Twelve years of marketing, tested in public, one post at a time.

Businesses need to work themes into their social media marketing.

It starts by identifying what the themes of your business are. In a film, themes are most often attributed to the hero and the villain and perhaps a love theme if there’s a love interest. In business, our themes typically revolve around the services we provide and, more importantly, the issues we solve for people.

Your social posts and channels should be filled with content that speak to specific issues or news events within your industry, but if you’re able to identify a small number of specific themes, and include them in all that you’re posting in some way, that will bring an incredible level of focus to your social media and marketing.

That will also provide you with a framework within which to plan each month’s activity. That kind of planning is a key part of the social media planner I have available for sale.

What Makes a Good Social Media Theme?

Emotional Connection to Themes

First, it should be something that both you and your customers can have an emotional connection to. This is why, for businesses, themes will usually be less about a specific service or product, and more about a specific need that is addressed.

In a former life, I worked for a pool and spa company in Ohio called Litehouse. The marketing for Litehouse, at least at the time, was outstanding, if traditional. Radio and Television and print ads were used to attract and educate consumers. What made them great was that the ads all carried themes of “family fun.” Don’t buy this pool because it looks great or is a good deal; buy this pool because of the amazing family time you’ll be able to have in your backyard all summer! The theme and the ads actually supported entire lines of products, including pools, outdoor furniture, gazebos, toys and more. So the theme wasn’t about a specific product or service, rather, it was about the emotional connection parents would make to the idea of providing a fun, safe, family environment in their backyard.

Sustainable Themes

Another important consideration is that your theme must be sustainable. You need to be able to write about it and reference it over and over. The summer fun and family themes worked for Litehouse year after year. In the Fall and Winter months, we sold spas and pool tables and Christmas trees, so the themes changed somewhat, but were still sustainable.

Theme Development

The final consideration to your themes is that they must develop over time. We must create content that takes our readers on a journey and educates them. And one of the most important reasons for writing is to educate yourself and bring clarity to your own thoughts, so the added benefit is that our themes and ideas should change and develop in our own minds and business as well.

Weave your themes into your blog posts and the eBooks that you create for targeted customers to download. Reference your themes in your social media activity and in as much of your traditional advertising and marketing as possible. Look for creative ways to integrate your business themes into all of your communications and watch your marketing achieve a greater level of focus.

I hope you got something from today’s Marketing Minutes with Mike. But whether you did or didn’t, leave a comment and let me know. Just please be nice, my mom reads these too. Cheers!

About Mike Allton

Mike Allton is a practitioner, not a futurist - founder of The AI Hat, which runs on a Digital Crew of his own.
He helps teams clear the Admin Drag burying their best people - redesigning the work first, then building a Digital Crew of AI agents to take the busywork.
He is the host of The AI Hat Podcast and a keynote speaker who works the rooms he teaches - from national sales meetings to insurance and Medicare distribution conferences.
He also helps organizations bring Shadow AI into the light through governance and training.