10-07-2015
Social Media doesn’t sit still: How to keep up and avoid surprises.
Dear House Rules,
I finally got in a rhythm with my weekly social media post. I stockpile my content, work with an illustrator to license and brand my images, and launch at the same time each week. This time I ran into a problem; my image was skewed and it just looked sloppy. I am following the same specs as last week. Do you have any idea what went wrong?
Sincerely,
Caught Off Guard
Dear Caught,
Consider social media sites as an ever-evolving platform. Changes made by the programmers to improve response time or some aspect of the user experience may have the opposite impact on what you publish. On a positive side, at least you noticed the error in time to pull it back before your customers saw it. We actually had a similar experience with our LinkedIn post. Here is what we do to stay on top of changes:
4 Steps to Ensure a Perfect Post
- Expect change
- Publish a draft
- Sign-up for a Users’ Group
- Check with an expert
I had my content ready a few weeks in advance and held it in draft in my LinkedIn queue. Once I added in my professional graphics, I loaded the post and pressed the publish button. Like you, I noticed the format had changed. That is when I checked my LinkedUG (official user group). Seems I wasn’t the only one noticing changes. With that confirmation, I simply asked one of our graphic artists to update my images to the new specs and was on my way.
If you expect change then you will leave enough time each week to carefully check your draft and make corrections before letting the post go live. Remember, everything you publish extends your brand. For foolproof marketing work with a professional design firm.