SMART MARKETING SOLUTIONS

 

Social media has become a crowded marketplace with all types of businesses, celebrities, events, news, and trends crowding the communication channels.

Simply going through the motions of posting won’t be enough to grab the attention of your audience. Therefore, you may need to implement strategies that will combat these shrinking attention spans.

Here are seven tips to help you stand out on social media and create more engaging social media posts.

 

Tip #1) Don’t Be A Bore

It may sound simple, but you don’t want to create boring content for your social media posts. You want to keep things interesting and engaging in order to get the best results.

Remember, you aren’t only competing against your competitors; you’re also competing against all the pictures from family, friends, funny videos and the dog and cat photos that clog social media timelines.

If you don’t have interesting content then you won’t get any engagement from your audience. The less engaged they are, the less likely they will come back to your pages.

So find out what types of content your customers like the most and create more of it for your social media engagement campaigns.

 

Tip #2) Branch Out From Facebook

While it’s true that Facebook is the largest social media network with the most traffic, your customers are also using other social media websites.

For instance, Pinterest is a great source of social media traffic especially if you have a business that can be expressed visually.
LinkedIn is powerful for establishing more professional connections and finding suitable employees.

Instagram is another great social media outlet to use for visual content marketing, such as photos and videos.

Don’t forget about YouTube which is the largest video sharing social media network; video-viewing is hot and gaining popularity everyday amongst consumers when it comes to online content.

Tip #3) Go Visual Whenever Possible

People on the Internet prefer visual forms of information as opposed to blocks of pure text. So use images and video in your social media marketing efforts as much as possible.

It may seem like it’s going to take a lot of extra effort to create these images and videos, but it’s well worth the effort when you consider the rewards you receive.

Images and video just standout and command attention while plain text is easily passed up.

Today’s Internet is primarily a visual medium; much different than it was years ago when it was literally filled with blocks and blocks of text for the most part.

However, technology has evolved; and videos and images are the dominating force behind successful content engagement, comprehension, and effectiveness.

This could be because our brains are able to process images up to 1,000 times faster than just reading text. So quite naturally, the internet has become a place that is filled with various forms, styles, and combinations of visual data.

As you’ve probably noticed, social media posts that include images and/or video tend to get more shares and likes. With social media websites like Instagram and Pinterest, images and other forms of visual content play a crucial role in effective online communication and interaction.

Here are a few more tips on how you can use visual content to enhance your social media posts and drive more engagement:

Tip #4) Use Content-Inclusive Images to Get More Shares And Responses

Social media users love images that include quick snippets of content to help them out with something related to your industry; such as “how-to” content, infographics, quotes, checklists, and tips – just to name a few.

So be sure to incorporate some of these in your posts. Your audience will flock to these types of visuals, so the more you have, the more of your content they will consume. Not only that, but these types of images are often shared, which gives you even more exposure on social media.

Tip #5) Use Images With A Call To Action

You don’t have to use images solely to convey information. You can also use them as lead bait and content teasers for articles, blog posts, social media posts, and more. Wherever you post them, just add a call to action to get people to click on the image; once they do, they will be directed to any other online destination of your choice.

Tip #6) Promote Your Events

Social media is the perfect platform to display any significant company events, such as grand openings, special promotions, and new product launches. For instance, Facebook Events allows you to send personal invitations to your fans and keep track of their responses. You can also share photos and videos with everyone before, during, and after your event to create even more buzz.

Tell Everybody What You’re Doing on Social Media

Don’t limit your social buzz tactics to your social media accounts only; spread the word. For instance, tell customers at your establishment what you’re doing on social media. Send your email list a blast. Write a blog post about it. There are limitless ways to get the word out about your social activities.

Without a plan to engage and energize your social media following, your page could end up abandoned very quickly. However, by communicating often and staying focused on your audience, social media is a sure-fire way to grow your business.

Tip #7) Hire A Professional If You’re Not Comfortable

If you feel like you’re graphically challenged and are unable to create images yourself, you can hire a graphic artist to help. In fact, a social media marketing consultant can handle images, as well as other types of content, to ensure everything flows well.

So if it’s within your budget, the small investment for a specialist is definitely worth it.