Social Media -- What are the best practices?

The social media landscape is a scary place, right? There are so many platforms and types of posts, tweets, shares, +1s, circles and snap stores that there is no reason to pursue it. Turns out, it’s not that bad. Social media has become a big medium for companies. It has completely changed the landscape of both marketing and customer service. Now over 75% of American adults have social media accounts and this is not something that has escaped the attention of businesses.

So how do you get the attention of customers? How do your posts get noticed? Here are six ways.

Pictures, pictures, pictures
The average person’s attention span is eight seconds. Studies have found that the attention span of a goldfish is seven seconds. So you’ve got one more second to keep the attention of a customer than a tiny, domesticated fish.

This is best done with pictures and videos. I don’t mean company logos. I mean real photos and videos. They get the attention of customers in a vast sea of posts on one’s timeline. Videos are probably even better because they move, making them stand out even further.

There are several sites, such as Pixaby, Stokpic and Libreshot, which offer free photos under a Creative Commons license which offers free pictures in the public domain for no charge. Be careful to look at the terms and agreements. While most can be used for commercial purposes, there are some sites which only want them used for personal sites.

Be negative
Yep, you read right; you need to be negative. A study by Outbrain has shown that negative headlines get 63 percent more views than positive ones. The recent election season has given no shortage to that option. Not does negativity post better than positivity, posts with positive headlines were shown to get 29 percent fewer reactions than headlines with no superlatives at all. In the study, positive terms were not believed to be as genuine as negative descriptions.

Know when to post
Just like prime-time television slots, your social media posts can get more interactions at certain times of the day. This varies per industry, and can vary per media platform as well. It’s been found that the best time to post on Facebook is 1 - 4 p.m. late into the week and on weekends. The best times for getting retweets on Twitter is around 5 p.m. when people are getting off work. However, if clickthroughs (a metric for reporting on the number of people who viewed a message or piece of content and then actually performed the action required such as clicking on the ad or link) are what you are after, try posting around 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Twitter gets used a lot during work breaks while commuting.

Schedule posts
Can’t find time to make a post when you want? Scheduling posts can save a lot of time. There are several good third-party sites such as Hootsuite and Buffer which can help you with all of your social media platforms. It also allows you to schedule posts if you know you aren’t going to be available to make a post in the future. So, going to be suffering through the holidays with family and know you can’t break away (even though you might want to)? Don’t worry.
Schedule it now.

Have a plan

Know exactly what your goals are. Just because you create a Facebook page, don't expect an influx of followers which will load your business with, well, business. It’s kind of like fishing. Just because you throw a hook in the water, don’t expect to start reeling in fish if you don’t work for it.

Every action you take on social media should be a part of a bigger plan. List your goals, objectives and have a mission statement of what you what to accomplish. You will probably need to do this with each social media vehicle as each site has its own type of followers and requires its own type of medium.

Keep it business-like
As much as you want to vent or make a comical remark, do it on your own page. While you might think that this will make your business seem more personal, it will actually drive away more business than it will gain you. So unless your business is a political page directed to one specific side of the isle, just let it be.

Keep it consistent
The thing about sharing via social media is that if you stop doing it, people stop coming to your page. You need to update a few times a week to keep your audience interested. If people see that your last post on Facebook was a month ago, they aren’t going to see a need to return.

On the flipside, avoid posting too often. I’ve had posts come across on my feed five or six times a day and I ended up dropping them because it was just too much. Unless you are a new organization there isn’t a reason you need to be flooding my feed with your promotions and contents.

#Don’t #Over #Hashtag
See how annoying that is? When posting to Facebook, you can put one (maybe two) hashtags in a post. Twitter can handle a few more, but anything past four is pushing it. Instagram is a creature on its own. Hashtag away and you probably won’t start running people off, however, it is probably a good idea to slow your pace at 15 or 20.

Also, if you are using a hashtag for a specific event, make sure you use a hashtag that is easy to remember and that isn’t already being used.