Social media is simple, right? Anyone can do it? Think again. Social media may seem simple, but it is so much more than just posting or sharing others’ post.
Social media is more about building your brand – promoting brand recognition, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately managing your brand reputation.
When done right, social media is a powerful tool in your marketing toolset. Here are 10 actionable social media tips for social media success:
#1 Tailor Your Social Post to the Platform
If your brand uses multiple social media platforms, you can write your post once, select an image, and just copy and paste the text between the platforms… Right? No, this is a huge no-no for social media!
Do not share the exact same post on multiple social media channels. Rather, you need to tailor your post to the platform’s requirements. Each platform may require different:
- Caption lengths (i.e. Twitter is limited to 140 characters)
- Image Size (i.e. 940 x 788 pixels for Facebook vs. 1024×512 pixels for Twitter)
- Hashtag Use (i.e. 1-2 hashtags are ideal for Facebook vs. 9-15 posts for Instagram)
Not only does the functionality vary from platform to platform, but also best practices and audiences. Facebook is story driven and personal, while LinkedIn is professional.
As an action step, outline best practices for each of your platforms and specify how you will adapt the social media posts accordingly.
#2 Always Post with a Purpose
Do not post just to post or because you have not in a while. Your audience will see right through this. Furthermore, these types of posts provide no value and are far more likely to have a negative impact on your social media following and/or engagement.
If you see a page publishing auto generate links that look terrible, you look past the poor posts. If you see these terrible posts in your timeline more than once, you will likely unfollow or unlike the brand.
As Simon Kingsnorth stated, “Great content needs to be all of the following: credible, shareable, useful or fun, interesting, relevant, different, and on brand.” To make great content, it takes deliberate effort, time, and resources.
Rather, think about your desired outcome and set up your post for success with applicable images, links, etc. For example, if you want to encourage event attendees, then provide a teaser that will incentivize an RSVP, include a call to action, and make it easy for your audience to take that action by providing a link.
As an action step, outline the types of posts you will share and specify best practices for each type of post.
#3 Always Be on Brand
Always keep your posts on brand so that they align with your:
- Visual Identity – Correct use of logo, fonts, colors, and images
- Voice Identity – Correct tone of voice, word choice, call to actions, and key messages
- Attitude Identity – Fit your brand personality
To help you keep your posts on brand, consider:
- Creating a graphic template for posts in Canva
- Outline your key messages by defining your purpose, key messages, and calls to action
- Create a list of what is appropriate vs. what is not appropriate
As an action step, create a Canva template that fits your brand identity. If you want to take it a step further, create a style guide and/or brand identity guide that defines the proper use of your logo, colors, fonts, images, and voice identity.
#4 Focus on Your Audience & Listen to Them
Always remember it is about your audience, not you! Always reframe your perspective from the internal business side to the external customer standpoint.
There are two important things to keep in mind:
- You need to know who your target audience is
- You need to listen to your target audience to learn how to improve accordingly
Social listening is all about collecting data from mentions, posts, and comments to gain customer insights so that you can make better decisions. The best part is there is tons of data available at your fingertips to do this!
As an action step today, find the analytics for your social media platform and take 15 minutes to read the tool tip that explains what the metric means. Once you have a better understanding of what the analytics mean, you can make decisions on what worked, what didn’t work, and identify opportunities to improve your social media presence!
#5 Quality is Better than Quantity
Which of the following do you prefer?
- 2 posts per day with an average reach of 105 individuals
- 2 posts per week with an average reach of 450 individuals
Personally, Kreative Solutions prefers the quality approach with 2 posts per week with an average reach of 450 individuals. Guess what? Your audience will agree! According to Rev Local, “When a brand posts twice a day, those posts only receive 57 percent of the likes and 78 percent of the comments per post. The drop-off continues as more posts are made in the day.”
Furthermore, not only will your audience appreciate the quality, but algorithms will reward it! Algorithms penalize low-quality content. A business page with low-quality content is no different than that annoying friend that posts every detail!
As an action step, plan your content calendar and maybe even plan content themes.
#6 Be Consistent
Be consistent with your brand message. Post frequently and regularly.
Consistency is essential for setting expectations, building credibility and trust, improving engagement and reach, and most importantly, algorithms reward it!
As an action step today, outline your promotional schedule by specifying how often you post, where you will distribute your content, and what you will share!
#7 Find Raving Fans
You know how you see celebrities representing brands and advocating on behalf of the brand? This is an example of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing occurs when you recruit an influencer in your industry to drive your brand message and help increase awareness of your brand.
Realistically, small businesses are never going to have the resources to invest in influencer marketing. But, that’s okay! You can dial it back and build local influence instead.
To build local influence, win over 3-5 raving fans for consistent social support (i.e. likes, comments, and shares). Make the relationship reciprocal so that it lasts! When you interact with other brands and support their efforts, you will truly be amazed at how they reciprocate, and the relationship formed.
Additionally, consider how you can turn your customers into raving fans! Make sure your customers are aware that you are active on various platforms and encourage them to interact with your brand. Furthermore, ask your customers to advocate on behalf of your brand by sharing a photo with the products or providing a testimonial.
Local influencers are far more realistic for a small business owner and might just be even more powerful that celebrity influencers. According to Sprout Social, 61% of consumer said they’d be more likely to research if a friend posted about a company, compared to 36% influenced by a celebrity.
As an action step, identify 3-5 raving fans who routinely interact with your page (or recruit some friends). To take it a step further, develop a campaign that incentivizes likes, check-ins, follows, posts, reviews, comments, or shares from your customers.
#8 Remember to Share, Not Sell
Sharing is all about educating on your offering and providing value and/or helpful tips/resources. When you focus on sharing, your posts will revolve around how you help, who you help, and what problems you solve. Try to entice the purchase and avoid being spammy.
Most importantly, do not sell or push sales on social media. Pushing sales on social media sends the message that you are focused on yourself as the business, not the customer. Focus on your audience and their needs, not your products or sales goals. According to Sprout Social, “Too many promotional messages not only annoy followers, they also cause 46% of people to unfollow a brand”
As an action step, brainstorm posts that show how you help, who you help, what problems you solve, and how your customers benefit from your products/services.
#9 Prioritize Interaction
Rather than just posting, social media requires interaction through shares, comments, and messages. Make sure you always respond to messages and comments. Many individuals follow your page to have a two-way dialogue with your brand.
To help you prioritize interaction, consider the following tips:
- Set reminders to follow-up on your post & respond accordingly
- Dedicate a percentage of your social time to engaging with others
- Find new pages, people, and influencers to interact with
As an action step, outline your response plan for messages and comments. Make sure to consider your ideal response time and who is responsible for interaction.
#10 Create Compelling Content
How do you capture attention and stop the scroll? Create compelling content! Compelling content:
- Resonates with your audience
- Aligns with your brand message
- Makes it irresistible not to click, share, or engage with
- Captivates attention and be of value
- Passes, the “so what?” test
When it comes to the “so what?” test, your audience will be able to instantly tell whether you are trying to be educational, sentimental, humorous, fun, interesting, etc.
As an action step, start building a content database of stunning photography and videos that resonate with your audience, align with your brand message, and captivates attention!
Summary
Keep these 10 actionable social media tips in mind and integrate them into your social media strategy so that you set yourself up for success and avoid the typical social media mistakes that many businesses make when they are just starting out or don’t understand social media.
View 10 Social Media Tips Presentation on “Ask the Tech-perts.”
