2014 draws to a close, and it’s been an interesting year for social media marketing. From platforms taking on forms that are less social- and more media-centric, to the pervasiveness of messaging apps, 2015 has a lot in store. With that though, there are definitely some things brands should not bring along in the coming year. Here are four outdated and ineffective social media marketing principles we should say goodbye to in 2015.
Have the Most Fans or Followers

At this point, the “veteran? brands on social media have been around from anywhere between three to five years, give or take a year or two. For ‘new’ players in this medium, catching up on audience size is going to take a monumental amount of money (for fan/follower acquisition). This money could instead be used in a smarter way, such as targeting specific audiences with specific content. Also, having a “huge? audience (on Facebook in particular) is no longer an advantage given that organic reach is lower than ever, and with so much social noise.

Trend on Twitter

In my opinion, trending on Twitter is nothing more than a vanity achievement. For a few seconds or minutes (hours, if lucky), your brand’s campaign or name is visible to a large number of people. Aside from that, there really isn’t any clear and tangible benefit to trending on Twitter. Don’t get me wrong: getting a large amount of positive conversations about one’s brand is rarely a bad thing, but this has to be measured, analyzed, and somehow skewed to affect an offline decision (i.e. a purchase, for instance). There’s nothing wrong with trending, it just shouldn’t be a goal.

Have a Post Every Day (on Facebook)

Facebook’s (and Tumblr’s) evolution into a media channel means brands should already shift their current social media management from publishing frequent but untargeted content with a short lifespan, to few but targeted and media-supported ones. Low organic reach means minimal visibility for maximum effort; the effort (and money allocated) in creating numerous content pieces should instead be directed towards extending the lifespan of each social content post, and getting it in front of the right eyeballs.

A Dedicated Community Manager

The relative simplicity of managing social media assets from several years back means a single community manager can wear the hats of content creator, engagement specialist, and data/insights analyst at the same time. That was great when brands were competing on one, perhaps two social platforms. This year, and more so in the next, brands are perhaps pressured to maintain presence across multiple platforms, and create content plus engagement on separate digital channels; their own blogs, microsites, and messaging app channels (ex. Viber Public Chats). This means social media management should be done in teams, with specific specializations for members, in order to maintain high qualities of content, engagement, and analytics/reports.