Too Many Messages: A 5-Step Strategy For Focusing Your Social Media Messages

The video that Addie Peck and Lori Wirth showed to kick-off their July 2018 Social Media Breakfast presentation said it all.

The video was a Subway TV commercial, jam-packed with a ton of messages, visuals, messages, sandwich meat and more messages.  The spot was a perfect metaphor for the universal affliction of social media marketers: We have too many messages.

And not only do we have too many messages, they’re often being presented on the wrong social media challenges. So how to solve the problem? Addie and Lori, the Marketing and PR leads, respectively, for Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin, shared their 5-step strategy.

Goodwill’s Dilemma: Delivering Multiple Messages

The Goodwill team told us that Goodwill is more than just a second-hand store and donation drop-off. This was news to assembled SMB crowd, as a live Instagram poll, conducted mid-presentation (very cool), revealed.

The Goodwill team showed that the majority of the people in attendance didn’t realize that there many facets to the organization.  The graphic below shows all their various services.

Each facet of the organization has a different story, and it’s up to the Goodwill team to see to it that these stories are told.  Having multiple stories to tell is a “universal problem” that organizations face.

The Goodwill team has created a 5-step solution to help them channel and focus the messages in a highly effective manner.  Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Analyze

The team started by analyzing all the messages it needed to convey by going old-school. They affixed sticky notes to a wall with all the messages they wanted to deliver, then analyzed what was important.  

They decided that people needed to understand how Goodwill works — that the profit from the stores funded the organization’s altruistic endeavors.  They wanted people to understand everything else they do.

Step 2: Categorize

Next, they looked to categorize their messaging into the three buckets of paid, earned and owned media (advertising, public relations, and content/social media.)  

They look at the various pieces of content they were producing, and they realized they were doing little in terms of earned media.  Redirecting some of their efforts into PR seemed like a natural step.

“A dedicated PR awareness lets the story get told, and then we move if through the social world,” said team Goodwill.  “It’s good to have that collaboration.”

Step 3: Prioritize

The next step was to put everything in the right place at the right time, and direct it to the right audience.  

By analyzing their analytics, the team was able to determine which audiences were viewing them on social media, and what they wanted to see.  For example, Instagram viewers were there to shop, and Goodwill was careful to tailor their messages to specifically to meet those desires.

“You’re often urged to tell every store every time, but it’s important to protect the space,” said team Goodwill.  “Certain stories don’t fit on certain media.”

Step 4: Maintain course

Once you’ve accomplished steps 1-3, it’s important to stay the course.  That means maintaining an authentic voice, and ensuring your own organization understands what you’re doing.

For example, a request from the Human Resources to post on Snapchat might not necessarily align with your strategy. Those types of requests become more commonplace when the company sees you posting on social media.

“It’s a symptom of your success,” said team Goodwill.

Step 5: Capitalize on success

As you build engagement among your followers, you get an understanding of how much information they can absorb.  Now you can turn up the dial, and begin to pepper in other messages.

For example, besides the “shopping” messages, Goodwill was also able to deliver messaging related to sustainability.  That’s when the full picture of Goodwill began to sink in, as followers began to develop a more complete understanding of the organization’s mission.

The success of this overall approach is most easily demonstrated in financials.  The Goodwill store shopping traffic is up, due in part to this strategic approach. And as team Goodwill informed us, they’re expanding in Middleton.”  

It’s a disciplined approach that’s working wonders for a collaborative, 3-person team. And there’s no reason it can’t work for you.

See you next month when Liz Gross presents 10 Ways Social Listening Supports Strategic Business Decisions Across the Organization.

This post was written by Greg Mischio, the Owner and Strategic Director of Winbound, a content marketing firm. Winbound provides an all-in-one content marketing and conversion optimization package specifically designed for small marketing departments. Twitter: @gregmischio