What really bangs on organic social in 2026?
Sure, getting engagement on social media is hard without budget… but my new typology of successful organic content seeks to help those working in the public sector get maximum return for their work.
A few months ago I was asked to do a ‘review of a review’ for the social media accounts of a national public body. After looking at its data, one of the recommendations I immediately questioned was recommendations on ‘best time to post’.
While this might have been a potential engagement ‘hack’ a few years ago, changes to the algorithim means it has no real relevance today.
Content you produce is served to people - increasingly outside your core Follower base - not in a linear way, but on the basis of their current habits and interests.
And even if this wasn’t the case, it’s all-too-easy to jump on trends where none exist. Thursday at 11am might jump out, but really it’s just a couple of freak outliers skewing the data. Or it could be you post 30% more content on that day; as in football, you take more shots and you’ll score more often.
An exclusive typology of successful organic social media content, developed by Alex Waddington of Whetstone Communications.
Bottom line: other factors matter much more than agonising over these things and trying to hack the system (you won’t).
But what then, Alex, does make a difference? Over the past four years I’ve undertaken around one dozen deep dive social media reviews, analysising many thousands of posts, analytics and metadata. I’ve helped teams understand key success criteria for their content (as well as what doesn’t work).
From all this, I’ve slowly developed what I’ve come to call a Typology for the public sector, which aims to go beyond specific topics (eg ‘recycling bins’) which might be only relevant to certain types of organisation.
I’ve now made it available for everyone to use - drop me a line if you want a PDF version sending to you. I’m really keen to get your feedback - and happy to answer any questions you might have.
