Every Groundhog Day, I can’t help but think of the Bill Murray movie of the same name. It follows a man who wakes up to the same day — again and again — until he does all the right things in that day. He basically faces the same result — morning after morning — until he gets it “right.” It’s a fun movie to watch, and it also has me thinking about social media.

Many social media outcomes can repeat themselves, chronically, until you approach what you’re doing — and who you’re focused on — with a few tried and true best practices that can move you past a social media “rut.”

Not sure what I mean? Think about your performance measures. Are you seeing engagement rates dwindle? Are your impressions dropping off? Are your paid social posts driving fewer than anticipated clicks? Are your stakeholders expressing confusion or frustration over what’s going on with social? These can be signs that it’s time to examine, evaluate and “reroute” your approach.

The good news is: Making the effort to do this helps you learn what works and what doesn’t for your brand through social. And, it gives you the opportunity to turn things around if you’re not seeing the results you want. You can get started by asking yourself these seven questions:

 

Do you have research? Do you know and understand the personas that matter most to your brand? Do you know what they care about, what they’re interested in and what matters most to them? Evaluate your social content against this data to determine which areas/interests are resonating with your actual social audiences and which are not. If you don’t have this marketing research, look for other internally-available research that may give you clues to customer POV. Look for secondary research that may help tell you more about the people who matter most to your brand. Or, survey your own followers to learn who they are, what matters to them and what they want to see from you.

Do you have a social content strategy? Any brand’s social content will be a mix of planned and unplanned content. For either, have you built an overall content strategy that frames what you are hoping to achieve and the types of content you’ll share to help you strive for these goals? If not, it’s time to build one and break it into a set of content pillars (themes) you can use to drive interest, engagement and trust. Map this out, and be sure you have created it with the input of your priority internal stakeholders. This will help you avoid any confusion over what social is trying to achieve and why you’re sharing the content that’s in your mix.

Is your social content “all about you” all the time? If all you ever post about is your company, the solutions you offer and information focused on you, you’re not really building likeability, trust or community. And, you’re missing the chance to drive meaningful engagement. So, strive for a content mix includes as much or more information about or by others than about your brand. There are a number of ratios you can follow, like the 4-1-1 rule or the 5-3-2 rule.

Curate content that includes useful tips, research, informative details your friends and followers can use. Champion the space your brand occupies. And, recognize real people in ways that fit your brand.

Earn the opportunity to self-promote (organically) via social. Be sure that your paid social content offers target audiences something that benefits them. And, follow best practices in terms of what outcomes you’re striving for with your content.

Do you know your social communities? Are you leveraging social analytics? Understand who is following you through the analytics provided by either your native platforms (Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights, etc.) or the third-party tools you use to plan, publish and analyze performance. Evaluate what posts have performed best vs. worst with them and which posts are generating engagement with them. Make note of the time of day they’re seeing and engaging with you the most. And, use all of this to examine what you should keep and change to help drive the results you want.

Are you listening/monitoring your social channels? If you’re not listening actively to your social channels, you’re missing the opportunity to engage with the friends and followers who care enough to take action based on what you’re sharing. Use a listening tool or automated alerts that will “ding” your smartphone when you have engagement. This can help alert you to an impending crisis if something negative is “clustering.” It gives Customer Care reps the opportunity to quickly take complaints offline for resolution. And, when it’s positive, it allows you to show you care through timely likes, responses or DMs.

Are you leveraging social video? Research shows that video is one of the most engaging social content types with consumers today. According to Brian G. Peters’ blog: By 2019, global consumer Internet video traffic will account for 80% of traffic. Social video generates 1,200% more shares than text/images combined. After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. And, 80% of users would rather watch videos from a brand than read a blog. He recommends tapping a few topic areas for building trust, increasing engagement, and generating views, including:  (short) videos based on your successful blog posts, videos that feature your industry trends or news, inspirational videos and videos that feature tips.

Are you looking at the big picture? Use your social analytics to evaluate the performance of your content pillars, the time-of-day of your posts and your content types. Factor in timing like major national or world news, seasonal observances and other events that can impact your visibility and community engagement. Analyze positive and negative engagement to look for patterns in terms of content, approach, tone, etc. And, use all of this to benchmark what has been working and what hasn’t. From there, you can revisit the overall goals of your business, make sure your social goals still support them — and make recommendations on any change in direction that is likely to make a difference.

It doesn’t have to be Groundhog Day for your brand’s social presence, impact and performance. Any of the seven questions I raise here can help you move out of a social media rut. The only way you’ll stay stuck is if you don’t make a change.