The Consistency Myth: How HubSpot Breaks Social Media Norms

How often have you come across a post on LinkedIn consisting of a couple of takes from a blog post, along with a link to the post in question?

If you’re an observant modern marketer, you’ve probably lost count by now.

The blog example is the most glaring of what (way too) many B2B marketers do when trying to be consistent on social media, but there are others.

Mindless amplification is another one.

You’ve probably seen this many times too, for example, when a brand uses its logo and tagline as a watermark in every single post, to be “consistent”.

Or when a brand posts a graphic using the same creative template on the same day of the week, or when it responds to a comment on TikTok in the same way it would respond over email.

Needless to say, these are low-effort attempts at consistency that turn out lifeless.

Needless to say, the examples above show a wrong approach to social media consistency, which raises a few important questions:

• What is social media consistency, actually?
• Why are so many companies falling for the wrong approach?
• How to be consistent on social media?

To answer these questions, we’ll refer to one of the best-performing B2B social media strategies ever, and the company (and people) behind it: HubSpot.

What is social media consistency?

In theory, social media consistency refers to maintaining a coherent presence across different social platforms in terms of content, posting frequency, brand voice, and visuals.
In practice, there can be a downside to taking this principle too literally. Brands end up publishing the same content across their platforms, blogs, newsletters, and so on.

Effective? Not quite.

Boring? Almost always.

Falling for repetition to achieve frequency milestones might be tempting, but it’s ultimately an ineffective approach to consistency.

So, what does it mean to maintain a “coherent presence across different social platforms in terms of content, posting frequency, brand voice, and visuals”?

In our view, it can be boiled down to the following:

• Building affinity with a core audience (not ALL of your audience).
• Reinforcing this affinity with on-point, social-first content.
• Distributing other content (such as blogs or webinar recordings) only when it makes strategic sense to do so (and not just because it was published recently).

Let’s take a look at how HubSpot plays the consistency game.

To get a proper idea, we’ll share two pieces of content published on the same day, on two different social platforms, addressing the same topic: New product updates.

First, this is what they posted on LinkedIn:

As you can see, nothing fancy: A simple message with a reminder of what’s about to happen.

But instead of just repeating this format on Instagram, they adapted the content to what the IG crowd likes the most – video.

So, HubSpot is consistent in terms of theme, but they are applying variety and customization to their messaging.

The point is to avoid the trap of redundancy by adapting their message in two ways:

• Context: Product-related announcement. It guides the messaging across platforms (which, given the context, must be aligned).
• Execution: Adapted to each platform and its respective audience. Straightforward and “work-related” for LinkedIn, narrated and filmed for Instagram.

True consistency involves adapting the message to the platform you’re using to communicate with the people who follow you there.

If it’s so simple, why do so many companies fall for the wrong approach?

There’s no easy answer to this question, as multiple factors come into play, including:

• The social media strategy in place.
• The social media maturity level of the company.
• The available resources to produce and schedule content.
• The industry and verticals where the company operates (it’s harder by default for some, particularly in the B2B space).

For example, a company might have the right strategy in place but lack the resources (either human, financial, or both) to achieve the desired level of consistency.

Or, it might be the case that a company is resourceful and has the right strategy, but is new to some social media platforms (this happens a lot with Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit), and can’t be consistent enough.

Long story short: Achieving consistency requires dedication, resources, and an understanding of the context surrounding the company and the social platforms.

Let’s close this section with another HubSpot example.

HubSpot understood early that their product caters to multiple different audiences, some of which co-exist in more than one social platform.

And to be consistent with each one of them on the same platforms, they pulled a great move straight out of the playbook: Leveraging multiple handles.

So, for X alone, they manage different accounts, which gives them a straight line with other groups of users or audiences.

These include HubSpot Life (employer branding, company culture), HubSpot Support (no need to explain this one), HubSpot Developers (to leverage their development assets and community), and HubSpot Academy.

Do these accounts repost each other’s content all the time? Of course not!

But all of them play their part to achieve consistency on social media across the board.

Social Media Lessons from HubSpot: How does HubSpot break the myth of consistency?

There are four key elements from the HubSpot strategy that hint how they achieve their own, unique brand of consistency.

1. They don’t apply the same “voice” everywhere

If you go to HubSpot’s website, you’ll notice that the voice and tone are pretty much on par with what is expected from a major player in the SaaS industry – clear, approachable, and calling to action.

However, they are very smart not to replicate this voice in social platforms with different dynamics.

For instance, if you head to their main Instagram account, you’ll notice a whole new pitch: Informal, witty, short.

In other words, the kind of stuff their Instagram audience expects, and is happy to engage with.

On Instagram, HubSpot is never afraid to hit the right tone for the platform, even when it implies huge stylistic changes like:

• Using the first person singular grammatical person.
• Starting sentences in lowercase.
• Posting “watercooler talk” content – not everything has to be of utter significance.

2. They speak to specific audiences vs speaking to everyone

Even though HubSpot is a single platform, its offerings cater to a large number of different audiences, ranging from HR, sales, and marketing, to SMBs, startups, and enterprises (and we’re not even mentioning partners, affiliates, and so on).

It’d be impossible to consistently talk to all these audiences at once, on the same platform, every week.

Instead, they adjust their discourse and prioritize certain audiences on specific platforms.

On LinkedIn, for instance, you’ll see that they tend to speak to marketers (not exclusively, just more often).

Now if you head to their TikTok account, content-oriented for salespeople is more prevalent than on LinkedIn.

Different strokes for different folks – and it works.

So, why don’t we see more content related to the CEOs that contract HubSpot’s products, to startups, or to customer success managers?

Our assumption is that while important, they do not represent HubSpot’s core audiences on these platforms.

And as we pointed out earlier, building affinity with your core audience is a pillar of social media consistency.

3. They’re not afraid to break strict brand guidelines

Well, this one’s easy to explain with a real-life example:

What are we learning from this?

They’re not afraid to try new things. While they usually stay on-brand, you’ll find a variety of styles, messages, and media across their social platforms.

In short: There’s no point in repeating yourself all the time. Variety is the ultimate path to consistency.

4. The purpose of each of their channels is different

If you head to HubSpot’s YouTube channel, you’ll see this principle in action.

How so? Simple: The videos on HubSpot YouTube’s channel are not only unique, but it’s the only place you’ll find them.

Yes, there’s a level of crossover, as they often repurpose video bits into TikTok or Instagram content, but rest assured, it’s rare to find a full one on their social channels.

In the end, some things just don’t belong to social channels, and there’s a valuable lesson there: Each channel has a purpose, and sharing content that doesn’t fit that purpose is not a consistency-oriented effort.

How to be consistent on social media?

The final and most important question of all, and you probably know the answer: It depends.

However, let’s separate the basics from the variables.

At a basic level, we know what to strive for – a coherent presence in terms of content, posting frequency, brand voice, and visuals.

At a deeper level, getting there requires understanding multiple contextual elements – the company’s social media maturity level, the resources to invest in a social media presence, and the strategy that will dictate channels, messaging, and content.

And finally, there’s experimentation. Consistency and experimentation sound like they’re on different poles, but as HubSpot shows, that’s not the case.

To keep up with HubSpot, here’s our last take: You don’t have to copy what they do to be consistent.

Instead, build affinity with a core audience you choose, and don’t reshare anything that could be distributed more efficiently elsewhere.

Or, as one of HubSpot’s Social Media Strategists Reese Calloway explains:

“You wouldn’t put a blog on YouTube or a YouTube video on the blog. Most channels get their own unique content specific to that platform and audience”.

In terms of results, HubSpot’s take on consistency is certainly paying off. In Q4 2023, they have:

• +200k+ social follower growth (all organic).
• + 4.65M+ organic social impressions.
• Record-high social engagement rates averaging 5-13% QoQ.
• A 5-point increase in brand awareness QoQ and a record-high 9-point increase in sales association for HubSpot.
• 21% YoY jump in search volume.

And this is where we say goodbye. As usual, we’re always happy to see where your company stands and to help you achieve consistency – one of the holy grails of social media – once and for all.