How to Be More Human on Social Media

The Lowdown on Personalizing Your Social Media Marketing

It’s slightly comical that we need to think very hard about being more human on a media platform defined as “social.” Isn’t being social at the core of our existence? Apparently not, and we need to get better at being ourselves on social networks.

What Happened to Our Human Side

After all of the debacles that have played out on social media, it’s no surprise that online marketing strategies have strayed from personal touch to hyper state of professionalism. Brands have witnessed the fallout from social media abuse, and marketers are nervous about posting any type of personalized content, for fear of alienating customers or getting slammed by their own online communities. What this created was an environment of cheesy sales posts, heavy promotion, and cool undertones – anything but social.

As a result, social media networks are changing things up. Not only are they encouraging brands to create a more “human experience,” but they are also pushing this type of content to the top of the news feed. This means that brands that want to increase organic reach in places like Facebook and Twitter must be developing content that is timely, relevant, and ultimately personal.

How personal should your content be? Here are a few ideas for being more human in your social media marketing communication:

  • Think like your audience. If you can get inside the heads of your audience members, then you can understand exactly what types of information they want to receive from you (and they do want it; that’s why they like or follow you on social media). Since this isn’t physically possible, the next best thing is checking out your Facebook Insights or Twitter Activity Analytics for clues. Gear your content to the preferences of the audience, based on gender, age, location, etc.

  • Be thoughtful. It’s true that social media users spend a great deal of time on their

    favorite networks, but they only want to consume the content that matters to them. Take the time to develop blog posts that are useful and interesting, and share them through social media networks. (Tip: Facebook no longer boosts content that just gets clicks; it also looks at how long users are staying on the page that was delivered from the click – a signal of how useful the content was for the reader.)

  • Talk. One of the greatest benefits of social media is that brands have a direct connection to their readers and customers. Unfortunately, many brands don’t use this opportunity to their advantage. Yes, it’s true that you can receive negative feedback as well as positive, but social networks give brands a platform to engage with consumers on a more personal level. To optimize this, be sure you are responding to comments from your audience in a timely manner. This can make a huge difference in helping your content reach more users, while pleasing the ones who are already participating.

What are some other ways we can be more human on social media?

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