Social Media’s Changed, Have You?

Social media has changed. The good news? No matter how many followers you have, your next post has the potential to reach far beyond them. The bad news? Even your followers won’t see your content unless it grabs attention and gets engagement. Social media platforms are in the business of keeping people entertained, informed and engaged — if your content isn’t doing that, it won’t get shown. The algorithms reward content that captures attention and sparks engagement.

That means if you’re still posting the way you always have — focusing on what you want to say rather than what your audience actually cares about — you’re likely shouting into the void. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube give you the potential to reach a massive amount of target customers. But, you need to understand what’s required for success and be willing to adopt the correct approach. From my work with dozens of dealers and brands in our industry, I have seen that few have evolved. If you want to get more from social media, read on.

It’s time to stop prioritizing how often you post and start focusing on how good your posts are. The old “post daily to stay relevant” approach is outdated. If you post 20 times a week and none of those posts get traction, you’re just spinning your wheels. One correctly crafted post can outperform dozens of ill-conceived ones. So, how do you thoughtfully create a post that has viral potential? Here are four keys:

Know Your Audience
The key to success isn’t reaching everyone, it’s reaching the right people. Define your ideal customer. Are they gigging musicians? Weekend hobbyists? Studio engineers? Once you know exactly who you want to talk to, you can create content that actually speaks to them. It is easier to come up with ideas to appeal to the people that you want to reach if you really understand them and create for them. You need to tightly define your target audience and then understand their needs before you can implement the other keys to success on social media. Posting for everyone will reach no one and posting for no one will reach no one.

Injecting Viral Potential
For any post to get reach, it must perform with a specific audience. The platforms consider a number of factors, but the two keys are post-retention and engagement. Retention means that people stop their scroll to view your post and spend more time with it. This is especially important with video posts. You need people to watch your video to the end. Engagement is a combination of comments, likes, shares, and saves. When you create a post where people stop to watch, watch the entire video, and then engage with that post, now you have viral potential.

Make Content They Care About
Instead of optimizing for how much you post, craft content that informs, surprises, enlightens, delights or entertains your ideal audience. Prioritize the ideation process to develop ideas that will appeal to your customer. Think about why your customer will like your post. In most cases, just creating for your customer and not your internal goals will do the trick. Instead of just posting product shots, tell a story about why that product matters. Instead of listing specs, highlight an interesting or surprising feature. Instead of posting for the sake of posting, ask yourself: Would my ideal customer stop scrolling for this?

Hook Them in the First 3 Seconds
Attention spans are short. If someone doesn’t know within three seconds why your post is relevant to them, they’ll keep scrolling. Lead with something compelling. Ask a question, show something unexpected, or spark curiosity.

The shift from old-school social media thinking to today’s approach isn’t complicated. It’s about focusing on what actually works: engaging, audience-first content. The platforms will reward you for it, and so will your customers. MI