Raw & Unpolished: When to Go Low-Fi With Your Social Media
Forget everything you thought you knew about creating content for social media...
Just kidding! This idea isn’t new, and isn’t meant to make you stop putting in effort into your social media content. But increasingly, we are seeing situations and cases where more raw and unpolished content can be very effective for brands wanting to get attention.
Broader trends across social media, including the shift toward more video and amateur-creator-driven content, have ushered in an age of low-fi, longer-form video content. These types of posts get some of the best engagement across most platforms, and for the right pieces of content, can significantly boost views and reach.
Let’s look at some potential cases where your company should (or shouldn’t) break from your usual standards and consider a simpler, unpolished type of post or digital ad.
When it works
Assuming your company has strong brand standards, a robust social media strategy, and is generally following best practices, it can be daunting and hard to know when to break the rules.
One of the best and most natural entry points to low-fi brand posts is when responding to something negative, critical, or even just timely. If you have received a negative-but-unwarranted comment on a previous post, or a bad review that isn’t legitimate, it can be a chance to grab attention by posting a screenshot and then having your CEO (or other spokesperson) respond with humour and helpful education.
In this case, the context – responding to something negative, incorrect and timely – makes the unpolished nature of the post make sense. Your followers will understand that this is a break from your regularly scheduled programming, and the post becomes all the more interesting for it, without detracting from your overall brand and professionalism.
Now, what I’ve been describing is a response to comments, reviews or other criticism which is off-base and warrants a correction or a joke, but this format also works for legitimate apologies. If your brand finds itself having to admit to a mistake, address real concerns, or something else challenging, a raw and straightforward video of your spokesperson talking to the camera is often the best way to go.
Another use case for a less-polished post is when jumping on trends. Being quick and timely is a huge part of a successful trend-chasing post, and your followers will again understand the raw nature of a post that clearly had to be made quickly in order to capture the moment. The recent set of fast food burger-tasting videos, starting with the CEO of McDonalds, is an example of this; brands that got on it quickly did well, and those who waited too long and made anything too polished did not.
Why it works
In addition to (generally) being more timely, these raw and unpolished posts are an opportunity to humanize your brand, showing the real people behind the company. The content also looks more like what a user is seeing from their friends and favourite influencers rather than from other brands, which helps draw people in from the start.
To capitalize on these natural benefits, it’s best to involve senior leadership (like your CEO) and show real people from your company wherever possible. And when it’s not possible or doesn’t make sense, consider using a format that feels casual and familiar to your followers, like a screenshot from a notes app with no fancy design elements added.
Rules of engagement
While there are no established rules in this space, experts suggest keeping these types of posts below 20% of your total social media content. Even if they become your best-performing post format, resist the temptation to go back to that well too often.
For ads, it’s a different story. Raw and unpolished content – video or otherwise – can make for effective digital ads using some of the same principles as feed posts, and don’t necessarily have to be balanced by other types of ads. However, you still want to avoid ad fatigue, so if you are running a campaign using this style of content, consider making a few versions or altering the creative in some way every week or two.
In all cases, something to remember is that “raw” doesn’t mean low-quality. You still want your followers and viewers to be able to understand your message and take whatever action you are hoping for. Good-quality audio for any voices, working links and good copy are all still important.
As with many things, it’s important to know the rules and why they exist before trying to break them. Best practices exist for a reason, and you can think outside the box without leaving them behind entirely.
We can help
Social media strategy and content creation are our bread and butter. It can be daunting to do this work on your own, and time-consuming to create new types of content.
At Starling Social, we help brands and nonprofits of all sizes develop social media strategies and run accounts day-to-day using a combination of solid best practices and sharp creativity. Get in touch today to book a free discovery call – we would love to help you navigate this world and get more out of your social media and digital marketing.
