Blake Dowling: Getting social in 2022

Who remembers their first social media post?

Perhaps taking 20 minutes to load a picture to Myspace in 2007 — and being super pumped about it? That was my experience.

Then, I stepped away from social media until 2009 and jumped on the Facebook train.

Trends in social media are interesting to look at over time. I went from daily personal posts to (maybe) weekly on Facebook.

At our office, the trend is reversed: We now post something once a day on the Aegis Facebook page. Before that, it was only sparingly.

Our company went with targeted and sponsored posts for a bit but returned to an organic approach to our digital and social strategy.

Back in 2009, I created the @AegisSales handle for Twitter — I was director of sales for the business at the time. Good thing I chose to make this my life’s work, as I have put in a lot of miles on that platform (and handle) and still use it today.

In fact, I just crossed 10,000 tweets, according to the data.

Social frequency is interesting, but so is the subject matter. Most of us have been through various phases of social media: The look-at-me-I-am-traveling phase, selfie phase, food pic phase, pic with celeb phase, posts-no-one-likes-but-you phase, comedy phase, business success phase, rant phase, political share-too-much phase (see rant phase), family pics phase, new car/house phase, I-am-now-a-nature-lover phase, look-I-went-to-the-gym-once-this-year phase, etc.

Some people (and businesses) are certainly more interesting than others with their messaging.

Back to July 13, 2009, this image below was my first Facebook post.

Our company won an award for best technology company from the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and the Tallahassee Democrat used a photo of me accepting the award on the front page. It’s also interesting when the intersection of personal and professional collide, as mine does as the CEO of a small business.

I share plenty of stuff personally about the business, although I try to keep it within a reasonable amount.

What do the experts have to say about posting frequency?

Alex Patton, owner of Ozean Media in Florida says:

“I think for a brand manager, assuming most companies aren’t willing to play in the controversial realm, one must post often as time allows.

“They must embrace engagement by posting, responding, post on OTHERS links, post, comments. The purpose is to overcome the reduction of organic reach by the platforms.

“As an example, TikTok seems to increase reach for those that post 10 times a day for an extended amount of time (30 or 40 days).

“Who’s got time for that? Or one can post outlandish, crazy, troll-ish BS with less frequency. Both are rewarded.”

Thank you, Alex; you can learn more about Ozean here.

Next, let’s take a tour of Florida for social messaging that is on point.

In the North Florida Twitterverse, Leadership Tallahassee is a constant cheering section for current and past grads. The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s LinkedIn page is always full of solid content on members and positive things going on with the state’s economy, or things to be on the lookout for.

You know who has also been a lot of fun to follow this summer on Instagram? The entire Joan Jett, Poison and Def Leppard Tour.

They are playing in Jacksonville this weekend — so there’s time to get tickets — and selling out stadiums around the nation; pretty cool for these artists as they are still peaking on many levels. Def Leppard is the only band on the tour supporting a new album. Mötley Crüe’s bassist, Nikki Sixx, posted a pic of the busses by the venue, and I commented on the pic with a question: “Are six of those for Motley?”

I assume it would be four for the band, as they prefer to travel separately for various reasons (30 years on the road will make you shank even your best friends, I guess) and two for their crew. He did not answer the question, but he (or a personal assistant) did reply with “24 all in all.”

Kudos to the Crüe for pushing forward their brand with one-on-one fan interaction.

AP reporter Brendan Farrington, whom I do not know personally, but I love his Twitter handle as it is always something positive, even on the saddest of days in our society.

@bsfarrington posted the following:

Speaking of platforms, where are people posting these days?

Facebook continues to be the worldwide goliath with two billion users each month, about 40% of the world. YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok are also up there with Twitter, Reddit, and others way down on the list.

Data shows over 200 million businesses use Facebook tools to promote their brand.

I thought it would be of value to check in with an expert on everything social with Ryan Cohn, partner and executive vice president of Sachs Media, for his thoughts on your business managing all things social in 2022:

“Today’s most trusted brands promote transparency and lift up individual voices to help tell their story — from the visionary leader expressing their purpose to the junior staffer sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses into the company culture.

“Think of each employee as a spokesperson for your brand. Teach them how to authentically talk about who you are and what you do, then empower them to share their wisdom with others.

“This is true online and offline, but especially important given the power and scale of social media.”

Thank you, Ryan. Here’s some more info on our digital media expert.

It’s mind-boggling to think this world of social behavior is less than 20 years old. It continues to amaze and disappoint concurrently, as it’s still in the Wild West phase.

To enhance your experience, make sure you use the tools in place: To block or snooze people for 30 days, adjust settings for ad exposure, report people for bad behavior and more.

You can customize and craft your social time to see content that is valuable to you and your business.

Shoutout to all those mentioned for their on-point social messaging (Florida Chamber), engaging with their audience (Nikki Sixx) and keeping it positive (Farrington).

As for me, I will keep on posting personally and professionally, keeping it civil. No ranting and no name-calling. I don’t think anyone has ever switched opinions on a political issue because of a long Facebook rant, so I will spare the world my opinions on politics, too.

I try to keep it fresh on the office posts and to that end we created this video earlier this summer to celebrate our 25th anniversary. There are cats (no animals were harmed during production, just annoyed), an announcement of our new security operations center, and a tower of adult beverages; that counts as fresh.

See you out there and keep on posting.

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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and host of the Biz & Tech podcast.

Along with the team at Aegis, Blake oversees all corporate social media for the company and can be reached at [email protected].