This document provides guidance on delivering relevant social media content. It recommends putting on different hats to consider: the corporate or marketing strategy the post is tied to; the target market segment; the target market role; and whether the purpose is customer acquisition, retention, or development. It also advises checking that posts do not raise legal issues, share intellectual property, support the company brand, and are not overly beneficial for competitors. The overall message is to think through strategy, audience, purpose, legal issues and competitive impact to create socially relevant content.

1. How to Deliver Relevant Social Media Content
Before you post anything, put on the following hats:
Corporate or Marketing Strategy
What strategy is this post is tied to? In your attempt to grab any content, are you going to talk about a product that is in end‐of‐life mode – or are you going to talk about a product targeted to
grow 30% in the coming year? If your social media efforts can be tied to a specific strategy, marketing activity, and market segment – you’ll be much more likely to maintain the support of the
C‐suite team, especially when you can introduce some level of metrics proving effectiveness.
Market Segment
While some posts can be generic or for all audiences, the best way to start thinking
relevancy is to target a specific market segment. This will set you on the right path for
creating relative content that will have value.
Market Role
To be even more relevant, target a specific role for the content (engineer, VP of Finance,
etc.). Who specifically in the target segment’s organization is this post meant for?
Identifying a role will help with the following step as well.
Customer Acquisition, Retention or Development
Next think about the purpose of the post. Is it intended to generate a lead, keep a current
customer up to speed, or to move a customer to another level? Most posts will fall into one of
these categories.
Legal:
Are you going to get into any legal
trouble with this post? Example:
Before you “like” a customer’s
maintenance tip, make sure it doesn’t
take your product out of warranty.
IP:
Are you mistakenly sharing intellectual
property? Example: Before you post a
picture of an employee on the factory
floor, check the background of the
picture to make sure you’re not sharing
any proprietary information like a
custom jig or whiteboard with process
information on it.
Branding:
Does this post support the brand and
move it forward? Your company’s
brand should always be top of mind in
everything you do – each social media
post should be no different.
Competitive:
How will the competition react to this
post? You know all your competitors
are following you so make sure you’re
not giving them tons of low hanging
fruit to copy or leverage. With that
said, don’t over think this. You’ve
already put your IP hat on, so you
should be OK.