Don’t Overuse A Good Idea

Kudos to you! You’ve been reading and learning about how best to create engagement on your social media sites. You may even have conducted A/B tests to determine which options work best. And now you have a great style of post that is creating great engagement.

So you use that same style post again, and again you get great engagement. You think you’ve hit the jackpot. Now you’re using this style post more and more frequently, and reducing your other posts. But then engagement drops off. People aren’t engaging with your awesome posts and you don’t know what went wrong.

Here’s why: They got bored!

Yes, your awesome new posts probably were great and your audience probably really did enjoy them. But if that’s all you give them, they’re going to grow tired of them. Think about your dream decadent dinner. The best dinner you could ever imagine eating. Of course, the first time you have it, it’s awesome and you can’t stop raving about it. Then you have it again the next week and you think, wow! this is great! Then after a couple weeks, now you’re being forced to eat this same meal every single day. How long until you never want to see that food ever again?

Why? Because we like variety. We don’t like the exact same thing every single day.

I follow one brand on Facebook that started occasionally sharing their positive Yelp reviews on Facebook. People were liking the posts and commenting on them as well. Also, it was nice to showcase and thank customers and fans for their kind words. It seemed like a good idea. But now, it’s like every single positive Yelp review is shared to Facebook and I’m so over it! First of all, it’s just annoying because they don’t post a lot anyways and now it seems like a majority of their posts are these reviews. But secondly, it’s starting to look like bragging and using in-your-face marketing. Which we all know I do not approve of. This is just one example of good posting gone bad.

So when you get a great post structure that creates great engagement, don’t overuse it. Save it and make it even more important. Start creating anticipation for these posts. Maybe you post this type of post once a week or once a month, always on the same day at the same time. Once your audience realizes it’s coming and when to expect it, they’ll wait for it. You’ll find your engagement goes up even more because they want it and they’re looking for it!

It’s important to keep posting other variations and types of posts as well. Keep it fresh and interesting. Keep playing with other new ideas and see what they generate for engagement.

Remember, even if your engagement is high on a certain type of post, it is not reaching all of your audience and it may not resonate with all of your audience. By only focusing on one type of post, you are alienating your other audience members.

Take pride in your good posts and use them repeatedly to generate more interest. But don’t overuse them to the point that you push your audience away.

Have you experienced good posting gone bad? Then please share this post and maybe more people can learn from it!