Social media has become an extension of organization to the point of allowing them to share their brand and shape a relationship with their followers way faster and easier than traditional means (advertisements, info-letters). But, as many have realized, each social media platforms have their own set of rules, making them the perfect environment for some companies while hurting others. I will present below two strong social media organizations and two weak social media organizations, and will explain what makes their strong or weak.
Rules are rules
Photo by PhotoMIX Company from Pexels
Each social media platform is different from the others. They might have similarities and allow the user to do be used the exact same way but doing so will only hurt your social media performances because your followers on one platform will not react the same way to a post meant for another platform. Twitter cannot be used like Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn, and neither of those platforms are interchangeable when one is doing a social media campaign.
There’s only two types of people in the world
Photo by kentucky.com
Britney Spears released a song 13 years ago called Circus, in which the first sentences set the stage for the main message that she wanted to deliver. This same statement can be applied to social media in the sense that you either entertain your followers or you will observe others doing it for you. It is very important to put-on-a-show and not take the backseat. If you can be a ringleader on your platform (s), you will retain your current base of followers and even increase it.
Be human
Photo by screencritix.com – from the series Almost Human, episode 5
I don’t know about you but I don’t like bots. I really prefer a human touch when I require a service or ask a question. I do understand the advantage of having bots, especially when you are dealing with big waves of inquiries from followers requesting an almost immediate answer but at the end of the day, I will prefer to wait the extra time to get that virtual human touch. If your organization can have a human presence on their social media platform (s) for engagements, it is a sign that they are giving a great customer experience.
The results are in
In my opinion, you would want to always keep in mind the three above-mentioned guidelines whenever you would want to evaluate the social media strength of an organization. To make my results more comprehensive, I have decided to adopt a point system where each organization can have up to 10 points per category.
Ottawa Public Health 27 points
This organization really knows what they are doing. They are always adapting their strong social media presence with current world events and their content always has the human element to keep you engaged. The only part that I feel that they could improve on (hence the 7) is with their cross platform messages. It feels that Instagram and Facebook are being used in the same way while, in my opinion, they could use more of what Facebook has to offer to their advantages and make it distinguishable from Instagram.
Parks Canada 25 points
This organization also knows what they are doing. They have really strong social media presence and are always looking for ways to improve. They have a variety of platforms that they use to keep their followers engaged. Just like Ottawa Public Health, this organization excelled in the first two categories. Unfortunately, I do have to give them 5 points for the last category because they have not had enough diversity and inclusion as part of their social media presence.
Canadian museums 20 points
The biggest problem for those organization is the lack of resources. I do realize that I am being very broad and there might be museums that are performing better than others, but in general, they are the exceptions. Museums are designed to bring people into their buildings to see their exhibits. Due to their business model, not too much importance is given to social media where the engagement is virtual. Even though a lot of museums have had to switch their activities to an online presence, most of the managements only see this as a temporary endeavor instead of a long term activity. Due to this, I have awarded 5 points for each of the last two guidelines.
What did you think of my blog? I am looking forward to reading and replying to your comments.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 