Social Media Marketing Best Practices

Social media is the connection method of choice for many people, particularly Millennials. With consumers constantly connected and checking Facebook, Twitter and Instagram multiple times daily, social media marketing is a perfect platform for engaging with customers and potential customers, as well as building your brand and getting to know what your target market is looking for.

Social Media Marketing Graphics and Themes

Images and themes have a lot to do with whether your posts are noticed or considered memorable. The most recognizable brands use consistent images, logos and color schemes. Image dimensions and ratios need to be optimized. Each platform prefers different size images in order for them to render well on both mobile and desktop.

Color schemes matter. Work on optimizing image brightness, contrast and colors. Blue images seem to perform the best on both mobile and desktop.

Social Media Posting Frequency

A common question in social media marketing is how frequently you should be posting. A lot depends on your particular audience and how much you have to say. While there are no hard and fast rules, here are some rough gauges of how often to post:

• On Instagram, aim for one to three posts a day
• On Facebook, try for anywhere from three to seven posts a week
• On Twitter, the shelf life of a post is about two hours, so try to post roughly six times a day

Use a content calendar to plan ahead what you are going to post. Pay attention to how much your readers are sharing and engaging with your posts. If there is no engagement, the quality of your content needs improvement. Updates need to be made often enough to get readers interested in following along, but if you have nothing to say, don’t post for the sake of posting.

Understanding the Platform

As you pay attention to social conversations, you can begin to build a solid content strategy. Collect data on the reactions of your audience, and you will gradually learn that certain platforms perform better during certain times of the day, and even on certain days. Also, collect data on what kind of reactions your competitors are getting to their posts and how it compares to yours.

If you aren’t getting the results you want, evaluate what you are posting. Is there too much salesy content? Are you asking too many questions but not paying attention to answers? Listening to your audience will give you a ton of insight about what they are really looking for, what makes them engaged and what makes them lose interest.

Earning Trust and Likeability

Social media is a wonderful tool for interacting with your customers. It’s an opportunity to build relationships and get to know each other. Being present is the first step. By showing up regularly and contributing value, you give people a reason to want to interact with you and become loyal to your brand.

Contact the social media marketing experts at Softline Solutions if you need help with any aspect of your marketing strategies.