Post like a pro: Social media best practices
Social media is now one of the best ways to connect with and reach your audience. With more and more businesses using social media as a way to communicate and advertise, it has become essential to create posts that stand out from the crowd.
It isn’t random luck when a social media post achieves success; there is strategy, hard work, and good practice. Although content on any social media platform should entertain, engage, grab attention, and be easy to read, different social media platforms require tailoring content to achieve success.
Before we dive into how to create posts for specific social media platforms. There are general rules of thumb you should follow when creating successful paid social media posts on any platform. Let us break them down for you.
General rules of thumb for social media posts
Make sure your writing is accessible: The more accessible your content is, the more people can view and engage with it.
How to be accessible with your writing:
- Use inclusive language
- Keep your copy clear and concise
- Present important information first
- AVOID ALL CAPS
- Spell out acronyms first (just because you know what they mean, doesn’t mean everyone does!).
Keep your writing simple: you don’t want to confuse your readers with unnecessary words, so it is best practice to keep your language simple and professional. Your words should have meaning, so delete all jargon to keep your message on track!
Post with purpose and intent: As you create, it is important to remain focused on the goal of your post. This will help you make sure your writing/content is always hitting the mark. You should also keep in mind you are speaking to a human; copy should be engaging and speak to your audience directly. It might be useful to note down your purpose and target audience at the top of your draft post, so you can easily refer to them as you write and create.
Be consistent: The tone of your writing should remain consistent throughout the post but also be consistent with your brand messaging across different platforms. This can make you stand out amongst competitors and create a relatable, identifiable voice in your content.
Throw in your personality: As mentioned above, professionalism is key but your content also needs personality. Your writing should capture the attention of readers and provide entertainment. Adding that unique flare to your writing is key to writing content that sells.
Don’t clickbait: Trust is important in brand success. If you post using all the tips and tricks from this article, you won’t need clickbait to grab the attention of your users.
Always remember to review: We are all human and we all make mistakes. Just make sure you catch any mistakes before hitting ‘post’. Always allow time to edit and review your post. You don’t want to lose credibility because you didn’t check your spelling!
These general rules can be followed when posting on any social media platform but you must understand different platforms have different demographics, purposes, and tones. You need to tailor your posts and align your content strategy with the strengths of each platform to achieve success.
Creating successful posts on specific social media platforms
Keep it short and sweet with X
- X is known for its snappy, short posts. With a character limit of 280, a good post gets to the main point immediately (you don’t have characters to waste)
- A key feature of X is the use of hashtags within your writing. They are included in your character limit. If you have any words within your copy that are popular hashtags, make them into a hashtag! This will expand your reach and save your character count.
- X is more conversational than other platforms. Use this to showcase your personality and be creative with your copy. 76% of Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand after friendly interactions between them and a brand on the platform. Creating posts that encourage conversation between you and your followers is key is building a great brand reputation.
- X also gives the option to add relevant images to your message. Using visually appealing or striking images can add an extra dimension to your post, which is likely to lead to more engagement and attention to your post.
Let your creativity shine on TikTok
- A good TikTok post needs to grab the attention of the user within the first few seconds. It needs to be creative and interesting.
- Incorporating the latest trends and challenges is a great way to increase reach and engagement with your posts.
- Authenticity is key with TikTok, so keep this in mind throughout your content creation process. Posts that include user-generated content perform well on TikTok.
- Descriptions are less important with TikTok, as the video is the star of the show. However, putting CTA’s in a description is a great way to increase conversion rates.
It’s all about the look with Instagram
- Making sure your post visually and tonally aligns with your brand is vital when creating a presence on Instagram.
- Your content needs to be visually appealing and Instagram offers a range of post types that you can utilize.
- Writing a cracking Instagram caption is essential when creating a successful post on this platform.
Stand out on a crowded Facebook news feed
- Facebook has a large character limit (63,206 characters to be exact!). Although, it isn’t recommended to write such a long post just because you can. A Facebook news feed can be a chaotic place, so keeping your posts shorter whilst still being impactful will make your post stand out.
- When writing your Facebook post, it might be useful to think of the structure in this way: start with a hook (grab the attention of the user), follow with the main body (this gives value to your post), and then finish with a clear CTA (this is essential when boosting conversions).
- Facebook offers a range of ad creative that you should consider and utilize when creating posts.
Explore examples of successful Facebook ads
Keep it professional (but interesting!) on LinkedIn
- As LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, longer content showing knowledge and expertise is key to success with your posts.
- Sharing and reposting thought-provoking articles with opinions and discussion points mixed in is a great way to increase engagement with your posts and start conversations with other members.
- Whilst professional posts do well on LinkedIn, it is important you still entertain with your posts. Make sure your posts are informative and add value to your audience. You should also be authentic and add personality to your posts to make them relatable and engaging.
- LinkedIn offers a range of ad formats that will help you create successful posts.
Now you know how to create a successful social media post, let’s get posting!
If you want help with your paid social strategy, our team of experts can help you every step of the way.
