Keep it straight and simple! It’s as simple as that really.
Social media can become your brand’s best friend – if you know how to use it correctly. Having a social presence on more than one social media platform is a great way to start to building your following, but the key lies in knowing how to appeal to each audience. Each platform – whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn has its own demographic, character count and, most importantly, personality. Whether you are a social media expert or an online amateur, these tips will help any business boost their social media presence.
When you’re composing text for Facebook, it’s important to keep your target market in mind. Currently, Facebook’s character limit on status updates is 63,206, however this is far from ideal! People don’t visit Facebook to consume long-form text or stories – that’s what your blog is for. Try and keep your Facebook posts to a maximum of 80 characters or less to receive higher levels of engagement.
Plus, less text allows greater focus to be placed on any visual content that accompanies it. Posts with images, for example, get 2X more engagement than those without.
Tweets are like haikus for social media copywriters. You have 280 characters to engage your audience, so make sure you choose your words wisely. When trimming down your copy, a good question to ask yourself is “what do I want my audience to know?” Focus on your call to action and minimize fluff.
Twitter is where hashtags thrive. Hashtags are an effective way to indicate and summarize what your message is about. Plus, it’s a great way to become discovered by users who might be using hashtags to search for tweets pertaining to a certain topic. But exercise some restraint with hashtags, and make sure the text that accompanies them comprises most of the tweet. Limit your hashtags to one or two hashtags for higher engagement.
People don’t use Instagram to read long-form content. Since Instagram is, first and foremost, a platform for sharing photos and videos, the primary focus should typically be on your visual content. But it’s helpful to provide context that lets users know what they’re viewing. Whilst Instagram doesn’t appear to specify a maximum total number of caption characters, it cuts off after the first three lines of the caption. So, it’s important to keep them short and sweet. If you require more text, make sure the most important information like ‘call-to-actions’ are included in the first three lines. Hashtags, @mentions, and extraneous details can go toward the end of the copy.
Unlike Twitter, it’s okay to use more than two hashtags here, but keep this in moderation and try not to go over 20 hashtags.
Out of the 4 platforms discussed, LinkedIn is the most business oriented. When using LinkedIn be sure to share content that is directly relevant to your business or industry. Content should include videos, blog posts, or even informative visuals such as infographics. Many users will come to your page to learn about the company, the employees, and job postings so it is important to stay on the professional side. To increase LinkedIn engagement, create meaningful and educational content about the industry you’re in, or the problems your services look to solve.
There are so many social media platforms that it can get confusing figuring out what to post where. It is crucial that the exact same content shouldn’t be posted on every single platform. Utilise the platforms correctly to attract new visitors and leads. Always keep in mind that each platform has its own demographic, so it is important to tailor content to each site.
