Social Media Tips and Tricks
Social media can be a daunting task for a number of business owners and operators. Knowing what to post, when to post it and the most effective solution for their business is HARD!
I have put together 7 tips and tricks to be aware of with your social media, in the hopes that it may give you a little bit of guidance.
- Create a calendar or plan
Plan out your posts, you can do this for a short time period into the future or for an extended time. When creating a plan make sure you consider a number of areas.
- research other businesses like yours to see what is working;
- make sure you have clear goals and ideas that you want to reach;
- that your plan is flexible and can be adjust when needed;
- information and posts are relevant and engaging.
2. Work out which platform or platforms are the right for you and your audience
Next, you need to work out which platform or platforms to use. There are a number of platforms these days, with the most influential being Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and Twitter. Not all businesses operate on all platforms, some only on one or two.
- research your target market (age, gender, likes etc) and work out which platform/s they are most likely to use;
- look at marketing options and plans with each platform;
- how does each platform work? for example, is your business based off nice product images? Instagram is a must!
3. Build relationships with followers/engagers
Making sure your followers feel appreciated is vital to your social media. If you engage with your followers, they are more likely to want to be involved with your business, and more likely to pass on good feedback to their friends.
- comment back to followers;
- share other local business pages;
- tag followers in relevant posts;
- use your platform to comment and share news for your followers.
Keep your page active and engage with others.
4. Look at current trends and use them to your advantage
Trends can help you grow your audience at the right times. Research things that are in trend at that time, before looking at what posts you can create.
- reels;
- tik tok video trends;
- certain memes;
- wording of posts;
- using certain images and colours.
5. Choose the times that you post your content
Timing is very important but can often be confusing. A number of platforms use ‘algorithms’ to get posts to be seen by certain people at certain times.
Often though, you can simplify this process:
- high activity times:
- early mornings when people first get up;
- mid-day lunch creaks;
- evenings after work;
- use a trial-and-error approach to work out your audience, post at a variety of days/times and work out when your followers are most active.
6. QUALITY!!
Quality over quantity, a commonly used phrase and so appropriate with social media. A number of pages say they need to post ‘X’ number of posts a day/week/month. This can often lead to invalid, boring, and non-interactive posts. Keep your posts relevant and of the best quality.
- good quality images and videos – not blurry or with watermarks;
- relevant posts not just ‘filler’ posts to take up space;
- change up your format, don’t always use the same style of images, posts, quotes etc;
- test the waters and continue to offer diversity on your posts.
7. Schedule your posts in advance and don’t think about them again
On programs such as Facebook, you are able to schedule your posts. This means putting 6 months’ worth of posts into the system and schedule when you would like them to post. Spend time dedicated to effective posts, writing, and hashtags. Once they are all posted, set a reminder for 6 months’ time, to do it all again.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t post when you want to. If you have something interesting to post you can still post manually whenever you would like.
I hope this helps.
-Kaitlin-