Better #35

Kia ora!

I love strategy. Honestly, I bloody love it 🤓

And the more I do it, the more I appreciate this fundamental truth:

Strategy isn’t just about responding to the present - it’s about creating the future.

That makes it an exciting, creative act, but also an uncertain one. And uncertainty is where organisations often stumble. Not because they lack vision, but because turning vision into action requires a leap of faith.

You can’t prove in advance that your strategy will work. Strategy is about change, and change means that what you’ve done before - and all the data that comes with it - won’t necessarily help. As Roger Martin puts it:

"Great strategy is about creating a future that does not now exist. Not only is data analytics incapable of helping you make that happen, but it is also quite capable of convincing you not to try."

Data and analysis are critical, but they won’t tell you what could be. That’s where judgment, creativity, and experience come in.

So yes, strategy is about planning. But more than that, it’s about belief. And that is why I bloody love it.

P.S. Want to get more strategic with your social media? I’m running my online course next month for the last time in 2025, starting on 9 May. I just wrapped up the Feb cohort, and my NPS is now a whopping 83. Check out the course details here.

Cheers 👋
Seamus Boyer

Ok, I know we’re all super busy, so today’s edition is a quick, strategic refresh.

No fluff, just the good stuff.

Ready?

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Let’s go 👇

The biggest mistake I see…

Of all the missteps on social media, this one is huge (perhaps the biggest): spending too much time talking to people who are already engaged - and not enough time reaching new audiences.

Which means we fall into the dreaded ‘news and update’ trap, where all our content is aimed at a very small chunk of our audience who actually care about what we’re up to as an organisation.

And if we’re honest about it, do we really think that people are as into our organisation as we are? Hell to the no.

Remember, people are on social media largely because they’re bored. If you look at what New Zealanders use social media for (graph below), the number one reason people give is ‘keeping in touch with friends and family.’ That’s cute and wholesome and all, but it’s also exactly the kind of answer people give when asked why they spend so much freaking time on their phones.

The number two reason - ‘filling spare time’ - is more revealing (and maybe more honest).

So people aren’t necessarily looking for anything specific. There’s little search intent. They’re not actively searching for information about your organisation because they aren’t searching for information about any organisation.

They’re more likely waiting for a bus, getting ready for bed or - let’s be real - sitting on the toilet.

Which is gross, but telling.

The problem with boring

So if people are already bored when they start scrolling, what happens when they see a dull, informational post?

They keep scrolling.

And if they keep scrolling past your content a few times in a row, the algorithm may stop showing it to them altogether. That’s right - ignored posts can make you invisible, as platforms prioritise content that people engage with.

And if we’re brutally honest, how much of our content would make the average person less bored? Probably not much.

Here’s the kicker: research shows that interesting ads - what marketer Peter Field calls ‘fame ads’ - work way harder than rational, dull ones. In fact, they can be six to seven times more effective for the same ad spend.

In other words, boring content is costing you big time.

Even more interesting (to me, at least) is how ‘fame ads’ are defined:

Fame ads are “emotional ads that successfully inspire people to share or talk about them.”

Swap out the word ‘ads’ for ‘social media content,’ and there’s your formula for success. If your posts spark conversations and shares, you’re going to have great success, as Borat used to say.

Bringing it all together

So what does it look like in practice? Well, a lot like the diagram below, which is something I’ve developed over the last couple of years to help show clients a better way forward.

It highlights two key ideas:

• Social media is best for reaching less aware audiences. It’s your place for emotional, engaging content that grabs attention. This doesn’t mean everything has to be heart-wrenching. Joy, laughter, pride, FOMO - any strong emotional reaction works (and gets shared).

• Keep updates and rational content for direct channels. As people become more interested and invested, push them to channels that offer a more reliable way to receive info that is too important to be left to the whims of the algorithm - channels like email or direct messaging.

I read recently (and I can’t for the life of me remember where) that a like is to say thanks, and a follow is to say they want to see more.

By following our pages, people are essentially saying, Alright, I’m interested - what else have you got? That’s both an opportunity and a responsibility.

The challenge is to create content that isn’t just news and updates, but taps into emotion, that is worth sticking around for.

Because when we get that right, our social media stops being just another update channel - and might even start working six or seven times harder for us.

That’s all folks, hope you enjoyed the little strategic refresh™️

Next up we have a couple of interviews with social and content pros - awesome people from both sides of the Tasman Sea Ditch Ocean.

By the way, if you are up for a chat - on anything social or storytelling - I have a bunch of 15-minute slots in my calendar each week

Book one (then please show up!) and we can shoot the breeze. It’s energising.

See you in a couple of weeks for more tips on how to get just a little bit Better 👋