While social platforms are continuously evolving with new features and functions, the “must-do” steps remain the same. While you may be tempted to focus on the new features, it’s the basics that will help you provide a solid social media experience for your followers and steadily improve your results.

Grab your pen and notepad and take note of our 17 tips to achieve the best results for your social media marketing.

1. Caption This…

While a large part of social media is reliant on visuals, don’t forget to put time and thought into your captions. A caption shouldn’t be too long, but it helps set the tone of your brand and gives context to an image or video.

2. The Power of Fame

A social media account takeover from an influencer, or celebrity is an excellent way to grow your audience and generate buzz. This way, you can tap into an influencer’s extensive network of followers and gain recognition and credibility by association.

3. #Savvy

Hashtags are a powerful tool to use in improving social media reach. However, your caption can lose emphasis and impact when 20+ hashtags are following the message. Opt for placing hashtags in your first comment and grow your network, while maintaining a streamlined appearance.

4. Pay it Forward

With algorithms in place on Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds, organic reach is becoming more and more difficult to achieve. Set aside a budget for social media marketing and give significant posts a boost. There is no set price, so you are in control of how much to spend on promoting posts or running ads.

5. It Takes a Village

The best way to build a social media community around your brand is to get your customers/followers involved. Ask your customers to share photos of themselves using your product and then repost their images on your accounts. Customers will appreciate the recognition and exposure, and in turn, your brand will have free user-generated content.

6. Video Content on the Rise

Video content is growing quickly across all social networks. It is an important element to incorporate into your content calendar. In addition, producing videos of product demonstrations, or behind-the-scenes clips is also a helpful method for brands with products, and/or messages that are best expressed in action. Peter Kowalkowski, CEO of SEO Advise, said on Forbes, “Cheap copy that’s riddled with grammatical flaws only attracts traffic that never engages or converts.”

7. Tweet Tweet

X (formerly Twitter) might not be a large part of your regular social media content calendar, but it is an excellent tool to use for building engagement at large events, conferences and trade shows. Since there are specific hashtags in place for these occasions and newsfeeds are live, these types of events offer the perfect opportunity to build your Twitter presence and take part in conversations and retweets.

8. Team Effort

If you have a large company, your employees are an incredible resource for building your brand’s social presence. While the accounting team doesn’t have to be posting photos on to your Instagram account, getting staff to like and share your content is a great way to increase reach and engagement organically.

Well, everyone’s actually competing for pageviews, hits, numbers, share of attention, RTs, shares, pins, love, kisses, etc. Whatever your metric, it’s a dog eat blog world out there. When I work on content strategy with my clients, we start with upcoming five content essentials:

9. Solve People’s Problems

Can you solve a problem that is common to many people?

“Step by Step” or “how-to” posts get bookmarked, saved, re-read, and shared. Don’t forget to include a title that describes said problem, and a teaser of one of your solutions in the subtitle.
A significant amount of search engine queries begin with a question. It makes sense to structure your content in a way that provides answers to the questions that people ask. Think backwards from problem to solution. People also like to share things that will also solve their friends’ problems – it raises their social capital!

That’s the kind of content that really makes the rounds. Ask yourself:

“If I came across this post on Facebook (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), would I stop to read it or reshare it?”

10. Use Keywords, Sparingly

The adage is true: “Write for humans, not for search engines.”

That being said, tailoring your language to your targeted readers only makes sense, but in all the ways that are natural to good writing.

The sneaky practice of keyword stuffing does nothing for the other metrics that also mean a lot to search engines, including relevancy to the search performed (see #1), the time spent on site reading your content (establishing the site as trusted – which Google LOVES!), and the likelihood that other sites will want to link in.

A headline that speaks to the emotions will draw more readers (and sharing) than one that is purely descriptive. You don’t have to go full-Upworthy…but maybe half.
Providing images that can be meta-tagged is a great way to incorporate keywords without making a mess of your wonderful words.

11. Spread the Content

Social networks are like large firehoses spewing information, but there are some tips you can try to help your content cut through the chatter.

Pin a post to the top of your profile, especially on Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a great spot for “calling card” posts that show off your writing chops.

It might feel like overload, but posting 3 times a day on the day your content is published can really boost the numbers. Use a scheduler like HootSuite or Buffer to cover all the time zones. Vary your descriptions and sneak a little testing into your posts. You’ll appreciate the insights when you learn what resonates with your audience.

Tag those who are mentioned in your post. Tell ‘em personally via DM or Messenger. They’ll appreciate the PR and you’ll appreciate the RTs.

12. Email

Email – delivered from one person to another – is an awesome place to ask for the share. Even if you don’t have a formal list, sending your most recent content to your most beloved contacts is highly likely to result in a share. Asking for feedback and reactions is a great way to position this ask.

This tip comes with a caveat, however. “Your most beloved” contacts refers to people you actually know…your friends. We don’t mean every person you met at that social media conference last summer, unless they have actually opted in to receive such communications from you. Give yourself a CASL refresher if you’re still not sure. Mailchimp provides an awesome rundown of the legal stuff. Learn it.

13. Chunk It Out

Reading online (and usually on teensy weensie phones) requires particular structural practices to keep the eyeballs on the content. Headlines, sub-headlines, and bullet points (see #2) are all more easily digestible than big hulking paragraphs that strain the eyes.

Chunking your content into manageable paragraphs will lead to more time spent with the piece, and more impact to the reader, which increases your chance of getting shared. See how that works?

If your website is not responsive to mobile devices, the reading experience may be keeping your visitors away, and no amount of fancy formatting work is going to help. Use one of the Mobile Friendly tests and see how you fare.

So there you have it. Before you fret about your lacklustre numbers, set the intention to go through this list of the last five content strategy tips before publishing your next piece. In the information-firehose world we live in, all good ideas need a little help to be found when they’re bobbing around at sea.

14. Responsiveness

The responsiveness of your social communications tells your customers a lot about your business. Your customers are watching to see how you react to suggestions, questions, complaints and kudos from other people. They are looking for a quick response and a personal touch. Stagnant feeds and unreliable postings can have a negative impact on your social reputation.

Tip – Just like your email, define a time period in which social comments must be responded to.

15. Originality

Is the content you’re creating original and thought-provoking, or are you reiterating information that is already available?

Your audience isn’t looking for carbon-copy news, they are looking for authenticity, your own thoughts and insights. They will then use this to compare you to your competitors and see what they agree with.

Use mentions of your business or industry to share on your feed. It is your way of proving that you’re in the know. Also, if it is in your field of expertise, don’t be afraid to question, argue against, support or advocate for the topic.

16. Relevance

Do you know your audience? Do you know what is affecting them right now, this very minute? If the answer is a NO in this case, then it’s time to ACT on social listening.
Visit your followers and view your customer profiles. See what they’re talking about. If you’re not listening and asking the right questions, you may as well not be talking at all.

Spend a day looking into your social audience and make a profile or three to focus on. Then go back regularly to make sure your information is up to date and if there have been any changes.17. Character

What do you want your business brand’s character and personality to be like? Your online character must reflect your brand personality. If you are a super bubbly and friendly person, then let that translate to your social channels. If you are someone who likes to be supported by facts and present in a structured format, then let your online character become that. It may not be appealing to everyone but it is authentic, and will help you communicate with the types of customers you want to work with.

Finally, Remember – Consistency is Key

How you act, share and respond to your customers on social media is the key to creating your social ID. Providing consistent and great customer service will turn your followers into advocates for your brand, who tell all they know about your business.

A brand is what a business does. An online reputation is what people recall and presume about your products. So, deliver a friendly, positive customer experience and you can’t go wrong.

Thanks for reading this article. 💚

If you loved what you read, would you be able to buy me a cup of coffee? It’s okay if you can’t right now.

If you have any questions or if you wanna work with me, feel free to contact me. I’m always available to help young hustlers like you @InuEtc on Instagram.

Keep hustling!