10 tips to make your Social Media updates shine

16 Dec 2013

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When it comes to Social Media, the word ‘engagement’ gets bandied around a lot and quite rightly so. An engaged reader of one of your posts or tweets is more likely to share it across their social networks and help you spread awareness of your business, brand, products and services. An engaged prospect is more likely to buy from you and an engaged customer is more likely to buy from you again.

So here are some ideas to make your posts engaging which will help them shine amongst all the Social Media noise out there:

1) Above all else ensure your content has value - whatever you post or tweet, try and put your audience first. What do they want from you? Depending on your brand it could be jokes, quotes or valuable advice.

2) Make a personal connection with people - demonstrate your personality if you’re a sole trader or show a little of your company culture if you’re a business or organisation. For example, photos and stories from your or your employees day and behind the scenes pics and video can work well. When tweeting as part of a team put your initials at the end of the tweet so readers know who you are.

3) Post at the right time of day - on Facebook you can use Insights to see what time of day your Page is most popular. Publish a post just before the most popular time which will help its effectiveness. This is less important on Twitter and LinkedIn but anecdotal evidence suggests that tweets and posts early in the morning between 7am-8am have more engagement.

4) Ask questions - it’s a simple one but it works. Just as in the physical world where asking a question elicits a response; the same is true online. Ask your audience for feedback about your products or services and for their opinion on subjects and issues relating to your brand or business.

5) Post visual content - with increasing numbers of your audience consuming content on smartphones and tables posting images, photos and infographics is becoming more important. Quite simply, visual content stands out and is more likely to be shared. Make quotes and text stand out by placing text over an image.

6) Link into Trends and Events - increase awareness of your brand by tying into popular conversations (trends) and events. Trends are available on Twitter and for some people on Facebook. Join into conversations and use the trend #hashtag to get yourself noticed. You can also link into seasonal events like Christmas, Easter and Valentines Day; perhaps by running a competition.

7) Get your audience involved - encourage your fans and followers to help your business. Citroen and vitaminwater are examples of companies whose audience have designed new products; a car - read more here - and a Vespa - read more here.

8) Give people a reason to act - aim to make every post or tweet shareable. Help solve people’s problems by publishing a really helpful tip or a link to a tool or a technique that can save people time.

9) Tell people to act - after you’ve provided value (see point 1) and given people a reason to act (see point 8) you need to tell your reader what to do next with a call to action. This should be concise and straight to the point. You could go straight for the sale, “Go here to sign up for our next workshop” or ask readers for there opinion, “Please comment below” or “tweet us your thoughts”.

10) Post regularly to build up familiarity - post and tweet on a regular basis so that people become familiar in your content and more confident in their relationship with you. You should aim for at least one Facebook and LinkedIn post per day and 4 or 5 on Twitter. You can use Buffer to help schedule and manage your updates - read Buffer App Review - Scheduling your updates to find out more.

To learn more about Social Media updates and planning your content please get in touch.