It happens to every social media manager. All of a sudden, your Facebook posts are boring. Or your Tweets go without a Retweet. Instagram photos have so few likes, you can read every name of those who DID give it a heart.
What could possibly be wrong?
It might be social media fatigue and it happens to everyone who manages social media channels over time. The good news is that you’re obviously paying close attention to your channels because you noticed! The bad news – it’s time to take a minute and shake it off – with or without Taylor’s Swift’s “Shake It Off” playing in the background.
Internal Factors Affect Your Channels’ Performance
Your Content
Look at your content lineup. Is it repetitive? Are the photos high quality? Are your categories diverse enough?
Tip from Claire : Look at how you’re presenting information on different channels – while your messaging should be consistent, each social channel has its own vibe and content needs to fit that specific channel. Have you been copying and pasting? Change things up across channels and see how engagement changes!
Tip from Jennifer: Vary your content types. For Facebook use a mix of video, photos w/link & w/o links. Use graphic only with no caption and sparingly use text only posts. With Twitter, mix it up but don’t forget that Twitter is also favoring video and graphics/photos are valuable for brands on this channel.
Your Posting Schedule
Are you repeating the same time slots? Are you missing the peak times when your fans are online? Are you posting on the wrong days? Are you posting too often? Are there gaps between your posting schedule?
External Factors Affect Your Channels’ Performance
Local News Cycle
We get stuck on news stories in social media these days. Look and see if something from the local area has dominated in the channels. It could be suppressing your content.
Politics Paralysis
Like it or not, national stories, especially as election season draws near, also dominate social feeds and could be suppressing your fans and followers from seeing your content.
Taking these steps might help illuminate what’s happening in your channels. If the way through is not yet clear, it’s time to go to the next step.
Three Things You Can Try to Beat Social Media Fatigue
- Cut your posting frequency in half for one to two weeks while you keep examining the factors that you have control over, like your content types and posting schedule. Then come back with fresh eyes to review the situation.
- Put ONE channel on hold. If you’re managing a social media ecosystem of 3 or more channels, walking away from one channel for a period of time will not sink the ship. Then come back to it, look at it again and think about how you can change it up. Or if that’s too painful to consider, consider auto posting from one channel to another for a short period of time just so your name is out there. This is a great strategy to try between Facebook and Instagram or Instagram and Twitter.
- Take an hour and review what your competitors are doing. That usually creates an “aha!” moment.
If you still don’t know how to get out of the rut your channels are in, call us! We do full social media benchmark and channel audits for clients in nonprofit, travel and hospitality.