Thread by @tobydoyhowell

1/ Ten days ago, I sent out the below tweet

Today, I'm going to expand on what I meant

a thread on the advantages and drawbacks of a "non-strategy" on twitter

2/ THERE ARE BENEFITS TO A NON-STRATEGY

Namely, it's easy to convey voice

since it's just me tweeting and not a committee or a team

and since I write for the newsletter as my main job

the MB voice that people have come to appreciate comes out very naturally

3/ What is a non-strategy?

in my case it means, i tweet whatever i feel like, whenever i feel like it

there are no content meetings

just on the fly iterations and minimal oversight

the best setup for a pure "voice" play on a brand account

4/ How did we get here?

with zero branded social media experience

and a small overall team at the Brew

i ended up running the account like it was my own personal account

again awesome for developing a brand voice

5/ It's easy to be very plugged in

when you have a non-strategy it allows you to react much quicker to the social landscape

I can jump in on any social trend, and take it in whatever direction makes sense for us

that is invaluable for coming across as authentic

6/ Less pressure

again, running social is a side gig for me, not technically my "real" responsibility at the Brew

that allowed me to approach it as a fun diversion

which ultimately showed up in the voice and content of our tweets

but....there are drawbacks

7/ DRAWBACKS OF A NON-STRATEGY

It's really hard when multiple stakeholders get involved

the Brew's sales team has begun to reach out about monetizing social

and for that, you HAVE to plan stuff out

8/ I struggle with the planning part

especially when it has consequences for our ad biz, which is the Brew's main revenue source

it requires less spontaneous ideation

more deliberate strategizing

(which makes it feel more like a full time job)

9/ We are also not a meme account

posting rando ( but smart) finance memes is part of the Brew's social DNA

but it shouldn't be our only DNA

been trying to figure out how to mix more news content in, which is hard because that content doesn't get as much engagement

10/ Our numbers are down

in May, June, and July, the Brew added ~10K followers a month

just crazy crazy growth

August we're on track for only 5K or so

that has been weighing on me a bit

11/ I like home runs

its part of the nature of the job, but i get antsy when we don't have a homerun tweet for awhile

we havent gone "viral" more often even as our followers have increased

i know virality is a fickle beast, but i still strive for it

and keep coming up short

12/ Multiple franchises need more attention

this has been the toughest thing to juggle

we have 4 other franchises on social

@bizcasualpod
@etechbrew
@Retail_Brew
@MarketingBrew

and we don't cross promote them well

because that requires a strategy

13/ FINAL THOUGHTS

this thread was prompted a little by @mkobach's strat threads from his work at @fast

it gave me an "oh shit" moment where i realized developing a strategy is not an attack on authenticity/voice

14/ The voice will stay the same

I remain committed to the idea that the Brew social voice is our most important asset and should not change

and off-the-cuff tweeting is a huge part of that

that part of the non-strategy will never leave

15/ But, I'm working on a strategy

going forward, expect to see better cross promotion between @MorningBrew and @bizcasualpod

also expect to see some branded social content with some awesome partners on the horizon

16/ I'm nervous for these next steps

but ultimately they are going to be net positive

hope you enjoyed this peak behind the Brew content curtain

can't wait to share more going forward

P.S. we are still hiring for a social media writer and my DM's are open