It’s no secret that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a holiday staple in our household. From Thanksgiving until the new year, we pretty much run this puppy on repeat. Sure, the movie’s hilarity keeps us around but also the nods to family quirks and big dreams keep our eyes glued to the screen {or at least mine!}.
Clark is definitely an odd ball, but with that odd ball comes a huge heart and a family that loves him. They would go to the moon and back… or just to his boss’ house and kidnap him for a very purposeful reason.
The other night I was watching this classic and it hit me – Clark could not do social media. Yet. {Sorry, Clark} So many mishaps from this loveable father. It’s a great lesson in revisiting just a few basic best practices. AS IF I needed another reason to love this movie 🙂
Timing is Everything
After you have a baseline report established, check out the timing of your social posts and see when engagement is likely to be higher and compare that to when it was high in the past. Is there a correlation? Great! If not, and this sometimes is the case, see where exactly the differences occurred. A few questions to ponder:
Was there a holiday?
Did one particular post knock it out of the park?
Are you running paid social ads along side your efforts?
Is the ‘type’ of post different than those in the past? (i.e., link vs. picture vs. video vs. shared/RT)
Maintain good awareness of your social surroundings.
Never Stop Testing
If your results aren’t where you want them to be, don’t stop testing and adding new elements to the strategy. I get it – you fall into this stream of “What I’m doing works, so if it’s not broke, why try to fix it?” Well, I agree. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. However, you still need to improve upon the original plan. The goal? Achieve more conversions, measure higher engagement, receive improved ROI. To be stagnate is not the purpose in social. To be happy with something that isn’t the best? Not so ideal either.
Don’t settle for what you think is best. Chances are, it can be better.
Know [& Engage] Your Audience
Who are you reaching? Who are you hoping to reach? What are the specific demographics of those individuals? Are there exceptions? Do you anticipate this changing in the near future?
Asking about and defining your target audience might seem obvious, but it’s important to have a clear profile of those people you are trying to reach and a strategy on how you are going to reach them.
Take the data provided by the social networks with a grain of salt. They are reporting the average and overall trends, not what is happening on your page or your account. In your case, this will require a closer look. And it may be that you have several targeted audiences, which will require proper segmenting. In other words, a single message you promote may not be for all ears. Don’t forget those that are listening but don’t need the information. Provide a later benefit and reason for them to stay and engage.
Build your community first – without it, you won’t be building your business.
Love it 🙂 What are a few other marketing nods that you see?
Check out a way back post about the little marketing gems found in White Christmas – another fantastic holiday movie. {I know what I’ll be doing on this very snowy white day!!}
