Social media marketing can be one of the best tools to ad to your digital presence and overall marketing plan. That is, if it is done correctly. There are a handful of steps you need to take to properly utilize all social media has to offer for advertising. A few of the major steps are understanding all the channels, setting goals, choosing your key performance indicators, creating a budget and creating dynamic content. In this post, we will discuss effective ways to build you content. A few things to think about before you start building your content: 4x as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
  • 1 in 4 users lose interest if the post is text only
  • It’s estimated that 82% of web traffic interactions will be with videos by 2021
  • Content is King, how people engage is Queen
  • User generated content is your friend-76% of people trust content shared by average people
  • Social media algorithms change all the time-what works now might not work well in the future
Ok, now on to building your content and what you should consider.

1. Develop a strategy.

Here are a few things to do when developing your social media strategy:

Consider

    • What has worked well in the past (look at your insights)
    • What type of posts you have had success with/you have the ability to create (video, text, images, information)

Experiment

    • Post the same content across different channels using differ post types, different days and times of day

Research Competitors

Pay Attention to:

    • Post types
    • Successes
    • Failures

Humanize your brand

    • Post from multiple sources
    • Don’t be all business, all the time
    • Be funny
    • Share content from other businesses

User Generated Content

    • Creates trust and increases reach
    • Use specific hashtags when doing so
    • Gives your audience another voice/personality to read to prevent boredom

2.  Considerations For Creating Post Content

Hashtags

    • Posts with hashtags get 2x more engagement
    • Choose 3-5 at most
    • Links posts to trends/other similar posts

Text

    • Spelling
    • Grammar
    • Extra Spaces
    • Short message = higher changes of it being seen, read and shared

Call To Actions

    • Use active language such as download, donate, share, buy, like, watch, etc. to encourage engagement

Share Credit!

    • Tag who shared original post when applicable
    • Tag anyone who is mentioned in your post
    • Doing this will not only be visible to your audience, but theirs as well and will extend your reach

Mix It Up

No one wants to read about all business, all the time or be advertised to all the time.  A good rule of thumb is the 80/20 split. 80% of content should be dedicated to audience interests, user generated content and industry news. 20% of content should be dedicated to business and promotional posts.

3. Timing Of Your Posts

There is no 100% proven time and day of the week that works. Every business will have different results because everyone’s audience is unique. Use your insights to gage when your audience is online the most. If you have not been posting to social media long enough to have insights, here is a good starting point based on basic data:

Facebook

    • Weekdays from 1-4pm
    • Weekends from Noon-1pm

Instagram

    • Monday & Thursday anytime, EXCEPT between 3-4pm

Twitter

    • Between 12-3pm

LinkedIn

    • Tuesday-Thursday from 7:30am-8:30am and 5pm-6pm

Pinterest 

    • Friday at 3pm
    • Saturday from 8am-11pm
Content creation is one of the biggest factors of your social media success. Always remember the original point of social media to to be social, not to shop. If your social media presence is in need of some help, give us a shout today to get started!