Climbing and social media marketing have more in common than you think.

Trying and occasionally failing are part of the process and the only way to improve.

Social media and rock climbing both involve a certain amount of risk. Some of the most talked-about social media wins of the past decade are unexpected, like Steak-Umm being the voice of reason during the pandemic or Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s absolute feral sense of humor. On paper these ideas look risky.

What do fish shoes have to do with wildlife conservation?

The social media geniuses behind the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation lead with humor but keep you hooked with the outdoor education.

These are examples of social media strategies that work. I’m not going to look for examples that flopped because:

1. I’m not a jerk.

2. Trying something and failing is a necessary part of growth.

You can plan, edit and do as much as possible to mitigate the risks, but sometimes what feels like a good idea…isn’t.

So back to my rock-climbing metaphor. Staying on the ground and playing it safe in social media won’t get you anywhere. It’s boring. You can sit at your desk writing boring posts which are technically correct, inoffensive and without consequence. Unless you already have killer engagement, you’re never going to break through the noise to reach a new audience without trying something new. That takes trial, error and yes occasional failure. Just like in climbing, trying harder strategies and failing only makes you stronger as a social media manager.

Sometimes the rock crumbles out from under you

The social media landscape is constantly changing. Sometimes you’ll have a beautifully written, timely, perfect post planned. Then something major happens in the world (and when isn’t something major happening in the world?). If you catch the news story early you can pause your social media. Even if you hit publish, the post will probably get lost. If your content is too timely to reuse, that brilliant post will never hit anyone’s newsfeed. Even if your post never leaves the drafts folder, you grew as a social media manager through that process.

The only way up is to keep going!

Even with falls and mishaps, the only way to continue to improve and grow as a communicator is to keep going. You can’t let one failed strategy dictate your business’s social media for the rest of time. You regroup, rethink, reanalyze the sequences, learn from your mistake and go back up to where you fell. Again. And again, if necessary. Eventually you’ll figure out what’s needed to communicate through your problem and get to a high point you haven’t reached before.

Then with the next project, you start the process all over again, this time stronger and smarter.