If you are trying to get the attention of your followers on social media, you might be inclined to post as much as possible — but don’t forget that good content is better than more content. It isn’t helpful (and in some cases, it can be quite harmful) to post endless content all day long if none of it is good. To get someone’s attention, you need quality. 

In the words of advertising innovator Howard Gossage, “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

Don’t make them leave.

That pretty much says it all! Yes, it’s important to post a lot because that means more exposure and more opportunities to get your brand out there. But frequent content isn’t going to do you any good if your content isn’t good. In fact, if your content is bad, then it means you could be turning people off. The next thing that happens is they unfollow you. Your posts get buried. Eventually, you lose out on any chance you have of building a following and converting those followers into customers. The number-one reason people unfollow brands on social media is bad content — maybe the content is irrelevant, or spammy, or just too promotional.

Educate and entertain 

“But hey,” you think, “that’s the whole point — I want to sell my products and services. Why wouldn’t my social media posts be promotional.”

Good question. The reality is that social media should primarily be an opportunity for content marketing. This is a term that refers to establishing your brand by engaging with your customers and establishing yourself as a leader in your industry, as good at what you do, as reliable for your clientele, and basically as someone who really knows what they’re doing. Constantly saying, “Here! Buy this!” isn’t going to accomplish those goals. Instead, you should aim to educate and entertain your customers. In doing so, you establish trust and demonstrate expertise.

Include a call to action.

While content marketing generally avoids being overly promotional, it can — and should — end with a call to action. That’s when you encourage your audience to do something to make use of what they just learned from you. Maybe that’s to make a purchase or to check out what you have to offer (usually with a special discount available for them).

In the past, this marketing strategy might have been limited to writing an op-ed in a publication or providing an interview on a talk show. These were great avenues to get your face and name out there, and for showing audiences what your brand was all about. Now all of that’s moving to the digital sphere, primarily social media. This means you have daily (or even hourly) opportunities to promote yourself in this way on your own platform. Ultimately, you build a following of leads that you can convert to customers.

Think about it this way: When was the last time you went out of your way to like a post that was blatantly promotional? It’s probably not something you do very often. You’re more inclined to like social media posts that are interesting, resonant, or even funny. Because you’re getting on social media to have fun and enjoy yourself. You’re not logging on to see advertising. Very few people ever look forward to advertising (unless they’re watching the Super Bowl), so your social media posts need to be engaging and interesting the same way other social media content is.

Start with a game plan.

Good content is what garners engagement, and engagement is what helps your page reach more followers. If your bad content is not being received by people online, then you’re just going to get buried.

To ensure you are putting out the best content you can:

• Put together a content strategy: If you were running an ad on a billboard, you wouldn’t just throw something together at the last minute, would you? So why would you do it that way on social media? Just because it’s free doesn’t mean you should waste your opportunities. Instead, put together a schedule of what you want to post and when (including day and times), how you’ll create that post (include graphics and copy) and what platform the post will appear on (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or some combination thereof).

• Do your research: Nobody really knows how the algorithms of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram work, but you still have insights into how many people saw and engaged with your post. Take advantage of these analytics to determine which types of posts are most successful. Is it the ones that have graphics to accompany the text? Is it posts that ask questions, or that make jokes, or that share information? Maybe you notice that color graphics do better than ones that are black-and-white. Whatever you learn from your analytics, keep that in mind as you’re coming up with future content.

• Ask yourself the goal of each post. Determine your why. You want to know why you’re posting something so you know how to measure its success. Are you trying to stimulate conversation in the comments? Do you want people to take advantage of a special offer? Do you want to invite people to an event you’re holding? Express your why in the form of a call to action, and make sure that action is clearly expressed.

Want to learn more about creating awesome content for your social media pages? Connect with Ann’s Social Media & Marketing today by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com. Learn more about digital marketing at ASMMCampus.com