Commitment and consistency are paramount when building your company’s social media presence.
You cannot simply decide to set up your social platforms, with the intention that the odd Facebook post will suffice.
Not only is social media browsing a ‘time hoover’, but the planning of what to actually say may also become your nemesis. In fact if the written word isn’t your forte, then you may find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time deliberating over what to say.
Posts should be consistent
Think about the message that you want to portray to your audience and the tone of voice that you want your business to deliver.
A little bit of light hearted humour can be a nice blend into the overall mix of posts, especially if you are a smaller business. However, unless you are a comedian, it shouldn’t form the basis of all your social communication. You wouldn’t send a letter or email with a joking message, so why would you post on your social platforms with one?
That said, there’s empowerment in being personable, as it forms a trust with your potential customers, especially as the person posting on the social platforms may also be the person selling the product or answering enquiries.
Posts should include an image
It’s a well known fact that the human brain responds much faster to imagery than the written word. In fact, it’s believed that we translate an image or photo ten times faster than the accompanying text.
Instagram doesn’t not allow you to post without an accompanying image, but in today’s busy world where a social media post becomes yesterday’s news in the blink of an eye, posting without imagery on Facebook, and to some extent twitter would be churlish.
Understanding the importance of using hashtags
For those not fully conversant with social media, the best way to describe a hashtag is like a digital index card. The hashtag not only makes it easier for you to find all your images that share the same hashtag, but people follow or search by hashtags too.
Using a combination of generic hashtags, coupled with more specific ones is a good way to broaden the possibility of your brand being found.
The chances are that very few people will search for, or indeed follow the #SerendipityHappens, but it’s a way of tagging and finding all images that we have ever posted.
Equally a hashtag such as #SocialMedia will have been used many millions of times and any post that includes it will become virtually invisible within a matter of minutes.
You can include up to 30 hashtags on any Instagram post, with the optimum considered to be around 11. This is unlike a tweet, or a Facebook post which can only be accompanied by a few hashtags.
When to post?
Once you have built a small audience, it’s time to look at the analytics of your followers.
Gauge the optimum time that your majority of your followers are browsing each social platform and plan your posts accordingly. After all, there’s little point in posting if no one even sees it.
Making social media work for your business is just one of our specialties, so get in touch and let Serendipity Happens work for your company too!
