In a world where social media use has become the norm, even in some remote parts of the world, one might feel like an expert in the field just as many of us are football experts from watching the sport so much. I am no expert in football, but I am a Social Media Consultant with 15 years’ experience in community and content management, social listening, and social advertising.
Nowadays, social media content creators know that creating understanding is the best way to generate interest in a seemingly complex topic. In psychology, the idea that understanding drives interest is nothing new.[1] Can we see social media as an art? Yes, professional social media content creation requires creativity, critical thinking, consistency, sincerity, class, outspokenness, persona, and direction. The list could make up this entire article, but let’s share some tips and tricks for optimal social media use.
First of all, what is social media?
Social media can be found in the form of websites or applications. Blogging, Microblogging, online ratings, social bookmarking, podcasts, forums/message boards, social knowledge, geo-location, multimedia, and social networking all account for types of social media. Social networking (Facebook & LinkedIn), microblogging (Instagram & Twitter), and multimedia (YouTube & Flickr) are probably the types of channels you interact with most.
Many of us use the hashtag pioneer, Instagram, on a daily basis. Instagram has taken over our phone use more than the Short Messaging System. What is the point of a hashtag (#) and a handle (a)? We use hashtags to see what has been posted about a particular subject and to easily track and search that particular subject. On the other hand, the handle is just an account’s nickname. You can use a handle in a post when you want to address someone on Twitter or use it to tag an account to call for their attention.
How can you improve your social media posting?
The best performing social media posts:
- Call to action
- Have a URL
- Use hashtags (Up to 30 on Instagram, a few at the end of the post on LinkedIn, a few within the post on Twitter & Facebook)
- Have visuals
- Are written creatively
- Adapt the tone to each platform (keep in mind the culture of the channel)
Best times to publish your posts:
Where people had the tendency to use social media during their commute, on their break time, and in the evening, since the COVID-19 crisis, the norm has shifted where your audience can be found online much more. Make sure you vary the times at which you publish content: mornings, early afternoons, afternoons and evenings
Scheduling posts:
You are probably busy, but still, need to have some type of social presence. How about scheduling your content? Social media management tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite, TweetDeck (only for Twitter), and SproutSocial could save you a lot of time.
Are you ready to take your social media use to the next level?
Social Media Marketing is nowadays one of the most powerful ways for businesses to reach their target customers. Users interact with the brands on a daily basis through social media with social media. It can help increase Company’s website traffic, raise brand awareness, and increase communication and interaction with the audience.
“Strategic planning is the process by which an organization chooses the most appropriate courses of action to achieve its defined goals. It involves making decisions on allocating resources to pursue this strategy.” Satarupa Banerjee, Master Trainer in content development
As an individual, share your feelings, share your aspirations, share your dreams, share your vision, share your network’s content, share content that speaks to you. Some social media users share innovations from their area and others share their views on political situations, whatever you decide to publish stay true to yourself and make sure it is nothing you will regret later. What you publish, stays somewhere even when deleted.
As a company, consider your future course. What do you do? How do you do it? How do you excel in what you do? Once you have your strategic plan, build a digital strategy before you dive into social media in full force. Use caution, yes, but don’t hold back from increasing reach, saving time, or increasing profit. A Digital Strategy will help you waste less resources, prioritize the most important objectives, increase your ability to get resources, predict future problems and opportunities, and more. So it is only beneficial.
As an influencer, you have a network and a reputation to keep. Make sure the individuals and organizations you promote not only have ethics that go in-line with yours, but also value work conducted by people like you.
As a government institution, keep the people in mind, interact with those with constructive comments and questions, show-off what you do to contribute to their wellbeing, and guide the citizens towards information/decisions made for them.
How can you make your voice heard (without selling) and make a difference?
A great example of an efficient social media marketing strategy is seen in one of Africa’s biggest Telecom, Vodacom. Beyond being a telecommunications company, they have become advocates of human rights in different forms, democracy, and the sponsor to aim to have for your big events.
In support of women victims of gender-based violence, the company recently launched a social media campaign encouraging people to wear all black, take a picture/video taking the pledge to #BeTheLight. And, to be an example of what they preach they accompany this Tweet with a video of their own Managing Executive of Brand, wearing black and speaking of his role as a man to better treat women. A powerful way to lead by doing and still sell big!
https://twitter.com/Vodacom/status/1293532610413637632
Can I challenge you, today, to take control of what you want the world to see about you?
Social media will be here for a very long time, some might like it and others less. Whether we sell a service, product, want to show-off everything we do, or are an individual looking for a job, social media can be used in our favour and sometimes against us. It is only a tool, so it’s up to us to use it to build or break. I choose to use it to build and lift whoever deserves to be lifted-up!
[1] https://www.morningbrew.com/marketing/stories/2020/08/21/social-media-marketing-lesson-nyts-latest-ad