Having worked in social media since Bebo was a thing we’ve witnessed how brands (and agencies) have used social media for quite sometime. We have seen the good, bad and ugly, from creating cracking TikToks to processes that look like they have remained unchanged since 2008, it has informed us how to better “do” social in the commercial sense.

So, with that we’ve put a list of “red flags” things we look out for, social media activity that should be stopped.

Your competition posts are your only posts people care about

Among your posts, engagement is only really coming from competition posts. Naturally these posts have been designed for this. Competitions have always been used as a way to engage audience, no matter the channel that has been used. However, if they are your only posts people seem to care about, or you’re going from 200 retweets on an organic competition to five on a non competition post, there’s an obvious problem in the content you are posting, or the type of things you are saying.

Not to mention competition posts are also a great way for to make the end of month reports look good for your agency…

Influencer ‘challenges’

This might be one not everyone agrees with, but hear us out. If you are getting talent with a huge social following to do a challenge which is essentially them just using your product how it is meant to be used then what is that doing for anyone?

For an example, if you sell razors and your "‘challenge’ is simply to get that influencer to ‘shave’… that’s not really a challenge. (Like the above that was met with a collective sigh)…

You’ve already agreed influencer fees so why not get the talent to create something entertaining, they know their audience better than you and the desired effect is to put your product into

It is not uncommon for an influencer to agree to these ‘challenges’ with little creative input and then put a bit of spend behind their posts to secure additional engagement.

Flat Lays

hey work create for print and perhaps on your website, but for your Instagram grid they offer nothing.

Aldi UK’s Instagram, with its continuous table concept, might be the exception of this rule. It’s a simple fix, create evergreen content that feels right for social media, that means no flay lays

All your time is spent approving and looking at content calendars

The best social media posts are usually unplanned and reactive.

We’ll let you into a secret some of the best social media agencies don’t have content calendars.

An example we’ve had is brands asking social media agencies to come up with five great pieces of content their audience will care about and engage with.

So many will disagree but the minute you open t a boring power point presentation or time is wasted fantasising over a caption, its time that could be spent research and looking what is going on social media and how your brand can be part of that.

Reactive posts taking too long or non existent

If we had to round up the past ten posts we’ve seen do well guarantee 9/10 would all be reactive. Whether its creating some quirky content to , the brands putting out something based on a football score or reacting to a heatwave, these are the posts that fair a lot better and get people talking.

If your brand has Twitter and non of the posts are reactive, or you aren;t getting reactive opps from your agency on a weekly basis, then that’s a failure.

Twitter / Facebook becomes a dumping ground for content

Instagram and TikTok are were a lot of social media agencies focus at the moment and we have seen Instagram posts just being posted on Facebook with little fan fare just as a tick box excercise.

Twitter is an exciting place for brands to play in and if brands just post that pretty picture from Instagram on the channel and forget about it, then they really should forget about being on Twitter.

Brands like B&M and ASDA see huge success on Facebook, it might be the elder statesman of the big channels but don’t discount it in your strategy.

No experimentation

If there’s one takeaway it is this, nothing on social media is going to be a sure fire hit.

There’s a bizarre juxtaposition of brands wanting to be funny on social media but not taking risks.

However, if there is no risk, there is no humour. Any good stand up comedian will tell you that. Social media agencies should always be presenting new was to do stuff, if you are stuck on the same plan for 4+ months that has not seen results don’t give it 6 months it needs to change, and quickly too.

Social media and earned media are not married up

A good way for a brand to achieve some PR is through their social media, everyone from Doritos to IrnBru knows this. If your PR is in total isolation to social media then are missing some easy wins and leaving earned coverage on the table for competitions to get.

Some of the biggest wins are reactive, and the best single pieces of content are often unplanned. Allowing for this to happen is the key to long term creative success on social media.