Last updated on November 25th, 2023 at 03:21 pm
Social media is unarguably one of the best mediums to promote your business and brand. With social platforms, you are guaranteed to find a large audience ready to like, follow and share your content that gives your business improved visibility.
If you are writing social media posts, how you craft the messages determines how much engagement you will get from your audience.
The more engagement, such as likes, comments, and shares you get, the greater reach your posts will have.
Many social posters struggle to get interaction from users. Fortunately, crafting great social media content doesn’t need to be complicated. There are some tried and testing methods you can follow, which give you great results.
Related: Why Social Media Is Important To Small Businesses
Tips to Write Engaging Social Media Posts
Here are some tips we suggest to write social media posts that your audience would love to engage with.
1- Research Your Target Audience
Before you start writing social media posts, think about the audience that you want to reach out to. What are the topics and posts they would be interested in? Do they respond to serious posts or funny memes? Do they prefer text posts or images? What age group do they belong to?
Make sure to keep the likes and dislikes of your target audience in the mind. People are happy to like and share content that they like. This will give your posts better visibility.
You can also add words like “you” and “your” to make readers feel like you directly address them. This gives you a better chance of getting an interaction.
Also, try to mix and adjust your posts to different types of audiences. You won’t please everyone with a post, but you can cater to different groups with mixed content.
2- Make Your Posts Visual
In general, posts with photos and moving images receive better interaction than a text post. Use relevant, high-quality images and video in your posts.
This will reinforce your message and give you a better chance of attracting your audience’s attention.
Photos and videos will also humanize your message. It will enable your audience to know your business on a personal level.
Remember that viewers engage multiple senses when watching videos, so they will remember your posts longer.
You can also design text-based posts that are visually attractive and get clicks.
Many businesses are adopting popular memes in their social posts. The response has been quite favorable from netizens.
3- Keep Your Posts Short
People value their time. If you want users to give you their attention, you need to keep your posts short.
No one wants to take the time to read lengthy posts and essays, especially on social media.
The attention span of the general social media user is less than 3 seconds. Users read the first 3-4 words of your post and skip it if they do not like it.
Many platforms have noted this and cut off long posts. Users are allowed to click to read more.
One of the main reasons for Twitter’s success was its word limit. Other social platforms like Facebook have also adopted this design feature now.
When you post short one-liners, they appear with more prominence on other users’ newsfeeds.
A general rule of thumb is to keep your posts between 100 – 250 characters for best engagement.
4- Add A CTA
Make sure to tell your audience what you want them to do after reading your post.
There are three default options on most platforms. Users can like, comment, or share the post on their own timeline. You should occasionally ask your followers to do these on their own.
You can add a fourth option by adding a link that users can click for more information. This link will go back to your website or an ordering page on your profile.
Many social marketers improve engagement by setting up posts to ask questions to their audience. They pique their audience’s curiosity and then offer solutions via a link.
The goal of social media posting is to have your readers take immediate action. This could be as simple as texting you for more information and directly clicking on your link to ordering products and services.
5- Display Positive Energy
Focus on sharing content that has a positive outlook on life. Many people have been going through a difficult time for the last year. People are struggling with money and job problems.
Your content should be a source of comfort and inspiration if you want to do well. No one likes to share and read gloomy content, so avoid being too pessimistic.
In some of your posts, you can share your opinion on recent news. You should also post positive information about your business and products.
If people criticize your business or services, do not become confrontational. Engage your followers in a friendly manner and go over their concerns to help people.
Whatever you do, avoid attacking or name-calling people online. Harsh criticism of online users is quite unprofessional. It will lower the reputation of your business and brand.
Starting unnecessary fights will draw negative attention from people and hurt any trust or credibility you are trying to build.
6- Post Often
Social media algorithms tend to show users content that they have recently interacted with. This is why you must set up a calendar and try to post at least 3 – 4 times each week.
Like Twitter, you can even post 2 or 3 times in a single day on some platforms!
Posting content regularly ensures that your posts are seen and get higher conversions. Just make sure that you are posting good quality content that users will interact with.
If you do not post for a while, your posts will go down in priority lists. They will stop showing up on your followers’ newsfeeds even when you restart posting.
On social media, it is better to post regularly rather than posting a lot in a single day and then go on a hiatus.
If you cannot be consistent, hire a social media management professional or assign a team member to the task.
7- Look At Popular Trends
Social media marketing is constantly changing, and businesses keep coming up with new tactics. Keep your eyes open for popular trends emerging in various industries on different media platforms.
If you notice a pattern or new marketing strategy rising in popularity, find out what’s happening. If the marketing strategy can work with your business model, it’s a great idea to adapt it.
You can improvise content by creating a list of competitors in your industry-focused on social media marketing. Add them to a tracking tool like Feedly.
This will give you a dashboard of their latest posts that are getting high interaction. Analyze their strategy and then adapt accordingly.
8- Measure & Analyze Your Marketing Efforts’ Results
You will need to evaluate the results of your social media marketing to measure results regularly. Only then, you can improve your social media marketing.
44% of businesses do not track their social media ROI at all. That means there is no way of knowing if your strategy is even delivering the results you want.
To analyze your marketing results, identify the key metrics that affect your business marketing efforts.
Common metrics to analyze include Likes, Shares, Comments, Views, New Followers or Subscribers, Clicks on links, and Orders placed through your social media page etc.
You should keep track of these metrics regularly. This will make it easier to know when to make changes to your social media strategy.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can give your business a boost in your digital branding and selling strategy. Many businesses have adopted social media to reach out to more people.
The social media marketing landscape changes at a rapid scale. Strategies that worked a couple of years ago are no longer relevant. The ones that work now may become outdated a couple of years later. We’re seeing new updates and trends emerging every year.
This makes it necessary for marketers to shift and realign their strategies to keep up with new trends. Whether you have a vast social media following right now or just getting started in this arena, use the tips we shared to craft your own social media marketing strategy. These tips can help your business get ahead of your competitors. They can also help you grow your audience in a way that adds value to them.
Author:
Steven Dean is a Sr. Editor at Content Development Pros; an inbound marketing company that provides complete end-to-end content solutions, including article writing, blog writing, website copywriting, bio writing, and many more services.
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