Developing a strong brand presence is and always has been one of the top priorities for any marketer. As time goes, and as the digital market becomes larger, having a physical brand presence is no longer enough.
To keep up with current trends marketers have been forced to extend their marketing portfolio to include more digital elements like websites and social media platforms. These elements have become the bread and butter of digital marketing efforts.
But it is not enough to only have these digital platforms, you need to utilise them correctly to receive the full benefit for your brand. With a strong social media presence you can stay connected to your audience, attract new customers and help maintain customer relationships.
Let’s take a look at some key features that make a social media post successful.
- Posting Schedule
If you have been posting on your social media platforms and feel that you are not receiving the organic traction that you should be, a good place to start is by checking the time and frequency of your posts.
In the analytics section on the various social media platforms it is possible to review the times at which your audience/followers are most engaging or active. If you are posting when your followers are not active, it is a likely explanation as to why your posts are not getting the traction that they should be.
Post frequency also plays a big role in organic engagement. The more often you post, the more followers will see your content on their feed/timelines. But posting frequency has a fine line – post too much and you risk getting unfollowed.
The important rule of thumb to remember is to post when you have something relevant to say which brings us to our next key element.
2. Relevant Content
No matter what industry you are in there is content, news and information that is more relevant to your audience. When creating content it is important to keep these factors in mind to ensure that your audience will be interested in reading and engaging with the content that you are putting out on your feed.
However, even if the content you are creating is relevant, you need to make sure that it still matches your brand identity and personality so that your audience can still associate your brand with the content they are seeing.
It is important to follow the 30:70 rule.
This rule states that 30% of the content on your social media feed should be about products, promotions and related information while the other 70% should consist of non-promotional content.
3. Caption Quality
Even though current social media trends have revealed that the graphic or artwork that you create to attach to your post is more important, this does not mean that you should skimp on the copy altogether.
Captions should be relevant, concise and compelling.
When creating copy long-ended sentences and sensational language should be avoided altogether. Not only do readers not respond well to these tactics, but your post can be penalized by the social media platform.
Here are some good practices to keep in mind when creating caption copy:
- Pose a Question: Questions help to draw the attention of your readers and for them to determine if they are interested in finding out more about what you have to say.
- Quotes: If you are posting about a recent blog addition on your website, include a short quote about a relevant part of your article.
- Link: Social media posts are great for driving traffic to your website. Whether you want followers to read a blog article or find out more about your product range, it is a good idea to include links in your post.
- Use Numbers: If you are sharing statistics, avoid writing out numbers and use their numerical characters instead. Posts with numbers have proven to receive up to 529% more engagement.
- Use Line Breaks: While this is not an option on all social media platforms, line breaks help to separate content to pull attention to important sections of your post.
4. Powerful Images
Social media has evolved from its roots. Where text-based posts once used to be the in-thing, modern social media posts are all about the visuals like creative graphics, photos of people and videos.
Posts with visual content are more likely to get more shares, engagements and clicks than other posts on social media. For example: an article post can include the title of the article in the image so that scrollers-by will notice the headline.
According to research, brands have as little as two seconds to grab the attention of followers. Successful visuals are high quality, capture the attention of your followers quickly and also express your brand identity.
5. Hashtags and Emojis
Hashtags and emojis are more than just a formality when creating social copy. They should be used to grab the attention of your following, to bring across a point and to reach new followers that are not currently following your brand.
Special characters, or emojis, add visual prominence to your post. Draw attention to a link by using the arrow or point emojis or add a star to make an important facet stand out more.
But be sure to maintain a professional image while doing so.
Hashtags should be used to link your post to relevant or trending topics. People are able to follow these hashtags and any posts including the hashtag will pop up. This is a good way to gain new followers and expand your audience.
This is particularly true for platforms like Instagram which do not have clickable links and only clickable hashtags.
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By following these five simple guidelines you should see an improvement in your post engagement and reach. It is important to keep in mind that improvement does not happen overnight and you will need to keep working on your strategy to perfect it.
A little bit of creativity goes a long way!
Get in touch with the digital marketing team at Online Innovations to help develop a social media strategy for your brand. Call us on 041 365 4919, email sales@onlineinnovations.com or visit www.onlineinnovations.com to find out more.