Tips For Social Media Posting
INTRODUCTION:
This topic was requested by a fellow author who requested their name not be mentioned. They see my posts and asked how I constructed them. We had a few email exchanges and that individual thought it would be a great topic to write about. When you are posting for your business, you may use a social media marketing firm. If you are a writer, such as myself, you may find this financially challenging to afford these services on a monthly basis. If your posts are for personal use, you are most likely doing as we all do, construct them yourself. To write about this topic is very detailed and would be much too long for the average 1500-word blog post. Therefore, this is an overview that I will break down into two parts. Business, and personal. Feel free to email me with any questions. I AM NO CLAIMING TO BE AN EXPERT. I am only sharing what has been a painful road for me to travel until I found what works for me. Let's start with personal social media posts.
LIKES:
Before I continue, I want to talk about what is becoming a controversial topic. LIKES. Some platforms are considering dropping the like button from their platforms. On a personal note, I agree with this. SHOCKED? Think about it. When you post something, the first thing you watch for is how many likes you received. Unless it's your business account, where in most cases, unless you pay to promote your post, you won't receive the number of likes you get on your personal account. As an example, I get more likes on my personal social media pages than I do on my business pages unless I promote the post. THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL. However, it took me time to learn that.
Therefore, most people associate the numbers of like as a reflection of a post's popularity. There are numerous factors that affect this. The most common is, whether your post had interest to many people, and how many saw it. (We'll discuss that a bit later.) Because we are dealing with billions of people that are affected differently by things, there are those that believe many people can develop what I call "social media depression" due to a low number of likes. Let's face it, how many times do you hit the like button on a friends post. You don't get what you don't give. The jury is still out on the like button. Time will tell. I think when social media wasn't as popular as it is now, the life button did serve a purpose. Let's call it a gauge to the value of the content of a post. Now, not so much. I scroll through posts, and I am the biggest offender of NOT hitting the like button, especially if you follow many people.
PERSONAL POSTS:
In most cases, this refers to your PERSONAL social media account. However, as an example, I do put personal posts on my social media business accounts. As a writer, I think it is important for my readers to know me as a person. Now, if I were selling a household product, a personal post would have little to no meaning.
Content on a personal account is not as important as content on a business account. Why, because you aren't selling anything. Basically, you are keeping you groups of friends or distant family members informed as to your activities. There are pros and cons to this. We live in a different world. Most people do not really police their social media settings. ANYONE can be found on Google, and much of their information can be obtained.
Let's say you post, "Leaving this Thursday for a week with my family in the Bahamas." Well, news flash. Many have to only come home to find their house was robbed while they were away. There are also cases where the robbers were caught and it was found their information was received through social media posts. How about, check ins. "XXX just checked in to;" Well, guess what. There are also cases of an ex-spouse or others showing up to where you are and causing problems. We live in a different world. A world of digital information. The more you put out, the more people know. Therefore, do you agree that posting content is important?
There are a plethora of individuals that share their most intimate and personal details of their life on their social media accounts. Many make their posts available for the public to see. How much do you really want people to know about you? Your divorce, your arguments, your workplace issues, etc. How about one of the biggies. Your sexual life. Hey look, I am not judging anyone. It's everyone's choice what they post, and we live in a world where many people like to read the "DIRT," and the dirt gets the most likes. Everything we do and say, how we do it, and how we say it, causes people to judge us and form an opinion about our character. However, they are only seeing your frustration at the time. Not you as a complete person.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an intelligent discussion about any topic and expressing your opinion. Like everything else in life, it's not what we do, it's how we do it that matters. Keep that in mind.
BUSINESS POSTS:
Business posts are much different. As I stated earlier, depending on the type of business, you can have a mix of business related posts, and personal posts. The major difference is, you are not posting for your intimate groups of friends. You are deliberately making your posts public for many to see. You will now be attracting various types of people and opinions, so expect anything. Especially if you allow comments. Having a thick skin is a must. You also must understand that many people do NOT like business posts. Especially those that are promoted and show up on their newsfeed. Rather than simply hiding ads from you, they will verbally leave a comment for all to see. Of course, you could delete those if you have the time to police every post you create. People who use social media forget that the reason it is free for them to use, is because advertisers are paying the bill that allows these services to provide the free user services.
Large businesses often times hire social media experts to create their content, or use a social media marketing firm to do it for them. Either option is costly, and your business may not be large enough to afford this. Especially, long term. For a business to build an effective social media presence, takes time. Many months, or even years, depending on their advertising budget. However, it is much cheaper to do it yourself. I used to use a marketing firm until I learned, and by the way, am still learning, how to create interesting content. I do not promote every post I create, However, I promote a great deal of them to get as many people to see them as possible.
Over time, you will build a following. Once you have that following, you are now challenged to keep them. That will be your biggest challenge that will require a great deal of time in planning your content, promoting it to the right audience, and knowing when to post it. Oh yes, time of day, and day of the week, are HUGE factors. Factors that vary across the different social media platforms. I actually have a chart of what days of the week and times of day work best for me.
It takes months to figure this out. There are many charts that give you generic info on this. It's a great starting point. However, of a do-it-yourselfer, you will need to watch each post. For example, I have a spread sheet that is broken down by content. Meaning, video versus image, time of day, and day of week for each post and each social media platform. I can now see what content and times work best. Keep in mind, that will also vary. As an example, right now, with so many being out of work, social media usage is exponentially higher than normal. The time of year will affect this. In the summer, people are less likely to be on social media versus the winter. All factors that you as the post creator must be aware of.
NOW FOR SUGGESTIONS:
The following apply to both personal and business. You can choose which apply to your specific needs. Also, when I use the terminology good content, only you can decide that. We all know that anything sexual, revealing photos, and such, will always get more attention. Only you can decide if that is good content. Frankly, I do not believe it is. I do follow people that do this, because they follow me. However, they usually refer a person to a private website or somewhere else. I NEVER follow or allow someone to follow me that deliberately post fully visual nudity. Actually, I block them. As others may view who I follow, that is an association I choose NOT to have. I believe when we create content, the content and language we use MUST be considered because there are people with possible behavioral disorders, and young people that could view these.
Create interesting content,
Create engaging content,
Mix video and image content, (Video content gets 62% more views over an image.)
Choose the right time of day and day of the week to post,
Research your target audience. See what they normally view.
If not your opinion, post accurate information,
Avoid swear words. They offend more people than they attract,
Avoid arguing back and forth in a post thread,
NEVER make treats, (we live in a world where threats are taken seriously)
Don't always be serious. Post funny things as well,
If you come across a good post, even if it's a competior, share it. Many will return the favor
Rmember. Not everyoen lives in your time zone.
There you have it. The things I have learned. Most times, the hard way. Like all sugestions and tips, use what works for you, and adapt them to your needs. What always works for one person may not work for others. However, if you have a small business, you can save a tremendous amount of money. If it is just your personal account, you can be the one that posts things that others want to see.
IN CLOSING:
The most important thing to relaize about social media posting, especially from a bsiness standpoint is this. Poeple with thousands of followers, and thousands that they follow, rarely see everyone's post. Actually, the data shows that only 1 in 1000 poeple that follow you will see your post. This is becuase when poeple follow many others, a post only lives on their newsfeed before they have to scroll way down to see it for 12 minutes. With that said, you DO NOT post the same thing every 12 minutes. Those that avidly follow you will stop. It's a matter of timing. For example. I may post something on ny business profile I am NOT planning on promoting three times a day. Once in the morning, once late afternoon, and once late evening. I will at times post is during the ovenight due to different time zones. I also may not do them all on the same day. Mix and match and see what works best for you. Thank you .... Caesar Rondina
VIDEO PRODUCTION WORK:
Producing video book trailers, business ads, and speaker introductions.
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