You already understand the need of having a social media presence with original, interesting material. And you know that good social media content may increase website traffic and turn visitors into paying consumers. Hootsuite can assist with content management, publication, and scheduling of activities. You are not alone, though, if you are not clear exactly what to publish.
Your best tool for demystifying social media marketing is this page. From the elements of a great post to suggestions for interesting material to social network–specific rules, you will find everything you need to create a successful content strategy. You could read this piece any sequence. Just choose a subject that piques your curiosity to discover just what you are looking for.
Understanding your post anatomy is important.
Posts exist; then, there are successful ones. You must know the particular goal and value of every component of a post if you are to produce very successful social media material.
Built straight in Hootsuite, the following main components are shown in a sample post:
Caption: Describe your graphic, or highlight with a headline, question, or statement. Studies reveal that the most clicks come from an average of 150 characters—or roughly 15 words.
Emoji: Add tone and visual appeal with pertinent emoji.
Demand to action: To inspire comments, ask a question or provide a link allowing your readers to experiment, learn, or purchase.
Mentions: For more visibility and reach, mention other stories—yours or others.
Add topical and pertinent keywords for extra reach using hashtashes. See Know your networks to get hashtag suggestions for every social network.
Images or videos: Customized to your brand and audience, include one or more (based on the social network) striking, high-quality GIFs, images, or video clips.
Develop the ideal post.
We have gathered some proven best practices to help you reach your social media objectives since there is no such a one-size-fits-all post. Here, we dig down into the post elements discussed in Know your post anatomy to help you develop and involve your audience and prevent social media stagnation.
Headlines and titles
You can choose to use a lengthy caption, a brief headline, or both. If you wish to rapidly offer extra information about your material in a limited space, a secondary headline is excellent.
Emoji and specialized characters
Emoji and special characters can draw attention, liven your brand, and help it to be more approachable. Recent studies reveal that introducing emoji greatly raises audience participation. Just watch not to overdo it! Every emoji ought to have a use.
Apart from expressing feeling and adding additional individuality to your brand, emoji may be utilized as basic participation tools. Emoji can be included, for instance, between blocks of text to facilitate reading and skimming. Emoji can also be used to get votes from your audience; ask them to leave thumbs up if they agree or thumbs down if they disagree.
Demand to action
Try to call to action clearly both at the opening and closing of your postings. On Facebook, for instance, you might publish a notice of a new location opening and invite comments on the post for a prize redeemable at that site. On Twitter, you could just request re-posts. At least link to your website, an article, or another site.
Words
Fundamental to social networking is mentioning other companies, organizations, donors, and influencers in social media posts. To boost mutual visibility and inspire the other party to reshare your message, or respond with their own, thank a partner or supporter of your brand. Likes, comments, and shares on these postings can rapidly boost interaction and even influence algorithms meant to help drive your material to the top of users’ feeds.
Hash tags
Words or phrases joined together and preceded by the # symbol form hashtags. They help you find material, brands, ideas, trends, and campaigns. As soon as you publish, they are instantly searchable on social media, so they might assist to increase the discoverability of your content and draw your brand into trending themes.
Clickable hashtags let anyone who choose one or runs a hashtag search on a social network to view a page displaying all the postings including that hashtag.
These are several of the most often used hashtags.
| Type of hashtag | Examples |
|---|---|
| Campaign or brand event | #MakeoverMySocial, #Digital2021 |
| Product or service | #handbag, #divebar |
| Niche | #foodblogger, #weddingphotographer |
| Industry, group, or community | #craftersofinstagram, #LGBTQ |
| Event, holiday, or season | #nationalicecreamday, #blackfriday |
| Location | #vancouvercraftbeer, #LAcounty |
| Daily | #MondayBlues, #SundayFunday |
| Acronym | #TBT, #YOLO |
| Social responsibility | #savetheplanet, #sustainability |
graphics
Social media is naturally visual, hence visual materials offer a necessary increase in interaction. Visual content statistically attract routinely more clicks, shares, and comments than posts with merely text.
To improve the value and visual appeal of your postings, try including videos, photographs, graphics with text overlay. Although you should not include a visual component to every post, consider how photos influence audience involvement and modify your approach in response.
Organize and rework current materials.
Not all of your social material has to be created from scratch! Excellent content resources for your company and for your whole social media network are yours. Examining your company’s own materials as well as media from reputable outside sources will reveal great assets. Then you may re-use or distribute these resources to keep your audience interested in your own brand.
Outside materials
Sharing outside pieces is a great approach to help close gaps in your content schedule, give your followers more worthwhile material, and establish trust as an active and informed industry member.
Starting your curation of outside material is much easier using Hootsuite Apps.
Right in Hootsuite, Hootsuite provides a range of partner integrations enabling you to install and use content curation tools. Use Hootsuite Apps’ browsing or search tools to identify apps you already use or that would fit you.
Inside content
Your own company might be a gold mine of material for your social media platforms that would enhance them. Social posts could find use for how-tos, blog entries, press releases, printed materials, marketing presentations, promotions, and so on.
Think about chopping large bits of material—like brochures—into bite-sized morsels. Create a Top 10 list from a thorough blog entry. Alternatively use portions of a how-to article as a tips and tricks piece. Track the performance of this recycled material to enable you to better grasp your audience and adjust next material to satisfy their demands and interests.