Around half of small businesses outsource their social media marketing to agencies. Additionally, 64% of these businesses want to spend more money on their social media marketing efforts in the next year, including paid ads, organic posts, and other types of campaigns that grow their online presence and drive traffic to their website. If you are already a seasoned social media manager, you probably manage multiple social media accounts. Let's look at some tips that will help you be more effective.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Posting the correct type of content
Posting the right content for the different platforms can pose a challenge. First and foremost, a brand uses social media for various purposes. Some content is educational, some content is curated, while other content is outright promotional. Knowing the proper ratio can help you create a social media calendar and better organize your posts. Some social media managers follow a percentage that they call the 70/20/10 rule. The 70/20/10 rule breaks down as follows:
- 70% of the content created for social media should be owned by the brand and can consist of educational content about the brand's products and services.
- 20% of the content shared on social media should be curated; this means that the brand shares content from other sources.
- 10% of the content shared on social media should be outright promotional. This can consist of discounts, coupons, and updates about various products and services currently being promoted.
The type of content is also essential. In recent years, platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have made video content more prominent by introducing the Stories feeds. Here are some of the trends depicting the efficacy of video as a social media advertising medium:
- Video content on the Internet is the majority of Internet consumer traffic.
- Social media marketers using video grow their revenue streams 49% faster.
- When sending customers to a website, the video keeps the customer on the website longer.
While most content does not need to be video, you should include video as a cornerstone of your social media management strategy.
When should you post content?
Various industries have different times when customers tend to be online. For example, consider the spa and personal care industry. A promotional post is more likely to succeed on the weekends when the typical spa customer is not at work. Each type of social media account also has basic analytics telling you when most of your followers are online and engaged with your content. Generally speaking, Sprout Social offers some good guidelines on when social media posts perform well:
- The best times to post are in the morning on any day except Sunday.
- The best days to post are Tuesdays through Fridays.
- The worst day to post on social media is on Sunday.
Over time, the various analytics tools at your disposal will help you determine what you post on each platform and select an appropriate day and time.
Creating a social media strategy and calendar
Many social media marketers create a calendar for the upcoming month. They look at products and services that the brand is considering promoting, tie those promotions into appropriate messaging, and include video or photographic content. A social media strategy is also essential. Here are some guidelines for setting up a social media strategy:
- Choosing the right platform: If your business has analytics data about which social media platforms generate revenue, these platforms should be where you are most active.
- Growing your followers: You should have strategies for increasing your followers. For example, some brands will do contests where followers share posts with friends.
- Knowing your follower's demographics: Over time, you will see the makeup of your followers. For example, your followers might consist of engaged shoppers, a particular gender or age group, or even specific geography. This can help you better craft your social media messaging.
- Have a customer avatar in mind: Each brand has the persona of its ideal customer. Working with the brand owner will help you find out the type of imagery and messaging you will use in every post.
Creating a social media calendar for each brand will help you organize your posts for the month. The calendar will serve as the cornerstone that frames what your business posts on every social media channel. It will also help you achieve a regular posting cadence and fulfill your monthly objectives.
Know the shelf life of your social media posts
Every post that you do has a "shelf life." Depending upon the platform, as the post ages, the engagement will drop. According to The Refinery, each social media platform has the following "shelf life" for a post:
- TikTok: The post only has a few minutes for viable engagement.
- Twitter: Tweets are suitable for attention for no longer than 20 minutes.
- Facebook: A Facebook post will get good engagement for as long as six hours.
- LinkedIn: While LinkedIn is best for B2B brand relationships, a post can be relevant for up to 24 hours.
- Instagram: An Instagram photo or video will get good engagement for up to two days.
- YouTube: A YouTube video will get engagement for about 20 days. However, since YouTube videos appear in search engines, your video will almost always get attention.
- Pinterest: Pinterest posts are suitable for as long as four months.
Should you limit your posts to specific platforms?
A platform's engagement life cycle should not determine if you use it. For example, TikTok
videos are great for live events and product demonstrations. Twitter is great for sharing a link to
a blog. YouTube and Pinterest are for curating relevant cornerstone content that communicates
your brand's values and educates customers. The post type you share on these platforms will
determine how much engagement the post gets.
Always schedule your posts out whenever possible
Some tools help you schedule posts consistently across your different choice platforms. Also, each platform has native scheduling tools to let you organize your posts well into the future. When you schedule posts, you benefit by staying focused on your social media strategy.
When you schedule your posts, you will also maintain a consistent cadence. As a result, posts will always go out at the right time, and if you aren't in the office, you won't worry about missing a significant promotion.
Use a "link in bio" call-to-action for Instagram
Instagram is a great platform. Unfortunately, you probably know that you cannot put links in posts. Many brands put their website link in their Instagram profile, but a link bio tool can help serve you better. When an Instagram user clicks on a profile link or an Instagram ad, it opens up a native browser inside the Instagram app if they are using their smartphone. So instead of sending an Instagram follower to your website, a link bio tool can help you:
- Draw social media followers to your most relevant and current promotions and messaging.
- You can easily update links.
- Understand how your followers engage with your links.
- Remarket to your link bio visitors with the various tracking tags available from Facebook, Pinterest, Google, and TikTok.
- Include other marketing mechanisms, like opt-ins to further market to your followers.
Not only will a link-in-bio tool support you on Instagram, but it will also support you on your other social media platforms. For example, you can use your link bio tool in video descriptions on YouTube, in posts on Facebook, and for specific pins that you promote on Pinterest. In addition, with TikTok only letting you use a profile link, you can use a link bio tool on that platform, too.
If you are looking for an excellent link bio tool to unify your brand's online presence, you should give Campsite.bio a try. Many social media managers use Campsite.bio to manage bio links for multiple clients. Therefore, it can be an excellent substitute for a website if your client does not have one. It also will let you track the engagement of your links and remarket to people who have visited your link bio.