This edited excerpt is from “The 10 Principles of Effective Social Media Marketing” by Jon-Stephen Stansel ©2025 and is reproduced and adapted with permission from Kogan Page Ltd.
People log into social networks to hear from people, not from brands. They want to connect with their friends, families, and communities. They want to see content that relates to their interests and passions, and speaks to them in some way.
If your post sounds like it was written by a committee of businesspeople and then edited by a team of lawyers, before being approved by your board, no one is going to pay attention – much less purchase your product.
If you want to connect with humans, you need to speak like a human.
Creating Human-Centered Content
This is all well and good, but what does it mean to “be human” on social media? We are all human. How can we be anything else?
While most marketers will have their own definitions of what these two terms mean to them, for the purposes of this book, here are mine:
Human content: Social media content that speaks with a real human voice and not one that sounds like corporate speak or legalese. It speaks to its audience and not at them in a voice that is clear, easy to understand, and unafraid to show emotion or opinion.
Authentic content: Social media content that is true to the voice of the brand speaking. It doesn’t pander, change drastically, or try to be something it’s not, but rather fully embraces its identity and doesn’t shy away from it.
Why are these things important? Because people connect with people they trust. If your brand sounds like every post was written by committee, then run through multiple departments for approval, and then rewritten by legal, the connection is lost. And if your brand tries to be something it’s not, your audience will smell it out from miles away and not be shy about telling you what they think of it.
But if you are human and authentic, something almost magical happens. Your audience stops thinking of you as a brand trying to sell them something and starts thinking of you as a trusted connection.
Create Content For Audiences, Not Algorithms
If there is one evergreen rule of social media algorithms, it’s this: Social media algorithms favor content that keeps users on the platform longer. This only makes sense. Social media platforms are not in the business of helping your business for free. They are in the business of providing eyeballs for paid advertising.
In this respect, social media platforms aren’t that different from old-school broadcast television networks. If audiences find your content interesting and it keeps users on the platform longer, the algorithm will move it to prime time by placing it in the feeds of more users. But if your content fails to keep users on the platform, as demonstrated by view time and engagement, the algorithm will stop showing it.
Trying to tailor all your content to fit the whims of the social media algorithms is at best a Sisyphean task, because even if you somehow master it, the algorithms will change again, and you’ll be back to square one.
So, what’s a frustrated social media manager to do?
I propose that we all stop worrying about and focusing so much time and attention on social media algorithms and instead, put that energy into creating content that appeals to our target audience. Too many social media managers are creating content for the algorithms and not the audiences they serve. This leads to content that is homogenous, bland, and boring.
You can’t paint-by-numbers your way to social media success. The algorithm is out of your control, and focusing too much on pleasing the algorithm often means you are not focusing enough on pleasing your audience.
After all, we are making content for humans, not algorithms.
Avoid The Hard Sell
No one opens Facebook or any other social network on their phone hoping to be sold to. They are there to see updates from family and friends, catch up on the news, or learn more about the things that interest them – and your posts just happen to be alongside those things. So, if you try to sell them your product with every post, demanding that they “Buy now!” like some old-school infomercial pitchman, your content is going to get ignored.
We must never fail to remember that, as brands, we are at best only guests in our audience’s social media feeds and at worst we are intruders. We can’t lose sight of the fact that by following our brands, users are granting us the privilege of showing up in their social media feeds each day. We abuse this privilege at our peril. When we only share self-promotional, hard-sell content, we are being poor guests.
But when we show up with content that is entertaining, educational, human, and personable, we become the type of guests that our followers are eager to invite into their social media feeds and tell their friends about as well. We must always be respectful and mindful of the fact that, by following us, our audience has granted us a privilege that we must continue to earn with each post – lest they decide to kick us out by pressing the unfollow button.
Know Your Audience
You can’t speak to your audience if you don’t listen to them first. What are their likes and dislikes, challenges, frustrations, interests, etc.? Do they skew older or younger? Male or female? Liberal or conservative? Urban or rural? Do a deep dive into your audience. If you can, hang out in the places they are online. Join the Facebook groups they are in. Scroll the subreddits they post on. Read the comments on the YouTube videos they watch. You might even consider going undercover and creating burner accounts to join their Facebook groups and Discord servers to see what they are talking about.
This is a lot easier if you run social media for a sports team or film franchise where fan groups and subreddits abound, but every industry has a community, and just because a community might be small, it doesn’t mean it can’t be loud about voicing its thoughts and opinions. Seriously – there are online communities for people who like scented candles. They are called “fandles,” and if they have groups dedicated to their interest, your brand has people out there dedicated to your industry. Find them and listen to them. These communities may not be as large as those for film franchises or sports teams, but they are no less passionate.
Take the time to learn about your audience: their likes and dislikes, their inside jokes, the language they use or avoid. Get to know their community and the leaders in it. You’ll quickly find that’s worth the effort.
Interact With Your Followers
Unlike television, print, or radio, users can talk back. And by creating and maintaining social media accounts for your brand, you are telling your customers that you want them to do so. If you don’t reply and interact with them, it’s like if you posted your phone number on billboards all around town but never picked up the phone when it rang. Eventually, people are just going to stop calling.
While you don’t need to reply to every single comment you receive, you should make an effort to engage with as many comments as possible and do so in language that is clear, friendly, and conversational, not stilted, reserved, and corporate. Remember that you are a human talking to other humans. It’s social media, not a board meeting.
Remember The Real Reason People Share Content
Here’s a secret most people forget about social media marketing. People don’t share content to help your brand. They share content to say something about themselves. They want to tell their friends and followers that they are the kind of person who has a certain type of humor, cares about certain issues, is interested in certain things. They share content that helps them tell the world who they are. If you help them tell their own story, they will help you tell yours.
If your content tugs at the heartstrings, makes someone chuckle, or teaches your audience something new, they are more likely to share it because it resonates with them and helps them better represent themselves online – not because they want to help your brand get the word out about a new product. No one shares the ad for a used car lot that demands you buy today before the deal ends. But the ad that makes them laugh or cry? That’s the one they share with their friends.
Be Willing To Poke Fun At Yourself
Authenticity requires a certain amount of vulnerability, and for brands, that’s terrifying. No one wants to draw attention to their own flaws and weaknesses, but for brands, often some self-deprecating humor can have the opposite effect. Acknowledging your flaws can often deflect criticism and help your brand to come across as self-aware – which is a very human trait.
When onboarding new clients, one of the first questions I often ask is, “What about your brand – are you okay with making fun of it?” And while this might be seen as a risky question to ask new clients, it’s a profoundly important one. The answer tells you a lot about a brand and how it perceives itself versus how its audience perceives it.
Once you know where a brand’s limits are, you can use self-deprecating humor to help humanize your brand. Start small, maybe by referencing a flaw you are comfortable with making fun of in a reply to a comment or question, then try it out on a post on your main feed. Measure the response from your followers carefully and use your best judgment.
Share User-Generated Content (Ethically)
Sharing user-generated content provides several advantages for brands. Not only does it save them time creating content themselves, often your audience will come up with ideas for content that you may have never thought of. Not only that, sharing content from your followers adds both humanity and authenticity to your social media efforts.
These posts come from real people who actually use your product and are giving their honest view of it. While you might vet what content you choose to share, the posts you are sharing are coming from real people and not filtered through corporate bureaucracy. The content feels real and trustworthy because it’s coming from a real place.
Additionally, by sharing user-generated content, you are encouraging followers to create more of their own content. As your followers see the user-generated content you share, they will be encouraged to create their own in hopes that you will share their content as well. Content begets more content.
You can even encourage user-generated content on print materials, packaging, and at your physical locations. Just a simple message with “Share your experience on social media! Tag [insert your social handle here]” can go a long way to get followers to post themselves using your product or in your store.
However, there are a few important things to keep in mind when sharing user-generated content.
First, be sure to vet those you share content from. Before reaching out to them, do a brief check of their social accounts to make sure they are someone you want to associate your brand with. If they post a lot of inflammatory content, conspiracy theories, or racy photos, you may want to think twice before sharing their content.
And while you might want to repost that tweet about how much someone loves your product, also be sure to check their username before hitting that repost button. The last thing you want to do is share a post from someone calling themselves @puppyhater42069.
You might also consider sending some free product or promotional merchandise to those you share content from. Not only is this a good way to thank them, but it could also lead to more content from them as well. That $25 you spent sending them a t-shirt is well worth the post they eventually make of them wearing it, right?
Chances are, your customers are already creating content about your brand, so why not put it to use?
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