Social media is constantly changing – we have seen updates to news feed layouts, messaging capabilities, character counts, new features, and more. As marketing professionals, keeping up with these changes cannot be stressed enough. It’s important to be able to educate your clients, team mates, and execute the best social media strategy possible.
Below are today’s best practices for the top social channels.
Facebook Best Practices
Take Advantage of Video Content
Social media is a fast-paced community. Think about when you’re scrolling through your feed and something catches your eye. It’s usually something visual, bright, engaging, and when a video begins to play, you likely stop to watch. Over 8 billion videos are watched on Facebook every day, so it’s important to make sure you’re sharing content that your audience will enjoy.
Keep Posts Short and Specific
Did you know that link titles with more than 100 characters get cut off on business pages? Or that posts between 100-119 characters drive the most engagement? Be sure to always triple check your content prior to publishing.
Know Your Target Audience
Through Facebook Insights, you can monitor who your audience is, where they live, their age, and more. Use that to your advantage. If your budget allows, consider targeting an extended reach of people through Facebook Advertising. The news feed today is prime real estate space for businesses who are advertising. It’s creating big competition and making it hard for organic posts to be seen the way that they used to.
Engage!
This could just be the most important point. Always engage with your audience. People like interacting with people rather than having a one-way conversation.
Twitter Best Practices
Short and Concise is Best
Sure, Twitter recently upped their max character count for tweets to 280, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to use all that space. Tweets should quickly grab the reader’s attention and provide a call-to-action for them to learn more. If you have a bigger message, it’s probably within the link that you’re providing, too.
Expand Your Reach & Join the Conversation
Hashtags were made so people can connect with others who are speaking about the same topics – such a powerful tool! Those looking for or sharing #SocialMediaBestPractices might use something like that. One to three hashtags per tweet are recommended.
Ask Questions & Run Twitter Polls
An easy and effective way to interact with your audience is by asking them questions. Whether it’s an open-ended question or by running a Twitter pool, it will help you understand what they’re interested in.
Connect via Retweets and Replies
Retweeting relevant content and responded to tweets is a great way to further interaction with your followers and/or influencers. Don’t forget to be responsive when others reach out to your profile, provide feedback, and engage with those speaking about topics you’re interested in, too.
Instagram Best Practices
Establish Relationships
Millions of followers are nice, but they’re not necessary. Invest your time in building a community. Engage with people you think would be interested in your content and gain their trust. The followers will come after.
They’re Not Just for Twitter…
Use those hashtags! Being seen on Instagram requires usage of hashtags, too. Get people interested in your content and find content that you’re interested in, too. Then of course – engage!
Utilize Instagram Stories
Instagram allows its users to add images and videos to their “Story”. When content is added to one’s Story it remains viewable for 24 hours. Adding them to your “Highlights” allows you to add them to specific groups and let your followers view them for as long as you decide to leave them active.
Now Live: IGTV
Instagram recently announced their latest feature IGTV, allowing users to post full-screen, hour-long videos. This is great for tradeshow coverage, new product launched, interviews, and more.
LinkedIn Best Practices
Educate Your Audience
LinkedIn gives us the chance to educate our followers – whether it’s about our business or important industry related topics. Roughly 50 % should be about your company. Another 25% should be about the industry you serve. The final 25% should be about topics that the business is passionate about.
Share Content Regularly
Because of its business-like approach, followers will notice your frequency of publication. They will begin to recognize you and further trust you as an industry leader.
Create Your Company and Showcase Pages
Company Pages are where you can catch the eye of prospective customers and build relationships with existing customers by featuring relevant content. Showcase Pages serve that same purpose for specific business lines, products, or initiatives within your company.
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