Consider These Social Media Best Practices

By Ruby Sahiwal

When you’re crafting your social media presence, chances are you’re working to bring people to your site, and ultimately, to convert them into customers. In addition to our advice on how to ensure your followers end up becoming clients, you should also take a few best practices to heart. Read on for the lowdown.

Be Interactive With Your Followers

We’ve all seen social accounts with a “post and disappear” philosophy, but your social media channel is much more than a billboard for your firm. It’s a way to have personal conversations with customers, just as you would face to face. Therefore, you should be sure to answer their questions and reply back when they comment.

Another way to prompt interaction is to create social posts that specifically ask for feedback. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all allow you to launch polls so you can interact with your readers. You’ll be able to get valuable feedback from your followers (due to how they answer your poll questions), and they’ll feel like they’re contributing to and interacting with your brand.

Taking this approach could help you spur sales. A Sprout Social survey found that 71 percent of respondents were more likely to buy from a company after a positive social experience.

Avoid Being A Spammer

Social accounts that post nonstop asking followers to buy their products are quickly unfollowed. Consumers want to be part of the conversation with brands – they don’t want to just be spammed with advertisements. If someone logs into Facebook, for instance, and the first six posts in their newsfeed are from your company, they’ll be overwhelmed. Instead, carefully curate your posts to offer readers what they need rather than what your brand needs.

In addition, don’t be a hashtag fanatic. Hashtags are important when connecting your posts to a particular topic or category on social, but you can’t post endless trains of hashtags within a heading or at the end of your post. Too many hashtags make it difficult to read a sentence, and can make it appear as if you’re spamming your readers.

Don’t Ignore the Weekends

A study by BuzzSumo indicates that Sunday is the best day to post for Facebook engagement. “Many businesses take the weekends off and therefore may be choosing to only post Monday through Friday. According to our data, that might be a mistake,” the company notes.

If you typically post on social during the week only, then it could be a good idea to auto-schedule some posts to run during the weekends. Try posting at different days and times so you can analyze the results later. You may find that your Sunday posts do better than, say, your Monday posts. This could prompt you to shift your strategy entirely.

Use Colors Wisely

You might be inclined to only post images on your social media that include your brand’s hues, but it’s a good idea to experiment with a variety of colors when creating images on social. Your visual content may appeal to one person when the main hue is green, while another target customer could respond better to yellow. Take note of the different color themes you use and analyze the results to determine if you should change course at any point.

Remember: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Building a loyal social media following takes time – it can’t simply be done overnight. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon your social efforts just because your followers aren’t engaging. Instead, use our tips on how to boost engagement and continually analyze your results so you can tweak your efforts as you go along. That way, you’ll be on your way to winning the marathon rather than abandoning the sprint.