If It Ain’t Broke, You’re Not Looking Hard Enough

Test and experiment more with your social media, you can improve more than you realise. Let this principle also help other parts of your business.

I remember when I first started using Facebook for business purposes. I’d post several times a day, but with only a few different types of content—perhaps I’d share a thought on a book I was reading and maybe a discussion on the relevancy of a quote.

The engagement was pretty good. I had plenty of return comments and views of others as well as the all-important direct messages asking me for more information. Probably it was the frequency that really made the difference.

But the lesson here is that just because you’re getting a result, it doesn’t mean it’s optimal. It may feel at times that you’re doing well, but that’s a relativistic view.

So I started asking myself—is this all there is, or could I improve? At that time, I’d been in touch with ex-managing director of Amazon UK, Robin Terrell. As I was putting together the interviews for the EightStepStartup.com course, he’d told me, “Richard, always remember: if it ain’t broke, you’re not looking hard enough!” He suggested that when he was building Amazon in the UK at the turn of the century, his early success came from constantly checking where improvements could be found, even if they weren’t obvious.

So naturally, I moved to posting just as frequently, but now trying different types of content. Variable types of images were thrown in. Video became a regular feature, eventually incorporating my twice weekly Facebook Live Q&As as that technology was released. I also experimented with other text-based content, all the while analysing what content appeared to resonate the most with my audience. Where was I really getting interest? What was resulting in leads and sales? Almost instantly, I was seeing a real step-change in results.

So did I stop there? To this day I continue to experiment. Sure, it’s because the results can be improved, but also the technology changes from time to time, the audience changes too, and I also evolve in my views and objectives.

But this goes beyond how you should employ Facebook, for example. It’s the way you should look at all facets of your business too. Strike a balance—though constant reorientation of the minutiae will likely impact on your ability to get things done. So ask yourself—are you getting a ‘result’ without testing if a better one isn’t achievable?