The Power of Social Media Systems

Your social media is only as strong as its system.

If your social feels scattered, impromptu, or like it’s also missing the mark with your audience.

Instead of agonizing or spending too much time dissecting what has/hasn’t worked in the past, I urge you to create and embrace a social system.

Social systems help you:

1. Generate ideas regularly
2. Save time
3. Give you more ‘at bats’
4. Provide insights for future content

1. Generating Ideas 💡

Some ideas come out of thin air. But most full content calendars come from building a framework for each post that hits your feed. If you’re stuck, list 1-5 things you know about, 1-5 post formats, and 1-5 reactions you want the viewer to have.

Here are some I use as an example:

Topics: brand social, agency growth, social media growth, entrepreneurship,

Formats: listicle, contrary opinion, analytical, prediction, personal story

Reaction: Wow (remarkable), WTF (out of the box/insane), no way (disagreeable), oh (intriguing), finally! (reaffirmation)

After you’ve made your lists, select one thing from each to create the outline of your post. For example, I decided on social media growth, listicle, and intriguing in this post.

2. Saves you time ⏰

When you work within a system, you save time and preserve brainpower. It also protects you from outside influences and spur-of-the-moment impulses with content. It stops you from staring at a blank page for hours, trying to think of content ideas.

Ultimately, operating within the system minimizes the amount of time spent distracted.

3. Getting more At Bats ⚾️

At Bats is a baseball term for every time someone gets an opportunity to hit. In the case of social media, at-bats are posts, and you’re trying to get a hit (and maybe a home run).

Systems create more social media At Bats for you, creating consistent opportunities for your content to be a hit. Or even hitting a home run (viral post).

More posts = more learning opportunities = more chances for success.

4. Insights for Future Content 📚

When you have a system, you can identify what topics, formats, and reactions your audience prefers.

That information powers iteration in your content. This creates a feedback loop, helping you make better content.

You do this by labeling your content in your calendar and reviewing what labels (content types) performed the best at the end of each month/quarter.

A social media system creates a foundation for your feed and gives you the frameworks for success with these platforms.

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