Tips for Creating Social Media Content and engagement

We get asked loads of questions on social media, so I thought I would answer a few of the common ones here.

Which platform is the best for my business?

That depends on your business and also your target audience. If you are trying to reach professional services, they will probably not be on Instagram or Tik Tok, but they will be on LinkedIn. If you are trying to contact local craft groups, they will probably not be on LinkedIn but on Facebook. Do your research; where would you search for those people if you wanted to engage their services, for instance?

When is the best time to post?

Again, this depends on the platform. Twitter is anytime in the morning.

LinkedIn first thing in the morning or at lunch. Most people check LinkedIn before they start work or on their lunch break. However, Sunday evening has also proved to be a popular time for LinkedIn and people checking before they return to the office.

Hashtags are another question. Should we use them? Yes. Should they be used in every post? Yes. The amount to use will depend on the platform. LinkedIn and Facebook – 3 maximum.

Instagram used to be a case of knocking yourself out – the more hashtags you have, the better. But Instagram has changed it lately and is saying 3-5 maximum, and posts with more will be penalised.

With the hashtags, make sure they are relevant. There is no point putting in #bookkeeping if you post about promotional goods, for instance, because it isn’t relevant. However, you could post #merchandise #promotional goods #branding #promotion, etcetera.

Another point on hashtags is capitalising each word, for example, #CapitaliseEachWord. This is important when you’re doing hashtags. 

Make sure you put a capital letter in front of each word – no spaces but just each word- because it makes it easier for everybody else to read. However, if somebody uses a text-to-speech aid, it will help them.

Tagging – to tag or not to tag, that is the question.

You may have seen posts where every man and his dog are tagged.

All that will do is piss off the people you are tagging, as they get every notification whenever someone comments on that post.

Tag select people in your posts, max of 3, so choose wisely!

Tagging means more people will see your post as the people you have tagged get a notification that they have been tagged. Then, they will engage, meaning their connections will also see.

Choose your scheduling platform carefully – there are loads available. Some are free but with limits, and some charge.

Publer is excellent because it is free, and you can do quite a lot with the free platform.

Make sure any platform you use will do what you need it to and with the social media platform you want to access. For instance, Content Cal isn’t great to schedule to Instagram, but its brill with LinkedIn,

Engagement can be a tricky subject.

Some think posting will generate a steady stream of enquiries and then tell us social media is not for them when they get none. Posting will only do so much of the job for you.

You have to engage with other people. So, every time someone comments on your post, reply to them.

Scroll through your feed and comment on other people’s posts.

Don’t just hit the like button – a comment is worth way more where LinkedIn especially is concerned. And you get more exposure.

If you haven’t seen posts from certain people for a while, the platform has decided not to bother you with their content as you haven’t engaged with them for a while.

So, keep commenting, and the social media platforms will reward you by showing you more relevant content and showing yours off to more people!

On the other side, if there is content you don’t want to see or people you no longer wish to be connected with – it’s okay to remove the connection. Manage your feed – don’t let it manage you!

Is it rocket science? No, not really! But it does take time and effort – you can’t just add in a post a week and walk away and expect to get top-level engagement and loads of sales or new clients.

You need to work at it.

So hopefully, that has helped and given you some ideas on how to manage your social media, but if you are still thinking about what the ….then get in touch, and our social media team can help.