What is the 80/20 Rule in Social Media? (2024)

The 80/20 rule is a guideline that suggests that 80% of your social media content should be focused on topics that are relevant to your brand, while only 20% should be dedicated to promoting your brand or products.

The theory behind the 80/20 rule is that by providing valuable, interesting information most of the time, you will build trust and credibility with your audience. They will then be more likely to pay attention when you do promote something, whether it’s one of your products or a piece of content from a partner.

Of course, this ratio is just a guideline, and you’ll need to experiment to see what works best for you and your audience. But if you’re looking for a starting point, the 80/20 rule is a good place to begin.

Benefits of using the 80/20 ratio in social media

  1. Helps you focus your content strategy: When you know that you only need to post 20% of original content, it helps you focus your content strategy and creates a sense of urgency to produce quality over quantity.
  2. Increases Engagement: Studies have shown that users are more likely to engage with content that is native to the platform (i.e. 80% of content being shared vs. 20% original content).
  3. Better Time Management: By adhering to the 80/20 rule, you can better manage your time spent on social media since you will be creating less content overall.
  4. More Focused Audience: When most of your content is shared or curated from other sources, you are more likely to attract a focused audience that is interested in the topics you are sharing.
  5. Increased ROI: Since you are spending less time creating original content, you can allocate more resources towards other marketing initiatives that will generate a higher return on investment.

Why you should use the 80/20 ratio in social media

When it comes to social media, there are a lot of different strategies that businesses can use to get the most out of their efforts. However, one strategy that is often overlooked is the 80/20 ratio.

The 80/20 ratio simply means that you should focus 80% of your social media content on providing value to your audience, and only 20% on promoting your products or services.

There are a few reasons why this ratio is so important. First, it ensures that your content is interesting and informative. If all you ever do is promote your own stuff, people will quickly get bored and tune you out.

Second, it helps build trust with your audience. If they see that you’re constantly trying to sell them something, they’re not going to be very likely to trust you or do business with you. However, if they see that you’re providing valuable content, they’ll be more likely to trust you and listen to what you have to say.

Finally, using the 80/20 ratio can help you save time and money. If you’re only focused on promoting your own stuff, you’re going to spend a lot of time and money creating ads and other content that may not even reach your target audience. However, if you focus on providing value first, you can use that content to attract people to your products and services, which can save you time and money in the long run.

So if you’re looking for a social media strategy that can help you save time and money, while also building trust with your audience, be sure to use the 80/20 ratio. It’s a simple but effective way to get the most out of your social media efforts.

How to Implement the 80/20 Ratio in Your Social Media

When it comes to social media, the 80/20 ratio means that you should spend 80% of your time creating content and only 20% of your time promoting it. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but it actually makes a lot of sense.

Think about it this way: if you spend all of your time promoting your content, then you’re not spending any time creating new content. And if you’re not creating new content, then you’ll eventually run out of things to promote. On the other hand, if you spend most of your time creating content, you’ll always have something new to promote, and your promotion efforts will be much more effective.

So how can you implement the 80/20 ratio in your social media activity? Here are a few ideas:

– Schedule time for content creation: Set aside some time each day or each week specifically for creating new content. This will ensure that you’re never too busy to create new content.

– Automate your promotion: Use social media scheduling tools to automate your content promotion. This way, you can set it and forget it, and you’ll still be promoting your content even when you’re not actively doing it yourself.

– Delegate or outsource promotion: If you’re finding that you don’t have enough time to promote your content yourself, consider delegating or outsourcing this task. There are plenty of people and companies who can help you with content promotion, so you don’t have to do it all yourself.

By following these tips, you can easily implement the 80/20 ratio in your social media activity and see better results from your efforts.

Social Media Marketing from Lift Digital Marketing

If you’re looking to create a killer social media marketing strategy that’ll have you generating leads and consistently attracting new potential customers, contact Lift Digital today. We have experience marketing businesses of all shapes, sizes, and industries. Get in touch to find out what Lift Digital can do for you.

What is the 80/20 Rule in Social Media? (1)

Author:Aaron Welch

https://aaronmwelch.com

I Help Businesses Increase Their Marketing ROI Through Marketing Strategy, Using Analytics, and Search, Social, & Content Marketing

What is the 80/20 Rule in Social Media? (2024)

FAQs

What is the 80/20 Rule in Social Media? ›

It suggests that 80% of your social media content should focus on providing value to your audience — whether educational, entertaining, or problem-solving. Only the remaining 20% should be explicitly promotional.

What are examples of the 80/20 rule? ›

80% of your weekly tasks affect 20% of your future. 80% of grief is caused by 20% of people in your life. 80% of alarms will be set off by 20% of potential causes. 80% of the energy in a combustion engine produces 20% output.

What is the 50 30 20 rule for social media? ›

In general, you'll want to aim for 50% of your posts to engage, 30% to inform, and 20% to promote. Keep reading to learn about the different types of posts and why the 50-30-20 rule is a good guide to follow.

What is the 80-20 rule in Internet? ›

Applied in designing and running a website, we can interpret the 80-20 rule to say that 20% of things on your site would give you 80% of your desired results. What this means is that you should focus on that 20% and really perfect it, instead of spreading yourself thin.

What is the 60 30 10 rule for social media? ›

The 60/30/10 rule states that 60% of the posts you create should be engaging content that gets people reacting, commenting and sharing, 30% should be shared content, and 10% should be promoting your products & services, sales, events, etc.

What is the 80 20 mindset? ›

The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In other words, a small percentage of causes have an outsized effect. This concept is important to understand because it can help you identify which initiatives to prioritize so you can make the most impact.

What is the 80-20 rule for dummies? ›

The Pareto (pronounced pah reh taw) Principle states that most of the time 20 percent of invested input is responsible for 80 percent of the results obtained. Put another way, 80 percent of effects or consequences come from 20 percent of the causes.

What is the 60 40 rule in social media? ›

The approach I've found to be the most advantageous is the 60-40 rule: 60% effort in your interactive network and 40% of all others. THE 60% RULE – This involves an assertive, interactive, well-designed networking strategy.

What is the 40 40 20 rule social media? ›

The dictum is that 40 percent of your direct marketing success is dependent on your audience, another 40 percent is dependent on your offer, and the last 20 percent is reserved for everything else, including how the material is presented.

What is the 80/20 rule in social media content strategy? ›

The idea is pretty simple, of all your social media content, 80% of it should give value to your client and only 20% should ask for something from them. That might sound counterintuitive at first glance, but trust us, it works!

What is the new 80-20 rule? ›

A Brief Background on the 80/20 Rule

Under the 80/20 rule, employers lose the tip credit for the time spent performing non-tipped side work if an employee spent more than 20% of their time performing tasks like rolling silverware into napkins, cleaning and setting tables, and making coffee.

How to apply 80/20 rule in life? ›

Steps to apply the 80/20 Rule
  1. Identify all your daily/weekly tasks.
  2. Identify key tasks.
  3. What are the tasks that give you more return?
  4. Brainstorm how you can reduce or transfer the tasks that give you less return.
  5. Create a plan to do more that brings you more value.
  6. Use 80/20 to prioritize any project you're working on.
Mar 29, 2020

What's the 80/20 rule in relationships? ›

The 80/20 relationship theory states that you can only get about 80% of your wants and needs from a healthy relationship, while the remaining 20% you need to provide for yourself. Sounds like the perfect excuse to treat yourself to a spa day. This idea of an 80/20 time split is nothing new.

What is the 70 20 10 rule social? ›

70% of Facebook posts should be proven content that supports building your brand. 20% should be content from others, such as promoting another's business or sharing interesting articles written by another and tagging. 10% should be call-to-action in nature such as sales, discounts, introduction on new offerings, etc.

What is the new social media rule? ›

As per the new government rule, all users who have not accessed their social media accounts in the last three years or have not made any posts through these accounts may face permanent closure by the government.

What is the 10 4 1 social media strategy? ›

The basics behind the 10:4:1 rule is that for every fifteen posts on social media, ten will be of other industry expert's content, four will be your own content, and one will be a call to action. Let's dive into each of these a little deeper.

What is the 80/20 rule diet example? ›

If you're aiming for 80 percent of your diet to come from fresh and unprocessed whole foods, why not treat yourself with up to 20 percent of your favorite treats? For someone targeting 1500 calories a day that means you'd use about 1200 calories for healthy, nutritious meals and 300 calories for your treat.

What is the 80-20 rule success list? ›

Prioritize the vital few: Identify the top 20% of tasks that yield 80% of the results. Focus on these tasks and allocate more time and resources to them. This approach allows you to concentrate on the most critical and impactful activities that drive your success.

How do you visualize the 80-20 rule? ›

The Pareto chart is a visual representation of the 80-20 rule, featuring a bar + line chart. The bars represent the value of each item on your list (arranged in descending order), and the line indicates the cumulative percentage of those values.

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