Over the past couple of days, I’ve been reminded why we shouldn’t rely on relative time-based words and phrases like “today,” “tomorrow,” or “next week” when posting on social media.
Why, you ask? Because I’m just now seeing #GivingTuesday posts from a variety of organizations — some of which I support and actively engage with on social platforms. Here are just a couple of examples:
We can clearly see that they were posted five days ago, yet they appeared in my feed today.
As arts organizations, much of our social media content is time-sensitive — especially when we’re promoting a show or exhibition, or other program. When posting, remember these things:
- Be sure to include the date(s) of the event in every post.
- Don’t expect that people will see your content the day you post it.
- Remember that even those who like/follow your page won’t necessarily see your content at all.
- Keep in mind that most people won’t see every post in your campaign.
- Include a link to the event landing page on your website in every post.
Related to this issue of relative dates is the matter of location.
All too often I see social media posts where the location of the event, or whatever’s being promoted/reported on, is not easily discerned from the post and there are times when it’s been nearly impossible to find out. There’s an assumption on the part of the post creator that everyone who will see the post knows them and where they are. This becomes important with livestreams once time zones are involved.
Thank you. So true! I was just about to write about this same issue. Especially on Facebook there is often no information displayed about venues/cities.