Why We Need Social Media Content Guidelines
The best brands on social aren’t rifling through a PDF of brand rules before they post.
Ryanair troll their own customers. Surreal Cereal went viral on LinkedIn by giving away a free sex toy with breakfast. Traditional brand guidelines aren’t built for this world.
Social media doesn’t follow the rules of your brand bible. It’s chaotic, reactive, emotional, disposable, DIY and above all, human. On social, the idea wins, not the polish.
Yet most social teams are still shackled to guidelines designed for TV ads, billboards, and About Us pages. The result? A stream of overly polished posts that stick out like a beautifully lit sore thumb in feeds full of friends and creators.
I invite you to play a game the next time you open your TikTok, Insta & LinkedIn:
Scroll through your feed and see how quickly you can spot a piece of content is an ad. Unless the ad is good, it will be instant. You’ll find yourself scrolling past before you’ve had time to figure out who the ad is for.
What social teams need isn’t more rules. It’s better rules.
Guidelines that reflect how people actually scroll and consume. Guidance that starts with a clear purpose: What are we making the brand famous for? That gives people a strong POV: what are we for, what are we against? And crucially, one that doesn’t try to please everyone. If you’re for everyone, you’re for no one.
Great social content needs permission to play. The best-performing brands are the ones where social teams are trusted to experiment, supported by clear creative guardrails and leadership buy-in (and the cool kids in legal). Without that? You end up with content that’s brand-safe and audience-ignored.
Social, at its best, is powered by two forces: the niche and the novel.
The niche pulls people deeper into your world. Take Craighill. They’ve turned everyday objects into objects of desire for design lovers. Their posts aren’t just aesthetically consistent. They’re emotionally intentional. They stand against disposable design, for craft, thoughtfulness, and enduring form. You don’t just see their content. You feel what they believe in.
It’s not just what they post. It’s how they make people feel. You know a Craighill post when you see it because it’s full of intention, not just design consistency. Their social guidelines (explicit or not) centre around evoking desire through craft, form, and simplicity.
Then there’s novelty. Nobody does it better than Ryanair. Their social guidelines?
- Stay front of mind so they are the go-to when people book flights
- Lower expectations to reduce complaints.
From memes about mid-air seating to roasting their own service, they play on social to great effect.
These brands both work on social because they’ve got clarity of purpose and room to experiment. That’s the foundation of any great social strategy. It’s what lets you flex the rules, adapt your tone, and know when to lean into a trend or sit it out.
Social content should always serve a purpose. If you get it right, the rewards can be huge. Organic social can drive a huge number of free impressions and drive positive brand affinity if you get the content right.
You have to remember social is about me (the audience), not you (the brand). They are there to waste time, be entertained and be creative (or to send hate mail to prominent celebrities). You need to fit that mindset.
So don’t tell me what the brand wants to say. Make me feel something I want to feel. That’s how you earn attention.
And no brand guidelines doc can do that for you.
