Okay, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that social media can provide a lot of great opportunities for your business says Saivian. By creating a presence on the most popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+, you can greatly expand your market by reaching out to more potential customers than ever before. The bad news is that social media is a beast all its own full of pitfalls and challenges which can drive any sane business owner crazy. But there are certain key elements you need to use when creating content on these sites or else it simply won’t work … or it will even backfire!
Let’s look at five things you must add to all of your content in order for it to be effective on social media:
Then you’ll be able to work with the beast rather than letting it devour your business.
1) Calls to Action
Adding a call-to-action is critical when creating good social media content because you want your posts and campaigns to lead people back to your website where they can receive more information, sign up for your mailing list or purchase one of your products or services. It could be in the form of asking them what their favorite color is, telling them that there are only 2 days left until the sale ends, instructing them how to make an appointment online, etc. The point is you want them to leave Facebook (or whichever site they were on) and go to your site. Asking them to sign up for a mailing list will give you the opportunity to add them to an email marketing campaign too which is one of the best ways to keep in touch with customers and prospects on a regular basis.
2) Personalization
You want people who follow you on social media sites not just to think of you as another faceless business but rather as a person or organization that they can trust enough to do business with says Saivian. One good way to do this is by creating posts that are personalized: “Hi Mary, we noticed that today was your birthday – hope it was great!” or “The forecast calls for rain later this week, perhaps you should plan your golf outing for next weekend instead.” By doing this, you are establishing a personal connection with your followers and they will be more likely to engage with your content in the future.
3) Images
Images are an absolutely essential part of social media content as they can help to break up long blocks of text and also grab people’s attention. In fact, posts with images receive more than double the amount of engagement than those without. When choosing images to accompany your posts, make sure that they are high quality and relevant to the topic at hand. You can use tools like Canva or PicMonkey to create custom graphics or even take your own photos if you have the necessary equipment.
4) Links
Including links in your social media posts is a great way to provide more information for your followers or to drive traffic back to your website explains Saivian. However, you don’t want to overdo it by including too many links as this can clutter up your posts and turn people off. Try to limit yourself to 1-2 links per post and make sure that they are relevant to the topic at hand.
5) Seasonal content
One of the best things about social media is that it provides you with an opportunity to tap into current trends and topics that are relevant to your audience. This could be anything from major events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics, to seasonal topics like Halloween or Christmas. By creating content around these topics, you can help keep your followers engaged and interested in your content which is one of the most important things with social media.
Conclusion:
In order to successfully create good social media content, you need to make sure that it follows these five guidelines says Saivian. This way you can ‘tame the beast’ and be on its good side instead of trying to wrestle it into submission!