We all use some form of social media. Making posts for fun is simple and not a lot of thought needs to be put into it. What if you want to use social media to draw traffic, gain followers, or monetize your blog? That is when you need a strategy.
Theme
If you are using social media for your brand, you need to be consistent. Your writing voice and your design should look like they all came from the same person with the same idea in mind. My personal instagram is all over the place and jumps from projects I’m working on, to food, to random selfies. Sometimes I hashtag and other times I don’t. Truly, it is the best example of what you should not do. Social Insiders Instagram page, however, is very consistent. We stay on topic, on brand, and keep the visuals consistent.
Ease of Access
Can your social media followers find your blog? Can your blog followers find your social media. The worst thing I come across is broken links between channels. Double check that all of your links are working.
Content Calendar
You have to stay consistent! If you post on Facebook on Mondays, KEEP posting on Mondays. Your followers will notice and check back regularly for updates. The easiest way to do this is to create a content calendar. Plan out how often you are going to post new content and what channel you are doing to post to. You can even plan posts way in advance.
Posting Times Matter
You can Google it. People are more active on social media certain days of the week and even certain times of the day. Each niche is unique and your followers may or not follow the same pattern of some studies. This is where the fun part comes in. You can run some experiments with your posting days and times. Track how many reactions you get and see what time works best for engagement for you.
Engage!!
You want your followers to engage with your content. Well, nobody likes talking to a brick wall. When your followers make comments on your content, write back. You do not have to do this for each one but the more you do, the more you are increasing your posts chance to be seen by others. This article points out the benefits of responding to posts on Instagram but the points are valid across all social media platforms.
