So last Friday was National Dog Day, and my Instagram feed had cuteness overload. Not only were my family and friends posting adorable pictures of their dogs, but so were many companies and obviously UGA. #GoDawgs
Social media provided companies an easier outlet for two-way communication by posting relevant content and engaging with their customers. What exactly does it mean to have relevant content? Obviously, if you are a vacuum cleaner company, you won't just post information about your newest vacuum cleaner and all of its cool features; you'd post tips on keeping a clean house or how to make your carpet look like new again. This is because when people buy a vacuum cleaner, it's because they ultimately want to utilize it to keep their house clean, not just use one because they enjoy the motion of pushing and pulling the hefty thing across their floors.
Where the line gets a little blurry is when companies start posting things for all of these "national _________" days. There's National Dog Day, National Bourbon Day, and even National Corn Dog Day. There's a whole list of them, and boy do some of them get weird! I've seen some company's social media profiles post about these to keep up with all of the social trends that exist out there, and I guess because they think it's relevant. I understand why UGA or Petco would post about National Dog Day, but having Boeing post about it would be quite random in my opinion. These social media trends are pretty cool (and silly), and it's a good way for a company to post content that isn't directly about their product all of the time. However, I definitely think that it's about selecting what is directly relevant for the industry that your business is in because while content can be funny or interesting, it should still be relevant to your target market.
Baker's can post about National Bourbon Day, and Foster Farms can post about National Corn Dog Day, and it wouldn't be weird since it's still relevant to their industry and market segment. If Foster Farms posted about National Bourbon Day and vice versa? Not as much. With more of these "national _______" days coming up or being created, it's definitely important to keep in mind that most of them will be easy to post about on social media. However, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I think your opinion is very insightful and interesting. While I agree that companies should aim their social media posts at their target audiences, another way to look at it is that maybe companies participate in these "national _____ days" to keep their followers' attention and to relate to them on another level that is not based solely on their purpose as a company. Very interesting though! National Dog Day was my favorite :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that companies should limit themselves on these "national whatever days" to what is relevant for their company. Anything else just looks almost desperate to keep up with a trend. Personally, I think there are too many of these days (although I didn't mind seeing pictures of puppies the other day). So for me, any attempt to post for these days on a company's part seems like stretch, unless it is something absolutely specific to that brand. "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Thank you for that!
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