We recently moved house. With two little kids. I can sense your sympathetic looks as you read this.

Amid the chaos,  I realised that not only do social media and health promotion have a lot in common, but so do social media and moving house.

Here’s why:

  1. Both cost time AND money. Need I say more.
  2. Outsourcing is an option but it has risks. You can outsource your packing, removalists and even your unpacking, but unless your removalists are well briefed you can end up with a new house with all the wrong things and all the wrong places. The same applies to social media outsourcing and management. It can be fantastic for organisations, but if your social media management company is not well versed on the right jargon or ethos of your project, it can become messy.
  3. Many hands make light work. Moving house is a team sport and should be done with the help of friends and family. Social media is also best done in teams where not one person takes all the responsibility. There should be someone to oversee, but different people can be responsible for key areas like sourcing content, monitoring and evaluation, and creating a content schedule.
  4. Both are a part of life. Social media is here to stay and should be considered as part of a toolkit for almost all communication strategies these days. Thankfully there are far fewer social media nay-sayers in 2014 than there were 5 years ago.
  5. You need to work to engage your visitors. There can be a flurry of visitors to your new house or your new social media platform, which is always fantastic. Usually these visitors are from your closest of supporters and inner networks. However to keep people coming back and engaging you need to give them a reason to do so. This includes creating interesting and relevant content, and listen to what people have to say too not just blasting your own messages.

 

This blog was adapted from our August 2014 newsletter.

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