If you’re looking to build your presence online, then social media marketing is the way to go. However, many who have begun an online business for the first time are unaware of the power of social media.
Think about it. There are millions upon millions of folks on the Internet in every country, and promoting to that number of potential customers decades ago was unfathomable. Position yourself ahead of your competition by promoting yourself and your services, and you will begin to reap the rewards before you know it.
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To do this, you will have to create loads of content. The purpose of the content is to get attention to your product or services so that folks will, in time, instantly recognize you as the solution to their problems. Don’t worry if you’re new to the content marketing ball game. This is something that will take practice if you’re a beginner.
So how do we create social media posts that will encourage engagement? The answers are not so simple, though practice makes perfect, and if you can apply these techniques, you’ll be way ahead of your competition. Here are 11 tips to consider:
1. Write Good Copy
The picture will get them to stop, though the words will immerse them in whatever you’re selling or offering. If you would like to improve your writing skills, then enroll in an online course or watch a YouTube video with tips on how to improve your business writing.
The reality is that words will get enormous power over us all, and those of us who are gifted with the challenge of convincing others will likely experience the most success. Writing shouldn’t be that difficult. You could compose an article and then have someone with more experience overlook it to catch any errors and improve sentence flow. Remember, practice makes perfect, and the more you write better you’ll become at it.
Writing good copy is an art and a science. To write great copy, you need to understand your audience, know what they want, and be able to articulate why your product or service is the best solution to their problem.
To understand your audience, think about who they are, what their needs are, and what motivates them. What age group are they in? What gender? What interests do they have?
When you know who your target audience is, you can start to think about what they want. Do they want to be entertained? Informed? Inspired? Empowered?
Once you know what they want, you need to be able to articulate why your product or service is the best solution to their problem. This is where you get into the features and benefits of your product or service. Features are the aspects of your product or service that are unique and give it an advantage over other products or services. Benefits are the positive outcomes that your customer will experience as a result of using your product or service.
2. Use Great Visuals
What will cause people to stop scrolling on their feed is the visuals. Grab them with something eye-catching and colorful if it applies to your brand, and add a few words for extra emphasis.
The power of visuals cannot be underestimated. If you have difficulty coming up with your own images or are lacking in photography skills, then you can hire the services of a professional, or if you are on a budget, you could opt for stock imagery from sites such as Pixabay or Pexels.
Using images, videos, and infographics in your posts is a great way to get more engagement. In fact, posts with images get 94% more views than posts without images. To start using images in your posts, try using Canva to create simple designs or look for free stock photos. You don’t necessarily need to hire a professional photographer or designer to create great visuals for your posts. As long as the visuals are relevant and add value to the post, they will be effective.
3. Don’t Be Self-Centered
In social media marketing, there is a term known as reciprocating. And if you reciprocate and give back to the community, those who see this will recognize you and pay back the favor. By talking about and promoting others, you are showing that you are not thinking only of yourself and will quickly be recognized as a generous thought leader on the Internet.
If you want to promote your business or service, you will have to teach others and offer something of value. By promoting others, you’re telling the world that it is not all about you, and consequently, others will be more likely to help you.
Being self-centered is one of the quickest ways to kill your social media engagement. If all you ever do is talk about yourself, your business, and your product, people will quickly get tired of it and tune you out. Instead, focus on providing value to your audience. Share interesting and useful information with them. Ask them questions and start conversations. When you do talk about your business, make sure it is in the context of how it can help your audience solve a problem or improve their life in some way. Avoid being salesy or pushy. If you focus on providing value to your audience, they will be more likely to pay attention to you and engage with you.
4. Include Hashtags
You might as well say that your post is invisible if you’re not using hashtags – this applies to the majority of social media outlets. It is not absolutely necessary to include tags, though if you do, your post will more likely be seen by a larger group of people. If you need assistance with finding hashtags, you could research online for a service that will provide these. The service does not usually cost more than $50 a month, but it is well worth it, for your post will be seen by a larger sample of people.
Hashtags are a great way to increase the reach of your posts and get more engagement. Whenever you use relevant hashtags, your post will be visible to people who are searching for that hashtag. This gives you the opportunity to reach new people who might be interested in what you have to say. Hashtags are also a great way to start or join conversations. If you mainly use X and Instagram, you should definitely use hashtags in your posts since these platforms are built around hashtags. Facebook is less hashtag-centric, but using a few relevant hashtags in your posts can still be beneficial.
5. Keep Up With Trends
You want to see what is already working out there and what’s not. Part of this is tuning yourself to the trends and changes of the day. This could be in any area of culture: music, TV, or food. When you find out what others like, you are then able to market them more effectively. However, trends change, and you’d be surprised at how many brands and blogs out there do not keep up with changes, thereby losing one of the best opportunities for effective promotion.
Keeping up with trends is a great way to show your audience that you are relevant and up-to-date. It also allows you to tap into what is popular at the moment and use that to your advantage. When you can relate your content to something that is trending, you are more likely to get attention and engagement from people. This is because people are already talking about the topic and are more likely to see your content if it is relevant to what they are interested in.
6. Be Concise
Let’s face it, we are all distracted in some way or degree to another in this world. There is just so much information and entertainment to consume that we often do not have time for even the essentials. It is important to be as brief as possible as we do not have the time and, moreover, are stressed. For instance, when writing a post, ensure your points are covered as quickly as possible. An article should be no more than necessary to cover whatever points you’d like to go over. Sometimes you can say something better in a few words than you can in several paragraphs.
Unnecessarily long posts are often a turn-off for people. They would rather read something that is concise and to the point. When you make your posts too long, people are likely to lose interest and not finish reading. This is why it is important to be as concise as possible when creating content for your social media platforms. Your social media captions should not be too long, either. A good rule of thumb is to keep your captions under 200 characters so that people can easily read them and understand your message.
7.Post at Ideal Times
Every social media platform has an optimal time to post. Do your research and determine when these are. By posting at optimal times, you’re ensuring that your post will be seen by the most people possible. A social media scheduler such as SocialBee, HootSuite, and Buffer, can find and schedule the best times for your posts.
Several studies suggest that the best time to post on social media is around 9:00 am to 10:00 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. However, this may not be the case for every brand and every social media platform. The best way to find out what times work best for you is to experiment and see when you get the most engagement. Once you determine the best times to post, you can start using one of the social media schedulers mentioned earlier to automate your posts so that they go out at the ideal times.
8. Engage Your Readers
Getting your readers involved can consist of asking questions that will elicit responses. Keeping your potential clients engaged and involved in whatever it is that you’re doing will ensure that their eyes are focused on you, and it will also make it less likely that they will go on to something else. Other ways of engaging your readers are through video, quizzes, or contests. You may wish to study how to make your videos as interesting as possible, and you could do this by taking either an online course or viewing videos on YouTube. Look for ways to get them interested in what you have to offer, and you’re guaranteed to have our eyes on your brand and its services.
Social media is all about building relationships. You need to engage with your audience and get them talking to you. The best way to do this is by responding to comments, liking and sharing their posts, and tagging them in relevant posts. Treat your audience like you would your friends and family, and you’re sure to build strong relationships that will last.
9. Never Give Up
In our socially connected world, do not hesitate to post as often as possible. Don’t be afraid to think that you’re overdoing it. Sometimes a potential client needs to see your post several times before they can commit to it. You will have to do something to stand out from the millions of other blogs that exist, and this is not easy. However, posting as often as possible will increase the chances of your post being seen.
Many people make the mistake of giving up too soon. They post for a week or two and then get discouraged when they don’t see results. It takes time to build an audience, and you need to be patient. If you keep at it and never give up, eventually, you will start to see the fruits of your labor. Instead of giving up, look for ways to improve your strategy and keep going.
10. Consider Posting Manually
While it is true that automated posting can save you lots of time, we all feel most inspired whenever we are forced to think of something on our own. Auto-posting will definitely give you a heads up in terms of time, though for more inspirational posts, consider posting manually. It will be obvious to others who see your post whenever it is done automatically. By posting manually, you’re giving a personal touch that, in the long term, will distinguish you from your competition.
Posting manually from time to time will show your audience that you’re not just a faceless entity. You’re a real person who is interested in what they have to say. This will make them more likely to engage with you and your brand. If you decide to post manually, make sure that you’re still using some of the other tips in this article so that you can get the most engagement possible.
11. Choose the Right Social Media Platform
Every social media network has its own flavor. LinkedIn is more geared toward business folks, and so posting a picture of a party, as you might on Instagram, may seem strange on that site. Pinterest as well is more visually oriented than other networks, and you could reach a lot of people by posting pins on various boards in different categories. Facebook also is great for promoting your business and is more informal when it comes to posting. Twitter can also be used for fun posts and is not as serious as LinkedIn.
Seek out the best network for yourself and stick with it. You may want to try one or two in the beginning and then branch out his time goes along. It’s important that you understand the tone of each social media platform before you start posting. You don’t want to come across as trying too hard or not trying hard enough. The best way to learn the ropes is by observing others who are already doing well on the platforms that you’re interested in.
Takeaway
Content marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. Spreading your brand’s message is a matter of choosing the right tools and strategies and applying these techniques. Planning your brand’s colors and fonts based on personality in the beginning can help you go a long way. Once you pick a style and personality, then stick with it. If you’re lacking in some areas of marketing, then hire a team that will help you.
Apply these techniques, and soon you’re bound to watch your blog or business grow. And remember that consistency is key, so post as often as possible, and keep offering value to your customers. If you do this, you’ll be way ahead of much of the competition.
Featured Photo/Adobe Stock
