Here’s an understatement: social media is fast paced. What was relevant yesterday is no longer relevant today, and what will be relevant tomorrow is likely something that hasn’t even happened yet. Keeping up with the pace of social media can be a challenge, but it’s one that will pay off for your business. Sometimes, to do this efficiently, it can mean not stressing over the small details in social media.
Please, explain.
Happy to! First off, to be specific, we’re talking about posting content to social media. As a business, it’s something we recommend doing on a consistent basis.
We want to make it clear—when we talk about not stressing over the small details in social media, we don’t mean neglecting professionalism when it comes to details like grammar, spelling, etiquette and brand consistency. Please, pay attention to these things!
What we do mean is obsessing over your content in an attempt to make it perfect, and in doing so missing valuable opportunities to post. It’s a concept we’re referring to as “posted vs. perfect.”
Posted vs. perfect
Let’s say you’re working on a social media post, and you’re designing a graphic that includes information about an event your business has coming up.
The event details are nailed down. You know what you want to say in the post caption. But this graphic—you can’t get it quite right! You’re torn between a light blue or dark blue background color. Or maybe the logo positioning is throwing you off. Perhaps you just don’t know how to make all of the information you want included fit on that one graphic.
While it’s fine to make changes to achieve the look or messaging you’re going for when it comes to crafting social content, stop and ask yourself: Is this really going to matter to my audience?
Our point is, in all the time you spent poring over changes to your graphic, you’ve wasted valuable time getting the word out about the event. And remember, these are changes that likely will not make a difference to your audience.
Not stressing over the small details in social media
We came across an Instagram post the other day that sums it up pretty well.
Perfectionism costs you money. I once refused to post a content, because it was not yet perfect. After 3 weeks, my partner told me that perfection is just an illusion. So I posted it. 20 hours later, someone sent me a DM, saying that the content pulled her in. She then applied for one of my services. For $6,000. If I didn’t upload that content, if I followed my perfectionism, I would lose that $6,000. Clients don’t purchase from a content that’s perfect. They purchase from a content that’s posted. Posted is better than perfect. (Full post from @hellostorytale: www.instagram.com/p/Ci5AkDPJJNG)
So again, sometimes it’s better just to get your content out there than to strive for perfection. This is especially true considering the fact that social media content is so fleeting. Remember, your post is not going to hang in an art gallery on display for months. Soon it will be buried by new content, and the post you stressed over will be old news before you know it!
Summary
It’s all about finding the balance between quality content and perfectionism. Not stressing over the small details in social media is a good practice for keeping your posting schedule on track while still conveying relevant information to your page followers.
McNutt & Partners is a full-service advertising and digital marketing agency. Contact us today for your marketing needs! Call 334-521-1010, or visit our contact page.
