The 9-to-5 social media team is outdated
Social media is a 24-hour game, so it makes no sense for the people controlling your social strategy to be logging off at 5pm each weekday. Emily Hills, founder of The Social Media Coach, argues that online traffic activity doesn’t neatly jibe with the 9 to 5.
When was the last time your social media team posted something outside of 9 to 5? Or responded to a community comment on a Saturday night? If your answer is rarely, or never, you’re not alone. Most in-house teams and agencies alike are built around a traditional workday. But the platforms we manage? They never close.
Consumer data tells us that peak social media usage doesn’t conveniently fall between 9am and 5pm. It surges in the early morning hours during commute time, spikes again after dinner, and often hums with engagement well into the night. Weekends are prime time for browsing and buying. And yet, many social media teams are only staffed during office hours.
It’s time to call this what it is: a disconnect. And in today’s attention economy, where brands fight to capture a scroll, that disconnect can cost you relevance, reach, and ultimately, revenue.
Ai never sleeps!
“Social media has outgrown its old operating model. It’s no longer the intern’s job or a lunchtime afterthought, it’s a core part of the marketing machine that deserves the resources and structure to perform at its best.”
Resources. Most companies don’t have the resources to be paying a team of people to work different shifts to do social media!
If you want contact out of hours at weird times on social media you’re going to have to pay up for this – and it costs more to have people working 9pm-5am than 9am-5pm you know – and especially on weekends.
Most companies don’t have that type of money lying around.
Guess it all depends on who and where your market is.
Yep, make sure your business is unendingly pumping out content so you can race to the bottom of nothingness. Great idea to push your staff to work non-stop as well, super healthy for everyone involved!