In an effort to expand my skillset (and avoid yet another Psych rewatch), I enrolled in a product management program and earned a Certificate in Product Management. 

Yeah, a bit of a pivot from social media management and content creation… or was it? Because as I worked through the program, I realized product management has a lot in common with organic social media. 

In fact—walk with me here—I'd go as far to say that organic social media is a product in its own right. 

Meaning that instead of being shoehorned in with paid social media or neglected like a red-headed stepchild, organic social media can (and should!) be developed and supported as any product would, with methodologies and frameworks and resources. 

Don’t believe me? Consider the end user.

One of my favourite things about product/product management is how user-focused it is. Everything is built on solving user problems and providing users value, which resonated with me because it's exactly what drives organic social media/content strategy. In order for organic social content to land, it needs to resonate with an audience; and in order to resonate it needs to be valuable.

Okay, but if organic social and product both have end users, then surely it makes even more sense to shoehorn (er, gently roll) organic social in with paid social/product marketing efforts, right? Wrong. They may both have end users but they don't have the same end users.

Product, marketing, sales, etc: the end user is the customer. 

Organic social media, brand, comms, etc: the end user is the audience. 

And, yes, sure, customers can be part of your audience but that doesn't mean that an audience is made up of only customers. (I dig more into customers versus audience in another blog.) 

Since organic social media has a different end user, then obviously it's got to have different goals, outcomes, measures of success, etc, and obviously it doesn't make sense to include it with any work focused on customer end users.

Obviously. 

The more you think about it, the more sense it makes. 

Organic social media is all about producing content (feature/solution) for our audience (end user) to inspire/educate/provide value/create a sense of belonging (benefit) so they can can confidence and grow/succeed in their shared industry (problem/outcome) and success will predominantly be measured by how engaged and loyal the audience is, plus overall growth of brand awareness (goal). 

Organic social media is even naturally iterative! It's a constant back and forth of ideating and testing content ideas to see how they land with the audience. Most teams are working in one month sprints to produce monthly calendars. They're using feedback loops for continuous learning. They're measuring with data analysis. They're sunsetting content series when they no longer work. 

Okay, organic social media is a product, so what? 

First, it's about perspective. If companies start thinking about organic social media as its own product, then they'll have to start providing it with the same resources and support. It's not just "a handful of tweets, how hard can that be;" it's a product output. 

Second, approaching organic social media with a product development mindset means that the same methodologies and frameworks that shape and drive success and growth for product can do the same for organic social media. 

Both of those lead to the third and maybe most important thing: respect. And that's all social media professionals want at the end of the day. (That, and for Facebook Business Suite to just f*cking work.)