Posting Content on Your Company’s Social Media
Posting to social media has become standard business operating procedure for all industries. A crucial tactic in a company’s strategic marketing plan, social media engagement is beneficial for multiple reasons as it drives website traffic, retains clients, builds brand awareness, and increases exposure. (For more on social media engagement benefits click here.)
Prior to posting, it is helpful to determine your goals and develop a social media plan, mapping out who your target audience is and what platforms to post on. Figure out how to measure success, whether it’s the number of likes, the amount of shares, click-thrus to your website or conversion rate. Consider who will be the administrators, and if your business will manually post or use a social media management tool such as CoSchedule, Hootsuite, etc. Establish the frequency of posts in order to maintain a consistent presence.
With a social media plan in place, it’s time to post. It’s important to tailor your content to each medium. You don’t need to be everywhere for effective social media engagement, but you do need to understand where your audience is and where they communicate. At Furia Rubel Communications, we consistently post to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. We also maintain a YouTube channel to house videos that we can link to and share. Here are some guidelines for the four social media channels used by Furia Rubel and most businesses:
Engage on LinkedIn
Business News Daily says LinkedIn “has 260 million monthly users and is the best platform for professional networking. LinkedIn is a great platform for finding top talent, painting yourself as an industry leader and promoting your business.” All businesses should utilize the LinkedIn social media platform as it’s a great resource for conversations with the professional community and facilitating your reputation as an industry leader. LinkedIn can also be an excellent tool for engaging with businesses, current and potential clients, and employee recruiting.
According to The Manifest there are six types of posts companies should be sharing: blog posts, industry news and research, in-depth how-to and list-style posts, quick tips, photo updates and company updates. When posting to LinkedIn, draft copy that entices readers to click-through to find out more information and thereby drive traffic to your firm’s website.
Consider directing employees to publish a company blog and article content that they have authored directly on LinkedIn’s publishing platform. Be sure to include a link to the article on the website as well. This is a great thing to do because it helps to increase readership and engagement with your target audience.
Capitalize on Facebook
Facebook is looser in form and style than LinkedIn. Still the most used social media channel, Facebook boasts over 1.49 billion daily active users and over 60 million active business pages. Therefore, every business should have a Facebook presence. When drafting copy that accompanies a post, inform the user as to what the content is and why they should connect. The blurb you write could be a summary of or introduction to the piece. You could also pull a quote from the article to tease the user as to what is coming or make a humorous comment. Just be mindful to keep posts professional. At Furia Rubel, when discussing a client we try to include a link to their Facebook page, increasing awareness among their followers and boosting our readership at the same time.
Is Twitter Worth Your Time?
Twitter spreads information quickly. To boost your Twitter followers, be sure to Tweet often. Twitter posts are short and more succinct. Twitter content is more personal than LinkedIn or Facebook so try to make posts conversational. Include hashtags to enhance your visibility by using a tool such as Hashtagify.me. This tool allows users to search a hashtag to find related hashtags, top influencers, usage patterns and more. For instance, at Furia Rubel we often use #publicrelations or #crisiscommunications when we want other Twitter users to find our content relating to these areas.
Trending hashtags are also great to include in your content. Retweeting other posts from clients or industry leaders helps to add to your content streaming and can also engage more followers.
Don’t Forget About Instagram
Instagram is known as a platform for sharing videos and photographs. Be sure to create a separate business account for your company being sure to add links to your other social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as your firm’s website. Find your audience by using hashtags, similar to Twitter. Posting should be consistent, but not overbearing—one to two posts a day should be the maximum. Content here is light-hearted and fun. Consider showcasing employees, event photos, workplace photos, or products. Be creative as this is a visual platform, but always maintain brand identity. Tagging employees and clients is a good practice as well.
Whichever platform you post on, research has shown that visual content out-performs all other content. Facebook posts and tweets with images still perform better than posts without images, and infographics are performing better than any other type of content. All social media engagement is based on the core principals of informing, educating and entertaining audiences. Valued content on the right platform is a universal requirement if you want to make the best use of your social media engagement.