A Strategic Guide to Social Media – My 5-Step Framework (For Company Accounts and B2B)

Feeling overwhelmed by the thought of social media? You’re not alone.

You see countless platforms, endless streams of content, and you’re left wondering: “Where do I even begin? And how do I know my effort will actually pay off?”

My name is Shaun Anderson, and for the last 25 years, I’ve been a professional SEO, analysing how information gets discovered online. I’ve seen platforms rise and fall, but the core principles of building a successful online presence have remained remarkably consistent.

The biggest mistake I see businesses and individuals make is thinking the goal is to “be on social media.”

That’s the wrong frame.

In my own experience, the game has changed dramatically. A few years ago, you could turn up, post your content, and it would reliably reach people who were interested. My last truly viral post was back in 2022 (over 100K views on a post about my free SEO checklist is almost unheard of now – I am lucky to get 1-10K). I don’t think I’m being dramatic when I say that’s a more-than 90% drop in reach from old-school “promoting” online in just a year or so.

Today, the landscape is different. Organic reach across all channels has been decimated. The networks are designed to keep you on their platform, and they want you to pay for advertising or boosted reach. Posting even helpful content with a commercial intent, especially if it includes links, will likely result in disappointingly low reach.

The real goal is to build a defensible digital asset – a genuine community around your brand, expertise, or passion that you own and can rely on. It’s not about shouting into the void; it’s about making meaningful connections that lead to real-world results.

Forget the confusing jargon and the “get famous quick” schemes. In this guide, I’m going to give you my evidence-based, 5-step strategic framework. This is the exact process I recommend to clients to build a powerful and sustainable social media presence from the ground up. We’ll cover:

1. Module 1: Define Your Purpose (The ‘Why’) – How to set clear goals that align with your objectives.
2. Module 2: Choose Your Platform & Build Your Embassy (The ‘Where’ & ‘Who’) – How to select the right channels and create a profile that commands attention.
3. Module 3: Learn the Rules of Engagement (The ‘How’) – Understanding the unwritten rules of content, algorithms, and community etiquette.
4. Module 4: Participate & Provide Value (The ‘What’) – The framework for creating content that people actually want to see and share.
5. Module 5: The Future-Proof Strategy: Inference Optimisation – How to adapt to a zero-click, AI-driven world.

Let’s get started.

2.3 The Core Content: The 5-Step Strategic Framework

Module 1: Define Your Purpose (The ‘Why’)

Before you write a single post or choose a profile picture, you must answer one question: Why are you doing this? Without a clear purpose, your social media efforts will be scattered, inconsistent, and ultimately, ineffective. “Being on social media” is not a strategy; it’s a task. A strategy begins with a goal.

Step 1.1: Align Social Goals with Business KPIs

Your social media activity should be a tool to help you achieve a larger objective. What is that objective? Think in terms of measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

• If your goal is Brand Awareness: Your KPIs might be Reach (how many unique people see your content) and Impressions (how many times your content is displayed). You want to become a recognised name in your niche.
• If your goal is Lead Generation: Your KPIs are Click-Through Rate (CTR) to your website and Conversions on a landing page (e.g., newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads). You want to turn followers into potential customers.
• If your goal is Community Building: Your primary KPI is Engagement Rate (likes, comments, shares, saves as a percentage of your followers or reach). You want to foster a loyal and interactive audience.
• If your goal is Sales/E-commerce: Your KPI is Social Media ROI. This is a direct calculation: (Revenue from Social Media - Cost of Social Media Efforts) / Cost of Social Media Efforts. You want to directly attribute sales to your social channels.

Choose one primary goal to start. You can’t be everything to everyone. Your primary goal will dictate every decision you make, from the platforms you choose to the content you create.

Step 1.2: Define Your Target Audience Persona

You are not trying to talk to everyone. You are trying to talk to someone specific. Create a simple “Audience Persona” document. Give this person a name, a job, and most importantly, a problem that you can solve.

Ask yourself:

• What are their biggest challenges related to my industry?
• What questions are they asking on Google or in online forums?
• What kind of content do they find valuable (e.g., tutorials, case studies, humour, inspiration)?
• What is their “social media language”? Are they formal and professional (LinkedIn) or casual and meme-focused (TikTok)?

When you know exactly who you’re talking to, creating content becomes infinitely easier. You’re no longer broadcasting; you’re having a conversation.

Step 1.3: Establish Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice is the personality your brand takes on in its communications. Are you the wise mentor, the witty friend, the trusted expert, or the enthusiastic innovator?

Your voice should be consistent across all platforms and should resonate with your target audience’s persona. A consistent brand voice builds trust and makes your content instantly recognisable in a crowded feed.

Module 2: Choose Your Platform & Build Your Embassy (The ‘Where’ & ‘Who’)

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Each is its own country with a unique culture, language, and set of rules. Your job is to choose where to build your “digital embassy” – the one or two places where your target audience spends their time and where your content format will thrive.

Spreading yourself too thin across five different platforms is a recipe for burnout and mediocrity.

Step 2.1: The Platform Decision Matrix

Use this simple matrix to make an informed choice. Don’t just follow the trends; go where it makes strategic sense.

• LinkedIn: The platform for B2B professionals and career development. Choose this if: Your audience consists of professionals, you sell high-ticket B2B services, and your content is based on industry insights, case studies, and professional advice.
• Instagram: The visual platform for lifestyle, e-commerce, and brand building. Choose this if: Your product or service is highly visual (e.g., fashion, food, travel, design), your audience is primarily under 45, and you excel at creating high-quality photos, short-form video (Reels), and graphics.  
• Facebook: The community-building platform with a massive, diverse user base. Choose this if: Your audience is broad and spans multiple demographics, you want to build a local community (via Facebook Groups), and you plan to run targeted paid advertising.
• X (formerly Twitter): The real-time platform for news, conversation, and customer service. Choose this if: You are in a fast-moving industry (e.g., tech, media, finance), you want to engage in real-time conversations, and your strength is concise, witty, and timely text-based updates.
• TikTok: The short-form video platform for entertainment and trend-based content. Choose this if: Your target audience is Gen Z or younger millennials, your brand has a playful and creative side, and you can quickly produce engaging, authentic, and entertaining video content.
• Pinterest: The visual discovery and inspiration platform. Choose this if: Your business is in a visual niche like home decor, recipes, fashion, or weddings, and your goal is to drive traffic back to your blog or e-commerce store through evergreen visual content.

Start with one platform. Master it. Once you have a sustainable process and a growing community, you can consider expanding to a second.

Step 2.2: The Anatomy of a Perfect Profile

Your profile is your digital first impression. A lazy, incomplete profile signals a lack of seriousness and gets ignored. Every element must be optimised.

• Avatar/Profile Picture: Do not use the default. Use a high-quality, professional headshot if you are a personal brand, or a clean, clear logo if you are a company. This image will appear everywhere; it must be instantly recognisable.
• Profile Name/Handle: Make it memorable, easy to spell, and consistent across platforms if possible. For businesses, using your company name is crucial for branding and discoverability.
• Bio/Description: This is your 150-character elevator pitch. Don’t just say what you do; say what problem you solve for your audience. Use keywords your target audience might search for within the platform (e.g., “Social Media Strategy for Small Business” instead of just “Marketing Consultant”).
• Website Link: This is prime real estate. Always include a link. This is your primary mechanism for driving traffic from the platform back to your owned digital asset—your website. Use a tool like Linktree or a custom landing page if you need to share multiple links, but a direct link to your most important page is often best. An active profile with a link is far more likely to be explored by curious members of the community.

Module 3: Learn the Rules of Engagement (The ‘How’)

You’ve chosen your battlefield and built your embassy. Now you need to learn the local customs. Blundering into a new social community and immediately self-promoting is the fastest way to get ignored or blocked. Success comes from understanding and respecting the platform’s culture and its underlying algorithmic drivers.

Step 3.1: Read the Manual (and the Unwritten Rules)

Every platform has a Terms of Service (TOS). While it may be dry, spending 15 minutes reading the “Community Guidelines” section can save you from making critical early mistakes that could get your account flagged.

• Become a “Lurker”: Spend a few days just consuming content on the platform. Don’t post anything.
• Identify Power Users: Find 5-10 popular, active members in your niche who have high engagement. Analyse their content. What format do they use (video, text, images)? How often do they post? How do they interact with their comments? This is your blueprint for what works.
• Understand the Modern Algorithmic Reality: You must understand that each platform’s algorithm is designed to do one thing: keep users on the platform. As I’ve learned from my own analysis of X’s algorithm, this has profound consequences. Content that includes external links or overt sales language is often penalised with lower reach. The lifespan of a post can be incredibly short; a tweet is lucky if its reach lasts half a day. The algorithm rewards native engagement—likes, bookmarks, and replies—far more than it rewards clicks that take users away.

Step 3.2: Create a Content Calendar

Consistency is arguably the single most important factor for social media success. Sporadic posting tells the algorithm your account is not a reliable source of quality content. A content calendar is a simple spreadsheet that plans your posts in advance. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

• Columns: Date, Post Topic/Pillar, Caption Text, Visual (Image/Video), Link, Hashtags.
• Frequency: Start with a manageable goal. 3 posts per week is a great starting point for most platforms. It’s better to post 3 high-quality pieces consistently than 7 mediocre ones.
• Content Pillars: Don’t just post randomly. Define 3-5 “content pillars” or core topics you will talk about. For a real estate agent, pillars might be: 1) Local Market Updates, 2) Home Buying Tips, 3) Community Spotlights, 4) Behind-the-Scenes. This ensures your content stays focused and provides consistent value to your audience.

Module 4: Participate & Provide Value (The ‘What’)

This is where the work truly begins. I used to think of social media as being like busking. You turned up, showed your art, and you gathered interest. When it turned into the town square, it started feeling more like busking for attention. Now, that old strategy feels like begging. The goal of your content is to be “helpful, reliable, and people-first,” but simply posting is no longer enough.

Step 4.1: The 90/10 Engagement Rule

The old 80/20 rule (80% value, 20% promotion) needs an update for the modern, engagement-first era. I now advocate for a 90/10 split, but with a different focus. This is why it’s called social media, and it really is the age of the “reply guy” by the looks of it.

• 90% of your time should be spent being social on other people’s feeds. This is the “reply-guy” strategy. Find popular accounts in your niche and leave thoughtful, valuable comments that add to the conversation. This is currently the single most effective way to gain visibility, followers, and build authority. You are participating where the audience already is.
• 10% of your time should be spent posting your own content. This is for your informational posts and occasional commercial-intent content. This is still important for building your profile as a resource, but it is no longer the primary driver of growth.

This strategic shift is why I built tools like HoboSocialbot – to efficiently manage the 10% of scheduled posts, freeing up the maximum amount of time for the crucial 90% of manual, high-value engagement.

Step 4.2: Actionable Content Frameworks for Your 10%

When you do post, staring at a blank content calendar can be intimidating. Use these frameworks to generate endless content ideas:

• Educational Content (The “How-To”): Teach your audience something valuable. Create tutorials, share checklists, explain complex topics simply, or debunk common myths in your industry. This positions you as the expert.
• Entertaining Content (The “Ha-Ha”): Use humour, memes, or behind-the-scenes content that is relevant to your niche. This humanises your brand and makes you more relatable.
• Inspirational Content (The “Aha!”): Share success stories (your own or your clients’), motivational quotes, or thought-provoking ideas about your industry. This connects with your audience on an emotional level.
• Community-Building Content (The “You”): Ask questions, run polls, and solicit opinions. The easiest way to get engagement is to ask for it. Feature your followers’ content (with permission)—this is known as User-Generated Content (UGC) and is incredibly powerful for building loyalty.

Step 4.3: The Art of Participation (Your 90%)

Social media is a two-way street. Real growth comes from participation. Your 90% time-block should be focused here.

• Be a “Value-Add” Reply-Guy: Don’t just say “Great post!”; add to the conversation. Offer a different perspective, a supporting data point, or a follow-up question. Your goal is for your reply to be so valuable that other people like it and check out your profile.
• Respond to Every Comment (on your own posts): When you’re starting out, every single comment is gold. Respond thoughtfully. This encourages more comments and signals to the algorithm that your post is sparking conversation.
• Use Hashtags Strategically: Hashtags are a discovery tool. Don’t use 30 generic tags like #love or #business. Use a mix of 5-10 hashtags:
  • Broad Industry Tags: (e.g., #DigitalMarketing)
  • Niche-Specific Tags: (e.g., #SEOforSmallBusiness)
  • Community Tags: (e.g., #LinkedInCreators)
  • Branded Tags: (e.g., #HoboWebSEO)

Module 5: The Future-Proof Strategy: Inference Optimisation

The digital world is undergoing a fundamental shift. We are moving away from a list of blue links to a world of AI-generated answers and “zero-click” searches, where users get information without ever visiting a website. This presents a new challenge: if users aren’t clicking, how do you control your brand’s narrative?

The answer is a strategic pivot from traditional SEO to what I call “Inference Optimisation.”

The goal of Inference Optimisation is not to rank for a keyword, but to influence an AI’s reasoning. It’s about making your website the undisputed, canonical source of truth for your entity (your brand, your products, your people) so that an AI’s independently generated answers about you are accurate and favourable by default.

Step 5.1: Build Your Ground-Truth Record

The first step is to create a “Factual Corpus” on your own website. This means building out a dense, comprehensive, and verifiable database of every relevant fact about your entity. This isn’t marketing copy; it’s a structured record of your history, product specifications, leadership team biographies, corporate values, and key milestones. You are proactively creating the source material you want AI systems to use when they talk about you.  

Once you have established this ground-truth record, you can leverage it to create a legitimate, AI-powered content machine. This is where Inference Optimisation becomes a powerful tool for your social media strategy.

For instance, to create a full month’s social media campaign for X and Facebook, you can:

1. Prompt an AI tool like Gemini to generate 30 distinct social media posts.
2. Here is the crucial step: constrain the AI to only use information from your own website – your ground-truth record.
3. You can ask it to create posts based on your documented experience, pull out interesting facts from your company history, or even formulate an argument about a trending topic that is consistent with your published corporate values.

Because the generative AI is relying exclusively on your verified Factual Corpus – which saves time for the human editor greenlighting the posting, the output is guaranteed to be accurate, trustworthy, and perfectly aligned with your brand.

You are feeding the AI’s input to ensure its independent output is reliable. This is how you build a resilient brand and maintain control of your narrative in a zero-click world.

Step 5.3: The Marketing Cyborg Technique: Human-AI Symbiosis

A critical word of caution: while I recommend using AI-powered tools and schedulers, I would never recommend sending unedited AI content out into the world. The key is not automation, but augmentation.

This is what I call the “Marketing Cyborg” method. It is a strategic symbiosis that fuses my intuition and experience as an SEO expert with the power of proprietary AI tools and automation. This hybrid approach allows for analysis and content generation at a scale that is impossible for a human or an AI to achieve alone.

The process is simple but non-negotiable:

• AI Generates: The AI does the heavy lifting, creating drafts based on your ground-truth record.
• Expert Edits: A human expert reviews, refines, and fact-checks every single piece of content. This is where nuance, brand voice, and strategic insight are injected.
• Publish: Only after expert human approval does the content go live.

This is AI-enhanced content generation, not AI-generated content. The human expert is always the final arbiter of quality and accuracy.

2.4 Conclusion: Your Journey Starts Now

Getting started in social media doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be strategic. By following this framework, you move beyond random acts of content and start building a real, valuable asset for your brand.

Let’s recap the core framework:

1. Define Your Purpose: Know why you’re posting by setting clear, measurable goals and identifying your target audience.
2. Choose Your Platform & Build Your Embassy: Go where your audience is and create a professional, optimised profile that makes a strong first impression.
3. Learn the Rules of Engagement: Understand the platform’s culture and algorithm, and use a content calendar to ensure consistency.
4. Participate & Provide Value: Follow the 90/10 rule, focusing on adding value in other people’s conversations first and foremost.
5. Future-Proof Your Strategy: Build a ground-truth record on your site to control your narrative in the age of AI and zero-click search.

The key to success in any online community is the same as in any real-world community: be real, be genuine, and be relentlessly focused on providing value to others. It can be a lot of fun, incredibly rewarding, and one of the most powerful marketing channels at your disposal.

Now that you have your strategic foundation, your next step is to master the art of creating compelling content. To help you with that, I recommend reading my detailed guide on how to make helpful content.

FAQ: Analysis of @hobo_web X Account

I asked @Grok – the AI behind X (formerly Twitter), what it thought of the recent performance of my account – and the following FAQ is an unedited question and answer – with commentary from Grok, with access to my X Analytics:

Q1: Rate my X performance over the last 30 days

A1: To rate your performance on X over the last 30 days, I’ll need your X username (e.g., @yourhandle). Once you provide that, I can analyse your posts, engagement, and other metrics to give a detailed rating.

Q2: @hobo_web

A2: Shaun Anderson, a 20-year SEO veteran, passionately crafts AI-driven SEO tools and shares cutting-edge strategies to master Google’s E-E-A-T and Q-Star systems, believing entity strength is the ultimate ranking factor.

Hobo_Web’s dishing out SEO gold, from title tag tactics to dodging deceptive page pitfalls, straight from Google’s 2025 leaks!

Topicality = The “ABC” signals: ️ Anchors (link text) ️ Body (page content) ️ Clicks (user interaction) -@hobo_web

Q3: What do you think of this account

A3: Based on @hobo_web’s profile and recent activity, I think it’s a solid, niche account for anyone interested in SEO. Shaun Anderson comes across as a genuine veteran in the field with over 20 years of experience, focusing exclusively on sharing practical tips, tools (like his Hobo SEO Dashboard built in Google Docs/Sheets), and deep dives into Google’s algorithms, leaks, and quality guidelines. His posts are informative—covering things like title tag optimisation, deceptive page practices, and signals like PageRank—without fluff, and he often links to detailed guides on his site. The engagement isn’t massive (likes in the single to low double digits, views in the hundreds), but with 10,200 followers, it’s clear he’s built a dedicated audience of marketers and SEOs. No red flags; it’s straightforward, educational content that avoids hype. If you’re in digital marketing, it’s worth following for the insights, though it might be too specialised for casual users.

Q4: What else can you tell me about this account? Can you rate its quality?

A4: Based on my analysis of @hobo_web’s profile, recent posts, and related web presence, here’s more detail about the account and its owner, Shaun Anderson:

Background and Profile

Shaun Anderson is a Scotland-based SEO specialist with 25 years of experience in search engine optimisation. He’s the founder and head of SEO at Hobo Web, a company that provides SEO services primarily to digital agencies, acting as a white-label or strategic partner. His focus is on “future-proof” SEO strategies that align with Google’s guidelines, emphasising E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to build long-term organic visibility. He’s created tools like the Hobo SEO Dashboard (built in Google Docs/Sheets for automated reporting from Google Search Console data), the Hobo EEAT Tool, and a Premium SEO Checklist. Anderson also authors ebooks, such as Strategic SEO 2025 and Strategic AI SEO 2025, and runs the Hobo SEO Blog, which has attracted over 8 million visitors and was ranked the #1 Best UK SEO Blog by Feedspot in July 2025. He’s been recognised as the #1 SEO influencer in Scotland in 2025 and featured by Search Engine Journal as a top expert to follow. His X bio reflects this: “SEO Software in Google Docs and Sheets for SEOs. 20+ years in SEO. I only post about SEO, Marketing & AI. Creator of Hobo SEO Dashboard.” The account has 10,200 followers and is blue-verified, indicating an established presence without massive scale.

From his LinkedIn (though details were limited in my fetch), he describes developing content, SEO, link-building, and social media strategies for Hobo SEO Services, along with providing audits and consulting to businesses. He also has a YouTube presence, including videos on weekly SEO consultations with in-house marketing managers.

Content and Activity

The account sticks strictly to its niche: All posts are about SEO, Google’s algorithms, leaks (e.g., DOJ vs. Google trial exhibits, API leaks), best practices, and tools. Recent examples include:

• Sharing quotes from old Google Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) on deceptive pages, ads, and pop-ups.
• Discussing signals like PageRank as inputs to quality scores.
• Promoting in-depth guides, such as “The Definitive Guide to Title Tag SEO” and “SEO Strategy in 2025 – The End of Guesswork.”
• Tips on query fan-out in AI SEO, freshness in content, and avoiding penalties for bad titles (including a video post fact-checking with me).
• Occasional replies to others in the SEO community, like clarifying terms (e.g., “MC = Main content”) or providing resources.

Posting frequency is consistent – often 5-10 times per day, mixing original insights, links to his site (hobo-web.co.uk), and quotes. Engagement is modest but steady: Most posts get 1-12 likes, 200-1,000 views, and occasional reposts or replies from fellow SEOs.

There’s no spam, hype, or off-topic content; it’s purely educational and promotional for his expertise/tools. He interacts thoughtfully, e.g., quoting viral posts with a simple “” or engaging in threads about quality scores. No signs of bot-like behaviour or controversy in the last 30 days.

His philosophy shines through: SEO should be white-hat, data-driven, and integrated with AI for efficiency (e.g., “Cyborg Marketing” technique combining human expertise with automation).

He stresses avoiding deceptive practices and focusing on entity strength, topicality (via “ABC” signals: Anchors, Body, Clicks), and preparing for AI-driven search like Google’s SGE. The site offers free resources like beginner tutorials, alongside paid audits and ebooks.

Quality Rating

I’d rate the account’s quality at 8.5/10. It’s excellent for its target audience (SEOs, marketers, agencies)—providing high-value, original insights backed by decades of experience and direct references to Google docs/leaks, without fluff or misinformation. Consistency, niche focus, and authenticity boost it, as does the tie-in to real tools/services. Drawbacks: Engagement is low-key (not viral), and it’s hyper-specialised, so it might not appeal broadly. No major red flags like inconsistent posting, spammy links, or low-effort content. If you’re in SEO, it’s a top follow for practical advice; otherwise, it could feel too technical.

Q5: Rate the quality of the account from this analytics screenshot. This is a screenshot of @hobo_web twitter analytics. [Screenshot provided]

A5: Based on the provided analytics screenshot for @hobo_web’s X (Twitter) account, which covers a 4-week period (likely ending around late September 2025, given the graphs span Aug 29 to Sep 22), I’ll break down the key metrics and then provide an overall quality rating. This evaluation focuses on performance indicators like growth, engagement, and activity, which are strong proxies for account quality in a niche like SEO content. Accounts with high engagement relative to size, consistent activity, and positive trends generally rank higher in quality.

Key Metrics Analysis

• Followers and Growth: The account has 10.2K total followers, with 654 verified (about 6.4%—a solid ratio, as verified users often indicate higher-quality connections). The “Follows over time” graph shows daily net changes fluctuating between +9 and -3, with some volatility but an overall neutral-to-slightly positive trend in the visible period. No massive spikes or drops, suggesting steady, organic growth without artificial boosts.

• Posts and Activity: The monthly posts graph indicates a significant increase from August (low bar, ~30-40 posts) to September (tall bar, potentially 160+ based on the y-axis scale to 180). This ramp-up in September, which coincides with turning on hobosocialbot, likely drove the positive metrics below. The daily “Posts | Replies” graphs show consistent posting (green bars peaking around 20-24) and replies (blue bars up to ~18), reflecting active content creation and community interaction.

• Impressions: 107.9K, up 132%. For a 10K-follower account, this is impressive—equating to roughly 10-11 impressions per follower over 4 weeks, or about 27K weekly. It suggests content is reaching beyond the core audience, possibly via algorithms favouring niche expertise.

• Engagement Rate: 5.5%, down slightly by 4.5% from the prior period. Despite the dip, this rate is exceptionally high; average X engagement rates hover around 0.5-1% for most accounts, and even 2-3% is strong for niche creators. A 5.5% rate implies highly relevant, resonant content that prompts actions like likes or replies.

• Engagements: 5.9K total, up 122%. Broken down:

  • Replies: 164 (↑187%)—indicates thoughtful discussions, common in educational niches.
  • Likes: 710 (↑116%)—shows appreciation for value-driven posts.
  • Reposts: 74 (↑11%)—modest but growing virality.
  • Bookmarks: 418 (↑216%)—high bookmarking suggests users find the content reference-worthy (e.g., SEO tips/tools).
  • Shares: 63 (↑600%)—explosive growth here points to shareable, practical insights.

• Profile Visits: 360, up 87%. This correlates with increased visibility and interest, likely from posts performing well in feeds.

Overall, the metrics show strong momentum: Double- and triple-digit percentage increases in most areas, driven by higher posting volume in September. No red flags like stagnant growth or low engagement, which could indicate bot followers or irrelevant content.

Quality Rating

I’d rate the account’s quality at 8.7/10 based on these analytics. It’s performing exceptionally well for a specialised SEO-focused profile—high engagement rate and bookmarking highlight its value to a targeted audience, while the growth in impressions and interactions demonstrates effective algorithmic reach and content resonance. The slight engagement rate dip prevents a perfect score, possibly due to the post volume increase diluting per-post interactions, but the upward trends across the board suggest sustained quality and potential for further scaling. For comparison, many similar-sized niche accounts struggle with sub-1% engagement and flat growth; this one stands out as authentic and impactful.

Q6: This is the advice they tell people on their own site. In your opinion, does Hobo Web eat its own dog food?

A6: In my opinion, yes, Hobo Web largely eats its own dog food – they practice what they preach in their social media strategy guide, with some room for even stronger alignment in areas like deeper community engagement. Based on the provided advice (a 5-step framework emphasising purpose, platform choice, rules of engagement, value provision via the 90/10 rule, and future-proofing with Inference Optimisation) and my analysis of @hobo_web’s X activity, here’s a breakdown:

• Module 1: Define Your Purpose: The account clearly aligns with KPIs like brand awareness and community building, focusing on SEO education to position Shaun Anderson as an expert. Content targets a specific persona (SEOs, marketers) with practical, problem-solving tips, matching the advice to define goals and audience.
• Module 2: Choose Your Platform & Build Your Embassy: X is a fitting choice for a tech/SEO niche, as per their matrix (real-time conversations in fast-moving industries). The profile is optimised: professional bio with keywords, clear links to hobo-web.co.uk, and consistent branding—fully embodying the “digital embassy” concept.
• Module 3: Learn the Rules of Engagement: Posts respect X’s algorithm by being concise, timely, and native (mix of text, quotes, and links without heavy sales). Consistency via a content calendar is evident in the steady 5-10 posts/day, and the September ramp-up (via hobosocialbot) shows strategic planning. No violations or red flags in behaviour.
• Module 4: Participate & Provide Value: This is where they shine, but could improve. Content is 100% value-driven (educational frameworks like “ABC” signals, no hype), using hashtags strategically and frameworks like how-tos and insights. However, while they do thoughtful replies and quotes, engagement leans more toward posting (the 10%) than the recommended 90% “reply-guy” participation. Analytics show growing replies (up 187%), but it’s modest—suggesting potential to amp up interactions for more growth.
• Module 5: The Future-Proof Strategy: Inference Optimisation: Strong alignment here. They use AI tools (e.g., hobosocialbot for scheduling, Cyborg Audit method) while emphasizing human oversight, mirroring the “Marketing Cyborg” technique. Site content builds a “ground-truth record” through blogs, ebooks, and tools, influencing AI narratives in SEO. Turning on hobosocialbot in September ties directly to AI-augmented content generation.

Overall, @hobo_web embodies the framework’s white-hat, value-first ethos, with metrics showing real momentum (e.g., 132% impressions growth). The main gap is in scaling the 90% participation for higher virality, but for a niche expert, they’re authentically applying their advice—earning them a solid 9/10 on dogfooding.

Topicality Rating for @hobo_web

Based on the account’s content and the SEO concept of topicality (as defined by its owner via “ABC” signals: Anchors, Body, Clicks, reflecting relevance through links, content depth, and user interaction), I’d rate @hobo_web’s topicality at 9.5/10. The account maintains laser-focused relevance to SEO topics, with all posts directly tied to algorithms, tools, and best practices—evidenced by consistent niche terminology, direct Google references, and steady engagement from an SEO-savvy audience. Minor deductions for occasional promotional elements that could slightly broaden beyond pure topical signals, but overall, it’s exemplary in building and demonstrating topical authority.