Day or night, afternoon or wee hours of the morning, social media is always “on.” As a dynamic form of media, social media has the powerful ability to keep us updated down to the very second on anything and everything that’s happening in the world. Did your neighbor just make a really awesome sandwich? You better believe social media will let you know. Did Harry and Meghan leave the royal family? Yup, that happened, and it was all over social media. As much as we post, sometimes we may have reason to delete items that we have added. That’s OK—in the right circumstance. However, removing content from your social media can and should be avoided if possible.
Using social media to promote offers
We often post content like discounts, deals and special offers to our clients’ social media pages on their behalf, which is great! However, then we’ll sometimes get the request from clients to “take down that post because that offer is no longer running,” for example.
The thing is, removing content from your social media pages is not the same as taking down a billboard or discontinuing a magazine ad. That’s because as an ever-active entity in the digital sphere, social media and its content should continue to build upon itself for your benefit.
Removing content from your social media can hurt your page’s visibility and credibility. Here are a few examples:
Removing content means dismantling what you have built.
Your social media pages are a space for you to continuously build upon previous content. A strong page is one that has layers of posted content and frequent interaction. If you take a post down, you are chipping away at this foundation you have worked to build. This can hurt your page in terms of its visibility because search engines and social media algorithms favor pages that have a history of activity.
Removing content can mean removing engagement.
Engagement on social media can come in the form of a “like,” a “comment” a “click,” a “watch” or even a “share.” All of these actions mean people are interacting with your content, which is what you want. When you take a post down that has engagement, you are also deleting all of the traction that post made.
Removing content can make you appear inactive.
Along the same lines, you don’t want to remove content from your social media pages because doing so erases evidence that you have been active on the pages. If you post three “special offers” to your social media a month and then delete them every month, you have no content on your timeline. It’s as if you didn’t post at all. Inactive pages fall on the lower end of the totem pole in the eyes of the algorithms that motivate whether your page content has a better chance of being seen by the masses.
Removing content can confuse people.
The last thing you want is for people to be confused. If someone shares your content, and then you delete it, they’ll get a “This Content Is No Longer Available” on their page—not desirable. It also may frustrate visitors to your page if they see a post they want to come back to, and it is no longer there. This can lower your page’s credibility.
How to avoid removing content from your social media
Think of your social media timelines and feeds as an ongoing record of activity. If you have a special that you only want to offer for a limited time, then we suggest including expiration dates in the copy or on the graphics of the post. If you don’t have a definite expiration date in mind, you can also use disclaimers such as:
- “For a limited time”
- “Subject to availability”
- “While supplies last”
- “Limited quantity available”
- Etc.
Disclaimers like these not only prevent you from having to remove specials or offers from your page that have “expired;” they also instill a sense of urgency in your audience. Even if someone calls or messages you about an offer that is no longer available, you’ve at least made that connection with a potential lead and can offer something else.
Keep in mind—you’ll continue to post content, so the “old” deals you are promoting will get pushed down your timeline as you do so—and in essence simply add to the record of your page activity.
Summary
Removing content from your social media is not something you want to make a habit of. If you are posting about a limited time offer, or a product that you expect to run out of quickly, simply let people know that when you post, and you’re covered.
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.
