In this fast-paced digital age, staying up-to-date with new platforms, ever-changing algorithms, and content trends is crucial for business success. But finding the time to focus on this evolving area can be a challenge. In this article we’ll summarise our recommended best practices for social media success.
- Start with strategy.
Having a strategy is crucial for success on social media because it provides a clear roadmap and direction for your efforts. Start by asking yourself:
- Why is your business using social media?
- Who do you want to reach?
- What do you want to say to them and what do you want in return?
- Where are your target audience consuming content?
- How will you create content that engages and resonates with them?
- When will you share your content?
- How will you measure performance?
- Get creative with your content
Once you have defined your audience you need to create consistent content that will engage them. Consistency of brand, tone of voice and posting frequency is key here. Always ask yourself WHY and SO WHAT before you post! And remember to continuously monitor the performance of your content so you can understand what resonates with your audience and refine your content strategy accordingly.
Think about:
- Using high quality visuals and mixing them up to grab attention.
- Share stories. Humans are wired for storytelling! Real, authentic content always performs best. Consider UGC too.
- Keep your content simple, concise, to-the-point, and easily digestible.
- Incorporate tasteful humour and emotion to evoke positive reactions and encourage shares.
- Ask questions and encourage discussion when and where appropriate.
- Consider interactive content like polls, quizzes and interactive videos.
- Remember your content pillars.
Still need convincing about the impact of creative content? Here are a few stats that might surprise you!
VIDEO CONTENT – Social media posts with videos have 48% more views compared to those without videos. (HubSpot)
VISUAL CONTENT – Facebook posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement than those without images. (BuzzSumo)
USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) – UGC campaigns see a 50% increase in engagement compared to non-UGC campaigns. (Adweek)
HASHTAGS – Instagram posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than those without. (HubSpot)
LIVE VIDEOS – Facebook Live videos receive 10 times more comments compared to regular videos. (Facebook)
- Engage your audience
When it comes to social media (and in business in fact!) it is important to remember that you are not your audience. What you think about your business and social media content may not be the same as your audience.
Social media is also a huge opportunity to engage with your key stakeholders to glean valuable insights while also increasing reach and raising brand awareness.
Use social media to:
- Build relationships, build trust and loyalty
- Foster brand advocacy, word-of-mouth speaks volumes
- Gain feedback to inform decision making
- Resolve issues and mitigate crisis
- Increase reach and engagement (and beat the algorithm!)
- Stay informed and gather insights
- Think about SEO
Social media can indirectly impact SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in the following ways:
- Increased Website Traffic: When users engage with and share your content, it can generate backlinks and increase the website visibility.
- Enhanced Brand Visibility: Increased branded search volume can positively impact your organic search rankings.
- Social Signals: Likes, shares, comments, and followers serve as social signals leading to higher organic search visibility.
- Content Indexing: Optimising your social media profiles and posts with relevant keywords, hashtags, and links can increase the likelihood of search engines indexing and displaying your content.
- Local SEO: Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn offer location-based features, providing additional visibility.
It’s important to note that while social media can indirectly influence SEO, it’s just one aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy. Traditional SEO tactics, such as optimising website content, meta tags, and building quality backlinks, remain essential for improving organic search rankings. A holistic approach that integrates social media efforts with other SEO practices is recommended for maximising overall search visibility.
- Analyse and monitor
Tracking and analysing social media metrics are essential for evaluating performance, measuring goals, understanding your audience, optimising content, assessing ROI, benchmarking against competitors, and refining your strategy.
It empowers you to make data-driven decisions, improve your social media presence, and maximise the effectiveness of your social media efforts.
There are hundreds or tools and platforms to help you to monitor and analyse your social media performance, with even more data points and statistics to consider. It can be overwhelming so here is a quick summary of the key ones to consider:
- AUDIENCE GROWTH > is awareness of your business and brand improving
- REACH & IMPRESSIONS > who has seen your content
- ENGAGEMENT > is your content resonating with your audience
- CLICKS & CONVERSIONS > are your CTAs clear and effective
- CONTENT PERFORMANCE > what content do your audience prefer
In many ways the best practices for social media marketing are the same as traditional marketing activities. Set your goal, define your audience, craft your message, distribute it through the right channels and monitor the results. A simple but effective method that is guaranteed to get you the results your business needs from its social media activities.
Looking for more advice with your social media efforts? Get in touch with the team at MMC today to see how we could help to transform your business’ social media strategy. We’ll also leave you with our top 10 tips for social success:
- Set clear objectives.
Define specific, measurable goals for your social media efforts, such as increasing brand awareness to guide your strategy and help you measure success.
- Know your audience.
Understand their interests and behaviours. Tailor your content and messaging to resonate with them, and choose the appropriate social media platforms where they are most active.
- Consistent Branding.
Maintain a consistent brand identity across all social media channels. Use your logo, colors, and brand voice to ensure recognition and build trust with your audience.
- Quality over quantity.
Focus on creating quality, valuable content that educates, entertains, or inspires your audience. Mix up formats to keep it engaging and shareable.
- Engage & Interact.
Show genuine interest in your followers and build meaningful relationships. Initiate conversations, ask questions, and encourage user-generated content.
- Be authentic.
Avoid overly promotional or salesy content. Instead, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, employee stories, and partner testimonials to humanise your brand.
- Consistency is key.
Establish a consistent posting schedule to maintain regularity and stay top-of-mind with your audience. Use social media scheduling tools to plan and automate your posts.
- Monitor & Respond.
Monitor for mentions,, reviews, feedback and engagement. Respond appropriately and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
- Leverage your people.
Engage your people and key partners. Collaborate on content together to help expand your reach and strengthen your credibility.
- Test, test, test!
As well as tracking key metrics, remember to test different content and monitor its success. Be brave and try new approaches. Test, review and tweak your approach to fit.
