How To Post For Organic Success
Image by: Vanessa Joy
There are a few key factors in setting yourself up for success on social media. Social Media is an extension of your company and should be professional and on-brand. To start, all of your social media pages should be set up as business pages and all of your information should be accurate and consistent across platforms. Use professional photos that are hi-res and cropped appropriately for your profile pictures and cover photos. Check all of your settings and profile information so everything is on point from having a clear and concise company description to setting a call to action and creating an easy to find username. Also check that your privacy settings, shortcuts, messenger, posting and tagging permissions and restrictions are also set to your preference. Once you've got all your I's dotted and T's crossed, it's time to establish your strategy and KPI's. Here are my tips for getting started strong.
Decide what success means to you and what you expect to gain from your social media strategy. Setting goals will help you create the right plan of action.
Come up with a consistent weekly plan for posts topics and create a content calendar to keep you on track. Also consider using an automated posting platform like Hootsuite, Hubspot or Sprout Social so you can schedule your posts well in advance.
Establish a strong brand presence by posting relevant and cohesive content consistently. If your posting is random, has no purpose, or your page has large gaps of time in between posts, you can lose trust and credibility and be back to square one.
Create unique original quality content vs quantity. Professional images with a consistent vibe paired with engaging written content is key for social. Avoid stock photography whenever possible.
A smaller engaged audience is more valuable than a large unresponsive one.
Think social not promotional, stay away from sales pitchy posts.
Test and adjust your messaging to get people’s attention.
Be yourself, show your face and create a personal connection with your audience.
Know your audience and speak to them by digging into your analytics.
Who is engaging with your posts?
What posts perform best for you ( photo, types of photos, video, text )?
What posts get the most engagement?
What time of day are your followers online?
Use A/B testing to establish a baseline and test out what type of posts will work best. Different brands have success with different types of posts but analytics tell us that today’s digital consumer prefers a story and craves a connection with the brand.
Post with a purpose. Posts can be anything from Promotional, Lead Gen or Inspirational. They should always have a call to action, tie into the brand voice, add value to your products or services and inspire an action.
Continually monitor your success and failures and make adjustments.
Create Evergreen content whenever possible. It will have an increased life span on social as it stays relevant longer and will continue to build momentum.
Create posts that inspire engagement: ask a question, run a contest, post a photo challenge that has a call to action. " Like if you agree! " " Tag someone who would love this!" "What’s your vote?"
Tag anyone involved in your post or people who may be interested in your post. Request quotes and feature other industry experts or influencers. Not only does this build a strong network, it also encourages others to engage with the post.
Continue the conversation by responding to comments. This keeps a post going strong because it is active and shows that you are invested in your audience.
Start and join groups. Start a conversation and inspire comments, likes and shares from others as well as build brand loyalty and expertise
Offer incentives for liking your page. This can be a special content download, promo code or giveaway.
Comment like and share on other people’s pages and posts to get noticed and have a recognizable voice.
Post surveys and quizzes to get targeted feedback on what your following would like to see more of.
Stay on top new features like FB live, stories, swipe up capabilities and filters etc. Anything new always gets attention and you want to stay on the cutting edge.
