PR AGENCY DIARIES: FIVE CRAP CONTENT TRAPS TO AVOID

Made a New Year’s resolution to whip your social media strategy into the best shape of its life? It’s no secret that in a digital world, a strong and well-toned online presence can deliver increased revenue, better brand awareness, and optimise customer relations. But your posting plan is only as good as your content.

Good content is thoughtful content. Your posts should be well-written, have high quality imagery, and, above all else, provide value to your audience. But for those who are more “digital naïve” than “digital native” (or just those who are short on time and resources), it can be easy to fall into the traps of sub-par content just because it’s easy, and everyone seems to be doing it.

If your posts are flopping, you’re not getting the reach or engagement you’d like, or your follower count is ticking in the wrong direction, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for five common “crap content traps” that brands often fall into – and how you can get out of them.

The “unstructured copy” trap

Knowing how people interact with your content online should never be underestimated. For example, when people scroll their newsfeeds or #FYP, they only see a tiny bit of text before they need to tap “read more”. Knowing this, you’d think more people would put better hooks into their first line, right? But so many social copywriters write as if they’ve already got the attention of the audience.

When looking at your caption as a whole, it’s normal to want your copy to flow above all else. However, if your followers aren’t reading past the first line, what’s the point of doing that?

The best strategy for structuring your copy is to start with a great opener to catch their attention (like an offer or catchy statement), and then use the rest of the post to provide the details. Keep it short or break it into sections (because walls of text are off-putting), and finish with a strong and orginal call to action.

It’s also really important to keep your messaging simple. Just because you have lots of things to say, doesn’t mean you should jam them into one caption – it gets confusing to the reader and they’re less likely to pick up what you’re putting down.

The “soup” trap (aka using stock images)

Say it with us – stock is for soup, not social. Have you ever wondered why you see the same image pop up for Mother’s Day on numerous brand accounts? It’s because they’re all using free stock sites – and it’s worse than posting nothing at all.

We’ve discussed stock images before, and we’ll say it again – stock images are the Comic Sans of content and they have no place in a good social strategy. Your content should tell your brand’s story, and you simply can’t do that with mass-produced stock imagery that’s trying to tell everyone’s story at once. It’s a bit like plating up an Oreo and trying to claim it as home-baked; you’re not fooling anyone.

The “I post, therefore I am” trap

Posting for the sake of posting is kind of like calling a meeting, getting all your staff into the boardroom, and then just saying “So, did everyone have a good weekend?”. Just because someone said “you must post X times per week,” doesn’t mean you have to. It’s important to be consistent, but ask yourself what the purpose is of your post before you hit publish.

Are you trying to spark conversation? Are you trying to build awareness? Are you trying to drive sales? Whatever your goal is, make sure that every post leads you towards that goal – otherwise, you’re not providing anyone value (least of all yourself and your business).

An obvious marker of this trap is sharing unofficial observances that aren’t relevant to your business. Fair enough for a peanut butter brand (like our client, Pic’s) to post on National Toast Day, or a wine company (see, Foley) to post on National Pinot Gris Day. But ask yourself if World Emoji Day, International Picnic Day (which falls in NZ’s winter), or World Best Friends Day makes sense for your brand.

The “inconsistency is key” trap

Posting irregularly is not good, but we’re here to talk about content – so this trap is all about having an inconsistent tone of voice or visual identity.

Even if you speak to multiple customer segments on one channel, your voice should always stay consistent. If your tone of voice is normally formal, assertive, and serious, you can’t suddenly be chatty, irreverent, and humorous just because you’re trying to speak to Gen Zs.

Likewise, you’ll get better brand recognition if you use consistent design elements, photography styles, and colours. Regardless of the platform, the topic, or the audience, if your voice is consistent, you have more of a chance of leaving a lasting impression.

The “wannabe memelord” trap

Don’t get us wrong, we love memes. If you’re familiar with our Instagram, you’ll know that we share a roundup of the team’s favourite memes every Friday, and our audience is brutally honest in telling us it’s the only thing they’re following us for (we think they’re joking…).

But it is extremely easy to do memes wrong, and there is nothing more cringe-worthy than a misused meme on a brand page – or the evil of all evils, the Condescending Corporate Meme™.

The misused meme comes in a few forms, but you’ll know it when you see it because you’ve seen it a hundred times already, on a hundred other brand accounts. Usually text-based, the misused meme trots out an old joke like “home is where the wine and chocolate are” or “the moment you think it’s Friday, but it’s actually Wednesday.” You don’t laugh at them, and you normally don’t engage with them unless you’re quite fond of the person running the account.

While misused memes are pretty harmless, they’re just not good content, and they’re not going to get the result you’re looking for.

The stickier end of the meme trap is the Condescending Corporate Meme™, and this is one trap you do not want to fall into. These are the posts that try too hard to be funny and topical and just end up offending people. Especially if they touch on trending topics that are touchy subjects for some people – it’s dangerous territory and we advise you back away.

If you do want to use humour in your content, there are ways to do it well. Keeping across social commentary and finding ways to spin it into satire is a good move - if it fits with your brand’s tone of voice. Otherwise, just leave it to the experts.

Want to discuss your content needs and how you can avoid these traps? We know content like the back of our hands and we’d be happy to steer you in the right direction. Get in touch and make 2023 your strongest year of content ever.