Business Tips: Posting to Social Platforms
Social Media platforms are king for businesses to grow their audience. Social media as a business tool is no longer optional, but an essential way to reach your customers, gain valuable insights and grow your brand. It allows you to reach a large audience who may not be in your local area or are your typical client. Think about it this way, almost everyone has at least one social media app on their phone. It’s a constant stream of media, ads, personal posts, business tips, try-on hauls, behind-the-scenes, foodie films and SO. MUCH. MORE. Social platforms provide a space for businesses to not only show off what they do, but also create and tell their story in a visually aesthetic way. If you do not have your business on social platforms, you are missing out on the easiest, most effective and inexpensive way to reach your target audience.
We manage a long list of client social media accounts and want to share our tips on how and what to post to social platforms.
#1: Go in with a Strategy!
When posting to social platforms, you will get the most out of your posts if you go in with a strategy and plan. We typically plan a month to 3 months of social posts at a time. We are able to look at monthly analytics and optimize based on metrics. The more thought out and planned you have your social posts, the less stressful it is for you and more efficient it can be for your time. Find content that speaks to your brand and build an editorial calendar around that. Come up with 3-4 content buckets that speak to your brand/business to ensure you have a well rounded social media feed. Figure out who you want to reach, who you’re currently reaching, what goals you have with your brand following and content. And as always…stay consistently on brand.
#2: Post Regularly with Relevant Hashtags
The more hashtags the better. Hashtags are a fundamental way to label, categorize and find your content. When you tag a piece a content with a hashtag, your post will be visible to anyone who searches that specific hashtag. Hashtags are also used as a reference for social media platform’s algorithm, so it can categorize your content and suggest it to users it thinks will have a high interest. Again, creating more opportunities for your posts to be seen by an audience that would not typically be reached. When using hashtags, using ultra-popular hashtags isn’t always the best strategy for getting more engagement on your posts and stories, as they’re less likely to be seen. Pick hashtags that are relevant to your post and the type of business that you run. Many results have shown that using more hashtags = better results. We suggest curating a list of hashtags that is relevant for the type of business you run and using it consistently, switching out certain hashtags depending on the time of year or the specific content of that post.
#3: Engage with your Audience in the Comments
When you engage with your audience, you are not only creating a relationship with those who are following your brand, but also helping your overall algorithm. Take Instagram for example - when Instagram sees more engagement in the comments of your content, it will push that post to the forefront of other people's feed for them to see. This can be one of the most effective ways to get organic reach. Engaging with your audience in the comments also shows them your gratitude. Brands can not thrive without the people that support them, so be sure to engage with those who take the time to engage with you.
#4: Create Fun Ways to Keep your Content Engaging
This is the fun part. There are so many ways to keep your content engaging and fun for your audience. Depending on the platform you’re utilizing you can create polls, question boxes, feedback, and questionnaires that allow your audience to feel like they are helping make decisions and that their opinion matters and is heard. This is HUGE when it comes to gaining followers and creating a community around your brand. The more you are able to include your followers, the better.
Some of our favorite ways to create engaging content that we have implemented into our own social media strategy include the following:
The link feature on Instagram stories — This is another easy way to drive consumers to your website or other work that you have done.
Collaboration Feature on Instagram — Now, instead of only tagging another account, if they are featured in your post, you can tag them as a collaborator. When tagging another account as a collaborator, the post is shown on both account profiles.
Reels and Video Content — This allows you to show more visual assets and typically get more exposure. This is because video and content typically performs best with social media algorithms, based on the fact it captures a viewer’s attention for longer.
With social media platforms continually advancing, sticking to these core tips will allow you to find your creative niche and build a strategy around your posts. And don’t forget, this is a way to show off what you can do, have fun, and allow your creative ideas to come to life! We hope these tips help you step up your social media posting. What are your favorite social media features? Drop them below in the comments.
For more of our Business and Marketing Tips, check out our tips to Building Your Brand’s Aesthetic and our best 5 Tips to Up Your Instagram Photography Game.
