Field Note: Read the Room Before You Post

Social media is about more than keeping your content calendar full

As a business owner, there can be a lot of pressure to keep posting.

You have a promotion.

A new product.

An event.

A sale.

A content calendar telling you that today is “posting day.”

But sometimes the most professional thing you can do is pause and look at what is happening around you.

When a community is dealing with wildfires, evacuation alerts, displaced families, and exhausted emergency crews, the usual promotional message may not land the way it normally would.

That doesn't mean businesses need to disappear from social media.

It means we should consider context.

Before posting, ask:

• Is this appropriate for what's happening in my community right now?

• Am I adding something useful or simply adding more noise?

• Does this need to be posted today?

• Could it wait?

• If I'm participating in a community conversation, am I actually contributing something helpful?
  

Sometimes the answer will be yes.

Sometimes the answer will be:

I'll wait.

That's not bad marketing.

That's awareness.

Being visible doesn't mean you have to be constantly promotional.

And being active on social media doesn't mean inserting your business into every conversation.

Sometimes being a good business owner means recognizing that the community exists beyond your marketing calendar.

Digital Detective Jo's Note

You don't have to stop communicating. Just make sure you're listening before you speak.