- You won't get far in social media,
relying on best practices alone.
Experimenting consistently is essential, in order to earn
remarkable results from social media.
Once you've mastered best practices, you can start to bend
or ignore them in creative ways to enhance your brand
through experimentation.
This might mean using a specific feature on social media
in a new way, sharing a controversial type of content
to start a new conversation in your industry,
or maybe standing behind an important social cause.
For example, the fast food chain Popeye's used social media
to generate wide spread interest for their newly launched
chicken sandwich, helping it sell out in the US
in two weeks.
As part of the announcement, Popeye's drove buzz
by fighting on Twitter with other fast food brands,
known for their chicken sandwiches, claiming theirs
was far superior with humor.
This was a successful experiment that paid off in a big way,
because it was distinct, engaging, bold,
and tapped into the interest in chicken sandwiches
in the fast food market.
Conducting an experiment like this one on social media
is an opportunity to run a low risk test
to see if trying something new, distinct and valuable
is worth it.
To experiment despite best practices,
follow these steps for running tests on social media.
The first step is to choose a singular focus for the test
to direct your efforts, and not dilute the effectiveness
of an experiment by taking on too many at once.
I recommend focusing on the promotion of a single product,
the use of a certain feature on social network,
or trying out a specific tactic as part of each test.
Next, define the goals of your experiment
to establish what success looks like.
Each goal should be informed by bench marking
against past results from similar campaigns
to indicate if a test leads to an improvement.
For many clients of mine, significantly increasing
the media mentions of their innovative use of social media
is often one of the goals they hope to accomplish.
After that, establish a timeline for the test,
to ensure it has a defined start and end date,
while giving the test enough time to resonate.
Many organizations tend to run one as either
part of a campaign or over a month long period.
Once you've launched a test, monitor its progress
in real time to adapt to what's working
and what's missing the mark.
For instance, a media company recently experimented
by having a staffer host their original series on YouTube.
The organization quickly noticed that these videos
performed better than others due to the host
resonating with viewers, leading them to feature
more employees in their series.
Lastly, document the results of each test on social media
to ensure you're not duplicating efforts later
and so all contributors can learn from the experiment.
While there's no direct path to innovating
on social media, experimentation is the best way
to test what works beyond best practices.