Ironically, one of the best contemporary forms of marketing is all but cost-free. Social media, still in its ascendancy, offers an outstanding opportunity to get your message in front of the masses, at the cost of little more than time.
Which, of course, is the rub — creating engaging social media posts takes time. It also requires thought, research, and careful planning. However, in today’s screen-happy society, few other methods offer similar efficacy.
Here’s what you need to know.
Consistency Counts
If you want to see the best results, you’ll need to produce informative, entertaining, or thought-provoking content—every day. In most cases, two posts a day are more than enough to keep you in users’ feeds all day, particularly if it drives reactions by your followers. Any more than that, you’ll run the risk of being viewed as a spam machine, so be careful to avoid overindulging.
Make It Matter
Posting just for the sake of posting is a mistake. Having nothing to say and being quiet is way smarter than having nothing to say and demonstrating it to everyone. Similarly, you must ensure what you do say is relevant to your business, while refraining from straight out sales pitches.
As an example, you can run posts around advances in your industry. Let’s say you’re using a platform like Shopify to sell electronics online. What’s your opinion on that hot new smartphone? What are the must-have features for today’s home theater amplifiers? What’s the cleverest home automation solution you’ve seen?
Answer the questions your ideal customer is most likely to ask.
Quality Over Quantity
While relevance is important, quality is paramount. Do your homework before you talk about something to be certain the information you’re passing along is accurate. Too many people hop onto social media platforms and spout opinions based upon little more than the way they wish things would be.
You’ll be looked upon as an expert in your field when you develop a reputation for accuracy and precision. This respect converts into sales quite readily.
Images Are Intriguing
The vast majority of people using social media will scroll past a huge block of text, regardless of the importance of the information it contains. Give users pictures capable of eliciting emotional responses, or inspiring curiosity to attract their attention to your posts.
On the same subject, video can be just as effective — if not more so. However, most people view social media on mobile devices, so you’ll have to make sure the video is capable of conveying its message without sound.
Contribute to the Conversation
Bi-directional communication is one of the greatest strengths of social media. People want to engage with you, all you have to do is give them something into which they can sink their teeth. However, once you’ve done so, you must respond to their thoughts.
The very definition of engagement, this also helps keep your message on track, while simultaneously providing insights into the thought processes of people your posts attract. It becomes easier to craft content to which they will respond when you know how they think.
Be Uniquely You
Everything you post, the way you post it and the responses you aim to prompt should be in line with your brand’s values. In other words, you’ll need to cultivate a personality and stick with it.
In the physical world, the people with whom you interact know you to be a certain type of person; they appreciate that and it’s why your thoughts matter to them. Creating engaging social media posts requires much of the same from you. Get it right, you’ll lay claim to a loyal and ever-expanding cadre of followers.
