Improve Your Social Media Posts
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash.
While the rise of social media has ups and downs, it is an incredibly powerful tool. Social media is not just a social platform, but a means of advertising, sharing your story or brand, networking, and finding business opportunities.
You already know this. The question at hand is how does one post like a social media guru without turning it into a full-time job?
Working as a digital content creator and social media manager, I can attest to the amount of knowledge, time, strategy, and creativity that goes into creating posts for clients. Since we don’t all have the luxury of hiring help, here are a few simple but effective strategies to create social media posts like a full-time pro.
Put your best foot forward
Looking professional is a must. Presenting a cohesive brand helps immensely. Take some time to think about what this looks like for you or your company. Do you have a logo that grabs attention and informs? Is your tagline accurate and effective? Do colors, fonts, and images express you or your brand? What is your tone and is it consistent? Without actively thinking about it, your audience will register whether you’ve put time and thought into your brand.
Seek out inspiration
Identify brands and competitors who receive a lot of engagement on social media and consider their strategy. What seems to work for them? What else engages you? What’s trending? Consider how these strategies apply to your own and use these to develop your own social media strategy.
Speak with confidence
Personal and genuine content goes a long way. Use a confident voice, promote yourself, or be straightforward. Don’t be scared to share your thoughts, ideas, or stories. In a market saturated with content, you don’t want to sound like everyone else.
Offer value
Balance your promotional posts with things that are valuable to your readers. Share content with tips, news, and insights, whether it’s something you’ve created or something you’ve found helpful. Readers are more likely to tune in to your posts if they gain ideas, insights, or entertainment. They’re also more likely to engage with your posts, which is crucial to building success.
According to Gary Vaynerchuk’s book ‘Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook’, it’s best to offer social media content of great value (jab) more often than you ask your audience for things (right hook). And when you do intend to land that right hook, don’t beat around the bush.
Hashtag wisely
Hashtags are a tool that increases the visibility and total views of your social media posts. Topical and relevant hashtags can be extremely effective, hashtagging can also be overdone. When using hashtags, choose the hashtags that come up most commonly and go for quality over quantity (you may not want your written content to be drowning in hashtags). For aesthetic reasons, you may wish to batch them at the end of your social media post or capitalize the first letters of multiple-word hashtags. #QualityOverQuantity #AestheticsMatter
Take a second look
Whether you proofread by taking a second glance or run the text through a free checker like Grammarly, make sure your copy is typo-free!
Pay attention to the overall look. Space things you and use bullet points or line breaks when applicable. Ensure that important information is highlighted by things like spacing or emojis. The easier your social media post is to read, the more effective your copy will be!
Shorten links
Another way to de-clutter posts is to shorten links. Use a URL shortener like Bitly to shrink long URL’s down to something more bite-sized and aesthetically appealing.
Embrace calls to action
Do you want to boost engagement with your social media posts? Try asking questions or inciting actions, or read on to learn more.
See what I did there? Questions and calls to action work especially well in posts that are personal, conversational, or offer commentary. Calls to action can involve clicking on the following link to read on, visiting your website for further details, or sharing in the comments below.
Choose quality images
Regardless of what you post, ensure all photos are compelling, high-quality photos that relate to your content. Most of all, ensure that they are copyright-free!
Some websites for free stock images include:
Unsplash
Pixabay
Pexels
While there are many high-quality stock images to choose from, combining these with personal photos will help keep your social media posts personal and authentic.
Is there a magic time to post?
Many articles will reveal a magic number for posting times, but there are no guarantees that they will work for your business and followers. With that said, do think about the people you wish to reach. What do their days look like? Is there a better time to catch them with a post than others? For weekday posting, targeting daily commutes and lunch breaks are always safe options.
Batch-schedule social media posts
If you’re serious about posting on social media on a regular basis, consider using a scheduler. This allows you to set up an entire month of posts in the space of a few hours and ultimately saves time. Another benefit to batch-scheduling is gaining a wider view of your posting strategy. It makes it easier to create coherency and reduce redundancy. Some schedulers include:
Hootsuite
Loomly
Buffer
Sendible
Meet Edgar
TweetDeck (for Twitter)
Tailwind (for Pinterest)
Don’t ignore your stats
Some people helplessly track likes while others are terrified to see how many people really are reading their blog or social media posts. But it is helpful to use analytics. The data collected each month can tell you which content received the most engagement and guide your social media strategy. Utilizing stats can be as simple as pinpointing your best social media posts and sharing more content like that.
Engage
Cultivate two-way interactions. Respond to questions and customer service queries. Like back when you receive some love. Show appreciation for your followers and customers. These are proven strategies that will help convert engagement into relationships and business.
Still feeling stuck? I can help you reach more customers by developing your online marketing strategy and creating your social media posts. I can also offer coaching to get you started. Click here to learn more!