Make Your Social Shine This Summer
Social media is a little bit of everything. Engaging, confusing, informative, anxiety-producing… done right, a strong social media portfolio can boost your business. Done wrong, a poor social media portfolio can bust your business. So, let’s dive right in to how we can boost, not bust your social business with five social media tips.
#1: Know Your Audience
In the highly polarized environment of the digital landscape, you don’t even have to go to the search bar to figure out why it’s more important than ever that brands and businesses know their social media audience. Your existing clientele and customers are the bedrock of your business and getting to know them, what they like and what they do not like, is paramount to the success of your social media. Whether they use your social media or not, your key consumer market is always the group you should think about first.
A single post, share, partnership, etc. can snowball and unravel years of brand building in an instant. Knowing who your audience and your core market is can help prevent that from happening. Fortunately, many social media platforms offer extensive tools for analyzing your core demographic base and there are many more independent services that can run analytics for you. (Read up on Analytics Here: https://www.ibm.com/topics/social-media-analytics ) SML Virtual Assistants run analytics on social media channels at least quarterly to ensure that all our posts are hitting the mark.
#2: Provide Value
It should come as no surprise that, with very rare exceptions, people are not logging on to social media for you. They’re doing it for themselves. In order to catch more eyes on your social media, therefore, your social media has to provide value.
So. What’s value?
In the realm of social media, value is anything that is interesting, entertaining, or informative. Value means that any post you make has immediate application in the life of your audience. Whether it be a funny meme that brightens a bad day or an easy recipe for tonight, your content should elicit a (hopefully positive) reaction and break up the cycle of “doom scrolling” down the news feed.
#3: Use Compelling Images
Speaking of things that arrest attention, nothing gives a social media scroller pause like a compelling image. Compelling images are key in driving engagement. In fact, numerous social media platforms will de-prioritize a post if it doesn’t have a picture. Unfortunately, not every topic will have a jaw-dropping image to go with it. However, even a stock image can improve results.
Note, compelling does not mean that the image tries to tell the entire story. No picture is actually “worth 1,000 words”. The image is meant solely to draw people to your post. Images have to be clear and not “busy”–most people are viewing these images on phones with small screens. Additionally, placing text over an image is generally not a great idea. It’s hard to read, detracts from the image, and some platforms will de-prioritize content with text over an image.
#4: Create Social Media-Worthy Video
In much the same way as still images can drum up attention, video is an incredible tool for attracting and holding attention. With video content, it is best to keep it short (under 30 seconds). Also, remember that the “value” point from above is still in operation. It is far better to have no video at all than to have a video that bores viewers.
Though the type and content of video you share will vary drastically based on your brand, there are a few rules of thumb to follow. As mentioned above, it should be under thirty seconds. Additionally, it should give the viewer a compelling reason to keep watching in the first three of those seconds. Finally, the content shared should be in line with your brand or business–not just something shared for the sake of views.
#5: Add Social Media Hashtags in Moderation
There is endless debate, online, about what the optimum number of hashtags is, how and where they should be used, and if they are more of a help or a hindrance. Hashtags make it easier for search engines to find and forward your content. They also, frankly, look ugly. So, the goal should be to put enough hashtags on to get seen and few enough to not make social media users roll their eyes.
What you absolutely do not want to do is to pack your post with “trending” hashtags. Odds are very good that those hashtags have absolutely nothing to do with your post and people searching for that hashtag will be irritated to see your post. Even more certain is that those “trending” hashtags will not be the hot trending topic in the next few days or even hours. Once the fad fades, a hashtag-stuffed post loses credibility and relevance.
A good hashtag strategy is to think of your hashtags as “stepping stones” that a search engine can use to reach your video. They should help categorize it to guide users to your content.
Closing Thoughts
For those not used to its ins and outs, social media can be a jungle full of pitfalls and all manner of strange creatures squawking. Follow these five tips to get more sun on your social media pages. Or, contact SML for professional social media curation from our team of experts.
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