Social Media for the Fringe

Posted on by Zach Billings
Categories: Social Media Case Studies

As we wrote about just last week, social media is one of the most important ranking factors in all of SEO. You need to create interesting content and then you need to syndicate that content across all of your social networks, creating a web of followers that boosts your overall brand. This is easy if you’re in certain verticals, like an automotive dealership or a fashion company, but it can be a real challenge when you’re, say, a proctologist. It begs the question, we know we need social media for business, but do we need it for EVERY business?

Honestly, I believe that there is no industry that cannot benefit from a social media presence, it’s all about the approach. When you have a strange, fringe industry, there are two ways you can go. One is easy and one is hard, but the hard one will ultimately have a much larger effect on your business.

METHOD 1: PLAY IT STRAIGHT

With this method, you ignore the awkwardness of your industry. This would be the ideal approach for the comic above. Sure, it’s a little funny to be a butt doctor, but to embrace that humor undermines your authority as a medical professional. In this case, you’d do well to post things like medical articles, health reminders, and maybe the occasional medical-related comic. Keep it pretty straight and you avoid the risk of becoming an internet joke.

METHOD 2: EMBRACE THE STRANGE

The second method is a lot riskier, but the potential reward is high. With this method, you take your strange or funny industry and just run with it. Make your social media presence THE place for weird news. A single well-played social media post or ad can go viral and change your business forever. Of course, you run the risk of losing credibility, so this method is only for those who can pull off that kind of walk-the-line humor.

For a great example of method 2, check out the video below.

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