Well, first of all, let me just say, good job. In this incredibly digital day and age, it’s incredibly clear how important social media is for a business, especially a small business. Having a good, active social media page allows you to interact with your customers, answer their questions, and let them know about news regarding your business. We, here at Avant8, want to make sure you are getting the most out of your business’s social media accounts. So, here are some tips on how to make your social media posts the best they can be.
Know who you’re talking to
Remember when you were learning how to write a persuasive essay in school? Most of that stuff they taught you can probably just forget. The five-paragraph essay is never really used in the real world, and paragraphs can be as long or as short as you want. But the one thing they taught you that is gold, is that you should know your audience. The measure of a good social media account depends so much on how well it reaches its followers. But not every account has the same kinds of people following it.
So, when starting on your social media page think about your customers/clients. Who are they? What do they like (besides what you have to offer)? How old are they? These are all questions you should be able to answer seeing as they are people that you deal with every day. If your customer base mainly consists of people 60+, don’t use youthful slang. They’re not going to know what you’re talking about without having to go onto Urban Dictionary. Don’t make anyone’s grandma go onto Urban Dictionary, please. If you mainly deal with parents, don’t make posts talking about how great it is to be a nonparental person. Make a post that has tips about parenting or about how parenting can be so stressful/rewarding. Just as you tailor your business to your customers, you should be tailoring your social media to them as well.
Fun for you, fun for your followers
This may seem like it goes without saying, but it always bears repeating, people like fun and interesting posts. Informational posts are great! They’re even better when they make people laugh or smile. The best way to get people to engage with your posts is to be engaging. Make posts that create conversation. Make your posts relevant (I don’t necessarily mean political or anything unless you want to. Mainly, we mean make posts geared toward Halloween in October. That sort of thing). Have interesting graphics or videos with your posts. Have some sort of call-to-action within your caption for example: “Check it out on our site!” “The link is in the bio!” “Tell us about it in the comments!” Basically, do whatever you can to encourage people to interact with your post.
If you’re struggling to figure out where to start, take some time to study accounts that you really like that are similar to your own. Make a note about what you like about them. You should also note what posts have the most likes and comments. Odds are there are some uniting factors between these posts. Try to figure out what those are something you can do. Basically, I’m just giving you permission here to spend hours on social media.
#hashtagsforlife
I know they can sometimes feel a little obnoxious, but they get the job done. Hashtags are a great way to get your posts out there. They are so helpful in gaining new followers and engagement. When you put relevant tags on your posts, they reach more people who are either wandering down that rabbit hole of randomly scrolling through social media or are genuinely looking for a business like yours.
The way that we like to use our hashtags, here at Avant8, is to essentially “put them below the fold.” After writing the captions we add a few periods in a vertical line. At the end of that line, we start the hashtags. That way the tags are more likely to appear below a “read more” drop-down, instead of taking up room next to the caption. When you leave the tags by the caption, the caption tends to drown in them, and it distracts from the message you’re trying to send to your followers. That just makes you look spammy. No one wants to look spammy.
Data = helpful
When you start running your social pages, there is going to be an experimental phase. You are going to have to test the waters a little to see what works with your clientele and what doesn’t. The best way to know how well these posts do is not just to look at the number of likes. You should be looking at the analytics. This usually consists of the number of likes, number of comments, number of shares, number of saves, number of clicks, and number of profile visits. This way you know what kind of engagement you are getting on your posts. When you look at these, you can get an idea of what is working for you and what isn’t.
Most social media sites offer basic analytic information for free for business profiles. Some also have paid versions that give you more information and even let you “boost” your post, making it visible to more people. There are also programs like Hootsuite, which allows you to schedule posts (making your life much easier). It offers analytics on the posts that you schedule through their service.
Social media can be such a powerful tool for your business, so it is always good to know how to use it properly. These tips will hopefully give you a good idea of where to start. If you’re thinking that this all sounds way too complicated for your taste and would rather hand it off to someone else, then you’re in luck. Right now, you are on a website belonging to experts in all things social media and the digital beyond, Avant8. We love doing stuff like this.