No longer is it a hobby relegated to the brunch-snapping millennials – social media is now a crucial tool in the digital marketing arsenal. And here is why: social media opens an incomparable channel of connection between you and your customers.
A company social profile allows your business to enhance brand awareness, establish authority and authenticity, encourage engagement, and drive sales through lead generation.
So where do you begin?
As time saving as it is to ping out the same snapshot and witty caption to every one of your socials, it’s simply not effective. For one, your audience isn’t going to respond well to seeing the same image flood every one of their social feeds. But more importantly, you’re missing the opportunity to home in on the unique strengths of each platform’s market.
If you want to see quantifiable results with your social media, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get strategic with the content you’re sharing. We’re here to give the inside scoop on when to get wordy and when to get visual. Welcome to our comprehensive guide on curating content for each social media platform.
Instagram is about nailing the aesthetics to create a visual masterpiece. It might sound a little hyperbolic, but Instagram really is centred around being a feast for the eyes. For the insta-affluent, this usually takes the form of flat lays and candid lifestyle shots. But how do you work this into your Instagram business content?
High resolution photography, grabby quotes and personal insights on stories.
This will look different depending on your product or service offering and branding. Find a style that reflects your company while engaging your customers. These are our top tips for creating sizzling insta content:
- Find a colour theme and stick with it – incorporate it into your photography, edit quotes into your branding, use consistent image edits
- Use a blend of curate and created content to diversify your images
- Be sparing with your promotional spamming. We suggest starting with the 80/20 rule – 80% educational, engaging content; 20% promotion and sales
- Make use of Instagram’s highlight reels to form static categories of your most relevant story posts. Ie: behind the scenes, products, customer features.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! In a feed drenched in images, find a way to make yours iconic.
Originally created as a means of connecting between university students, Facebook has undergone a serious evolution. It’s now the most used social media platform in the world. So, understanding how to engage your share of its 2.7 million users is vital.
The secret? Video, video, video.
Video has been found to be 5 x more engaging than images, so now is the time to get recording. Here are our best-practice tips for shooting Facebook video content:
- Keep it short and snappy, we’re working with miniscule attention spans here, so get to the point ASAP
- On that, keep your video under 90 seconds where possible
- Grab viewers’ attention with a punchy, enticing caption and grabby thumbnail
INSIDER TIP: Use captions on your video. 85% of Facebook users scroll with their sound off (we see you sneaky mid-work scrollers). Facebook is well aware of this so there are a ton of tools at your disposal to create captions and allow your content to maintain its value.
Of course, videos are time consuming to produce. Fear not – images and blog posts are also a great medium to work with on Facebook. Blog posts are handy for driving traffic through to your website while providing educational value. As for images – work with curate content where possible to enhance engagement with your customers.
LinkedIn is where you should be considering a substantial shake up to your content, compared to your Instagram and Facebook feed. This platform is a far more professional, business-driven networking forum than its social counterparts. Think of it as a digital pitch page to potential clients and customers, as well as a recruitment source for your next superstar employee.
When it comes to what you’re sharing with your followers, lean into company culture insight, jobs and career posts, and industry news. You can even save yourself the effort of churning out the entirety of your content by re-sharing engaging posts from industry leaders.
Once again, video excels on LinkedIn. Why not pull together a company promotional video which you can pin to your profile? This humanises your business while packaging who you are and what you do into an engaging format.
The driving force behind your LinkedIn content should always be about positioning your company as an industry leader.
It’s short, it’s punchy and it’s got to fit in less than 280 characters – welcome to the Twittersphere. While Twitter is less prominent than other social media platforms in Australia, it still plays a valuable role in news distribution.
Your business can leverage this by using Twitter to share company updates, blog posts, and re-tweeting industry news. Basically, you want to use Twitter to establish yourself as an industry expert. Find yourself a couple of reliable sources to obtain your business news from and regularly tweet the most newsworthy to your feed. Tie this in with your own shared blog posts and the odd graphic and you’re positioned as a go-to guru on your company niche.
Our top Twitter twicks (we had to do it):
- Add graphics or images to your posts to keep them engaging
- Schedule a batch of posts to maintain a consistent presence
- Integrate hashtags within your text to increase visibility
Creating a bespoke social approach for each platform is time consuming, and sometimes you just might not have the time or resources. Rather than settle for a sub-par approach, why not delegate it to a team of pros? Our Wordly social media team are legends at creating ingenious content strategies to make your business shine online. Get in touch today to find out more.
