Adapt or die
Wouldn’t it be great if we only had to learn something once and could have it mastered for the rest of our lives?
Imagine if you only had to read a book to master parenting. Or, who wouldn’t sign up to listen to a podcast once on how to properly hit a golf ball? Except we all know it’s not that easy. To properly master something, it takes hard work, effort and experience.
We’re constantly growing and learning in all aspects of our lives, even in some of the more mundane areas. Take eating for example. On its surface, eating seems pretty straightforward. You place the food in your mouth, chew, and swallow. It can’t get more simple than that.
Except, not all food is the same. And the amount of a particular food you eat may vary. Some food is healthy for you, like fruits and vegetables, so you can afford to eat more of those. But we all know cake and ice cream should be consumed in moderation. In other words, not all food is created equal. The process by which we consume and digest is standard, but the variable is the food. If we want to live a long and healthy life, we need to take care of our body. Learning what to put in it — and how much — goes a long way in determining that. If eating were as simple as it was when we were 10 years old, we’d all be morbidly obese people with very short-term futures (although you can argue that’s America today).
Like eating, social media is a simple process on the surface. You have multiple channels that you create content for, and you send it out to an audience that follows you. Except, like food, not all channels are equal. They have all grown since their inception and what you believe works on each one may not be true. Facebook is not Instagram, and Snapchat is not Twitter, despite what your mother thinks. Each channel is different from the other and they require specific attention and diligent research so your overall social presence functions properly.
I had a conversation with a colleague a few weeks ago that left me stunned. She told me that she “gets” how Instagram and Snapchat work, but doesn’t use the channels personally because she doesn’t think she needs to. That’s akin to saying that you know that certain foods are bad for you, but you don’t need to pay attention to that because you understand how to eat.
If you work in public relations and you’re not staying on top of the nuances of social and how the major (and minor!) channels are changing and growing daily, you’re falling behind. Every week, it seems like Instagram or Snapchat is changing something in their interface; or Facebook is, once again, changing it’s algorithm so this month, Likes are now more prioritized than Shares. It’s enough to make your head explode.
Much like we carefully monitor what we put in our bodies, we need to do the same with content on social channels in order to maximize our social presence. So if you’re not on Snapchat, but you think you understand it, do yourself a favor and create an account and watch how it’s being used. Instagram is a photo-sharing app. But, not all photos are going to be successful with your audience. Get on the platform and explore why certain photos do better than others.
Sure, on it’s surface, social seems easy. But truthfully, like a balanced diet, it takes hard work and diligence to pull it off. In a world where change is inevitable — hell, I started growing a beard for the first time in my life two months ago — you have to stay ahead of the game. The time of being afraid of social is over.
