7 Creating Great Social Media Content Tips for 2020
“Good communicators make themselves look smart. Great communicators make audiences feel smart.”
Great content is key to having successful blogs, websites and social media accounts. To create great content you want to focus on a few different key elements. Brainstorm, ask yourself some questions like:
Who can you help? What information do you have that can benefit others? What kind of people do you want to attract, what other things are they interested in?
Don’t worry too much on the numbers, just focus on your content and you will see the stats in your insights start climbing.
I have a few tips for you that you may not have thought about and hopefully is different to just “plan your content” and “how to schedule posts” as many of you have already read these posts. I want to give you some different social media tips that can give you a bit more confidence when it comes to posting and interacting online.
If you find these helpful please comment or message our Facebook page and I will write more.
Posts that reflect you and your Business
Really people want to connect now more than ever, social media can do that really well, but a lot of times businesses take the wrong aproach and end up driving people away and creating less connections. When writing posts or in your blog, think about how you would normally speak to a client, do they like humor? are you always making them laugh? are you always cracking the infamous Dad Jokes? Or are you more formal, more sensitive, do you deal with clients in a vulnerable state who need to feel calm and reassured?
These type of questions can help you develop your online “voice” and it will come across a lot more authentic, a lot more real and a lot more of you!
Give Solutions - don’t just dumping a truckload of information
When someone opens their social media they usually want to feel good, if you are putting too many words in a picture, making them “work” on understanding what they are scrolling past, then they will most likely do just that and scroll right passed.
Figure out what you can offer that is of value, your knowledge, solutions to a problem or something helpful to your potential clients. This is your chance to show you’re an expert and that you have a solution to their dilemma. It could be in the form of entertainment, you are the solution to boredom. It could be tips, it could be value in the form of an image or quote.
Use the analytics tool
Use the analytics tab on your pages or Instagram account (change the account type if it’s not in business mode) and regularly check which type of content engages the most and whether you are getting more reach or views on posts. Knowing what your audience looks like, what countries they are from, what ages and interests they have can help you either change your content to attract people who are in your target market or know which posts work best for the audience you have! You can view what times they are most online to help you know when to schedule or post your content for maximum reach.
Be Recognizable
When you think of big brands, they are really good at branding without you even noticing. You could probably pick out a Coca-Cola ad or an Audi ad way before you even see the name or logo, this is because they have decided on details subliminally all match. Their colours, the tones, the shadows, the types of shots, the styling and the format of even a photo of a glass will have all these visual cues that you automatically pick up on without even thinking. This is smart marketing and it means people are more likely to engage with your posts because people love what is familiar and “safe”. So thinking about branding in small details and making sure your images and branding are all cohesive and recognizable (without lots of wording or being tacky ofc) will push your content up in value.
Quality Images
Your followers will judge you on first impressions and how your accounts look. Humans are very good at judging by what they see and its a natural instinct in our way of figuring out if we like something or not. 90% of online sales is influenced by the way your accounts, websites and pages look. By having quality images that look authentic and match your brand and style you are emitting signals that your followers will find pleasing to the eye and are more likely to interact with your content.
Stop using the maximum Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to increase reach and find new followers and another audience who are interested in what you are posting about. Instagram introduced a limit as people were abusing the hashtags which took over real, valuable content in the feeds. There is now a limit of 30 per post including any in the comments. But it’s not necessarily the best thing to exhaust this. Instead try picking the 6-7 most relevant hashtags to your post or your target audience. Another tip is to vary them between posts so the platforms don’t flag it as spam or just a copy off other content.
Keep it Updated
For social media users it can be very frustrating looking for a business or someone in the industry you are after only to find a page or website that looks antiquated and has no new information on it. It becomes very obvious if a page or an account is being neglected which is sort of like letting weeds grow outside your 5-star restaurant and expecting clients to still come through the doors… crazy!
By keeping details like links, cover photos, logos and even business hours (a huge mistake not to have!) updated you are making it a lot easier for a new client to reach out to you because they haven’t had to whack their way through the thorns and straggly leaves outside the door.
I hope some or all of these can give you some ideas on how to improve your content. I am happy to help if you have any questions!
