5 Mistakes to Avoid When on Social Media

Tyler Podcast Episode 30, Transcript

Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Host and Content Marketing Director Jeff Harrell – and other guest hosts – highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give us listen today and subscribe.

Episode Summary:

Social media is a very important communication tool for government. In fact, in the study Tyler Technologies did with the Center for Generational Kinetics, more than half of both Gen Z and Millenials said they prefer to get their information from local government via social media.

Heather Daniels, Tyler Technologies' senior social media specialist, is back to help us understand the top five mistakes to avoid when using social media. Heather was with us on episode 21 discussing five tips for improving social media, and now she helps us navigate those things to avoid.

Heather spent several years in the public sector with cities like Los Angeles and Missouri City, Texas.

Transcript:

Heather L. Daniels: Social media has become a preferred channel for users to initiate communication – not responding, creates the optics that you ignore your users. And this feeling of being ignored can quickly escalate into an actual social media crisis.

Jeff Harrell: From Tyler Technologies, it's the Tyler Tech Podcast, where we talk about issues facing communities today and highlight the people, places in technology making a difference. I'm your host, Jeff Harrell. I'm the director of content marketing for Tyler. And I'm so glad you joined me. Social media, it's becoming an important communication channel for government. In fact, in the 2020 study we did with The Center for Generational Kinetics, over half, and get this, over half of both Gen Z and Millennials said they prefer to get information from their local government via social media. So we know it is important channel.

Jeff Harrell: Well, back in episode 21, Heather Daniels, who is Tyler's social media specialist, gave us five tips to improve your social media. And today, she is back to give us five social media mistakes to avoid. Well, Heather has lots of experience in social media, having run social media for both the City of Los Angeles and the City of Sunnyvale, California. So she's got tons of things to share with us today. Here's my conversation with Heather Daniels.

Jeff Harrell: Well, Heather, we're super excited to have you back. I know you were here for episode 21, talking about five tips for social media success. Today, we're going to flip that around a little bit and talk about some of the mistakes people make, and I'm sure you didn't make any of these when you were running social media for the City of Los Angeles and some of your other roles. I'm sure you made none of these, right?

Heather L. Daniels: Of course not. I sure didn't. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, definitely. We want to talk about top five mistakes. I could probably sit here and think about all of the mistakes. There's probably more than five, of course. It's definitely want to mention top five mistakes that I may or may not have made in my career. I do want to say this, though. These mistakes can definitely be solved if you have an overarching social media strategy in place. So with a social media strategy in place, not only will you ensure your social media efforts are working to support your overall business objectives, you avoid making these five costly mistakes.

Heather L. Daniels: Number one would definitely be not targeting a specific audience for your content. Without a targeted approach to social media marketing, your efforts will be frustrating and fruitless. However you want to find your users, be it customers, consumers, residents, or citizens; if you do not define the characteristics, the demographics, the psychographics of your existing users, it becomes next to impossible to grow your base, boost any sort of conversions, and to increase your brand awareness. So without those five W's the why, the who, the where, when, and what, we lose all of the tangible benefits that successful social media creates.

Jeff Harrell: And Heather, does this fall into that idea of, hey, one size-fits-all, and I want to do just kind of a blanket, social media and not really thinking about who your target is, number one, but what they care about? And so then it doesn't really resonate because you're not sharing information that your residents really care about.

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jeff Harrell: Awesome. That's great. So number one is making sure you have a... Well, I guess the mistake is not targeting or not having a targeted approach with your social media. That's great. What's number two?

The Follies of Duplicate Content

Heather L. Daniels: Number two, cross-posting. Posting the same content across all platforms. And in effort to save time and resources is very tempting to reshare the same content across social media platforms. But the immediate benefit does not outweigh the long-term disadvantages. When you do this cross-posting, you are, in essence, totally disregarding things like message lane, image formatting, things that are platform-specific. So what works well on Twitter may not work well on LinkedIn or Facebook. So although you are well within the message limit, you would still need to consider user handles and hashtags working the same across all platforms. So by repeating content, you also run this risk of getting your account suspended on some of these social platforms because the optics are your account has been hacked, or you're spammy. So we always want to make sure our messages are fresh and unique, really for every post on each platform.

Jeff Harrell: Heather, I can see how this mistake happens. People are busy, and they create a post and then just share it on all the platforms. So I can see why it happens. But to your point, if you're not really understanding how that platform works, what's going to be effective on that platform. Twitter is very different than what works on Facebook and Instagram. So I can see why it happens, but I can also see why it's a big mistake, because if you don't have the time to do a targeted approach, maybe you should narrow down the number of platforms you even use. Would that be accurate?

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely. If it's too much you're finding that you're spending too much time, too many resources in crafting the sort of unique messaging for all of the platforms you're on, and you just don't have the ability to vary up your messaging, perhaps it is time to take a look at consolidating your overall social media presence down to maybe two instead of four.

Jeff Harrell: I think that's a mistake I've made in the past as well. There's all these new platforms. We've got to be on all of them. There's always something new coming down the pike. Now it's Clubhouse and Telegram or Telegraph or whatever the name is. So I think I'm kind of adding it. My own mistake here, I guess, is you don't have to be on all of them. In fact, you probably should focus on the ones that you know your constituents are on and really target that and be more tailored for that particular platform so that you'll have better engagement.

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely. Quality over quantity. Yes.

Jeff Harrell: Awesome. So you said it in three words, and I said in a bunch of words. Well, this is great. I love that one and two are related. It's really understanding who and how. And so, let's go into number three. What's the number three big mistake that you can make on social media?

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. Number three. Not responding to comments in a timely manner. It's really become a cardinal rule in social media marketing respond to all social media comments, negative or positive, regardless of platform. We definitely live in a culture of accountability, and social media has become a preferred channel for users to initiate communication. Not responding creates the optics that you ignore your users. And this feeling of being ignored can quickly escalate into an actual social media crisis. I go back to the social media strategy. Your strategy should definitely include some sort of key components for social customer service. Brand monitoring, having an internal process for responding on social media as well.

Jeff Harrell: Does this go back to, I've been in marketing a long, long time, and traditional marketing was, hey, we're going to create a message, and we're going to send that message out one way. But with social media coming in to picture what 10, 15 years ago, whenever it was now it's become and even more so now two-way communication. So getting that old way of thinking that this is a one-way, I'm sharing a message to my target. We talked about mistake number one, this is really your constituents or whoever's receiving that message. They're expecting a two-way communication.

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely. Yeah. That's sort of set it and forget it mindset. We definitely all need to move away from that. Absolutely.

Jeff Harrell: Because we're really now starting to carry on a conversation versus a one-way communication. This is awesome. I love it. So comment, how quickly, when you say timely, what does that mean? Is it dependent on the platform, or what's your guidance there in terms of timeliness?

Heather L. Daniels: Honestly, my guidance there would be within 24 hours.

Jeff Harrell: Got it.

Heather L. Daniels: If it's a business day, definitely within 24 hours. If it's something that happens on the weekend and you do not have business hours, I think it's suitable to think that it would be within the next business day.

Jeff Harrell: Good stuff. Okay. We're at number four. What's the fourth mistake that we see being made in social media?

How often should you post?

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. Number four is not posting enough or posting too much. That sort of frequency. Both of which have negative effects on your social media engagement. So there needs to be a balance between being informative and annoying. Having a content schedule definitely helps to create consistency and user retention. It allows you to see that bigger picture of your content plan, and it really helps you maintain a regular flow of content. There are a lot of suggested guidelines on the best times to post and how often, but I would definitely take these suggestions for what they are worth actual suggestions instead of following. It's sort of one-size-all-fits approach. Take the time to really understand the posting frequency that best achieves your overall social media marketing goals.

Jeff Harrell: And do they get to that level by doing just testing, or how do you figure out what the right cadence is, what the right frequency is for you?

Heather L. Daniels: Oh, definitely. Would really need to rely on your analytics. You want to take a look at your data, wherein the time of day are your users most active, you want to take a look at the types of posts that do best, that resonate well, and you want to create a formula based on that.

Jeff Harrell: And you just pointed something out. I think you're really, really good at here at Tyler is not only how often, but when the time of day. So using that analytics, is that how you kind of figure out when to post as well?

Heather L. Daniels: Yes. It's of utmost importance. You want to post when your users are actually online and not when they are not online. Because it's wasted effort.

Jeff Harrell: My understanding is that some platforms like Twitter, you can get away with posting more often. And there's other platforms, I think Facebook would probably fall into this category a little less often. Is there a place to start if someone's like, "I am not really sure where to start?" Is there just a rule of thumb, and then from that, they can learn based on analytics?

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. I think rule of thumb, generally speaking, Twitter is a large place. A lot of Twitter chatter going on, and to kind of break into that, you really want to look at the frequency of posting three to four times a day anywhere between three or four hours apart. Facebook, you want to look at possibly posting twice a day. And LinkedIn, you can really post once a day.

 

Jeff Harrell: Got it. That's right. Good guidance there. Okay. So either posting, not enough, or too often, boy, I've seen those people post too often, and I'm very quick to unfollow. This is still fill up your feed. So I think of that one really hits close to home. All right. We're already at number five. What's the fifth mistake that a lot of people make on social media?

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. Number five, using only one pipe of image. We all know that content posts with relevant images receive more engagement, but we want to be careful to not overuse the same type of image. So relying too much on stock photos, for example. There's that risk that other people are going to use these same photos within the same platform around the same time. So you lose that sort of uniqueness. You want to give your valuable content a better chance of getting seen by switching up the types of visuals you use. Social media is definitely a big and competitive environment, and you always have to find ways to stand out. So incorporate other content types, gifts. UGC is a big one, user-generated content. You can't get any more unique than that and also video.

Jeff Harrell: And Heather, does this go back to almost your first point or maybe the second point around understanding your audience and the platform you're on? Because I think of LinkedIn, you want a little bit more professional-looking photo and imagine and Facebook. You could probably get away with something less formal. Instagram, I know you probably want to make sure that that is your strongest images. Are there some guidelines based on platforms?

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. So I think that if you just keep in mind that all of your audience they are unique and they deserve that sort of unique approach. Invest in a professional, stock photography is great. Yeah, there's use for it. But you definitely want to, like I said, incorporate other image types. Is there necessarily a guideline? No. It's really going to depend on your brand. The tone that you want to give across on social media build your content pieces around your image. Your image should be able to tell your story without the content being there. If the image does not do that, then it's not the best image for your content posts.

Jeff Harrell: I love that. I think a lot of times, we think of image as an afterthought. Oh, I guess, gosh, I need to have an image with this post, but you're saying, don't make it an afterthought. Bring it to the front, make it something that you think about first, and that way, you're going to select by default the right image for that post.

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely.

Jeff Harrell: I love that. That's great. Well, that's five. But if anyone listens to this podcast, no, we love to add a bonus, and I don't want to put you on the spot, Heather, but is there a bonus that we can offer to the listeners?

Heather L. Daniels: Bonus, I would really have to say that grammar rules still apply on social media.

Jeff Harrell: You mean I can't get away with the new lingo and misspellings and deleting vowels and things like that that are popular when texting?

Grammar Rules Still Apply on Social Media

Heather L. Daniels: No. Not unless your audience is used to that. So if you have an audience that is not... I'm not going to say that because that's not a best practice either, Jeff, let's back on that. Okay. So no, you threw me with that. No. So grammar rules still apply on social. You don't have to be official with AP style or anything like that. But you want to make sure that you are spelling everything correctly, get your tenses correct. And you definitely don't want to have any typos in your social media posts.

Jeff Harrell: I can't tell you, Heather, the number of typos or people that don't know the difference between a part and apart. Some of those pet peeves, I think this is a good one. I'm not the greatest speller in the world, which is why I use tools to help me. But I think this is a great one because I think that can be a mistake people make, they think, "Oh, it's just social media. People will forgive it." But it's still a professional channel for government agencies. Right?

Heather L. Daniels: Absolutely.

Jeff Harrell: Awesome. Well, I love it. That's five plus a bonus. We'll go through those again, real quickly. Number one, not being targeted enough. Don't use a one-size-fits-all or blanket when you're thinking about your social media target. Number two, using a one-size-fits-all approach to your platforms, cross-posting the same content across different platforms. In fact, if you're doing that, you may want to think about narrowing the number of platforms that you use.

Jeff Harrell: Number three, not commenting quickly enough, remembering that this is a two-way communication and people expect a reply. And number four is either posting too often or not often enough understanding the platform you're using best practices there. And then testing based on your analytics and seeing what tends to resonate and not only how often, but when as well, that's a great one. Number five, using the right image to tell the story based on the platform. I love that. And our bonus grammar, getting a second set of eyes, we call that it Tyler SSOE thing, I think having a second set of eyes on your social media posts is a great idea. Heather, this is awesome. Really appreciate all these great things to avoid.

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. It was great. Thanks for having me. Hopefully right.

Jeff Harrell: Yeah. If someone wants to get in contact with you, Heather, what's the best way for them to do that? Because I'm sure, there's people that may have follow-up questions for you.

Heather L. Daniels: Yeah. LinkedIn is the best place. So it's at H.L. Daniels. D-A-N-I-E-L-S.

Jeff Harrell: You said, H. L. Daniels?

Heather L. Daniels: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeff Harrell: Perfect. Awesome. Well, Heather, thanks again. I appreciate your expertise and insight and helping us understand some things to avoid in social media.

Heather L. Daniels: Thanks, Jeff.

Jeff Harrell: Well, thank you, Heather, for your expertise, your wisdom, and your insight. I will add the five mistakes plus the bonus to the show notes. And remember, we have new podcast episodes dropping every other Monday. So please subscribe. We have lots of things planned throughout the summer. So again, this is Jeff Harrell for Tyler Technologies. Thanks again for joining me. We'll talk to you soon.