We’re not a fan of scheduled social media posts here at Bare. In fact, we just don’t do it. Why? Simply because we don’t enjoy reading content that lacks spontaneity or that human voice. And this is so often the case from posts that have been constructed out of context, or simply out of necessity. They are pretty easy to spot. Typically they are ‘broadcasts’, not a two way conversation, and unfortunately they don’t always get the best response. Not to mention the fact that scheduled posts are full of pitfalls and before you know it you’ve got a PR crisis on your hands. But we’ll go into that another time!

Ok, so here’s the flip side.

What happens when life (read ‘business’) takes over and suddenly you can’t get to your social media channels as often as you would like? When you don’t have those pre-planned posts to fall back on?
Well, hands up Guv, this is what happened to us recently – we dropped the ball.

This is a very busy and exciting time for Bare. Lots of projects, brainstorms and meetings – a bit of Summer madness you might say. There have been deadlines, curveballs and some staff illness to support and manage, which has all added to the challenges. Not that we are afraid of those.

Now delivering a top quality service to our clients is our number 1 priority and always will be. We are proud to protect and promote industry standards to the hilt. But as we were busying doing this our own social media activity began to drop. And Bare’s channels from Twitter to Instagram began to cry out for some love.

So what was the result?

Well at Bare we get over 70% of referrals from social media so the result of not been social had a very real impact. During the period of 2- 3 weeks our referrals dropped by 19%. Visits to our website fell by 33%. The phone started to ring just that little bit less and while on average we gain around 100 – 150 Twitter followers a month this time we only got 30. Quite a dramatic difference you would probably agree.

The obvious conclusion is that being on social media is a business necessity. But, we worked that one out a long time ago. The real lesson was in the importance of being agile, responsive and imaginative. Adapting to the situation we were in. And that does not have to mean scheduling, although that might work for you. It means looking ahead for pressure points, sitting down once or twice a week and discussing solutions, reframing popular content from the past that can be used to save time and injecting another perspective. Not churning out boring content because you have to get something out. But going about things a different way.

Being creative, it’s what we do, being social, it’s what we love. And that means looking after Bare with the same care and attention we look after our clients. Sharing and learning from mistakes is also vital, and we hope you learn from ours.

To view our full range of PR and marketing services