Social media is an invaluable tool for reaching new audiences and communicating with your existing ones about your cultural event or activity. However if you’re not used to working with the various platforms out there we understand it can be a little daunting.
To help you get going we asked Alex Poole, Marketing Manager at Stoke-on-Trent Business Improvement District (BID), to share her expert tips on using social media effectively.
1. Keep it to the point
This is a very important starting point: no one logs onto social media to read an essay so keep your posts short, snappy and engaging. These kinds of message are more easily remembered than longer ones where your followers may stop reading before they even get to the point.
Keep them short—around 80 words or so for most platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc), and less for Twitter where characters are restricted to 280.
2. Tag your mates!
Build relationships with your partners on social media – if you work with other groups or people, consider posting updates about your partnerships and projects you’re working together on, and be sure to tag them in your posts to be visible to their followers too. You’ll probably find that they’ll start posting about you too!
3. A picture is worth a thousand words
This popular adage is particularly true of social media. Of all human communication, 93% is visual so you’ll have much more engaged followers if you include photos on every post where possible.
Make sure they’re good quality and relevant to your brand – photos of your team, something that has a ‘human’ feel is always good – not to mention pets!
If you’re struggling for good imagery to use, check out websites like Unsplash or Pexels for royalty-free photos.
4. Be friendly
The clue’s in the name – social media, so be witty, personable and engaging. Leave the formality for email. People like it when they can relate so don’t be afraid to adopt a more friendly tone – throw a few emojis in too.
Remember to engage with other people also: has someone you follow posted something you like or that’s relevant to your line of work? Why not like and comment on their post to keep the conversation going. This goes for comments on your posts as well – be sure to follow up with those who react to your posts and your pages.
5. Get celebrating
Jump on the bandwagon and celebrate the national and international awareness days that relate to your cause in your social media posts. Remember to use the appropriate hashtags – this ensures that a much wider audience will see and engage with your posts. Feel free to make it fun too!
#SuperheroDay #WorldBookDay and #NationalPetDay are all great examples of national awareness days.
6. Less can sometimes be more…
You might be tempted to think that more posts equal more engagement and fans. But that’s not always the case.
You might have loads of ideas but if you’re posting throughout the day then social media platforms can actually identify you as a spam account and drastically reduce the reach your posts have. Plus, if there’s too much content to consume your followers could well get bored of following your page. Studies have shown that 46% of users unfollow a brand because it posts too much, while only 18% of people unfollow a brand because it doesn’t post enough. There’s some food for thought.
A good amount is 1-2 posts a day (max) on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and around 5 posts a day on Twitter, which is a more fast-paced platform. Keep your posts relevant and only post when you actually have something to say – it’s quality over quantity!
When your audience is online will determine the best times to post. Be sure to check your the Insights section at the top of your Facebook page for information about this.
8. Use hashtags
Hashtags are essentially a keyword within the message you’re posting on social media. They can be a great way to increase awareness and engagement.
You can start a conversation about a project or initiative you’re working on by including a specific hashtag you’d like people to use in their own posts.
Hashtags are a very effective way to build your brand via promotional material, announcing new events, or just generating interest for your group or business. They can also help your target audience find you – if they search for a particular hashtag which features in your posts, they will see it.
To engage with your target audience, look at what hashtags influencers in your field are using and see what’s trending and join in the conversation.
HOWEVER, be sure to use them wisely. Too many hashtags and, again, your posts looks like spam and it can actually dilute your message. Use two or three relevant hashtags (max), except on Instagram where you can get away with using around 10.
Don’t try to be too unique when choosing your hashtags – something really out of the ordinary probably won’t be sought out by social media users. But, equally, don’t use really broad terms as it’s likely your content will get lost in a sea of unrelated content.
8. Look ahead
You’re probably very busy and don’t have the luxury of spending all your working day on social media – that’s where an online scheduler comes in very handy!
A great (and FREE!) tool to schedule up to 30 social media posts in advance is Hootsuite.
For Twitter you can also use Tweetdeck and for Facebook and Instagram you can schedule posts by using the Creator Studio section at the top of your Facebook page.
9. Add a call to action
Ultimately you want to be able to convert your social media followers into a real-life audience. A good way to do this is by ending your social media post with a ‘call to action’ to move your followers to the ‘next step’ in your marketing process.
Whether you’re asking your followers to visit your website, click for more information, contact you for more information, reserve a spot for an event or buy tickets now, create some urgency and excitement with messages like ‘Don’t delay…’, ‘Only one week to go…’, ‘Don’t miss out…’
10. Experiment!
There’s no one-size fits all where social media is concerned and oftentimes it’s worth taking risks if you have the resources to try new ways to engage with your audience: for example uploading videos, sharing polls with your followers, posting infographic facts and statistics, creating online contests and offering exclusive promotions.
See what works for you and your followers!
Written by
Alex Poole
Marketing Manager, Stoke-on-Trent BID
