Social Media Best Practices for Betches
Like other Millennials, I use social media to past time. Although I don’t have a personal Instagram account, I use my business account to scroll through Instagram Reels for my entertainment.
Instagram is the perfect platform to connect with your target audience and reach prospective clients. Betches, a woman-dominated entertainment and media brand, does it well. I discovered Betches through Reels, and now I can’t get enough. To understand what they do right, we will deep dive and analyze their social media strategy and develop best practices that any entertainment brand can successfully follow.
Brand Voice
First and foremost, you need to establish your brand voice before you post anything. Your brand voice is “the distinct personality a brand takes on in its communications” with its target audience. That means, your brand’s voice is a representation of who you are. Some brands can have a serious, authoritative voice and others can have a lighthearted approach.
Betches understands the assignment. Their brand voice is that likened to that cool friend who shows you funny memes and keeps you up on all the latest products.
From the examples above, you can gather that they are going for a fun, humorous tone. Like I said, I came across this Instagram account because I noticed that they repost funny videos that appeal to my sense of humor.
…and Tone
This women-led company also understand that not all matters are funny. Jenny Chen wrote that a company’s “tone may vary between audiences, so it’s a good idea to document when to use certain tones in certain situations.” Their tone adjusts to the topic. For example, the post below shows that they can adjust their tone when it comes to serious issues.
This gives them the opportunity to be a dynamic company because they are not just the funny brand. They can also discuss important issues when needed.
Posting Frequency and Types of Posts
Betches found the formula to having relevant, funny posts on Instagram. From my quick scanning, they seem to post 3 to 5 times a day, with a sponsored mixed in. If you are creating organic posts that often, it can be exhausting, but they don’t. They focus on user generated content (UGC), which are Reels, videos and images created by other Instagram users.
UGC is important because it can “help influence engagement and increase conversions.” From my rough estimate, their UGC posts are about half of their current content. I was drawn to this account based on UGC Instagram Reels.
Their content is related to the mundane, daily struggle of being a Millennial in this generation. One post could be focused on our unique fashion style in the early 2000s that we’d rather forget, while the other is showing how awkward it is to watch a sibling record a TikTok video.
It is important to note that their posts are getting lots of engagement, which is why they can post frequently throughout the day, that may not work for all companies. Content managers should look at analytics to determine the best days and times to post. In my article, “Why Do We Need Social Media Analytics?” I break down the importance of daily, monthly and weekly analytics.
Handling Complaints
Betches is dominating Instagram. They are doing things right, but what happens if they were to run into a controversy? I couldn’t find a time where they had to apologize for a blunder on Instagram, so instead, I’ll just discuss best practices when it comes to those mishaps.
In an ideal world, we would establish social listening, tracking what others are saying about the brand, before there is a crisis at hand. Social listening can range from searching the company’s name (and misspelled name) on social channels, relevant hashtags, comments and post tags.
Now that there is a crisis, the company should pause on all social postings. Brands could have an issue if they are in the middle of an issue and then post a funny Reel, which can come off as tone deaf and dismissive.
Next, the brand should figure out a statement. It was noted that it could take about “21 hours [for companies] to defend themselves in any kind of meaningful way.” As we know, certain issues can go viral within an hour, you should move swiftly with your upper management for a statement.
Christina Newberry and Sarah Dawley wrote that the brand should engage not defend. The major difference is the brand is acknowledging that a user has experienced something unpleasant. In that acknowledgement, you apologize and then take it off the public forum, typically moving it to someone’s direct messages.
Think about it, if you acknowledge and apologize, it validates how someone is feeling, even if you don’t agree. Being defensive can make a brand look unfavorable.
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There are many facets to becoming a brand that dominates social media platforms. Betches uses a humorous voice to share relatable content and keep us invested in their posts.
