brand SunnyD unleashed a series of tweets implying that the brand was losing its will to live. While some users were entertained, others pointed out that a juice brand posturing as a depressed individual was inherently insensitive.”
I can’t do this anymore
— SUNNYD (@sunnydelight) February 4, 2019
These kinds of mishaps demonstrate the need for careful message and audience analysis. They also reinforce the point that although you may react favorably to a message (or think its funny, viral or catchy), your target audience may not.
Identify the organization’s social media approach
Communication choices should reflect organizational strategies. Wilson et al. (2011) have identified four general ways in which companies use social media. They are determined by the “company’s tolerance for uncertain outcomes and the level of results sought” (para. 2):
- The Predictive Practitioner: This approach uses caution when sending out social media messages. Instead of launching a social media strategy that involves all departments in a company, only a specific department (example: marketing or human resources) uses its social media platforms. This allows more control of social media messaging and guarantees some level of certainty in accomplishing the stated objectives.
- The Creative Experimenter: This approach accepts uncertainty and deploys small social media “experiments” to learn and improve overall business functions. Sometimes, businesses will take to Facebook or Twitter to receive feedback on products or business practices from internal (example: employees) or external (example: customers) audiences. The overall goal is to listen and learn from interactions; therefore, unpredictable results are accepted.
- The Social Media Champion: This approach takes strategies to a more advanced level. A designated team is in charge of the organization’s overall social media presence. The team also creates an official social media policy and guidelines for the organization. Larger social media projects typically use this strategy. Unlike the predictive practitioner strategy, this approach does not confine social media use to a particular department and considers social media messages across various functions.
- The Social Media Transformer: This strategy targets both internal and external audiences by launching large-scale projects that involve multiple departments. As with the social media champion approach, a team is devoted to planning, creating, and launching the organization’s social media projects. However, these projects are usually larger and more advanced than those using the social media champion approach. This strategy specifically considers how social media can influence business strategy, brand, and culture.
Organizations can use multiple approaches when designing a social media message. What is important is that they carefully consider their approach before writing and posting any content to social media platforms.
