Understanding Social Media Content Strategy through ‘How I Met Your Mother’

Let us discuss one of the most complex tasks of being a social media manager, and apply your knowledge of How I Met Your Mother to it, and better understand how to manage your content on social networking platforms.

If you have been grappling with the issue of same-content-same-creative but different social networks for your brand, you're not alone. Often times, brands face this one particular issue of all their social network brand pages reflecting the same type of content and creative that leads fans/followers on certain social networks not receiving their posts as well as those brands desire.

This primary issue comes with the fact that all social networks are measured with the same yardstick in terms of user behavior, the reasoning being, well... its a social network after all.

Every time someone comes up with the above explanation (brand or agency), I want you to ask yourselves these questions that will set the course of how you tackle the issue of social media content strategy for a particular brand:

1. Am I a social media user? (Yes/No)

2. Am I on multiple social networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN, WhatsApp and Twitter? (Yes/No)

3. Do I post things about my holidays, family, photos, date night restaurant check-ins, funny anecdotes on Facebook? (Yes/No)

4. Would I post the same information on LinkedIN, Instagram or WhatsApp? (Yes/No/Maybe)

Once you have answered these four basic questions, you will have figured somewhat, that if you, as a user, differ with your content and post uploads on different social networks shouldn't your brand be doing the same?

To understand profiling and behavioral patterns of users on social networks, allow me to illustrate with an example of one of my favourite TV shows of all time -

How I Met Your Mother!

How I Met Your Mother was to impressionable young people of 2000's what Friends was to the 90's. The five principle characters in the series display key characteristics that can be identified closest with a certain type of social network behaviour:

So, the next time you are grappling with the issue of an effective Social Media Content Strategy across various social networks, let How I Met Your Mother remind you how it’s done.

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