Not receiving enough engagement and growth on your social media platforms? It’s time to rethink your strategy! With these five tips, you will learn:
· the importance of scroll-stopping captions
· why you should be utilizing video content
· how to increase reach with hashtags
· how often to post and when
· why you should engage with your audience
Tip #1: Enhance Your Copy to Maximize Engagement
Your caption’s copy, if executed well, can drive authentic engagement to your post. Identify a specific audience, share something exciting or “juicy” and start your caption with a HOOK. Try asking an engaging question – but keep it short and easy to respond to! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Provide VALUE and INSIGHT to your audience. Ask yourself if your dream customer would find this post interesting. Does it relate to your product or service? Does it give insight to who you are as a business owner? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Let your followers know their next steps i.e. double tap this image, click the link in my bio, send me a DM to learn more, etc. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With this caption strategy in mind, you will start creating copy that connects with your ideal customer and increases your engagement.
Tip #2: Use Video Content
Nervous about posting video content on social? We will let you in on a secret…you are not alone! But as marketers, we cannot ignore that video is the growing medium that people prefer. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 72% of customers would like to learn via video and by 2022 it is predicted that 84% of all internet traffic will be video. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So, how do you start? Easy – you just START! Delaying because you want it to be perfect will be your downfall. The only way to improve is to start recording, practicing and eventually, you WILL get better. ⠀⠀
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Improve your confidence by creating videos on topics you know best. Consider what questions you are asked most often, the most common problems for your customers, challengess in your industry and create content around those topics. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Smart phones are your best friends! You do not need elaborate equipment to get started. Consider starting off with Instagram Story or Facebook Story. These videos are short, temporary, and do not require many edits! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Write a script or key points you want to get across in your video. Practice beforehand and be mindful of your pace when speaking. Take “line breaks” as needed. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Stay positive and know that improvement will come with each video.
Tip #3: Increase Reach with Hashtags
Looking to reach new audiences and potential customers? Hashtags can amplify your social media content by making your posts more easily discovered by people with an interest in your topic or area of expertise. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The first step is knowing your target audience. Consider what topics interest them and what questions they have. Pay attention to what engaging hashtags they may be using. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Make sure the hashtags you choose are relevant to the content you are posting. Trending or not, if a hashtag is not relevant to your content do not use it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hashtags are more effective on certain platforms. For example, hashtags are not as useful for increasing awareness and reaching new audiences on Facebook because some profiles are private. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Always remember, more is not necessarily better. Each platform has its own standard for the number of hashtags that are appropriate. According to Hootsuite, it is suggested to use 1 – 2 for Twitter, 9-15 for Instagram, and 1-2 for LinkedIn. Utilizing hashtags can improve your post reach and help you gain new followers. It is important to use well- researched, thought-out and relevant hashtags instead of general ones to get the most out of each tag. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Extra tip: Avoid using Instagram hashtags that are used in millions of posts. Discoverability is more difficult when many people are using a hashtag.
Tip #4: Frequency and Posting Times
There is no magic number that applies to all accounts and platforms. However, there are a few ways to reach most of your followers.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you haven’t already, we challenge you to post three to four times a week and stick to that schedule for at least a month. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ A consistent posting schedule will help keep you top of mind to your audience and keep you in your followers’ feeds more regularly, improving your brand awareness. Increased visibility also increases the chances of conversion – leaving your social media page for your website to make a purchase. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Next, review your insights to check what time the majority of your audience is online and then plan to post during those timeframes. This will increase the odds of more people seeing your content when you post. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Extra tip: LinkedIn does not have this function available in their insights. But according to Hubspot, marketers find most success posting on LinkedIn Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The worst time to post is any time outside of normal business hours and on the weekend.
Tip #5: Don’t Forget to Engage with Your Audience!
Platforms want you to be actively online as much as possible. If you are just logging in to post instead of commenting, liking, and having conversations with your followers, you are not spending enough time online. When your content gets sorted on the feed, it will most likely be relegated to the bottom which means less people will see and engage with it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ How can you fix this? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Building those connections and driving conversation will improve engagement for future posts! Set aside 30 minutes a day to like, comment, and respond to followers. Once the algorithm calculates your increased connections, it will prioritize your content. That’s a win/win! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Our advice is to be authentic and real on social media, setting time aside to respond and start conversations to earn exposure and relationships, and turn followers into loyal customers.
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