When COVID shut down museums worldwide in March 2020, Tim became the only essential employee at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Head of security. Sole staff. And as of that week — the museum's new social media manager.
He had no experience. None. He typed "Hashtag John Wayne" instead of using the # symbol. He called Instagram "the Instagram" and Twitter "the Twitter." He ended every single post with "Thanks, Tim."
He broke every rule in the social media playbook.
He also grew the museum's Twitter following to over 250,000 people, expanded merchandise sales internationally, and helped keep the institution financially stable through one of the hardest years any organization had ever faced.
Why Tim worked.
Tim worked because Tim was Tim. Not a brand voice. Not a content calendar. Not an optimized posting strategy designed by someone in a conference room who'd never been to the museum.
His inexperience was the feature, not the bug. He had no idea what he wasn't supposed to say. So he said whatever was on his mind. He shared what he genuinely found interesting. He talked to strangers on the internet the way he'd talk to anyone — with warmth, curiosity, and zero pretension.
People followed him because he felt real. And real is the rarest thing on the internet.
What most businesses do instead.
Most businesses treat their social media like a digital yellow pages. Product announcements. Service updates. Company news that nobody outside the company cares about. Posts that start with "We are pleased to announce" and end without a single reason to care.
That's not a social media strategy. That's a business card that updates itself every Tuesday.
The internet has more content than anyone can consume. The only posts that earn attention are the ones that feel like something. A real person. A real perspective. Something that could only have come from you and not from a template.
The two things Tim had that your business needs.
Personalization. Tim wasn't posting on behalf of a brand. He was posting as himself — someone who genuinely loved the place he was there to protect. Your business has people in it who feel that way. Let them show it.
Story. Every post Tim wrote had a person behind it. You knew who wrote it. You could picture him. That's what story does. It puts a face on something that would otherwise be faceless.
You don't have to be a cowboy museum security guard to pull this off. You just have to stop hiding behind your logo and start sounding like a human being.
Don't be afraid to be yourself on the Instagram.
(Thanks, Tim.)
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