You’ve been told that you have to be on every platform these days, that the audience is all over the place and you need to create social media content and put it where they are.
So you post on Facebook and Instagram and X and Threads and TikTok and Snapchat and BlueSky. Maybe you have a corporate department doing it for you, or you have to do it yourself, or some intern is making sure there’s content on all your social media pages. You’re making videos, you’re posting memes, you’re engaging with people in the comments. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to do.
One question few media managers seem to ask when they create social media plans for their operations: Why?
I’m not questioning that to reach your audience and to grow it, you have to go where they are. What I’m wondering is whether most companies, stations, and shows that embark on ambitious plans to gain clicks and likes and attention on Facebook and TikTok have an end result in mind. Are the posts meant to generate revenue in and of themselves? Are they meant to get people to click through to a website, and how is that being monetized? Are they meant to just promote, and if so, how are you measuring the effectiveness of the promotion? Do videos of a stunt in the studio or clips of interviews get people to listen to a radio show or podcast? Do news headlines redirect users to the full story, or do people just read the headlines and move on?
How, in other words, do you measure a social media plan’s success?
I never got a clear answer for that question when I asked it at more than one company in my career. In fact, all I got was “you just don’t understand” and intimations that I was an “old media” guy in a new media world, ignoring that I was involved in both podcasting and streaming audio before most people even knew what those were, and that those concerns were as valid then as they are today. The question, however, still stands: If you’re putting in all this effort to create stuff for various platforms, what’s the end game? Okay, you’re having spirited exchanges with people in the Facebook comments; is that being directly monetized, is it directing people to check out your primary (radio, TV, website) product, or are you diverting them from time they could be spending with that product?
I wonder how many media executives are asking themselves those questions. I see major radio companies getting “likes” and followers on X with posts that are just gushing over pop stars, no links or other content included. What’s that for? I see news organizations posting headlines and links, but I wonder what the click-through rates are, especially when a station in a smaller market is just posting national and international headlines – is anyone going to click to News-Talk 950 in Podunk when they can go to CNN or The New York Times instead? If your target audience is older, is TikTok really necessary? And – here’s the big question – are you spending time, money, and effort creating content that is making Facebook a lot of money that isn’t being sent along to you? Do you work for Facebook or are you making Facebook work for you? And is X working for anybody these days?
The bottom line should be obvious: Stop doing things just because someone says you’re “supposed to be doing them.” Take a moment to create a game plan for social media that is designed to have a concrete, measurable result, not just a nebulous “it’s good exposure” or “it’s where the kids are these days.” Decide on an end result and design a plan that is likely to get there.
Otherwise, you’re wasting time, just like the rest of us who spend most days doomscrolling on our phones. That’s not good for anybody.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
