No, Brands: don't post content on Election Day... or the next day.

Well, the Election is here.

I’m pushing up my newsletter to Monday this week for to take my own advice:

Brands: there is no reason to post content on Election Day, or the next day.

The cons list is quite deep.

• Your brand could be called insensitive.

• No one’s sharing your brand posts to their Instagram Stories while they’re posting their I Voted stickers

• Your social team shouldn’t have to scroll social during election chatter

• You’ll never be the main characters of social when competing with candidates

• Your content will likely underperform no matter how strong it is

• Most social users will be searching for political conversations or escapes from political conversations, not products

No, your Black Friday & Cyber Monday campaigns don’t hinge on posting organic content on Election day.

And honestly, considering how divided our country is, it’s safe to assume half of the United States will be in mourning on November 6th no matter who wins. It’s worth pausing your brand’s organic the day after the election, too.

And then we’re to Thursday and Friday… which, at that point, why not be very risk averse and not post any brand content for the whole week? What’s the actual downside there?

No company is going to make or break by posting content this week, and maybe it’s because I come from big tech and enterprise social, but it’s just never worth the risk.

When should brands start posting again?

There’s no industry best practice scientific answer for this, but I suspect everything will be fine by the beginning of next week. Generally, it’s feel. If the feed’s all politics, stay dark. If you’re seeing people posting daily life content, you’re probably safe to get back out there.

What’s the big takeaway?

It’s gonna be weird out there. You should be cautious, because there’s no downside to caution. And if moments like elections leave you a little emotional (hi, me), make sure you’ve got resources in place to keep your head above water.

If you wanna dip your toe into posting on LinkedIn (after the election), I’ve got a program for you.

My first $100,000 newsletter sponsor came from an organic LinkedIn post. My last 3 jobs before becoming a writer? All started in DMs. And all of that happened simply because I was willing to share my thoughts on LinkedIn.

So, I built a little tool to help you dip your toe into personal branding on LinkedIn!

Welcome to Break An Egg 🐣. For just $5/month, you’ll get:

• 30 LinkedIn prompts designed to mine your experience for content

• New ways to highlight your career milestones & accomplishments

• A community of 1000+ other BAEs who help each other!

You can sign up right here. Cheaper than a latte. I’m keeping it at this $5/month mark for anyone who signs up until Black Friday, then it’ll go up a bit (but you’ll be grandfathered into your original price). Can’t wait to help ya break some eggs!