No matter how tired you are of hearing it, “Content is King” is extremely relevant. Your content on social needs to be a key part of your marketing strategy. If you see your social media posts falling flat, try some of these strategies to engage your audience effectively.
Follow the 50-30-20 Rule
The percentages change depending on who you are talking to, but the general rule is your social content should break down into 50, 30, and 20 percentages.
- 50% should be curated content. Share articles and blogs that are not only relevant to your industry, but that are newsworthy and that you enjoy.
- 30% should be original content. Amp up your original content to include blogs, white papers, SlideShare presentations, infographics, videos, and more.
- 20% should be promotional material. Keep your strictly promotional posts to 20% of less. You need some wiggle room in your strategy to share or comment on the up-to-the-minute trends on other’s social accounts.
Share Media in Every Post
The days of text-only posts are over! You need some type of media in every post to engage more people. Add a photo, video, or infographic. If you are on a platform such as Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn, allow a link preview for your media.
Keep Posts Short
Everyone is used to limiting their Twitter posts to 140 characters, but did you know more people will engage with your posts on other platforms more if they are 100 characters or less? Max engagement occurs with 80 characters or less.
Add Keywords
Craft keywords not only into your social media posts, but also throughout your profile descriptions so people are able to actually find you to easily engage. You also want to break your content strategy down into topic categories in an editorial calendar. Include a list of recommended keywords for each category. You can use those keywords when creating posts on social.
Go Easy with Hashtags
Even though you want to use keywords, there are hashtag rules for each platform. Breaking these rules can result in low engagement, either due to platform algorithms or the audience mentally marking your brand as spam.
- Facebook: No hashtags (unless your Instagram account is linked to your Facebook).
- Twitter: Maximum three hashtags in a post plus additional branded hashtags if necessary.
- Google+: First three are searchable keywords that can be ranked by Google. Any hashtags after the three are basically irrelevant.
- LinkedIn: No hashtags.
- Instagram: Two trending hashtags plus unlimited unique hashtags as a way of conversing on the platform.
- Pinterest: Include a short description or commentary about the pin, then follow with an unlimited number of hashtags if you want (although they are not necessary as long as you include keywords in the description).
Change Your Content per Platform
Don’t have the same post for every platform and definitely don’t like your posts across multiple platforms, like Facebook posts automatically uploaded to Twitter. The exception to this rule is allowing Instagram photos to upload to Facebook as the two are partner platforms.
Take the time to learn the language of each platform to craft posts specific to each audience. Remember my points about character counts and hashtag usage!
As long as you take the time to develop a content strategy and learn the language and rules of each platform, the engagement numbers will follow.