The 50/20/20/10 Rule of Social Media Marketing
Coming up with content to post to social media on a regular basis can be a challenging task. It is easy to focus on just selling your product, but this can make your social media accounts very dry and cause people to lose interest. That’s why many social media marketers suggest the 50/20/20/10 rule for social media marketing
The 50/20/20/10 rule states that you should plan to make 50% of your posts entertainment content, 20% of your posts should be brand content, 20% should be company cheerleading and only 10% should be a hard sell of your product. Here are what these categories mean and some simple examples of content from other local businesses and a few of our own clients.
Entertainment
Entertainment content is content that your audience would find entertaining or useful that doesn’t have a focus on hard selling. Did you find an interesting article online that might pertain to your customers? Are you running a contest? Did you make some type of a branded meme? These are all great “entertainment” type posts.
An example of an entertainment post might be businesses using the January “Cold Bernie” meme and placing him outside of their business with the caption “Bernie is making sure he is first in line when we reopen for in-store shopping” Check out the post below from Kawartha Family Chiropractic that utilized the Bernie meme well.
This article could also serve as a great entertainment type post to share for certain types of businesses or organizations. Small business associations & social media marketing companies could share this post giving advice on using social media.
Brand Content
There is a fine line between this type of content and the Hard Sell posts which we will talk about coming up. Brand content can include new product announcements, sales or company news. As long as there is no call to action or CTA. If you have a CTA it falls under the Hard Sell category. As Rosalyn Ransaw puts it in her blog post for Shutterstock “The tone is “We’re launching a new conditioner!” as opposed to “Buy our new conditioner! Link in bio.”
Our client Muddy Paws in the Guild does a great job with their brand content which provides customers information about what’s going on including sales and events at the store.
Company Cheerleading
The Company Cheerleading category is one that many businesses overlook but is probably one of the easiest to find content for. This category is all about telling your audience how amazing your business is. You can share things like awards and honours, employee highlights or big events in your company.
Did your company just land a huge client? Did an employee just celebrate a work anniversary or a birthday? Did you win a big industry award? Are you participating in an industry conference? These are all things that could fall under the Company Cheerleading category. Check out the example from our own social media page below.
Hard Sell
Posts in this category should only represent about 10% of your social media posts. Any content that directly tries to sell something with a call to action is a Hard Sell post. These should be minimized as social media should be a place where you listen to your community. Ransaw says “Audiences are attuned to spotting Hard Selling content and will turn away from brands who do too much of it.”
Although it doesn't need to be in perfect proportion to the above, the 50/20/20/10 rule is a good guideline for the do-it-yourself social media manager and business owner. OmniWorx Inc. can work with your business to help you build or grow your social media presence. Reach out to us to see how we can help your business.
About the Author - Jack C. Henry
A graduate of OCAD University’s Graphic Design program, Jack blends art with real-world business strategy. The result? Creative solutions that add value to your business. Jack has designed for a wide range of industries including restaurants, retail stores, health care, community organizations and charities. As well as helping companies develop their brand, he creates beautiful marketing materials and signage. More…
About OmniWorx Inc.
OmniWorx Inc. is a boutique design firm based in Scarborough in Toronto’s east end, with an office in Lakefield in the Kawarthas, providing graphic design, branding, marketing services to individuals, local small & mid-sized businesses and realtors. More...